1 A Useless Unique Skill?

'What a shit Skill... And it's supposed to be a Unique Skill... "Ultimate Recovery"? What a joke...' A sixteen-year-old boy thought as he stared at the blue sky, his back on the ground.

His face was bloody, his right arm was burnt and his whole body was covered with bruises.

The boy had brown messy hair and pale white skin.

His height was above average but he was very thin.

The next instant, every injury on the boy's body started healing extremely fast.

After a minute, his bruises were gone, his skin was no longer burnt and his wounds became scars.

'A Skill that makes me nothing more than a punching bag...'

Luke got up and made his way back home.

The boy lived in an extremely small studio alone, as he was an orphan.

"It's been six days since the Ceremony For New System Holders took place..." Luke whispered to himself as he started taking a shower.

The Ceremony For New System Holders took place every year on the 15th of March.

On that day, all sixteen years old teenagers are blessed with a "System" that shows many pieces of information about the user but also gives the ability to use magic through what is called Skills.

While many study how "Systems" work, none have any idea where those "Systems" come from.

The same was true for Dungeons, which were dangerous areas filled with monsters and strange hostile creatures.

To the average person, Systems and Dungeons are but a part of their everyday life.

A rite of passage, some would say, acquiring a System is. It is proof that the young boy or girl is growing up.

"This sucks... Mark got a Fire Ball Magic Skill, Carl got a Physical Reinforcement Skill and am stuck with the punching bag Skill..."

The Skill Luke developed after acquiring his System was "Ultimate Recovery", a Skill that allowed him to recover at an extremely high pace.

"Those guys pick on me again, and again, and again. I'm sick of it. Why did I have to get such a shitty Skill?? Not only that, but my Stats are average at best! Defending myself is impossible..."

Luke got out of the shower.

He breathed deeply trying to change his mind as the next day was an important one.

"The Initiation..." Luke said out loud while looking at the posters on his wall.

The posters were those of Heroes he had admired since his childhood.

Ever since he was a little boy, he dreamt of being one of those Heroes or Hunters who courageously faced the beasts inside those Dungeons.

But now, that dream seemed out of reach.

The Initiation took place on the seventh day after The Ceremony For New System Holders.

While all adults had a System, not all of them depended on it daily.

Except for the Hunters and the Heroes, the rest of the population had normal jobs.

Therefore, the Initiation only concerned those who had an interest in Dungeons.

Luke's right hand was shaking.

"It's okay. We're going to go down a beginner-level Dungeon under the guidance of many Hunters. We're going to learn a bit, get some first-hand experience, and come back. No harm, no foul..."

But he couldn't relax. As a matter of fact, he couldn't sleep all night.

...

Even though he hadn't slept, Luke still arrived thirty minutes late.

"What are you doing showing up so late? Put these on and follow the group. Hurry!" One of the Hunters shouted at him.

Luke put on the clothes he was given.

Military pants, a military vest and a white tank top.

He ran towards the group as they had already started entering a black cave.

'The Abyssal Dungeon! A Dungeon made up of many floors. Each floor can be considered a Dungeon on its own. Nobody knows how deep the Dungeon goes. Some think that it goes down until the center of the earth! The lower you go, the stronger the monsters you encounter. On the lowest floor, the monster's strength would be unimaginable, but that is also why its first floor is a beginner-level Dungeon that the average System Holder can clear. It has both the easiest and hardest Dungeons to clear...' Luke recited to himself the things he had learned in preparation for this day.

He positioned himself at the back of the group and entered the dark cave with the rest.

Once the group was about 50 meters inside the cave, a Hunter with a list started calling out the names of all the sixteen-year-olds who had been at The Ceremony For New System Holders.

Of course, many weren't present as not everyone wants to become a Hunter. Some felt that their life was too precious to risk.

Once Luke's name was called out, he answered "He-re..." with a weak and uncertain voice.

Many chuckles were heard after that.

"NO WAY! He really came! The loser came!" Someone shouted.

It was Mark, the bully who could shoot Fire Balls.

Right after the group resumed walking, a small group of three teenagers had decided to slow down and let Luke catch up to them.

"Hey, Luke! You're here!" Carl said enthusiastically as he gave him a pat on the back.

While it looked like a gentle gesture, he had used his Physical Reinforcement Skill, which made the pat feel more like a punch.

Mark grabbed Luke's arm and raised it up.

"Look! His scars are gone, even the burn marks I gave him!" He said.

Luke tried to pull his arm away, but his Strength Stat was lower than average. He was absolutely defenseless.

"Oh! There's a hole here..." Zayn, the third teenager of the group, whispered to them.

The three showed a wicked smile full of hatred and malice.

They started pulling him towards a hole on the floor.

It was barely visible.

As soon as Luke tried shouting, he received a strong punch on the chin from Carl.

