32 Rank F Dungeon (6)

As I was distracted and grinning from the new notification, from the corner of my eye the Dullahan sprinted at me, at least twice as fast as it was moving previously. Even though I could see the undead moving towards me, I realized that all I could do was see it.

The creature reached me faster than I could react. Or more accurately, faster than my body could react. I couldn't even use [Flash Step] or the Kawarimi to move myself out of harm's way before a deadly swing of its zanbato cut into my body. I tried to block the attack with my arm at least, my limbs were moving too slowly for that even if my eyes and brain could process what was happening.

I had barely been able to move half a step back, and that was the only reason why I hadn't been bisected where I stood. But the blade still left a bloody gash diagonally across my torso. I flew back from the impact, an arch of blood spurting out of my chest and splattering the ground.

[-1208 HP]

What the fuck!? That one swing from its oversized zanbato had removed nearly half of my maximum HP! The sting from the wound held on for just a moment before vanishing.

The encroaching dread from the almost fatal wound I just received was cleared from my mind thanks to Gamer's Mind, but I could still feel the pressing need to come up with something to deal with this situation… otherwise, I was going to die here.

I couldn't even feel the fear for my life in this precarious life-or-death situation. While I was thankful for the lack of an unnecessary and burdensome distraction that would affect my tactical thinking, it was also strangely bizarre that I felt almost nothing in what was assuredly the closest I had come to dying. Ever. But Gamer's Mind refused to allow me such a diversion, even if it would comfort any possible existential crisis.

No, it forced me to be completely conscious and aware of the fight. It erased any hints of hesitation or unnecessary mental hindrances that would hold me back from performing at a hundred percent. It was useful for a fight, yes, but I had a feeling it was something that would have its repercussions when I had the luxury to ponder upon it more.

Regardless, I had a fight to win before I would have the opportunity to explore my feelings. My wound was shallow, I assume due mainly to my Gamer's Body preventing any infliction of injuries that would impede my battle competency rather than the lack of skill and strength from my enemy. If not for Gamer's Body, the Dullahan's zanbato would have carved half way through my torso even if it didn't bisect me entirely.

I immediately activated my newly acquired skill, [Chakra Enhancement], to reinforce my body's physical capabilities. I could feel its effects at once, my bruised and battered body received an overwhelming vitality, and my muscles were energized beyond belief. If I had the leisure to check my stats, it would probably show that my physical stats were doubled or so I assumed from the sheer intensity of the skill's enhancement.

The Dullahan was not willing to let me recover my breath as it followed up on its initial attack right after, dashing towards me as fast as it did before. But now, I was not just able to see its advance with my Sharingan eyes, my body was able to react accordingly as well thanks to [Chakra Enhancement].

I dashed forward as well, pulling out Kotetsu no Ryuu with one hand while pulling on the chain that was still attached to the Dullahan with the other. The increase in my movement speed almost caught me off guard, but I couldn't let myself be disoriented with just that.

I slid under the humongous sword swung by the undead while letting my blade slice into the creature's ankle. But that wasn't all. The reason I was pulling on the chain wasn't just to disturb its balance, I intended to tie up its movement.

Getting up from my sliding position, I ran around the tall undead, wrapping the chains around its ankles, all the while using my enhanced vision and physical ability to evade any further attacks. However, the Dullahan was cognizant enough to see what I was trying to do and jumped out of the entangling spool of chains around its feet.

I tsked in annoyance but thanks to its momentary preoccupation with avoiding the chains, I was granted the opportunity to stab towards the severed head being held. My gambit succeeded as the tip of Kotetsu no Ryuu was thrust into the head's cheeks for a moment before the Dullahan moved away from my range.

"GRARRR!" The Dullahan's severed head roared in anger after it landed a distance away, incensed at the sheer audacity behind me intentionally targeting its very obvious weak spot. It braced itself and reappeared beside me in a burst of speed, not that I was not able to follow its movements and react accordingly.

I blocked its attack with my katana, but the force behind the strike threw me back. The zombie rapidly chased after me, another swing of its zanbato at the ready. I released Kotetsu no Ryu for just an instant to form the handseal necessary for the Clone technique, and upon landing created five illusionary duplicates that ran off in different directions.

The undead lacked the necessary brainpower to discern the real from the fakes, so it changed its trajectory to bisect the nearest clone, intending to discover the original via a process of elimination – one that would be extremely hazardous to my health if I let it succeed.

While the Dullahan was the reanimated corpse of an Uchiha, I was assuming, it lacked the clan's famed doujutsu nor the intellect necessary to see through the very elementary trick. Nor could it see through the henge I had placed on myself upon creating the clones.

