Zenith's eyes were widened with shock and surprise; he didn't know what to make of the situation. "Cosmic Contrast?" He had no idea what the hell that was, let alone that he had a resonance ability unlocked. "It doesn't make sense. I don't feel like I have the ability. When did it happen?"
He pushed it aside for now, thinking a little about it. The stats window didn't seem to show much else, other than his health being 100% and his Resonance currently 99%, 1% down from using his abilities in the battle earlier. He tried other words. "Inventory, Equipment, Settings, Rules, uh, Ability list! Resonance ability list!?"
Yet all he got for each one was a simple [Unavailable]. He sighed, disheartened, but considered the situation. "If I'm getting a 5x reward for each enemy I'm killing, this alone is a freaking miracle. That being said, I'll have to take full advantage of this while progressing carefully. There's bound to be loot and other things hopefully."
Zenith then sped past the hallway. He wanted to test something, so he decided to go back and forth while running, and to his surprise, he got the [Enemy Encountered!] prompt again. This time it was a single Resonance creature. Before the thing even realized what had happened, he dispatched it for 25 XP.
"Bingo..." Snickering to himself, Zenith continued this pattern again and again. Each creature he killed would utter a disheartened wail of pain and discontent before dying. Finally, after finding another pair of 3 creatures and killing the final one of the trio, he heard a jingle sound that reminded him of Mirabell.
[Leveled Up! Health and Resonance have been Restored. Attributes have been increased by 2!] Zenith was excited. "Attributes!" He called out, getting a prompt right away.
[Strength: 25
Dexterity: 23
Intelligence: 26
Luck: E^$R$&R&O&$R
Charisma: 21
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable]
Zenith was confused right away when he saw that his luck had an error on it. It made him realize that his situation may be a little unique, the luck he suddenly had from Allspace and then his seemingly unlocked resonance ability he had no idea how to use. "Well, I can think about the situation later."
Grinning with a look that resembled Fable when he was feeling greedy, Zenith began to kill more creatures again and again, but he soon found the experience he was getting lessened a little. He was now only getting 35 upon killing three. After killing several dozen, he leveled up again, but ignoring it in the meantime, he tried to find more creatures, encountering a single resonant creature, and then slapping it to death onto the ground with his gauntlet. He looked at the prompt that came up. [No experience awarded due to skill difference.]
"Tsch, figures as much." Continuing further into the dungeon, he hadn't encountered much else. Though he saw 2 doors on the side of the dungeon, he rushed over and tried to open them but found nothing happened. [Iron key required] Zenith, though, wasn't really satisfied, or maybe he just wanted to see what rule he could bend. He tried every attack he could think of, but the door, let alone the bricks and ground of the dungeon, didn't even budge, only a simple [Iron key required].
"What sort of person was the individual who made this relic site? Did they like video games that much? Having that sort of power and being bored enough to do this, should I laugh or cry?" Zenith wasn't sure how to react. He couldn't deny, though, that he felt a bit of a thrill. He didn't know how the outside world would react to him finding a place like this; many would be crying from envy. "Heh," he grunted.
Walking a few steps away from the door, the combat prompt appeared. [Rare Creature Encounter!] Zenith looked surprised but not shocked; it was normal in RPGs for there to be rare creatures. What surprised him was that the creature, despite looking like the normal resonance creatures in form, was a size larger, with spikes on its back.
Zenith looked seriously at it and rushed over to try and end the battle quickly. But the creature was not stupid; it rushed too. And when Zenith punched out, the creature did so in return. When the two traded a blow, Zenith stumbled back a little while the creature did a few feet, but it caught itself and screeched, lunging at Zenith.
"Ok, fine!" He formed a longsword from his gauntlet and gripped it with both hands. With precision, while the creature was in mid-air, he slashed at it, cutting its right arm off cleanly as it screeched in pain and turned to tackle Zenith, hoping to impale him with its body spike. When Zenith's sword struck its back, it bounced off a bit, and the two separated again.
"Mighty Earth, Seize & Imprison!" Zenith spoke up the moment they parted. The creature, having barely gotten its footing and feeling its back hurt, suddenly found itself bound by pillars of earth that appeared out of nowhere.
"Gleaming Fire Burns A Path!" This was another low-ranked rune ability, Flame Sphere, he had read on the way to this place, given by Fable. He wanted to improve his skills in it. He willed the ability, though he felt he had gotten it wrong as a ball of fire formed in front of his left palm but seemed unstable before dispersing.
Zenith didn't look satisfied with his failure. The creature had taken this chance to destroy one of the pillars and escape the gap, but what it encountered was another batch of earth pillars from Zenith. This made it roar in fury and indignation.
