There was a wide hallway on the 1st floor of the Dungeon known as the Beginning Road. Newbie Level 1 adventurers with a status of I to H in their basic abilities normally spent their time on these floors.
How the fuck did I know this? It turns out there was a sign on a wall spelling this out for any newbies retarded enough to try and push toward lower floors while lacking strength.
It was a decent idea. From what I remembered from the anime, the Dungeon was at least semi-sentient and malicious enough to wait until you pushed too far and then drop a dozen monsters on your head.
I must have missed the sign the first time around, maybe due to the huge amount of adventurers skittering around back then.
Now I was alone and despite the clearly more dangerous situation I found myself in, I felt more relaxed. After all, my Thick Skin proved that while weak, I had the potential to not only survive but thrive in this new world.
The few hours of rest I've had were also surprisingly refreshing, given that stone wasn't exactly mattress material.
Either way, I was ready for action. It was time to hunt some goblins and maybe try my hand against a kobold.
Without weapons, without armor.
All I had was my body, and that would have to suffice
I strolled along the Beginning Road, maintaining a loose, easy gait. It wasn't because I was arrogant, but because I had already decided to treat the Dungeon as I would a sapient creature. It was a genocidal force rivaling deities, sure, but that didn't mean I couldn't use its massive hate boner against it.
I eased my shoulders back, allowing any tension to dissipate from my body as I sauntered forward, deliberately casual. With each step, my muscles loosened, my arms swinging with controlled nonchalance.
When attempting to kill somebody, didn't it make more sense to attack when they were distracted?
.
It was clear that my bet paid off when I heard a sudden creaking sound from behind me. Keeping any whiff of panic at bay, I sidestepped to the left just in time to avoid a claw strike gouging my back.
I might have overcommitted a bit as I attempted to move out of the way, and while this wouldn't have been exploitable while fighting a simple goblin, my new enemy didn't hesitate to lunge toward me.
I lost my already shaky balance as 80 kilograms of kobold slammed into me from behind.
We tumbled into a chaotic heap on the cave floor, the weight of the kobold pressing down on me like a boulder.
Its claws pierced into my thickened skin as it did its best to turn me into minced meat. I didn't know whether it pinned me down instinctually or if it was sheer bad luck on my part, but the only thing I could do was to bring my forearms in front of my face and throat to protect my most vital areas as the Kobold rained blows upon me.
It was stronger than me physically, but uncoordinated in its savagery. Relying entirely on the instincts imprinted in its mind, it didn't take long for it to attempt to bite the pesky hands that kept it from killing what it considered to be prey.
Its eyes gleamed with wild hunger, reflecting the blue light of the tunnel with eerie intensity.
The creature snarled, its razor-sharp teeth mere inches from my left wrist when I finally made my move.
With adrenaline pumping through my veins, I summoned every ounce of strength and pushed my right hand directly toward its unprotected face.
It couldn't react in time, and as its teeth dug into my left hand, its eyeball burst like an overripe grape. Bloody fluids painted the floor as my thumb pierced through both its eyelid and the soft tissue below, embedding itself deep within the kobold's eye socket.
I felt its jaw snap open, releasing my left hand, even as a bone-rattling scream tore open from its throat.
With a force that could only erupt from pain and desperation, the kobold shook its whole body, especially its head as its clawed hands struck at random.
Bloody streaks blossomed on my chest as the Kobold trashed madly with every ounce of strength it had within itself, howling all the while.
Alas, it couldn't escape.
Not without leaving half of its skull behind at least, as I held its head like a bowling ball, my nails digging into its scalp.
My free hand struck true, hitting its unprotected neck, and I felt its trachea shatter or at the very least collapse.
Suddenly, the Road of Beginnings turned quiet once again, the only sounds disturbing the silence, the soft wheezing of a dying kobold.
It lost all its strength as I punched it in the throat once more for good measure. I shifted my weight, leveraging my strength against its bulk. With a swift maneuver, I managed to roll out from under the creature, extracting my hand from its skull in the process.
It fell to the ground like a stringless puppet, its chest moving erratically as it tried and failed to draw breath repeatedly.
As I slowly pushed myself up from the ground, I finally spared a moment to observe both my wounded body and my downed adversary.
Before turning into a barely moving soon-to-be corpse, the kobold looked like a lesser version of a werewolf. It had a well-built humanoid body with mangy fur on its hips and back, and its dog-like head elongated into a menacing muzzle. Sharp fangs protruded from its mouth, and it possessed claws sharp enough to tear through my skin.
Now, it looked like an abused stray human-dog chimera... which wasn't all that far from the truth, to be honest...
Overall, it was a fair bit stronger than a goblin, as the stinging wounds on my arms and chest could attest to.
Thankfully, despite its rabid fighting style, it didn't manage to strike any of my important areas.
"Now, my friend, I'm not Chinese but since you attempted to eat me first, it's only right that I return the favor, no?" I spoke too softly to be heard while looking around, checking for monsters planning to interrupt my meal.
I was not expecting any response from the downed kobold, but its remaining eye snapped toward me with an expression I could only describe as a combination of bitter hate and blood-curdling fear.
'Dog faces are quite expressive, huh? Also, should it be able to understand me? Eh, who cares...'
I felt a grin creeping on my face as my Hunger sang to me, drowning out the pain of the puncture wounds from the kobold's teeth and the many, many scratches on my body.
I felt my very soul churning as I sunk my teeth into flesh, tearing into the kobold.
I didn't black out instantly like it happened when I consumed the goblin, and so I had to force myself to continue eating.
I continued until my mouth was filled with gristle and bones and then some. I had to crush them with my teeth and my hands to be able to swallow anything, as my throat was still rather humanlike despite my efforts to the contrary.
All the while, I promised myself that somehow, someday, I would find a way to get some spices and a grill down here in the dungeon.