F Rank Dungeon (4)

The zombie looked around, completely awoken now, looked around furiously before spotting my figure at a distance. It roared and charged at me.

I spat out a curse for not immediately hiding again after my initial sneak attack, but let go of the chain-sickle to form hand seals to my only offensive jutsu in my repertoire.

"Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!" I launched the fireball at the zombie, pumping in a generous 800 CP worth of chakra into the technique. A huge ball of flames emerged from my mouth and soared towards the boss, leaving a trail of burnt grass in its path.

As the huge creature closed the distance with surprising speed, the flaming sphere met it half way and exploded in a large blast of fire and wind. Even I could feel the shockwave from the detonation from where I was standing as a subsequent wave of hot air blew past me.

I leaped backwards to give myself some space as I was under no illusion that the fight was over, but not before picking up Jinchu-Maru which I had released before.

Amidst the sea of fire and smoke, a blood curdling roar erupted within and the hulking beast of a zombie continued burst out of the flames towards me as if unaffected. Its figure was covered in fire as it took long, thunderous strides in my direction, quickly gaining momentum.

I couldn't be bothered with using [Observe] to check its HP as I would either be disappointed or glad, but either way it wouldn't matter. The fight would only be over once one of us fell.

In a feat of nimbleness that surprised even me, I landed on a tombstone and leaped off it right after on to a branch of the tree and then followed that up by using the branch as a springboard to launch myself high over the raging zombie. All the while spinning my chain-sickle.

At the apex of my jump, I launched the weighted end of Jinchu-Maru at the undead, leaving more than enough allowance to let it wrap around the boss zombie's left arm at its elbow.

I pulled at the taut chain to manoeuvre myself in mid air and land safely a distance away. With the chakra within the chains still imbuing it with strength, I gave a sharp pull.

…Which did absolutely nothing. In my head I was expecting for the chains to either sever the arm entirely or shred it into pieces when I pulled back the chain. I stared stupidly at the lack of any outcome before rolling my eyes at my own idiocy.

[Chakra Flow] merely reinforced the existing physical properties of the object being supplied with chakra. A sword would become sharper and a hammer would become harder. The chains were just chains – they had no sharp edges for the chakra to make it sharper. Unless I imbued wind natured chakra to supply the sharpness attribute, all the chakra flowing within the chains would only serve to make it harder to break.

The boss zombie only felt its arm being tugged, lightly in its perspective, before it gave an uncharacteristic grin as it rotated its wrist to grasp the taut chain. I only widened my eyes for a fraction of a second before the creature pulled with all its might.

I flew towards the undead monster, but thankfully remained clear-minded enough to let go of the weapon mid flight to drop unceremoniously on the ground. I just lost my main method of attacking at a safe distance.

The creature glanced at the chain-sickle absent its target and roared angrily before running at me again.

I cursed at my own stupidity once more, hurriedly picked myself up and flung myself to the side to let the zombie charge past me. I rolled for a brief moment before jumping up.

The inertia proved too hard for the monster to stop as it ran right into a tree, leaving upturned or smashed tombstones in its path. The tree itself also fell prey to the creature's terrifying might as it broke into splintered pieces in order to stop it's charge.

I unconsciously exhaled a breath of withheld tension and summoned my inventory. I reached in and pulled out Kotetsu no Ryuu. Traditional game mechanics would dictate that a strong and tough monster had to be slow – while a fast monster was correspondingly weak and fragile.

With the Sharingan boosting my dynamic vision and my current DEX stat, I was confident in being able to out-manoeuvre the large zombie which was assured to be slower in compared to its terrifying might… I assumed.

Instead of waiting for my opponent to come charging at me this time, I took the initiative to run at it, taking advantage of its slow reaction and apparent stunned state after crashing into the tree. I activated [Flash Step] twice in a row, instantly dashing 10 metres across and found myself within striking distance.

Imbuing the katana with chakra, I unconsciously let out a battle cry and slashed at its back repeatedly, every attack strengthened with [Power Strike].

