I stood there outside the entrance to the dungeon and reviewed my menus.

  Rosevale's Forest Dungeon

  Threshold: Beginner

  Description: A small cave at the edge of Rosevale that used to be a popular mining spot until miners dug deep enough to unearth a Monster Dungeon. The mine still exists, but ore cannot be gathered as easily due to the abundance of goblins that reside here. It is a rather beginner friendly dungeon, though, as the goblins are not all too bright.

  Character Sheet: Naomi Reyes

  Character Details:

  Name: Elaran Thorne

  Age: 18; Gender: Male; Race: Morvian Tribe

  Total Experience: 14,442; Total Level: 31

  Core Stats

  Hit Points: 194 / 194; Stamina: 1,322 / 1,322; Mana: 55 / 55

  Attack Power: 80; Defense: 57

  Magic Power: 23; Resistance: 23

  Spiritual Power: 23; Protection: 37

  Like with my Primary Class Details, there was a section for additional Base Stats, but I ignored them for now. Amy had told me the only ones that mattered were my Strength – which was 57 – and my Technique – which was 23. Luck also played a role in determining if I’d get critical hits or not, but given the Slave Collar I currently had around my neck negated the only Luck Stats I had due to my race, I wouldn’t have to worry about that right now.

  “And we’re sure it's a good idea for me to be going in here with so many of my Stats lowered due to the collar around my neck?” I asked, my hands instinctively rubbing against the metal band around my throat as I examined the rock walls of the abandoned mine on either side of me.

  “If you were a lower level, no, this would be a horrible idea,” Amy replied from my shoulder as she gently pushed my hand away from the collar around my neck. “My scan shows that the first room of the dungeon is full of level 1 and 2 goblin Scouts. Just don’t let them surprise attack you and you’ll be fine.”

  “I’m glad one of us is confident about this decision,” I muttered under my breath.

  “If it’ll make you feel better, you can always equip the bronze armor you have…” Amy’s voice trailed off as my body involuntarily shuddered.

  “With how often you go around poking in my head, you should know that the thought of putting that armor on causes me just as much anxiety as the thought of going in there.”

  “More, actually,” Amy replied, unhelpfully.

  “Anyway,” I exhaled before taking a deep breath. “Just got to rip the bandage off, I guess.”

  “I’ll be here to help, should things become too much for you.”

  “I’m unsure if that’s supposed to make me feel better or not,” I mumbled under my breath as I steeled myself for what was to come before stepping into the dungeon.

  As my feet crossed the threshold of where the mine and dungeon met, I immediately felt a change in the atmosphere and the hairs all over my body stood on end. An overwhelming sensation of what I could best describe as tension hit me like a train and I immediately felt like what I imagined walking through jell-o was like.

  “Hmm…” Amy hummed in my ear, which definitely did help my shaky confidence, but before I had a chance to say anything, she nudged my neck slightly. “Incoming.”

  My eyes widened as an arrow whizzed toward me, and I found myself howling in pain as it hit my shoulder.

  You have taken 3 points of Ranged damage from: Bronze Arrow.

  Before I’d had a chance to process what had happened, another arrow slammed into me, this time in my gut.

  You have taken 24 points of Ranged damage (8 x 3 Vital Organ damage) from: Bronze Arrow.

  “Ow!” I hissed, feeling the blow of the two strikes knocking me back, stumbling back until I once more found myself on the ground outside the dungeon. I could tell that I was outside the dungeon, despite my eyes having closed in the process of falling, due to the overwhelming sensation that had washed over me the second I’d stepped foot inside having faded. Though, I still opened my eyes just to be sure, because it was also just as likely that I’d stopped noticing it due to the pain of getting shot twice.

  “Good news, you’re not dying,” Amy said, though where she was speaking from I had no idea as the tears in my eyes made it impossible to see anything clearly. “Oh stop being such a baby; they’re bronze arrows for System’s sake.” I immediately felt the pain of the arrows vanish. I blinked the tears from my eyes and saw that Amy was sitting in front of me, the arrows having been somehow removed from my body. “I can’t do this forever, so you better get your act together otherwise we’ll be getting nowhere fast.”

  “What happened?” I asked, still a bit shaken by what had just happened.

