Lewis had arrived at the scene shortly after, receiving a text from Rhys. They both brought him over to the infirmary, and the nurse that attended to him was horrified by his condition.
She didn't seem to speak out about what had happened but was clearly distressed. The blonde nurse just kept to herself, using her special healing skills to speed up Emmerich's healing. He was in pain and, even if he had received a healing elixir before, it was better to seal up the injuries as quickly as possible.
"I can't believe he'd do something like that to you. He just went totally overboard." He declared, standing by the large boy's side.
"Can I blame him? He's stronger, so he gets to do things like that. We just must deal with it and move on." He replied, with a defeated tone of voice.
Rhys just looked at him sympathetically and could tell that what he was saying was true.
Their afternoon consisted of just an afternoon of lectures once again, and it was a somewhat boring day. Rhys headed home early and didn't want to exercise too much.
The more he did, the more he felt like eating and he just didn't have the money to fund a lifestyle like that. He didn't have to pay for lunch, but still had to pay for breakfast and supper, and ate additional snacks at lunch to satiate his hunger.
However, as he entered a street, he could hear the screams and talking of distressed people. Turning to see what was happening, he was immediately hit with the gusts of wind from an opening portal.
People in the area were running from the location, but Rhys just smiled as he saw this. If his system really was SS-Rank, he was sure that he'd receive rewards for fighting whatever was to come out.
Since there weren't any soldiers at the scene, it wasn't going to be a very dangerous dungeon. High-ranked, dangerous dungeons would be analysed in advance and the street where it was bound to open in would be locked off for hours or even days in advance.
The portal opened, and he could tell that it was a desert-like biome from the appearance of the other side of the portal.
"What are you doing, kiddo, get out of there!" A man said, running past him.
Rhys wasn't scared about what he had seen here. He just prepared himself and saw several black goblins rushing out from the scene. They had blood red eyes, and flames were seen flowing out from their mouths.
The first one had seen him, and charged right toward him.
[Sudden Quest!]
[Facing Beasts]
[Take down as many beasts as you can and grow your power!]
[Rewards: 5 Emporium Shards and 20XP per enemy defeated, 20XP]
"5 shards?! That's like more than a day's worth of food. Oh yeah, let's get this done!" He said to himself, preparing for battle.
Just about evading an incoming strike, he utilised his Blooded Blow skill and shattered the head of the first goblin that had shot toward him.
[Black goblin defeated]
[+20XP]
[+5 Emporium Shards]
Blood spurted out from the scene, but the gory sight didn't dishearten the other goblins charging at him.
Soon enough, a fireball had appeared from the crowd and soared at him. The fireball looked smaller than Leandro's, but he could feel more intense heat coming from it. Evading the first fireball, it soared past him, then he defeated yet another goblin before grabbing the neck of another.
[Black goblin defeated]
[+20XP]
[+5 Emporium Shards]
With a forceful squeeze, its fragile spine was snapped in two and he moved on to his next target.
[Black goblin defeated]
[+20XP]
[+5 Emporium Shards]
Charging at another goblin, it decided to shoot out a fireball from its ablaze mouth, but Rhys leaped right at it. Throwing forward his shoe, the fireball disintegrated upon impact and he then stepped on its head.
Soon enough, he had defeated 8 goblins in quick succession, giving him 40 total shards and 160XP.
The other goblins had taken different routes in the surrounding streets and didn't look as keen on attacking him as before. What appeared from this dungeon, however, was a much larger beast.
It stood at around his height but was around 200 kilograms. It possessed a tough exoskeleton, along with an endoskeleton due to its size. It resembled a goliath beetle but was stood on its own two feet and had more of a humanoid frame.
'What is that thing?' He wondered, falling back slightly.
With him being the only person in it's sight, it rushed toward him with intensity and closed the distance between them in a flash.
BAM!
