Chapter 13: ... Out Into The Fire
'You must be shitting me. Six more days to return from an unknown dungeon when I could be on another continent for all I know? …This is just plain unfair! Ugh.'
Itching to get back to complete his quest and training, Feng was all ready to rush off only for the memory of Shadow's words to resurface in his mind…
'… failed… far too impatient… learn patience…'
Thinking back on how he landed in this place, Feng can't help but acknowledge that if he did not rush in at the last assassin, he would not find himself in this unfortunate circumstance… Although… remembering that odd flash as the potion touched the stone, Feng doubted that they were at the original location the assassins meant to go.
That thought sparked off Feng's memory of the stone which teleported them here and so he approached the corpse and gingerly searched for the stone in hopes that it would be able to send him back somehow.
Finding the stone some distance away, Feng carefully grabbed hold of it and examined it.
[Teleport Stone (Unknown) - Cracked
Type: Runestone
Effects: Single Teleport (Unknown location)
Description: After being tainted by unknown alchemical concoctions and cracked from improper usage, this teleport stone is no longer functional.]
"Damn it."
With no easy route out of the mess he landed himself in, Feng decided to take Shadow's advice to heart and patiently begun observing everything in the room around him, including the dead man and his equipment before taking any actions.
[Stone Wall
Type: Wall
Description: A stone wall of the room... What were you expecting? Some kind of secret door? You can always try hitting your head on it for a one-way trip to La La Land.]
[Stone Floor
Type: Floor
Description: The floor... it is made of stone. You might trip and kill yourself on it.]
[Heavy Wooden Door
Type: Door
Description: It's a door. It's closed. It is also made of wood.]
[Unknown Assassin
Type: Human
Level: ~25
Faction: Unknown
Description: Dead. With his skull shattered. In case you forgot.]
Feng's face twitched with annoyance as he read the obviously altered description texts and mentally swore at the admins but decided to keep his cool and continued observing the equipment and items he rummaged from the corpse.
[Bloodied Red Hooded Cloak
Type: Body
Quality: Good
Defense: 2
Durability: 24/30
Description: A thick red hooded cloak stained with the blood of its previous owner.]
[Hardened Leather Armor
Type: Body
Quality: Good
Defense: 12
Durability: 48/50
Requirements:
30 Strength
Description: A set of hard leather armor without any identifying marks.]
[Sharpened Iron Knives (x2)
Type: Daggers
Damage: 15 – 23
Quality: Good
Durability: 40
Requirements:
50 Dexterity
Description: Iron knives which are longer than standard daggers and sharpened for extra damage.]
'Damn, no orders, no identifying marks or any possible clues… At least the equipment is much better what I curren- Crap. All my weapons are still back in the workroom… and all the loot from the other three assassins I missed out on!"
Pounding his fist on the floor as he made that realization, Feng growled in frustration and sat fuming for some time before regaining his composure. Feng equipped the new items, swapping out the robes for the cloak… though he left the hood off as the bloodstains from the enemy's crushed skull greatly disturbed him…
Deciding to be cautious and slowly scout outside the room, Feng begun to employ all the principles of stealth Shadow taught him and crept up to the door.
Stopping beside the door, he listened intently for a few minutes to check for any nearby presences before easing the door open slowly and wincing as the slight creaks echoed through the place.
Peeking his head out from the partially open door, Feng saw a long stone passageway running parallel to the door with the left path extending off slightly angled upwards with the old stone walls being replaced by the packed dirt of a tunnel, while the right path sloped downwards towards an intersection with older and cracked stone walls.
'Well. This is a no-brainer. Upwards towards the surface or downwards towards dungeon ruins…'
Sneaking cautiously leftwards and hopefully towards the surface, Feng travelled for a few minutes without encountering anything only noticing the tunnel widening and seeing more roots and such dangling through the now dirt tunnel roof.
