He is breathing heavily through his nose as tears run down his face, the memory of the pain still lingering in his mind.
Bug uses both hands to forces him to sit upright and then slaps him to make him focus.
His swimming eyes eventually focus on her and are filled with both confusion and fear in spades.
Patting him on the cheek, Bug gives him a smile. “Hello human. You’re going to answer some questions for me. Ok?”
His eyes widen as she speaks, surprise filling his face. He tries to mumble somethings through the rope gaging his mouth, but it comes out unintelligible and is lost to the gently wind of the Dungeon.
Bug slaps him again, her strength surprisingly being enough to knock his head to the side. “Shush! I will ask questions and you will answer. If you scream for help. I will kill you. If you lie. I will kill you. If you try to stall. I will kill you. Nod if you understand.”
His eyes fall onto his dead companions, and he starts to cry.
“Haaaaa……”
Pulling out her knife, Bug stabs him in the arm. Not deeply, but enough to make him bleed and scream.
She waits patiently as he lets out his muffled screams, drool slipping down his lips in a mess that mixes with his tears and snot.
Once he has calmed a little bit, Bug takes his face and forces him to look at only her as she holds the knife to his face.
“Focus or I’m taking one of your eyes.” She tells him calmly.
His eyes focus on the blade, and he tries to move away from it in fear, but he can’t as Bug holds his head up against the damp wall of the Dungeon.
“Focus. On. Me. Focus!”
He finally stops and looks to Bug, fear overwhelmingly present in his eyes.
“Good… Now, again. I will ask questions and you will answer. If you scream for help. I will kill you. If you lie. I will kill you. If you try to stall or waste time. I will kill you. Nod if you understand.”
He quickly nods his head and Bug removes her hand from his face and lowers the knife.
Giving him a pat on the head, Bug says with a smile, “Good boy. Good boy. You do as your told and I promise to let you live, ok?”
He nods, but Bug notices his eyes dart off to the side. Following his gaze, she finds his spear where it had been left on the floor.
Bug raises the knife again, bringing it dangerously close to his eye. “No, no, no, that is bad. You understand? You keep thoughts like that locked up or I am going to have to stab you again. Right?”
He nods, trying to keep his eye away from the point of the blade. He tries to say something, but it is muffled by the rope in his mouth.
Lowering the knife, Bug continues. “Good. I’m going to remove the gag. Remember to be a good boy. Good boys don’t get stabbed.”
With one hand she lowers the gag as her other keeps the knife leveled and ready. He can clearly see that the knife will be plunged into his heart if he makes even a single mistake.
He whimpers as the gag is removed. “Ple… please don’t kill me…”
“Shhhhhhh… No talking unless it is to answer my questions. Do that again and I’ll make you unable to walk.”
He clamps his mouth shut and nods, tears running down his face.
“Now, my first question. What is outside of the Dungeon? Where do you humans come from?”
He swallows nervously and through trembling lips, answers. “Sil… The city of Silest.”
“So, there is a city built on top of this Dungeon?”
“Yes, yes!” He nods frantically.
“Hmm… And how many people live in Silest?”
“I… I uh…” His eyes are swimming as he tries to find the answer.
“Tell me, human. No wasting my time, remember?” Bug asks calmly as she draws back the blade and aims it at his leg.
“I don’t know! I swear, I don’t know! Please!”
“Be quiet.”
He immediately shuts up as Bug looks in his eyes.
“You’re not lying... Why is it that you don’t know?”
“I, I… We…” His eyes drift to the corpses and Bug makes him focus, moving her knife towards his face a bit.
“We don’t live in the city, but the outskirts in a village. I uh… I don’t know my numbers… I only know that there are lots of people living in the city. We left our village to try and mak-“
“Shut up. I don’t care about your life story or your motivations. Only answer my questions and nothing else. How far away is this city of yours from the Lands of the Demon Queen?”
