Emmanuel was shocked, not by the small town he found himself in but by the thing behind the desk. It wasn't that tall, only around 140 cm. But its height wasn't the intriguing thing. The creature, although not human, was humanoid and had ink-black Uzi skin. The most interesting thing about it, however, was that its face looked as if a squid had somehow managed to consume its head. Which resulted in a grin, not of pearly white teeth, but with void black tentacles.

As he stared and processed all of this information he couldn't help but let out a remark that he immediately regretted.

“What the fuck are you?”

The humanoid seemed to be taken aback by his statement or rather. His bluntness that it was stunned into silence for a few long moments. But then after giving him a rather lengthy stare it seemed to gather itself.

“Ahem. I am what you humans would call a Cthul. But perhaps of more specific relevance, I'm the clerk or caretaker of the first trial.”

Sighing, Emmanuel cringed inwardly, hoping that the first trial wasn't what he thought it might be.

“So what is the first trial?” He let out in a droll tone.

“The first trial is a dungeon d-delve. It's supposed to introduce the newly initiated like yourself to the party system. Upon completion of the delve, you can exchange your TP or trial points at the shop that I run for items and skills information.”

Emmanuel responded with a look that could pierce Kevlar. “So what do you expect me to do about it?”

“I'm sorry to in-f-f-form you sir, but you still must proceed with the delve. Unless you want to be swallowed by the Wall come sunrise.”

Emmanuel pondered his situation. If the dungeon was anything like the rest of the systematized world, it would not be pleasant. Slogging through countless miles of underground caverns filled with traps and monsters didn't sound like the best time.

But then again, if the wall was in fact the Blackness as he suspected, that would also be far from a good time. So he made the only real choice he had and decided he would go diving. Before committing himself to hours of tedium he wanted to get some more things out of the skittish Cthul.

“So before I agreed to go partake in the trial, can you answer a few questions for me?”

“Certainly s-sir.”

Emmanuel smiled at the response hoping to loosen the clerk up a little bit.

“Before we get into the meat and potatoes, would you mind getting me some clothes? I don't particularly like flapping in the breeze if you catch my drift.”

The Cthul paused for a moment and then ran his gaze across Emmanuel’s form. After a few seconds of awkwardly gazing at his physique, the Cthul turned his head away. The skin around his cheeks turned an impossibly darker shade of black.

“Certainly, we could arrange that.” Then the Cthul opened a well-hidden door against the wall behind his desk and darted through it. A few moments later it reappeared holding a small bundle of clothing. Upon inspection of the clothing, a prompt appeared.

Simple set of clothes-F

This set of clothes consists of a shirt, pants, and basic boots. This specific set was made by an average tailor for the average man. As a result, the set of clothes is slightly more durable than ordinary clothing.

The clothes were somewhat surprising in their fashion. Unlike the Goblin's clothing, which looked medieval, or possibly Victorian in style, this set looked far more modern in its aesthetic. The shirt still looked to be made of cotton but was far more in line with the more modern ideals of fashion. The pants almost looked like they were made of denim but slightly off. The color was wrong and the texture just looked a little bit silky.

The boots looked like normal combat boots from any old RPG you could find. They perhaps didn't look all that comfortable but then again boots, however shity they were, were better than no boots.

Accepting the clothes with a nod, he quickly put on his new threads.

“So, I never caught your name…”

“Ah, yes sir, it's Bruno.”

The name slightly surprised Emmanuel. After all, Bruno looked like the forbidden love child between all of Lovecraft Tail and aa Stephen King's horror show. But then again, Emmanuel probably didn't look much better when he showed up. He probably looked like a full-blown murder hobo which wasn't too far off from the truth.

“So, I know this is somewhat of an awkward question, but I've been wondering what exactly is the Culling and by extension the system itself?”

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Bruno responded with a robotic tone. “I'm sorry but I am unable to answer those questions as of this moment.”

“Well okay, man; don't do a full robot on me. I got it. Fine. Then can you answer any questions about this trial?”

This time, luckily, Bruno responded in a far more normal tone.”Unfortunately seeing as you are the only newly initiated present I am unable to share details on the party system. However, seeing as you are frankly the only person here I'm allowed to share a little bit more information with you.”

“The dungeon is a delving one meaning it's floor-based. You will have to conquer a set amount of floors by defeating the boss on each. When you kill the boss you are allowed to advance to the next floor until finally you will reach the Dungeon Boss.”

“Unfortunately, this is all the information I can provide you now. However, if you complete the dungeon and return I'm allowed to share more information for a cost.”

When Emmanuel realized there was no more information he was disappointed. But then he begrudgingly acknowledged that any information was better than no information.

