"Huh?! What happened to you?!"
The Goblin Lord stood up in surprise as he saw one of his warriors enter the temple in a battered state. The warrior's body was covered with slash wounds and his armour was almost torn apart.
"Y-your Majesty... That bastard... He attacked us..."
The warrior cried out and collapsed to his knees. Blood gushed out of his wounds, staining the temple floor.
"That guy defeated all three of you?!"
"H-he had paired up with humans to lure you out, Your Majesty! But I killed him successfully and got this..."
The kneeling goblin pulled out an evil-looking sword from his bag and held it near his feet.
"I can't see it properly!"
The Goblin Lord frowned as he tried to peek at the sword hidden by the goblin's body. However...
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty! My wounds are bleeding and I can not hold the sword steadily in my hands..."
"Gah, what a pathetic fool. Give it here!"
The Goblin Lord grumbled and stood up. It then walked towards the warrior and tried to snatch the sword away.
Just then, the goblin suddenly moved at an amazing speed.
"Gah!"
Before he could even know what had happened, the Goblin Lord was pierced in his chest.
Blood gushed out of his mouth as he stepped back.
"D-damn you! H-how dare-"
"Critical hit was a success, huh! This'll make it easy, haha!"
The goblin warrior, Yurei, dashed forward. Before the Goblin Lord was able to recover from the shock, he was already in front of him.
"Die!"
Yurei swung at the monster with all his strength. The blow of an A-rank monster was something not even a boss could scoff at.
"You dare!"
The monster narrowly avoided the slash and stepped back. The blade passed in front of his nose without damaging him.
"I'm not done!"
Yurei didn't let up. He threw the rusted sword that belonged to the warrior he was possessing at the Lord.
"This can't hurt me!"
The boss monster swung his own sword and deflected the blade.
"Now I sha-"
"You fell for it."
Yurei said in a cold voice, forcing the Goblin Lord to hesitate. The warrior in front of him, who didn't have any weapons mere moments ago, now had a dark sword in his hand.
The moment the monster stopped, Yurei activated his skills.
"[Sword Dash]! [Precision Strike]!"
He disappeared and reappeared in front of the Goblin Lord, whose eyes widened in surprise.
"Gah!"
The heavy attack hit the Goblin Lord head-on. The monster didn't even have the chance to react.
At the same time, Yurei's hand holding the sword exploded from the power of the skills.
His hand disappeared from down his shoulder entirely.
However... Yurei wasn't worried.
"D-damn you..."
The Goblin Lord fell to his knees as he coughed up blood.
"Well. Thank you for making this easy."
The spirit smiled using the goblin's body. He then picked up the cursed sword from the ground and swung it. The boss monster's head was cleanly cut off. The body turned into ashes and disappeared, leaving behind some loot.
"I'll check that later... But..."
A quick check of the stat screen showed a horrific sight.
[
Name: N/A (Yurei)
Class: Goblin Warrior
Body type: Goblin (monster)
Rank: A
Level: N/A
HP: 10/5000
MP: 0
ATK: 700 / STA: 700 / DEF: 700 (magical), 700 (physical) / DEX: 700 / STR: 700
*This is not a named monster
*Only 30% of the stats will be effective due to the body being severely wounded
Skills: N/A
]
"I would have died if that attack hadn't killed the boss... Oh well, at the least, I survived. That said... Normal monsters are capped at a certain stat, huh? I thought it was only the undead ones, but..."
Yurei murmured before sighing. He would need to research and invest more time into understanding the stat system.
Currently, all the examples he had were either damaged or severely limited. He didn't know what stat number was good.
He would have to go out, possess a normal human and check their stats to compare... Which seemed to be too far in the future.
"Let's leave this body and complete the quest."
He took a deep breath and walked out of the temple with the wounded body. He then strolled towards the hill where Lily was buried. After reaching the top of the hill, he jumped down into the river. Just before he hit the surface of the water, he ascended from the goblin's body and floated back to the top.
