>Kestrel Ruins Guardian (Hound) has been killed<
>Experience obtained 10%<
Looking at the notification, Arthur felt both relieved and pleased.
"Their rock bodies make it harder to kill them, but their weak points can instantly kill them too. I just need to be prepared for them." Arthur muttered to himself, before looking at his experience.
"I'm already halfway through this. I should be able to hit level 7 in the ruins. After all, this is just one of the guardians." Arthur said before consuming some bread and water to replenish his stamina and HP.
If he were to fight a strong foe like that, he should be in his peak condition at all times after all. Not to mention, the way for him to fight in this condition was to be faster than the foes or be accurate with his attacks.
Only when these conditions were met would he be able to survive this quest.
"Let's continue onwards." Arthur said before picking one of the paths.
The ruins were vast and stretched on for kilometers underground. He was barely at the surface level right now and needed to reach the underground part.
Exploring the ruins was thankfully made easy with the old torches that were still hanging on the walls.
FLASH!
As soon as Arthur stepped into the dark corridor, all the torches lit up one by one magically.
If one was not used to something like this, they might have been greatly astonished or even scared. But to Arthur this was normal. He continued on before finally coming across another enemy.
>Inspect Successful<
——
Target: Kestrel Ruins Guardian (Spider)
Rank: Uncommon
Level: 6
HP: 87%
MP: 100%
——
Another ruin guardian stood or rather hung from the roof in front of him. It was also made of rocks and had green glowing eyes on its head. Though this time it was a spider instead of a Hound.
'It's actually damaged?' Arthur noticed the lowered HP.
But then he looked closer at the Spider and saw that it actually had several cracks on its body. They mostly seemed to be natural, as if a statue had been weathered due to the elements.
"Guess, this will make it easier." Arthur muttered and drew out his Black Tear Short Sword.
He skirted along the walls of the corridor, keeping to the shadows and avoiding the flickering light of the torches.
'If only I got the stealth skill, it would make things so much easier.' Arthur thought.
Even without the skill, he still managed to reach the Spider without making any sound and finally stood underneath its body.
Then with a breath, Arthur activated the Swing Boost skill and attacked the Ruin Guardian!
CRACK!
The rock spider was unable to respond in time and was skewered through the weak point on its abdomen.
[Critical Hit!]
[Fatal Hit!]
[-100% HP]
>Kestrel Ruins Guardian (Spider) has been killed<
>Experience obtained 10%<
"That's going well. Let's hope the others are like this too…" Arthur said with a hint of hope in his eyes.
He walked down the corridor, encountering more guardians, killing most of them in one attack. Only two were such that Arthur had to struggle a bit, but he still managed to kill them.
Arthur looked at this experience that had accumulated enough to reach the next level.
>Player Arzhur has leveled up!<
>Five Free Stat Points have been granted!<
>Player Status<
——
Name: Arzhur
Level: 7
Class: None
Title: None
***
HP: 100%
MP: 100%
Stamina: 90%
Hunger: 90%
Experience: 12%
***
Strength: 6 -> 7
Toughness: 6 -> 7
Agility: 5 -> 7
Dexterity: 4 -> 5
Vitality: 4
Wisdom: 2
Intelligence: 2
Will: 4
——
Arthur chose to raise his Strength, toughness by one point, while raising his Agility by two. He had seen the lack of his speed becoming a disadvantage in his battle against the enemies that were faster than him.
Since he was going for stronger enemies, he might not be able to overcome them with strength, but he needed to be faster than them. That would allow him to dodge their attacks, allowing him to stay alive too.
With the level up, he was now a lot more confident in progressing. It took Arthur nearly three hours before he finally reached the lower level of the ruins.
"That certainly doesn't seem to be good…" Arthur muttered as he looked at the large gate that blocked his way.
While it looked like there was no way to proceed, there was one in fact.
"It should be right around here…" Arthur crouched and looked at the lower parts of the gate.
After a minute of search he finally found a way in.
"Here!" Arthur touched a section of the gate that seemed to be normal, but once he pushed it a bit, it moved.
THUD!
A section of the stone gate fell backwards, allowing Arthur to continued onwards.
"The ruins are certainly falling apart. Hopefully they don't fall on me." Arthur said before crawling through the small opening that was only enough for him to wiggle through.
Standing up and patting the rough dust off his hands, Arthur looked at the new section of the ruins that were different than the ones above.
"Whoa…" Arthur looked at the runes that glowed on the walls, illuminating the path brightly.
There were no torches here, but there wasn't a need for them either way. But that wasn't all, Arthur could feel a palpable energy within the very air.
"Magic, there's no doubt about it…" Arthur muttered.
While he had no magic spells, being a player he still had mana. Not to mention, his non-physical stats still allowed him to sense the magic in the air, as long as it was strong enough.
"With this much magic, this place could have been a great conduit… Worthy of what hides within it…" Arthur muttered before going further in.
This time his journey was short as he soon reached the end of the path, coming upon an altar.
The altar was unlike anything and was covered with red runes, that looked sinister.