Sung Su-ho adalah anak dari Shadow Monarch Sung Jin-woo dan mantan hunter rank-S Cha Hae-in. Suho tidak menyadari bahwa didalam tubuhnya, tersimpan kekuatan yang begitu dahsyat warisan sang ayah. 

Akhir - Akhir ini Suho mengalami mimpi - Mimpi aneh dimana ia berpetualang disebuah dungeon. Disaat bersamaan dia mulai menyadari bahwa ada yang telah lama hilang dalam ingatannya selama ini.

Perlahan namun pasti, Kepingan puzzle mulai terkumpul.

It was morning and Cade's alarm clock rang. He turned off the alarm and woke up with disheveled hair. He looked at the time and it was 5am in the morning.

Cade scratched his head and he yawned as he felt sleepy. He got up from his bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. After that, he prepared some simple breakfast and started having a peaceful breakfast. 

Cade took out his geniusphone and there were again many missed calls but this time from many people including Jonathan, Shihoon, Viola and everyone else he was in contact with since the incident in the big tongue toad dungeon. 

Cade wondered why all of them were calling him. He wanted to call them back and saw they left a message too. Reading the message, Cade was extremely shocked. 

He immediately went online to check what they had said and to his surprise, what they said was right. A time limit dungeon had appeared on Planet Dineon. Looking at the video of the dungeon, Cade can see all the info of the dungeon with warning sign from the system.

[2 days 15 hours 27 minutes. Grade C level 10 to 20] 

Cade went to his apartment window to look outside and he saw many spaceships flying around and they all headed towards space. They were evacuating the planet. 

Cade looked below and the road was a mess with garbage around but there was no human in sight. No one was walking around the streets. 

Cade read more messages from his friends and acquaintances. Shihoon asked Cade if he wanted to come to his home planet if he decided to evacuate the planet. 

Viola and Jonathan on the other hand decided to enter the dungeon and when Cade tried to call them, unfortunately, the call was not connected. 

The others also either asking Cade to come with them evacuating the planets or joining them entering the dungeon. 

Looking at the situation, Cade decided to enter the dungeon. His level was within the level limit. He had been living on Planet Dineon his whole life and it was a given that he will do his best to protect the planet. 

Cade gave the call to everyone that asked him to join them evacuating the planet to decline their offer and apologized for not answering their calls. 

As for the one asking him to join their party, none of them answered his call and when he checked, everyone had entered the time limit dungeon. 

Cade wanted to enter the dungeon immediately but he knew it will be suicide if he got in now. His stat was too low and he might die immediately inside the dungeon. That dungeon was C grade too.
 
Cade opened the government site to see the list of dungeons available nearby his apartment. Cade decided to collect a lot of the figure puzzle pieces to get himself some free stat points. 

Looking at the list, there were not many dungeons nearby and they were mostly of high grade but that was what he was looking for. 

Once he got himself the list of the dungeons, Cade immediately took off to his destinations. Since everyone had started to evacuate the planet, the road was clear and there were many cars around Cade can use. 

Unfortunately for Cade, he was unable to hijack any car as he did not have any knowledge on doing that. He found a bicycle and decided to use that. 

He cycled as fast as he can and, in few minutes, he arrived at his first target dungeon. Cade's aim was the figure puzzle piece and it will take him only a few minutes to get a complete of them. 

In front of Cade was the portal to a B grade winged rabbit. In this dungeon, Cade can find a rabbit with wings on their back. 

Since the dungeon grade was B, Cade will be able to find the C grade, D grade and E grade winged rabbit too. With all of that, Cade will be able to get four complete figures of them. 

However, that will all be a dream because on the first floor, the most explorers can find were the E grade winged rabbit. Cade needed to move fast and he did not want to spend too much time inside the dungeon. 

Cade entered the dungeon with all of his linked equipment fully equipped. He activated the system mapping function and started running around for a winged rabbit. 

A few seconds of running, a winged rabbit was detected on the map. Cade immediately went to that direction and saw an E grade rabbit flying around. The system appraised the rabbit and it had a limit of 10 stat points on each of its stat and it had a total of 20 stat points altogether on its stats.

Cade did not waste his time and attacked the winged rabbit. The winged rabbit however, easily maneuvered itself in the air and dodged Cade's attack. 

Since Cade had no long-ranged attack, all he can do was run around with his sword to kill the rabbit. The rabbit was level 1 and it will be super easy for Cade to kill it but that rabbit was quick and gave Cade quite a trouble attacking it. 

After a few minutes fighting (chasing), Cade finally landed his attack and killed the rabbit. He did not look at the list an immediately choose the figure puzzle piece. 

The winged rabbit surprisingly needed quite a lot of puzzle pieces. A complete figure needed 5 puzzle pieces. Cade needed to find 4 more E grade winged rabbit to complete a figure of the rabbit. 

Cade ran around and found another winged rabbit, however, this one was D grade. He never thought that he will find a D grade early in the dungeon. 

Cade decided to let it go but he soon found another one D grade winged rabbit. Cade thought for a moment and decided to kill all winged rabbit he can find. He did not care anymore. 

Since the rabbit was fast, Cade had quite a hard time in killing them but he soon got himself a complete figure of the winged rabbit. An E grade winged rabbit figure complete puzzle. 

The complete puzzle gave Cade 20 stat points. It was a small amount but Cade was happy nonetheless. He used all of them on his endurance and increased it to 53. 

He only needed one more D grade puzzle piece of the winged rabbit and he will complete his second winged rabbit figure. 

He continued running around and his map detected another winged rabbit, however, it was E grade. Cade ignored that rabbit and searched for another one. A few minutes of running around, Cade finally found a D grade winged rabbit. 

No matter how high the grade of that monster was, as long as they were level 1, they stood no chance against Cade. Cade killed the D grade winged rabbit and finally complete another winged rabbit puzzle. 

The D grade winged rabbit figure complete puzzle gave twice the amount of stat of the E grade. Cade got himself 40 stat points and again he used it all on his endurance increasing it to 93 points.
 
As Cade was pressed for time, he decided to left the dungeon using the emergency badge and headed for another dungeon nearby. Since no one was around, it was easier for Cade to move around. 

He arrived at the next dungeon in 15 minutes. The dungeon in front of Cade was the D grade goblin dungeon. They were slightly stronger compare to the big tongue toad but the level 1 goblin will not be that dangerous to Cade. 

Cade entered the dungeon and started killing the goblin. They were really a cunning monster and Cade needed more time to defeat them. 

About 30 minutes later, Cade got himself the E grade and D grade goblin figure complete puzzle. To Cade surprised, the figure gave him quite a lot of stats. 

The E grade figure gave him 40 stat points and the D grade gave him twice stat points of that of the E grade figure. All in all, Cade got 120 stat points from the two goblin figures. 

He used 107 of that points and maxed out his endurance stat and the leftover stat points on his vitality stat. His endurance reached the limit at 200 points while his vitality stat increased to 58 stat points. 

Cade finished his business on the goblin dungeon and moved on to the next dungeon, the B grade colored butterfly dungeon. 

The butterfly in the dungeon had many different colors and that difference in color was the variations of the butterfly. 

With that many variations, Cade will be able to farm many figures of that colored butterfly. They were not strong too and it will be easy to kill them. 

The only difficulty of killing them was that they were small and explorers tend to miss their target. Cade had no time to spare and he continued his hunt on the butterfly for more figure.

In an age of magic, space travel and explorations, humans had far surpassed what they were capable of in the past. 

In a small planet located in a small star sector, a young man name Cade was living his life peacefully. 

One day, Cade was playing around with cardboard and he suddenly awakened his system. However, an accident happened and the cardboard he played with became part of his power. 

Followed Cade's journey in making his name as an explorer in the universe.

'Let's ignore these two big requests first. I will clearly not be able to complete them for now.'

Five browsed through the rest of the requests. Nothing really caught his attention. Five was not required to accept any request and for now, he wanted to focus on the upcoming Night of Macabre.

The contract he signed only required him to lead an attack on one of the opposing dungeon masters within three months. The conflict between the alliances was no longer going to be kept under wrap. With the appearance of the new dungeon masters, the available resources on Zero became scarcer; the only way for the dungeon masters to continue to develop was to steal resources form each other.

While the old dungeon masters kept each other in check, the younger generation was free to fight and compete for the resources. The future of the alliances rested on the shoulders of the new generation.

As Five browsed through the requests, his eyes suddenly lit up. He stumbled onto a request that was completely different from the others.

[Request: I obtained an artifact called Puzzle Box. I am looking for people experienced in puzzle-solving or similar skills to help me open it. When opened, the Puzzle Box will give me the right to visit a tomb. I am willing to share 20% of anything I obtain from the tomb to the person who will solve the puzzle. Anyone making a contribution will also receive a portion of my loot.

Note: As it is a popular request and there is only one Puzzlebox, all those willing to accept the request will only be allowed to keep the Puzzlebox for six hours. If you are interested, please add the player: Solstice as a friend]

'A puzzle box that gives access to a tomb? Could it be the same as mine?' thought Five. Opening his inventory, he saw the small purple box covered in runes. 