Almost immediately after leaving the body, a barrage of notifications reached him.
[Floor boss of the fourth floor has been defeated. You have gained 40,000 XP]
[Due to the quest changes, the difficulty of the floor boss was higher than usual. You have gained an extra 10,000 XP]
[The quest {Evolution I} has been completed. You have gained 40,000 XP]
[The quest {Evolution I} completion rewards have been granted. Your level has increased by 10, while your understanding rate has increased by 20%]
[You have gained 3 items from the Fourth Floor Boss, Goblin Lord]
[New title has been unlocked: Monster Tamer]
[New function {Title} has been added to the system]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[...]
"Stats."
Yurei muttered as he descended beside the tombstone.
[
Name: Yurei
Title: Monster Tamer
Class: Vengeful Spirit
Body type: Spirit
Rank: E
Level: 95 (30.02%)
HP: 150
MP: 10,000
ATK: 0 / STA: infinite / DEF: 0 (magical), infinite (physical) / DEX: 900 / STR: 0
Unique Skills: 4
Acquired Skills: 3
Rank skills: 0
Ultimate Skills: 0
Understanding Of Body: 60%
]
"A title?"
Confused, he opened the title details.
[
Titles:
1. {Monster Tamer}
Monsters will view you with neutrality instead of hostility. Unless you trespass or attack them, they will not harm you.
*Does not work inside the dungeon
]
"Isn't this great? This would mean that I'll be able to get around without being worried about monster attacks."
Yurei smiled and removed the information from inside his head.
Then suddenly...
[A new quest has been generated!
{ Evolution II ( Class Quest/ Mandatory ) }:
Difficulty: C
Time Limit: 5 days 23 hours 59 minutes remaining
You have achieved a better understanding of your spiritual body. However, it is still not enough. To become the true incarnation of death, you have to realize the inner workings of your spirit.
Hunt down the monsters on the lower floors of the Death Flower dungeon.
Clear Conditions: Kill Kobold Warriors (0/1000); Kobold Archers (0/500), Kobold Shamans (0/20) and the Kobold Queen (0/1) on Fifth Four.
Clear Rewards: Understanding Rate + 40%; Level + 10, rank + 1
Failure Conditions: Dying / Time running out
Failure Penalty: Instant Death
*Warning, during the quest, the dungeon's difficulty from Floor Five and below will be increased by tenfold
]
"... Isn't this a system a slave driver?"
His quiet sigh disappeared into the wind as he floated towards the teleportation stone.
--------------------------------
"The third-floor monsters aren't anything special either."
Rio's sword bisected a ghoul into two as he walked forward.
"Guild Master, I really think that boy was lying. Let's just go back and hand him over to the mayor."
A woman, one of his party members, grumbled as she healed Rio.
"Don't rush to a conclusion, again. This floor is where Bayek and the others died, so perhaps we'll find some clues here."
"... Fine."
No one could deny Rio's wisdom... So even the most frustrated of the group shut up for awhile.
They soon arrived in front of the boss room only to stop and stare at the small corridor beside it.
"This... This wasn't there before, was it?"
Rio asked the group with furrowed brows as he inspected the corridor for traps.
"No... Not that I can think of."
One of the party members replied on behalf of everyone. Rio gave a short nod before stepping into the corridor. The party followed him silently without complaints this time.
They took a few turns and arrived at a small well-lit room at the end of the corridor. As soon as they stepped in, all of them covered their noses.
The smell of rotten corpses hung in the air.
"This... Is that Bayek? His head was blown off!"
A man exclaimed as he looked at the corpses leaning against the walls.
"And... Anne..."
Another woman said with tears in her eyes.
Rio glanced at the two corpses before turning his eyes to the third corpse.
"Axel Martinz... Have you really come back to haunt us?"
A quiet murmur escaped his lips as he grabbed his sword hard.