Disguised as a piece of shattered tombstone on the ground, I rapidly formed the handseals for the Great Fireball technique. I broke my own illusion when I breathed out the ball of fire – but this time I tried to minimize the CP used and condense the fireball as much as I could to solely target the severed head being carried around. I didn't need a large explosion; I needed a concentrated burst of firepower.

The fireball accurately struck the severed head of the Dullahan, who was busy cutting down my clones, too busy to notice the fireball before it was too late. A small explosion occurred as my aim struck true. The Dullahan's head shrieked in pain, the first sign of an undead feeling any sort of sensation that I know of.

There wasn't enough remnant chakra in the fireball for the head to stay lit on fire, but the scorch marks that and burnt hair of the severed head was enough evidence of the damage dealt. The Dullahan's face deformed in pure rage, and an unearthly screech was emitted out of its singed mouth, before the Dullahan ran towards the real me again.

I smirked and repeated my previous tactic of creating a handseal to create more clones. But this time it was different – the Dullahan actually threw its own severed head into the air. I widened my eyes in surprise as I watched this unexpected action, and when my sight landed on the severed head flying up, I locked eyes with the Dullahan that was glaring angrily at me; the real me, not the clones.

I wanted to reach into my inventory to pull out some ranged weapons to target the thrown head, but the beheaded body reached me to quickly for me to do so. Now holding the zanbato with both hands, it swung the oversized sword with greater speed and force than before.

Once again, I wielded Kotetsu no Ryu, reinforced with [Chakra Flow] to block the attack. But unlike the previous time, I was not ready for the sheer strength behind the swing. Instead of just throwing me back, I was launched more than twice the distance. At the moment of impact, my Sharingan eyes even caught my katana creaking and trembling, threatening to shatter under the might behind its slash.

I flew back, and landed unceremoniously on my back, not even having the wherewithal to flip myself in mid air to land properly. I tumbled briefly on the ground but managed to jump back up with an acrobatic one handed flip. Turning back at the Dullahan, I saw it catch the head mid air as it was falling. The severed head turned to me and snarled viciously.

I took the brief respite to check my remaining CP. Around half had already been expended through the usage of multiple jutsus and the maintenance of [Sharingan], [Chakra Enhancement] and [Chakra Flow], even though only two minutes had passed thus far. A quick calculation told me that even if I refrained from using any more chakra heavy jutsus, namely the Grand Fireball technique, I could only sustain this level of combat for another three minutes or so at most.

The Dullahan hefted up its zanbato into another stance, its body coiled and tensed like a compressed spring ready to be released at a moment's notice. I unconsciously let out a breath at the suspense. My Sharingan eyes instantly scanned its stance, looking for any holes in its defence, weaknesses or other such shortcomings.

"Kill or be killed." I reminded myself as I too tensed my body and tightened my grip on the Kotetsu no Ryu.

---------

I wearily lifted up my tanto above my head and stabbed it down one last time with all the remaining stamina left in my worn out body. The short sword dug into the severed head of the Dullahan, leaving behind an open wound that joined a dozen other puncture marks on the head.

With one last dying gasp, the head that I had been crouching over and stabbing repeatedly and violently burst into a thick cloud of dark smoke – along with the nearby dismembered and broken body of the Dullahan.

+2875 EXP

[Through continuous training, you have gained +1 VIT!]

[You have levelled up!]

Upon seeing the death of my ironically undead foe, I immediately collapsed on my back in both exhaustion and relief. My body was caked in blood, and my clothes were tattered almost beyond repair. They probably had a single digit durability right now.

The battle was short, but incredibly fast-paced. I came extremely close to a game over numerous times, and only the [Sharingan] and sometimes [Flash Step] was able to get me out of some dangerously close calls. In fact, if not for the [Chakra Enhancement] skill I just learned a couple minutes ago, I would have surely been beheaded or bisected multiple times over by the creature's zanbato.

A few notifications popped up, but I dismissed them. I needed just a moment's respite from the intensely draining fight I just won. My body may be invulnerable to receiving normal injuries, but fatigue was still a very real consequence of what I just went through. I was able to feel pain from the damage I take, but only momentarily. Even right now, with my body as cut up and bruised as it is, I could probably still continue fighting with little to no impact to my fighting ability – disregarding exhaustion that is, but that was something that could be remedied with a short rest.

The fight was hard, extremely so. Multiple moments throughout the encounter I nearly died or was delimbed, and it was truly the most challenging, arduous, and horrifically desperate situation I had ever been it… but it was also equally as rewarding. Not the potentially generous item drops from the loot orb – but the entire experience itself was… exhilarating. The sheer thrill of putting my life on the line, with every moment possibly being my last, and the nearly intoxicating feeling of putting together strategies and tactics in a fight and seeing them succeed.

Something about pushing my mind and body to its limits… it was almost addictive. Even now, my heart was still pounding in my chest, the adrenaline coursing through my veins, my limbs restless and craving for the satisfying impact of flesh hitting flesh or the resistance from a blade carving into muscle and bone.

I, who was once a billionaire playboy philanthropist, had once foolishly imagined there was nothing else in the world that could excite or astonish me. To think, thrusting myself in to a life or death situation, risking my head in an extremely close encounter, would enrapture me so. I would have laughed if I had the energy left in me.

I took a few minutes to calm my mind and settle my nerves, allowing my body to calm down from the adrenaline that was slowly receding from my veins, before sitting up and opening up my status to check my HP and CP.

HP: 369/2700

CP: 420/4565

It was only a result of the HP and CP regeneration from the past few minutes that my HP and CP was in the three digits. I had taken quite a few hits and slashes from the hidden boss – none as damaging as the first direct hit I had received at the start of the fight that took nearly half my HP, but it was to the point where a light breeze could have claimed my life.

And near the end of the fight my [Sharingan], [Chakra Flow] and [Chakra Enhancement] had been forcibly deactivated because I ran out of chakra to fuel the skills. Thankfully by then the fight was already at its finale with the Dullahan's headless body being incapacitated and its severed head vulnerable.

At a certain point in the fight, the Dullahan had amassed the remaining of its chakra to launch one final strong slash at me. I blocked it, but the heavy force of the zanbato had blown Kotetsu no Ryuu out of my hands, which forced me to retrieve the wakizashi and tanto from my inventory and assume a dual-wielding fighting style for the remainder of the fight.

However, with the lost of the stat buffs from my Katana, the fight became notably harder. Although, it had also correspondingly become easier too since the Dullahan no longer had any more chakra to defend against attacks to its body with its chakra armour. So it did kind of balance out in the end.

It was unfortunate, however, that I couldn't learn the chakra armour skill it was using with my Sharingan. It must have been some sort of innate ability rather than any type of jutsu. Which would explain why I couldn't replicate the technique with the Sharingan.

After I sat up, I surveyed my surroundings. There were deep gashes in the earth from when the Dullahan was swinging around his sword that was clearly overcompensating for something. But one that was missing which I had expected to be left behind was the very same oversized zanbato. Unfortunate but realistically, it didn't exactly fit my aesthetic anyways.

I brought back the notifications that had appeared upon defeating the hidden boss.

[Congratulations! You have eliminated the Hidden Boss!]

+10 Points

+10,000 EXP

[You may select a reward from the list below! ]

Skill: Chakra Armour

Item: Buster Sword

Skill: Undying Rage

[You may now exit the dungeon!

Saying "Exit Dungeon" will allow you to leave.

Otherwise, you will automatically be removed in 60 minutes.]

[You have levelled up!]

My eyes widened from the rewards offered from defeating the hidden boss. 10 free stat points was the equivalent of levelling up twice, add that I did indeed level up twice from the EXP I received from killing the Dullahan, it meant that I received four level up worth of stat points from the hidden boss. But what made my mouth truly water was the choice of rewards.

The Buster Sword, which I assumed to be the zanbato, was a weapon I did not really care for – it was too eye catching and even if the [Myriad Armament Fiend] would automatically adjust my proficiency in handling the weapon, it was still too ostentatious and unwieldy for my taste.

So my choice naturally gravitated towards the Chakra Armour skill. Just from seeing how effective it was in prolonging the battle despite the Dullahan willingly tanking every attack aimed at its body, it made the skill very desirable.

However, my hand paused when it was just about to select the skill as my reward.

My Sharingan wasn't able to copy the Chakra Armour skill but that didn't mean I would never be able to re-create the skill. I created [Flash Step] from scratch after all. Sure I had the help of the gamer system that auto-corrected any errors or imperfections in the conception of the skill when it was created, but that would similarly apply in my efforts to re-create the chakra armour.

Furthermore, needing the chakra armour in the first place would be a testament to my failure as a shinobi. A ninja was meant to be fast, unseen and precise. The complete anti-thesis of the Dullahan that just confidently stood there taking the hits. Plus, if I had the chakra armour as an assurance of protection, I would just become complacent and be less careful than I had to be. Which was just a bad habit to have.

To be frank, I would have probably chosen the skill as my reward if not for the third option intriguing me so. What was 'Undying Rage' supposed to represent? It was something I never heard of, and certainly not a jutsu that originated from the Naruverse.

Weighing my options between something that I could potentially recreate given enough time and something entirely unknown but could possibly surpass Chakra Armour, my choice was clear.

I chose the third option and a new notification appeared.

[Undying Rage] has been added to your skill page!

[Undying Rage] (Active) LVL: 1

CP Cost: -

Prevents your HP from falling below 1 HP for 5 seconds.

