The Mini-Boss Room
Zero walked over to the podium and placed his hand on it.
WHOOM!
The walls slid open to reveal a blue rift floating in the air. Zero sighed and walked in.
The feeling of weightlessness and disorientation came again, although it wasn't as bad as the first time Zero entered the rift. When the feeling finally disappeared and Zero felt solid ground beneath him again, he heard a voice.
"Welcome to the 5th Room. Please eliminate all enemies or survive for three hours to exit the Room. There is currently no Rule activated."
The lady with the robotic, monotone voice sounded out again.
Zero took in the sight in front of him. Surrounding him were walls, and he seemed to be in a cavern of some sort with a high ceiling and wide walls and tiny holes in the ceiling to provide light. But the thing he was most worried about was the glowing eyes peering at him from the darkness. With a pear-shaped body, a twitching dirty pink nose, a hairless tail, beady little eyes, and to top it all off; a disgusting-looking mouth with slobber gushing out.
"Rats. Big ones too," Zero grumbled. "I'd take a goblin over rats any day."
One of the rats suddenly rushed towards Zero without any warning.
As the rat pounced towards Zero's face, he swung his shortsword towards its head. Zero's blade found its mark and struck the rat directly on the head, causing its warm blood to splash all over his face.
Zero flung the dead rat stuck on his sword aside as it crashed onto the floor beside him.
[You have slain a Giant Rat. +5 Experience Points.]
Seeing this, two of the mutated rats scurried toward Zero at the same time.
Zero swung the sword at the one in front of him, but the rat dodged and leaped aside causing Zero to miss. Instead, Zero kicked it in the face, causing it to let out a pitiful-sounding screech. However, the rat coming in from behind reached Zero, opening its jaw and ripping into Zero's leg.
[Skill Acquired: Crushing Bite]
Zero twisted his body and stabbed down directly at the rat's head.
The rat's head split wide open, causing it to release it to go limp. Although the adrenaline pumping throughout his body kept most of the pain away, Zero still grimaced and dislodged the rat from his leg.
[You have slain a Giant Rat. +5 Experience Points.]
Zero then stabbed the rat that he kicked earlier in the head.
[You have slain a Giant Rat. +5 Experience Points.]
"Okay, I can do this," Zero said to himself. "They're just rats, albeit giant ones."
Then, all the rats that were hiding in the dark rushed at Zero.
"Shit!" Zero cursed as he watched the rats storming toward him. He activated {Piercing Thrust} and his blade shot through one of the rats that were the closest to him.
[You have slain a Giant Rat. +5 Experience Points.]
He swung his shortsword in a downward fashion towards another rat that was dashing toward him, killing it. When another rat got close enough, Zero kicked it hard, causing the rat to soar backward and land on the rocky floor with a thump.
Zero kept killing the rats in a methodical fashion, while also backing up to ensure that the rats wouldn't reach him.
Zero lay on the cold cavern floor with the shortsword beside him as he examined his wounds that would surely be fatal to a normal human being.
"You know what? I appreciate you, System," Zero said as he gasped for air.
[You have leveled up, host.]
"Really? Can you show me?"
A transparent window appeared in front of Zero.
35/50 EXP
Name: Zero
Title:
Race: Human
Class:
Level: 2
HP: 20/100
MP: 2/19
STR: 3+
END: 5+
INT: 7+
AGI: 3+
"What's the pluses for, system?"
[You can increase one attribute by one. Select the one you would like to level up.]
Zero thought for a second then chose AGI.
If anything goes wrong, I can always run.
"Room cleared. All monsters were defeated. No rewards are available. Granting exit to all survivors." The monotone female voice suddenly rang out.
"Oh c'mon! I don't get anything after all I just went throu-"
Zero's words were interrupted by his vision shifted and he felt a sense of weightlessness. He appeared outside of the entrance of the 5th Room, and he examined his surroundings as he sat on the ground trying to catch his breath.
How much longer until I get out of this depressing place..?
A goblin slowly slid off of Kai's katana as he examined his surroundings.
"Get the last one, Anun, we have to hurry and map out this dungeon."
"Got it, Kai," Anun replied as he waved his staff. "{Bind}!"
The goblin Anun directed the spell at locked in place as if it was bound by invisible ropes.
Anun walked over to it and said, "{Ice Arrow}!"
The voice suddenly rang out, "Room cleared. All monsters were defeated. Rewards are available. Granting exit to all survivors."
After Anun and Kai were both teleported out of the Room and into the corridor, Kai stood up and walked to the podium, and placed his hand on the glowing top of the podium. The portal shifted into a blue tone, emitting a soft hum.
