What? Was this how [Honor Mode] worked?
Failing a quest had never resulted in an immediate death before. This wasn’t good. If he died, the game ended.
Who knew what would happen to his friend’s message then? Would he get a second chance?
She was really making this hard for some reason.
The screen updated again. Shit.
[Quirks]
New! Chain Smoker: EX
New! Mana Hypersensitivity: EX
New! Bad Navigator: EX
New! Insomnia: EX
The forest tilted. His vision blurred for a second as blood dripped from his nose.
[Mana Hypersensitivity (EX)]
The user’s mana acts as a potent toxin to the user. Skill use, mana potions, and even passive mana circulation may cause escalating physical damage.
The damned quirk had activated because of two measly [Fireballs].
[Remaining HP: 99%]
“…She can’t be serious.”
The ranks after S were SS, SSS, then EX. An EX-rank quirk was unheard of.
He let out a dry laugh and stubbed the cigarette out on his palm. The pain cleared his head.
“You really want me to suffer for this message, don’t you?”
Losing an eye had taught him how to survive in a broken body, and his past experience with the game gave him knowledge on glitches and exploits. Shane knew he could beat the game, but barely. Beating the game with these disadvantages wouldn’t be easy, even for him.
He sighed. This was going to be one hell of a grind.
I hope you’re happy now.
He crushed the remaining stub in his palm before a strange System message appeared.
[The concealment of the Gloomwood has been breached.]
[The dungeon awakens to eliminate the foreign threat!]
[The dungeon monsters sense a crisis and call upon their master’s power!]
[Dungeon difficulty is increasing!]
[Dungeon Rank: F → D]
[All monsters herein will now evolve into Divine Beasts.]
[Warning: All monsters have ascended to Celestial-class!]
What the—
Shane stood completely still. Something huge was slithering around the dark forest. This time, it wasn’t a snail.
A voice echoed in the woods.
“Ah, what have we here? A lossst little worm! Look at thee, sssoiled and ssscared.”
Shane’s confusion broke at those words.
He raised one eyebrow. Scared?
“Did thou truly think thou could tresspasss here? In my sssacred garden?”
Through the shadows, a pair of slitted eyes stared at him. They had to be bigger than Shane’s own head. Instinctively, Shane’s muscles tensed, but there was nowhere to run.
A living wall of white had trapped him in the dark. Its serpentine body circled between the trees, with Shane in the middle.
An event like this had never happened in the game before. This was a tutorial dungeon, for god’s sake.
Celestial-class monsters were the strongest in the game. Their curses crippled one’s senses and stats so badly that a D-rank Celestial-class was the equivalent to a normal C-rank monster.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Shane drew himself up to his full height.
From the shadows, the snake loomed into view. The head blotted out the moon as it rose above him.
A giant snake.
Shane’s lips pressed together in a slight grimace. It wasn’t funny. His friend’s nickname had been the Viper. Was this what she wanted?
The cloud parted and more moonlight streamed in. Shane could see the body more clearly as it kept to the trees, its massive form weaving between the trunks in a wide berth around the clearing.
[Giant Gloom Viper]
Class: Celestial
Rank: D
A massive, evolved form of a Gloom Viper. The Giant Gloom Viper’s white scales are incredibly hard, granting it exceptional defense. It rarely fights alone and calls upon legions of lesser snakes to swarm and overwhelm prey.
It didn’t matter if she cursed him with her last words. Whatever message she’d left for him, he deserved it.
And a little snake wasn’t going to stop him from finding it.
He lifted his head to make eye contact with the snake. Being face to face with the beast triggered the prompt Shane had been waiting for.
[Title: Predator of the Seraphim has been activated!]
[All skills are temporarily upgraded by two full ranks against Celestial-class enemies.]
And sure enough, his skill ranks had changed.
[Skills]
Curse Immunity: C- → A-
Skill Copy: F+ → D+
?Fireball: F+ → D+
The D-rank Giant Gloom Viper let out a high-pitched cackle.
[The Giant Gloom Viper asserts its dominance!]
[Curse: Serpent’s Contempt (D) has been activated!]
[Maximum Mana and Stamina are temporarily reduced by 50%.]
[Curse Immunity (A-) has been activated!]
[All negative status effects have been purged.]
“Do thou feel the true power of the Absolute? Thou may bow to thy knees and beg for mercy. Perhaps then, I will consider eating thee in one bite!” The snake swayed its head, taunting.
Probably because in its mind, Shane was now crippled with the curse.