'Maybe it is the same and if so, maybe we can both benefit from this.'

Five blankly stared at the request for a moment before taking a decision. 

[System prompt: A friend request was sent to the player: 'Solstice']

…

At the same time, in a corner of the lounge, a woman was lying on a couch. She crossed her legs, watching the other players discussing among themselves. 'So annoying. Why did we all have to come here just to welcome one person.'

She rearranged her short pink hair while grabbing her glass. As she was about to take a sip, she suddenly received a notification.

[System prompt: You have received a friend request.]

'A friend request? Is it another opportunist trying who wants to attempt to solve the Puzzle Box?' From her position, Solstice looked at the display board in the distance. The couch she chose was strategically positioned, giving her an ideal view of the entire hall.

She glanced at the Request Board and saw a man examining the available requests. He was an average looking man; he was not especially handsome but had a particular charm. He wore a serious expression as he crossed his arms, constantly frowning when his eyes moved from request to request.

'Another John Doe willing to test his luck on my Puzzle Box? He looks familiar though,' thought Solstice. She nonchalantly opened her interface but instantly froze upon seeing the name.

'Five? Isn't he the new recruit we are supposed to welcome today? The same guy who fought against the Storm Alliance.' 

Solstice blankly stared at Five's friend request. 'His dungeon is quite strong. Probably stronger than mine right now. Maybe he has some inside knowledge about the Puzzle Box?'

She glanced at Five one more time before making her decision.

[System prompt: You have accepted "Five" as a friend. Send him a message now.]

She then stood up and left. Ignoring the strange stares of the nearby players, she wrote Five a quick message.

Solstice: "If you are interested in the Puzzle Box, meet me on the second floor of the Hub. Go to the Basilic Room. The password is 850538".

...

A few minutes later, Five and Solstice faced each other in the Basilic Room. They were both sitting at a meeting table, examining each other. The Basilic Room was one of the meeting rooms available to the members of the Hurricane Alliance. It was a dark and gloomy room with the wallpaper resembling the skin of a snake.

There were no windows and the only sources of light were small candles held by chandeliers shaped like snakes. The room looked more like the ritual room of a cult that a meeting room. Five felt very uncomfortable.

He squinted his eyes while sizing up Solstice, wondering why she chose such an environment for their first meeting. Was it to intimidate him? Five felt that it was a really childish move to do so. The room was dim but Five could still clearly see Solstice's features. She could have been really pretty but the look she chose was a complete turndown.

She looked like a rebellious teenager. Her hair was extremely short, giving her a tomboy look. Solstice had several piercings and tattoos all over her body. She was leaning against her arm, carefully observing Five.

"So you are interested in the Puzzle Box? May I ask if you have any knowledge or prior experiences of solving complex puzzles or cryptology?" She went straight to the point while maintaining a straight face. 

"No professional experience but I always had an interest in puzzles. I would like to give it a try."

"Really? Then, why do I feel like you have ulterior motives? The first thing you did since coming here was to immediately look at the requests available. This is not something a dungeon master would usually do." Solstice said with a doubtful expression. Her piercing gaze met Five's eyes as the latter felt a chill run down his spine.

'... She is not wrong. I should not have aimed for the quests immediately. Trying to socialise with some of the members of the alliance would have been a better option. That woman could have been observing me since the start and she might not be the only one,' thought Five. 

He coughed awkwardly to disperse the heavy atmosphere. "I don't know what you are talking about. I just wanted to gather some information and since I saw your request, I just thought it would be a good opportunity to make contact with one of the members. If the puzzle box is not available, that is fine. I will look for another request."

"Hold on. When did I say I am refusing your help? It is just that there are quite a few people looking into the puzzle box. Because it is a unique item, they are all interested in the possible rewards behind it. I arranged the people involved in a list and passed the puzzle box to them. They simply pass it among each other in order. If you want to be involved, you will have to join the very end of the list." Solstice immediately soften her tone and took a step back in the conversation, fearing that she might have been too aggressive and pushed away Five.

"In that case, how long do I have to wait?" Five asked. His expression became more relaxed. He never hoped to solve the puzzle box. He only wanted to look at the progress they had made and use that information on his own puzzle box. In short, he just wanted to steal the work done by others.

"There's about thirty people involved. Fifteen of which are genuinely interested. I would say you will need to wait at least two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Five muttered with a light frown. He did not know how fast they were solving the puzzle box but if they managed to solve it completely before he could have a look, it would be a huge loss. He would then have to ask for the solution and might have to pay a price.

"If we go through the normal procedures, yet. But naturally, there is a way to bypass that." Solstice turned serious as she adjusted her seating position.

'A way to jump the queue. I see. This is probably the main reason she is interested in speaking to me. She phrased it in such a way that she is making me a favour but in reality, it is the opposite.' Five thought. Still, he answered politely. "And what would be that way?"

"It is a very simple request. You won't need to go out of your way for it. You were recruited in the alliance because we need help to conquer the dungeon neighbouring ours. You were chosen because you have already gotten rid of the ones in the direct vicinity of your dungeon. My request is to simply be the first to receive your assistance."

"There are two dungeons at a relatively close distance to mine. One of which is particularly troublesome because he has friends nearby. I'll need as many monsters I can gather before pulling the trigger. Furthermore, if you help me get rid of that person's dungeon, it will also benefit your little girlfriend."

Five narrowed his brows as he listened to Solstice. It was just a small request. At the end of the day, he was already planning on conquering other dungeons and obtaining the core of the dungeons. But was Solstice inferring by the last part of her explanation. "Explain yourself properly. The last part. I am still single, you know."

The woman cocked her head and chuckled. "There is no need to hide it. Nobody is blind. All the dungeon masters saw it at your duel with Farsight. She was the one who called the Cancer for help; my teacher told me. Your relationship with her is obviously not simple if she is willing to use her trump card for you. But regardless, I just want to say that helping me will also be helping her. My dungeon is rather close to hers at about four days away from hers. But I noticed that she is planning on developing toward the east coast. The troublesome dungeon master I was talking about has his dungeon somewhere between her dungeon and the east coast."

Five was naturally aware of Iris' plan. While developing her town, she also allocated a few people and some funds to developing the railway to connect her town to the east coast. Such a large-scale development would not escape the eyes of the other players and the NPCs, but he did not expect that it would have been already detected despite it being in its very early stages.

'I see. People have already started associating me with Iris because of this incident. I should have expected this. Nevertheless, it is not a bad thing if I can help her without getting too close. At the end of the day, I still need to thank her for wasting her trump card. Sacrificing a few monsters is nothing compared to the price she paid. But first…'

"Then, give me more details about that particular dungeon and I'll consider it."

…

A few minutes later, Five finally exited the Basilic room with a satisfied smile. The discussion did not last very long. Although the dungeon master Solstice was targeting was quite strong and would prove to be challenging to attack, Five agreed to Solstice's request. If that dungeon master was not stopped, it would be extremely difficult for others to develop in the area. 

The turning point of the conversation was when Solstice revealed the progress made by the puzzle box research group. The puzzle box consisted of several layers that needed to be peeled off in a certain amount of time. While the exact number of layers was not known, the group had already managed to open the first three layers.

Each solution was extremely complicated; the first layer required the puzzle box to be under water. While in contact with water, the puzzle box's outer layer would expand slightly, revealing a certain pattern and movable parts. Then, one needed to slide these parts until the first layer would be completely removed. The second and third layers were even more complicated to open. Five could not wait to try the solution on his own puzzle box to see if they were the same.

There was not much to do at the hub. He came here mainly for the initial introduction and to get to know the other dungeon masters. But now that he already knew who to help first, there were no real needs to socialise. He was about to head back home when a dark silhouette stepped in front of him.

"First elder." Five immediately recognised the middle age man. He was the only elder he came into contact with and the one he signed the contract with.

"Five. I was precisely looking for you. I see that you have been into the private rooms. Any way. The reason I am here is to inform you that there we are planning to start going on the offensive by the end of the week. The fourth trial should have started by then which will reveal the weaknesses of your peers. It will be the ideal situation for us to attack." Despond said with a wicked smile. His eyes shone with anticipation; he was clearly looking forward to the chaos of the battles.

"The end of the week? Aren't there only six days left? And there's also the Night of Macabre tomorrow night. Aren't we rushing too much into this operation?"

"Not at all. With all the youngsters focused on clearing their own trial, it will be the ideal condition for us to strike. There is no need to be scared of antagonising the other alliances. At the end of the day, we are simply claiming back our territory. They have been pushing onto us since we only had one inheritor of the sins but now that you appeared, the balance had been re-established. There are many new dungeons in the Sylvester Empire that do not belong to our alliance, but we are unable to deal with them because of the pact. Are we supposed to let them grow until they become a decent threat? Of course not. We'll strike swiftly and remove them before the other alliances have time to react."