Through my Sharingan eyes, I could almost foresee the monster swinging back with an arm. Ducking underneath the wild swing, I allowed my blade to carve across its sides as I slipped forward. Now that I was positioned right next to its towering figure, I could really appreciate the differences between my 9 year old physique and the boss' imposing size.

Undeterred, or rather not letting myself be deterred, I swiftly stuck Kotetsu no Ryu through its gut before pulling it out and circling underneath another wild swing and rinse and repeat.

It was almost easy how effortlessly I was managing to dodge every attack while carving up its body like a Thanksgiving turkey. Putrid blood spurted out of the open wounds or nicked arteries, spraying the vile substance on me. But I cared little. I felt myself getting into 'the zone'; evading every haymaker that threatened to take my head off while simultaneously cutting into its flesh.

I could literally see the zombie slowing down, the ferocious swings were lacking the previously unbridled force it once had and its legs were shaky like they struggling to hold up its bulky weight.

I flashed behind the creature using [Flash Step] and cut into the back of one of its knees, which sent it stumbling forward to a knee. Now that its head wasn't as high before, I used one hand to 'leap frog' over the crouching beast and let gravity as well as [Power Strike] give me the needed force to cut through its neck.

But its neck was so thick with muscles, Kotetsu no Ryu only cut halfway into its neck before stopping. I tried to pull out the blade, but the creature tensed its muscles, and my sword was stuck. It reached out a hand at me, seemingly wanting to catch me in its grasp, but I evaded the sloppy attempt.

I went through my options in my head but paused when I spotted the sickle that was still attached to the chain wrapped around the zombie's arm, laying up uselessly in a pile. I smirked, an idea forming in my head.

Rolling forward, I picked up the sickle and channelled chakra into it. The blue light of the chakra as seen through my Sharingan eyes flared up into a menacing edge around the sickle's blade. Holding the sickle in a reverse grip, I flashed forward once more underneath the monstrous zombie and with every shred of strength I could muster, I swiped it upwards through the zombie's neck.

The sickle's blade finished what the katana started and with a torrential spray of rancid blood, beheaded the zombie boss. The skull of the undead flew up for a moment before dropping and rolled away, the zombie's face still in an anguished countenance. The katana that had been lodged its neck fell on to the ground the moment the zombie's head was separated from its body

I held my stance, watching the unmoving but still kneeling body of the beheaded zombie, ready to cut into it once more with my trusty sickle in hand if it moved. A moment passed before the monstrous figure dissolved into thick black smoke and the chains that had been wrapped around its arm fell on to the ground with a rattle.

[+1750 EXP]

[You have levelled up!]

I immediately collapsed on to my butt on the ground, not out of exhaustion or any injuries, but from the sheer relief from my released tension.

"…FUCK YES!!" I screamed in to the air, to no one but myself. "Holy fuck, that was… that was so fucking fun! Holy shit my heart is pounding." The adrenaline coursing through my veins slowly faded away as the tension of the fight waned.

[You have eliminated the boss!]

[Rank F dungeon cleared!

You may now exit the dungeon!

Saying "Exit Dungeon" will allow you to leave.

Otherwise, you will automatically be removed in 60 minutes.]

The timer that originally counted down the time limit of the dungeon, which had roughly 9 hours left, now counted down from 1 hour.

I let myself bask in the triumph of my accomplishment for a minute. That was really, really, really fun. Who knew risking my life in a life-and-death encounter could be so… so exhilarating! I could guess that Gamer's Mind had a part to play in my overall calmness, but the post-fight clarity and thrill was all me.

I picked myself up from the ground and spotted a glowing green orb where the boss monster had been. Once I touched it, another notification window appeared.

[Loot gained:]

+16230 ryo

Bodybuilder's Dumbbell – Uncommon

Bodybuilder's Supplements – Uncommon

Bodybuilder's Steroids – Uncommon

[Bodybuilder's Dumbbell – Grade: Uncommon]

A dumbbell that belonged to a fanatic bodybuilder to train his muscles.

