Colours ran and darkened around my eyes as the perception of my vision shifted, I felt a slight tucking force around my body, as I was ushered through the dungeon gate and found myself leaving the lush grassland behind and setting foot on damp soil.
The sudden vertigo of the shift from crossing through the dungeon gate left me slightly dizzy for a fraction of a second, but I recovered from the dizziness quickly.
I snapped my head around to observe my surroundings, and I saw dead and barren land all around me, the dried and dead trees making a dreadful and bleak environment, as their thick branches coiled around, making a ghastly atmospher, which made the surroundings look haunted and possessed.
Khu—! Khu—!
Suddenly a voice which very much resembled that of an owl's, I snapped my head in the direction from where the low voice originated from.
It took me a while to find the exact location from where the voice had first originated from as the darkness made it difficult for me to perfectly see the overall land, as I kept on searching to find what had caused that voice, and it was close by.
Khu—!
The same noise entered my ears as I took a stance, snapping my head to my right as I laid eyes upon a bird like creature sitting atop one of the many dead branches of the trees which add it look more menacing.
I wary looked at the mana beast which looked directly back at me, but with thirsty and hunger eyes.
The mana beast made a similar appearance to a bird, but it was nothing relatively close to a normal bird, making it look terribly horrifying.
The bird looked like a mixture between a hawk and an owl. It appearance was similar to a monster which a child feared in their imagination.
It had three long legs covered in shiny obsidian features, with dagger like claws growing out of its feet which shined under the basking moonlight, and eight monstrous eyes which seem to burn. Its black feathers which dangerously basked underneath the moonlight of the dungeon, made it look eerie. And its beak had certain subtlety of its own, which rose from the high-end and with a twist fell down resembling a sharp dagger which reflected the moonlight.
It was currently looking in my direction with its eight ravenous eyes sizing me up and down, looking at me as if I were its prey, I looked back at it with a calm expression, expectant of the beast’s action, and after a second past, it took flight and lunged in my direction deciding to attack.
Flapping its giant wings once, it took flight as it got off the branch and in a swift turn in the air it reached for me with its sharp dagger like feet pointing at me.
The beast was approximately 5 meters long, its bulk heavy and legs thin but extremely durable with its overall constitution giving it an advantage with the overall terrain.
This monster was called an ‘Abyss Avion’. Found in similar dungeon with dark and dead environments, and swamps, similarly they weren't every strong, and only hunted prey weaker than them.
It's sharp pale beak reached for my throat, but in that split second I withdrew bleak star from the system inventory and hacked at its left wing, my arm moving like a serpent as my sword made a shrill boise in the air and reached near the mana beast’s body
But it’s eyes followed me through and at the last second it dodged my sword, with a sharp twist mid-air which allowed it yo evade my slash.
It harshly flapped it’s wings again, the monster ascended toward the sky as some of its features went loose.
Firming my grip over the hilt of my sword, allowed my mind to calm itself as my senses stretched outward for any movement and waited for the monster to descend and attack. All sounds ceased to exist, as I held my breath and waited, and just then the beast appeared.
Descending from the sky like a meteor, the mana beast soon reached me and attacked with its razor sharp beak again.
But performed a vertical slash upward, my sword met with the monster's beak. I pushed my sword upward putting more strength and power as my mana worked and so did the abyss avion–vertically downwards with all its might.
I parried the beast’s beak as a shrill noise reverberated around us as the beak of the abyss avion scratched over the blade of bleak star, I pushed my sword away from its beak, sequentially twisting my body and then rotating at a one eighty degree angle whilst slashing horizontally.
But his eyes followed my every movement. Its eight eyes posed a problem for me currently as the beast’s reaction was quick and agile.
Knowing this I activated my skill, which I got back thanks to Returnee’s Privilege, ‘Mind’s Eye’.
Just as I activated Mind’s Eye, my mana worked, soon the world around me slowed down as the colours got drowned by a veil of gray which shrouded everything. Soon I directed my gaze at the monster in front of me. Its movements were as slow as a snail's as it tries to moving from my left to right whilst trying to thrust its beak forward.
Soon a subtle colourlessness enshrouded the world from my perspective as everything slowed down.
But that fraction of a second was enough for me to end the battle.
Even a single second can change the flow of a fight depending on a split second decision to turn the tide to your advantage. And similarly I spoke with experience.
Because in my previous life, there were many times where even a second was enough to turn the flow of a battle around. Be it advantageous or disadvantageous.
Just as I saw the monster about to dodge my horizontal slash and attack, I changed my trajectory and slashed diagonally sideways.
