Chapter 3: Careless Grinding

There were times when I had opportunities. Opportunities that could have changed my life. But I was too afraid to take the risks. Sometimes I was just ignorant, sometimes I convinced myself I'd get another chance. Other times I just dismissed them entirely, thinking I wasn't ready just yet. But deep down I knew…I was afraid of failing. So, I didn't even try.

I turned down almost all the good opportunities in my early life because they were hard, and later down the road, when I really needed them, I couldn't find any. I couldn't find any opportunity let alone something decent.

Nothing.

That's why I didn't back down. I couldn't back down. Even if it meant death, I was going to fight this thing, and I was going to go down like a man, or slime rather.

Bounce, bounce!

I was bouncing through a rather downward slope which accelerated my bounces to a frightening degree.

I closed in the distance and saw it. Scaly body, biped, hairy groin. It wore nothing yet had a bow and arrows. The moment it saw me rushing forward, it turned and dashed; I suppose it knew I meant business. However, I was still technically faster and caught up. Without putting too much thought into it, I did the same thing the other slimes had done to me. But instead of starting from the leg, I started from the head; I could jump high just by thinking. Its head slowly disintegrated as it screamed and gurgled and wailed around helplessly. But soon enough the whole thing was gone.

I'd just murdered a sentient thing. Yet, I felt nothing. No, that wasn't it. I felt good, as though I'd just made progress. As though I could take the first bounce.

No longer stuck….

[Goblin Absorbed]

[Tutorial quest: Kill and Absorb the goblin completed.]

[Received 100P]

[Mini Map Unlocked]

[New skill acquired: Goblin Archery]

A small translucent round map appeared on the far-right corner of my vision. It mapped out the area I came from and the area I hadn't ventured yet was fogged out. But most importantly the map showed there were enemies ahead. It didn't show any details about what the monsters were but I didn't need that. I could tell, almost everything ahead were goblins.

But of course, there was something else. If this was a dungeon, then there was a dungeon boss. Given the layout and the stuff I saw so far, there was no chance in hell this was an ordinary cave. Which was precisely why, I bounced forward.

[Tutorial quest: Map the dungeon issued.]

The whole dungeon? Dungeons had multiple floors, you know! I wasn't necessarily upset though. If anything, I might have been a little excited even. So, I 'can' feel emotions. My experiences so far were pretty dull, so I'd just assumed I couldn't feel any emotion. But I suppose that wasn't the whole truth. Maybe I was subconsciously suppressing them.

The area around me changed a little. The solid ground became rocky and not so smooth. Also, there wasn't a slope anymore. It was a little hard to bounce around without rolling but it wasn't impossible. As for the monsters, they were really far away from each other. I suppose these things were territorial? But what was that boy doing here in this dungeon full of monsters? Judging by his clothes, he didn't seem like an adventurer or whatever they were called in this world. If anything, he looked like a beggar on the streets who made it here by luck and then died and then I took over? And the slimes too.

I expected this place to be crawling with slimes. But I didn't see or rather feel a single one. All I felt were goblins. And yes, I could feel they were around me, even though they were out of my radar's radius. I just needed to focus.

My minimap showed me all the monsters in the area, so I vaguely understood the layout of the map. This floor had an area of about half a kilometer. Since I could feel the monsters, that ruled out the possibility of surprise attacks. Of course, that didn't mean I was bouncing around mindlessly. Speaking of monsters, one was just ahead, behind a rock.

[Warning, HP critically low. Fighting ill-advised]

Thanks for the warning my mute friend.

Turning back wasn't an option though. I could have consumed the revival elixir but that would have been a major waste. Meanwhile, I'd already blasted through an ambush, I knew what to expect. Assuming it was a goblin archer of course. And if it didn't have ranged abilities, even better!

I neared the rock and was about to jump over it, but the thing lounged forward before me. Bigger and taller than a typical goblin and with muscles. This one didn't have clothes either and was much hairier. It also had a big axe which it swung straight at me. Well, that was stupid. Did turning into a monster make me go senile? Guess, I was going to die again. This run felt like a literal dream though.

