Trouble Begins

Now that he was done with his status, Alex decided that it was time to do some core grinding. Since he could now handle peak stage monsters well, he decided to hunt as many as he could as just a single one of them could earn him a single gold coin. He went to the door and placed his hand on it. Since he had almost cleared the floor, he could decide the room that he wanted to enter.

This was the dungeon rule. Once you have cleared all the rooms except for the boss room, you can decide which room you want to enter. As for the second floor, for one to enter, he or she must have cleared the boss room or incase of a party, at least three quarters of the party must have done so. This was a regulation that nobody knew who created but there was no way for someone to escape from this rule.

As he was being surrounded by the pink light, Alex removed his dual swords and he was ready for action as soon as he'd be teleported there. Alex wasn't going into the final room. He was going into the chaos room which existed just like the safe area. In this place, the number of monsters couldn't be counted. The room initially has one peak stage monster. Five seconds after it is killed, two monsters of the same rank and stage are spawned. After the two, three are spawned.

In short, the monsters increase by one after every kill with only a delay of five seconds. This was the reason as to why the room was referred to as chaos room. Chaos would be there once the number of monsters increase. Once the monsters reach fifty, a rank 2 initial stage monster is spawned. The number spawned would remain one as the boss room itself also has only one rank 2 initial stage martial monster.

The room in which Alex found himself in was like a big field. It was about ten thousand meters squared. The floor surface was just like that of a cave, plain earth but the only difference being that the terrain was flat. The large space was due to the increase in the monsters fighting inside the chaos room.

At the end of the room, Alex saw what looked like a wolf. It had thick black fur and it was about one meter in height. Just like all the monsters found inside the chaos room, the wolf was at the peak of rank 1. When Alex came in, the wolf wasted no time as it pounced on him. It seemed impatient to get rid of what was intruding its layer, or that's how Alex thought.

Using the short sword in his right hand, Alex swung it to deflect the paw that was descending towards his chest. What happened next surprised not only Alex, but also the wolf. The short sword cut cleanly through the wolf's right limb cleanly separating it from the wolf's body rendering it lame.

HOOWLLL!!!

A howl of pain filled the room as the wolf fell to the floor after its momentum was disturbed. Before its howls could continue further, its head was already rolling on the ground. Alex had just utilized the sword in his left hand to cleanly cut off the head of the wolf. Just as it always happens, the wolf's carcass was enveloped by a bright light before it left behind a core. The drop rates always increased with the increase in strength.

Alex finally had the time to look at the swords in his hand. He had really doubted the capability of a rank 1 sword and now, he could finally feel the strength first hand. Compared to the swords that he had been using before, these short swords were on another whole level. He could somehow feel that the swords were sharper than the dagger. It seemed that the system's evaluation of quality was indeed high.

Before he could continue admiring the weapons, light shine in front of him before two dire wolves appeared. From what Alex observed, it seemed that these wolves were of the same pack as they shared the same traits and they had a good relationship with each other. After all, wolves from different packs always attacked each other as they both had different alpha wolves.

Alex decided to get rid of them as soon as possible so that he could use the five seconds of waiting to look further at the swords. He activated his movement technique, light steps and charged towards one of the wolves. With his improvement in speed after the breakthrough, Alex was now faster than the wolves.

Just like before, Alex swung the sword with all his might towards the wolf's neck. The wolf swung one of its paws to block the attack but the sword passed through the paw like it didn't exist. The sword reached the neck and made a huge cut of about two thirds of the wolf's neck. Alex didn't dilly-dally and swung the sword again disconnecting the head from the body.

As his swing completed, the other wolf was already upon him but Alex managed to roll to the side and he managed to avoid being torn by the wolf's claws. He immediately got to his feet and charged at the wolf that had just landed after its attack and it was still regaining its balance. He swung his sword towards the neck and the wolf failed to react on time and thus the sword easily cleaved its neck.

Alex took a breath before he closed his eyes. He was finally going to pass through these peak rank 1 monsters untill he reaches his limit. And thus Alex began his massacre on the dire wolves until the time that there were more wolves that could give him trouble. That's when he planned to stop since he didn't want to get himself killed.

Thud!

The head of the seventh wolf fell to the ground and rolled. Alex immediately collected the core that appeared after the monster disappeared and made a run for the door. This was just one of the disadvantages of the chaos room. If you want to leave, you have to reach the door on time so that you could be teleported outside. The only advantage was that one would be teleported outside the instant the door is touched.