He barely managed to keep his consciousness from dozing off.

"Are you guys sure we should do this?" Zayn asked, having second thoughts.

"Oh, whatever. He'll get up and climb back up. He'll be fine. You know, punching bags have to be replaced after Carl hit them a couple of times with his Physical Reinforcement Skill. But this guy is as good as new even though we left him on the ground yesterday! Dont worry about him!"

The words 'punching bag' made Luke's blood boil, still, he couldn't do anything.

He was thrown into the hole.

As Luke started falling, his speed got higher and higher.

"WHAT THE HELL??" He shouted as he had expected to have already hit the floor.

But he kept falling, faster and faster.

The three boys looked at him as he fell lower and lower.

Part of him wished he would hit the floor soon, part of him wished to never hit the floor.

His heartbeat was beyond the charts and his whole body was shaking.

'I need to slow down!!!' Mark thought.

As the tunnel was narrow, he simply extended his legs towards one of the walls.

As soon as his legs touched the wall, he was thrown away and towards the other wall.

[You have lost 5 Health Points.]

Luke's body kept hitting the walls as he fell down in a staircase motion, zigzagging from one wall to the other.

"AHHH!" Luke shouted.

With the sounds of countless bones breaking, he finally hit the ground.

Luke had fallen on his back and was now unconscious.

The bones in his legs, arms and back were broken and he was bleeding immensely.

Thirty seconds later, he opened his eyes.

A message from the System was in front of him.

[Warning! Critical HP level reached!]

Behind that message was a human skull and many bones.

Luke tried asking how many Health Points he had left, but suddenly the pain from all his broken bones came at once.

Luke shouted and cried like he never did before.

A minute later,

[HP Level has been stabilized.]

With that, the intense pain was pretty much gone, but for some reason, his throat was burning.

He could now move his body, so he decided to get up.

As soon as Luke looked in front of him, he regretted that decision.

In front of him, was a land of bubbling lava.

'Where the hell am I?'

The next instant, he noticed a wooden chest a couple of meters in front of him.

'A Treasure Chest?'

As he got closer, he could read inscriptions on it.

[For you who has gotten here, either by courage, foolishness or luck, we leave this gift.]

Luke opened it.

[You have received one Water Blessed Sword.]

[You can find the Item inside your Inventory.]

'A blessed weapon? These can be sold for so much!!!'

Luke shook his head.

"Where am I?"

[You are currently on the Dungeon's Fifth Floor.]

"The Fifth Floor?" He shouted.

Luke scratched his head again and again.

His surprise soon turned to fear which soon turned to terror.

"This is it! Am going to die here! What else is there to do! A shitty sword won't all of a sudden make me a strong Hunter!! NO NO NO NO, THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!" He said hysterically while looking at the bones around him and the burning lava.

He tried climbing back from where he had fallen, but it was impossible.

The rocks that made up the tunnel were extremely smooth.

His hands could not grab hold of them.

Behind Luke, a wall. In front him, a path in the middle of burning lava.

'Should I just take that path? Won't that wake up a bunch of monsters?'

Luke shook his head and started walking down the path.

Suddenly, a bubble in the lava bursted at Luke's left.

As he was terrified, that made him jump away towards his right.

Luke fell to the ground.

An intense pain like he had never felt before made him stand up and jump back to where he had been standing before.

He looked at his right hand.

Luke had dipped it inside the lava.

The skin looked more like torched coal than human skin.

He could see his bones at certain spots.

Luke's heart sank.

He felt dizzy and was about to fall to the ground.

"That's it. Am dying." Luke whispered to himself as he fell on his butt from the shock.

'If not the lava, monsters. If not the monsters, the lava. I can't get out of here. I don't even have Gold to... Maybe I should just...'

Just as he was thinking about using his newly acquired sword to give himself a quick death, Luke realized something.

His hand was healing.

The dark burnt skin was being replaced by fresh and healthy-looking skin.

The bones were and less visible as his lost muscles were coming back.

About a minute later, his hand was back to normal.

Luke kept looking at the healing process in disbelief.

"What...The...Hell..." He whispered to himself.

His heart started pumping blood into his body much faster than before.

Luke could even feel a hint of excitement.

'This Skill... Is more than I thought it was...' He thought.

He raised his gaze towards the path.

'Maybe... I can do this...?'

Luke used all his knowledge about Hunters, Heroes and Dungeons to come up with a plan to survive.

He only found one.

'Let's pray this works.' He thought.

The next instant, he dipped both his hands into the burning lava for three seconds.

Luke bit his mouth to keep himself from screaming.

As he raised them outside of the lava, they were completely burnt, but seconds later, they started healing.

Luke kept at it, again and again.

Burning his hands, resting and burning them again.

After a while,

[You have developed the Passive Skill: Fire Resistance.]

He wanted to shout and celebrate.