Unfortunately, unlike the previous passageway and rooms which had glowing blocks on its roof, these natural tunnels has no natural light source except that of some dimly glowing moss scattered very sparsely.
While Feng appreciated the cover of darkness to hide in, he was also extremely wary of possible surprise attacks by monsters given the lack of visibility…
Hearing a noise ahead of him, Feng quickly pressed himself against the wall and into the shadows. His heart pounding furiously as the subconscious fear of the unknown surged up into him spiking his adrenaline levels.
Creeping forward slowly, Feng found himself at the mouth of a moderately-sized cavern… occupied by a huge brown lizard monster covered with green stripes curled up resting in a bowl-shaped hollow on the ground.
'Observe'
[Giant Comodon Lizard
Type: Lizard Monster (Uncommon Elite)
Level: ~60
Attacks/Weapons: *Skill Level Too Low*
Traits: *Skill Level Too Low*
Stats: *Skill Level Too Low*
Weak Spots: *Skill Level Too Low*
Description: A monstrous lizard with striped patterns on its back, the scales on its body looks extremely tough and the claws on its thick limbs can easily shred flesh.]
'Holy shit!'
Cursing in his mind as he read the information window on the monster, Feng unconsciously took a step back… and his foot scuffed the dirt lightly.
The monster reacted immediately as its head rose slowly from its resting position between its forelimbs and glanced around with its forked tongue flickering in and out.
Staying completely still and taking only extremely light breaths, Feng forced himself to calm down by attempting to meditate in his currently frozen position. After a few long moments, the giant lizard put his head back down and resumed its rest much to Feng's relief.
*DING*
[New Skill Obtained: Stealth
You have learnt how to hide and sneak around, avoiding enemies. Coward.
+10% chance to remain undetected
+5% increased damage when attacking enemies who are unaware
+2 Agility
+1 Perception]
'Whew. That monster looks way too strong for me… It looks slow but considering the claws and size, it looks like a strong and tough type. I might not even be able to damage it…'
Slowly sneaking backwards, Feng fled once he was far away enough back to the room for some respite and safety to plan his next steps.
Only letting his guard down once he checked that the room was clear, Feng breathed out a sigh of relief and slumped to the ground taking a much needed break.
'Well. Shit. An elite monster that's way above my level and looks like it will snap me in half with a single blow…'
Noting the passage of time and the needs of his body in VR, Feng munched on a piece of hard bread as he contemplated the obstacle before him and his options.
'I can try to fight and kill that lizard elite, but at the moment there's an extremely high likelihood I'll die and besides the publicly released one day respawn period, there was absolutely no information on respawn… No that's too risky, I could end up losing all my items and skills.
I COULD try to sneak past the monster but given how it reacted and the size of the cavern with the lack of cover, I honestly doubt I'll make it through either… Plus, I don't even know where that tunnel leads…'
After some time going around in circles, thinking about possibilities, Feng made up his mind to explore the right passageway before coming to a decision given that it might be possible that direction leads to weaker monsters and the real exit out of the dungeon…
Feng dusted the bread crumbs off his hands and stood up, mentally preparing himself for the unknown dangers ahead by running through the stealth lesson he learnt to ensure he is properly executing the techniques.
It is amazing how life-threatening danger causes one to adapt and quickly try to pick up new and unfamiliar habits such as patience and caution…
Silently padding out and heading down the right passageway, Feng carefully stuck to the shadows at a slow pace due to his preoccupation with ensuring he rolls his feet correctly as he moves in order to minimize noise plus coordinating his body to ensure his equipment does not contact each other.
Taking his time to observe the walls and unknown glowing blocks, Feng skimmed through the information windows only to find unhelpful descriptions and the blocks being typed as 'light source'.
As minutes passed into an hour, Feng felt the air around him gradually get warmer and slight air currents touch his skin as he continued on his downward journey.
Given the absolute lack of signs of life, Feng was tempted to drop his stealth and move faster as minutes ticked by and his bored gaze wandered around the plain stone passageway… only to narrow as he noticed slight discolorations on a random stone block near the foot of the wall.
