Chapter 6: Chapter 3: Extermination begins
Not sure how strong the adversary is, I stand there back to back with the girl, I just met looking at our foes an old man and a child, it seems like something to not worry about, but underestimating the enemy is a bad move, no matter how much weaker they look.
"Young man, I'm sorry you're journey has to end so soon... You probably never even truly understand yourself yet... What a pity, that things must end this way." As the old man spoke with a frown on his face, smoke began coming out of his coat's collar and lower end, before it began coming my way.
It was not a long time before the smoke had surrounded us both, and I felt something push me forward as the smoke behind me went from gas to solid? Is this his ability? Smoke manipulation?... No, it's too early to assume that, I'll have to be on guard against this one, luckily for me, I have <High Lung Capacity>, and using that, I manage to hold my breath since I imagine the consequences of inhaling this smoke are brutal.
"Don't worry about the girl, the kid's rude as all hell, but a true softie to the core. He won't harm her any more than he has to. Your worry should lay on yourself." The old man told me as he seems to have misunderstood my interest in understanding his ability for worry about the girl.
It probably won't be too big a deal to use <Intagebility> to get out of here, but I first need to make sure these aren't enemies I can handle. From what I can tell, they have stable control over their mana, which is the energy I detect from them. That aside I can't tell too much, which indicates they are experienced and not just your run-of-the-mill thugs, meaning they are likely involved with an organization, and that idea is reinforced by what the kid said earlier about them being partnered up by someone else.
"Trying to hold your breath won't save you, you should surrender while you can get a painless death. Delaying the inevitable is only hurting yourself." The old man continued to talk.
Should I try and use <Erase>? No, not only is he for sure higher level than me, there's the possibility he'll catch on to it, and I can't have that happen. Then again, what I need to know is something like an estimate of their strength, but I don't want to show my skills... How problematic... I guess I'll just wait and see if the girl can do something, and if she can't, I'll just find a decent way out.
"You're quite resistant young man, are you by any chance part of a swimming team? Then again it might just be an ability or the result of an added bloodline. Oh, the youth of today." The old man casually conversed with himself.
Suddenly... A strong source of heat could be felt coming from behind me, and soon the solid smoke wall began melting as I activated <Intangibility>, a blast of blue flames came through engulfing the whole alleyway, so using this coverage, I jumped up with my actual strength and propelled myself to land at the root of one of the buildings composing the alleyway. Deactivating my <Intangibility>, as soon as I got the top. Though I let some parts of my clothing get a bit burned for authenticity.
Once the blue flames calmed down the whole alleyway was burnt, from the ground to the buildings, everything was heated up and some parts even melted. In the middle of all of that, stood the short girl, as both the old man and the child were nowhere to be seen, which means they probably escaped now that something this noticeable happened. It would have been harder for them once the tens of Slayers just nearby started ganging up on them, so retreat sounds like a better option. Interestingly enough, there seem to be residues of spatial energy, more specifically metaphysical spatial energy... In other words, they either have powerful items, this was one of their abilities or they had a third person with them.
More importantly, this girl is worth looking into, she's no ordinary girl, those flames were bathed in spiritual energy... All, things considered I should approach her for recruitment, once I have leveled up since this experience is proof that I'm disgustingly weak right now, not that I wasn't already planning to solve this anyway, but I'll take this as a kind remember by the universe.
"I'm glad you survived! Sorry about almost getting you killed! Hum... I mean, if you want compensation, money isn't really a problem!" The girl came to notice my presence as I got down from the roof and we meet outside the burnt alleyway.
"No worries, I don't really need money right now either, how about instead, one of these days you help me clear a dungeon" I suggested.
"Will do! Again, I can't express how sorry I am that your life was endangered because of me." She seemed genuinely sorry, not that I cared, it didn't matter as I had a dungeon to grind.
"No problem, I have to go now, but before I leave, just give me your number, and later we'll talk about the dungeon thing." Just like that, we exchanged numbers.
From then on, I finally went to the nightmare trove, and as one would expect there was not much to be seen in there. Getting through the guards was easy as I had my Slayer card, and after showing it they didn't bother me, though they advised me to not go inside.
Not minding that, I went inside and it was a cave-like system of tunnels, this one only being the first floor of 5, each one up adding one more insect-type enemy to the roster, as the first floor only had giant cockroaches. Then by the 5th floor, I would have to eliminate 5 bosses, one for each insect race in a sort of more convoluted mega colony-like area. Anyway, not wasting too much time, I immediately dove in and began going through the dungeon.
Soon enough, the first enemies show themselves, two giant cockroaches were moving along together, and I charged and jumped on the back of one of them, then before much else could be done, using my advantage, I turned my arm <Intangibility> and put it through its body near the head, followed by me making it tangible again, that combined with my <Invulnerability(Level 2/6)>, caused the head to be cut off the body, as it fell to the ground dead.
{Master! You leveled up to level 2!} Leah informed me and I used my newly acquired 9 stat points and evenly distributed them, so one for each stat.
Then I felt my body become lighter and more resilient by a lot, as I felt like my past self was just a shadow of what I became now that I leveled up, a feeling I had not been in line with for quite a while now, but I wasn't going to let it fool me, as I'm perfectly aware that there's still a long road ahead.
Right then I jumped off the first giant roach and used an axe kick to smash the other, creating a crater on the rock floor of the dungeon.
(How liberating it is to have my body move just a little bit closer to how it used to! I should have done this earlier... Then again, the time I spent before was not wasted and I'll definitely reap its rewards.) I thought to myself as I looked at the newly killed enemy.
{Level 3! I'm sure you're already able to destroy buildings with one arm behind your back!} Leah was excited to finally see me leveling up.
From then on, things only got crazier, as I continued to kill giant roaches one after the other with much ease, not forgetting to explore the different paths of the first floor, since, with my <Panmnesia>, I remember everything.
By the end of it, I had killed 38 more giant roaches. Which put me at level 6.
The second floor, following the first one, was also a system of caves, just now aside from the giant roaches, giant ants were added. If you have the strength to do it, killing the roaches is relatively easy as they aren't very powerful, but the ants on the other hand can be troublesome to fight if you aren't someone used to combat, especially when at a numerical disadvantage.
Unfortunately for them, my body is already starting to feel right. Smashing a few ants won't be a problem.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone