Ch 79 – Dungeon Diving

"Thank you for joining the Adventurer's Guild, Lute-san," the girl over the counter said, her busty breast jumping up and down after bowing her head which caught the attention of many adventurers in the surrounding area, their faces turning a hint of red as Lute also bowed his head.

"Thank you, Katheryne-san," Lute said, grabbing the card from the Guild Attendant named Katheryne with short brown hair, brown eyes, having a curvy body covered in a black and white dress that emphasizes her curves.

As Braun glances at his adventurer's card, he started to read the details.

'My name is Lute. An F Rank Mage and E Rank Fighter which is quite rare, though my Mage Rank would soon outclass my fighter rank in the future, which would be a good transition to solidify this identity's position for the plan later.' Braun thought, calmly pocketing his card while feeling the two remaining gold coins in his left pocket.

Passing by a mirror, Braun took a swift glance at the new equipment he recently brought from the Mages Guild with his meager amount of money.

'A defensive white cloak that can protect me from weapons like a piece of armor, though it was quite expensive, it can ensure my "safety". A Magical Dagger with high sharpness and doesn't cause pain to those attacked, which is a nice cover for my sacrificial magic. And three spells, [Blood Knife], [Blood Arrow], and the mana spell [Haste].' Braun thought, nodding his head as he put the hood of his new white cloak over his head.

Continuing to walk forward, Braun silently listened to the adventurers around him, and the citizens once he was outside, until he stopped right in front of a bustling part of the kingdom where groups of adventurers could be seen standing in front of a certain blue portal that exudes a pressure to those who are nearby it.

'A Dungeon, a natural construct of the world where monsters and natural treasures could be found. From rare plants, magical equipment, and ores with high value, each dungeon will bring wealth to those who entered it, if they can survive that is. One of the reasons kingdoms are able to prosper as such is due to two major parts, adventurers who bring the money, and Dungeons that bring the materials. If one can conquer and consequently "own" the dungeon, then they would own untold wealth. If I successfully finish a dungeon, I can sell the things I gained directly to the kingdom for a fat load of cash, though the hard part would be successfully entering it on my own without a team, though that would be easy to solve.' Braun thought, walking forward as his face started to morph.

As he walks forward, many adventurers were bumped by him which naturally caused them to be slightly angry, but as they looked back and saw his face, their faces became stunned and went to blush slightly, unable to believe that a beauty such as Lute bumped into them.

Yes, Lute was currently exuding charisma like a flood, coupled with his masterful understanding of the human psyche, biology, and such, he was able to cut in line without any problem. Now there was only one thing that stands against him.

"Hello there, Lute-san, are you sure you want to enter this on your own? You might want to join a team if you want to put your chances of living go higher-"

"I promise I can do it, Guard-san," Lute leaned forward and whispered to the man guarding the dungeon gate's ear out of nowhere, his right hand swiftly tapping at a certain part of the man's neck discretely which caused his eyes to glow slightly dimmer, not even the people around him noticed his actions.

"Yes, Lute-san," the man said, sliding out of Lute's way as Lute nods his head in appreciation.

Without further ado, Lute stood in front of the blue portal, his white cloak, white shirt, and black pants slightly swayed with the air pressure coming from the portal as his eyes tried to analyze the secrets of the portal.

'Unfortunately, I'm still too weak for this.' Lute thought, walking forwards with a calm heart and passing through the blue portal without even blinking.

As a woosh sound was heard, Braun suddenly found himself inside the E Rank Dungeon: Goblin Forest.

Monsters are divided into 8 Ranks, from F to Z. F being the weakest such as slimes or horned rabbits, and Z being the strongest like Ancient Dragons.

At the lower ranks, a normal human can even kill a slime or a horned rabbit, even a goblin or a boar without the help of mana. But in the later stages, a group of S Rank adventurers would be needed to take down even a single dragon. The higher the stages, the more powerful a monster become compared to a human of the same rank. Though it couldn't be said to be the same for other races, the general rank the turning point appeared is Rank C, and the most famous example would be the orcs, where a single one of them may take more than a single Rank C adventurer to take down.

Taking in a deep breath, Lute looks around the lush forest around him with intrigued eyes, the slight swaying of wind was strong enough to form a clear image in his mind using echolocation and he could already sense some goblins far away from him.

"Whew, I haven't tested out this magic business so this would be my first time using it." Lute groaned, taking out the magical knife from the sheathe prep on his waist, and felt his soul instantly connecting to the outside world through the knife.

'To cast a spell, three things are required. Visualization, Calculation, and Incantation. Visualization and Calculation are used to determine the effect of the spell, the bullet it you will. Incantation, on the other hand, is the trigger for the spell. The incantation itself can be changed to the user's whim but many will generally go by the incantation written on the steps given as a sort of mental support, a crutch.' Lute thought, opening his mouth and prepping his knife over his left palm.

"Spirit of the world, accept my sacrifice and grant me strength, [Blood Knife]." Lute chanted, his voice seemingly warping the world around him as he slit open his left palm, the blood then started to gather once he closes his left palm and a bloody red knife started to form. The feeling was a mixture of solid and liquid, the handle of the blood knife was strong enough that he can hold it without worry, unlike liquid which will just slip through his grasp.