“De-Demon Queen? I, I don’t know. I only know that people say that she lives far, far to the east, past deserts and mountains. That all I know about that, I swear to the Goddess!”
“Hmm, I believe you. Not a lie…”
Far to the east huh… So even after I escape the Dungeon, I’m going to have a journey to go on. Great.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Next question. Does the city have cookies?”
“Cookies?”
“Sweets. Made with chocolate and fills your mouth with happiness?”
Please tell me the city has them! Please!
“I know those! Yes, the noble’s and rich merchant’s food. I’ve never had one, but my cousin worked as a cleaner for a noble’s party once and was able to sneak one from the trash. She said it was the most wonderful thing she has ever eaten.”
Bug lets out a sigh of relief upon hearing this. Her goal has been reaffirmed. If she can just get out of the dungeon and into the city, then surely, she can find some cookies. Her future is already looking brighter.
“Haaah…. Good, good. Good boy, thank you.”
“Does that mean that I get to live. I can go right? Plea-“
“No. Shut up and remember the rules. Next questions are about the Dungeon. How many floors are there?”
“I, I don’t know. Nobody knows…”
Hmm, nobody has made it to the bottom yet?
“How far have you humans made it into the Dungeon then?”
“Uhm… Ru, rumors say that people have gotten as far as floor thirty… I, I don’t know that number yet, but I think it is big… Are you really going to let me go if I answer your questions? Please, I have my ma that is waitin-“
Stabbing the knife into his thigh, Bug covers his mouth as he cries. “I told you to ONLY answer my questions! Otherwise, be quiet. Next question.”
He whimpers as Bug pulls the knife from his leg and she forces him to look at her. “What kind of creatures are found on floor 2? Tell me human. You want to live, don’t you?”
“Please…!”
A slap across the face sends him reeling. Grabbing him by the collar, Bug pulls him back upright.
“Answer the question human! What is on the second floor?”
“Gob… Goblins, rats, jellies, and… and uh, big spiders.”
“Hmm, Goblins, how do they compare to Gremlins?”
“I… I don’t know! Please! Please, I just want to see my ma again! Please don’t kill me too!
Bug slaps him again, knocking him aside. “I KEEP telling you that if you just answer my questions, I will let you live. Stop being an idiot and- “
He scrambles along the floor with his bound arms and legs as he moves for his spear.
“Haaaaaa… For fuck sake…”
Bug moves to follow him as he crawls, walking behind him as he gets his bound hands onto the spear.
“Stay away from me you monster!”
He tries to take an awkward swing at her with the long weapon, but Bug is already well within his guard.
Stopping the blow with her free hand by grabbing the spear’s shaft, Bug points to him with her knife hand and one finger. “Inflict Pain.”
A single point of mana is all it takes to send him reeling. Pulling the spear away from him, she stores it in her inventory.
Laying on the floor, the human looks up at her and begs. “Please! Please! I’m sorry, I’ll do whatever you say. Please, just don’t kill me!”
Bug scowls at the idiot at her feet. “No.”
He tries to let out one last scream, but Bug is already on top of him before he can move. A simple slap is all it takes to ward away his final defense as she knocks aside his bound hands.
Pushing him down, she sinks her blade into his throat and watches as the life drains from his eyes.
The notification comes and Bug disregards it as she looks to her mana bar. The little bit of mana that she has spent is steadily refilling.
Mmm, that confirms that at least. Being around death makes my mana refill faster. Good.
…
Sitting in silence for a bit, Bug listens to the Dungeon and the sounds of the other humans exploring. It doesn’t sound like anyone is getting closer. Which is good considering how much noise the idiot had made at the end there.
Giving herself a second to relax, Bug eventually looks down at the dead guy that she is sitting on. “I really was going to let you go if you answered all of my questions. All you had to do, was not be an idiot… I guess that was asking too much…”
Wiping her knife on his clothes, she stores it and then gets to work. Going around their makeshift camp, Bug grabs everything she can and dumps it all into her inventory. She can sort it all later.
