The Dungeon [1]

To limit my interaction with Olivia as much as possible, I decided to relax in my seat, close my eyes, and pretend to sleep.

It worked for a few minutes.

My "sleep" lasted until Olivia started shaking me, saying.

"Hey, hey, wake up Michael."

'Gosh, can't even pretend to sleep in peace nowadays.' I thought as I slowly opened my eyes, looked at her, and asked.

"What is it- huh?" But while I was saying that I noticed that the lights inside the train stopped working. I could hear people on the train start to panic.

I looked out the window and realized that we weren't moving.

'Wait, where are we?' I thought when I saw the unfamiliar scenery.

As I was thinking about what happened, I heard Olivia saying.

"I think we are inside a dungeon."

"WHAT? How?" I asked in shock.

"If I were to guess, probably a gate appeared and sucked the train inside," she explained.

"Then how are we still alive? The train was going at speed at least above 800km/h. We would die on the impact."

"The train has a safety mechanism. I don't know how it works, though." Olivia continued to explain.

'Right, I should never forget that the novel revolved mainly around the main character. There is a lot about this world that the novel couldn't describe.' I thought to myself.

"Why are you so calm in this situation? Aren't you scared? We are trapped inside a Dungeon." I asked after noticing how calm she was.

"Well, I was already in a few dungeons."

She then continued.

"I'm a Hero."

"Huh? Really? What is your rank?" I asked, surprised.

"My rank is G."

"I see."

'So she has at least an overall rating of 2.' I thought as I was slowly getting curious about her stats.

The hero rank was given to you based on the overall rating you scored in special stat tests. It went as follows.

************************

[Rank] - Rating.

[G] - 2 or higher.

[F] - 3 or higher.

[E] - 5 or higher.

[D] - 8 or higher.

[C] - 12 or higher.

[B] - 17 or higher.

[A] - 23 or higher.

[S] - 36 or higher.

************************

Suddenly, she stood up. I decided to follow what she did, so I also stood up.

"So, what should we do?" Not knowing what to do, I decided to ask her.

'Now that I think about it, I should be safe. The person next to me was a heroine. She was a character that would appear in the novel, and the plot hasn't even started yet. That means she survived what was happening at the moment.'

"We need to clear this dungeon to get out," Olivia said. Then she continued and asked.

"Will you be able to kill a goblin?"

"I'm not sure, why do yo-"

While I was saying that, I heard the glass break behind me.

"Crouch down!" she shouted.

I saw a bow appear in Olivia's hand, and in less than a second, she aimed it at me and released an arrow.

Seeing her aiming at me, I quickly crouched down to dodge.

Then I heard a scream from behind me.

"Kiiiieee!"

For a second, I was confused about what just happened. I turned around and saw a dead goblin lying on the floor with a mana arrow penetrating his forehead.

I started to sweat. I could feel my heart beating faster and my head spinning. I sat down on the seat and looked at the goblin again.

That's when I realized.

I realized that-

'Oh fuck, shit.'

'Just now, Olivia saved my life.'

'I almost died. I almost fucking died, and I wasn't even able to react to the attack at all.'

'If not for her, I would be the one lying on the floor instead of that goblin.'

'Ah shit, goddammit!'

'I can't let this happen again.'

"Haa, haa," I gasped.

I tried to calm myself down while Olivia was shooting down the goblins that got inside the train.

'Alright, it's just a goblin.'

"Huu"

'A [G-] rank monster. They are weak, but they usually hunt in groups, which makes them hard to deal with.' I thought to myself as I tried to distract myself with random information.

'Just a goblin, just a goblin.'

As I felt myself calming down, I heard Olivia say.

"Are you alright?" While looking at me and reaching her hand to help me stand up.

"Yeah, I thin-" Behind her, I saw a goblin holding a dagger jump at her.

'She won't be able to react!'

'Ah, NO, I can't let her die!'

I felt the world around me slow down as the goblin slowly got closer.

At that moment, I realized something again.

I stupidly assumed that we would be fine, just because Olivia was a character from a novel. But I forgot about one thing, one factor that could change everything.

It was me.

Me being here changed what should have happened.

'Shit, I need to do something.' I thought while the goblin was getting closer and closer.

'Come on, come on, move!'

I quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to me.

I reached with my right hand above her shoulder, behind her.

I circulated my mana into the storage ring, and a sword appeared in my hand, with its blade right before the goblin's neck.