"Shut up!" Zenith then attempted the Rune ability again. For some time, the creature was roaring in anger as it became Zenith's unofficial imprisoned test subject. Zenith, in the end, felt a little dizzy after casting the Earth Grip. Zenith rushed over and beheaded the resonance creature that seemed to accept its fate. [5x Reward: 500 Experience Awarded. Drops Found: Iron Key x1]
Zenith, who was reaching for a nutrient pack from his kit, looked shocked and surprised. He then looked at the ground and saw a normal-looking iron key. He reached down and grabbed it and looked around. He thought carefully for a moment and wisely decided to recover first.
"I almost got the hang of the Flame Sphere too. That thing gave quite a bit of experience. It's disgusting that I got a week of progress from just over an hour here; Fable would be crying if he knew what he missed out on." Zenith laughed inwardly.
After spending some time to accumulate his resonance, Zenith stood back up. He had been pondering about his resonance ability, but no matter what, he just couldn't figure out how to use it. "Forget it, I'll ask Fable or Jenabell when I'm back." He walked over to the wooden door while holding the key. He couldn't find any lock to insert it in, so he simply pressed the key against the door, and unsurprisingly, the key and the door both vanished into light particles.
The inside of the room was small and narrow with a single wooden chest and a torch. Zenith tilted his head a bit, and maybe still retaining some youthful nature, he rushed over to it and looked around to see if it was trapped or not.
"Well, it can't be bad since I had to kill a rare creature for a key." He then knelt down in front of the chest and opened it. His eyes widened in a bit of confusion. Reaching in, he pulled out the object. [Inventory unlocked: Potion of Regeneration Acquired.] It was a small vial of pink liquid that glistened a bit. "Information?" Zenith asked, shooting his shot into the wind, but pleasantly, he got an answer. [Restores 5% of base Health and Resonance per second for 1 minute. Usable only under level 20 for full effects.]
"Whoa! What a disgustingly overpowered thing," he spoke in awe. He couldn't imagine the credits he could rake in if he could make this; he had never heard of such an item before. But here it made sense as it was a game-like relic site.
He thought of storing the item, and suddenly it vanished instantly. Then he spoke the word "inventory" and saw a floating window with empty slots and a single one filled with the potion. He understood how to play a bit. "Ok, it's making more sense now. This is really a real-life video game relic site." Licking his lips, Zenith eagerly awaited what he might find behind the second door, so he rushed out and began to pace around back and forth, hoping to encounter another rare variant.
Zenith spent some time killing creatures. It was only after 27 encounters, during which, whenever he encountered a single creature rather than duos or trios, he would use Flame Sphere on it without Earth Grip. This was a way for him to conserve resonance. This was a safer way of learning on the go, and he got the hang of the Rune ability on the 12th go. Fable would be cursing if he knew how quickly Zenith could learn.
"Games usually have a skill system, where the more I use a skill, the more proficient I become in it. What a lousy creator to not implement that system here, it's like he got bored and gave up or something," Zenith complained.
Finally, after some time, he encountered another variant. The creature itself was a good chance for Zenith to practice his combat moves more, so rather than use rune abilities, he toyed with the creature a bit, as if to give it false hope. Such a method was dangerous as a mistake could obviously cost someone their life.
"It's not strong enough to push me to the limit. I need another creature like back then," he remembered the larger resonant creature that left him nearly dead. Deciding not to waste anymore time, Zenith used Flame Sphere after dodging a swing of the creature's arm. Zenith's hand extended before he called out the Rune Incantation, his resonance forming into a sphere of fire that condensed before shooting towards the rare variant that wanted to close the distance.
Unfortunately for the creature, it received the attack head-on, flames exploding from its head onwards as it shrieked in pain, on the ground squirming and clawing at itself until it turned to ash, then light particles.
Zenith received another 500 Experience from the prompt, though it wasn't enough for him to level up. Instead, he walked over and gazed at the key that the creature left. He picked it up and went over towards the wooden door that remained, repeating the same action as he did at the last one.
There was a treasure chest like last time, but this one, to Zenith's surprise, although made of wood, had linings of gold around it. Zenith knew he lucked out. Rushing over, he quickly fiddled and opened the chest.
"Hmm?" Confused like last time, he reached in and pulled out a palm-sized stone tablet with runes etched into it.
[Rune of Understanding Acquired.] Zenith carefully brushed his hand against the surface of the rune tablet, seeing the deeply etched runes. "Information," Zenith asked, a prompt appearing to give him more of an explanation. [A Rare Runic Tablet, formed from unknown means, condensing thoughts and experience. Sacrifice 1 level and convert it into pure thought and understanding, allowing you to permanently understand Resonance better by 10%.]
