5 Chapter 5: Getting Good
I appeared back inside the dungeon. But the moment my feet met the cracked pavement I did not give myself even a moment of reprieve. I was here on a mission.
The tutorial ends in one day. I have a single day before I have to meet the devils. I need to get stronger by then.
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[New Quest: The Art of Throwing Hands.]
Having a weapon may be good and all but there is just one truth. Everyone is born with a weapon in their hands. It's time to hone yours. Because the only weapon you will always have is your hands.
Condition: Defeat 50 enemies in hand-to-hand combat.
Reward: Taijutsu(Novice), +5 Str
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[New Quest: Now THIS is a knoife.]
You ave a good knoife in ya hands.
Too bad ya don't kno how ta use it.
Thankfully, there are plenty of volunteers around you that are willing to get Knoifed.
Learn which end of the sharp stick you are supposed to stick to your enemy.
Reward: Kenjutsu(Novice), +5 Agi
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Great, this game really knows how to spoil its player. Whelp, this may delay my clearing of this dungeon but it will be well worth the rewards.
I activated my Cursed Energy as I coated my whole body with it. Creating a cloak of cursed energy around myself. I couldn't maintain it for long but that's why I have CE regeneration.
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[You have acquired the skill: Cursed Energy Enhancement]
Cost: 10CE/s
You can use cursed energy to cover your entire body. Reinforcing your entire body and boosting all physical stats.
Adds (Int + Wis)/ 20 to all physical stats
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That was a little bad as a starting point but I could work with it. I sent my Tozama back into my inventory and started dashing like a madman toward the first zombie I found.
It tried lunging at me but I sidestepped it and elbowed the back of its head. Nearly popping it like a balloon. The inherent destructive capacity of Cursed Energy alongside enhancement makes these zombies feel like they are paper mache. It only added around 5 to my physical stats but that was a big difference at this stage.
I dashed to the nearest zombie once again. And once again defeated them with one punch. Knowing that the paltry exp that the zombies gave me wouldn't really be enough to level up at the pace I wanted I dashed back to the boss arena.
Any enemies I saw I either broke the spine of or dashed past. Eventually, I came across the big guy himself once again. But with me tripling his agility I quickly outmaneuvered behind and kicked the back of his neck full force. And with cursed energy behind that kick, it killed him just like that with the critical hit.
[You have slain Zombie Brute(Boss) +200exp]
Immediately I headed toward the greenish portal that appeared and went through it. And I appeared at another street that was slightly more dilapidated than the one before. I could see cracks on buildings and weeds growing on the road.
After getting out of the "safe zone" which consisted of a part of the street that zombies weren't in I was greeted by another zombie. It wasnt much different than its predecessor. Neither were its stats, just a tiny improvement so I went up to it and punched its head off.
I went past the corpse but as I went into an alleyway I saw something.
The most stereotypical rpg chest I have ever seen was tucked at the end of the alleyway. But disregarding how typical the chest looked my neurons were activated the moment I saw the chest.
I dashed over and opened it immediately, and was immediately met with a face full of poisonous fog.
[You have triggered a trap!]
[You have been poisoned.]
But at least the face full of irritating and painful burning poison gas wasn't for nothing as I still got the item inside.
[ You have found {Poisonous Daggger} ]
Of course, the chest seemed like it was just for the visuals as the item was inserted into my inventory the moment I opened the chest. As for the poison gas, I quickly dashed out the moment it was released so I only got poisoned for 3 painful seconds.
The dagger was nothing impressive, just an iron dagger that was enchanted with an enchantment that gave it the ability to have a chance to inflict weak poison on enemies when attacking. I am not very fond of using daggers and even if I was Tozama was way better at both cutting and durability.
After the poison passed I gave myself a moment to recover my CE and HP before resuming throwing hands with any unfortunate zombie that crossed my path. The second floor was not much different than the first. Just slightly denser groups of enemies.
Well, that was before I encountered a bloater.
