Five ru’nic formations were placed at a hundred different locations around the cave. All of them were ready to spring into action within the hour.

Tetsu would not repeat the previous mistakes. He used runes that skills couldn’t cover and used skills to limit the amount of rune slots.

Moving around without the RR skill became easy as he tricked the cave at every turn.

Boast about slaying the boss and, with his next step, he faced the big-bad boss. Plan out loud about playing with the mini bosses and the next turn would lead him right into a mini cavern.

Simple-minded cave or an error within the simulation. Either way, Tetsu loved hacking the already hacked system.

God knows in a normal setting he would never make it out alive. The only way to survive is to find a hack, and Tetsu used a hack to hack into that hack.

Tetsu gets back to the big-bad boss cavern and hops into a safety pit which his pants marked.

Suppose he couldn’t dig his way from the sides. He shall dig a path from below.

This epic idea gave Tetsu a common rarity skill, which he upgraded twice, thanks to his hours of digging.

[Ding! Skill: Dig has upgraded to Drill.]

[Ding! Skill: Drill has upgraded to Plough-On: Plough-plough, plough your way away. Why confront your problems when you can avoid them altogether? Inspired by how every girl ever has avoided you, now you can avoid your enemies. From under, above, or the sides, may no obstacle stand between you and your escape. Level: Initiate. Rarity: Rare.]

“Maybe I should deactivate the sarcasm.”

Runes did their thing, while Tetsu topped up his resources for round two.

“Hope this works.”

Round two was a test run of sorts. To test and plan out a better approach for his last trial. He sure in hell wouldn’t complain if he got the loot in this round.

One-half of his pants were left near the loot as a finish line or start point of his plan.

Back at the entrance of the dungeon, Tetsu stretches each body part thoroughly, making sure he doesn’t sprain anything during the run.

“Let’s go.”

Tetsu slips off the second half of the pants and starts to jog.

One acted as a starting point and the other as the finish. He had to get his bearing before anything else, and by placing himself between the anchors, all he had to do was run straight.

There is the aspect of the ever-shifting intelligent cave, but a simple taunt can fix that.

“I’m coming for you, boss,” Tetsu yells with a smile.

“This is too easy.”

Along the way, Tetsu used ‘Command-touch’ over every ‘mana-bubble,’ bringing a huge mana wave along with him.

Bringing presents when you visit someone’s house for the first time. It’s an Indian thing.

The cave shifted left and right.

Tetsu stopped and turned right and left.

The cave opened up into five openings, trying to confuse Tetsu. It must’ve finally noticed the human’s intellect or the huge mana wave following the human as a threat.

Tetsu didn’t even stop. With his next step, he activated two runes and boosted his speed tenfold.

The cave tried to steer the human into a mini-boss cavern, but the further in Tetsu traveled, the more his connection grew with the finish line, his lower half of the pants.

He avoided traps, tagged ‘mana-bubbles,’ and had a swell time taunting the cave.

[Ding! Familiarity with pants increased]

“Unknown experiment one. Check.” Tetsu smiles.

A brief notification to surmise the actual notification.

Tetsu first yelled at his system screen then later commanded it to notify him even during a heated battle, but with a little condition to keep it short and to the dot.

This way he can know what triggered which part and improve said part with tailor-made training regimens.

Sure, multitasking during a battle is a risk, but the rewards outweigh the risks by a large margin.

It’s similar to fighting with a constant eye over the game map. Sure, it’s hard, but once you get the hang of it, no one can corner you. Add in some earphones and a bit more multitasking later you become a pro.

Who doesn’t like a dominating one versus five match?

He didn’t plan on clearing this experiment during this run, but an achievement is always welcomed.

Tetsu’s curiosity couldn’t wait. It wanted to stop and check out the entire description.

Now, now, now... It screamed.

“Another thing to train.” Sighed Tetsu.

Flip, step, avoid, and boost. Tetsu stayed one, two, three steps ahead of the cave.

To buy more time, the cave shifted into a huge cavern with several cave imps in Tetsu's path.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Time to test. Hiss.” He hisses before stepping into the cavern.

