In the heart of the forest, a couple of kilometers from the dungeon.
An unexpected encounter took place as Emma and Aisa, who had ventured out to hunt monsters at Siria's suggestion, were approached by Sophy and Luna, who had just left the dungeon.
Sophy and Luna gazed at Aisa, who, in their eyes, was undoubtedly connected to Ken. However, their intense stares made Aisa uneasy, her expression growing colder and more emotionless.
"Uhh, may we ask why you stopped us?" Emma stepped forward with a calm smile, aware of Aisa's introverted lifestyle, though her internal thoughts were different: 'Holy crap, this girl is icy when she dislikes someone! If she had black hair and black eyes, she'd be the perfect gothic lolita!'
Sophy's gaze fixed on Emma, scrutinizing her: 'This brown-haired girl with green eyes... the armor she wears is of exceptional quality, likely higher rank gear or better. Is she a noble too? But I've never seen her before; there's no way a commoner could possess such gear...'
Emma slightly furrowed her brows, causing Sophy to snap out of her thoughts. "My apologies, it's just that I've never seen you two before, and not long ago, I encountered someone with similar features to the girl beside you," Sophy explained apologetically, casting another glance at Aisa.
Asia narrowed her eyes, prepared to cast her new spell to address the situation directly, but Emma spoke up before Aisa could proceed with her thoughts.
"Someone like Aisa...?" Emma pondered for a moment, and only one figure came to mind. She grinned and turned to Aisa, who had already guessed who Sophy was referring to. "Looks like your Big Bro is around here somewhere," Emma said with a grin as she patted Aisa's shoulder and her other hand on her hip.
"Yeah, so what...? Big Brother is probably busy with something; he takes this game seriously." Aisa folded her arms and glared at Sophy, who seemed to freeze at her words.
'Game? Wait, what day is today?? Is it already time for the players to come to our world like the Beta players?? I see, so Ken and these two girls are players! No wonder I never saw them! But really, they look like people in high class. Maybe they are nobles from their world?'
Sophy thought cheerfully, her eyes shining. 'If today is the day that players come to our world, then just two months from now, I will be able to leave home and see the world!'
Aisa shifted her glare at Luna who was sitting beside Sophy, her softened glare and a smile nearly formed on her lips, but she held strong, 'Cute...' she muttered in her mind, wanting to pet Luna, but she resisted.
Aisa turned to Emma and seriously urged, "We should leave!"
Emma was a little confused but shrugged, she looked at Sophy, "We will be taking our leave now," she announced and caught Aisa's hand and walked around Sophy who only smiled while Luna looked over her shoulder and stared at Aisa's departing back.
"Luna, Mother said I can leave once I am 18, which is 2 months from now, do you want to come with me?" Sophy beamed, bringing Luna's attention to her, Luna nodded and immediately Sophy picked Luna up into her arms.
She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes falling on Aisa who kept on reminding her of Ken who stood out in her mind, 'Both of them are similar, but he felt like someone who holds authority and more like someone who can handle anything that comes in his way... Maybe after 2 months, I can meet him again...? He was already dungeon diving, so he should be one of the strong,'
Sophy brightly smiled, but a light blush crept up her cheeks as she remembered her embarrassing accident. 'He definitely saw me...' she shook her head and petted Luna who purred and snuggled with her.
---
Back to Ken's side.
Ken walked around on the 9th floor; he had encountered a group of four Dire Wolves just a minute ago and hadn't had any further monster encounters, which in a normal scenario would be strange. However, considering that there is an Earth Elemental above, it is natural and even a bit unusual for monsters to be around...
Any type of Elemental is hard to come by, and all of them, one way or another, drain energy when they are born. They are typically around level 70 to 80, with the mind of a very curious 2-year-old human child. They take a long time to mature, somewhere around a couple of dozen years, to think like a 10-year-old... but by that time, they would be capable of causing city-level wipeouts with ease.
The one above is undoubtedly a newly born one, which is good for Ken as it presents a possible opportunity. However, the Leveling system has already decided to reduce the experience he gains to keep the game fair for others after the Andrewsarchus incident... so maybe not.
[Hoaaaa! Why are there so few to no monsters here!?]
The system whined; she had already given up on Ken's ability to finish the quest, but she still didn't want it to be easy, which was exactly what was happening.
