Chapter 36- Dungeon Run 2.0

Abel was surprised to see Frankie at home. He was walking in with a couple of bags, obviously the food delivery came a little earlier than scheduled.

"What are you doing home so early?"

"Bro, have you gone senile or is the pod messing with your head. I told you already, today's Wednesday, I get off earlier since I clock in early."

Frankie reminded him yet again what day it was, while Abel felt a little embarrassed. Even though his memory seemed to improve greatly, it looked like it wasn't enough. But it was understandable as he'd been busy all day long.

After getting up in the afternoon, he did quite a few chores around the house and when he logged back in to the game, he'd been reading about all sorts of stories, legends and game lore for hours. It actually felt like he'd been reading for days as he felt quite consumed when reading, as though time was passing by swiftly.

"If I'm senile then you're absolutely ancient, seeing as how you're older than me"

Abel and Frankie would bicker every now and then, but it was all in good fun and neither would get upset or say something extreme.

"Melly should be home soon, right?"

After the usual exchange back and forth, Abel's stomach started rumbling and asked about Mellissa. It was then that they both heard the front gate opening up, guessing the last of the trio had showed up.

Just as they predicted, Melissa came into the house looking a little tired from the long day at work. It seemed an unreasonable customer showed up today and happened to fall onto her shoulders.

"The food smell's great. You guys can get started without me, I want to take a shower and then come down."

Abel and Frankie both gave each other a look and smiled. They waited for 15 minutes before Melly came back down, looking refreshed and less haggard then earlier.

"I told you to start eating. Sheesh, neither of you listen!" Though the young woman sounded tough, the smile on her face gave her away.

They sat around the dining table in the kitchen and talked about their day while having dinner.

Frankie's day was the calmest out of the three, with nothing unexpected happening. While Melly complained about the usual old woman that would show up every couple of weeks or so and complain about something.

She was a local lady that was widowed only a few months after her marriage, the binary eclipse was to blame of course. She had been pregnant at the time and her husband gave his life to protect her and their unborn daughter. She had lost most of her family back then and her mother, the last of her kin, passed a few years before Grandma Meng while her daughter had gone off to college in Zephyria, so the old lady was all alone at home.

In fact, most of the staff thought the old lady would come in and complain just so she could have someone to talk to. That was one of the reasons why they put up with her incessant complaints about the most minor of things. She wasn't rude but once she started complaining about something, it was impossible to have her stop within 30 minutes.

Melissa was currently re-telling Frankie and Abel about the most recent thing that upset Ms. Isolde Mae.

She had apparently found it prudent to complain about the recent 15% increase in the cost of toilet paper, apparently finding it illogical and unscrupulous from an economical perspective. She then went on to tell the same old tale of how cheap things were 2 decades ago.

While things in general were indeed cheaper back then, so was the cost of goods as a majority of products were made through robotic and fully AI controlled assembly lines. No one used such methods anymore, so the increase in cost was understandable.

In fact, the way the coalition marginally increased the price of goods through corporate tax over the years was an ingenious way to control inflation, considering the great change to the global economy after the binary eclipse.

By the time Melissa had finished re-telling a portion of the old lady's complaints, they had already finished dinner. They packed up the little leftovers that Abel said he'd finish off for lunch the following day then made themselves a pot of tea before heading into the living room.

Abel told them about his findings in old man Rye's study as they relaxed and drank their tea with the evening news sounding out in the background. Although he didn't find any proper clues or explanations, it seemed he'd eventually stumble upon something by going through them all.

After half an hour of lounging around in relaxation, he decided to call it a night for reality and head back into the virtual world. After bidding the couple good night, he made a quick visit to the bathroom before stepping back into his pod.

Whooooosh

The cascading colors came and went, establishing a neuro-link and connecting him to the world of Faeron.

He found himself back in the study, surrounded by old books and scrolls.

He carried on from where he left off and continued his search for answers in an ocean of text. It wasn't until it was nearly 3:30 am in Veridia when Abel decided to give his virtual eyes a break.