Durability: 200/200

+30% stat growth to STR when training with it

[Bodybuilder's Supplements – Grade: Uncommon]

Supplements that were used by a fanatic bodybuilder to train his muscles.

When consumed, permanent +3 to STR

[Bodybuilder's Steroids – Grade: Uncommon]

Steroids that were used by a fanatic bodybuilder to temporarily enhance his muscles.

When injected, +15 STR for 1 hour

Pretty decent loot for a boss monster, but too bad there weren't any equipment among them. The supplements simply looked like a thick, protein shake in a protein shake bottle, while the steroids was a yellow liquid in a syringe. And the dumbbells… well they just looked like normal dumbbells. I retrieved the protein shake and drank it up – it was a pleasant vanilla flavour.

I looked around the scene, surveying the shattered tombstones and trampled grass that was once a peaceful, albeit ominous, cemetery. But I wasn't ready to leave yet. If I knew my dungeons well enough, there was usually something else apart from the loot drops from the boss monster that rewarded the player. A hidden treasure chest. Plus, it was kinda weird the system gave me an additional hour after the dungeon was cleared to leave.

So I began investigating the cemetery – overturning rocks, checking the hollows of trees, but I found nothing. Then I started looking at the graves to see if there were any that stood out which could perhaps signify a buried treasure of some kind.

Just as I was about to give up, I spotted something at the far end of the cemetery. A tombstone that looked different from the others. While the other tombstones were a minimalistic, uniform shape – this one had a triangular head, shaped like a trapeze on its side but with the bottom triangle buried.

The sides of the tombstone weren't rectangular like the other ones, it had more of an angular, sharp edge to it like a blade. The tombstone looked more like the tip of an extremely large and broad zanbato that was buried hilt down, with out the tip poking through the earth.

There had to be something here.

I read the inscription on the tombstone, but it only contained the name: Uchiha Zakkufaru. A name that I wasn't familiar with and was pretty sure did not appear in the show. I fondled the tombstone, hoping to find some sort of mechanism, switch or button that would reveal the treasure. However, I couldn't find anything of the sort.

Thus, I had to commit the disrespectful act of gravedigging. I gave a short prayer for the soul at rest, aware of the absurdity of paying respect to a grave in a dungeon the system created, but I felt it only appropriate for desecrating someone's resting place, dungeon or not.

I took out a shovel that had coincidentally been dropped by a common mob zombie previously and started digging up the dirt. I channelled chakra into the shovel, and while it wasn't as effective as my Rare grade weapons with chakra metal alloyed in them, it was still reinforced somewhat to ease the burden of my digging.

The clock was ticking as I continued looking for the buried treasure. Minutes quickly passed by and I was slowly losing hope. If I wasted the bulk of my time digging this grave that had such a distinct and unique tombstone and found nothing, I wasn't going to be pissed at Uchiha 'dumb name' Zakkufaru for requesting such an elaborate and stupid ass tombstone.

Ding! I recoiled as the reverberations of metal hitting metal rang up my arms.

Wait. This was it! I knelt down and used my hands to dig through the dirt, slowly removing the soil that still covered what I had unearthed.

Soon I was able to see the distinctive shape of a metal box as well as the handles by its side. Gripping the handles, I struggled for a moment before managing to pull it out. I climbed out of the hole with the metal box in tow and heaved it on to the ground next to the tombstone.

Damn, I'm good! Now I that I could take a proper look at the chest, I spotted a piece of paper with some squiggly drawings on it that covered the front of the chest's opening. Shrugging nonchalantly, I ripped it off and excitedly opened the chest.

Inside, was a severed head.

[Congratulations! You have discovered the Hidden Boss! ]

[Warning: You cannot leave the dungeon until after the Hidden Boss has been eliminated!]

Fuck. Was this the price of greed?