CH6: Into The Dungeon

I chugged a bottle of water because I didn't trust the tap. Going one credit more into debt wasn't going to kill me. Not finding a source of revenue would.

The walls of the apartments were thin. I heard too much and knew the skills trees of most speakers. Once I sensed a particular skill tree, I knew when it was in my range. Maybe it had something to do with gold pills. Black pills were hard to detect; maybe gold pills were good at detection.

One of the skill trees winked out. It was a pink one; she had been raising the debt to buy things for her room. It was only a matter of time before Someone killed her. Despite going into debt, I doubted she had insurance, so the guy who killed her probably saved us money.

In less than a day, a murder happened practically right in front of me. This wasn't a gunshot I barely heard and a story on Tictock. People were dying, and I was too chicken shit to go to my world.

Psyching myself up wasn't going to do it. This was something I had to force myself to do. Live or die, at least it would be something more than hiding and hoping things changed.

An open jail cell greeted me after my teleportation. Water dripped down from a higher floor, and a corpse sat on the only bench. Groaning sounds filled the halls tempting me to shut the jail cell door and risk it locking. Despite the dead body, the cell smelled more like mildew than rot. I gave the corpse a better look and came to an unwelcome realization.

The corpse was better dressed than me.

I saw a green silk shirt, light armor, and nice leather boots. My ball shorts and wife beater weren't doing much for protection.

"Nice try. I've seen enough scary movies to know the corpse is a zombie," I said.

The dungeon is impressed with your deduction.

+1 WIS

WIS 11

"Wasn't the dungeon supposed to be asleep? Is this an automated system?" I asked.

There was no response, so asking a question didn't automatically give me stat points. It was good to know there were ways to get stats. My skill tree didn't give stats directly unless I leveled it up. That could only happen if I killed a lot of enemies. Fortunately, a dungeon was the right place for that.

"Let's get along," I said.

A screen appeared in front of my face.

The dungeon enjoys your positivity.

+1CHA

CHA 10

I turned off notifications. They were big, flashy, and would only get in my way. I needed to get out of the dungeon and find 3 needles in a planet-wide haystack. Maybe I should get some gear first; dungeons were supposed to drop gear when monsters were killed or in chests.

The door creaked when I moved it open wider. Groans filled the hallway, but I didn't hear many of them. I tested the door and found that it was indeed locked. Closing it would be permanent unless there was a key nearby. I gave the corpse a look over and decided that my wisdom was too high to fall for it.

I had the right spell for the job if this place was zombie-themed. I slapped my face to psyche myself up, but it didn't work. The corpse had a wolf's head and a football mascot's body. While I didn't have experience fighting my fellow man, animals were a different story. I've confronted a wild animal or two.

Around the corner, a 7' 2" rotten rottweiler undead with clawed fingertips dressed in leather armor charged at me. It fell on all fours.

"Burst," I yelled and charged.

Light erupted around my body, filling the torchlit hall with soft white light. The zombie froze, possibly stunned by my reaction. But really, my only option was to charge or be run down.

It lunged and bit down on my arm. Rotten teeth dug into my flesh, and I saw a red bar on the edge of my vision dip down below half. I punched the side of the zombie wolf's head repeatedly. My hits did next to nothing, but my spell had a guaranteed chance to damage it. I started with 30s of Burst, and no one said I couldn't wail on the target.

Lines of yellow stretched over the zombie's rotten flesh as my hits racked up. It twisted its head to the side, nearly yanking my arm out of the socket as I flailed, kicking and punching the monster. I would like to say I was a brave man on my first encounter, but tears and mucus were running down my face.

It turned its head to the side, and blood poured out of my arm and muscles shredded under undead teeth. My health bar chipped away.

My next hit must have finally done something. Light erupted from the undead corpse, and it melted. Rotten black teeth still hung in my arm as the zombie melted into goo gear. I held my arm as a golden notification appeared.

Level Up: All injuries are healed.

Gold Fiber

Integration T1 1/5

All stats +0.1 to modifier per Integration lvl.

Spells cooldown time +5% more and have +5% more spell effect with each integration level.

At Integration 1/5 +2 Spell Slots

At Integration 2/5 +2 Skill Slots

At Integration 3/5 +3 Spell Slots

At Integration 4/5 +3 Skill Slots

At Integration 5/5 +5 Spell Slots

Cost:

1. Defeat 1 mana-rich enemy.

2. Defeat 10 mana-rich enemies.

3. Defeat 100 mana-rich enemies.

4. Defeat 1000 mana-rich enemies

5. Defeat 10,000 mana-rich enemies.

Vincent Hawk lvl1

HP 10/10

MP 12/12

SP 11/11

Stats MOD

STR 10 x1.1

CON 11 x1.1

END 11 x1.1

DEX 11 x1.1

PER 10 x1.1

INT 12 x1.1

WIS 11 x1.1

CHA 11 x1.1

LUK 12 x1.1

Free Spell Slots: 2/3

Free Ability Slots: 1/1

Spells

Tier 1: Burst

As the body of my enemy fell into a puddle of zombie goop, I felt amazing. The level up was dopamine to the brain only better because everything about me improved by over 10% from before. Did I feel like the life of the party with 20% more charisma than I had before? No, but I felt more comfortable? I would imagine that had a lot to do with it; more charisma made me feel more comfortable with myself and my decisions throughout life.

I checked the damage logs, and I was lucky.

P DMG to Dombie Zog: 0

L DMG to Dombie Zog rolled: 4 x 2 …

My spell did all the damage, and my physical attacks did nothing. That was worrying, and I wouldn't get another level up until I killed 10 enemies. I barely managed to handle the Dombie Zog; how would I manage 10. One level up wasn't that much of an advantage.

I finally thought about going into debt then. Weapons would be great to get started. A few hundred credits in the hole could be paid back if I could make it in the dungeon.

Before that thought set in, I flipped through my notifications and found the drops. Then I stared down and saw soft blue light rippling off the drops.

The goop was gone, and two pieces of loot were in its place.

Magic gloves

Rarity: Uncommon

DEF: 2

+3 STR

I immediately slipped the gloves on and felt their magic push into me. 3 additional strength when I only had 10 was incredibly valuable. There was no telling when I would get a notification for increased strength from the dungeon. For all I knew, that could have been the stat the dungeon felt stingy about.

Short Spear

Rarity: Common

Pierce DMG: 2-5

+1 DEX

The spear was simple and made of wood, but having a little more reach for my attacks and some guaranteed piercing damage felt great. I wanted to crits right in their dombie Zog heads.