He placed the books and scrolls back onto the shelves and made his way outside. He chose to exit from the front gate this time, it took him out to another street on the opposite side of the fountain.

Before leaving, he called out to old man Rye to tell him he'd be gone for a few hours but he didn't receive a response. He figured the old guardian must have been out attending to some matters and simply left without mention. It didn't matter seeing as he had a key, he just wanted to inform him out of courtesy.

After making his way outside, he stopped by a well and re-filled his canteen.

'I should buy a new canteen too. An enchanted one that can hold much more water, but that will have to wait till after the sale of rat poison though.'

While making a small wish-list of things he should purchase, Abel expertly navigated his way to the dungeon. It was still a few hours before daybreak, other than the few players hunting far off in the distance, there was no one around.

He would circumvent small monsters ahead of him thanks to his nifty Adaptive Eye skill.

Before long, he found himself at the dungeon entrance where he found 6 Level 4 Stone-toothed Rats.

'It's the same sentries from yesterday, the dungeon should have refreshed.'

He gleefully thought and jumped in their midst, giving them a swift death with a couple of swings from his sword.

-80

-85

-90

-85

-90

+5 EXP

+5 EXP…

'Such pitiful EXP… but its to be expected seeing as I'm a level above them.'

Abel was lamenting about the low EXP gain as he skinned the monsters. He was already missing the double EXP rewards that expired.

+Rats Meat x4

+Rats Tail x6

+Rats Claws x8

+Rat Teeth x8

+Rats Pelt x5

'I should take care of all the monsters in the dungeon before skinning them.'

After making his decision, he descended into the newly refreshed dungeon and went on an overwhelming killing spree. It was more akin to a carnage than slaughter as the monsters would be downed with a couple of swings.

When his active skill came off cool down, he'd even mow them down with a single swing of his sword. He bulldozed his way from one borrow to the next, not stopping to take a single break even when he came to the last room in the middle.

He swiftly ended the lone Sergeant Rat along with his posse of normal Stone-toothed Rats. The first floor alone filled up his EXP bar by 10%, even with the decrease in EXP gained.

'With my prior experience, I should be able to gain another level by the end of this dungeon run…'

As Abel thought about his pending level gain, he excitedly eyed the trap-chest. This time he swiftly stepped back after grabbing the object within, getting far out of range of the imminent explosion.

BANG

'Hehe not this time… what the…'

His happiness was short-lived as he looked down at the object in his hands, it wasn't the peak-grade Nocturnium he had imagined it to be.

Instead, he seemed to have gained a small dagger from the chest.

'Of course, such a low-level dungeon definitely wouldn't spit out 5 gold coins every day. It was probably a first discoverers reward… let's see what this dagger's stats are like'

"Inspect"

*Ding*

[Rat-tooth Dagger]

Attack: 25-27

+10% attack speed

Durability: 30/30

Requirements: Level 5

'Not too bad, a level 5 dagger. I can sell it if it fetches a good price or keep it as a backup option.'

He equipped the dagger to his lower back and made his way down to the second level and continued his merciless rampage.

He had spent 15 minutes clearing out the first floor and he intended to make quick work of the second floor too.

Most of the normal rooms were just like the last room on the first level, so Abel didn't face any difficulties in clearing them out. He only took longer due to the sheer number of burrows available on second floor.

It took him close to an hour to clear them of all signs of life. He put in a little bit more effort to take care of the Rat Lord and his henchmen.

After he easily made quick work of the Rat Lord that troubled him just a day prior, he took a quick look at his sword proficiency while ending the lives of his sergeants.

+559/1000 Basic Sword Proficiency- Greenhorn (55.9%)

His sword proficiency had been increasing at a steady pace, reaching practiced. He guessed he'd breakthrough to beginner Trainee by the time he goes through this dungeon another time.

After taking a look around, he noticed the walls had less ores. It was understandable, the ores were a special type and were quite expensive so they wouldn't refresh as quickly, it might take longer than iron ore to fully refresh but he wasn't sure.

He hoped the walls on the last level wouldn't decrease by too much but he didn't hold out much hope for such a thing.

