Chapter 73: Into The Dungeon II
David took a slow breath and looked back down at the notification.
’Fifty points per kill.’
He turned that over for a moment.
’Twenty kills and I have a thousand SP.’
He glanced at the fragment armor sitting lopsided on his torso — the open sides, the exposed lower back, the forearm guards that stopped at the wrist.
"How the hell do you even call this an armor?...I feel so exposed." he said.
[The System notes the player survived.]
[The System considers this a success.]
"Unbelievable," he muttered, and pushed himself to his feet.
He kept moving.
It was common knowledge that the further you went into a dungeon, the more magic beasts you would encounter. Depth meant density. So he walked, Dragon Claw loose in his hand, eyes working the grass ahead of him in slow sweeps.
His mind worked while his legs did.
’Okay. What do I know.’
The iron plating was a problem — but only until you understood it. The armor was strong, yes, but it was also the beast’s weakness. It slowed it down. It limited the angles it could turn. And the spaces between the plates — the neck, the joints, the hind legs — those were where everything soft lived.
’Target the gaps. Immobilize first. Then finish it.’
The hog hadn’t been stupid exactly, but it hadn’t been smart either. Same charge, same build-up, same explosive burst with no variation. Once he’d clocked the pattern it was just a matter of patience and positioning.
’They’re not intelligent. That’s two.’
He adjusted his grip on the Dragon Claw.
’Three — the weak points are consistent. Same anatomy, probably same gaps. If they all build the same way, they all fall the same way.’
It wasn’t a perfect strategy. But it was a strategy. And for someone walking through his first dungeon in a white t-shirt with half an F-rank breastplate, he’d take it.
He kept going.
The amber light didn’t change. The grassland didn’t thin or shift or offer him any indication of distance covered.
There was no real way to judge how far he’d come. Every direction looked exactly the same. But the ground felt slightly different underfoot and the grass ahead sat a shade darker, denser, like it was growing over something that didn’t drain well.
He noted it and kept moving.
In the time, he’d gone far enough that the place where he’d killed the hog and only then, did he finally notice—
The grassland ended without warning.
One step the ground was soft beneath his feet, grass brushing at his knees — and then it wasn’t. The earth darkened, compacted, somewhere between mud and hardpack, the kind of ground that looked stable until it wasn’t.
David slowed without thinking, testing each step before committing his weight to it.
He passed the first remains maybe three minutes in — just bones, mostly. Something four-legged, larger than whatever had finished it. The ribcage sat collapsed into the mud, plates of dark chitin scattered around it like shed armor. He looked at it for a moment, noted it, kept moving.
There were more further on. Smaller ones. Fragments. Dark stains pressed into the earth. The occasional shape that might have been a skull if you looked at it long enough and didn’t particularly want to.
’Cheerful place...real Cheerful. ’ he thought.
He adjusted his grip on the Dragon Claw and kept going.
Then the System flickered at the edge of his vision.
[NOTICE: Player approaching final zone.]
[Proceed with caution.]
’Now it tells me.’
He was still moving when the sounds started. Soft. Rhythmic. Coming from the left.
He turned.
More from the right.
He turned again.
From ahead. From somewhere behind him in the dark at the edge of the terrain. He stood very still and let his eyes do the work, pulling shapes out of the low amber light one at a time —
They came out slowly. Iron-plated snouts. Broad flat skulls. One from the left, one from the right, one directly ahead, another materializing from the dark behind the first. He counted fast.
’...Seven.’
Another pair of glowing eyes appeared.
’Nine...’
He narrowed his eyes.
’...No.’
More movement.
’There’s more.’
David exhaled through his nose as his jaw rolled once.
His jaw tightened.
’...They herded me.’
The lone hog from earlier hadn’t been wandering.
It had led him here.
He almost let himself finish the thought until something hit him.
Not from the hogs. From directly beside him, from the mud itself practically, because he hadn’t seen it and barely registered the movement before the impact cracked across his chin.
He stumbled back hard, boots sliding in the damp earth, hand going to his face on instinct.
His fingers came away wet, a faint scratch painted with his blood now on his face.
He looked down.
A rabbit crouched in the mud where he’d been standing a half-second ago. Silver-grey, compact, armored head to flank in small interlocking plates that caught the ambient glow like fish scales.
It had already landed and stilled itself, watching him with the patience of something that had already made its decision.
Then another one rose from the mud to his left. Silent. Same build. Same stillness.
[IRON-HEAD HOG — RANK F]
[SILVER-PLATED RABBIT — RANK F]
The notifications bloomed around both species at once. And through the gap between two of the hogs, David could see more — soft impressions in the dark beyond, pairs of red eyes catching the amber light and holding it without blinking.
He pressed the back of his wrist to his chin. Deep enough to sting, shallow enough not to matter. He lowered his hand.
Took one breath.
’Different beasts... alright, think...’
’The rabbits are fast — faster than the hogs, no question. Smaller, lighter, less plate coverage. That scratch came before I even processed the movement. But lighter armor means the Dragon Claw goes through easier. They’re dangerous but they’re manageable.’
His eyes moved to the hogs.
’Those are the real problem.’
One-on-one he could handle it. But a herd charging from four different directions, overlapping, no time between one and the next to reset his footing —
’That’s a completely different problem.’
He was still working through it when with a thunderous screech, the hogs moved.
All of them. Simultaneously.
Hooves scraped mud in a single unified rhythm — once, twice — and the ground began to shake beneath him as every one of them came forward at once, straight at him from every direction, with nothing between them and him but open air.