Placing the boot inside of his item pouch, Adam stood back up and looked at the cave mouth in front of him. It was a gloomy entrance. The cave mouth opened wide like the gaping jaw of a monster. Even Adam would admit that it was spooky, though he was not in the least bit afraid.
“Is Trader Wilkins’ son in this cave?” he wondered out loud.
No one answered him. There was no one around to answer him. And since he wasn’t going to get any answers by standing around like an idiot, Adam tightened his grip on the sword in his hand and walked into the cave.
The first thing he noticed upon entering the cave was the steep decline, which would have caused most people to pitch forward in surprise and take a tumble down. He bent his knees to steady his walk. As he slowly moved deeper into the cave, he strained his ears and listened for signs of a potential enemy lurking within the darkness, but all he heard was the dull plank, plank of water droplets falling to the ground.
The cave eventually leveled out into what he thought of as a naturally formed hallway. The walls were uneven and curved. As he traveled further, a light appeared in the distance, which he soon realized came from a pair of torches set against a wall at the far end.
A wall with a door.
Adam studied the rickety old door with a contemplative gaze. A door signified that someone was present behind it, meaning there was likely a person or perhaps an enemy on the other side of this door. Was it Trader Wilkins’ missing son, or was it the person who had kidnapped him? Adam reached out and felt the old grains of wood before, with a slight push, he opened the door and stepped inside.
The first thing that happened after he walked inside was the door behind him swinging shut. He spun around and tried to open the door, but no matter what he did, it was no use. The door refused to budge. Even attacking it with his sword availed him nothing. His sword just sprang off like a magical barrier was protecting it.
After the door sealed shut, the area around him began growing brighter. Several torches along the walls lit up, revealing a simple circular room. This room was definitely not naturally formed. The floor was smooth and several motifs of unknown origin had been carved into it, seeming to depict a woman being attacked by skeletons. There were also a number of bones lying on the ground.
Adam felt his breathing grow a little heavy as he stepped forward. The moment he did, the bones lying scattered across the ground rattled. He stopped walking and watched in shock as they combined together, creating several different skeletons. Each skeleton stood to its feet, grabbed a sword lying on the ground, and turned to him, their glowing red eyes burning with a malevolent aura.
Level 10 [undead skeleton].
Jaws clacked. Arms raised. Like that, the skeletons—twenty in total—attacked.
Adam leapt back as the skeletons came at him en masse, swinging their swords, jaws clacking and bones clattering together. The chilling sight of [undead skeletons] attacking made even Adam feel shocked. It didn’t help that these skeletons were so realistic it was impossible to think they were just constructs created for the sake of a game.
None of the attacks hit Adam. He calmed down when they missed and gripped the weapon in his hand tighter before adopting a two-handed sword stance. Like that, he waded into the [undead skeleton] horde and attacked with the [slash] skill, which allowed him to ceaselessly chain the skill together. His sword struck bones. The [undead skeletons] also attacked him, but he was keeping his body primed and wove around all the attacks sent his way. Theirs were honestly clumsy. Avoiding them was a simple matter of predicting where the attacks would come from and weaving out of the way before they struck.
-104; -104; -104; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; -104!
After attacking, Adam retreated before he could become surrounded, ran to the other side of the room, and waited until the [undead skeleton] horde was just a yard away. Then he charged forward and attacked again.
-104; MISS; MISS; MISS; -104; MISS; MISS; -104!
Because these [undead skeletons] were nothing but bones, Adam did not use [thrust]. It had a higher chance at missing than [slash]. This was, at least, what he assumed. Even if he used [thrust], there was a good chance his attack would go through their ribcage and not hit anything.
-104; -104; -104; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS; MISS!
Adam attacked, dodged, retreated, attacked, dodged, retreated, repeating this simple process over and over again. He didn’t know how long he kept this up. One [undead skeleton] eventually died. A second [undead skeleton] followed soon after. One by one, the skeletons fell until there were none left.
Ding!
[You have defeated 20 [undead skeletons]! Items dropped: [steel sword], [steel shield], [adventurer boots], and 400 gold coins. +3,000 experience points!]
Ding!
[You have leveled up! You are now at level 7! +10 HP! +10 MP! +5 SP!]
Adam looked at the SP he had gained and thought about where to put it. He frowned. His HP and MP were pretty weak, but [slash] and [thrust] didn’t require much MP to use anyway, so he didn’t think he needed more. HP was… useless. It looked like anything he encountered here would be at level 10 and therefore able to insta-kill him if they hit him even once. He put the +5 SP into his Strength stat once more.
He looked at his stats and, upon deciding they were good, observed the room he had found himself in. The [undead skeleton] remains were gone, and there were two doors on opposite sides of the room. One of them was sealed shut. The other was open. It was obvious to Adam that he only had one choice.
“It looks like the only way to get out of this is to continue moving forward,” Adam muttered before walking to the door, through which he could see nothing but an inky blackness. He took a deep breath. “Into the abyss we go.”