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[ Bloater LV - 4 ]
HP: 400
Vit: 20
Str: 15
Agi: 10
End: 15
A zombie that is engorged with poison. It can spit out poison from its mouth and is remarkably durable.
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These fatsoes were incredibly annoying to deal with, while they weren't common per se. They weren't rare either, often hiding behind weaker grunts so that they could spit their poison at me more easily. But with my Cursed Energy enhancement and speed, I can circle around the horde quickly before beheading them with Tozama.
I also found another chest, this time it wasnt booby-trapped. And found [Black Leather Gloves] that boosted my poison resistance by 10%. As for the floor boss, it was just a bigger bloater with inflated stats. I managed to quickly dash to its ankles and chop them up before scrambling its skull with Tozama.
By this time I was nearly done with the quest. Only missing 2 for the taijutsu quest and 8 for the kenjutsu quest. I had also leveled up once more, getting to level 13 and halfway to 14.
[F3]
The zombies had gotten an upgrade, their stats now went up to 11 and gave 30 exp. And alongside bloaters, there were now brutes that had fewer stats than the F1 boss but still posed a challenge when in a group. I got my fair share of injuries when encountering a group.
But now I had completed the quests.
[Quest Complete: The Art of Throwing Hands.]
Rewards:
+5 Str
+Taijutsu(Novice)
[Quest Complete: Now THIS is a knoife . ]
Rewards:
+5 Agi
+Kenjutsu(Novice)
And the difference was noticeable. As soon as I got the skills I felt the information get engraved into my mind so seamlessly that it was like a part of me that I had lost. Like I suddenly gained muscle memory of it.
I suddenly knew how to wield the blade in my hands. How to swing it effectively and where to target better, the flaws in how I wielded it previously. It was like months of muscle memory got downloaded to my brain.
But now that I had acquired those skills it was time to grind the SINGULAR SPELL that I have. Cursed flames. It is actually decently powerful. Being able to take down a weaker zombie with a single shot. With slight aoe and decent range, it was a very good spell. The only caveat of it is the high CE cost. With my CE I can only cast it around 3 to 4 times before my CE bottoms out.
And running out CE REALLY does not feel good. I dont know if it is because of the connection between cursed energy and the brain but gives you a feeling of emptiness and headache as well as a burning sensation.
As it levels up, so does its cost. It is a powerful but costly spell. But it also has opened me a new way to deal with enemies.
As I was thinning out the zombie population of this street I suddenly saw a sight I didn't want to.
Hundreds of zombies. As in the LITERAL hundreds.
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[ Zombie Horde - LV 20 (Elite) ]
10 Vit
10 Str
8 Agi
10 End
Around a hundred zombies have gotten tired of being butchered and have unionized.
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Can I take this on? They may be incredibly weaker than me but the number advantage is not insignificant. I don't have infinite stamina and they can pile up on me.
Whatever, this isn't a boss battle so I can run at any time. Plus an elite enemy should have much better drops. Taking out Tozama I got into a combat stance and waited for the zombies to approach me.
The moment the wave of undead reached me I activated CE enhancement and slashed toward the horde. Beheading 3 and wounding 3. Cursed energy, while making my attacks much stronger also gives them a slight aoe effect with the trail of energy.
Holding one hand in front of me with a foot braced behind my back I slashed out with the knife. Gutting any of the undead that came close. But I was eventually circled as the undead started piling up on me.
At grappling distance, instead of using Tozama, I opted for some good old CQC. Being down I dropped an enhanced elbow on a zombies head and splattered it. Seeing one latched onto my leg I enhanced it even further with CE before swinging that leg and pushing back several zombies along with the latched on my leg.
Putting my foot back down I carried over the momentum and punched a zombie's head off before turning it into an elbow into another zombie, then twisting my body and releasing a turning kick, pushing even more away and giving me breathing room.
I backhanded a zombie approaching from behind before delivering a devastating hook kick to its sternum, the weight of the blow transferring to the ones behind him.