A low hiss bounces around the cavern, echoing within the cave imp ears.

Their lizard brain stiffened. Pores open up on their own as sweat seeps out. An innate fear grabs them, not letting them use their own bodies.

Play dead or be dead, the lizard brain commands their bodies.

The cave imps wanted to growl, attack the low-level, lonely, naked human, or at least notify their bosses, but their bodies wouldn’t listen to them.

They didn’t even know why and had no choice in the matter.

Tetsu dashes past them, followed by a massive wave of mana.

The human interested them little. They neither feared nor cared about it. He was an intruder and somehow popped up in front of them, so they would attack it. They didn’t even fully understand why.

The same couldn’t be said for the massive wave following him, though.

‘Danger’ their whole body screamed, and they relented, standing still, gawking at each other. For the first time noticing the other imps in the cavern. A single question in all their heads. “Who are they?”

'Assassins step.' Tetsu activates the skill while pushing more mana into his running runes.

[Ding! Upgrade: Assassins footwork. Initiate. Epic.]

“Told ya.” Tetsu smirks and dives into a pit, deactivating his ‘Command-touch’ skill.

Fatigue: 50.

Tetsu takes heavier breaths, making a mental note of the runes/skills used and the distance sprinted during a hostile situation. “Noted. Next.”

He senses a massive form stomping past him. The entire tunnel rumbled with every step the beast took.

Tetsu waited for the rumbling to subside and counted to three just to be safe.

“The devil has left its den.”

Tetsu crawls through his tunnel and pops out and into the boss’s cavern.

As expected, he finds the devil’s tail patrolling its surroundings.

No eyes, though. Thank god.

Tetsu takes quick steps toward the loot. Thanks to the information provided by the upgraded skill. Yet another advantage of having notifications active during a fight.

Or simple old multitasking.

Like a snake’s head, the pointy end of the tail twitched left and right, trying to look ominous.

Based on how scared the boss’s footsteps were as it rushed out, it could sense mana.

Tetsu was certain it even tripped and slowed its pace in the end out of caution. In the end, it was the boss, so it had to check and deal with the problem.

Although the problem has already weaselled his way in and now planned on stealing the one thing it had to protect.

“One job Steve. One job. You had one job.” Tetsu recites a dialogue and laughs within.

Tetsu guessed the tail can only sense mana. So with ‘Assassins-footwork,’ a weirdly calm heart, and two famished fangs, he approached the tail.

The skill helped him hide his mana, footsteps, and stench to an extent.

A tail shouldn’t be able to smell, but so shouldn’t a devil be able to leave its tail behind to guard treasures. Life ain’t fair and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Talking about leaving the tail behind, the boss imp was still connected to its tail. Magic expanding it and all.

Tetsu stops ten feet away from the tail. Stepping any closer might trigger the tail sense.

“How do I touch it without it sensing me?” Tetsu realized an obvious plot hole in his plan. “And I made it this far,” Tetsu yells within. “Not fair.”

Tetsu grunts as his fangs descend, itching to fight.

“Ah! Okay. Someone should get something.” He relented.

Tetsu aims and bites between the tail and its pointy edge. Joints are an easy target as per anatomy.

His fangs connect and crack over the skin.

Its darn skin was harder than rock.

A sharp pain courses through Tetsu’s jaw, making him yell out in pain.

The boss felt the little prick on its tail, making it turn around. It understands the trickery and roars in fury.

The cavern amplifies the already terrifying voice, bursting Tetsu’s ear drums.

There was time-based on Tetsu’s calculations. The boss imp was huge and had to travel through narrow tunnels to reach the cavern.

Tetsu dodges the tail’s pointy end, trying to skewer him.

It ignored Tetsu and kept attacking the same spot again and again. With every strike, it pierced deeper, trying to find something.

On the fourth strike, it found solid rock, changed its strike into a curve, and hooked onto the floor. The rest of the coil gets reeled in, maintaining the heap over the loot.

