Akira and Haruka left the dungeon scene. After going some far, Haruka asked, "How do you know about him?"
"I heard that from some delinquent," said Akira, "his big brother works as a close bodyguard for this man's father. At that time, I saw who could be such a scumbag on the internet and remembered his ugly face."
"I never expected to see such people in my life," said Haruka, "who killed his mother."
"From now on, you will see them frequently. White rabbit, I said we would go home after this dungeon, but I changed my plan; let's go to the skill reward dungeon."
"Okay," she said and thought, 'Should I ask him? No, he would just vaguely answer again, and he seemed to be in a bad mood.
This feels wrong. I am sure he got enraged when that man pointed his gun at me, but the fact that he composed himself and even lied that I am his little brother makes me worry.
He managed his anger well, a little too well to be exact, which shouldn't be possible for a teenager. Why does Aki feel distinct now.'
They sprinted to the nearest red-color radiant dungeon. While going, Haruka hesitantly said, "A…black bear. I…I am actually B."
Akira got confused. "B? What is B?"
"B size."
"I don't get it. What is B size?"
"Don't make me say it." She slapped the back of his head with embarrassment.
"I really don't know. Please explain; your voice is cracking," he said genuinely while rubbing his wound.
"Forget it then. It seems you still have some growing up to do," said Haruka and thought, 'Me too.'
"Okay, mama." Akira ignored her with sarcasm; he was dead set on going to the dungeon, so he didn't humor her.
Soon the internet filled with information about the locations of dungeons, so they found the nearest skill dungeon. The one-floor dungeon was radiating with red light.
"So this is how they radiate," said Haruka, "it's so beautiful. I want to see the night view too."
"We planned to come at night after some rest at home. Let's focus on this now."
They both entered the 1-floor tower.
**You entered Carnial Forest. Earn 1000 points to find the exit. You gain points equal to the level of monsters you kill.**
"This is just about killing monsters?" said Haruka. "When I saw towers, I thought they would offer role-playing missions or something like that."
"Role-playing? A dungeon is a place where monsters roam, why did you get that idea?" Akira asked curiously.
"Yes, but when I saw those cut scenes, I imagined we would be role-playing those characters."
"Whatever, let's clear this dungeon quickly first. We can speak later. And also, purchase the skill book called 'Hide and Seek Joker' in the shop with the reward we got from the tutorial." Haruka browsed. "Why are only a few A-rank skills purchasable?"
"The reward we got has limitations. This limit varies for different types of skills like attack, barrier, healing, concealment, detection, scouting, etc. Skills that don't contribute to damage dealing and healing have fewer limitations. So we can get high-rank skills for detection and concealment, which are non-damage dealing skills."
"It seems so. All attack skills are limited to E rank and healing skills are limited to D rank."
**Skill: Hide and Seek Joker
Rank: A+
Reduce the presence of the player passively.
Can activate concealment with mana.
Can activate detection with mana.**
"Too bad this doesn't have passive detection, but we don't need that yet, and the active detection and concealment are very powerful," said Akira.
Soon, they reached the reward room and saw the same kind of setup as the previous dungeon reward room. But this time, instead of light orbs, there were panels with details.
"There are only 8, seems like 2 people already came here," said Akira.
"So they came 10 minutes before us?" Haruka asked. "Do dungeons only have 10 rewards?"
"No, the 10-minute rule only applies to other category dungeons. Weapon, skill, and artifact dungeons will stay until all rewards are taken. But one reward per dungeon applies to every dungeon, and yes, every dungeon will only have 10 rewards."
Akira became agitated when he saw a panel. "Ruka, quickly take this skill."
"Calm down! No one is here." Haruka quickly picked it up without looking at it.
That made Akira completely cool, and he didn't care about anything anymore. He didn't even pick a reward for himself yet.
What would make him so agitated? Haruka looked at the skill curiously.
**Skill: Octagon Barrier Rank: E+ (G)
Create a barrier with many small octagon plates. The size of these plates depends on intelligence, and the strength of the barrier scales with intelligence.
Consumes mana to activate and repair. The more intelligence a player has, the smaller the plates become.
When a plate is broken, it provides a small amount of healing to all party members. Healing scales with intelligence.**
Then she realized that Akira changed plans for her. At first, they only planned to raid one dungeon on the first day, but when Mototsugu pointed a gun at Haruka, he changed his mind.
'He wants to make sure I am safe,' Haruka thought, 'what kind of nightmare did you see that afternoon, Aki?'
"This is special," Akira said excitedly, "because the professions we will choose depend on intelligence. So getting intelligence scaling skills is our luck. These are all intelligence scaling skills."
After reaching level 10, players would have the chance to select professions.
"We have to thank that rich kid then," said Haruka, making Akira silent.
She felt bad for saying that. "No, sorry. I was trying to joke."
"Please don't joke about your safety again," Akira said seriously.
"Ok, sorry."
Akira picked a healing skill. "With this, we don't need to worry about healing anymore. White Rabbit, can you create a barrier now?"
Haruka created a concave barrier with 1-foot wide octagons. That barrier was blue and transparent in color.
'This...this is it.' Akira became excited. 'In my previous life, I got an order to kill a superhero. She was famous because the area she protected had the lowest death rate.
It was very tough to kill her because she had this skill. There are many applications to this skill. It can even counterattack at a high level.
At that time, the octagons were less than one centimeter. I am sure Ruka can make them even smaller in the future.'
They exited the dungeon. While going home, they heard many gunshots along the way.
"I overlooked the guns because of the tutorials. I almost put you in danger," Akira whispered.
"What did you say?" Haruka asked.
"Nothing." Akira shook his head.
'I heard you. Silly.' Haruka thought. 'Weapons didn't work only in the tutorial.'
They went to a company building. As it was chaotic with monsters that came out of dungeons, no one was guarding the gates. So they both went in.
Akira destroyed the data storage system, and he set fire to all documents.
'The land property exchange documents are destroyed. Next is the food supplies.'
Later, they went to a rice storage facility and destroyed the documents there too.
Haruka was impressed by his thoroughness. 'He didn't leave any evidence or even suspicion leading to his family selling the house or buying huge rice and salt. Where did he learn all this?'
They changed dresses and took off masks secretly.
"Aki, I still have energy, why do we need to take a rest?"
"I don't trust this system thing," said Akira, "what if it's forcefully making us energetic? I don't want to take chances of losing consciousness in the middle of fights."
'It's not my idea,' Akira thought, 'when he (the man who gave the order to kill Haruka) trained me, he said that. Although I still experienced fatigue every time I pushed myself, I stopped exhausting myself to the brink.'
They soon reached Haruka's house, and their parents were outside of the house.
"Mom, Dad, why are you outside?" Haruka asked in worry.
Although Haruka couldn't figure out such a simple thing, Akira easily guessed what it was.
"Some thugs came and saw the food supplies in our house, so they kicked us out," said Haruto, Haruka's father.
'I was in a hurry to get to the life reward dungeon, so I forgot to get my authority for clearing the tutorial.' Akira walked inside.
"Aki, they can bend iron, and there are more than 15 of them," said Makiko in concern, trying to stop him.
"Aunty, Aki is very powerful now. Leave this to us." Haruka also went inside.