  “You took two arrows like an idiot who doesn’t have 50 points of dexterity over those two goblins,” Amy replied with annoyance in her voice. “Honestly what’s even the point of giving you the heads up if you’re just going to stand there like an–”

  “Hey!” I suddenly shouted at the cat, causing her to freeze midsentence. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed my Anger Boost was at 250%, an all time high, but I didn’t care. Amy was really starting to get on my nerves and it was time she knew it. “I don’t care if you’re this all powerful semi-present being or not; you’re being a real piece of shit right now and I’m fed up with it.” I spat at her, not even phased by the jolt of discomfort that ran through me as I triggered the collar’s mute function. In fact, I noticed that it just angered me even more, my boost having jumped from 250 to nearly 400.

  I stood up, the pain no longer bothering me. I ignored Amy and whatever it was she was saying as I walked past her and once more into the dungeon. Without even thinking about it, I reached for the connection to my Personal Space and pulled the Iron Rapier from it. With practiced skill, I lunged for the first goblin I saw, easily stabbing him through the chest. I wasted no time as I turned my attention to the other one who was only halfway in the process of fitting an arrow to his bow before he too found himself on the receiving end of my blade.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  With still 50 cycles of my mute left, I glanced around the room, as I did I felt a weird sensation come over me and I immediately dodged as an arrow whizzed past. Anger fueled me as I lunged in the direction the attack had come from, soon finding another goblin impaled on my blade. I growled – though nothing came out due to my mute status still being active – before kicking the corpse free from my blade and then feeling a goblin tackle me from behind.

  We fell to the ground, him on top of me, but he’d been stupid and hadn’t pinned my arm down, allowing me to make a somewhat difficult, but still lethal, strike at him, this time through the side of the neck. I tossed the body from me and stood, glaring at the rest of the room only to find it empty. I was about to start making my way to the next room when I heard footsteps from behind me. I turned, plunging my weapon in the direction of the sound, only to blink in surprise as it vanished from my hands and I heard a familiar voice in my head, though the words didn’t make any sense to me at first.

  “–you dumb idiot!” I winced at the volume of the words as my brain was suddenly able to process what was being yelled at me. A couple seconds later, I noticed that my mute debuff, as well as the buff from Anger Boost were also both gone.

  Unsure of what happened, I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to get whatever gunk I’d gotten in them during my blackout, only to fail and have to resort to using my hands. That didn’t last long, however, and I immediately pulled my hands away in disgust as I noticed whatever was on them was just as disgusting, if not more so, than the gunk stuck in my eyes.

  “Yuck!” I spat, having realized that some of it was even in my mouth. “What the heck is this stuff?” I spat again, attempting to flick the gore-like substance from my hands with little success.

  “Mmm,” was the only reply Amy gave at first as she examined the room I was in. Without anything else to do, I did the same; as I did, I felt a pit forming in my stomach that only grew the more I processed the state of the room.

  Four goblin corpses lay scattered on the ground, all killed with expert precision with a single strike to the chest.

  “It seems that you went into some sort of anger field rage at my earlier comments,” Amy finally said. “I admit, I could have been a bit nicer over the whole thing, though I wasn’t expecting this kind of reaction… Hey, are you even listening to me?”

  I turned my attention back to Amy, looking down to see that she’d walked up to me, though unlike the many other times she did, she wasn’t sitting as she spoke; instead, she looked like she was ready for… Something. It made me feel a little uneasy the way she was looking at me.

  “Hello? ;Algion to Naomi, anyone home?”

  “Sorry,” I finally said, shaking my head and starting to rub my temples, only to pause before my hand made contact with my fur as I remembered the gore that covered me. “I am just… I did that?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Yes and no,” Amy replied, non-helpfully. Before I could even glare at her, though, she continued, “Your body’s innate instincts from when it was inhabited by Thorne took over, it seems. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that such a thing happened. After all, Thorne was really trigger happy even with all the training he went through to try and keep that in check…” Amy’s voice trailed off like it so often did when she was reviewing something that I couldn’t see in whatever ‘logs’ she had access to that I didn’t. “That’s interesting.”

  Ignoring Amy for the moment, I forced myself to get closer to one of the goblins and examine them, narrowing my eyes as I examined them. “They all died in a single strike to the chest, but it’s on the right side…”

  “A goblin’s heart is more right aligned than a human's,” Amy responded, though she sounded like she was only half paying attention to what I was saying.

