Chapter 5 - Dungeon Exploration ( 2 )

I looked at my surroundings. A magnificent or unreal view appeared in front of me.

The bloody sky and earth. Everything is a mixture of red and black.

There is nothing normal or familiar here. Weird-looking trees that look like shivered corpses.

The red moon or sun in the sky gives the coldness instead of the usual light and warmth.

In the distance, you may see some moving skeletons here and there. Like a mindless puppet. Moving from one place to another without any clear destination.

For a while, I did not know what to do. Do I search for the monsters to fight or first observe the surroundings to be safe or move to another place?

Lots of questions and thoughts. I stopped my messy thoughts and decided to scout the surroundings first.

If there is a suitable target then fight if not move to another location. The main goal of coming to this dungeon is to get some battle experience and some things to increase strength in a short amount of time.

I found a well-hidden spot changed my gear into a Shadow Hunter set and put the nightfury on my waist.

My confidence increased as my gear gave me a great boost in strength. With some boosted stats I continued my scouting idea.

Soon I run around the whole area. There are lots of dead trees of various shapes. Occasionally I find a skeleton wandering around but decided not to engage in combat yet.

After making sure I was familiar with the terrain and possible escape paths I decided it was time for battle.

Just to be extra sure I found a lonely-looking skeleton to test the waters.

And to be extra sure I used scan on it.

' scan' ( David )

======

Name - normal skeleton

Rank - E - ( common)

Talent - none

Element - dark, undead

stats -

Stg - E -

Alg - F +

Stm - E -

Mana - F +

Mana recovery - F +

skills -

thrust ( E ) ( active ) - gather mana in the weapon to increase the speed and penetration damage to the enemy by 60%.

Weakness - soul fire in the skull, joints on arms and legs, neck, skull.

Status - healthy

======

 It's a normal monster and can not be more normal. A perfect partner for the newcomers like me to try.

I gathered all of my courage and waited patiently for the perfect opportunity.

As the skeleton got in my attacking range I charged at it in full force.

First I attacked its head at the fastest speed and before the poor skeleton could respond its head was blown into the sky.

But the skeleton is not dead yet as long as its soul fire or core stays intact.

So before the head fell on the ground I again cut it with my sword and its soul fire went out.

Like a puppet whose strings cut off the skeleton crumbled on the ground as soon as its soul fire got destroyed.

Now it's nothing but a pile of bones.

Just as I was about to touch the fallen bones to observe them a light appeared on the bones and in seconds all the bones were reduced to light spots which also scattered into the air and disappeared.

The only thing left behind is a broken piece of bone with some light surrounding it. The light is also dim.

I used a scan on it before touching it.

=======

Name - broken bone

Rank - E ( waste )

Element - dark, undead.

Description - a piece of broken bone that has some amount of dark and undead element mana. Can be used for various purposes.

Use - alchemy, puppet making, rituals, summoning, etc.

Note - a piece of useless bone.

======

First I was very doubtful of the dungeon loot system. It is like those RPG games. Kill the monster and it drops the loot.

Depending upon your luck or other things you may get rare or even better things or sometimes high-level bosses give nothing but trash things.

But seeing it happening in front of me is another experience.

I picked the bone and stored it in the bag.

With my gear and skills, these low-level monsters are not my opponents.

With a good start, I try to find more of these lone rangers or I say skeletons. My current goal is to get more familiar with my gear and skills in actual combat.

After killing some dozen normal skeletons my battle experience and confidence grew so I decided to challenge some stronger opponents.

After some searching, I finally found the perfect match.

A skeleton wearing upper body armour and holding a big sword.

Its size and gear are better compared to those normal level ones and there is a reason for it.

This is an elite-level skeleton.

======

Name - elite skeleton

Rank - E ( Elite )

Talent - none

Element - dark, undead.

Stats -

Stg- E +

Alg - E

Stm - E +

Mana - E -

Mana recovery - E -

Skills -

Thrust ( E ) ( active ) - gather mana in the weapon to increase the speed and penetration damage to the enemy by 75%.

Charge ( E ) ( active ) - increase the speed and attacking power by 65% when charging toward the opponent or target.

Weakness - soul fire, joint of legs, neck, skull.

Status - healthy

======

This is harder than those normal mobs but the thing I have to face later is stronger than this elite so if I can not even defeat it then there is no hope for the future.

With hard resolve, I focused on my target.

Slowly the elite skeleton entered my attacking range. I patiently waited for it to come in perfect range while hiding.

As soon as the elite skeleton appeared in the most desired location I shot out.

This time I did not go for the skull or neck but attacked its knees.

A heavy attack on its knees made its balance collapse which gave me the right opportunity to attack its head.

Without wasting any time I attacked its skull. Due to the force and high grade of my sword the skull of the elite skeleton was shattered and its soul fire also went out.

Like the previous skeleton, it also lost its movement and crashed onto the ground as soon as the soul fire went out. Soon it dissolved into the mana particles and left behind a larger bone.

I know all the loot here is bones so without wasting time I put the bone in the bag and prepared to find another target.

Due to my superior gear, I can defeat elite monsters higher than my rank but this much is not enough to satisfy me. It's just the beginning of a great time.