As he spoke passionately, Despond released an intimidating aura, striking fear into Five's heart. He did not do it on purpose but the level difference between the two was so large that Five was still affected.

Five swallowed hard and hesitantly answered. "I understand your reasoning, but I still feel that it is a bit rushed. We don't even know what the fourth trial would be and what about the other alliances' reaction. They won't leave our members alone if we are the first to attack."

Despond frowned for a moment but quickly hid his expression behind a smile. "I see. You are worried about your teammates but don't worry. Compared to the other alliances, we asked our new members to set up their dungeons in our own territories. We learned about the distribution of the seven cores of the sins early on and chose a conservative approach. Once we expel them from the Sylvester Empire, the other alliances will lose their footings here and will have to return to their own territory. Furthermore, which operation does not involve any risk. I am just asking you to prepare for it. If it turns out that the fourth trial is extremely hard, we will naturally put a halt to the attack. The safety and development of our own members are more important."

"Mmm… Then, as you said, I will prepare for it. I will do as the contract said and help one of the members in the upcoming battle."

"Excellent. That is what I wanted to hear!" Despond brightly smiled. The pressure around him vanished. "I will take my leave then."

Watching Despond's disappearing figure, Five let out a sigh of relief but the feeling of unease he felt earlier never left. 'No matter how I look at it, there is definitely something wrong here. This operation feels rushed. They have no good reason to suddenly decide to attack everyone else. Then, why did the first elder personally come here to inform me of their decision. He could have asked his apprentice to pass the message. His appearance here was a warning…'

'I did not even spend a day here and I already don't like it. The first elder is being so forceful despite knowing that I have the [Void Contract] in my possession. Does that mean he does not care if I choose to leave the alliance to avoid this conflict? Unless, I have already fallen into their trap somehow.'

Lost in thoughts, Five slowly made his way back to the portal he came through and returned to the dungeon of madness.

After being betrayed, framed and kicked down to the ground, our protagonist was sentenced to life imprisonment. But a few days later, a global disaster occurred, people from all nations migrated to underground refuges.

As a prisoner, he thought his life was over, abandoned by everyone. However, he wakes up, greeted by Gaia, the person responsible for New Earth.

New Earth was a second chance for him, watch as he builds up his own dungeon and become known by all as the Emperor of Madness

Note that this is a slow novel and dungeon building only takes place after 40 chapters

[Note: I am also posting this novel on RoyalRoadLegends: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/18115/new-earth--the-dungeon-of-madness]

Here's an edited version available on Amazon: 
Book 1: https://amzn.to/2MwyMBG
Book 2: https://amzn.to/2U9R6lp
Book 3: https://amzn.to/2UdVbVx

Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/nikostar2

I bring us down fast and land in front of a cave with ice and snow flowing out of it. It looks just as it was described. This looks like a cave on the outside, but the inside is filled with labyrinth-like tunnels and structures and pathways. We'll have to get halfway through the dungeon before getting to a new section where the puzzle is supposed to unlock the legacy class path. I take the potions out of my inventory and hand them all to Sally. 
She will need them if she is to survive the cold of this dungeon. "Stay behind me, Sally. The monsters in this dungeon are powerful. I'll protect you as long as you stay close. I hope you are as excited as I am about this." I'm pumped to challenge such an infamous dungeon. All the monsters inside are reinforced with ice buffs that increase creatures' defense and health pools. I don't expect there to be any magic castors in this dungeon.
This dungeon is for wielder-type combatants. Magic casters aren't fond of this dungeon type since it's all tight spaces and no room to cast powerful spells. A weakness to the devastating power of mages is dungeons and environments just like the one we are heading into. Sally uncorks a potion and drinks it. "I'm ready. I'll follow your lead and make sure not to get in your way. If you do end up needing my help, let me know." It's nice to have a partner to do this with.
We walk side by side into the cave and immediately notice how cold it is. I keep my wings toggled on for the extra defense and offensive capabilities they bring. "It's going to get very claustrophobic in this dungeon. It has a labyrinth-like design that confuses the people in it. Luckily for us, I know the exact routes to get to what we need. So it comes down to clearing out monsters as we go along." She nods her head as I see the tip of her nose gets a little red from the freezing air.
She looks to be holding up fine other than that. She isn't shivering and is walking with caution mixed with confidence. She has her sword out to be safe. I draw The Witness and get ready too. The monsters should be showing up soon and with them a complex fighting environment. We have already started to navigate the twisting and turning of the design. However, I'm following the instructions to the letter that I remember.
After a few minutes of walking, I hear many creatures running in the direction we are walking to. They soon come into view as the blue fire torches light the hallway. The monsters are on the lower side and aren't dangerous for me. I don't even use my sword and instead use my wings to dispatch the ones getting close. Many stop their assault and stare at the two of us as I kill. "What are they doing, Zern? I've never seen a monster stop in this manner before." I have only seen it a couple of times. I also got some exp for that, around 2 percent. I open my stat panel to see how close I am to leveling up.
[Slayer (Zern) Lvl.81]
[Exp: 97/100%]
[Title: The Son of Arch-Angel Michael (Hidden),+3 more]
[Stats]
[Strength - 2095][Endurance - 2045][Dexterity - 2125][Speed - 2240][Focus - 14,660]
[Health: 16,560/16,560][Mana: 146600/146600]
[Stat Points: 0][Armor rating: 500]
[Inventory]
[Passive Perks]
[Inheritor of the Sword] [Son of Heaven] [Slayer of Evil] [Holy Willow Trees Savior] [Finder of Legends] [The Divine who has Legend] [Destined for Greatness] [Dungeon Diver] [An Overachiever]
[Active Skills]
[Heavens light Lvl.9 325/900] [Protected by Heaven Lvl.9 225/900] [Slash Lvl.22 4600/13000] [Parry Lvl.3 80/300] [Double Strike N/A] [Kingslayer N/A] [Raging Machine N/A] [Winged Glory] [Angelic Flight] 
I'm at 97 percent now, getting pretty close to level 82. The information about the boss is correct too. It controls the dungeon's monsters with its hive mind ability. They all share the same intelligent thoughts as the boss does. They slowly back up into the darkness that isn't being lit by the blue torches on the walls, and we are left alone. "The boss has a hive mind ability. Whatever the monsters see and experience, so does the boss and vise versa. It has a giant weakness to it. Anything being affected by the hive mind will die once the boss dies." While it makes coordination easy, it has flaws.
It comes with its share of risks. If you can't reach the boss directly, you can harm it by killing enough of its drones. You can count on dungeons or wild creatures of the sort to be a unique opponent to take on, but the majority of them are easy to beat once you find the boss's weakness. Since the hive mind is an ability, anything with substantial brainpower can learn and use the skill. It's not exclusive to a single type of monster.
Some are born with the ability, even humanoid creatures like humans and lizardman. It's very rare, though, since brain size impacts the skills abilities. "Do you not know the monster, or are you going to continue keeping me in the dark." I know the boss's name to this dungeon, but that's it. The forum never went into detail about the monster species. Only it's unique skills and craftiness to get out of tough spots.
I don't want to keep Sally in the dark, but the less she knows about what's ahead, the easier it will be when adapting on the fly. "I have an idea of what it could be, but I don't know for sure. It's not something you have to worry yourself over. We'll be getting your legacy class before we fight the boss. In fact, we don't even need to fight the boss. We can get you the class and get out of here." That isn't something I'd normally do. Since Sally is here, I have to consider her too. 
We walk down the paths of this complex dungeon, and I'm following the instructions from the forum to the best I can remember. After another 10 minutes of walking, we come across a door. Just like the forum said, we would. I walk up to it and push it open. The door slowly opens, and an old office is what reveals its self. This is the room with the puzzle in it. Now all I have to do is find out where the puzzle is and try to solve it.
I don't see any obvious traps, so I walk in, and I feel something drain on my power. It's only for a second, but it happens. "This place hasn't seen any visitors in decades. Look at all this dust." Sally starts to sound colder, and as I think that, she pulls out her second potion and drinks it. "Who do you think this office belonged to? If it's hidden so deep into a dungeon, it had to be someone who didn't want to be found." I agree with her deduction. It could have been a powerful mage or a researcher.
I walk over to the obvious desk and sit in the chair that the owner would've sat in. There are old books that have long rotted away, I open some of the drawers, and most are empty and filled with dust. The only thing I found was an old broken pencil. I lean back in the chair, thinking of where the puzzle could be, it's in this room, and there is a hidden passage somewhere around here. "Look for anything out of place, things that haven't rotted away or have magic coming from them." Sally should know what we are looking for. Two eyes are better than one.
The condition of everything could also be a decoy. I use inspect on some of the things in the room, but nothing come up. As I look around, I see a small picture on a wall that hasn't degraded at all. That is something that is out f place in this decaying room. I stand up and walk over to it. Once I get closer, I notice that it's a familiar face. It's Flint. He is standing next to a small girl. This must be Ulma Runa before she did whatever she did.
I take the picture off the wall and take it out of its frame. I turn it around and notice a message inscribed on the back. It's in a language I'm unfamiliar with. After a couple of seconds, the letters shift and turn into a readable message. What I read tells me this is the puzzle that needs to be solved.
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
"Many believe me to know all the answers to their questions, and they are right. At the same time, they are wrong. I'm more than one. Only those versed in knowledge truly know me. What am I?"
Talk about a cryptic puzzle. This seems to have been written by Flint himself with the multiple dead ends it leads to. Many believe it holds all the answers, and they are both right and wrong. It's also more than one, and only those versed in knowledge truly know it. If I didn't know any better I'd say this puzzle was made specifically for Ulma Runa, and both her and Flint are powerful mages. From what I know I can only surmise a couple of answers. Time to try them out.



The year is 2236 and the Deep Dive Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Ancients World is the most advanced game of its type ever created. Now that DDVR technology has reached the stage of commercial consumers everyone is addicted to the games available. A person who spent 5 years in the game has been reincarnated in his younger self as a request from a world item the game provided. Not everything is known about Ancients World since he only spent 5 years playing, so things will change this time around.

Many people don't really know what the game really provides till everyone with an internet connection is playing. It is the only way to survive in the coming years because of how special the world is. 

Cera Adamo is a young man who is almost 20 and he is the one that found the world item that granted him one wish, something that saved his life in a last chance effort. He chose to go back into the past so he can get everything he needs for his family, he doesn't want them to be dirt poor like they once were and this is his way to secure that it never happens again. 

(If image owner wants me to remove image than just ask.)

Having finished the map, Sanghyuk erased the mapping skill this time as well. And this time, he left the basic skill slot empty. He had a skill in mind, so he planned to add it later.
Having finished creating the map in one week, Sanghyuk went to the largest city in the Heroic Lands, 'Tirune'. As there were no other users in the heroic lands yet, there was no need to move the Golden Mountain merchant guild just yet.
The reason he came to Tirune was for something else.
'Secret dungeon... before the other users arrive, I need to monopolize all the secret dungeons that I know of.'
Unlike Hellfire Desert, which had barely any secret dungeons, there were incredibly many secret dungeons in the Heroic Lands.
Although Sanghyuk didn't know the locations to all of those, he had information on a considerable number of them. Using that information as the basis, he would be able to gain incredible profits if he could monopolize as many of them as possible.
'Even if I can't find anything else, I must absolutely discover the Swordking's Tomb and Hurricane Hole.'
These two were the most famous among the secret dungeons in the Heroic Lands.
The Swordking's Tomb would be best if he could monopolize it all by himself, and Hurricane Hole was good for selling entrance tickets.
Between these two, he had very precise information about Hurricane Hole, while he knew a few fragmented information about the Swordking's Tomb.
Sanghyuk thought that it would be better to look for the Swordking's Tomb first since he already knew about Hurricane Hole. As the Path to Death still had no intentions of letting users pass, he had a lot of time.
The Swordking's Tomb was literally a grave where the Swordking lay. The Swordking was one of the 144 recorded heroes of the Heroic Lands.
To rank them, he would be in the top 50 at least. The reason the Swordking's Tomb was ranked as the best secret dungeon though, was because of the various spiritual pills that could be gotten from it.
Spiritual pills were special items that permanently raised a stat by a small amount when consumed by a user.
Most spiritual pills raised a single point, like +1 health and +1 agility, but the important thing was that it could be stacked until +100.
Although the drop rate of the spiritual pills wasn't that high, the Swordking's Tomb itself was a secret dungeon that could be run for a long time, so he would be able to gain a considerable amount of those pills if he could monopolize this dungeon.
Dungeons that dropped spiritual pills were all classified as 'jackpot' dungeons, and among the secret dungeons, only the Swordking's Tomb dropped spiritual pills.
The rest were either from public dungeons or competitive dungeons that could be entered from the Hole of Mortality.
In other words, only the Swordking's Tomb was a place that could be monopolized.
Spiritual pills, due to their traits, didn't appear on the auctions, and even when they did, they were traded for incredibly expensive prices, so the best thing was to get them himself.
Sanghyuk did have plans to add spiritual pills into the buying list for the Golden Mountain merchant guild once the users flooded into the Heroic Lands, but no matter how good their business skills were, it would be incredibly hard to get any spiritual pills.
If the Swordking's Tomb was a dungeon that was perfect for monopolizing spiritual pills, Hurricane Hole was a secret dungeon that he could profit by revealing the walkthrough to others.
Hurricane Hole was a secret dungeon in the form of numerous holes connected into one. And up to 100 teams could simultaneously hunt in different holes.
Since the maximum clear count for the dungeon was infinite, there would be no problems no matter how many teams entered the dungeon per day.
However, the catch was that the dungeon only lasted 4 months. During those four months, he would be able to sell admission tickets to countless users.
On top of that, the dungeon difficulty wasn't that hard, and the amount of karma that could be gained from it was also above average, so there were no better places for teams of 3-4 people to level up.
Sanghyuk was planning to sell the entrance tickets through the Golden Mountain merchant guild once he found it.
Getting spiritual pills from the Swordking's Tomb and getting gold from Hurricane Hole was his first objective.

According to what he knew, the entrance to the Swordking's Tomb was near Tirune. Although he never went there in his previous life, he did watch a related video.
The video didn't talk about the exact location of the dungeon, but had a crucial hint of opening the dungeon. The problem was that he didn't know where to find the dungeon.
What was fortunate was that he remembered a few pieces of information he had heard.
'The Swordking's Tomb. A secret dungeon monopolized by Rising guild in my previous life. Rising got some fun out of that secret dungeon. According to rumors that came after the secret dungeon disappeared, a guild member found out about the secrets of the Swordking's Tomb after doing a quest that required him to catch thieves.'
Sanghyuk was thinking of tracing the Swordking's Tomb through the information he knew. Actually, though, any other user would not even dare think about doing that.
In a situation where they do not know which NPC gave out a quest to catch a thief, they would have to raise familiarity with all 7,949 NPCs that existed in Tirune to 'familiar' before getting the quest... realistically, it would be impossible to raise familiarity with nearly 8,000 NPCs to that high.
It would take at least half a year even if he went crazy.
However, there was no need for Sanghyuk to do this near-impossible task. He already had the 'Shadow Duke of Falcon' title that raised the familiarity of all NPCs with the exception of a few special ones to familiar level.
So, he just had to walk around Tirune and speak to them and see what quests he got.
He would receive the quests and just give up those unrelated to thieves. Of course, the familiarity he had with the NPCs would go down a little, but that wasn't a problem.
Sanghyuk walked around Tirune and spoke with several NPCs. There were those that gave him quests, while there were those that didn't. He gave up all the unrelated quests and looked for the quest for catching thieves.
Only after he gave up around 200 quests could he find one that was related to what he was looking for.

[Quest] 'Tirune's frantic thieves'
: Storekeeper Cotva is suffering from extreme stress thanks to the thieves that steal items from the store every day. He wants to exterminate the thieves, but it's not as easy as it sounds.
Progress: Catch thieves (0/100), discover thief bases (0/4)

'This is it!'
The moment he read the description of the quest, he was sure that this was the quest he was looking for.
Not only was there a category for catching thieves, there was also the part where he had to look for their bases. Looking for their bases was the key to discovering the secret dungeon.
Sanghyuk immediately set out to catch thieves after getting the quest.
There were a lot of thieves inside and even outside Tirune. As they were classified as monster-type NPCs, they could be killed within the city.
He quickly started exterminating them and he soon discovered all their bases as well.
The Swordking's Tomb lay within one of those bases. Of course, Sanghyuk didn't know which. Even if he did, just getting to the entrance didn't mean he could enter.
To open the secret dungeon, he had to have a 'key'. Like knowing how to manipulate secret mechanisms or using certain items to expose the entrance.
In that sense, the quest Sanghyuk was doing was an important clue in acquiring that key.
Since finding thieves and their bases was an easy job for Sanghyuk, he finished all of that in just an hour.

"Ooh, amazing! You exterminated those vermins... you are more amazing than you look. Since this is the case, can I ask you for one more thing? There will definitely be items that they stole from my store somewhere in their bases. If you get me those, then I will give you more rewards. Oh! Take him with you. He lived here in my store for over a decade, so he should be able to smell the items from my store."
Cotva let the dog he raised follow Sanghyuk and asked him to find the items, and the quest went on to the second chain quest.
'So this was the key.'
Sanghyuk realized that this was the key that he was looking for the moment he looked at the 2nd chain quest.
The thin old dog.... He found it a little funny that this old dog was the key, but as long as it let him find the Swordking's Tomb, then all was good.