  “That’s odd,” I said with a frown. Out of curiosity, I placed my hand on my chest and felt for a heartbeat, not even caring about the gore that was on my hand anymore at this point. “Mine seems to be where I’d expect it to be,” I said, turning back to look at Amy who was still staring at something only she could see.

  “A Beastfolk’s folk form is identical to a human in terms of its organ placement. The primary difference is in their Mana cores.”

  “Uh, what?”

  “Make a note about it or something, and shut up for a second.”

  “Alright, alright, jeeze…” I muttered under my breath.

  Newly created notes:

  Ask Amy about Mana cores

  Make Amy apologize for being a jerk

  As I stood there in awkward silence letting Amy finish whatever it was that she was doing, I noticed that the notifications icon as well as the blood drop icon were both flashing. I also realized that Amy hadn’t really clarified what the blood drop had meant, nor the swords, either. “Guess that’s on me for squirreling on the topic like I did,” I said to myself as I thought back to how quickly I’d changed the subject to not knowing what it was to asking about magic.

  With a shrug, I opened the blood drop menu and saw a small window appear.

  You have dealt 144 points of Melee damage (48 x 3 Vital Organ damage) with: Iron Rapier.

  You have defeated Level 1 Goblin Scout.

  You have dealt 144 points of Melee damage (48 x 3 Vital Organ damage) with: Iron Rapier.

  You have defeated Level 2 Goblin Scout.

  You have dealt 144 points of Melee damage (48 x 3 Vital Organ damage) with: Iron Rapier.

  You have defeated Level 1 Goblin Scout.

  You have dealt 144 points of Melee damage (48 x 3 Vital Organ damage) with: Iron Rapier.

  You have defeated Level 1 Goblin Scout.

  I inhaled sharply at that, and immediately glanced down at my health icon, which showed that I currently had 167 Hit Points remaining. Out of curiosity, I consulted my Stamina – which was represented as a lightning bolt – and my Mana – which was represented by a blue swirl. Selecting the respective icon caused the corresponding value to appear in the upper lefthand corner of my vision, and with all three active it displayed my Mana – 55 out of 55 – Stamina – 1,318 out of 1,322 – and Hit Points – 167 out of 194 – respectively. I decided to keep the three values active for now, it seemed wise to do since we were still in the dungeon.

  “Hey uh,” I started, only just now considering the possibility that it wasn’t wise to just be standing around like this here.

  “Relax, the monsters won’t respawn as long as you remain in the dungeon room.” I sighed in relief as Amy continued. “Here, look at your Skills menu.”

  The two swords icon was highlighted and I couldn't help but say, “Don’t see how this is supposed to represent Skills. The graph icon looks more like a Skills icon to me…”

  Without a word, I felt a sensation that could only be described as annoyance at my words as Amy did something with my menus, and the next thing I knew the icons had switched places. “Happy now?”

  “Yes, thank you,” I replied as I opened the Skills menu, now represented by the graph icon.

  Character Skills: Elaran Thorne

  Sword; Experience: 16; Rank: F

  Dagger; Experience: 0; Rank F

  Spear; Experience: 0; Rank F

  Axe; Experience: 0; Rank F

  Knuckle; Experience: 14,441; Rank C

  Bow; Experience: 3; Rank F

  Crossbow; Experience: 0; Rank F

  Wand; Experience: 0; Rank F

  Staff; Experience: 0; Rank F

  There were other Skills listed, but Amy interrupted me after the first nine. “Thorne, like many of his kind, focused heavily on hand-to-hand combat, represented by the Knuckle Skill.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” I said, quickly checking over the rest of the Skills listed and seeing that all of them were listed at Rank F, except for Knuckle, which was C.

  “According to the audit logs for those four goblins you killed, your Skill Rank was calculated as Rank B when you attacked.”

  “Seriously?” I asked, though not really sure what the difference was.

  Amy sighed, making me frown. “Come on, let’s keep going. I’ll explain as we walk.”

  03/02 - 0900, 1200, 1500, 1800

  03/03 - 0900, 1200, 1500

  03/04 - 0900, 1200, 1500

  03/05 - 0900, 1200

  03/06 - 0900, 1200

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