Chapter 13

Zero got up early the next morning.

He went to the quest board and accepted the same quest he had done the day before, for a total of four more times.

This way he would be able to finish the quest and instantly enter again.

He decided that he would go through the same dungeon a few more times before he went on to the next. That way he would get used to fighting kobolds, and he would keep the number of attempts at a minimum, giving him more time to go through the other quests.

If he felt like he needed to go into the dungeon once again, he would just go back to the quest board and accept the quest again.

He went to the dungeon and practiced using Gunvault without saying anything out loud. Every time he entered the dungeon, Kunaigai got better at taking out the katana at the time Zero wanted.

After using up all of the attempts, Zero was satisfied with his progress.

He then returned to his house, thinking of which dungeon he would go challenge next. He would go challenge every dungeon, in the F rank, at least five times, and then he would go and challenge the next rank of dungeon.

*

He kept on challenging dungeons for the next two weeks.

Zero also made new commands for other weapons he would use. This way he would be able to use more of his arsenal while silently moving around.

The first command he made was summoning his firearms. These were the easiest, as he just had to pose as if he was holding them.

After the firearms, he made a command for his two available gauntlets. For his basic gauntlet he would clench his left fist first.

For his set of bladed gauntlets, which he first used against the kobolds, he would clench his right fist first.

Lastly, he made a command for a bow and arrow. He would use this in situations where he could definitely retrieve the arrows, since the arrows he could use were limited.

*

Once the two weeks finished he was ready to move up in rank.

He took another quest and once again went towards the designated portal.

He entered the dungeon and a status window popped up in front of him again, this time indicating that he was in an E rank dungeon.

*

Zero's POV

"Hmmm."

This cave seems a lot bigger than the ones on rank F.

I started walking forward and a status window popped up in front of my face.

"Defeat the orc chieftain."

[Hey!] (Kunaigai)

"What?"

[Why don't you start practicing something new. We've been getting better in using Gunvault, so why don't you put something new into the mix?]

"Like what?"

[A bluff. Every time you summon a new weapon just say "Gunvault" and have a new weapon summoned each time. That way people will think that you need to say something in order to summon your weapon.]

I simply nodded to Kunai's words.

It is a good idea, but the way things are going, people could easily find out what my patterns look like. They could even read my moves and counter me accordingly. I need to think of something that could easily dupe people, but I don't know how to do that at the moment.

I continued walking along the cave, but I didn't find even a single orc. I kept walking for a little while longer and saw a bright light.

Is this actually not a cave, but a tunnel?

I walked towards the light. The closer I looked the more it looked like an exit, but I still approached it carefully regardless.

I slightly peeked outside the cave and saw what I had expected to see once I had arrived at the village.

It looked like a small village that would appear in a fantasy world.

Why does it look like it's facing away from me? Could it be that I was summoned behind it?

I took off my helmet and put it to the side.

"Gunvault: sniper"

I took out a sniper and look at the village through the scope.

Many orcs could be seen walking around the village. Some could be seen entering the village and leaving it.

I stared for a few seconds.

I heard some growling behind me and instantly turned around, putting my helmet back on in the process. An orc was right behind me. It swung down an axe while it roared. I dodged it by jumping to the left, and then I started running in the direction of the orc.

It had roared loudly so some other orc could've heard it.

Some reinforcements might be coming. I need to finish this quickly.

I used my electro blade and cut the orc in half before it could react. I didn't know how hard it was to cut through an orc, so I decided to use a stronger attack to not waste any time. I then ran towards a forest that was surrounding the village.

For now I'll hide myself in some trees.

I didn't know how good an orc's sense of smell was so I thinly covered myself in some mud and climbed up a random tree.

[It seems like the whole thing changed. The others might have been like some type of tutorial, but this seems to be the real deal. Approach with caution.] (Shadow)

I nodded my head.

'Gunvault: knife'

I took my knife and waited for an orc to come in my direction. I also readied myself to apply electro blade to the knife.

This feels like it's going to be a long day, but if it's going to be like this, I might not need to enter this dungeon more than once.

There were probably many orcs. So learning how to hunt them could probably be done in a single run. As for practice, I could probably do it too.

*

Zero then lay there to wait, making sure to stay alert of any sound that heard.