Rooms

Zero sat on the ground as he tried to calm himself down, his entire body still trembling due to the close call with death.

[You have slain a Goblin. +10 Experience Points.]

[You have unlocked the Leveling System. Current Level: 1.]

[Would you like to view your status sheet? Y/N]

Three notifications from the system popped up one after another, with the last one arousing the interest of Zero.

"Yes."

Then, a transparent game-like window popped up in front of Zero.

10/25 EXP

Name: Zero

Title:

Race: Human

Class:

Level: 1

HP: 45/50

MP: 12/14

STR: 3

END: 5

INT: 7

AGI: 3

Zero frowned as he looked at his HP stat.

45/50? Won't that mean I'll die if I get hit a few more times?

[No worries, host. Your body is unlike the ones of other human beings. Whenever you are harmed, your HP stat will slowly begin to recover. As long as it is not a fatal injury, your body will heal itself.]

"If I get an arm or leg cut off, will it regenerate?" Zero asked.

[Yes, host. However, if your HP ever reaches 0, you will die. Weaknesses such as the heart and brain should be protected at all costs, they can reduce your HP instantly to 0.]

"Got it." Zero said as he thought.

As long as I protect my heart and brain, huh... Also, I have access to mana?

Zero couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he thought of himself wielding magic.

"Room cleared. All monsters were defeated. No rewards are available. Granting exit to all survivors." A monotone female voice suddenly rang out.

Zero grabbed the shortsword on the ground and looked up in alarm as he tried to locate where the voice was coming from. It felt like the voice was close to him, yet far away at the same time.

But before he could think about it any longer, Zero felt a sense of weightlessness and his vision suddenly shifted.

"Kai, we're here." A tall, lanky teenager who looked around sixteen or seventeen said to his friend beside him.

"Mhm, this looks to be the right place as written in the mission description," Kai responded.

Kai reached into the satchel he was wearing and pulled out a worn-out piece of paper.

"Between a cluster of trees, with three boulders behind it," Kai read aloud. "Yeah, looks accurate enough."

Both boys stared at the portal hovering about one foot above the ground with curiosity.

"It's not every day we get the honor of mapping out an unexplored dungeon. I wonder if any dumbasses trying to strike it rich already went in without telling anybody?" Kai said aloud.

"Don't remind me," His friend said as he grimaced. "That was so long ago, and we barely made it out alive. We already promised Anata we wouldn't do it again."

"Yeah, yeah," Kai said as he walked towards the portal. "Well, let's do this, Anun."

"Yeah, I hope we make it back out in one piece," Anun replied.

Kai smacked the back of his friend's head, "Don't jinx it, idiot."

Anun chuckled as he and Kai walked into the portal together.

"So, uh, system," Zero said as he kept walking. "Can you tell me more about dungeons? Just so I have more information."

[Gladly, host. Dungeons are formed when an abundance of mana goes berserk and collides with each other. The amount of mana and the energy contained within it decides the difficulty of clearing the dungeon. For example, you are currently inside of a Tier 1 dungeon with an unknown danger level but based on the monsters from earlier, the danger and difficulty of clearing this dungeon are probably not high.]

"What about whatever you said earlier?" Zero asked. "What are Rooms? Is that what I was just in?"

[You are correct. The Rooms inside of a dungeon contain dungeon monsters formed from mana. It is unclear as to why they are formed specifically inside of Rooms, as they are stuck there and not allowed to leave. These monsters are also different from the ones you find outside of dungeons, as the monsters found inside of Rooms cannot be reasoned with and will attack any humans on sight.]

Zero nodded his head. "Got it."

[There are also a variety of Rooms, host. There are regular Rooms, Mini-Boss Rooms, Boss Rooms, and Red Rooms.]

[Regular Rooms have a time limit of three hours. If all monsters are not killed by then, the people inside will be forcefully pulled out and deposited where they came from. You are then only allowed entry again after an hour. However, if you clear out the entire Room, the survivors will be allowed to advance and are sometimes granted rewards.]

[If you clear out the entire Room, the monsters will only be resummoned after a cooldown period of 2 hours. Another method of exiting the Room is to find the hidden exit, which is generally almost impossible due to the obscure locations of the exit.]

[Some regular Rooms also have Room Rules. Room Rules are a unique "law" that only applies to that Room. For example, the Room that you just exited from had a Rule of {No Magic}.]

"No magic? Then how did I-"

[That was a skill. Skills take aura to wield, while magic requires mana. However, you are a unique exception to this rule. Your mana and aura are both classified under MP, which is neither mana nor aura.]

[Red Rooms are different from regular Rooms. Once you enter one, you are not allowed to leave until you have killed all monsters inside. There is also usually a limit to the number of people that can enter this Room, once it has reached the capacity, nobody else may enter. These Rooms are extremely rare and always have Room Rules.]

[Red Rooms also usually give out excellent rewards. Mini-Boss Rooms usually have a mini-boss monster inside with their underlings. These Rooms have an extremely high chance of having Room Rules, but the logic is the same with Regular Rooms, you will be forcibly pulled out of the Room after three hours, or you can leave after you have killed all monsters. You can usually tell when you are about to enter a Mini-Boss Room as the rift leading to inside the Room is a light tint of orange.]

[Meanwhile, Boss-Rooms usually have a Mini-Boss inside as well as a Boss. These Rooms always contain at least one Room Rule, if not more. You can also only leave these Rooms after you have killed all the monsters or five hours have passed. The rift leading to these Rooms is usually colored with a light tint of red, indicating that it is a Boss-Room. Mini-Boss Rooms and Boss Rooms both usually have a high chance of containing good rewards.]

"Is that everything I need to know about Rooms?"

[Yes, host.]

"There better not be something you didn't tell me for the sake of me finding out by myself or something."

The system didn't respond.

"Oh yeah, what was that all about? What happened back there inside that Room? How was I able to copy that goblin's ability?"

[You can copy any skill or magic that is used on you, no matter whether or not it is a physical attack or a mental one due to your unique passive ability of {Learn}.]

"So you're saying I have to get hit by something whenever I want to learn a skill or magic?"

[You can also try to learn them yourself, but it is generally easier to get hit with the skill or magic as it can directly give you the skill or magic itself or level up your proficiency in it.]

"So it's a masochist's dream come true."

Zero continued walking he eventually came to a wall and a podium off to the side that looked identical to the one he had seen earlier.

"Well let's see what we get."