***

*pant pant pant, woof! Woof!*
The old dog did its job. It found the lost items from Cotva's store from the most tattered-looking graveyard out of the 4 bases.
The items were hidden behind a wall. Since the space that hid the items were very delicately hidden, Sanghyuk thought that he wouldn't have been able to find it even if he decided to look for it without the dog.
'There's no way those thieves made such a space... so they used it after coincidentally discovering the space? Then that means that this is the entrance to the secret dungeon....'
Sanghyuk first took all the items into his bag. Once he took this to Cotva, then the quest would end, and if the just took them for himself, his familiarity would degrade as the quest failed, but in exchange, he would get the items.
However, this wasn't the time to be pondering about that right now.
'It should be around here somewhere.'
Sanghyuk started looking for something in the hidden space. After a bit of time, he could eventually discover what he was looking for.
Dozens of wall paintings. They were what Sanghyuk was looking for.
To be exact, they weren't exactly 'paintings' but 'puzzles'.
Only when he solved the puzzle would he be able to enter the Swordking's Tomb.
Actually, the Rising guild also took around a week to solve this puzzle in Sanghyuk's previous life. Eventually, they had to ask for an external puzzles expert and could only open the tomb then.
The puzzle's difficulty was just that high.
Obviously, Sanghyuk couldn't solve this puzzle either. In the video he saw, there was the solution to this puzzle, but the problem was that Sanghyuk didn't remember the exact moves they took.
Actually, it was more correct to say that it was practically impossible to remember everything correctly from a video he saw 10 years ago.
'Good. I'm here now... and there's only one thing to do.'
Sanghyuk smiled and left the hidden space.
This wasn't something that he could open. However, he knew a person that might be able to open this.
'Well, not exactly a 'person', I guess.'
Sanghyuk summoned a person without hesitation Well, an NPC, to be exact.
Ilya appeared in front of him. With his title 'Ah! My Ilya', he was able to summon Ilya as though summoning a tamed monster.
Of course, she would disappear once the duration ended.
"Have you called."
Ilya kneeled on one knee and spoke with respect.
"Ilya. Your 'Unlock' skill... can it open a door that's locked in a puzzle form?"
Sanghyuk looked around Ilya's status window a few days ago, and found out that she had gained a new skill after a little bit of the seal was dispelled.
[Darkmoon-specific skill 'Unlock(S)']
This was the skill she had.
"If it is locked in any form, then I can unlock it with my abilities."
Ilya did not let him down.
"Good! Then follow me."
Sanghyuk took Ilya and walked back to the hidden space.

Sang Hyuk, a man nearing his 40’s, was contacted by SKY Telecom to help its team, SKY, become the best in a period of 3 years. If SKY’s team members fail, they will be disbanded. After succeeding the contract in time, he was betrayed by the company that gave him everything.

Somehow, he wakes up years in the past or you may say back to past as an 18 year old boy – a year before the release of Eternal Light (EL).

Armed with knowledge of future events that are yet to come, he embarks on a journey that no one has dared to tread before. His desire for success and for his revenge drives him to take this hard path.

He is the one and only one-man army.

.....................................................................
*******************************************
.....................................................................

Copyright by asiannovelist

***
Having finished the map, Sanghyuk erased the mapping skill this time as well. And this time, he left the basic skill slot empty. He had a skill in mind, so he planned to add it later.
Having finished creating the map in one week, Sanghyuk went to the largest city in the Heroic Lands, 'Tirune'. As there were no other users in the heroic lands yet, there was no need to move the Golden Mountain merchant guild just yet.
The reason he came to Tirune was for something else.
'Secret dungeon... before the other users arrive, I need to monopolize all the secret dungeons that I know of.'
Unlike Hellfire Desert, which had barely any secret dungeons, there were incredibly many secret dungeons in the Heroic Lands.
Although Sanghyuk didn't know the locations to all of those, he had information on a considerable number of them. Using that information as the basis, he would be able to gain incredible profits if he could monopolize as many of them as possible.
'Even if I can't find anything else, I must absolutely discover the Swordking's Tomb and Hurricane Hole.'
These two were the most famous among the secret dungeons in the Heroic Lands.
The Swordking's Tomb would be best if he could monopolize it all by himself, and Hurricane Hole was good for selling entrance tickets.
Between these two, he had very precise information about Hurricane Hole, while he knew a few fragmented information about the Swordking's Tomb.
Sanghyuk thought that it would be better to look for the Swordking's Tomb first since he already knew about Hurricane Hole. As the Path to Death still had no intentions of letting users pass, he had a lot of time.
The Swordking's Tomb was literally a grave where the Swordking lay. The Swordking was one of the 144 recorded heroes of the Heroic Lands.
To rank them, he would be in the top 50 at least. The reason the Swordking's Tomb was ranked as the best secret dungeon though, was because of the various spiritual pills that could be gotten from it.
Spiritual pills were special items that permanently raised a stat by a small amount when consumed by a user.
Most spiritual pills raised a single point, like +1 health and +1 agility, but the important thing was that it could be stacked until +100.
Although the drop rate of the spiritual pills wasn't that high, the Swordking's Tomb itself was a secret dungeon that could be run for a long time, so he would be able to gain a considerable amount of those pills if he could monopolize this dungeon.
Dungeons that dropped spiritual pills were all classified as 'jackpot' dungeons, and among the secret dungeons, only the Swordking's Tomb dropped spiritual pills.
The rest were either from public dungeons or competitive dungeons that could be entered from the Hole of Mortality.
In other words, only the Swordking's Tomb was a place that could be monopolized.
Spiritual pills, due to their traits, didn't appear on the auctions, and even when they did, they were traded for incredibly expensive prices, so the best thing was to get them himself.
Sanghyuk did have plans to add spiritual pills into the buying list for the Golden Mountain merchant guild once the users flooded into the Heroic Lands, but no matter how good their business skills were, it would be incredibly hard to get any spiritual pills.
If the Swordking's Tomb was a dungeon that was perfect for monopolizing spiritual pills, Hurricane Hole was a secret dungeon that he could profit by revealing the walkthrough to others.
Hurricane Hole was a secret dungeon in the form of numerous holes connected into one. And up to 100 teams could simultaneously hunt in different holes.
Since the maximum clear count for the dungeon was infinite, there would be no problems no matter how many teams entered the dungeon per day.
However, the catch was that the dungeon only lasted 4 months. During those four months, he would be able to sell admission tickets to countless users.
On top of that, the dungeon difficulty wasn't that hard, and the amount of karma that could be gained from it was also above average, so there were no better places for teams of 3-4 people to level up.
Sanghyuk was planning to sell the entrance tickets through the Golden Mountain merchant guild once he found it.
Getting spiritual pills from the Swordking's Tomb and getting gold from Hurricane Hole was his first objective.
According to what he knew, the entrance to the Swordking's Tomb was near Tirune. Although he never went there in his previous life, he did watch a related video.
The video didn't talk about the exact location of the dungeon, but had a crucial hint of opening the dungeon. The problem was that he didn't know where to find the dungeon.
What was fortunate was that he remembered a few pieces of information he had heard.
'The Swordking's Tomb. A secret dungeon monopolized by Rising guild in my previous life. Rising got some fun out of that secret dungeon. According to rumors that came after the secret dungeon disappeared, a guild member found out about the secrets of the Swordking's Tomb after doing a quest that required him to catch thieves.'
Sanghyuk was thinking of tracing the Swordking's Tomb through the information he knew. Actually, though, any other user would not even dare think about doing that.
In a situation where they do not know which NPC gave out a quest to catch a thief, they would have to raise familiarity with all 7,949 NPCs that existed in Tirune to 'familiar' before getting the quest... realistically, it would be impossible to raise familiarity with nearly 8,000 NPCs to that high.
It would take at least half a year even if he went crazy.
However, there was no need for Sanghyuk to do this near-impossible task. He already had the 'Shadow Duke of Falcon' title that raised the familiarity of all NPCs with the exception of a few special ones to familiar level.
So, he just had to walk around Tirune and speak to them and see what quests he got.
He would receive the quests and just give up those unrelated to thieves. Of course, the familiarity he had with the NPCs would go down a little, but that wasn't a problem.
Sanghyuk walked around Tirune and spoke with several NPCs. There were those that gave him quests, while there were those that didn't. He gave up all the unrelated quests and looked for the quest for catching thieves.
Only after he gave up around 200 quests could he find one that was related to what he was looking for.
[Quest] 'Tirune's frantic thieves'
: Storekeeper Cotva is suffering from extreme stress thanks to the thieves that steal items from the store every day. He wants to exterminate the thieves, but it's not as easy as it sounds.
Progress: Catch thieves (0/100), discover thief bases (0/4)
'This is it!'
The moment he read the description of the quest, he was sure that this was the quest he was looking for.
Not only was there a category for catching thieves, there was also the part where he had to look for their bases. Looking for their bases was the key to discovering the secret dungeon.
Sanghyuk immediately set out to catch thieves after getting the quest.
There were a lot of thieves inside and even outside Tirune. As they were classified as monster-type NPCs, they could be killed within the city.
He quickly started exterminating them and he soon discovered all their bases as well.
The Swordking's Tomb lay within one of those bases. Of course, Sanghyuk didn't know which. Even if he did, just getting to the entrance didn't mean he could enter.
To open the secret dungeon, he had to have a 'key'. Like knowing how to manipulate secret mechanisms or using certain items to expose the entrance.
In that sense, the quest Sanghyuk was doing was an important clue in acquiring that key.
Since finding thieves and their bases was an easy job for Sanghyuk, he finished all of that in just an hour.
"Ooh, amazing! You exterminated those vermins... you are more amazing than you look. Since this is the case, can I ask you for one more thing? There will definitely be items that they stole from my store somewhere in their bases. If you get me those, then I will give you more rewards. Oh! Take him with you. He lived here in my store for over a decade, so he should be able to smell the items from my store."
Cotva let the dog he raised follow Sanghyuk and asked him to find the items, and the quest went on to the second chain quest.
'So this was the key.'
Sanghyuk realized that this was the key that he was looking for the moment he looked at the 2nd chain quest.
The thin old dog.... He found it a little funny that this old dog was the key, but as long as it let him find the Swordking's Tomb, then all was good.
***
*pant pant pant, woof! Woof!*
The old dog did its job. It found the lost items from Cotva's store from the most tattered-looking graveyard out of the 4 bases.
The items were hidden behind a wall. Since the space that hid the items were very delicately hidden, Sanghyuk thought that he wouldn't have been able to find it even if he decided to look for it without the dog.
'There's no way those thieves made such a space... so they used it after coincidentally discovering the space? Then that means that this is the entrance to the secret dungeon....'
Sanghyuk first took all the items into his bag. Once he took this to Cotva, then the quest would end, and if the just took them for himself, his familiarity would degrade as the quest failed, but in exchange, he would get the items.
However, this wasn't the time to be pondering about that right now.
'It should be around here somewhere.'
Sanghyuk started looking for something in the hidden space. After a bit of time, he could eventually discover what he was looking for.
Dozens of wall paintings. They were what Sanghyuk was looking for.
To be exact, they weren't exactly 'paintings' but 'puzzles'.
Only when he solved the puzzle would he be able to enter the Swordking's Tomb.
Actually, the Rising guild also took around a week to solve this puzzle in Sanghyuk's previous life. Eventually, they had to ask for an external puzzles expert and could only open the tomb then.
The puzzle's difficulty was just that high.
Obviously, Sanghyuk couldn't solve this puzzle either. In the video he saw, there was the solution to this puzzle, but the problem was that Sanghyuk didn't remember the exact moves they took.
Actually, it was more correct to say that it was practically impossible to remember everything correctly from a video he saw 10 years ago.
'Good. I'm here now... and there's only one thing to do.'
Sanghyuk smiled and left the hidden space.
This wasn't something that he could open. However, he knew a person that might be able to open this.
'Well, not exactly a 'person', I guess.'
Sanghyuk summoned a person without hesitation Well, an NPC, to be exact.
Ilya appeared in front of him. With his title 'Ah! My Ilya', he was able to summon Ilya as though summoning a tamed monster.
Of course, she would disappear once the duration ended.
"Have you called."
Ilya kneeled on one knee and spoke with respect.
"Ilya. Your 'Unlock' skill... can it open a door that's locked in a puzzle form?"
Sanghyuk looked around Ilya's status window a few days ago, and found out that she had gained a new skill after a little bit of the seal was dispelled.
[Darkmoon-specific skill 'Unlock(S)']
This was the skill she had.
"If it is locked in any form, then I can unlock it with my abilities."
Ilya did not let him down.
"Good! Then follow me."
Sanghyuk took Ilya and walked back to the hidden space.