"It can't be helped; this is already one of the least dangerous dungeons. Dungeons are part of the leveling system, which maintain 'fairness' by controlling the number of monsters within them." Ken casually explained, emphasizing fairness.
The system remarked in a low voice, [Yeah... right, hypocritical fairness that only seeks to benefit the blessed ones. Good thing they are hypocritical.] She felt pleased about that; in any other case, she would have been furious about the lack of fairness and would have taken action. But right now, she was against Ken for fun, making it a whole different story.
After a turn, Ken was in front of a slopped-down tunnel that seemed to go a few dozen meters down, this was the entrance to the 10th floor, "Reaching the 10th floor in just under 35 minutes, and that to my first dungeon dive," Ken chuckled and headed down while the system whined.
[Only because you fount that water stream... and you didn't come across any dead ends...]
Ken stepped into the 10th floor and couldn't help but admire the floor. Unlike the floors above which were massive cave systems, the 10th floor was a massive hollow dome, with the depression in the center giving it an irregular, sideways oval shape.
The height point of the ceiling is about 50 meters, while the distance from one end to the other stretches nearly 800 meters, in the center of this place there was a pond, and around it were trees and vegetation which made it look less of a dungeon floor.
Ken was standing on an elevated ground, able to see the whole place with ease.
[What the hell! This place is massive! The anime did this place wrong! It looked so small in the anime!] The system flabbergasted exclaimed, [First the Giant bear... now this place...]
Ken smiled and looked around, seeming to not pay any mind to the system, 'The anime knowledge is very inaccurate, not just for the Giant bear and this floor... most all the place and monster size was downgraded.' Ken mused in his mind, not telling the system about it.
Ken's eyes darted around the area, searching for a specific monster that needed to be defeated for the dungeon run to be considered complete. It didn't take long for him to find the creature he sought. "Found you," Ken's smile turned into a grin as he spotted a hairless head with a horn protruding from the forest. A Cyclops, the boss monster.
"Hey, it's time for me to get my first quest reward," Ken called out as he drew his sword and stretched his arm a bit. His arm and leg injuries were still present, but they didn't bleed or no longer bothered his movement much.
[I thought you had forgotten about that... Sigh, do you want your skill IRL or VR? If you pick VR then, you won't be able to use the skill IRL, and vice versa... So, pick wisely, or just don't pick...]
The system grumpily said, but Ken didn't care about her mood much, "I need it now, VR,"
[You sure? You won't be able to use the skill IRL if you do]
Ken chuckled at the system's warning, "Why would I need it IRL? As far as I am aware BlueVail is the safest place for me to be in,"
The system didn't say anything to that, she had watched him from the very beginning of his life in BlueVail and knew it was true.
Suddenly, an in-game system screen popped up followed by Ken's status,
---
You have gained your first skill~!
Skill: Enhancement
Enhance anything, including body parts or weapons—anything you are in contact with!
However, the enhancement is limited to the skill level. Per level enhancement: 5%
1 mana per use or 1% stamina when mana isn't available.
------
---Status---
Name: Ken Valxin.
Level: 31 → 37| 11% done!
Class: None | Pick A Class!!!!!!!!!
Title: Anomaly, The Hunter of Aggressors, The Strongest Player
Power Level: 438 →501
Magic level: 10
skill: Enhancement
-----------------
"Isn't that a very convenient skill" Ken mused, causing the system to grumble in annoyance.
[Out of all the millions of skills out in the world, you get this one! and on top of that, the boss monster is a walking-free EXP, a damn Cyclops!]
Ken started to rush in the direction of the Cyclops, going at this top speed, his sword ready to strike.
The Cyclops was already in view, a humanoid towering at an impressive 7 meters, its body a bluish pale, with a single eye that occupied 30% of its face and a horn on its head measuring about 3/4 of a meter long.
Ken's sword glowed with a light blue hue as he activated his skill and immediately dashed toward the Cyclops's leg, slashing at the ankle and cutting halfway through.
"GAAAAAA!!!" The Cyclops screamed in pain as it raised its injured leg, but Ken wasn't finished; he had already moved to the other leg and slashed, this time with all his might, cutting right through it.
"GERAAAAAA!!!" the Cyclops screamed in pain again and fell face-first to the ground.
Ken backed off to the side as the Cyclops began to thrash its limbs, squirming on the ground.
========================
Join my discord: https://discord.gg/ACPzTJuPCz