Zenith's body shook. Such a thing was insane. 10% was obviously not much when you looked at the number, especially as you had to sacrifice a level, but in this place, Zenith could grind out creatures and grow stronger, but understanding resonance took effort and more time.
Without hesitation, he immediately used the tablet, not even bothering to store it. He would dream of selling such a thing; it was too good to pass up. Zenith first felt his body feel slightly weaker before the feeling vanished, then he felt a warm current surge around his entire body and mind. The feeling he could best describe was having learnt to do something years ago, but not doing it again until years later, then when you try to do that task after those years, your memory is refreshed and you don't need to completely learn the method again.
He sighed thoughtfully. Unfortunately, he didn't think he would encounter such good things often. So he stood up after calming himself and left the room, continuing his path onwards.
Traversing for a bit, Zenith often encountered dead ends and had to waste time by turning around, encountering weak resonant creatures that gave no reward but exhausted him a little. It would all add up in the end. Zenith had a newfound understanding of the term "no free lunch." Several waves of creatures were nothing, but if he journeyed blindly, then eventually he would be exhausted and may encounter something stronger after letting his guard down.
Ding! Recovering the small % of health he lost when he was attacked by a rare variant and a lesser resonant creature, Zenith leveled up, his lost level restored. But the second he took another step, he encountered another battle.
[Enemy Encountered!] Zenith's eyes narrowed. He quickly saw a large glob; this thing was bigger than the rare variant but still much smaller than the creature he encountered in the caverns. Zenith wasn't one to wait around. "Gleaming Fire Burns A Path," he spoke up, and a fireball left his right hand, shooting towards the figure. But before it landed, a large black shadow smacked it away, causing it to explode at the surrounding bricks.
Zenith's eyes narrowed. He quickly formed a short sword and shield from his resonance, then focused on what appeared. It was a twisted, almost humanoid creature with one half of its body deformed, its right deformed side having a massive claw almost like a club. The other side was average-looking. It truly seemed to be made of resonance regardless.
The creature appeared soulless, yet when it saw Zenith, it emitted a growl before it hunched over and dashed towards him. Despite its appearance, it was much more agile than the rare variant. It leapt up and used its massive claw to smash down towards Zenith.
Not even trying to block such an attack as his heart palpitated, Zenith dodged and slashed at the creature's massive claw, but the weapon only dealt superficial cuts. "Harder than the body of the baby greater resonant creature I killed. It seems to rely heavily on that hand."
Zenith didn't even bother to try and outlast it with stamina; resonance creatures had an endless amount of that. Instead, he dodged every attack it threw at him. Although it was agile when moving forward, it suffered the same issue as the baby greater resonant creature: its turn speed was slow, and it needed a second to recover after doing a large attack. So despite a bit of surprise, Zenith didn't panic. Instead, he waited, timing things bit by bit, and often throwing small slashes at it then backing away before it could sweep him.
The creature then hunched over and leapt up again to smash down. But Zenith was one step ahead; he was waiting for this moment. "Gleaming Fire Burns A Path!!" He shot a fireball upwards at the creature that seemed a bit stunned. The fireball smacked into its massive claw as it used it to defend itself, then fire burst like a small bomb. The creature fell to the ground, roaring in pain. Thankfully, the fire dissipated after it used its massive claw to avoid most of the damage, yet its claw was scarred.
When the creature stood up to recover, it looked ahead only to find Zenith was gone. "Behind you..." he smirked, having taken the chance when it had fallen and during the fire to rush behind it.
With a sudden sweep of the now laser great sword he clutched with both gauntlets, he cleanly beheaded the creature that fell forward limply and then vanished into light particles.
[5x Reward: 250 Experience Gained. Drops Found: Mysterious shard x1]
Zenith was overjoyed. The reason being, with an understanding of a strategy to beat this creature, he would be able to end fights quickly as long as he used his resonance sparingly and rested when he felt dizzy. What's more interesting was the drop he received. He picked it up and gazed with curiosity after calling up the information screen. [A shard of unknown origins made of resonance and an unknown material. Collect 100 to combine them.]
Zenith was a little disappointed, but the fact he needed 100 of these killed his joy further. Sighing for a moment, he considered the situation. "I doubt there would be anything worthless here. If it needs 100 shards, then it's bound to be something good. In the meantime, I also have to consider being searched for by the others once they realize that I can't be contacted and have been gone for a long while."
Zenith was a little torn. He didn't want to worry the others and cause a stir if they were unable to enter the teleporter device after trying to contact him, but at the same time, this place was a treasure trove. "Fuck it! I'll just apologize when I'm done. This chance sure as hell won't come around often."
Zenith rushed deeper into the dungeon with eagerness in his eyes.
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