章節 24: The dungeon!

After all of the ghouls were killed, Ark heard a voice in his head once more. He had barely even had the chance to test out his newfound strength before he had leveled up yet again! Ark didn't know it himself but dungeons were actually very rare, and the one he had found was level D, which was perfect for people like Ark, who was kind of strong, but not strong enough. The dungeon Ark had found was also undiscovered, and untouched. This was quite extraordinary, as most of the dungeons around this world had already been found, which meant that there were always people flocking around the different dungeons. Since there were incredible opportunities to be had since most dungeons contained treasures inside of them.

But there was also a lot of dangers involved when dungeon-diving since they were lurking in every corner. So it is up to each person to decide if it is worth it to risk their lives. And to many poor people, who wanted to change their lives, the risk was worth it. This was still unknown to Ark, however, so he had no idea what to expect from this dungeon in front of him. What he did expect, however, was stronger enemies, and in turn more experience. Since he had one again killed a lot of monsters, Ark decided to do a check on his status, to see how many levels he had gained.

Name: Ark

Species: Ice Wolf

Level: 10 (25)

Mp: 43/120

Strength: 25

Agility: 35

Dexterity: 20

Endurance: 20

Vitality: 20

Intelligence: 40

Wisdom: 25

Night Vision [Lv.2]

Water magic [Beginner Lv.4]

Growth [Lv.Max]

Inspect [Lv.5]

Mana manipulation [Lv.6]

Mana perception

Mana recovery [Lv.1]

Herculean strength [Lv.1]

Swift [Lv.2]

Nimble [Lv.2]

Stealth [Lv.3]

Regenerate

Enhanced Stamina

Small Fire Affinity

Small Water Affinity

Big Ice Affinity

Mental Fortitude

Yin Yang body constitution

Status points [15]

Seeing this made Ark a little confused at first, but then he quickly realized what his "problem" was. He had thought that it was weird how he had gotten fewer levels for killing stronger enemies, but then he realized how he had leveled up multiple times before he had killed the ghouls, and how it would get harder to level up with each level you got. But he was still a little disappointed as he would have liked a couple more levels. Seeing as he had 15 points to spend, Ark decided to bring his agility up to 40 points as well, since he wanted to specialize in both speed and magic, he knew that he could just go all in with magic, and then boost all of his stats with magic. But then if he ran out of Mana, he would be useless. And Ark didn't feel like that was a good way to spend his points since there might come multiple situations in the future when he will not be able to use his Mana.

And one of the only reasons why Ark wanted to have good speed was because he really liked the feeling of traveling at fast speeds, and he also wanted to have ways to both escape, evade and attack. Since he still had 10 points to spare Ark decided that he would invest them in his dexterity, since he didn't want it to fall too far behind his agility, since that would make his high agility a bad thing instead of a good thing. And that's simply because he wouldn't be able to control his own body at high speeds if his dexterity wasn't high enough. After confirming his decision, Ark felt a white light envelop him as he felt his speed and bodily control significantly increase.

(New status)

Name: Ark

Species: Ice Wolf

Level: 10 (25)

Mp: 45/120

Strength: 25

Agility: 40

Dexterity: 30

Endurance: 20

Vitality: 20

Intelligence: 40

Wisdom: 25

Night Vision [Lv.2]

Water magic [Beginner Lv.4]

Growth [Lv.Max]

Inspect [Lv.5]

Mana manipulation [Lv.6]

Mana perception

Mana recovery [Lv.1]

Herculean strength [Lv.1]

Swift [Lv.2]

Nimble [Lv.2]

Stealth [Lv.3]

Regenerate

Enhanced Stamina

Small Fire Affinity

Small Water Affinity

Big Ice Affinity

Mental Fortitude

Yin Yang body constitution

Status points [0]

Having his new status Ark decided that he would wait a while before deciding what to do next. This was simply because he had changed his mind a little bit, he didn't really wanna wait until the next day to explore the dungeon, but he was still low on Mana at the moment, so he would recover for a bit before deciding what to do next. Since he now had both higher wisdom, as well as his Mana recovery skill, Ark didn't need to rest as long as he had to before, even though he had a lot more Mana.

