Natural Scout

Fwish—the natural breeze danced around my body as I walked through Nova Forest. The sensation of connecting with nature was quite pleasant, no matter how often I had felt it before.

I was too weak to clear the third level of [The Dungeon], and I had a long way to reach it, so I decided to loot some easy dungeons along the way to get stronger.

"[Map]," I muttered.

I opened my [Map] to see the locations in my surroundings. Many parts of the map weren't loaded, but thanks to my memories from my past life, I could guess the good locations based on the look of the forest.

I began to walk toward [The Dungeon], knowing there was an easy-to-clear dungeon with a good reward on the way.

As I walked, I collected useful herbs, as I didn't want to pay a hefty price just for the potion-making process. Since I hadn't brewed any potions, I needed to brew one on the go.

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[ Caution: E-grade Dungeon ]

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It took me less than an hour to reach the easy dungeon. The dungeon I was looking at was a goblin camp dungeon, which seemed newly established.

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Sl‌ash-! [ Level Up ]

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Thankfully, killing some goblins and finding the dungeon core wasn't hard for me at all, due to my increased stats. I also noticed the Sense Stat for the first time, which meant I could heighten my basic senses by allocating additional points to it.

"Oh, I found it," I said with a gentle smile, a small drop of goblin's blood on my face.

Below the camp's debris, right beside the mountain of trash, I found an old-looking book. I grabbed it and shook the dust off its cover.

"[Learn]"

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[ Player does not have the Requirements for Learning "Wind Blade" ]

[ Due to the Class "Classless" Special Property, all Requirements have been ignored ]

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[ Skill "Wind Blade" Acquired ]

[ Wind Blade

Lv: 1

Skill Rank: Uncommon

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<Wind Blade>

Upon Activation, make a Sharp Projectile out of Air. / Activation Period: 7 Seconds. (Active) ]

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Finding a reward in a normal dungeon was rare, and even more so a Skill Book, but it wasn't impossible.

I looked at the skill information window in front of me and saw the description. It was just as I remembered.

I raised my hand and stayed quiet. I could sense the mana veins within my body and how they were flowing.

"[Wind Blade]"

As I spoke the skill name, I sensed the rush of Mana in my raised hand. The Mana danced around my body and the air around me. I focused on my control and mana manipulation to get the maximum efficiency out of the magic, and I was doing it correctly, thanks to my intense knowledge and Entwine's help.

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[ Skill "Wind Blade" Activated ]

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Tud-! Suddenly, a visible line made out of air appeared in front of me and, with high speed, cut a tree. The amount of power I put into the Skill was as much as I intended, and I felt a little proud of myself.

"This isn't good," I said with disappointment.

The amount of time I needed to activate the skill was too much, and it was expected for an Uncommon Skill. My Mana Stat wasn't that low, but I didn't get a desirable result even though I used a lot of Mana.

I decided to put away those strange feelings since it wasn't the right time yet. I had a long way to [The Dungeon], so all I needed was to clear some more dungeons.

After I grabbed the Monster Cores, I began to walk forward. Just like before, I was collecting as much material as I could and storing them in my [Inventory]. I also encountered some Monsters and Wild Animals along the way, which I took care of easily.

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[ Level Up ]

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Each time I leveled up, I could feel the increase in the required experience for leveling up. In [Doomed Fantasy], each time you level up, the next level becomes harder to achieve, and that difficulty intensifies with each Job Advancement, such as at Lv 50, Lv 100, Lv 200, etc.

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[ Caution: D-grade Dungeon ]

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I was getting close to [The Dungeon] with each passing step, and I was looking forward to it, but something strange happened. As far as I remembered, the dungeon I was inside was an E-grade dungeon, but the window said differently.

I decided to act with a little caution to see what the reason was. I hid in a bush and began to slowly approach the main part of the dungeon.

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[ Skill "Shadeless" Leveled Up ]

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BWAa- strange noises were coming from the monsters in the camp. They were goblins with a strange walking style, but that wasn't the interesting part. On the faces of the monsters were strange purple markings, like a scar.

'Oh, this is bad,' I thought.

The purple markings on those monsters indicated that they were infected with Dark Mana. Although the Gray Tip Mountain was quite far from here, due to the Dark Mana's infectious property, finding an infected one wasn't out of the ordinary.

Of course, I wasn't worried about Corrupted Goblins, since although they were stronger, they were nowhere near as strong as I was. The problem was the five Corrupted Orcs in the middle of the camp. A normal Orc was an E-grade Monster, which I hunted easily before, thanks to my poison. But the Dark Mana boosted their strength and attributes, making them at least D-grade.

Although I had fought with multiple D-grade Kobolds inside the Treasure-Labyrinth before, I had encountered them multiple times, to the point that it was boring to fight them.

I looked at the Monsters in front of me and cracked a mocking smile, not for the monsters, but for myself. I didn't want to be belittled by mindless monsters to the point of getting scared of them, but I couldn't risk the progress I had been saving so far.

"[Save]," I said while holding the same smile.

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[ Skill "Save & Reset: Save" Activated ]

[ 987/2/03 17:01 , has been saved as the new Checkpoint ]

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I was ready for a fight.