Death City: The First Step 

As it turned out, I overestimated myself, thinking that I could hold out until the end of the week before going into the dungeon.

All my thoughts were revolving exclusively around the levels and dungeons. I was like a gamer who had been waiting for the release of the next part of my favourite franchise for a very long time, so I couldn't just lay down and do nothing.

At the beginning, I decided to talk a walk, and while I was thinking about my stats and some incomprehensible for now aspects of the system – for example the stats for luck, I don't know how I got there but I found myself very close to one of my weapons caches. I've long forbidden myself from taking the guns without a desperate need for it, but it indeed was a good enough reason, was it not?

In short, a couple of calls to some shocked individuals, and by noon I'm already at the entrance to an E-rank dungeon. A dagger and a pistol are at my belt. In the hands I am holding a machine gun. On the body there is a leather armour with built-in metal plates. There's a hidden knife in the sleeve. In one tooth is a flask of poison in case I am left with only my teeth to fight, and in a tooth next to it there is an antidote for me to avoid poisoning myself. The boots have a retractable blade attached to the sole. There is a considerable amount of ammunition in the inventory. And most importantly-in the pants there is a shield protecting the main treasure of any man.

I am ready.

A certain excitement was settled in my heart. Which sounds strange, since usually it was unwillingness but now it can be called anticipation. Will my confidence rise after killing the monsters? How quickly will I be able to level up? How far will I go?

I was almost trembling. And it was impossible to not smile given my excitement.

After passing through a red spatial rift six meters high and half a meter wide that appeared here four hours ago and was classified as a passage to the lowest E rank dungeon, I found myself in a new space.

Even though these bizarre realms are called dungeons, it is not because there are tunnels or that we are underground. At the very beginning people were living their lives as if they were in RPG games, and these realms were associated with in game "dungeons", and so the name spread throughout the world. But, nevertheless, there is a certain pattern in dungeons – usually it is something closed, with not too much light and are very confusing. For example, the pyramids.

Why do I say "usually"? Because personally, I have seen a lot of dungeons that two worlds apart from this concept.

But even I didn't expect this.

"Why am I not surprised?" - I chuckled, looking around.

I've seen all sorts of things, of course, but to be in the middles of a burning city full of the undead monsters walking around, never seen it. Okay, can't lie to everyone, I did indeed experience something like this once before. Only here it was night, not a day with a naturally yellow "sun". But it wasn't the colour of the sun that was the problem, but white teeth, a straight nose, and mocking eyes! That globular face didn't even dazzle! And it laughed, allowing you to fully enjoy this surreal spectacle.

"I got into some weird sh*t again, didn't I?" - I asked the question that had remained unanswered - "Maybe I should sit here and wait until this is over?"

Unfortunately, my dreams did not come true. As if they knew what I wanted to do, they moved me right into the middle of this madness.

Undead is not the worst option for opponents. The undead are slow and easy to hit. Of course, it is very difficult to kill them completely, especially if you're fighting in hand – to – hand combat. Anyway, I like the undead dungeons much more than dungeons filled with goblins – that's who really annoys me with their stupidity and amazing cunningness. Although the undead dungeons have their disadvantages too – in particular, the bosses from these dungeons are considered one of the strongest in this rank.

Well I don't care about it right now, since I was running, running for my life. I can't allow the undead to surround me. There are way too many enemies here and if I am surrounded, it means certain death, since the least they can do is step over me till I die.

As I was running, a log appeared before my eyes. I quickly went through what was written, and when I was sure that there was nothing urgent, I waved it off. The streets here were crowded with dead men slowly walking behind me and towards me. I don't have time to waste on this. If this had happened during the battle, I might have been killed. I will need to try to do something with these logs that appear without any warning.

I found a suitable place to rest after a while. It was a small shop. Ordinary, unremarkable. But there were metal bars on the windows, and there was only one dead zombie inside.

I jumped in, lowered the bars, and slammed the door. This should stop the undead from coming inside – they are not particularly strong, although they are tenacious creatures.

I took care of the one who was inside, that had already started to walk slowly in my direction. After walking a few meters, I found a suitable weapon. However, to obtain it, it was necessary to break the shaft of a mop, but that's not the point. I had the opportunity to save some bullets just like that.

A second later, the shaft went straight into its eye and pierced the brain. The undead died immediately.

Now I can check what the system is spouting there.

[+++++++++++++++++++++++++++]

Received a rare quest: Soul Guide.

Description: You have entered a dimension with many suffering souls. Save them.

Objective: Kill all the undead in the dungeon.

- Undead: 1/1000.

- Death Warriors: 0/100.

- Legion of Death: 0/10.

- Servant of Death: 0/1.

Reward:

- weapon "Murderer"

- +50 skill points.

Penalty: Death.

[+++++++++++++++++++++++++++]

I couldn't believe my eyes right away. I read it again. Then more and more.

"What the hell?" - my next question remained unanswered. - "Although, why am I surprised – it's me we are talking about." - a deep sigh escaped my lungs.

I closed my eyes and tried to catch my breath. No matter how good I am physically developed, a few minutes of fast running is not easy even for me.