“Thank you for everything, especially the clothes. I really appreciate it.”

The pause between his words were just a little bit too long to be smooth.

“Now can I go?”

“Certainly, um, the entrance -- one of the entrances -- is located underneath any of the buildings around you.”

The instant the last syllable left Bruno's lips he darted through the same inconspicuous door he had gone through to grab the clothes. And with a loud thunk of the door, Bruno vanished.

Bruno's actions made Emmanuel think of his own behavior. It wasn't too strange for him. But even with his oblivious social skills, he realized he was not in his finest condition. Half of the time he was a massive dick and the rest of the time he was crazily socially inept. But then again, this wasn't exactly a new problem.

Judging from Bruno's hints Emmanuel concluded he should make it a priority, at the very minimum, to be able to hold a decent conversation with another person. Pushing his thoughts of socializing aside he focused on the dungeon.

If the dungeon was in fact designed for multiple people to conquer, it would be hard if not impossible for him to complete it on his own. Then again, he really didn't have a choice if he wanted to live.

“Better a chance than a sure thing,” he muttered under his breath.

With firm resolve he entered a small house with what looked to be a cute flower stand in front of it. Reaching up with his right hand he pushed open the door. The door opened on silent hinges to reveal an empty room, void of any furniture or any life. The only thing in the room besides the hardwood floors was a small trap door in the corner.

‘Well, there goes all the suspense’ he grumbled internally.

Walking over to the trap door he looked around it for any sort of trap but couldn't find anything. So he did the next best thing and just opened it peering over the now uncovered hole he had revealed. Inside he saw an old rope ladder.

The Ladder looked just about as good as Stan Lee in his last MCU cameo appearance. Not like the nice metal ladders with the same name. It was pretty horrible But Looked like it would probably not die. But hopefully, like Stan Lee, it would come through once more.

Climbing down the ladder took longer than expected. Although he couldn't see the bottom when he stared. He didn't think climbing or descending rather the latter would take so long.

After all, with his newly improved stats, it couldn't take more than a few minutes. To his looming horror, he descended. Using the relic took longer than he was comfortable with. The first thing he realized while he was clambering down Stan Lee was he in fact couldn't use both hands.

He had somehow forgotten in his mad rush that he was holding a sword in his offhand. He also forgot to ask Bruno for a scabbard, if he could even provide one. But now it was just way too awkward to go ask him. So he just continued to climb down.

The second thing he noticed was how long Stan Lee was. He thought, especially with his improved stats, that it would take maybe two or three minutes. Although dungeons are notoriously subterranean, he was still surprised how deep he seemed to be descending.

Finally, the third thing he noticed was that his hands were super greasy. Not like the amount of grease mechanics' had to work with, but like the grease from when you had to fix your bike chain. At least at first. The sensation intensified till at the end it felt like his hands had been dunked in buckets of the stuff.

When, finally, after an eternity he reached the bottom he looked at his hands to see the foul fluid only to discover they were perfectly clean and pristine. For a while, he just stared at his hands in pure amazement. Then he looked over at the ladder. And then he thought again of the ladder’s namesake. No, not the nice Stanley ladder you can buy at a good hardware store but the man: Stan Lee.

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts of greasy ladders and old men.

He looked around his new surroundings. The tunnel was closer to a Hobbit hole than typical catacombs. Not by much but with the moss and other unidentifiable shrubberies it just managed to get the edge. But the place was just a little bit too dark to be hygge. And, unlike Hobbit holes and catacombs, this place was inhabited.

Lochwood Deer level 13

Lochwood Deer level 13

Saying the creature's presences were unwanted would be an understatement. Over the course of the culling, He had come to hate many things. Number one, and the worst of them all, was the lack of boots -- or rather lack of good boots. Good footwear made a man's day. The second was the goblins. for obvious reasons. The wolf was pretty bad too, not just because of its stupid face.

The deer or rather the stag he had run into on his first day was just way too aggressive for its own good and it just felt wrong. The wolf’s behavior in comparison made sense. The wolf was genetically inclined to be an asshole. But deer? A deer is supposed to be fluffy and cute and nice. But no it has to go and RAM into me the moment it sees me.

And the two deer in front of him now looked way too much like that first one. They were about the same size and they were both incredibly muscled. The only difference was the color. Where the first deer was a normal brownish-red, these were aquamarine blue with hints of green peppered throughout their coats.

While Emmanuel was internally monologuing the two deer gave each other a glance. Then they turned their gaze back to Emmanuel. They both seemed to shrug somehow and then simultaneously turned and charged at him.