Receiving a punch right onto his forearms, the strike resembled the force from the orc that he had fought, and he was launched several metres back. The bruise that he had received on his forearm vanished quite quickly, and his HP was replenished.
However, he wasn't certain if he could take on a lot of those attacks once again. His healing might not be able to keep up with his HP dropping, and one would end up dying if their HP was to reach zero.
Well, that was in the human case. He wasn't exactly sure what would happen to him, since vampires were usually labelled as immortal beings in legends. Regardless, he didn't want to find out right now.
Evading the next punch, he landed a strike right to its lower abdomen to notice that it felt like he was hitting rock. Its body seemed to be covered in a substance that resembled bone.
Landing another strike, he had caused it to grunt in pain but there wasn't much damage done at all.
He received a deadly elbow to his jaw, forcing him away and he decided to not just blindly rush in once again. He wasn't given much time to recuperate, though, as the beast decided to advance itself.
The first punch was quite slow and he evaded it, slipping under the next. He used the technique that he had seen in his classmates and Marcus that had fought him. Just as he expected, the attacks had missed him, then he took this chance to punch it right in the stomach and step away.
Now at a longer range, he landed another punch with the same arm, this time to its face.
He was faring much better against this beast and was slowly knocking it down. It wasn't as fast as the orc that was in the first dungeon he entered. It was around the same strength, but the heavy exoskeleton holding it down made its attacks sluggish and even more predictable.
Soon enough, its shell had cracked in various places due to the force from Rhys' attacks.
However, looking at his own body, he was covered in blood and his HP wasn't climbing as fast as it was before.
[HP: 7/12]
Another punch landed on his face, then he received a kick to his stomach that launched him off the ground and into the air. Rolling across the ground, he slowly cowered away from the approaching beast, and coughed out the blood that was in his mouth.
[HP: 5/12]
The hunger that he felt previously had returned, and he slowly raised back up to his feet.
Wiping the drops of blood under his mouth, he was struggling to find an opening. If he was to receive attacks of that calibre again, it wouldn't be great for him.
There weren't any police officers in the vicinity, and the streets were littered with little goblins and other insect-like beasts.
"Damn it, alright then!" He thought to himself, opening his system.
He had enough shards, and opened his skill tree.
[Tier 0]
[Blooded Blow]
[The strength and speed stat double for a single punch]
[COST: 5MP]
[Fledgling Blitz]
[The speed stat doubles for 5 seconds.]
[COST: 3MP]
[COST TO UNLOCK: 25 Emporium Shards]
[Overdrive]
[Blood flow is intensified for 15 seconds. Increases strength and speed stats by 50% for 15 seconds.]
[COST: 4MP, 3HP]
[COST TO UNLOCK: 50 Emporium Shards]
[Tier 1]
[*LOCKED*]
"Unlock Fledgling Blitz!" He called out in his mind.
[Skill Unlocked]
[New Skill!]
[Fledgling Blitz]
"KREEE!" The beast charged at him, with heavy strides as it tried to close the distance between him and itself.
Activating his new skill, his speed had now reached 12. He whizzed past the first punch, landing two punches on its face in the time that it would usually take him to throw one.
POW! POW!
It looked dazed by those two attacks, then wildly swung out its arm to try and keep him away.
However, he stepped back and easily dodged the attack, that looked like it was in slow motion. Stepping forward once again, he punched it in its chest and opened a crack he had left in its exterior.
Breaking through to its fleshy insides, it screamed out in pain, but Rhys was not finished. He only had seconds left and had to make this count. Focusing on the opening in its chest, he threw numerous attacks and used the 3 MP that he had remaining to activate the skill again once it faded.
Yellow blood started splattering across his dark clothing, and the beast screamed out in pain upon receiving this flurry of punches. Soon enough, it had been hurt so badly that it just fell to the ground lifelessly.
It slowly moved around until it stopped completely. Rhys stood over, covered in red and yellow blood, panting.
[Young Giant Beetle Defeated]
[+20XP]
[+2XP]