The skill will automatically and can only be triggered when your HP reaches 1.

The skill does not activate if the user receives damage exceeding max HP.

So basically a skill that would prevent me from dying for five seconds. While I was glad I was able to acquire a skill that I would probably have never been able to create on my own, and an immensely useful one at that, I sincerely hoped I would never be in a situation where I had to use it.

Next, I turned to the loot orb that had been left behind by the Hidden Boss. However, unlike the previous loot orbs that I encountered which were either glowing white or green – this was had a shimmering purple hue to it. My jaw instantly dropped in the unexpected but extremely pleasant surprise.

I stood up and immediately rushed to the glowing purple orb and grabbed it, afraid it would somehow disappear if I dawdled.

[Loot gained:]

+27960 ryo

Ancient Weapon Fragment (1/6) – Unique

Soldier's Swift Boots – Rare

Soldier's Dog Tags – Rare

Soldier's Rations x10 – Uncommon

[Ancient Weapon Fragment (1/6) – Grade: Unique]

A fragment of an unknown ancient weapon. It is useless on its own but when put together with the other fragments, an ancient weapon of legendary quality will be formed.

[Soldier's Swift Boots – Grade: Rare]

A pair of exceptionally well-made combat boots that belonged to a soldier.

Durability: 50/50

DEX +5

Item skill: [Whirlwind Steps] (Active)

CP Cost: 100 per minute

Increases your movement speed by 100% when activated.

[Soldier's Dog Tags – Grade: Rare]

A necklace with two dog tags attached. The tags are built to withstand explosions, as a result they are incredibly durable.

Durability: 200/200

STR +5

VIT +5

DEX +5

[Soldier's Rations – Grade Uncommon]

A bar of densely packed carbohydrates, protein and fats. All the nutrients necessary to keep the busy soldier on the go.

Eating one will satiate hunger for 48 hours.

A weapon fragment, and one out of six at that. Initially, my first thoughts were along the lines of 'fragment? Fuck off.' But then I remembered that the [Uchiha Natural Dungeon] had six difficulties to it, from F to A rank. And if the F ranked hidden boss rewarded the first of six fragments, it would be plausible that the other hidden bosses of the remaining would also give the fragments as a reward.

A weapon created from the fragments left behind by six hidden bosses – the notion was positively tantalizing. But that also meant that the prerequisite for acquiring such a weapon would be to clear every single Hidden Boss in the [Uchiha Natural Dungeon]. However, I would not let something like that impede my goal of obtaining all six fragments of the ancient weapon and craft the end product.

I would have to be smart about it, however, as the hidden boss of the level 1, Rank F dungeon had nearly killed me more than a few times. The subsequent dungeons which had higher level limits would only be substantially more challenging and dangerous. As much as I wanted to exit the Rank F dungeon and immediately charge right into the Rank E dungeon, it would be an unbelievably foolish endeavour.

Even if I could defeat the boss, I would have no chance against the hidden boss. And since I only had one shot to clear each dungeon, I would not be able to kill the hidden boss and thus permanently lose out on the second ancient weapon fragment. Despite the fact that dungeons were incredibly lucrative both in terms of items and EXP, I would have to be patient and ensure I was thoroughly prepared and ready before diving into the next dungeon run.

Upon receiving the two Rare items, I wanted to immediately equip them but held off on it. My current footwear, which was the Rogue's Sandals were adequate, but ultimately not very useful unless I needed to be sneaky or if I was able to acquire the third of the set to achieve its set effect. The Soldier's Boots were way better with bonus stat buffs and the item skill effect, which I predicted would be absolutely staggering if [Whirlwind Steps] was amplified by [Chakra Enhancement].

However, the vanity within me refused to pair combat boots with the shorts I was currently wearing. It would be a travesty to behold and a veritable crime against fashion. Even if I was just a 9 year old child, the socialite side of me from my previous life still would not acquiesce to such a compromise.

The dog tags, on the other hand, while tacky, did not interfere with my fashion sense and could be hidden under my shirt, so I equipped it. Speaking of the clothes I was currently wearing, they were in tatters after the tough fight I just went through.

Luckily, I brought spares in my inventory which I changed into. Unfortunately, however, the Rogue's Hoodie I was wearing during the fight was nearly shredded, and a quick check at my inventory showed that it was currently hanging on by a thread with 4/30 durability. Unless I could find a tailor or seamstress to mend the hoodie that was now more an amalgamation of torn rags than jacket, I would have to leave it in the inventory indefinitely.

After changing, I sat down in a crossed legged position and started meditating. I had an hour to rest up before exiting the dungeon, which would be 20 minutes in the outside world, so I might as well take advantage of the time difference and recuperate before leaving.