"Let's go collect our rewards," Kai said as he walked towards the portal.
"That's what I've been waiting for," Anun replied.
As they both walked into the portal, they arrived at a spacious white room with several chests in front of them.
"You will be automatically removed from the Treasure Room after five minutes," The voice rang out.
As Kai and Anun both opened the chests, Anun spoke out first, "That's not right,"
"Yeah, these don't seem like first-clear rewards," Kai said as he furrowed his brow.
"Damn it, do you think someone else found this dungeon first?" Anun asked.
"It doesn't matter anyhow, after all, our job is only to map out the Rooms and their characteristics," Kai replied, "It's their business if they want to enter this dungeon."
"Alright then, let's go," Anun said as he collected all the spoils.
As the boys walked back out through the portal, the color of the portal returned to its usual tint.
"Then let's continue."
When Zero's HP and MP eventually recovered to the max, he got up and dusted off his clothes.
"Onto the next," Zero sighed.
My body does feel a little lighter and I seem to be faster after I upgraded my AGI. And it looks like my max HP and MP went up after I leveled up.
"System, can I look at my list of skills?"
[Yes, host.]
A black window appeared in front of Zero.
Max Number of Skill/Magic Slots: 50
Skills/Magics available: {Piercing Thrust lvl.1}, {Crushing Bite lvl.1}
Fuse
Delete
Zero quickly noticed the "Fuse" and the "Delete" option although both were currently grayed out.
"What are those, System?"
[The "Fuse" is a method of combining two skills or/and magics, although both will be lost after fusing to make either a better or worse one with the properties of both skills and/or magics. There is no chance of a fusion failing, however, you need to be careful with which ones you want to sacrifice as you cannot get them back until you learn it again.]
"And why is the option grayed out?"
[The "Fuse" is currently not available to you yet, host until you have reached a certain level.]
"Mind telling me what that level is?"
[I will alert you when you have reached that level.]
"And what about the "Delete"? Why is that grayed out too? Don't tell me I have to reach a certain level before I can delete them. After all, the limit cap is fifty, right? What if I want to learn a new skill?"
[You can delete skills/magics when you have reached the maximum amount of skills/magics. And there are also ways to upgrade the limit capacity for your slots.]
After five minutes of walking, Zero snapped out of his thoughts as he stared at the wall and the podium.
"One step closer to freedom."
Zero gripped his shortsword tighter and pressed his palm against the podium. The walls slid open to reveal a rift.
The rift had a light orange tint to it.
"So this is the Mini-Boss Room? Is there any chance that this Room is easier than the last one? This is the 4th Room, right? Surely the 5th Room should be harder." Zero said.
[That is usually true, host. But this Room is a Mini-Boss room. The chances of this Room being easier than the last one are impossibly slim.]
"Alright, then into the portal we go."
As Zero opened his eyes, he found himself in a dense forest with a cluster of trees all around him.
"Well, this is different. Where are all the monsters?"
As if on cue, a bush beside him rustled, and a goblin wielding a wooden spear walked out. It looked alarmed when it saw Zero and snarled. But then it noticed Zero's shoddy appearance with his chipped shortsword and ripped clothing before cackling in laughter.
The goblin confidently advanced toward Zero, as if it was sure of its victory. Its spear suddenly glowed a faint red as it lunged at Zero with its spear. Zero dodged to the side and tried to find an opportunity to counterattack.
It has a longer range with a spear, while I only have a shortsword.
Zero waited until the goblin came into range again as it raised its spear, ready to attack again. He then suddenly lunged towards the goblin, startling the goblin as it sent a premature attack at Zero. He grabbed at the spear causing it to stab into his hand, but Zero didn't have time to worry about the pain. He quickly raised his blade as it glowed a faint blue and the sword shot toward the goblin's head.
The sword entered cleanly through the goblin's head causing it to lose its grip on its weapon and flop to the ground after Zero pulled his blade back out.
[You have slain a Spear Goblin. +15 Experience Points.]
[Skill Acquired: Enhance Sharpness]
Zero grit his teeth as he pulled out the spear lodged in his hand.
Zero stabbed his sword into the ground and leaned on it as he took a few deep breaths to distract himself from the pain.
[You have leveled up, host.]
"Is that so? Status sheet."
A black window appeared in front of Zero.
0/100 EXP
Name: Zero
Title:
Race: Human
Class:
Level: 3
HP: 75/150
MP: 22/24
STR: 3+
END: 5+
INT: 7+
AGI: 4+
Zero thought for a second and then increased his STR since that was the lowest of all his stats.
He then sighed and said, "One down, a lot more to go."