In the slowed down world, I saw the sudden change in the monster’s movements, as its scarlet eyes slowly turned, and it began to dodge, but despite the overwhelming sensation which made my eyes to sting from the growing pain, I held a firm grip over the skill and studied the beast to find an opportunity.
It’s speed was incredible, and its nimble movements made it a hard target to hit.
Then the world around me returned back to normal and I heard a subtle slashing sound reverberated, as the sound of flesh being split and blood dripping down the damp soil entered my ears.
By the time I saw the sight before me, the head of the monster went rolling on the dry and dead ground, its eyes looking lifeless, as the beast’s body stumbled which convulsed and soon stopped.
With a tired exhale I slumped down on the barren ground myself. Some of the blood of the abyss avion had sprayed on my shoes, as the filthy smell of its dark blood made me nauseous.
“It’s seem like I still have some time until I can properly use Mind’s Eye.” I said as I felt a stinging sensation in my eyes, which made my head to throab, not as prominently as it did before when I first activated my skill in my dorm room.
[You Have Levelled Up!]
Then I saw a window pop up in front of me. It mentioned the contents of my level increase.
Seeing the contents of the window, somehow I felt excited and enthusiastic.
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'System'. I hurridly said inside my head as soon as I saw the interface pop up.
Then I saw my stats which were displayed on the system interface, which had changed slightly.
----
----
NAME:
HP: <170>
LEVEL: <11>
STRENGTH: <14>
STAMINA: <22>
AGILITY: <17>
VITALITY: <19>
INTELLIGENCE: <10>
MP: <51>
PROFESSION:
POINTS: <120>
______
FATIGUE: <4>
【PERSEVERANCE 】: [LV.1]
_____________
{SKILLS}
_____________
【Returnee’s Privilege】 [Time: ???]
–MIND’S EYE (Sealed)
–????
–????
–????
–????
______________
【?????】
–????
______________
----
----
“Oh, my stats, they have increased," I mused as I looked at my now increased stats with an excited expression.
“But why isn’t my Intelligence stat increasing?” I thought as I tried to make out the reason why. But putting it at the back of my head for now I waved the interface away. “Oh well, whatever. I still have plenty of time to understand the system and its working mechanics."
But with a shrug of my shoulders I stood up from the ground and started walking through the darl and haunting forest.
Walking through the barren forest, I looked left to right to look for any monsters nearby, but to my luck, I saw only three goblins, which were at least a hundred meters away from where I was standing.
Quietly, I placed pressure over my calves and nimbly climbed the branch of one of the nearby trees as quietly as possible to not alert the goblins.
The goblins came into my vision more clearly as I keenly observed their movements.
Well when a person thinks what a goblin looks like, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
A dirty small monstrous midget, with several yellowish teeth and bile like green skin with a dirty and nauseating smell.
Yeah! Those goblins looked exactly like as they are described in the text books.
Green skin, red eyes and their small bodies, which looked extremely weak, but good for agile attacks.
But don’t get me wrong, killing a single goblin or two or three of them is easy enough, but, if there is an entire horde of them, then that’s a different story.
There have also been records that an entire party of hunters were wiped out, because they were attack by such called hordes of goblins.
It’s not due to the hunters being weak. The goblins are considered the weakest among all the monsters but, a horde consists of hundreds of such midget creatures.
So even if you are somewhat strong, no person has unlimited stamina to keep on fighting hundreds of enemies tirelessly. So being cautious around goblins is what is taught even to rookies.
“Alright...” I made up my mind as I surveyed my surroundings for quick confirmation.
Having confirmed that there were no other goblins except those three, I dropped down from the branch with a crunching noise as the midgets snapped their head and looked at me, as I dashed in the goblins direction.
‘Isn’t this dungeon supposed to be an undead pit as mentioned in the description? I haven’t seen a single undead since I came here?’
I lampooned inwardly as I reached the goblins with a swift foot.
Soon I became visible to their eyes, and just as they saw me, the three of them lunged in my direction without any plans.
I withdrew bleak star and vertically slashed at the goblin which was only two meters away from me.
Soon after a slashing sound, the goblin's body finely split into two and fell down lifelessly on the ground.
Its blood sprayed all over the area around it. Dying the ground in it's green nauseating blood.
Soon after the other two goblins jumped and tired to attack me with the small dagger that they had in their hands.
But not giving them time, I slashed horizontally and within that second, my sword slashed through their throats as a sight of blood spewing over the ground displayed.
Their heads fell to ground, one after the other.
Walking up to the lifeless bodies of the goblins, I cut their bodies up and took the most important parts which were sellable.
‘Gotta make a living somehow, after all I’m forced to pay some debt that I don’t even know about!’ I Inwardly thought with a tired sigh as I took a moment to dissect the goblins one at a time.
