Episode 1 - Unlucky Chance
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The hallway was quite dim despite having countless blue flame torches along the way. More importantly, I've been walking for a few minutes now and still haven't encountered any monsters. Have I mistook the labyrinth genre? All my life, I've never played labyrinth type RPG before, only the open world ones.
Or could it be that, instead of a PvE, it's a PvP game...? If that's the case, then the class descriptions would've made sense seeing how they were described in warlike situations. But that couldn't have been it, right...?
As I was busy thinking about the game type, I heard a weird noise somewhere. Something like...a pig? No, probably a boar?
I unsheathed my sword and stood close to the entrance of a hallway to my left. When I tried to peek inside, all I could see was a boar rushing here.
"Wha, wait..! Gah!"
I panicked and took a step back as I tried to swing my sword when the boar had already drifted towards me. I quickly tried to stabilize my balance and prepared my sword again but accidentally missed a step causing a fall on the butt.
"Ack, that hurts..." I muttered. Opening my eyes again, the boar was already preparing its second charge. I was able to reach my sword but the boar reached me first, of course, causing me to fly back and slammed my back onto the hard floor. A bar appeared in the top left corner of my sight, decreasing to four-fifth. Definitely my health points. I immediately reached out for my sword and stood back up.
"Calm down...pretend this is one of those virtual shooting games in arcades, but sword version."
Gulping down my saliva, I waited for the boar to charge at me and try to time my swing on its head.
SLASH!
The hit connected, though it didn't hit the place I was aiming for. Told you, my aim sucks, even as swordsman.
The health bar of the boar appeared in my vision, about one-third of it had decreased. So health bars only appear in your vision once it decreased, huh? Noted.
I slid behind the boar and raised my sword above my head, preparing a fatal attack. The better part is, the boar turned towards me just when I swung the sword down, giving it a crit damage on its head and killing it at once.
Just as the boar fell to the floor, it dispersed into black smoke and replace the corpse with some items. I carefully reached out for the items laying on the floor and a screen appeared in my vision as my finger touched them.
[Coin - Type : Currency]
The currency of this world used for many purposes. Currently possessed: 67
[Poisonous Fang - Type : Equipment (Dagger)]
A dagger made from the fang of the boar on the first floor. Weapon effects: Attack +7, Poisoning Chance +5%
Useless items. Well, the coins aren't exactly useless but for now it is because I still haven't figure out this game's mechanism.
I tried equipping the dagger and it says my class is unable to equip it. As I thought, useless. I checked my sword's stats just in case however. Though I know I shouldn't expect much from a beginner's item.
[Novice Sword - Type : Weapon (Sword)]
A sword for beginner, nothing special. Weapon effects: Attack +2
...that's five points difference. I knew I should've chosen assassin class, damn it. I released a heavy sigh and stored the items before continuing along the hallway.
There wasn't anything much on interest, other than two or three treasure chests I found along. The chests doesn't even contain much, since this is only the first floor.
I got to figure the system a bit, like status screens, inventory and some bit more. I've decided to make some time on exploring the system later but not right now.
And so this how my inventory is looking like for now;
[Coins - Currency (7037)]
[Boar Meat - Food (1)]
[Boar Skin - Material (14)]
[Poisonous Fang - Equipment (Dagger) (1)]
[Coarse Fang - Material (19)]
[Boar Skull Shield - Equipment (Shield) (1)]
[Instant Heal - Skill Book (1)]
[Fire Slash - Skill Book (1)]
[Rusty Staff - Equipment (Staff) (1)]
Standing in front of a big door I assume leading to the boss room of this floor, I took my time using all the the skill books to learn the skills. I tried exploring the system a bit on any way to make myself stronger but there wasn't anything.
"Profile," I whispered as a holo screen appeared.
[Profile Screen]
Name: Jungmin Level: 7
Class: Swordsman Title: None
Strength: 17
Vitality: 11
Agility: 14
Stat Points: 0
Apparently, the starting stats is 10 and everytime I leveled up, I get two stat points which I can use to increase my stats. The more details button lead to deeper stat analysis like average damage, crit chance, crit damage and many more. Also, in this game I won't unlock skills by actions like in some games I've played. I'll only get them from skill books, which can be found as dropped items or sold by skill merchants (which I don't know about) and stat bonus. For example, if my strength stat exceed 30, I'll get some kinda buff skill like berserk or something.