Alex reached the door just as the wolves were being spawned and he was teleported to the safe area. Alex let out a deep breath of relief as the wolves were becoming troublesome to deal with as their numbers increased. The wolves mainly walk in a pack and thus their attacks are always coordinated. Even though Alex believed that he could face at most five peak rank 1 monsters, he hadn't considered the quality of the weapon.

In total, Alex had slayed twenty eight peak rank 1 wolves and he had earned himself eighteen cores which could be sold for eighteen gold coins. This was a good harvest for only two hours of grinding. The chaos room would only start repeating the monster spawning cycle after Alex slayed five initial rank 2 monsters. That implied that if Alex were to enter the room, he would face off against eight peak rank 1 dire wolves.

Now with all the cores in his inventory, Alex decided that it was time to make a facade. He didn't want people questioning him how he was capable of killing a peak rank 1 monster. The solution for that was for him to get some initial and mid rank 1 monster cores. Wasting no time, Alex selected the Ros that contained a combination of initial and mid stage rank 1 monsters and entered it.

Even though he was tired from the battle with dire wolves, these small fries were things that he could handle all by himself. After about thirty minutes, Alex was out carrying seven initial and two mid rank 1 monster cores. He didn't put them in the inventory as he wanted those that saw him enter the dungeon see him leaving with something and the holes on his clothes.

Since Alex got the inventory, he stored everything that he owned in it. He wanted to be ready to move at a moments notice. Even though he had clothes in the inventory, he didn't change them as there was no way a rank 1 mid stage hunter could fight against more than two mid rank 1 monsters and come out unscathed.

Touching the door, Alex was teleported to the main cavern where most of the hunters form diving parties. Although most of the people were adventurers, there were some that were not and they mostly form a party among themselves or with solo adventurers, those that didn't have a party like Alex.

As usual, Alex received various gazes from those that were present. They were either resting or preparing to enter the dungeon. Alex didn't bother with them and walked out of the dungeon and began walking towards the guild hall. For some reason, Alex could feel uneasiness and since he trusted his gut feelings, he was keenly watching his surroundings for anything suspicious.

His intuition was proved correct after he entered an alley. He wanted to change the clothes that he was having into something decent. His current clothes were tattered. As he was just about to remove his shirt, a group of five entered. They were both at the peak of rank 1 and one of them was in the initial rank 2.

"Hey kid, why don't you be a good boy and handover everything you've got?" said the rank 2 man. He was a middle aged man with thick beards and like all the usual hunters, he was wearing a full body armor while a sword was hanging on the side of his waist. He released some pressure from his rank being higher than Alex slowing him down.

Although Alex could still move if he used the light steps movement technique, he didn't because of the rank 2. Furthermore, even though he could easily kill a peak stage monster, the monsters didn't have enough intelligence like humans thus making fighting against fellow humans hard. Alex hardly had experience in fighting against humans as the only person he fought was Simon. As for the bandits that he met on his way to Kravon, that couldn't be considered a fight but bullying.

Alex only stared fearlessly at the group of people in front of him. He knew that these guys didn't come to rob him on a whim, they had been sent and he was sure he knew who did it. Even though the guild prohibited killing, who would know that someone was robbed yet he had no evidence considering what he or she was robbed. The badges didn't have names and neither would they show of their adventurer's card.

Alex looked at them all and made sure that he etched all of their faces in his memory. He wanted to make sure that by the time he would be strong enough to confront them, he would be capable of beating them back ten fold. Alex was thankful in his heart for having the inventory or who knew how much he would have lost?

Reluctantly, Alex removed the cores that he was having in his pockets and handed them over. He didn't want trouble and it seemed that these guys didn't want to beat him up as well. It seemed that their goal was to make his life difficult here in town. This was really going to be tough.

After receiving the cores, the leader of the group smiled at Alex and then said, "Good choice kid," and then the gang left Alex alone, standing in the alley. What they didn't notice was that Alex was smiling coldly as he watched them leaving and swore to himself to take his revenge.

*******

In a certain mansion in Kravon town.

"Have you done what I asked you to do?" asked a male voice.

"Yes, we took all his possessions without any trouble at all. We also did it away from the public's eye so it is confidential," replied the leader of the gang that robed Alex 'All' of his possessions.

"Good, make sure to make his life a living hell. I want him to experience what consequences befall those who defy the Quslo family," said the male voice. "You can leave," continued the voice after a moment of pause.

"Right away," replied the man as he left the room leaving behind the room that had someone sitting on a chair facing the wall.