But I was running out of steam quickly
I had only killed around 30 before my CE started tipping down to 20%. But then a revelation visited me.
Why did I have to fight them head-on? My favorite thing in games was finding and using exploits after all.
Why would you spend so much effort grinding against a boss that you can't win against when you can just stand outside a specific spot of his arena and pelt god with wooden arrows until he dies?
My eyes darted around the terrain before I found it.
So, I pushed the undead away and using my superior agility climbed up a building and started chucking cursed fireballs down.
And it worked.
So, I just sat there, chucking cursed fireballs down whenever my CE recovered enough for me to do so. It was very anticlimactic but it gave me a chance to look at the notification I had received.
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[Intelligence has reached 50! You have acquired the perk: Spellcaster]
[Spellcaster]
+10% damage to all spells.
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Huh, so I can get perks that way too huh? Good to know. and 10 percent was a substantial boost too so that was even better. Before long, due to me chugging mp(which strangely recovers CE too) potions like water and spamming fiery armageddon down the horde died down rather quickly. Giving me a gacha token in exchange.
After those were done with I hopped down from my perch and waited for a few minutes to top off before looking for the floor boss. And I found him rather easily, he must've been attracted by the noise.
But the moment I saw the boss for this floor I felt like I had a Vietnam flashback.
'You couldn't have been more original game?'
In front of me was a very skinny... thing. I could basically see its skeleton, it only wore some ragged suit pants. But that wasnt the distinct feature. It was the fact that it was missing half of its damn head. And seeing its bigass ears it must really on sound to maneuver. But...
'Isn't this guy from a goddam thriller webtoon?'
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[Blind Ghoul - Lv. 15(Boss)]
40 Vit
50 Str
60 Agi
10 End
An evolved ghoul with immense lethal prowess and little to no defense. It may not be able to see by its enhanced hearing makes up for the deficit.
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But it is either that the game had decided to throw me a bone or I got incredibly lucky because from what I remember these guys are VERY vulnerable to flame. And judging by the fact that the feller hadn't moved for an entire minute since I came here his senses must SUCK.
So I calmly raised my hand and cast [Cursed Flames] and a basketball-sized ball of intense cursed flame was created and shot out from my hand. But as the ball of flame was heading toward it, it heard me casting my spell and raised one of its root-like arms.
*WOOOSH!!!* *Crack*
I jumped to the side just in time to avoid the root-like arm of it turning into a spike and shooting out at the speed of a bullet. Narrowly avoiding getting impaled by the monster before I remembered what its ability was and hurriedly channeled my cursed energy throughout my body as I raised my arms in an x form.
Right on cue, the spot where its tentacle arm pierced exploded into dozens of sharp tendrils extending from it and piercing my body in several spots. They dug in deep even with my cursed energy up, a testament to how sharp and powerful its tendrils are, but the monster wasnt the smartest apple of the bunch as soon my slow-ass gravity-obeying fireball reached its face.
*BOOOOM!!!*
"GYAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" The monster let out an agonized scream as the powerful ball of flame that cost me most of my CE bar exploded right in its face, and seeing how it was covered by green flames it must be inflicted with cursed flames. I can see how its hp plummeted as the fireball itself took out around half and it was still losing 5% every second from its weakness to flame.
It better be, that attack was overloaded with my CE, I had figured out that I can overcharge my spells for more power at less efficiency which was nice. The overcharge rate seemed dependent on the skill level too.
Honestly, I nearly pitied the blind monster with how fucked it was by the flames. What should've been a climactic and suspenseful boss got oneshot. Almost being the operative word though. I much my bosses being one-shot than barely eeking out a win.
Hopefully, this pattern would continue.
Authors note: Your comments and interactions helps motivate me so please write what you thought about the chapter in the comments. I am open to suggestions to help improve my fics.
Also, if anyone has interesting ideas for the random gatcha I will be glad to include those ideas if I like them. You can also recommend characters for the occasional companion card mc may pull from the gatcha.
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