I led the orc into the dark tunnel that had become my impromptu home.

“Careful with your steps. There are traps here.” I warned just in case he steps on one of those beartrap-like contraptions. They’re adequately deadly to the goblins who were unlucky enough to get caught. I wasn’t sure if the orc could endure it in its current state.

He’d stumble every few steps despite holding on to the wall for support.

“Okay.” He barely made out a feeble response in between rapid breathings. The damage it had taken was much more severe than I imagined.

Our conversation ended with that.

I had a lot of questions for this orc, but I held back for the time being out of concern for its health. There’ll be time for that later.

We continued in silence.

The arrangement of the tunnels on this floor was interestingly designed. There was only one entrance and three exits. One led to the goblin habitat, and the other one was a dead-end, my home. I didn’t know where the last tunnel goes to, probably also a dead end.

“I can’t see well in the dark. Where are we going, little imp?” The orc inquired.

“Huh? You can’t see in the dark?”

I was honestly surprised. I thought every monster had night vision. Turns out that was not the case. Perhaps the heat vision and night vision were limited to very few species.

“No.” The orc responded.

“I see.” I mindfully saved this little info in the deep recess of my memory. Any information on the dungeon or the monsters was valuable for the current me. “We will stop here.”

I looked at the red-skinned monster behind my back with [Infrared Vision] activated. Although I couldn’t make out its facial expression, I was sure it had an incredulous expression on its swine-like face. I resisted the urge to snigger.

“Here?” Its voice was barely above a whisper.

“This is a dead-end. The path ends just a little bit ahead.” I answered.

“I see.” The orc grunted and plopped on the spot. It leaned against the wall and stayed put. It didn’t even dare to breathe louder.

On the contrary, the goblins were going nuts up ahead. Rapid footsteps accompanied by gibberish babblings echoed against the decaying walls. My heart palpitated inside my chest. I was afraid they’d come into this tunnel.

Despite my recent progress, I was no match to a horde of goblins.

Luckily, none came in the end. After a few minutes, the noise died down completely, and everything returned to its previous state of silence.

Tranquility at last. I exhaled my breath I didn’t know I was holding.

Ding!

A hidden task completed.

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All stats +2

What?

It came out of nowhere, leaving me confused. What hidden task? Since when was I doing tasks? More importantly, was there a task system before?—a lot of questions piled up, yet I didn’t have an answer to any of them.

I felt complicated.

And then it came.

It started with a slight burning in my chest. Then it escalated quickly, making my whole body feel like I was sitting on a grill. I was hot, uncomfortably so, everywhere.

I bit on my lower lips. It was painful, but I was a man who had experienced death once. And it was not a painless one. This little bit of aching was nothing compared to that. I didn’t even make a sound.

The pain lasted for a while before slowly vanishing. I took in a deep breath, shoving my lungs with oxygen. The past few minutes felt like absolute hell.

What the hell was that? I questioned myself in my heart.

You have grit the pain of strengthening without making much of a fuss.

Endurance +1

Now what?

I looked at the new message and tried to understand its meaning. I couldn’t. The only thing I made out was that my endurance attribute gained one point for some reason.

I called forth the [System] to have a look.

Sure enough, all my attributes had seen dramatic growth. At the very least, none were below one anymore. It was a great thing. The pain was worth it.

With the rewards out of the way, I turned to look at the elephant in the room.

Who gave the task!?

Usually, in the games, the GMs would create quests and tasks and reward those who finish them.

Who was the GM in this case? The gods of this world?

For the first time in a while, I felt a profound fear rising in my heart. It chilled even my soul.

If my speculations were correct, then things were much scarier than expected. It was not a good sign.

“Little Imp, where are the rest of your kin?”

I was pulled back to reality by the voice of the orc. It seems the silence had made it restless, so it decided to engage in light chatter. I was happy to oblige.

“I do not know. I was born in this darkness.” I responded.

“Oh! I see. It seems you are the only one who survived in the end.”

A piece of juicy news! I was curious. “what do you mean?” I urged it to elaborate.

“Hm! Sometime ago, a large-scale purging happened on the second floor. Many weaker species perished in the crusade, and the imps are one of them. Now, it seems that not everyone has died that day.”

The orc’s explanation was vague, but I managed to get the gist of the story. Basically, someone killed all the weak monsters on the upper floor. The parents of the imp’s body I was borrowing fled down here to give birth and continue their race.

It made me all the more curious about the identity of the one who did it. Thus I enquired. “Who did it?”

“The Bloodvores.”

The orc spat out like one’d do to a rotten piece of meat. I felt immense hatred from it pointing towards that name. I smelled a juicy story. However, for the sake of my own well-being, I didn’t ask further.

It’d be unwise to unnecessarily annoy a monster who could crush an entire horde of goblins.

There was a pin-drop silence persisted between us. Neither of us spoke anything, and I was still thinking about what I heard from the orc. I was in the process of digesting all those new info.

Sun Tzu said; if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. But I didn’t even know my ownself.

Thankfully, with the appearance of this orc, some light was shed upon the past of this monster body I had taken over.

My worries only increased, however.

“I’m Logier, chieftain of Sengu tribe.” Once again, I was dragged back to reality by the orc.

I raised one of my non-existent eyebrows and responded accordingly, “My name is Alex.”

“What a strange name? Sounds human-like.”

My heart skipped a beat at Logier’s comment. Was I exposed? I feared the worst and carefully answered with a question of my own. “You think so?”

“I don’t know. I just think it is.” It responded carelessly.

“Maybe. Err, what are you doing here?” I changed the subject.

Logier went silent, but the red aura around its chest region deepened. Soon, the intense aura covered its whole body.

“Phew!!” It exhaled loudly, and the aura gradually dimmed. I, too, breathed out the breath I didn’t know I was holding.

“I am…. looking for a new home.” It answered after a long pause.