Once everything is gathered up, Bug goes to each of their bodies and searches them for all their stuff. She doesn’t bother taking their clothes, as they are now all soaked in blood – one in piss – and are honestly not even that good of quality. The clothes she got from her gift are honestly much better.
With everything looted, Bug finally stores their bodies, but doesn’t sell them. She has a plan for them.
Looking around, the dead end is now cleaned of stuff. There are still the puddles of blood, but Bug knows that the Dungeon is already hungrily drinking those up. They’ll be gone in an hour or so. And with them, all the evidence that anything had ever happened here.
Satisfied, she climbs back up the wall and back into her little hole.
...
//Killed lvl 4 Human – 20 exp gained!
//Killed lvl 5 Human – 25 exp gained!
//Congratulations! You have earned a Skill!
//Assassination lvl 1 Unlocked!
//Killed lvl 4 Human – 20 exp gained!
//Congratulations! You have reached lvl 6! – Your stats have been increased!
//You have earned 3 Free Stat points!
//You have earned 1 Skill point!
…
Sitting on some moss, Bug grits her teeth as her level-up increases her stats and her body grows a little stronger. Before the pain can finish, she spends her Free Stats so she can get all the pain out of the way quickly.
----------------------------------------
Stats
Name – Bug
Age – 0
Race – Gremlin
Class – None
Level – 6
EXP – 25/60
Free Stat Points - 0
Heath – 66/66
Stamina – 24/24
Mana – 110/110
Vitality – 11
Endurance – 8
Strength - 8
Dexterity - 13
Magic - 11
Intelligence - 13
*Luck – N/A
*Note: Luck is a work in progress stat. Points cannot be put into this stat at this time.
----------------------------------------
With the level-up increasing Vitality, Dexterity, and Intelligence, Bug puts two towards Dexterity to bring it up to thirteen, like Intelligence, and then one more point into Magic, Bringing her Mana up to 110 points.
Hmm, I don’t like seeing my Stamina being so small… Next level-up should put a point into Endurance, Strength, and Magic. I’ll be sure to put a Free Point into Endurance then and bring it up to ten. But otherwise, I want to focus on Dexterity, Magic, and Intelligence.
The System said that the Class offerings are dependent on our Stats, Skill, Spells, and Knowledge, so I want to try and get something that is good for survival and focuses on Death magic if I can.
“Just four more levels to go…”
Turning her attention back outside once the pain has finally settled, Bug listens to the Dungeon and tries to find if anyone else is coming her way.
…
“Doesn’t sound like it… There are, what, like eight other groups of humans on the first floor? Hmm? Does increasing my Dexterity increase my hearing ability? Maybe increasing Intelligence is making me better at understanding what it is I’m hearing… Interesting.”
Feeling safe for a while, Bug returns deeper into her hole to go over some things.
First and foremost…
Humans give a lot of experience, don’t they? A lvl 1 mob only gave me five and then six at lvl 2. But a lvl 4 human is worth twenty and a lvl 5 is twenty-five. So, would a lvl 1 human be worth five experience then? Humans really are the best thing for me to be killing then. With how the required exp per Level-up is increasing, getting to Level 10 shouldn’t take more than a few humans to get there…
What levels were those other ones again…? Six, nine, and ten… right? So, if I killed them, I would get thirty, forty-five, and fifty experience each. Just that Level 10 guy alone is worth almost an entire Level-up… Makes me almost willing to go risk it and hunt them down.
“Haha, though I don’t think I would win…”
//Congratulations! You have earned a Knowledge!
//Basic Mathematics unlocked!
“Huh…? Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division… Neat.”
Well, on that subject, I guess I should look into that Skill I just got.
‘Assassination lvl 1. This Skill helps guide your attacks against unaware targets to deal maximum damage. If there is a weakness in an enemy’s defense, your blade will surely find its way to reach their vital organs.’
“Helpful. I’m glad I didn’t have to spend a point to get it. So, I will gladly take it.”