Of course, I found these informations from the help screen, which I never knew existed before. But, if I have to comment on the help screen, I'd say it's not very helpful as it's still incomplete. Either because this game is only in the testing stage and so the help writer is doing their best or the development team is telling the players to figure things out themselves.
Closing all screens, I inhaled and exhaled a few times as to calm my nerves. No matter how strong the boss is, I could probably beat it.
I tried waiting for the boars to respawn in order to farm levels but after waiting for about half an hour with no sign of monster respawning, I proceed with the assumption that monsters in this game won't respawn, unless it has some kinda special requirements that I don't know about.
I've tried my best to try finding as much information as I could so I think I should be fine. Not to brag but I'm strong enough for this floor to the point that the last few boars I slained died with only one or two hits. So yeah, I can beat the boss for sure.
Carefully, I reached my hands out onto the carved double doors and slowly pushed it open. According to a part of the help screen, the carving on the boss room doors incude some clues on what boss behind the door is so based on the carvings, I'm assuming the boss is just a normal oversized boar with extra big tusks.
When the double doors fully opened, the first thing entering my mind is, 'as I thought, it's an overgrown boar.' And it seems ready to charge at me.
I unsheathed my sword as fast I could and run towards it and slid to the right just before we crash into each other. Preparing a counterattack on the boar, I activated my skill and chased after it.
[Skill 'Fire Slash Level 1' activated.]
Fire damage increased by 10%
As soon as I activated the skill, I felt intense heat in my grip that almost make me throw the sword away but I was able to hold onto it and swung it at the overgrown boar as powerful as I could manage.
Immediately after the hit connected, the health bar of the boar appeared in my vision, only a fourth of it was decreased. I crouched and rolled under the boar while pulling my sword across its abdomen which took a third of its leftover HP. Just a bit under half left.
Just when I was about to count on the attack chains specialty, the boar used its tusk to thump my head. That was when a familiar circling star icon appeared beside my health bar; the stunned status effect. And it showed a number which decreases overtime so I assume it's the duration.
The boar prepared to rush at me and when the stun effect went away, it charged its way into my abdomen right that second as if it knows how long the status effect last. I was sent flying to the wall opposite the double door I entered from with only a bit over one-fourth of my health left.
I was wondering what would happen if I die in this game because the information wasn't included in the help screen but now's not the time to test that.
[Skill 'Instant Heal Level 1' activated.]
10% of lost HP has been recovered.
It's not much but at least it could get me away from death for now. I ran straight towards my sword and picked it up while keeping up my speed to charge the boar. Of course, the boar is preparing another charge at me. The attack pattern is quite dull, just charging at the enemy and when it's in danger, it uses the tusks to stun and then charge right into.
Baring that info in mind, I hold the sword backwards like how I'd hold a dagger and slid under the boar once again, stabbing its mouth and cutting it open. That hit was good enough to be a fatal attack and the boar slowly fell to the side and dispersed into black smoke. I sheathed my sword and picked up the items left behind
[Giant Tusk - Type : Material]
A big tusk from an oversized boar on the first floor. Usually used as crafting material.
[Resenting Eyeball - Type : Material]
The eyeball of the big boar that has lost its shine. Usually used for magic spells.
[Coin - Type : Currency]
The currency of this world used for many purposes. Currently possessed: 7210
[2nd Floor Teleportal - Type : Key]
The key to head to the second floor.
I heaved a sigh and sit on the floor while holding the last item. I wondered how many floors there will be as I stared at the ceiling. At first I thought I could just rest in this room until I got logged out but that just feels wrong I guess.
I closed my eyes and smiled slightly.
"Eh, well be damned." I muttered as I stood back up and activated the crystal teleportal. I thought a portal would appear but instead, my sight became blurred and I feel my weight as light as feather.
Then my vision blackened.
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Infinite Level Labyrinth (Remastered)
Chapter 1
-End-
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