Cruel Pit was the introductory dungeon to the Chilly Wetlands. Its design was different from the other dungeons within the Chilly Wetlands. The dungeon itself was themed after Gothic horror. The entire dungeon was filled with an eerie atmosphere, and players who enter it for the first time were likely to be affected by the psychological induction of fear and ended up underperforming.

That was one of the reasons why a dungeon that was not exactly hard bogged down the progress of millions of Fate players for quite a while.

Ye Ci could remember herself being scared senseless when she first entered this dungeon. The only solution offered by the forums at the current stage was to watch more horror films to build up the resistance to the horror themed dungeon. It was useless. One would never be able to relate to the horror when one was watching a film as they were not directly experiencing it. The only way to overcome such fear was to visit the dungeon more often. After experiencing the dungeon for at most ten times, the fear of seeing skeletons with bits of meat hanging loosely off them will start to fade.

And what was the second key to clearing this dungeon one might ask? It was of course…. Damage output…. And…. Puzzle solving.

The damage output required was an issue for a lot of players. In Ye Ci's knowledge, an average player must possess at least 150 GS to clear the dungeon. Even with someone like her around, the average GS of the party members must reach 130. Without reaching this condition, their attacks might not even be able to penetrate the BOSS's defense.

Although Timely Rain and Phoenix Claw in her party did not have more than 100 GS, Little Icy Cold Hands and Icy Cold Little Hands had 140 GS. As long as she moved faster, her party could clear the dungeon easily.

As for the puzzle….

Ye Ci looked up into the sky, it all depended on luck.

For example, the puzzle currently faced by the party was one that tested the dexterity of one's thoughts.

The door leading to the first BOSS was in a small square patio. Four chairs were set at each corner of the room, and when the puzzle was activated, only one player of the party could try to solve it, while the four other party members had to sit on the chairs.

One mistake could possibly end the lives of the other four members.

Ye Ci made a slight mistake, and Little Icy Cold Hands was impaled by a spike that suddenly rose off the ground. He was left with only the slightest amount of HP. He was scared shitless and yelled, "Gongzi, you must be careful, be careful! Luckily it was me who got impaled, if it was the others, they would've died!"

"Ah, it was a mistake, it won't happen the next time." Ye Ci nodded and chuckled.

"You're taking revenge on me!" Icy Cold Little Hands cried.

Something clicked, and the door opened.

Ye Ci straightened up and walked towards the door. The four asked with uncertainty, "It's done?"

"Of course."

The four immediately jumped off the chairs and rushed into the first BOSS's room after offering different sorts of prayers.

The first and second BOSSes were defeated easily. After being in the scary dungeon for three hours, the group was finally used to the atmosphere. Eventually, they reached the door leading to the third and final BOSS.

The third BOSS of Cruel Pit was the Head Warden Tito.

Cruel Pit was crowned as the milestone of the humanization of the A.I. It was not because of the difficulty of the dungeon. It was due to the fact that the final BOSS of this dungeon, Tito, was the first high intelligence BOSS that players encountered in the game.

A conventional BOSS was designed to follow several programs, but Tito used his own wits to bring out the maximum potential of his skills. This was the hardest factor in the entire dungeon, and part of the reason why many players were bogged down in this dungeon. They could not figure out a pattern to Tito's attacks.

"... Timely Rain have you learned Exhaust?"

Exhaust was the only Debuff skill that a Warlock possessed. Exhaust reduces the target's attack damage by 30% for 8 seconds. Despite that, it had a 20 seconds cooldown. It was one of the life-saving skills.

"I did," Timely Rain nodded. He did not dare to continue… He'd never used the skill before.

"Ok, Tito will have a skill called Anger. When you see the skill channeling, use Exhaust on him."

"Got it." Timely Rain learned a lot about positioning after partying with Ye Ci. He'd even mastered skills that he normally would not use and had got used to the casting timing. It could be said that he had benefitted a lot.

He only had the mindset of exploration when he first entered the dungeon. He was thoroughly impressed by this Huntress. He couldn't help but imagine that they could clear this dungeon under her guidance.

"Phoenix Claw, have you learned Weaken?" Ye Ci asked because most beginners did not have many coins with them and were forced to selectively learn skills. They sometimes would overlook skills that were crucial in dungeons and PVP.

"Let me see, I could've sworn that I learned it," Phoenix Claw's face was red with embarrassment. He finally found Weaken in his skills panel, "Yes, I've learned it."

"When Timely Rain's Exhaust duration is finished, cast Weaken immediately. Weaken has a low cooldown, you can keep using it. But you must take care not to use it when Exhaust is still in effect, they will cancel each other out. It will greatly increase the pressure for the MT and the Healer." With the exception of Phoenix Claw, all the members of the party were fast learners. Despite being a slow learner, Phoenix Claw was a good follower, he followed every instruction to the letter.

"I understand."

"Gongzi, they're not going to attack the BOSS?" Little Icy Cold Hands asked, he noticed that Ye Ci only instructed the two to use Debuff on the BOSS, but did not mention a word about them attacking.

Ye Ci shook her head, "This BOSS has a high GS requirement. Players that are not lvl 15 can't even damage the BOSS without 180 GS. It would just be a waste their mana. It's better if they spend all of their mana on Debuffs. At least they would be able to keep some of the pressure off you."

The four of them were afraid, seeing as only Little Cold icy Hands had reached lvl 15. The others were not even lvl 15 yet. They began to sweat profusely.

"Gongzi, if that's the case, can we clear this dungeon?" Timely Rain's confidence was slightly shaken.

Ye Ci could understand his thoughts. She looked at Timely Rain and affirmed, "In a dungeon, it's either the BOSS or us, there's nothing to be afraid of. Even if we die ten times, we'll only lose half a level worth of experience. With some work, we can get those back within a week. What? Can't bear the loss?"