Once he went down to the final level, he decided to bait out the Rat Lord's through the same method.

He wasn't worried about being surrounded by 12 of them at once but he simply wanted to raise his arrow proficiency skill.

After baiting out 2 Rat Lord's and killing them quickly, he found he was actually out of arrows!

He remembered that he never stocked up on arrows beyond the original 50 he'd gotten from the training course. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone around to see this embarrassing situation.

After awkwardly putting his bow back into his spacial bag, Abel jumped right in and started dancing around the current Rat Lord's. He'd attack them whenever he was at a monster's side and would use another monster to block a combo coming his way.

In less than 10 minutes, he had cleared out the first of the three rooms. Although his HP was down to 70%, it was still a relatively stable fight from start to end. His HP was much higher after getting the Battlesmith profession so he had a greater margin for error to experiment with his fighting style.

After using up 4 bandages, he was back to full health and eager to clear out the next room before facing the Rat King.

He took a look around the room and just as he expected, the ores were less. After letting out a sigh he went on to the second room.

It had the same dozen Rat Lord's and Abel was more careful this time around but after a short 15 minutes, he was once more surrounded by monster carcasses.

He refilled his health and took a small break to pull up his satiety and stamina levels. Only when he was 100% in everything did he finally step in to the final room.

'Let's see how quick I can kill you this time, you rat bastard!'

'Harmonic Breath'

'Serpents Dance'

Abel swiftly came to the Boss's side and started slashing relentlessly. When the Rat King turned to deal a blow he quickly blocked it and pivoted back to its side again.

-80

-80

-85

Clang 

Clang

-70

-80

When the tail came swinging around, Abel swiftly rolled out of harms way before jumping up with another active skill.

'Ecliptic Slash'

-200

-80

-85

He was able to get another 2 slashes in before the monster exploded in its enraged state once more.

He had whittled its HP down to 30% with a barrage of attacks. The Rat King's enraged state started at 50% but Abel was able to bring it down by another 20% before it could start its ferocious combo.

Just as the Boss started swiping its claws, he activated his defense skill to reduce the damage in case he couldn't block.

'Sturdy Defense'

Clang

Clang

Clang

-10

-14

-23

-4

-4…

It seemed the combo in its enraged state was too difficult to block. Perhaps it was impossible to block without a specific tanking skill but Abel didn't mind since he had increased his defense and activated a skill. Not to mention, it's last bite would give him an opportunity to stab at its thick neck.

-40

-45

-55…

He stabbed repeatedly, although the bite would cause constant damage over time, Abel was doing 10 times more damage in the same period. He had planned to do the same as yesterday, hit the same spot to increase the damage.

He wanted to kill it while it was biting onto him, if the Boss let go then it would certainly rush to the walls so it could refill its HP.

Other than preventing it from healing, he also didn't want to lose any more of the already scarce ore!

By the time he made his fifth stab, the Fierce Rat King's HP had bottomed out.

+350 EXP

*pant* *pant*

'That was much easier than before. But its expected, I have a much higher attack and defense than yesterday. Ahh... it seems I'm still a little short of a level up'

He took a look at his EXP bar and unfortunately, he was still short of 3% from leveling up.

Abel didn't mind as the level up would eventually come, he still couldn't get over how much easier it was to kill this Boss now that he had a profession.

'I wouldn't expect less from a class that adds +5 to strength with every level up'

From what Abel understood, normal professions would see an increase of +3 in their specialized stats which would be three but differ depending on the profession. They would also gain another +2 in another two stats that would aid them but weren't as important as the specialized stat of the class.

Some special classes would see a gain of +5 to a single stat and +4 in another two stats. While the two supplementary stats would also see a +2 like normal professions.

He wasn't sure whether it was just his class or all hidden professions that would see an increase of +5 and +3 to main and supplementary stats respectively, with the latter having an additional stat included.

'Heh… It doesn't matter. I'm already a Battlesmith so it wont matter even if I get offered another profession. Now… its skinning time!'

Abel gleefully thought as he looked at the Rat King on the ground before him.