Chereads / Power Leveling System / Chapter 31 - Vines of Depair

Chapter 31 - Vines of Depair

Note: I'm gonna put '[]' around the abilities, items, and everything else system-related instead of doing 'example'.

---Inside an F Rank Dungeon---

As I walked through the portal; entering the dungeon, I couldn't help but be excited. I haven't even been in this for half a week, and I already have stat donors knocking at my door! And it also seemed like there were twice as many as there were back in the village. I wouldn't even notice if it weren't for the [Energy Sense] ability, but it was already expected. No one in the village was strong enough to have multiple people under them, and all of them over level 100 at that, so it was obvious that the one who sent the people was someone living in the capital.

When I opened my eyes, once again, I was inside a cave, but this time, the musty and moldy smell was completely absent. A second later, my nostrils were attacked by a strong smell of grass. I advanced slowly but carelessly as I wanted to figure out what the smell was coming from. After walking for less than 2 minutes, I turned my head to the right and spotted a humanoid figure that had vines covering its body with flowers planted occasionally on its body. I didn't think it had eyes, but I was proven wrong almost immediately as two light green lights began glowing on its face.

SCREEE-

Instead of it attacking, it let out a screech and pointed towards me, it seemed like it was sending a signal to its friends or something. It was loud, ear-piercing, and went on for a while which started to aggravate me. But, shortly after the monster had closed its mouth, tens of footsteps could be heard in the distance. Instead of giving it a chance to do any more than it already did, I quickly cast [Hall of Flames]. The monster quickly noticed a subtle rumble beneath its feet and tried to avoid whatever was about to erupt from the ground, but it was late. Before it even got a position to jump, multiple pillars made of flames had erupted from beneath the sturdy dungeon floor.

Ghhhurggg!

The monster let out a surprised shriek as two of the pillars of flames pierced its body. One of the pillars had shot directly through its chest while the other had pierced through its left leg. Knowing that it was probably going to die, it sat there staring at the terrifying display of power that the individual before it had showcased. Shortly after, it stopped moving completely.

"The Hall of Flames ability isn't anything to scoff at, maybe because of my Cast Speed, but it erupted fairly quickly from the ground, killing that monster," I said as I admired the power that my new ability had displayed. I quickly put the ring it dropped into my inventory and prepared for the swarm of monsters that were basically just around the corner. As I readied myself, an unexpected noise was heard from behind me.

"Those assassins, they're finally here?" I said as I looked behind me. Even though I had enemies both in front of me and behind me, it wasn't anything I couldn't handle by myself. As the footsteps from both in front and behind me neared me, I ran and hid behind the wall to the left. Even though it wasn't a room, just being a wall was good enough for me. I had quickly decided to watch them fare against the incoming swarm of monsters. Well, even though I know that they would be able to deal with them without breaking the tiniest of sweats, I still wanted to cause a little trouble for them before I killed them.

I just prayed that one of them didn't have an energy-sensing ability like me. After a few seconds, both sets of footsteps had reached the corridor I was standing in previously.

"What the h*ll? Why are this many monsters all gathered here?"

"You idiot muscle head! Don't remember what dungeon this is? That kid that came in here must have horrible luck!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"All the monsters in this dungeon are a hive mind, even the boss, so if you kill one, the other monsters will be immediately alerted that there is an intruder in the dungeon. This is easily the hardest of the 5 F Rank dungeons in the capital."

"This dungeon has acquired the nickname "Vines of Despair" because of how hard of an F Rank dungeon it is."

"Oh..! That kid really has it in for himself now huh? Anyways, let's smash these pitiful creatures and get on with finding him, although I doubt he's gotten far!"

"Indeed."

Although brief, the conversation that these assassins had included important information about the dungeon, at least for me. That explains why all those monsters had managed to get here so fast because based on what I had seen earlier, this dungeon was obviously a very annoying maze with many turns and dead ends. Shortly after their conversation had ended, all the assassins assumed a battle stance, then rushed towards the monsters that immediately responded in kind. In only 10 seconds, the entire dungeon was filled with the sound of booms and crashes, and the corridor was now painted dark greenish-yellow.

"I think it's about time I make my grand appearance," I said as I was about to walk from behind the wall. Previously, I was leaning against the wall, so, as I stood up straightly, I heard a faint *click*. I quickly directed my attention towards the location that the sound came from, as soon as I looked down, I felt like I was in an episode of "Scooby-Doo". Just for a split second, I was standing mid-air! I thought about running, but even then, before I noticed, I had already started falling down the narrow hole.

"To think that I ended up in Scooby-Doo episode..." I said to myself with my arms crossed while falling. After a few seconds, I had finally landed on whatever I landed on. Also, note to self, and everyone else that's reading the thoughts in my head right now, if you're ever falling down a narrow hole, I suggest absolutely NOT crossing your arms, or standing straight up! The moment I hit the ground, which caused a loud thump, a loud *CRACK* decided to join in on the parade of unexpected occurrences.

As I looked down, I noticed that my lower legs were bent WAY too far back. immediately after I looked down, I felt the most unbearable pain in my legs ever. It was a very weird and disturbing scene seeing my legs bend back like a boomerang. Although it hurt, I didn't want to alert my enemies any more than I probably already did by screaming, so I covered my mouth. Within a few seconds, the pain only grew more and more, until finally, a notification had appeared along with the pain alleviating.

[You have taken 100 damage.]

[...]

[...]

[Legs have been successfully healed.]

"So instead of telling me anything, you decide to say something after you heal my legs!" I said to the system as if I were talking to a human. While cursing the system in my head, another notification appeared.

[Stat "Pain Resistance" has been unlocked.]

"Oh!!! I was wondering if that was an ability or a stat, but it seems my question has been answered!" I said after reading the notification. After reading multiple stat creation or unlocking notifications, I had finally grasped what the "created" and "unlocked" meant now. If the stat was created, then the stat is just created, and it may or may not be added to your status immediately. Now if the stat was "unlocked", then that means you either unlocked the recently created stat or unlocked a stat already there that just wasn't unlocked yet.

'If I pour stat points into "Pain Resistance", which I won't dump hundreds into, maybe, then I'll hardly feel any pain after receiving damage or being attacked.' I thought to myself while rubbing my legs because they still felt a little weird. After a few seconds, I quickly got up to check my surroundings.

"Human..."

"No...you're not a human..."

"Even so..."

"I require assistance..."

As I got up, I heard a spine-chilling voice from behind. And I'm not THAT easy to scare, but I ended up farting as a result of my fear. After embarrassedly farting, I slowly turned around to see what had called me. When I finally turned around, what was behind me almost caused me to faint!

It...

It was a...