With Ye Ci's words, and seeing that nobody else had the intention to leave, Timely Rain kept quiet and forced himself to stay.

Phoenix Claw said, "You're a guy, act like one! Are you going or nah? The treasure chest is waiting for us, don't be a pussy!"

Timely Rain was a shy person, with the words of Phoenix Claw, he was too embarrassed to leave. He gritted his teeth, "Let's go!"

At the next moment, the battle started immediatel.

Icy Cold Little Hands, Timely Rain and Phoenix Claw stood together, distancing themselves in a straight line 20 m away from Little Icy Cold Hands. Ye Ci stood between them, acting as a barrier.

All they needed to do at the beginning of the fight was to stand still and dish out damage, nothing else was really needed. Five minutes later, Tito grabbed the hem of Little Icy Cold hands angrily, intending to throw him aside. If it's not for Little Icy Cold Hand's reaction speed, he would've been thrown away.

Tito shouted in a loud voice, "Damned ants, you've pissed me off!"

Ye Ci was shocked, in her countless visit to the dungeon, she'd never seen Tito combining the skills of Anger and Ignite together. She shouted, "You three, move in the same direction as I do after Exhaust is cast, don't stay in the area of his attack."

Timely Rain immediately cast Exhaust. Just as Ye Ci's voice died down, flames burst out of Tito's mouth in a fan shape. Players within the affected area suffered sustained and serious burn damage.

The three mage classed playerswere immediately put into a state of disarray. Noticing that Little Icy Cold Hands was nearly dead, Ye Ci drank a bottle of Rage potion and took the aggro of the BOSS away from him with a few critical hits. She released Ol' Three to the front line as a meat shield.

"The four of you hurry up and recover your health with potions and bandages. We'll do it again!" Ye Ci said and began kiting Tito in the small room.

In Fate, the combat state would not be removed unless the entire party left the area or was annihilated. It was not worth to die just like that, and Ye Ci refused the exit the dungeon, leaving behind a BOSS that only had 37% of its health left. She immediately instructed the members of her party to recover themselves.

The four of them were gasping for air by that time. The three mage classed players were especially ashamed of their performance. The used the best consumables they had.

After healing up, Little Cold Icy Hands charged up to Tito and took over the Aggro with the help of Phoenix Claw. Ye Ci immediately returned Ol' Three to the pet storage and went back to her position.

By that time, they were used to Tito's tricks. They dodged his Ignite with ease.

There were occasions where time passes real quick, and there were also occasions where time was slow. Half an hour was normally not a long period of time, but in the party's situation, it felt like 10,000 years. Tito's hit points finally hit 1% and Ye Ci immediately reminded her party members, "Be careful, he will now randomly release an ultimate skill!"

At that moment, Tito began to channelthe skill Mutual Destruction!

Ye Ci was shocked, nobody had the skill that could cancel other skills at this point. If this ultimate skill was successfully released, it would deal 999,999 points of damage, annihilating everything in the area! She chugged down another bottle of Rage potion.

"Please don't let me die now, come on, lemme have a critical hit! Armor break!" Ye Ci shouted, and cast Rapid Fire, at the same time, a Weaken debuff appeared on Tito.

Critical hit! Armor break! -3749!!

NOT MINE, FOR READING PURPOSES ONLY
The happiest thing in the world is to be able to amend what you have done wrong. She who acted willfully because of a game, was reincarnated into a time when she still had her parents’ love.

For the sake of her family, she began her life as a pro gamer.

But this time, she was no longer the Human Sorceress that she was familiar with. She was an Elven Huntress. Could she still acquire the power to be the Right Hand of God?
468 Chapters (Completed)
Credits to translator: 
https://www.volarenovels.com/novel/reign-of-the-hunters
https://www.patreon.com/Jimminx

After turning left and following the path for a little while we came to a dead end with a single room. Within this room was a chest. Just how I never imagined I would enter a dungeon, I never thought I would ever have a day where I would see a real live treasure chest. Sadly it was not a very good looking treasure chest. It looked weathered and old but nonetheless, it was still a bonafide treasure chest. 
Of course, I was not stupid enough to rush into the room. Although there was one person who did. "Sam, get back here!" Able yelled out but it was already too late, he already ran into the room causing the rest of us to quickly follow. As soon as the four of us entered the room the door slammed shut and the chest in the room opened on its own. You could hear the sounds of ancient gears grinding together as a wooden board came out of the treasure chest. It then folded out into a large square, that reached the ceiling. When I looked at the board I felt a headache come on since I recognized what the board was instantly. 
"What is this!? A bunch of squiggly lines?" Marsil looked at the board. She seemed very confused when looking at the mess of squiggly lines drawn on the board. 
"It's a puzzle." I answered. Yes, it was a puzzle a lot of people would spot it right away. A slide puzzle. The only problem was that I could not understand what the picture was supposed to be of.
"So this is a puzzle room. This dungeon really hates us." Able let out a sigh.
"Puzzle room?" I asked curiously. 
"A puzzle room will lock people in and they can only leave when they solve the puzzle. The problem is, is that every time you make a wrong move you will end up needing to fight a group of monsters. The more mistakes, the stronger the monsters... " Able said as his eyes fell on me and asked: "Rei you realized it was a puzzle right away, do you understand how to do this puzzle?" 
Nodding my head I answered: "I understand it but whether or not I can do it right from the start is another story. I will need you all to yell out when monsters spawn."
"Alright we will leave it to you but before we start we have to deal with something. Sam!" Able angrily yelled out causing Sam to shrink his neck. "If I ever catch you running off on your own again, even after I tell you to stop, you will never be able to come with us on a guild request again do you understand?" 
"Y-yes… I-I'm sorry..." Guilt was written all over Sam's face. I felt bad for him because he was getting scolded but this time he really messed up. 
"Alright good. Rei, it is all up to you." Able said with a smile. 
I nodded my head and walked over to the large board and realized something crucial. I couldn't reach the top! Feeling a little bit embarrassed I turned to Able and said: "Able can you let me sit on your shoulders." 
Able smiled and nodded before walking over to me. He leaned in and kissed my forehead before spinning me around and grabbing me by the waist. Before I could grasp what was going on he had already placed me on his shoulders. I had never expected him to pick me right up off the ground like that! It was times like these that I was glad I was small and petite! 
In front of me was over one hundred blocks. With one space missing. Just looking at it was already giving me a headache. I let out a sigh as I said: "Be prepared to fight some hectic battles. This will take a while." 
"It's fine, just do your best." Able said with a smile. Like always, he was always on my side. 
I turned my focus back to the puzzle in front of me and looked at all the squiggly lines trying to make heads or tails of what I was looking at. There was only one spot I could move into so I had two options at the start to work with. I looked at them and quickly made my choice. The one at the top was more straight on its left side meaning it was not a corner piece. With this thought in mind, I nervously reached up and pushed the tile on the left upwards. It was slightly curved and when I did this, I heard a clicking sound as the tile clicked into place. It also matched the tile perfectly next to it. Although it seemed to be right I still looked around to check to see if any monsters spawned. Only when I saw an empty room did I finally let out a sigh of relief. 
But the next problem was the next piece was not something that would fit together. This was the hard part about slide puzzles. Sometimes the piece you want is on the other side of the puzzle and you have to slowly move it towards the other side. But in order to get to such a piece in this room would result in monsters spawning. I looked at the puzzle carefully and discovered that the next piece looked to be three tiles to the right and two tiles down easy to get to but that was five monster spawns. I turned my head and looked down at Marsil and Sam who were looking back at me, I just hoped the monsters that spawned would not be too difficult to defeat. 
Letting out a sigh I said: "Get ready for battle."
***
If you are not reading this at [W.e.b.n.o.v.e.l .c.o.m.], then the content you're reading is stolen! Please support the author at [w.w.w.w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l.c.o.m./.b.o.o.k./magical-love-learn-to-love-in-another-world_18276802205013905] remove periods for address since some sites monitor warnings like this.


Is love so easily accomplished? For a girl, they can flash a little skin and get boys to fawn over them. Can that be considered love?  Wouldn't that just make them sluts? I would rather kill myself than be touched by a man I do not love. I might be old fashion but this is how I was raised for fifteen years of my life. 

The one day I decided to open my mouth and say something, was the day I truly found out how screwed up this life was. 

After my death, I found myself in a familiar place with an annoying system talking inside my head.  I was somehow reborn in my favorite otome game? And I was neither the protagonist nor the villainous? Just a side NPC! Not only did it have the same game system as the otome game but it also had a small twist which required me to cultivate my magic?

If this was not enough I found that all the love interests keep trying to talk to me.  

With my head swirling with all the things happening around me will I finally find my chance at true love?