Examining it more closely, Feng cautiously tapped it with his knife in case it is trapped… only to jump away as a low grinding noise sounded… and a segment of the wall opened up to reveal a small circular room.
*DING*
[Congratulations, you have discovered a secret area:
+ 20 Perception
Observe has leveled up to Apprentice 1]
'NICE! Maybe there are some treasures I can use…'
Elated by the discovery, Feng rushed into the room only to stop suddenly as he realized his emotions has led him to throw caution to the winds again.
Luckily, no traps triggered, though looking around him only revealed some faded murals on the walls without any signs of chests or items…
Feng sighed at his hopes being let down and trudged over to examine the murals more closely.
'Hopefully, they unlock some secret skill or something like those Chinese martial arts movies where old hermits inscribe amazing techniques into the caves they train in…'
[A faded mural (Dragon)
Type: Painting (Wall)
Description: A faded mural painted on stone walls, you can vaguely make a large red dragon in the scene and some men(?) on horses(?) fighting it.]
[A faded mural (Sword)
Type: Painting (Wall)
Description: A faded mural painted on stone walls, you can vaguely make a man holding up a sword(?) and a large stone and people(?) surrounding him.]
[A faded mural (Pyramids)
Type: Painting (Wall)
Description: A faded mural painted on stone walls, you can vaguely make out pyramids in the scene as well as a… sphinx?]
[A faded mural (Flood)
Type: Painting (Wall)
Description: A faded mural painted on stone walls, you can vaguely make out the scene of a great flood... and a lone ship(?) on the waters.]
[A faded mural (Monsters)
Type: Painting (Wall)
Description: A faded mural painted on stone walls, you can vaguely make out the creatures fleeing across... something which is too faded to make up.]
*DING*
[Congratulations, for viewing ancient murals you have earned:
+ 3 Wisdom
+ 2 Intelligence]
'That's it? No secret skill? No item? No magic? Just some historical murals which totally looks like they were stolen from old myths and legends from real life? Really developers? Isn't this just too lazy…'
Stalking out of the secret room annoyed and disappointed, Feng still maintained his composure and maintained his stealthy approach as he proceeded onwards, disgusted with the let-down of the secret room.
Finally as he felt the air turning warm and a gentle current breezing around him, the passage way opened up to a huge cavern…
Feng gaped at the sheer scale of it as the ceiling was so high that he could not see anything but darkness and points of light and more importantly it could literally fit an entire city in it… and in fact contains what looks like the ruined remains of an entire city as the area around him was littered with broken walls and partially roofed buildings with a ruined castle with an odd red glow much further ahead…
The warm air of the cavern stuck to him which puzzled Feng as he doubted that he had progressed so deep that it would result in a significant temperature change like this.
Hearing some skittering sounds, Feng realized belatedly that he was exposed in the open and quickly ducked behind some ruined walls and peeked around to observe in the direction of the approaching sounds.
[Red Salamander
Type: Lizard Monster (Uncommon)
Level: ~40
Attacks/Weapons: Bite, Claws, Tail, *Skill Level Too Low*
Traits: Fire Resistance, Fast, *Skill Level Too Low*
Stats: *Skill Level Too Low*
Weak Spots: Head, *Skill Level Too Low*
Description: A crawling red salamander about the size of a large dog with black and red striped skin.]
'Huh. My observe has levelled up enough to give me some additional information… Although, it seems mostly stuff I can see for myself… besides level and the fire resistance trait.'
Contemplating the lone salamander skittering closer and closer to his location, Feng thought to himself if this was an opportunity to gain some experience and level up quickly.
'… If I can take on an ambush of four level 25 Assassins. One level 40 Salamander with surprise on my side should be easy. Right?'
Calculating his odds, Feng tried to mentally reassure himself despite logically knowing that this way of thinking is definitely flawed…
Positioning himself carefully behind the chest-height broken wall, Feng readied himself as the salamander slowly drew nearer.