***

2 days later

Somewhere in the dungeon area large skeleton dropped on the ground and scattered into the light particles. Like a symbol of its presence, it dropped a big bone on the ground.

The thing is there are lots of similar bones scattered around it. Looks like the poor guy was not alone on its journey towards the end.

A person walked toward the bones and put them in the bag.

This person is David who has been staying in this dungeon for days.

After 2 days of fighting, I can fight multiple elite skeletons at the same time.

The first goal of coming to this dungeon is completed. I got combat experience I lacked before so let's move toward the second goal.

I moved in a specific direction and soon arrived at the special place or it looked like any other place in this dungeon area. This applies to those who do not know the secret hidden in this ordinary place.

There is a piece of broken wall and a dead tree beside it. Why is there a wall in this dungeon?

Many believe that dungeons are some sort of mini-worlds bound to Earth and there was a civilization in them. Due to unknown reasons, all these worlds transformed into dungeons that are filled with monsters.

 I sneered at these claims.

'Only if they knew the whole truth. Poor souls, can they handle the truth? leave it for later.' ( David )

 If I am not mistaken it is the place I am looking for.

The tree looked like a D-shaped letter. I took out the blood-filled glass tube and threw it on the broken wall.

Nothing happened for a couple of minutes but suddenly the blood on the wall moved in a particular direction.

Soon some weird characters or words appeared on the wall made of blood. After that, these words dissolved into the wall and a door-shaped passage appeared on the wall.

This was supposed to happen with the original MC of this story. During the fighting, the original MC accidentally splashed some of his blood on this wall while fighting multiple skeletons or I say tide of skeletons and all those were elite ones.

Behind this passage is the hidden boss of this dungeon and the thing I wanted.

I checked my gear and stepped into the passage.

A dark passage with no light. I turned on a flashlight and cautiously moved deeper into the passage.

After walking some distance I arrived in front of the door-shaped thing.

I stood in front of the door. During the walk, I confirmed my theory.

This was not an ordinary passage. It has a strange illusion spell or skill on it. The original MC suffered a lot until he reached this door-looking thing as those illusions were hard to defend and fight.

My guess was the illusion only worked on the person whose blood splashed on the wall. So I just brought an ordinary ranker's blood from the black market to test if my theory was correct or not.

During my walk, I did not encounter any illusions so my guess was correct.

I took a deep breath and pushed the door.

The door seemed to be new as it did not even make a sound or cause any friction while opening.

I stepped inside the door and looked around with the flashlight. Just as I fully stepped inside the door a dazzling light appeared everywhere.

The whole area gets bathed in light. I looked around for possible danger but did not find anything. My senses did not warn me which means there is no danger for now.

While I was hunting those skeletons I developed or I say boosted David's previous danger alert senses. It is a common skill mentioned in many novels. A great skill in the face of danger.

I let out a smirk behind my mask at the ridiculous attempt of someone or something but did not do anything out of the ordinary.

What appeared in front of me was an abandoned laboratory. Yes, a lab in the dungeon. Well, there are crazy people out there who can do anything so nothing is surprising with the lab in the dungeon.

I looked at the old but not damaged tools and other things on the tables. There is nothing else but these tools and machines in the whole laboratory.

No papers or any other data were found even after searching for the whole lab. My inner ridicule increased with each detail but I did not show it.

I put those tools in the bag. Maybe these will fetch high prices in the market. Research stuff is always expensive.

After making sure there was nothing else to see I arrived at the centre of the lab.

There is a large cylindrical-shaped capsule fixed with various machines and pipes. For now, all machines are off and nothing is shown of them.

Beside the cylindrical thing, there is a computer-like screen. I tried to start it and it started, unlike those other machines that remained off despite how much I tried to turn them ON.

The computer has lots of files but all are locked with a password. Only a single video file is not locked.

I clicked on the video and it started to play on the screen.

A person appeared on the screen. They seem to be fixing the camera angle as it shakes constantly.

After setting the camera at the right angle the person sat on the chair and looked at the camera.

The identity of the person is a man who has blonde hair and a pale face. It looks like the man is suffering from some sort of disease or something like that as his face looks similar to the person who is sick for days.

His eyes also have some dark circles under his eyes. While his face looks dead his eyes remain sharp and bright.

They have lots of emotions in them. Like anger, sadness, excitement, happiness, etc.

Man's eyes have many complex mixtures of emotions but his face hardly shows any of the emotion like a dead man.

As the man opened his mount a slightly harsh but clear voice came out.

[ hi if you are watching this video then it means you have arrived at this place and I am no longer in this world.]

[ you may or may not know me but let me introduce myself anyway. My name is Luke and I am a scientist.]

[ my field is biology. I work on both human and mutant bodies. I study these things mainly as I have a passion for them. How can a living creature have this many changes? It's like every mutant or human out there represents a new evolution path. How exciting. I can not wait to research...…..ahem. Sorry about that I get off-topic when it comes to my research.]

[ my studies may look like nonsense or even evil to some people but this is it. The world's first doctor was first a surgeon as without knowing the body inside how do we cure it? Something similar to this as I remember.]

[ I do not think anything is evil in the world of science and research. Everything can be discussed or studied. Anything means anything.]

[ back to my topic. I was studying...…]