'Hmm, considering I only have 35% of my soul as mana storage and I only have F Rank Mana, and a blood knife takes 10% to form, then I can only make 3 Blood Knife in total. Hmm, my mana regeneration truly is quite slow.' Lute thought, his eyes gleaming for a split second as the secrets of spell casting slowly got revealed to him.

Without further ado, Lute started to walk forward and remembered the task of this dungeon.

'Kill the Boss Goblin.' Lute thought, his eyes darting around, and saw the three goblins in front of him hiding behind bushes. The trees around him might be disadvantageous for him but Braun plans to finish this encounter swiftly.

"Spirit of the world, accept my sacrifice and grant me strength, [Blood Arrow]." Lute chanted, his mana depleting by a considerable amount within a split second.

With a whishing sound, the Blood Arrow manifested right beside him flying in midair and shooting forward at rapid speeds, the arrow instantly puncturing the head of the goblin hiding in the middle as the heads of the two goblins pop out of the bush in shock.

'Bingo.' Lute thought, his body instantly appearing behind the two and swinging both of his arms forwards, the two knives, one made of blood while the other made of metal simultaneously pierced through the ugly green heads of the two goblins, killing them instantly without damaging himself.

Plunging both knives out of the two goblins, Lute dispelled the Blood Knife and look down at the three goblins on the ground in front of him with interested eyes.

'Huh, an actual fantasy goblin. How intriguing.' Lute thought, he then crouches down and grabs two goblins by the head. The sound of his fingers sinking down on goblin flesh appeared like grotesque sounds and Braun closed his eyes.

Soon, his hands started to morph mysteriously, and the body of the goblins started to dry up like their body was being drained of blood, flesh, and even bones. Within mere seconds, the two goblins turned into a sack of skin with nothing inside, a hollow husk of their previous bodies.

'Delish.' Lute thought, grabbing the remaining goblin and devouring it once more like the last two, his hands seemingly holding new abilities, the effects of removing his limiter was already showing plentiful benefits for Braun.

(A Few Minutes Later)

"Accept my sacrifice and grant me strength, [Blood Arrow]," Lute muttered, his chant mysteriously now shorter compared to before while five Blood Arrows appeared behind him, each shooting forward and accurately hitting the foreheads of the five goblins in front of him tens of meters away.

(A Few More Minutes Later)

"[Blood Arrow]," Lute muttered, five more blood arrows appeared right behind him and hit a group of goblins in front of him, his originally long chant now shortened to mere two words in less than an hour.

In this world, incantations can be shortened depending on the spell caster's mastery over the spell, and if Braun managed to achieve this in less than an hour, then his talent must be something terrifying.

'Hmm, I already plan to have Lute as my Mind, now that only leaves me with Body and Soul… hmm?' Lute thought, his eyebrows raised in confusion as it seems like he noticed something was wrong while his two hands were feasting on a pair of goblin corpses.

'Something is wrong here.' Braun thought, his brows furrowed and he crouches down on the ground with analytical eyes.

'I got it!' Braun thought, standing up and hastily closing his eyes and his mind went to his soul, the previously dark gray soul a bit lighter compared to before, which was impossible considering one's talent was determined since birth, there was no way to raise the purity of the soul.

'So it was indeed like I thought, Lute, you little bug. Sigh, who would have thought his last will influenced my mind and soul to keep his name.' Braun thought, shaking his head as he snuffs the last will of Lute from his soul, extinguishing the last existence of Lute from this very world.

"ROAR!" a monstrous scream then suddenly appeared out of nowhere beside Braun and he opened his now calmer eyes with tranquility within them.

'So you're finally here.' Lute thought, his body swaying to the left and barely dodging the wooden spear that appeared out of nowhere that shot at his head.

'The Boss Goblin.' Lute thought, his body darting away to analyze the Boss Goblin in front of him.

With a body much larger than normal goblins, having a muscular body compared to the scrawny builds of most goblins, and wielding a wooden spear in its right arm. Its eyes stared at him with maddening rage, angry that Lute killed its kin.

"[Haste]." Lute finally casts his third spell, a mana spell.

In this world, Mana Spells are considered special spells considering any mage of any attribute can cast them. A famous example is the Haste spell Lute just casted. Mana Spells hold many special properties, like short chants, easy mastery, etc., but the most important of all was that its strength is dependent on the mana fueled for the spell, if an S Rank mage were to cast Haste, then it would be many magnitudes higher compared to a Haste casted by an F Rank mage.

As his body disappeared from the Boss Goblin's view, Lute appeared directly behind the Boss Goblin and plunge his arm straight to its heart without hesitation. The nutrients composing the Boss Goblin were then hastily absorbed by Lute while the mana around the dungeon swirled in front of him, forming the blue portal like the entrance from before as Lute felt his strength rising, his physical attributes although strong, were far from what he has in mind for Body, so that only leaves the next possible conclusion.

'The next persona would be for Soul.'

AN: This is 2125 words, you're welcome.

There weren't suppose to be dungeons in my original worldbuilding for Cheat Slayer before but then I saw "Dungeon Creation" in one panel from the manga so yeah, we now have dungeons.

Writing made my max WPM 110 words per minute, so send me some powerstones.

(July 7, 2022 – 225th day of writing)