----


**** Cover Art, not mine!*** Only the text is! I will update it once I get a new cover made!

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The right path at first seemed like a similar tunnel to the others, but that immediately changed when they came across actual stairs that went downward. That alone would have been a pretty clear sign that it was the correct path to take, but if he hadn't gone through the other paths first he would have missed out on some treasure along with the puzzle pieces that he'd probably end up needing in the future if things continued the way they were going. The second thing he noticed about the right path was the fact that it was dimmer than the others. Luckily Cinder was out front and glowing brightly making it easier to see.

He wasn't surprised that a dungeon with beast that preferred to dig through the ground was more on the dim side than anything else. It would be an advantage to them over normal enemies that came into their territory. It wouldn't be too much of an advantage though since the things made so much noise whenever they moved around. There loud abrasive chewing from whenever they dug through the dirt could be heard from further than most people could see. These creatures were definitely not stealthy no matter how much of an advantage the world dungeon tried to give them.

After reaching the end of the stairs the path seemed to open up more, but in Joshua's eyes that was a bad thing. Soon he could tell exactly why that was a bad thing when he reached the next split up ahead. This time instead of an intersection or a two way split he was met with a large circular room with ten different ways to go if you didn't include the entrance they came through. This was like a hub area that lead to all different places in the dungeon and if they wanted to find all the puzzle pieces and treasures this place had to offer they were most likely going to have to go down each and every path. "Well shit." Joshua said aloud getting a chuckle out of Tank.

"There's a reason that higher level dungeons take so much longer than the ones you've been to before." Tank said with a big grin.

"Is that reason the unnecessary amount of paths you have to take to figure out the way to go?" Joshua asked with a frown as he looked down each path .All of them looked exactly the same from the outside so it was hard to judge. He could see that some lead straight while others curved off or went up or down. There were just so many different ways they could go he knew that his aura pulse wasn't really going to make much of a difference in this situation.

"With some dungeons it will be similar to this one. So many paths to go that it will take you a while just to explore the place while other dungeons will be more maze like. Hell some might even just be one long path with incredibly powerful monsters guarding the way. It all just depends in the end." Tank said before looking towards one of the paths. "My aura is being blocked off from trying to sense down that path so in all likelihood it is the right one to go down if we want to get to the next part of the dungeon. I just doubt you will be able to open it at this point."

"Well let's go check it out to see what we have to do to open it later. It probably has something to do with the puzzle pieces." Joshua said before leading the way down the path. He was starting to realize what the people at the ant hill must have felt like before Joshua and Lilly had arrived. Going down all sorts of paths just too blindly try to find the right way forward. At least in that dungeon it was easy for Joshua to figure things out since his aura pulse could show him which paths he could just ignore, but that wasn't the same case here. In this dungeon every path most likely either contained a treasure that he'd like to get, a key that he would need to open said treasure, or a puzzle piece that they'd need to open up the next section of the dungeon. It was going to take days just to try to finish exploring the dungeon.

When they reached the end of the path it widened even more to the point where it was big enough for Tank to move in if he was around three stories tall. It wouldn't accommodate his full size, but that was far more than any of the other paths could handle up to this point. At the end of the path there was a large gateway that covered the entire wall ahead. The gateway was made of bronze and there were three holes in it that seemed to need to be filled before the door could be open. At the moment Joshua wished he could just punch the thing down, but judging by its size he highly doubted that was a possibility.

"Well at least we know what the puzzle pieces are for now." Lilly said with a smile as she pointed to the three holes. "There are three circles that need to be filled and we have three pieces to three separate circles. I'm guessing that's what they will be used for in the end."

            "Sad thing is I can't even sense what's on the other side of the door. It's like it's blocking off my aura perception in some way." Joshua said with a frown before turning to head back the way they had come. "In all likelihood there's probably a sub-boss or something behind the gates to block the way forward. I won't get my hopes up that it's the actual boss after all."

            "Oh cheer up, just think of it as a prolonged adventure in the end and you will have much for fun." Lilly said with one of her silly smiles. Joshua just laughed a bit before focusing on what path to take next. Since in the end they would have to go down each and every single one of the paths he decided to just go down the nearest path to see what it held in store. Knowing that there would probably be some fighting up ahead Lilly had all of her pets ready for combat. Cinder and Tank were shrunk down to smaller sizes until they came across a fight that they would be needed for, while Jade leaped into Joshua's shadow to help him out. Lastly Lilly set comfortably on the back of her newly evolved frog that she seemed excited to test out.

            The path they had chosen turned out to be a straight on one that lead to another room after a while of walking. The room was widened out, but Joshua could tell it wasn't the end of the path since he could see a continuation on the other side of the path up ahead. This time around they had company though that was bound to get in their way as they tried to make their way across the space. There were three of the large prairie dogs roaming the room as they munched on the walls a bit to keep their over grown teeth as sharp as possible. The sight was a little disturbing, but Joshua had heard of rodent animals that had to keep using their teeth otherwise they'd over grow to the point where they were useless or they could even hurt themselves with them.

            In a dungeon where there was no other prey for them to chase after and eat they had to find another way to put their over grown teeth to use and this seemed to be the solution they had come up with. The dungeon itself was able to keep all of the creatures inside of it alive with just the mana and aura in the air so the creatures wouldn't die of starvation, but they still had to figure out how to handle their own issues that had nothing to do with food. Luckily since they had no food to eat they weren't pooping all over the place otherwise every dungeon they'd have gone to would have smelled like crap. Though he wouldn't be surprised if they ever came across a bat dungeon it would turn out that way, those things pooped like their lives depended on it.

            "Alright it's just going to be me and Mr. Hoppy in this fight." Joshua said getting the others attention. He made sure not to talk loud enough to gain the attention of the prairie dogs, but he wasn't too concerned since they seemed busy at the moment. "Were going to test out and see how much he has improved. I'm going to let him do most of the fighting while I just keep the enemies in check."

            "Oh, so you're going to act like an actual tank for a change." Lilly said with a smug smile.

            "Hey, I tank just fine."

            "Joshua you're a tank that does more damage than anybody else in the group. You hardly ever have to use any provoking skills since you do so much damage that the enemies just go straight for you anyways. The only time you ever actually act like a tank is during boss fights."  Lilly said with a giggle getting a role of the eyes from Joshua in return.

            "Alright, alright. I'm a tank in the loose sense of the word. Just keep an eye out for any other enemies coming while we go take care of this. You ready to go Mr. Hoppy?" Joshua asked the frog which just stared at him for a moment before subtly nodding its head.

            Joshua was the first one to charge into the room and head towards three prairie dogs. He knew that Mr. Hoppy had become bulkier stats wise even if it didn't appear that way from his looks, but in the end Mr. Hoppy's main role would be from a distance so he was making sure to keep that in mind. Soon all of the prairie dogs took notice of Joshua charging over and they screeched at him before trying to dig into the ground. Before two of them could even get underground they were both hit with a poison dart while the other one got away just in time. The two that had been poisoned both fell over before they could even start trying to squirm their ways into the holes. One was paralyzed and couldn't move while the other started turning a green tinge of color.

            Joshua quickly rushed over to the paralyzed one and rammed his shoulder into it knocking it towards the poisoned one. Then he leapt back as the third prairie dog burst out from the floor a second too late. Mr. Hoppy then shot two more darts towards the already downed frogs. He poisoned the paralyzed one and paralyzed the poisoned one. He then shot over a ball of poison gas for good measure and watched as the two prairie dogs slowly died without being able to move an inch. The only surviving prairie dog glared towards the frog and was about to rush over when it was smashed in the face with a large ball of acid. After having gotten a good sense of Mr. Hoppy's new skills Joshua put the last creature out of its misery with a quick strong slice to the neck.

            After the poisoned cloud cleared up he put all of the dead bodies of the prairie dogs into his inventory. He knew that two of them were harshly poisoned so they might not have much meaning for materials, but he planned on bringing them to Madalyn in the future. She could test out the frogs poison and see if she could find any use for it. At this point Madalyn might as well have been the greatest expert in poisons around so he was looking forward to her opinion.

            With the roomed cleared out they continued down the path and spent over an hour just to explore the whole thing. There were two more open areas like the last one they had come across and Joshua, Jade, and Mr. Hoppy made quick work of them before moving on. When they finally reached the end of the path they came across a larger group of six of the rodents and they all worked together to take them out as quickly as possible. Sitting on the wall were three keys and nothing else. That alone stoked Joshua's fears of having to go down each and every single path to find the things they would need. It was going to be a long day.

         

Joshua is a young man fresh out of college and preparing for medical school. After dropping his friend off at the airport and packing up he takes a road trip to Las Vegas to meet up with his family on vacation. On the way a weird ringing sound grabs his attention and before long take his consciousness. When he wakes up the world has changed, several people have disappeared, and dead miasma born creatures walk the streets. Will Joshua be able to survive his circumstances and figure out the mysteries of the strange occurrence?

This story will be PG-13 (didn't want to say general audiences considering some vivid imagery) 

Slight Spoiler: (((As of Volume two this story will also be getting the system and exploration tags added on. So look forward to it.))) 

I hope you all enjoy reading and leave a comment from time to time to tell me what you think.

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