Chapter 77: The System Incident, and some skills
The dungeon boss was massive even in death.
David sat with his back against its flank, legs stretched out, head tipped slightly back. Every breath came slower than the last. The ache was still there — deep in his shoulders, pooled behind his eyes as he stared aimlessly.
’F-rank dungeon. E-rank boss.’
He almost laughed. Almost.
’And I nearly died.’
That was the honest version. Strip away the lucky win and what you had was a guy who would’ve been paste on the floor without a skill which had boosted him stats.
The difference between an E-rank and an F-rank wasn’t just a letter. It was a wall. He’d felt every inch of it.
He wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand, smeared it more than cleaned it, then pushed himself to his feet. His knees protested. He ignored them.
The boss lay there — huge and still and done. He looked at it the same way you’d look at a bill you’d just barely managed to pay.
Then a thought.
’...System...Can I extract from this thing?’
[Query acknowledged. Extraction is available for eligible materials. Place your hand on the target and issue the command.]
David blinked. Looked down at his hand. Looked at the boss.
He crouched, pressed his palm flat against the creature’s side, and said, "Extract."
A pale light threaded through the body — slow, almost gentle — and then the corpse simply... deflated. Not dramatically. Just quietly, like something essential had been pulled loose. When it was gone, David checked his inventory.
[Item: The Iron-Head Behemoth]
[Inventory Slots used: 10/30]
He stood there for a second.
’Ten slots. From one boss.’
He walked to the nearest dead hog, touched it. "Extract."
[Inventory slot used: 11/30]
’This is...superb.’
Most hunters didn’t have this. Most hunters came through with a mining crew, people whose whole job was to haul material out of places like this.
He didn’t need that.
’I don’t need any of that.’
The thought landed quietly. It didn’t announce itself. It just sat there in his chest and refused to move.
He went through the rest of the floor methodically — touching, extracting, moving on. By the end, he was standing in the middle of a dried land that looked like it had been almost swept clean, his inventory nearly full, and he was already running the numbers.
Sell the raw materials in the real world. Use the boss drops for forging. Don’t split the profit with anyone.
It wasn’t a complicated plan. But it was his.
[Dungeon cleared. Would you like to return to base?]
David exhaled through his nose.
"The fuck kind of question is that? Why the hell would I want to stay?"
[Understood. Opening exit portal.]
The familiar shimmer opened across the horizon of slaughtered beasts— same one he’d stepped through what felt like a lifetime ago. He looked at it. Looked at the bloodied floor around him.
Then he walked through.
The portal closed behind him without ceremony.
***
The transition back felt like walking through liquid steel.
It wasn’t painful. It wasn’t exactly pleasant either. Just this thick, pressing sensation — like reality was squeezing him through a gap it hadn’t quite finished making. And then it was gone, and he was standing in his apartment, exactly where he’d left.
Same couch. Same dim light. Same smell of takeout he hadn’t thrown out yet.
David stood there for a second, then let gravity do the rest. He walked backwards, dropped, and let the couch swallow him whole.
"Finally."
The word came out like a punctured tire.
He stared at the ceiling. His lungs expanded. His body sank. For about four seconds, everything was fine.
Then he looked down.
He was absolutely drenched in dungeon beast blood.
"...Oh, come on."
He sat up slowly, the way a man sits up when he already knows what he’s going to see. Sure enough — dark stain, spreading nice and comfortable across the cushion behind him. Right in the center. Like it had been waiting for him.
He slapped both hands on his thighs and just looked at it.
"Fucking hell!"
That couch had outlasted several sex toy relationships. It had outlasted his will to own matching furniture. And now it was sitting there, martyred, because he’d forgotten he was basically a walking crime scene.
’Can I wash off dungeon beast blood? Urgh... fuck it, I’ll just have to replace it.’
He stood up, peeled his jacket off, and threw it somewhere behind him.
Okay. Regroup.
He’d just cleared a dungeon. Solo. Came out the other side alive, inventory stacked with extractable materials, and for the first time since the system had landed on him like a collapsed ceiling, he had something resembling an actual plan.
The couch was a casualty of war. He could live with that.
’Sell the materials. Get a decent price. And while I’m at it...’
He glanced around his apartment with fresh eyes. Bare walls. Furniture that had seen better decades. A kitchen that technically functioned.
’...I could genuinely redo this entire place.’
The thought was more exciting than it probably should’ve been. He was a hunter now, technically. He had a literal sin-based power system and a dungeon kill to his name. He should probably be thinking about training, rankings, gear upgrades—
Although.
Now that he thought about it.
He had been successfully dodging April Holiday ever since what he had internally been calling The System Incident- the day the system had traded his dignity like it was nothing.
He’d been a ghost since then. Olympic-level avoidance. Not like he cared.
He was still drinking in his victory when the notification pulsed at the edge of his vision.
[Dungeon Completion Reward Confirmed.]
[Player has received: x1 A-Rank Skill.]
David went still.
Then he read it again.
A-rank.
He was an F-rank player who had just barely survived an E-rank dungeon on the back of an assist skill and sheer spite, and the system was sitting here telling him he had an A-rank skill waiting in his reward queue.
He let out a slow breath through his nose.
’I swear. This better be worth giving up Adrenaline Rush for. That skill kept me alive today. Literally. So whatever this is...’
He exhaled.
"Alright." He straightened up, rolled his shoulder once. "System. What’s the skill?"