I slashed with all my strength and cut his head off. The green blood spurted on us, and I put the sword back.

"Huuu, huu, we are even now." I said as I could hear myself breathing heavily.

I realized that I was hugging her. But before I could do anything about it, I felt myself slowly losing consciousness as I powerlessly rested my chin on her shoulder.

'I seriously need to get stronger...' I thought before I completely blacked out.

...

When I woke up, I felt my head resting on something soft.

'Don't tell me...' I thought as I slowly opened my eyes.

What I saw was Olivia's face. She was looking straight at me.

'Did she just- I just got lap pillow'd...'

'A cliche, after cliche, what else should I expect from the novel's world?' I thought sarcastically.

When she realized that I woke up and was looking straight into her eyes, her cheeks turned red, and she turned her head away.

'Why are you blushing?'

'Oh no... I don't like where this is going.'

'Please, tell me I'm wrong.'

'This reminds me of a scene straight out from a rom-com story.'

I sat up next to her, and only then did I realize that we weren't inside the train anymore.

It was dark. I could see hundreds of people around. Probably the passengers that took the same train as me. They were chatting, eating, and some were also resting in silence.

It looked like we were inside the forest, so I guessed we were still inside a dungeon. Campfires were lighting up the camp's area.

"How are you feeling?" I heard Olivia next to me ask.

"I'm fine now, thanks," I replied, and then I continued.

"How long I was unconscious?"

"Around 2 hours," she answered.

An awkward silence enveloped us.

"Thanks for saving me earlier." I thanked her.

"Thanks for saving me too," Olivia replied while smiling a little.

"Status" I decided to check my status.

The window popped up in front of my eyes.

――――――――「 Status 」――――――――

Name : Michael Bertz

「 Stats 」

Rating : [1.01] +0.01

Vitality : [0.15]

Mana : [2.04] + 0.04

Strength : [0.6]

Agility : [0.6]

Intelligence : [1.65]

Luck : [2.8]

Special Point 0.01

「 Skills 」

――――――――――――――――――――――

After I killed the goblin, I gained 0.01 Special Points. I decided to leave it for later. I didn't know where to put it at the moment.

"Huh?" I noticed that my mana rose by 0.04.

'Is it because I continuously exhausted my mana pool today?' I wondered.

While checking my status, I heard Olivia say.

"Hey, what are your stats? You don't need to answer if you don't want to. I'm just curious."

"Oh, I don't mind telling you. My rating is..." While I was telling her my stats, I could see her expression change into the surprised one.

Well, compared to her, I was really weak. While she was killing goblins as if they were training dummies, I literally fainted after killing one.

After telling her my stats, I decided to ask about hers.

"Umm, my overall rating is..."

――――――――「 Status 」――――――――

Name : Olivia Heart

「 Stats 」

Rating : [2.65]

Vitality : [1.25]

Mana : [4.0]

Strength : [3.5]

Agility : [3.5]

Intelligence : [1.0]

Luck : [?]

「 Skills 」

――――――――――――――――――――――

I tried to create an image of her status inside my head as I listened to her revealing her stats. I already knew her skill, so I also added it in my imagination.

'Wow, she is stronger than I expected, almost 3 times stronger than me. It's no wonder that she could deal with the goblins so easily.' As I thought that, I heard a male voice nearby saying.

"Ykhm, I would like to inform you that we will be moving to attack the goblin camp in 10 minutes. Heroes that applied earlier for the raid, please gather around me."

To clear the dungeon, you had to kill the dungeon boss. The monsters inside this one were goblins. That meant that the dungeon boss would be a Goblin Shaman or Goblin Berserk. Both of them were [F] rank monsters.

I noticed Olivia next to me stand up.

"Huh? Are you going to participate in the raid?" I asked.

"Yeah, you want to go too?"

"No, I don't even have the hero license, and I'm too weak. I will be a burden." I replied while awkwardly scratching my head.

"Alright, see you later then."

"Good luck."

After she left, I thought about what I should do next.

'Hmm, I wonder how much mana I have left.'

I circulated my mana inside my body to check how much I had left.

'I still have around 80% of my mana pool. I guess it regenerated a little while I was unconscious. This much should be enough.' I thought.

As I saw the group of hunters with Olivia leave, I said to myself.

"I guess I should be on my way too."

Thank you for reading.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

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