Mentally preparing himself, Feng took a deep breath and leaped over the wall… landing directly on top of the salamander with both his knives plunging deep into the salamanders head with a wet schling.
*Critical Hit*
Feeling the monster rearing in surprise and still alive, Feng ripped his blades out and quickly stabbed down on the exact same spot, driving it deeper through its head and jaws and felt the tip of blades contact with the stony ground with a dull cling.
Thrashing weakly for a few more seconds, the salamander attempted to turn around to snap at Feng or claw at him but was trapped by Feng's body resting on top of its long body which prevented even the thick tail from being able to contact Feng despite its wildly lashing about.
Upon its death, Feng hurriedly dragged the lizard corpse behind the ruined wall and anxiously kept an eye out for any attention he might have attracted.
After a few tense minutes with no other signs of monsters, Feng cast his eyes on the corpse and wondered how he was supposed to loot it… or if there was even any loot.
[Red Salamander Corpse
Type: Corpse (Lizard Monster)Level: ~40
Extractable Components: Claws, Skin, *Undiscovered*
Description: A dead red salamander messily impaled through the head.]
'Damn. So we are expected to manually skin and butcher creatures for loot? … It will take time and I can't do much with the claws and skin now although it may be useful down the road… Screw it, I'll just give a go and chop up this corpse… maybe it contains gold or items inside.'
Steeling his stomach, Feng flipped the corpse around and roughly stabbed into the underbelly of the lizard with his knife and dragged downwards, sawing away at the corpse to reveal its innards…
Grimacing as a sickening stench hit him, Feng realized he must have cut into the intestines and so reversed his direction and cut upwards only to flinch as a spray of blood squirted out and covered his hands when he severed main arteries.
Slowly but surely, Feng opened up the lizard and managed to pull away a roughly stripped skin and hewn-off claws but found absolutely nothing but a sickening mess of innards and organs within the salamander corpse.
*DING*
[New Skill Obtained: Anatomy
You have learnt the basic working structure of creatures by brutally cutting them up.
Creature Types
- Lizards (25% Knowledge)
+1% Critical Hit Chance versus known creature types
+5% Critical Hit Damage versus known creature types
Bonus is doubled when knowledge of creature type reaches 100%
+1 Intelligence
+2 Perception]
[New Skill Obtained: Skinning
You have learnt the basics of skinning corpses for fun and profit.
+1% Success rate when skinning
+2 Dexterity
+1 Strength]
Despite the usual heady rush of accomplishment from obtaining new skills, Feng can only grimly appreciate the two new skills, as he can't help but feel disgusted at himself and the mess he made of the corpse…
Wiping himself off as best as he can, Feng placed the claws and skin in the last two slots of his inventory without even observing them as he could barely withstand the urge of vomiting when he thinks back to the bloody skinning process…
Feng stalked off in search of other prey, mentally convincing himself that this was a game despite the realism and all this is just for the sake of surviving and getting back to his city, quest and plans.
After successfully hunting down and skinning six more salamanders with the same tactic, Feng came across a pair of salamanders moving together down the street.
'It's getting tougher to find solitary salamanders to pick off… If I can handle one without any issues, two should be fine too.'
His confidence bolstered by his successful kill streak and lack of damage from the monsters, Feng prepared himself to ambush the two lizard monsters.
Executing the exact same tactic, Feng got the drop on the rear salamander as the distance between the two drew apart slightly and viciously assaulted the monster.
Within moments, his target was rendered dead but the trashing and noise had alerted the other salamander that made some kind of trilling noise before it lunged at Feng with its claws outstretched.
Evading the oncoming claws, Feng managed to slip past the monster's claws but was nicked on his left arm as the claws swiped by.