With a smile on his face, Adam walked through the door, which immediately sealed shut behind him.
The Necromancer
Just like what happened with the first door, the one behind him was locked, and no amount of door bashing or sword swinging would break it down. He wondered if these objects were unbreakable. That was fairly typical for games back in the latter half of the twenty-first century, but most games went for realism these days and made everything breakable—including buildings and even mountains. Could these doors be enchanted with protection magic?
Shaking his head, Adam dispelled all those thoughts and turned around to face his new surroundings. It looked like he was in an ancient corridor. The stone walls were covered in cracks and mildew. A strong, rotting scent filled his nose. He glanced at the wall on his left, then the one on his right, judging the distance between the two to be about four yards. That was quite a bit of space. If nothing else, he would not have an issue swinging his sword.
“What I wouldn’t give for a spear or at least a dagger,” he grumbled.
Before he began walking, Adam checked the equipment he got from the [undead skeletons] he fought in the previous room. There was the [steel sword], [steel shield], and [adventurer boots].
Item Name: Steel Sword
Item Type: Weapon
Grade: Low
Use requirements: Can be equipped by any level of the Warrior class.
Description: A low-grade sword made of steel.
Abilities: Attack+20
Item Name: Steel Shield
Item Type: Shield
Grade: Low
Use requirements: can be equipped by any level of the Warrior class.
Description: A low-grade shield made of steel.
Abilities: Defense+10
Item Name: Adventurer Boots
Item Type: Clothing
Grade: Low
Use requirements: can be equipped by any level of any class.
Description: leather boots for adventurers. They are very comfortable.
Abilities: Speed+5
It looked like all of these increased his stats to some degree. The [steel sword] also had a higher attack power than [Sterk’s broadsword], but it didn’t deal slashing damage. He had no use for the s
hield. That said, he did put on the boots and equip the sword since it would let him deal more damage. With the [steel sword] equipped, his Physical Attack was now +125.
With his new equipment now equipped, he began moving.
There didn’t seem to be anything in this corridor. All he could see was the cracked and mildew covered walls. All he could hear was the sound of his own boots thumping against the floor. As he walked forward, torches along the walls began lighting up as though guiding his path. He finally reached the end of this corridor, but it led to a T-junction.
He groaned. “If my guess is correct, one of these is the correct path, while the other leads to a trap…”
Adam had never been an indecisive person, so when presented with a choice, he randomly chose the left path. There was no particular reason for this.
He walked along the corridor, which eventually led to a single wooden door. It was unlocked. He opened it, stepped inside, and shut the door behind him.
Click.
Adam heard the sound of the door locking and clicked his tongue. In that same moment, the room he found himself in, a square room with nothing but the skeletal remains of people, lit up with a bright glow. A chandelier hung overhead, rusted and dull, but glowing with an eerie luminescence. The skeletons rattled. Their bodies shook. Just like in the previous room, the bones in this room came together and formed numerous [undead skeletons].
“Well…” Adam sighed. “I guess I was getting a little bored.”
With nary a thought for his own safety, Adam allowed instincts to take over and charged toward the first [undead skeleton]. He activated [slash] and sliced into the enemy one, two, four, eight times.
-137; MISS; -137; -137; MISS; -275; MISS; -137!
He grinned when he saw that one of his [slash] attacks was a critical hit. Skipping back, he avoided the return swing from the [undead skeleton] and struck again with [slash] several more times. Every time he struck the enemy, its body would rattle and chips of bone would fly off. He could feel the way his sword resisted cutting into the enemy. His hands actually grew a little numb from the attacks. If he was a normal human, attacking these level 10 enemies at his level might have actually hurt him!
-137; -137; MISS; MISS; -137; MISS; -137; -137!
Like the last time Adam fought against [undead skeletons], he used blitzkrieg tactics, hitting the enemy hard and fast before retreating to avoid being surrounded. He continued this until, one by one, the skeletons were all destroyed.
Ding!
[You have defeated 20 [undead skeletons]! Items dropped: [unknown key] and 2,000 gold coins. +2,500 experience points!]
With the additional +2,500 experience points, Adam needed +6,560 more to reach level 8. He wanted to complain to whoever made this game. No other game he played required such a ridiculous amount of experience points to reach the next level at the beginning of the game.
Before he could begin really grumbling, he noticed something at the back wall of the room. It was a chest. There was nothing particularly special about this chest. He could tell from the way it was rusted over that it was old. Who knew how long it had been here for.
He took out the [unknown key] that one of the skeletons had dropped. Could this key unlock this chest? There was only one way to find out.
He walked up to the chest, knelt before it, and shoved the key into the lock, turning it once and smiling when he heard a soft clicking sound. The chest opened with ease. Glancing inside, Adam was surprised to find what seemed like fairly decent armor and leggings inside. The armor was a lot brighter than the somewhat dull armor he was wearing right now. Likewise, the leggings were made of black leather instead of simple wool.
Item Name: Enchanted Steel Armor
Item Type: Armor
Grade: Medium
Use requirements: Can be equipped by Warriors level 5 and above
Description: An enchanted steel chest plate. Grants increased defense.
Abilities: Defense+25; +5% resistance to slashing, blunt, and piercing damage
Item Name: Enchanted Leggings
Item Type: Armor
Grade: Medium
Use requirements: can be equipped by players of any class level 5 and above
Description: Leggings that were enchanted by an unknown mage. Grants increased defense and speed.
Abilities: Physical Defense+10; Movement+5
These items were a lot better than his previous equipment, so Adam had no issue discarding his leggings and chest plate in exchange for this new stuff. He quickly equipped them, which increased both his Physical Defense and Movement a little bit. The most significant boost was, of course, from the chest plate. Not only did it give him a +25 on defense, but it also gave him an increased resistance to various types of physical damage.
Curious to know how this affected his stats now, he pulled up his stat screen.
Name: Adam
Class: Warrior
Lvl: 7
SP: 0
AP: 5
Experience: 3,080/9,600
Strength: +55
Constitution: +5
Dexterity: +5
Intelligence: +5
Speed: +6
Physical Attack: +110
Health: 110/110
Hit-rate: 15%
MP: 60/60
Movement: +11
Physical Defense: +35
Magic Defense:+5
Dodge-rate: ???
Magic Attack: +5
Resistance:
Blunt: 5%
Slashing: 5%
Piercing: 5%
Adam immediately noticed the new addition to his status screen, which displayed what he was resistant to. It looked like this was only something that would appear if he had resistance to something. Interesting.
The door behind him had unlocked after Adam defeated the [undead skeletons]. He walked back down the corridor and took the passage he had ignored the last time. This corridor was even longer than the previous one, and when he finally reached the end, what he discovered was not a door but a staircase.
“I guess there’s no choice but to travel down,” he said.
The stairs did not seem at all stable, but Adam walked carefully to avoid falling or potentially breaking the stairs. Actually, he wondered if these stairs even could break. He didn’t want to test out whether they were breakable or not, so he decided not to do anything potentially dangerous.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs revealed nothing out of the ordinary. A stone floor and walls greeted him. There was only one door leading out, and since that was the case, he went over, opened the door, and walked through. He didn’t know what he expected to find, but another corridor was… probably very close.
He sighed and began walking.
Adam did not get far before a terrified male shriek filled the air. His instincts kicked in and Adam bolted down the corridor, reaching the end in record time. There was no doorway this time. All he found was a large archway that looked like it had been made from the skeletal remains of people unfortunate enough to be killed here.
The shriek came again. It was followed by sobs.
“Please… please don’t… don’t kill me… I promise not to come this way again. Never again. Let me go… please…”
Adam did not know who was talking or who the person was talking to. It sounded like someone had been captured and was pleading with his captor. Could it be Trader Wilkins’ missing son?
As he peered around the corner of the archway, he found an odd scene like something from a fantasy story. The room on the other side looked like an ancient magician’s laboratory, a place where they concocted potions and performed various magical experiments. That aesthetic was ruined by all the old-school torture devices. There was a stone table with straps, numerous bloody tools sitting on it, and an iron maiden situated against one corner of the room. He even saw a wooden horse, another torture device used to inflict pain using the subject’s own weight by keeping their legs open, tied with rop
es from above, and lowering them onto the wedge-shaped object. It was a pretty brutal method of torture.
There were also two bookshelves, but they seemed to have items other than books. Adam wrinkled his nose when he noticed an eyeball floating in a jar filled with green liquid sitting on the second to last shelf.
In the very center of this room were two objects that caused a thrill to run down his spine.
The first and most intimidating object in the room was not an object at all, but a large figure dressed in a ragged black cloak. Adam could not see that many defining features about this creature. The only thing he saw beyond the cloak was its hands. It did not possess any flesh, blood, or muscles. Its hands were entirely white bone. This cloaked figure was not a human, but a skeleton at least two feet taller than him.
It was a level 15 2-star [necromancer].
Beside the [necromancer] was a small cage hanging from the ceiling, and inside of the cage was a plain-looking young man with brown hair, brown eyes, and the clothes of a villager. When Adam looked up the information on him, he saw that this was Trader Wilkins’ missing son.
The son had been kidnapped by a [necromancer].
A 2-star enemy.
He wondered if a 2-star was more powerful than an 1-star.
Adam froze for a moment as he realized how vast the level difference between him and this creature was, but then he snapped out of his daze and took the [scan scroll] from his pouch. He ignored the terrified wails of Trader Wilkins' son and unfurled the scroll while still hidden behind the archway. Once it was unfurled, the scroll began glowing with a soft white light. Then it broke apart. In that moment, all the information on the [necromancer] was revealed by a window.
Name: Necromancer
Description: A creature born from darkness and resentment. Necromancers are undead skeletons who have existed for at least one thousand years and gained a form of sentience. Every necromancer was a powerful mage in their previous life as a human. Now in death, they wish to continue their experiments and defile the world’s natural order.
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