He dusted off the front of his coat while looking for the viper’s weaknesses.
The muddy ground beneath the snake churned. Dozens of foot-long snakes began to emerge from the soil. Then dozens more. Uh-oh.
It looked like the forest floor would soon become a writhing sea of green scales in no time.
[Gloom Adder]
Class: Celestial
Rank: E
These smaller snakes are lesser extensions of the Giant Gloom Viper’s power. Their green scales provide effective camouflage within verdant undergrowth. Though individually weak, Gloom Adders are formidable in overwhelming numbers, acting as living projectiles and distractions for their master.
“Yesss, my children! Feasst upon thiss morssel!” the Giant Gloom Viper hissed. “Devour his flesh! Ssshow him despair!”
Shane tapped a foot. Well, at least the snake’s personality was nothing like his friend. Killing it would be much easier.
He raised his hand and cast his first D+ [Fireball]. Blood trickled from his nose.
But now, [Fireball] wasn’t a candle flame. Growing to the size of a cannonball, it struck a pack of adders, burning them to a crisp as the trees shook from the impact.
[Achievement Unlocked – Kill 10 Enemies]
Practice makes ten corpses.
Reward: Skill Point +1
The Giant Gloom Viper’s red eyes widened. “What… what was that?! Imposssible! Thou… thou should be cursssed!”
Shane spat on the forest floor. Red tinged the grass.
“Use one point on [Skill Copy].”
[Skills]
New! Skill Copy: D+ → C-
?Fireball: D+ → C-
[Title: Predator of the Seraphim has been activated!]
[All skills are temporarily upgraded by two full ranks against Celestial-class enemies.]
Now [Fireball] was temporarily a C-minus rank.
He summoned a new [Fireball] and felt the increase in its attack power. Before, the skill had evolved to require less mana, but this time, the color of the flame became deeper and the heat more intense.
It seemed that a letter-grade bump increased a skill’s effect.
For a second, the forest blurred. The trickle of blood from his nose intensified.
“Ah! I sssee!” With a taunting motion, the Giant Gloom Viper bobbed its head. “Thou are killing thyself! Dare thou resist the curse? Fool! No heathen may survive the wrath of the Absssolute!”
This time, the earth at his feet moved.
Immediately, Shane summoned a mana potion, one of the starter items for character creation, and snapped the long neck of the crystalline cylinder with his thumb. The blue liquid and glass shards dissolved into digitized particles, which streamed into his palm and refilled his mana.
Dozens of snakes erupted from the ground around his feet. From all directions, they struck at him.
They never even reached his coat.
Shane’s body flashed with light. A wall of fire vaporized the front ranks of the Gloom Adders, and the heat baked the muddy ground beneath his feet to a cracked crust.
As the light subsided, it showed the wall of fire had been six [Fireballs] vortexing around Shane’s body. They hovered around him obediently.
Primal terror overrode their master’s command, and the snakes’ charge collapsed. The snakes scrambled back to retreat. The Giant Gloom Viper’s red eyes widened in disbelief.
“Impossible! How? The curse…! Thou… thou are a monster!”
[Achievement Unlocked – Use skills 10 times]
Strike ten times while the iron is hot.
Reward: Skill Point +1
Shane opened his mouth to speak, but instead, blood spilled out, choking his words. His hands clawed at his throat as he coughed.
[Remaining HP: 50%]
“Use one point on [Skill Copy].”
He gasped to control his breath, and a fresh trickle of blood ran from his mouth, tracing a path down his jaw as he spoke.
[Skills]
New! Skill Copy: C- → C
?Fireball: C- → C
[Title: Predator of the Seraphim has been activated!]
[All skills are temporarily upgraded by two full ranks against Celestial-class enemies.]
Leaving incandescent trails, the half-dozen [Fireballs] struck the ground. The forest floor erupted with craters as entire swaths of the snake army disintegrated in a flash of heat. Shockwaves tore the trees bare of leaves.
[Remaining HP: 30%]
And, with long strides, Shane bounded through the smoke. His last jump brought him high into the air, level with the giant snake’s massive head.
“C-ceassse!”
His blazing hand punched forward. Straight through its fangs, breaking into its mouth.
He rammed the [Fireball] deep into its throat. The snake’s eyes bulged. Its bone-white scales turned translucent, revealing the C-rank sun blazing inside its skull.
Shane grinned—a mask of drying blood split by white teeth. He clenched his hand into a fist, and the mana inside the skill compressed.
The [Fireball] detonated.