Huh, why the hell isn't this thing hitting me already?

What the fuck?

The axe had stopped midway. It was just there. I was hanging in the air too. I tried moving and could move but it was really hard to. Like I was squeezing through a small hole or something. I slowly moved away and climbed the axe, crawling ahead wrapping myself around the goblin's neck.

Swoosh!

The axe hit the ground with a clink.

Hiss! With a burning sound I began melting the goblin. "ARGHHH!!!" It screamed and tried to punch its neck. I jumped up and landed on its head this time.

It wailed around in hopeless fury and almost smashed its head on the damn ground. It looked at me with teary scorched eyes by the end of it, pleading for its life.

Would you have shown me mercy? No, no you wouldn't have.

In a last-ditch effort, it tried to pick up the axe. I made sure to finish it off before that though. I also consumed the whole body along with the axe.

[Hob Goblin Absorbed]

[Crude Iron Absorbed]

[Strength increased]

[Speed increased]

[You have leveled up!]

[Skill acquired: Goblin rage]

 Level: 4

Strength: 4

Speed: 4

Mana: 3

HP: 2/9

Was it me or were my stats still garbage?

Also, why didn't leveling up restore my health to full like in those games and stuff? Also, where the hell was my healing spring!

Do I seriously have to waste my elixir?

Sigh… but still, what was that? Why had the goblin just stopped midair? I tried fiddling with my menu but I hardly saw anything. Stopping time, time magic. But it wasn't me. Heck, I couldn't use magic anyway and I didn't have the option on the system either.

Hey Bestiary, do you know what happened back then?

Nope, it didn't answer me. How can I heal my health to full?

Bestiary: You may consume gemstones or high-density cores. Even corrupted cores will help, given your natural resistance to corruption.

Hmm… so cores. I had two HP, and if a typical goblin arrow could chop off one, then I was definitely going to die if I got hit with an axe like this hob goblin. However, I couldn't just sit here and do nothing either. I had to find gemstones and stuff. Luckily, I was in a dungeon and you could totally find treasures and stuff, here, right?

Right!?

I can't see a single darn thing other than just rocks though.

Didn't rocks have ores and stuff?

Ah…. Something dawned. I had the dissolve skill. Hey, don't you think I can dissolve rocks and stuff too? Obviously, even if rocks did have some minerals in them, they were mostly super scarce but… but I had a lot of rock just lying around.

The Bestiary didn't say anything again. Yet, I felt…I felt it sigh.

Heh heh.

I bounced happily, found some large rocks and the soothing sizzling sound settled in. Reminiscent of the days I spent lazing on the balcony on a sunny day as dad sizzled steaks on the grill and…

Sigh.

[Absorbed Magnetite]

[Absorbed Hematite]

[Absorbed Copperlite]

[Synthesize skill acquired!]

[Can now synthesize Crude Iron]

[Absorbed Komatiite]

[Absorbed Gold Ore]

[Absorbed Galena]

[Absorbed Manatite]

[Mana stat increased]

[Can now synthesize Gold, Magnesium, Sulfur, Copper and Manastone]

I had basically absorbed the whole floor down to the very bedrock. Apparently, there was nothing down there. I guess I was at the very bottom floor of the dungeon?

The moment I absorbed Manatite, I felt my body surge with energy and apparently that restored my health to full. The other stuff did virtually nothing. Still, being able to synthesize elements was pretty cool. Specially the gold one. However, as I went through the bestiary and how it worked… it required a lot of mana. I had a feeling the Manatite ores (Yellow glowing ores) could be used to cheat my mana stat up quickly but finding them could be a chore. I only found one baseball sized clump at the very bottom of the floor.

Anyway, with all that over, I bounced away. This was going to be a little grindy but- Time to repeat the same thing. But for the whole damn floor, starting with the first room!