*BAM–!*
A huge wooden club brutally swung down from above, colliding with a pair of slender white arms crossed under it in a guarding stance in the dark, miasma-filled tunnel.
"Argh!"
A suppressed groan came out of my mouth, feeling the powerful blow send a painful shockwave through my creaking bones.
*CRACKLE–!*
Skidding back from the overwhelming force, I swung my whip in a hurry, sending it crackling through the air at the wooden club, aiming to trap and redirect the next blow coming at me with a forceful pull of my whip!
But unfortunately, the raw power behind the wooden club wasn't something a hasty swing of my whip could handle...
*BOOM–!*
"Gahk–!"
The heavy club mercilessly crashed into me like a devastating tsunami, hitting me straight on my torso and sending me flying to the stone walls of the dark tunnel.
*BANG–!*
My back violently crashed into the hard stone walls of the dungeon tunnel, immediately knocking the air out of my lungs.
...*cough*...*cough*...*cough*...
"...huff…huff…"
I slowly stood up from the ground, dry-heaving a little from the last blow I received, and swiped my hands over my lips – getting rid of the slight traces of blood that leaked out from there.
"Damned monster..."
I glared at the thick veil of dark crimson miasma in front of me with my teeth clenched.
*Whoosh–!*
The dense fog of miasma twisted and churned, before a poorly-crafted wooden club – almost the size of a human – suddenly emerged out of it.
"Hrrk..."
Holding the human-sized wooden club in its hand was a bright-red skinned humanoid monster, its entire body pumped full of swollen, pulsating muscles.
The monster was enormous, easily taller than four meters in height alone. The squirming veins protruding out from the arm holding the club seemed to almost match the thickness of a garden hose pipe.
It almost looked like a gigantified version of the muscle-manic gym instructor from my neighborhood — but with a literal truckload of steroids injected into his body!
The contrast between the two of us couldn't be more pronounced.
On one hand, the humanoid monster only had a few inconsequential bloody scratch marks on his enormous body, and on the other hand, my upper body was already exposed, littered with big as well as small bruise marks all over.
The white t-shirt I had on me had long since been torn to shreds.
Now, the only thing saving me from shame was a badly beaten-up piece of cloth – the pitiful remnants of my only pair of short pants in this world.
"Hrrk... Hrrk..."
The monster made a guttural noise while pointing its enormous club at me – an action I could only perceive as an arrogant chuckle ridiculing me.
"...Huh, so you're laughing at me now. I see…"
I gave the monster an irked smile in return, my teeth still stained with blood.
"...well, aren't you getting a bit too cocky, considering that I'm fighting you with a crappy whip of all things, and no magic whatsoever?"
The thorny whip that helped me to achieve victory at every step of this demonic dungeon was already reaching its limits.
In the end, no matter how useful it was, it was only a rare-grade weapon.
It could only be used to fight opponents with lvl.20 or lower, and I had been fighting monsters ranging from lvl.14 to lvl.16 for the last few hours continuously.
It was no wonder that it was hitting its limits already. This monster was most likely extremely close to the lvl.20 milestone.
Not to mention, my trashy luck stat meant that no matter how many, or which monster I killed, I wouldn't be getting a single piece of equipment at all!
Additionally, even though my mana increased with every level-up, I couldn't use it to cast even the simplest of magical spells…
"Hrrk... Hrrk..."
In reply, the hulking mass of muscles simply readied its wooden club for another round of thrashing, wearing a disgustingly smug look on its grotesque face.
"F*ck. Status!"
I was planning on saving those attribute points for another time. But right now, I had no other choice!
-------STATUS WINDOW-------
>> Demon King Vanir |
>> Titles: King Of All Demons, Overlord, Evil Origin, Cassanova Of Corruption
>> Level: 9 (EXP – 93/100)
>> Race: Devil
>> HP: 190/260
>> MP: 530/2600
>> ATK: 50
>> DEF: 50
>> AGI: 50
>> INT: 50
>> STA: 50
>> LUK: 1 (Fixed)
✦ Racial Skills: Aura of Evil lvl.MAX, Uncanny Form lvl.MAX ,
✦ Acquired Skills: Claw Mastery lvl.3, Whip Mastery lvl.5, Unarmed Combat Mastery lvl.2 (New), Resilient Body lvl.1 (New)
✦ Free Attribute Points: 80
-------------------------------
'Dump 50 points into strength and the rest into agility!'