Returning to the quest – there is nothing I can do about the conditions, I guess. I have no choice, especially considering the fine. But still, the number of undead here really surprised me. Usually, there are about two hundred monsters in an E-rank dungeon. In cases where the dungeon is complex and is on the verge of reaching a D-rank, it may contain under five hundred opponents in it. But not more than a thousand!

"And that's not the worst..."

In the normal E-rank dungeons with undead, the Boss is the Legion of Death, and here there are as many as ten of them. After all, they are considered one of the strongest low-ranking bosses! Moreover, in this dungeon there is also a "real boss", the one to be killed from the list and of course, this does not make it easier for me. How strong is he?

"A f*cking E-rank dungeon." - I sighed. – "I guess, logically speaking, a Minion of Death should be a D-rank Boss, right?" - of course, no one answered me again. – "I wonder if I kill so many monsters will it allow me to reach the necessary level for killing the big boss?"

Deciding to check something out, I called up the status. Nothing has changed, only the percentage of experience has increased.

"That's it, the level really rises up… But it only filled six percent of level EXP bar, for one undead guy" - I closed my eyes and started counting in my head. – "In short, we'll sort it out as we go on with the raid." - I said. – "What was needed again? Kill the undead? Okay, let's do it." - I nodded to my thoughts. – "But before that ... system's settings?"

I wasn't sure it would work. But it worked. Maybe this system works on my understanding of it or maybe 5000 in luck I have allowed me to guess the correct words to activate the system, but as the result, everything worked out.

I had to tinker with it. A few minutes had certainly passed when I finally looked up from the settings. Basically, all this was done for convenience. For example, now my interface is "3D", and the position in the space of game windows is easily adjusted by a simple thought. I was also able to activate the "name display" and "level display" functions of other creatures. In addition, I turned on "loot", and now, when I touch the corpse, I get access to everything it had with it and I could take it if I wanted to.

In short, I activated everything that the "Player Body" presented me with.

To my surprise, however, I didn't have full access – not even half. The system says it's still adjusting to me, and until this process is over, I shouldn't interfere with too many aspects of it.

Oh, yes, there were no MP and HP scales. I'm not sure if they will appear in the future, but I don't have it right now.

The first thing I decided to do was to check up on the zombie I had killed and touch it with the intention of going through its belongings. And indeed, a window appeared in front of my eyes with a list of everything it has on it, its organs, bones and everything else that could be obtained from it, including the Soul Core and the last thing is the only thing I took from it.

"Convenient!" - I said, looking at my inventory. There was the "E-rank Monster Soul Core" – "Life is getting better, isn't it!" – now I don't have to cut up monsters trying to carve out those pebbles.

Leaving the corpse lying there, I walked around the store I was in. I've never been in such dungeons, but there is a rule that everything in the dungeons is quite real. And, therefore, the money from the cash register and everything that I take from the store itself must also be real.

From the store I got three hundred dollars – that was the currency in the cash register – and I got a whole bunch of bladed weapons. Knives, an axe, a tire iron and various pieces of wood with a sharp end. Of course, I took the food as well.

While I was making money, I was also checking the capacity of the inventory, since there was so much there. To my great joy, when 72 slots were filled, six more free slots appeared. And then more and more. Just for fun, I stuffed into the inventory everything that could be sold in the game store down to the least amount of money – TV's, computers, and so on.

By the time I finished, a whole crowd of walking dead had gathered on the outside. They stood at the bars, proving that they only need they got for brains is to eat them.

I looked closely at the opponents, and, indeed, I saw what I wanted.

[Undead. Level 5]

I threw at him the first knife, which went right into its forehead. It fell to the ground being completely dead. I checked the status, the EXP percentage increased again. Great.

Another undead fell after the first. Then Another and another. Fortunately, I was quite skilled at throwing knives, and as it turned out, I really needed this skill, given that I don't have an infinite amount of ammo. Yes, and it would be nice to steal…I mean look into some other places, pick up money, weapons.

After about twelve undead men and women were finally killed, the exit was clear. Of course, I didn't leave my weapons wasting in the corpses, and the soul cores had to be collected. So, I spent a couple of minutes doing it, during which two more walking dead, who had noticed me, were released from their torment.

To my surprise, many of the undead had money on them. Several tens or even hundreds of dollars. So, I'm another four hundred dollars richer.

"The level up isn't that far away," - I said to myself as I started to walk away from the store. - "One more killed undead…»

I was excited. Very excited. For ten years, my strength has not increased. Even as my body grew, I couldn't hit a punch stronger than I did no matter how much I have trained. Even when I was spending five hours a day training in the gym, I couldn't lift more weight. And now the long awaited – level up. Of course, I was not sure if anything would change. But the probability is very high, which is even more exciting.

"Here is the target." - I grinned when I saw the figure twenty meters away. I reached into my inventory and pulled out a knife. - "Come to your Daddy, you little assh*le, I'll get you out of your misery, you be a good boy and raise my level."

After waiting a little longer until the undead was seven meters away, I threw my knife. A direct hit to the head.

"Finally." - my grin turned into a natural wide smile. A second passed. One more. There is still no message about the level increase – "Stop. Did not get any EXP!?" - I was surprised when I checked the status.