As we arrived back to the house, we planned out our expeditions. We decided to create a schedule, for dungeon diving so we do not lose ourselves in pursuit of power, and preserve our semblance of normalcy.
We both entered the Dungeons, however this time I chose the Normal Difficulty. I would not have a problem with the groups, since I would kill them all with my flying sword from a safe distance. I was in a much larger cave now, and the familiar messages floated before me.
[Monsters will spawn in 10 seconds.]
[9]
...
[1]
I saw six lights begin to form in front of me already. It seemed that I would have a fight right from the beginning. My sword floated towards the ceiling, and I stood with my shield ready. The goblins finished spawning, and the six of them turned to me. One Goblin was slightly taller than the other five, and I knew this had to have been the leader.
Without the chance to give out a single order, a sword plummeted straight into his skull from above. Without giving the goblins a chance to react, the sword pulled itself from the leader, and spun in a circle. It hit four of the goblins in the backs, leaving deep gashes that bled heavily. I ran forward and slammed the uninjured one with my shield, knocking it to the ground. The sword then flew to my hand, and I swung it down on the Goblin trying to scramble to its feet. It's head rolled on the floor, and I let go of my sword to let it finish off the other four that were injured.
I went to find the next group of goblins.
[Horned Rabbit Valley Dungeon Ticket obtained.]
It seems I can go to different dungeons, however I didn't know what that really changed for me. Either way, I had cleared out the dungeon and the ticket was the only drop worth value. The rest were things to Dismantle.
Once I came out of the dungeon, I selected the Normal Difficulty again. Hoping back in, I started hunting again. I had begun to wish their was a way to see how close I was to levelling up, but there was no such way. I walked through the Dungeons while practicing my [Mana Sense] skill. I was focusing on trying to perceive my environment.
So I spread out my mana from my body, while sucking in the mana from the environment, and spreading that mana out too. Repeating this cycle, I began to vaguely sense the ripples when my mana interacted with an object. The distance was no more than a few inches away from my body, but I kept trying at it.
My loot kept piling up and up, and eventually I had gotten a lot of items. I binded with a new (Blue) sword.
[Flesh Ripper (Blue)]
[Sword]
The jagged edges cause the [Bleeding] status effect when attacking an enemy. The damage of the effect will scale with the user's strength.
It was a (Blue) sword that had an additional status effect. It had these serrated edges that would rip the flesh if moved in a sawing motion. The edges would get caught on the skin, and pull it apart. Leaving a wound that was not a clean cut, which meant it would leave a much more grisly wound to deal with.
As I looked over my loot, I noticed several items called pills, and they could all increase your stats by 0.1 each time you took it. It was effective until someone reached 5 in a stat, which mean someone had to take 50 of a single type of pill before it was no long effective. This would make most think that it wasn't as important, however I knew otherwise.
When I had hit 5 points in my Intellect, I received a skill. I could infer that whenever a stat reached 5 points, you would receive some sort of passive skill. It might be the same for everyone, it might be different, either way it was a free skill. So I took all of the pills, and sold them on the Shop. I would use them, but I wanted to save my gold for skills instead.
They sold very quickly, and I was now sitting with over 40,000 gold. I bought a skillbook that I had seen.
[Study Session (Grey)(Evolving)(Passive)]
When you study, or perform mental exercises, your brain will grow the same as muscles. You will be able to increase your Intellect by using your brain.
I then bought another skill I thought would pair well.
[Concentration (Grey)(Passive)]
You are able to enter states of deep concentration easier.
It was a vague skill, but being able to enter deep concentration would put more strain on my mind, which paired with my skill [Study Session] I would be able to grow my Intellect. I began to look at the group of goblins that were being killed in front of me. As they died I continued to reroll their drops, until the final one dropped something interesting.
[Bamboo Sword Sheath (Blue)(Evolving) has been obtained.]
An Evolving item! I didn't know that was possible, but it's nice to know now. I inspected the item, wondering about its effects.
[Bamboo Sword Sheath (Blue)(Evolving)]
This sword Sheath is made of bamboo, a highly flexible material that can be durable when needed. Much like a swordsman should be. Users will be able to bind a sword to this Sheath, which will increase the sword's cutting ability as long as it is bound to the sheath. Swords can be unbound from the sheath at anytime.
It was a good item for me. It would allow me to challenge the Hard difficulty Dungeon, since I wouldn't have to worry about not being able to kill something. I had many things I lacked however, and I needed to become more well rounded. I was severely lacking in defense, and I had no mobility. I was a glass cannon, as they were referred to in video games. I had immense attacking ability, but one hit and I was dead. The shield would do nothing for me against magic, and if archers were positioned correctly I would not be able to evade their combined fire.
As I was thinking, I was transported back to my house, where I saw Hailey sitting and waiting for me. She was once again, covered in blood, however she put on such a bright smile when she saw me that I was blind to the blood.
"I'm hungry, let's eat." she said simply.
I chuckled and headed to the kitchen. We had realized that meat was the best way to refill our stomachs, so I had prepared steaks for us. I began to grill the steaks, and we talked about what happened for us. We had both challenged the Normal Difficulty. Hailey spoke about how she struggled the first time, and how it became easier now that she had a weapon capable of harming the alphas. I handed her my trash items, and told her about my experience. She laughed and said it was unfair how I was just able to walk through a dungeon.
I shrugged my shoulders as I went to flip the steaks. "I'm envious of your ability to just face enemies head on. I am as brittle as a twig. I don't know how I would do against an enemy that was able to close the distance between itself and me."
Hailey smiled at my compliment, and changed the subject.
"Have any Hunters responded to your post?"
I checked my phone real quick, and saw that I had received a few dozen messages. I replied to them all with a short message.
'I am a Hunter.'
Other Hunters would understand what a Hunter is, and we would go from there. Normal people would think I am just listing my occupation. It was time for us to group together.