[STR: 50 → 100]
[AGI: 50 → 80]
Immediately, I could feel a warm, comforting current of unknown energy flowing through my body.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Under the influence of this unknown energy, my bones started to creak, my muscles squirming like they had suddenly come alive.
"Hmm!"
I felt this energy thoroughly strengthen every aspect of my physique, filling every crevice of my body with immense power!
*crackle~*
As the comfortable feeling finally receded, I slowly clenched my hands into a fist – feeling the sheer intensity of the power I now held within my grasp.
"That's right. If something didn't work, then that means I didn't have enough power to make it work!"
A bloody, excited smile unknowingly popped up on my face.
"...but it should be enough now, right?"
Looking at the hulking monster confidently swaggering towards me with its club raised above its head, I tightened my grip on the barbed whip once more.
Right, I forgot that there was another skill I could use with this whip.
"It's time for round two, ugly bastard!"
Mustering my full speed, I dashed at the slowly advancing figure of the four-meter tall muscle-enthusiast monster.
"Grrk!"
The monster also responded by swinging its huge club down, accurately predicting where I would be in a moment.
"Sh*t!!"
Due to the extreme levels of speed I was moving at, I couldn't easily change directions, and the monster made sure to exploit this gap by delivering another devastating blow on me!
*CRACKLE–!*
But just before that blow could land on me, I swung my whip at full force!
"[Bind]!"
The barbed whip didn't disappoint, accurately landing and tightening around the wrist of the monster, and stopping it from swinging the giant wooden club properly, if only for a short moment.
"Come on!"
Not wasting a single moment, I tightened my grip on the whip in my hands....and leaped sideways!
But before I could get away from it, the whip abruptly tensed as it ran out of length, propelling me in a circular path around the monster – and straight to its back!
"HA!"
The instant my feet touched the ground, I squeezed out every bit of my body's strength, and pulled my end of the whip forcefully!
"Grruk–!"
The hulking monster was still in the process of turning around to face me, when it suddenly felt an immense force pulling down its wrist.
Not able to withstand both the giant wooden club's weight as well as my newfound power, the hulking humanoid monster suddenly faltered and toppled to the ground.
*bam–!*
Immediately after tripping the monster, I dashed at its falling figure with a mad grin on my face.
"Now let's see just how thick your skin is!"
Jumping on the fallen monster's back, I wrapped my thorny whip around its neck like a noose, before tightening it as much as I could.
"[Bind]!!"
"GRRK! GRRUK–!"
The monster struggled to get me off its back, but I persistently stuck closer to it, tightening my hold on the whip.
The thorny vine constricted viciously around the giant monster's throat, making it struggle more and more fiercely!
The back and forth between both of us finally managed to penetrate the thick skin and muscles of the monster – drawing a faint line of blood from its neck and throat.
'Yes!'
I took a look at my current MP.
[MP: 470/2600]
...Indeed, it was pretty low compared to its maximum capacity, but it was more than enough for what I had in mind.
And if even that didn't work, I might as well make a run for it.
Taking a deep breath, I tightened my grip on the whip once more.
"[Vampirism]!"
It was the second skill from the rare-grade weapon: [Bloodthorn Whip].
In all of my fights till now, I would only need to use the [Bind] skill to immobilize the monsters, before finishing them off with a couple of punches, kicks, or a simple stab in the head with my sharp claws.
In short, every monster I encountered until now could easily be defeated by me, as long as I put in some effort and remained careful.
But this time, the [Bind] skill couldn't hold down that hulking mass of muscles for more than a second, and my claws couldn't do anything more than leave a few bloody scratches on its iron-like skin.
To make matters worse, no matter what move I used, it could easily tank everything I threw at it!
Even though I increased my stats, it would still take me a long time before I could bring down that monster by fighting with nothing but my bare hands.
But then I remembered the item description of the whip I held in my hands.