*-20 Damage*
[New Status Effect: Poisoned (Slight)
Duration: 30 seconds
Effects: 5 damage/second]
Feng's eyes widened at the ridiculous amount of poison damage, he only had 480 health in total… if a slight nick caused so much physical damage and poison effect equating to more than a quarter of his health, he could not afford to get hit…
Noticing the second salamander returning for another attack, Feng focused intently on any tell-tale signs of its attack and his legs tensed slightly.
The lizard barreled towards Feng abruptly with its jaws snapping at Feng only to close on empty air as Feng jumped high and flipped to land neatly on top of the salamander and plunged his knives deeply into it.
With both salamanders laid to rest, Feng was about to drag off the corpses to skin only to feel a tingling sense of danger…
Recalling the odd cry of the second salamander and the amount of damage dealt by a glancing blow, Feng's confidence of standing against an assault of more than one salamander was greatly dented.
Quickly fleeing the scene back towards the entrance, Feng ducked into one of the partially standing ruined buildings to spy on the pursuing forces… and regretted his action as he saw swarms consisting of at least ten salamanders each milling around and converging on the previous battleground…
Even worse, there was a horse-sized red winged lizard leading one of the first groups to arrive on the scene and judging by the way it was sniffing the air and making a beeline towards his current location…
The dang thing could track him by his scent!
[Red Dragon Whelp
Type: Dragon (Rare Fledgling)
Level: ~120
Attacks/Weapons: *Skill Level Too Low*
Traits: *Skill Level Too Low*
Stats: *Skill Level Too Low*
Weak Spots: *Skill Level Too Low*
Description: A red dragon whelp with magnificent crimson scales and a set of draconic wings folded across its back, it is an apex predator intent on chasing down its prey...]
'DRAGONS? Even a whelp is level 120? I'm so screwed if it catches me… But wait a minute; judging by the monster ranks… don't tell me the boss of this dungeon is a FRIGGING RED DRAGON???'
Stunned by his realization, Feng stared dumbfounded at the red dragon whelp as it drew nearer to his location with a soft and somewhat familiar glow off its scales…
Turning to face the ruined castle and a glint of red coming from the area, Feng activated his observe skill…
[Ancient Red Dragon
Type: Dragon (Epic Boss)
Level: Over 9000!
Attacks/Weapons: *Skill Level Too Low*
Traits: *Skill Level Too Low*
Stats: *Skill Level Too Low*
Weak Spots: *Skill Level Too Low*
Description: *Hidden*]
Gaping at the information window revealing the presence of an unbelievable monster, Feng turned tail and ran, finally snapping out of his dazed state as the red dragon whelp closed in.
Running amongst the ruined buildings in circles towards the cavern entrance, desperately hoping that it would confuse the scent trails, Feng turned back only to find two more red dragon whelps appearing in pursuit…
The dragon whelps each leading swarms of salamanders quickly cornered him and begun to converge on his location as they sniffed around and… shot massive fireballs into random buildings and alcoves knocking down the ruined walls and shaking the ground nearby.
'Damn it. I'll definitely die if I get hit by one of those… Tch, if I'm going to die, I might as well log out so I won't have to feel any pain… Even if it is dampened to 25%, being roasted alive would hurt like crap…'
Hitting the log-out button desperately as the groups closed in on his position, Feng stared at the slowly ticking log out timer.
10…
9…
*FSHOOOSH* A fireball seared past his cover and exploded against a nearby wall.
8…
7…
6…
'Shit, one of them must have caught my scent. It's looking over here…'
5…
4…
'It's closing in!!!'
3…
A massive fireball shot out direct at Feng's location and he quickly dived away to a neighboring wall.
2…
All the red dragon whelps and salamanders caught sight of him and a trio of fireballs was launched at him.
1…
Feeling the scorching heat of the approaching fireballs as he desperately ran, Feng prayed desperately that the log-out will-
*DING*
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Azrealth
Azrealth If you enjoy this story, dropping a quick comment, rating or review will be greatly appreciated and does wonders for my motivation!
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