Deciding to once more check out what would happen when he used inspect on the tomb, Ark accidentally used it once more when he had already gotten the information, and the thing which followed severely shocked him, there was more information to be had! If he inspected it once more then he could apparently get a lot more information regarding specific parts. This was something which Ark had no idea about up until now. And when he accidentally used it another time, he learned that this seemingly simple tomb of a dead demon wasn't as simple as he had imagined it would be.

Charun wasn't some simple low-level demon like the commander Abaddon of the demon squad Ark had run into earlier, Charun was a pretty high ranking demon, and a very powerful one at that, even though his individual strength wasn't particularly high. Charun was a necromancer, and he, therefore, attracted more attention and hate from humans compared to other demons that were even stronger than him, simply because of the way he did things. Even though some would feel like necromancy is like any other power, a tool to gain strength. But most, however, would say that necromancy is a sinister art, because even if the person in question decides to do something good with the undead he raises, he still brings the dead back to life, and then make them do his bidding.

This is something many consider to be taboo, and if Ark knew about this, he would probably feel pretty similar, even though he would be less extreme in his opinion compared to others. Since Charun was a necromancer, when he died, a lot of his minions, combined with his lingering Mana, created this dungeon. Every dungeon has a core, and most of them are just crystals infused with Mana, with most of them containing skills if they were to be destroyed. But in this dungeon, however, a bit of Charun's residual soul resides in the Mana crystal, otherwise referred to as "The Heart" of the dungeon. What this means is that Charun isn't completely out of this world yet, and another thing this means, is that if Ark, or any other living creature for that matter, were to destroy this crystal, then they would essentially be able to inherit one of Charun's skills.

All that Ark found out about though when he learned how he could use inspect, was the part about Charun, and his past. The parts about his residual soul and stuff were all things which Ark had no idea about. After learning that this Charun was a necromancer, Ark's reaction wasn't very strong, of course, he felt like it would be very wrong to raise the dead to do ones bidding, but at the same time, this didn't affect him personally in the slightest, all this did was give him a slight insight of what to expect inside of the dungeon.

Having inspected what this dungeon really was, Ark decided to move a bit closer to the entrance of it. The entrance was at the very back of the graveyard, and it was very imposing. This was simply because of the fact that it was pretty big, at a height at about 5 meters, and a width of about 4 meters, and also because of its scary design and aura. The entrance itself was just two doors made out of stone, but even though it was made out of stone, most people would mistake it for bones, due to the weird colouring as well as the design of the doors, at both sides of these doors stood two skeletons, both equipped with a simple sword and shield, giving off the impression that this was a dungeon for complete beginners, even though it really wasn't.

Because if you didn't have the power to protect yourself in here, you would be dead in a matter of seconds.

When Ark had been standing in front of it for about 5 minutes, checking it out, he decided to go inside, or at least to try. And it was actually very easy to do so since the doors leading into the dungeon opened themselves to Ark when he was about half a meter away from them, this was a pleasant surprise as Ark wasn't completely sure whether he would be able to enter it or not. Seeing as though the doors were open, Ark decided to step inside, the reason as to why he didn't check it out much from the outside was simply because he couldn't do it. This was because of a blinding light that prevented any outsiders who weren't entering from looking into the dungeon.

When he walked in through the blinding light, Ark suddenly felt his insides twist and turn, his vision going completely blank, he didn't even feel fully alive for the split second of warping into the dungeon itself, which was completely normal for people when they get teleported for the first time. Feeling this sensation scared Ark a little bit though since this dungeon wasn't as simple as it seemed, even after the backstory he had gotten, he didn't expect to get teleported away as soon as he entered it. Or at least that's what he thought had happened...