The skill both protected the loot and dragged the boss back.

Tetsu barely oriented himself when the boss came crashing in, with his back facing Tetsu.

“Smart move.” Tetsu acknowledges, then jumps onto its back, biting down.

The last joint was fake, but this tail joint had to be the weakest point and Tetsu wanted something before he left.

The Imp shrieks like a dog into an empty cavern.

It would never know of the perpetrator as Tetsu disappears and reappears at the entrance of the dungeon with both his pants and a mouth full of flesh.

His fangs didn’t want to give away its price, but after a firm command, they relented and spit out the imp’s flesh.

Tetsu checks his mouth. There wasn’t a speck of blood or fur. “Guess we can’t take stuff from the inside.” He chuckles and checks on the pants. “But your stuff gets out without a hitch.”

Tetsu readjusts his strategy, making final adjustments.

“Round three, here we go.”

His initial plan to touch the loot and press escape wouldn’t work. Now he somehow had to make them his property by infusing them with mana.

Other theories can wait as he first needed to get a better look at the treasures hidden inside the tail. Based on what lay beneath, he was confident about stealing the loot before escaping.

If not? He tried his best and the levels–oh, no levels. Okay, all the experience still counts.

And Tetsu’s mind had already figured out a way to at least see the treasures.

Hours blew by as Tetsu tried to copy his mana signature to that of the boss imp.

He had a piece of meat with the imp’s signature mana and understood his mana well enough. Now, the only thing left to do is to alter his body in some way to match the imp's texture and mana signature.

Yeah… Tetsu had no clue what he was doing until his inner masochist chimed in with some disturbing ideas.

Tetsu pulled out one of his broken fangs and used it as a blade to separate the imp’s skin from the flesh.

He diced them up into smaller sections and placed them over his fingertips.

The masochist wanted to skin graft, but Tetsu convinced himself by imagining a graft and that satisfied the masochist.

With no other place to leave the broken tooth and knowing the nightmare it can cause the tooth fairies, Tetsu places it over the artifact.

If all goes well, he can break some more fangs and make a spiky head for the artifact.

Tetsu suppresses his inner masochist and gets back into the dungeon for round three.

The cave either reset or forgot Tetsu’s previous shenanigans. A simple taunt and it led him straight to the boss’s cavern.

With the tunnel still present, saving his progress, he jumps in and makes it to the tail.

“This is suspiciously going easy.” Tetsu planned on keeping the boss imp around. If he spoke it, he would have to deal with an alert and angry beast.

It’s easier to slip in when security isn’t looking for you.

Another one of Grandma’s saying.

A bit concerned by how she told it, but it’s true.

Solely focusing on ‘Assassins footwork’, Tetsu approached the no-so-alert tail. Using the fake skin over his hands, he lifts a section of tail and slides inside.

With its skin rubbing against its skin, the boss imp ignored the hunch of something wrong.

This, or a slew of other factors, helped Tetsu’s skill to level up.

[Ding! Skill: Leech-by. Level: Warrior. Rarity: common.]

“Hey!” Tetsu complained with his inner voice.

‘Info’ on the tail proved it was indeed the imp’s tail.

{Cave imp: level 08. Detach, float over, trio, fire, earth, and wind affinities. Weak points- none.}

None, as in Tetsu, didn’t know any and the Saint wouldn’t hint at any. With affinities, the saint helped, to see Tetsu piss his pants.

“See... fire.” Tetsu flaunts his prediction.

Boy, he was glad it didn’t use fire.

Next, Tetsu used info over the three loot boxes, which told him loot boxes contained loot.

“Very helpful.” He taunts the saint. “Want to add anything else?”

He uses info again to no veil.

No option presented themselves to bind the loot, so Tetsu wrapped his hands around the three loot boxes and prayed for them to be teleported out along with him.

To ensure his success, Tetsu also breaks the ‘echo vault,’ filling the surroundings with his mana and spooking the boss in the process.

Before the Imp had the presence of mind to uncoil its tail, Tetsu vanished from the dungeon, never to return.

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