I had also taken the black feathers, the claws and the beak of the Abyss Avion.
Having collected the materials I soon moved forward to looked around for more mana beasts.
“There is no time-limit for clearing the dungeon on the system quest, so I think I can take my time, right?”
“Levelling up and getting stronger is my first priority for now.”
Walking into the deep dead forest I looked for more mana beasts to hunt.
Just after walking for a few minutes I found two Abyss Avion’s in front of me.
“This looks good. Hear I come level up. Time for hunting."
I enthusiastically said as I cautiously reached the mana beasts with my presence concealed.
***
“Jiyoung, what are we supposed to do now?”
A youth's voice reverberated through the dead and barren forest which projected timidity and weariness. His appearance looked groggy and dirty, mud covered the boy's short black hair, with his crystal blue eyes looking afraid.
“Don’t worry Jihoon, it’s going to be alright," the girl addressed the youth who was following her from behind, with a dagger held tightly in the boy's hand he nodded back to his sister, trying his best to hide his fearful expression.
“But...” the boy suddenly said, but he his words were cut short by Jiyoung.
“Sheesh...!”
Jiyoung hushed the boy with a quick gesture from her mouth as she pointed toward her right with her hand, whilst putting a finger to her mouth to tell the boy to keep quiet.
Ahaaa—!
A loud shout came from the direction the girl pointed from as Jihoon jumped in his place in fright.
“Let’s go the other away.” Jiyoung said with a gentle tone.
“Yeah." Jihoon responded with a swift nod.
Then they both started walking towards the left direction with great apprehension as they covered each step with vigilance.
‘Just why the hell is this happening? Why can’t we find the exit?'
There was an agitate look on her face as she walked forward, looking at her brother's back which was covered with mud and blood.
***
Seo Jiwoo
After having killed the mana beasts in this entire area, I found myself a safe spot to rest for the time.
There was a cliff which had a small cave, a few kilometres away from where I had entered the dungeon from.
It had gotten quite cold inside the dungeon now as the night fully approached.
But I was ready for such a situation. I had already placed a warm blanket inside my inventory.
The sound of the burring wood echoed in my ears, as the fire illuminated the inside of the cave with a dim and warm light.
I had started a fire to keep myself warm and to cook food.
This cave was out of sight from the monsters and several feet above the ground, so I started a fire here with ease that no beasts would approach and climb in. But just in case, for my peace of mind, I'd first checked the entire area before deciding to rest here.
Taking the water canteen out of the system inventory, I drank the water. Having rehydrated myself, I took out seasoned pieces of meat from inside of the inventory.
Sticking them up with a stick near the fire I let the four pieces cook.
“Oh right.” I suddenly remembered that I had levelled up quite the bit in my search for a place to rest, as I'd forgotten to check my stats in the mean time.
I had been constantly fighting monsters for the past few hours whilst taking five or ten minutes of intervals in between to keep up with my good pace.
‘System!’ I inwardly said.
Just as I said an interface popped open in front of my eyes.
----
----
NAME: SEO JIWOO (???)
HP: <319>
LEVEL: <17>
STRENGTH: <27>
STAMINA: <33>
AGILITY: <26>
VITALITY: <29>
INTELLIGENCE: <10>
MP: <80>
PROFESSION:
POINTS: <350>
______
FATIGUE: <15>
【PERSEVERANCE】: [LV.1]
_____________
{SKILLS}
_____________
【Returnee’s Privilege】 [Time: ???]
–MIND’S EYE (Sealed)
–????
–????
–????
–????
______________
【?????】
–????
______________
----
----
“I have levelled up quite a lot only in a few hours.” I said as I grabbed one of the cooked pieces of meat.
“Well I did fight and kill many mana beasts in couple of hours."
Chewing the tender and juicy meat, the exquisite and rich seasoned flavour of the meat stimulated my taste buds.
After one bite I took another, and just like that I ate all of the meat leaving only the stick.
Then I extended my hand to take another one, but suddenly I stopped in my tracks, and snapped my head to my left.
Ahaaaa—!
Then I heard a loud shouting sound coming from outside the cave which jolted me on the spot as I made a wary expression.
Standing up from the ground, I reached for the mouth of the cave.
Ahaaa—!
I heard the shout again. It certainly had the noise of pain and anguish. It was definitely the shout of a human.
Contemplating for a moment I decided to go in the direction of where the shout had came from. It was dead in the night, when the visibility was the lowest and the mana beasts were the most active.
“Well things never went my way, did they, Old Man?” I said with my smirk as I remembered about my Master.