Curiosity will bug me until it's double-checked.

Two zombies remain in the cave and they no longer pose a threat.

The one with the sword and no helmet wasn't anything special.

The other who cornered the avatar with a shield was an advanced mob.

[You killed a Zombie +30 Exp.]

Every crystal dropped in the same place.

Their shine is so bright as if there's a sunrise inside the cave.

"No, wait, it is the sunrise, holy shit, how long did the fight last?"

After blaming the greed for this situation, there's no reason not to pick them up anymore.

They're all within arm's reach, after all, it would be stupid to leave them behind.

It doubles as a short break too.

While the exhaustion status effect hasn't appeared yet, the character is out of breath.

"A note to self, never engage zombies when stealth is optional."

Also, clearing missions close to midnight seems like a dumb idea.

This lesson almost cost the avatar's life, so it's better to remember it.

Okay, let's take inventory of what they dropped and what remained.

It's a few bites' worth of food about to spoil.

No potions remained, so let's chew on that thing while checking out the rest.

The footman fucker knocked the last one out of the hand and paid for it with his life.

It also almost claimed mine, though tasting a single drop was enough to survive.

There's a new item in here, called Battered Shield.

[Battered Shield. 25 STP, 7 Res, 0,75 Kg.]

"Oh!" It has half the hitpoints as the training one.

"Well, that's battered for you." Yet that seven Res is huge.

The rusty sword would break before making a dent in it. And look at the weight, the previous one was a whole kilo, so this one's lighter too.

The steel shield only had one extra Resistance and fourfold the Structure Points.

It was also three times as heavy, making it useless in a fight.

"Hmm. The undead don't often drop loot, but they gave the most useful things so far."

And they caused a lot of sweating tonight.

"What the hell was that massive death wave?"

When the one with the guard pushed the avatar far enough, there was a popup with a question and I said no.

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After that it was all messy, the system threw everyone around, almost killing me.

If not for the food's regeneration effect, it would have succeeded.

That's when most of the monsters died.

The tough one dropped his gear too, thanks to pure chance and an accidental discovery.

"Who would've thought that healing potions set them on fire?"

And he did that to himself because he didn't let the character drink it.

"Holy shit, this was way too close."

The heart rate is still through the roof.

When did zombies scare me this much?

No matter how I swear about keeping the guard high, these freak accidents won't stop happening.

"So what was that thing?"

Walking in with the new shield in hand, and the last bite in the belly, the character is ready to solve the mystery.

A few steps in, it's there again.

[Warning, you are about to enter the Cursed Dungeon of Origin. We recommend you visit this place later when you reach a higher level and form a party first. You won't be able to return to the surface before reaching the second floor. Are you sure you enter? Yes/No.]

"Was it this one? Yeah, no, of course, no entering."

The moment the option lights up, the message disappears and throws the avatar meters back.

It cost a health point even with no enemies in the way.

"Shit, it's no wonder that sword did a number on me." The system impaled the character on it at high speed.

So once you confirm your intention, they push you back into a safe distance?

And it doesn't care if you're alone, or in the middle of combat. Did this kill all those zombies?

The system generated a glitch stampede, squashing the monsters into each other.

Let's hope the avatar won't meet the same fate. Imagine doing everything right and then losing your life to a bug.

Especially, since dying and respawning is a serious business in CineMraft.

"Well, glitchy or not, it saved the day."

Let's get out of here before another wave spawns, this mission must have lasted an hour already.

Okay, there's no reason to complain. The zombies paid two thousand Exp, the discovery, and the errand another thousand each.

That's half of what the ninth level needs, finally, some progress.

Not too much, as the tenth will need twenty-five thousand alone, but it hasn't been long since logging in.

How much did the stress age me during that time? There were a few close calls.

"All right." The entrance remains on the map, and there's a mention in the journal too.

Let's focus on the mission, and finish it before another disaster happens.

With one eye on the counter, let's reorganize the quick-access slots for the travel.

It means the bow regains its place in there, next to the new shield and the old rusty sword.

Now that the character stacked the inventory with bandages, there was no bleeding.

Still, the two potions aren't enough, let's take a note for the future.

Organizing the rest of the stock is a good idea after this. On the way back to the village, more practice ensures.

One eye on the minimap, one on the slots, and make sure you don't hit a tree while browsing.

It will help in the future in a tight situation like this.

Calling it a muscle memory would be silly, the eyes and thoughts do all the work here, but the principle is the same.

Open it, pick the right item, and close the window as fast as possible while on the move. It seems easy, yet like with archery, moving makes it trickier.

Now imagine the same in a stressful situation. When it matters the most, there would be a lot of distractions, and ways it could go wrong.

This is why repeating it until you're sick is important. It ensures you can pull it off during a fight too.

It almost gives a heart attack when the number on that counter goes up.

Right before trying to hide and glance around, it turns out this is the village already.

The practice made that ten minutes of walking go by so fast.

"Let's head straight for the Pharmacy, and finish this errand."

From the payout, buy as many potions as they're willing to sell, and look for an easier job next time.

Is there even such a thing anymore? What is there that didn't almost kill the avatar recently?

The Plague Rats were a nasty surprise, and the skeleton archers often caused bleeding.

The zombies were the last easy opponent on the list, and look how things turned out.

To make it worse, this was a simple fetching quest, the same 'grab this flower' type as the rest.

The ranks of the missions matter a lot. As Tank said, the higher the risk, the higher the rewards.