[...For as long as its opponents can bleed, they can be killed...]
It was quite an ostentatious item description, despite it being nothing more than a mere rare-grade weapon. But since I didn't even need to use that aspect of this whip in my battles till now, how could I know if that description was accurate or not?
However, if that description was indeed true...
Then, all I needed to do was to make this monster bleed!
"[Vampirism]!"
[MP: 470 → 320]
As soon as I activated the skill, I felt the whip devouring my mana at a tremendous rate.
The numerous thorns on the whip elongated slightly, before the entire whip started to glow in an eerie dark crimson light.
"GRAAAK–!"
The hulking monster that was fiercely struggling a moment ago suddenly let out an agonizing scream, as the elongated thorns on the whip mercilessly dug into the bleeding neck of the monster, sucking out its very life in order to heal and strengthen me!
"GRUUH!! GRAAAHHHH–!!!"
I felt my entire body shudder, as a warm and revitalizing current rushed into me from the whip.
"Mmph!"
I barely stopped myself from voicing out a shameful moan.
All the damages I had sustained from all my previous fights were swiftly healed, filling me with an overwhelming surge of vitality.
"Whooo... that felt really nice!"
The surge of vitality soon died down, leaving the huge monster a bit listless, while I felt like I was on cloud nine.
Glancing down at the monster's back, I noticed that its previously bright-red skin had now faded, taking on a pallid, deathly gray hue.
"Okay...maybe it's not too nice, after all."
My fragile heart trembled a little, looking at the once-fearsome monster looking like it had lost its soul, while copious amounts of blood dripped down from the 'bitten' part of its throat and neck.
Not letting go of the whip, I pulled back my arm a little, before stabbing my claws deep inside the wound made by the thorny whip.
*Stab–!*
"Grrk! Graah–!"
The monster put up a weak struggle in the end, but I repeatedly plunged my sharp claws into the wound, making sure that I severed every major blood vessel running to its head.
"Die! Die! DIE..!!"
The monster's vitality was already severely drained by the [Vampirism] skill, so it didn't take too long before it stopped all movement…
"What a tenacious bastard..."
*Puk–!*
Spitting out a glob of blood, I climbed down from the now-dead monster's back.
*Ping~*
[Congratulations! You have defeated a lvl.19 Berserk Troll!]
[EXP Points Earned: +230]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
With the familiar sound of kill confirmation, I could finally relax my body a little...
Even though the last battle was quite difficult, it was definitely something worthwhile.
Pulling out my whip from under the lifeless monster corpse, I cracked in the air a few times to get rid of all the blood sticking to it, before rolling it up in my hands.
However, just as I was about to inspect the giant wooden club to see if I could use it as a weapon myself, my attention was abruptly diverted by something else.
A dazzling light suddenly appeared at the opposite end of the tunnel from where I entered, piercing through the thick veil of dark crimson miasma and illuminating everything around me in a blood-red hue.
"WHAT IS IT THIS TIME?!"
This dungeon just wasn't going to let me catch a break at all, was it?!
With a heavy sigh, I narrowed my eyes and trudged along the jagged tunnel walls, tracing the source of this intense light.
Before long, I found myself face to face with a gigantic, ancient door made out of colossal-sized stones.
The ancient door was radiating an intense golden-white glow, stemming from the innumerable number of glowing magical inscriptions carved on its surface.
The radiant light coming from the inscriptions brightened and dimmed intermittently, as if they were actually living, breathing organisms. Just looking at the overwhelming number of intricate magical symbols and glyphs carved on the ancient door made me feel dizzy.
'This is... Divine power?'
Interestingly enough, I could even feel a slight prickling sensation on my skin from the pure golden-white rays radiating from this door.
*Ping~*
However, before I could speculate any further, that familiar noise echoed in my head once again.
[All necessary requirements have been met!]
[Final Stage of the Tutorial Quest will now commence!]
*Rumble~!*
Immediately, the enormous ancient door began trembling violently.
*Crack* *Crack–!*
The golden-white light from the ancient door rapidly weakened, before millions of luminous cracks suddenly started to appear on its surface.
"What the..."
[The Divine Guardian's Awakening | In Progress...10%...]