John didn’t know if he should feel enraged at how Ricky had acted so slippery and sneaky about this opportunity, or laugh because he had finally uncovered the secret. "Either way, I have a grand prize waiting for at the end of this dungeon... At last, I’ll get an inventory!"
He passed quickly over the note about ntal Points gained and focused more on the Inventory that the system promised to unlock. He even tried once to code a pocket program to act like a primitive subsidiary of the Inventory and failed!
"Just one point, though," before jumping into the fray, he noticed sothing peculiar. "You generated the quest after I entered here! Does that an you weren’t prepared for such a scenario? Or did you just not anticipate it?"
John didn’t get an answer to his question—again! That silence was enough of an answer for him. The system wasn’t omniscient; it was reacting to the environnt just as he was.
As he went through his notifications, he started to arrange his strategy. "This is a dungeon, and that ans there are monsters—ones that can hurt . I need to kill them to gain loot and finally clear it. My arsenal looks empty of a single killer move, unfortunately..."
He opened his profile and scrolled through his list of abilities. There was a good variety of abilities tailored to help him efficiently use his most important asset: ntal Points.
[Active Abilities:
Shell
Object Lockdown
MP Absorption
Wirefra Sight
Fra Recognition]
Yet, there was a weakness he had never paid much attention to before: the absence of a direct, offensive, deadly ability. "Everything I have now forces to use kiting tactics against these monsters. I’ll have to wear them down... Or perhaps they are weak enough for to kill them with my bare hands!"
Out of his abilities, Object Lockdown could be incredibly useful for immobilising monsters, and MP Absorption could work perfectly to slowly drain their ntal Points until they collapsed. If the stat difference was in his favour, he might be able to kill them faster than he imagined.
"It’s ti to see for myself," he muttered, squaring his shoulders. He knew staying idle and theorising wouldn’t give him the answers he needed. He started walking down the white-coded corridor, his footsteps echoing in the eerie silence of the Bug Dungeon. "I’m curious to see what type of monsters are here!"
He finally walked toward the end of the entry corridor, erging into a vast hall that served as the first stage of the dungeon. The space was enormous—it felt like five of those waiting hall he entered after finishing his admission test. The sheer scale of the hall was breathtaking, but his attention was imdiately drawn to the figures scattered throughout the room.
"It makes perfect sense indeed! I’ll start with Goblins in this dungeon!"
The monsters were the quintessential fantasy staple: green goblins. Each one clutched a crude wooden stick that, at first glance, didn’t look particularly lethal. True to the system’s promise, floating text hovered above their heads, providing a clear breakdown of their status.
[Goblin Bug Monster: Level 1]
[HP: 20 | Str: 10 | Defense: 10 | Speed: 5]
"They are overall weak and slow, but their HP is a bit high compared to their other stats," John noted, making a quick ntal assessnt of their pros and cos.
"Wirefra Sight!"
Even with that assessnt, he didn’t feel a surge of excitent. Instead, he felt a looming sense of fatigue. There were close to one hundred of these creatures standing idle in this hall alone. They were spread out in loose clusters, their forms flickering slightly with white code structure.
"One hundred... That’s too much," he sighed, scanning the periter. "They lack any special codes, despite the entire world being made out of white codes, and it seems they’re in a dormant state. Does that an I need to initiate the attack to trigger their hostility? Or do they have an aggro field that triggers if I trespass it?"
He decided to try to find out. First, he stood still for more than ten minutes, waiting for his ability to deplete. At the sa ti, he checked his most important asset.
[ntal Point (MP): 151/169]
"I have enough," he muttered, feeling a sense of security at the sight of that healthy chunk of ntal Points. "Let’s start testing with this fellow."
He picked the goblin closest to the entrance. He walked forward slowly, while activating his battle abilities.
"Fra Recognition, Object Lockdown, MP Absorption... Let’s go all out!"
Once the three abilities were active, he accelerated his pace. He didn’t run, kept his eyes glued to the goblin to see exactly when it would notice him.
*Roar!*
The mont John crossed the five-ter threshold, the goblin’s idle status snapped into a violent lunge. It brandished its stick and charged.
"It’s a field then."
John shifted his weight, easily evading the clumsy overhead swing. He circled behind the creature and slamd his palm against its torso, delivering the Object Lockdown and MP Absorption effects.
*Thud!*
The monster froze mid-motion and toppled over like a statue. John didn’t waste a second. He began his assault, raining down punches on the immobilised target.
[-3] [-3] [-3]
He watched the floating damage numbers. His physical strikes were currently dealing three points of damage each. A quick bit of math told him he needed seven blows to deplete the creature’s 20 HP.
"It’s way too easy."
As the seventh punch landed, the goblin let out a final roar of agony. Its white code structure shattered into thousands of harmless pieces, and a notification popped up in the centre of his vision.
[Ding! Congratulations! You killed Goblin Bug Monster Level 1.]
[You gained: 1 INT stat | ntal Point Cap 1]
"That confirms it then," John said, a grim smile forming on his face. He checked his profile to ensure the Intelligence point had been applied. "That bastard Ricky is farming these dungeons to get stronger fast! No wonder!!"
The realisation that he could manually raise his stats through grinding ignited a fire in John’s spirit. He didn’t hesitate. He dived into the sea of green monsters, starting a spree of slaughter.
He moved from one goblin to the next, perfecting his lock and strike routine. He worked his way through the room, taking out fifty monsters before the physical toll started to outweigh his body.
"Hoof... Hoof... Fighting continuously like this is exhausting."
He wiped sweat from his brow, his chest heaving. He knew this exhaustion was pure physical fatigue.
"I need to take the physical training more seriously now," he realised. He had always looked down on the gym rats and the endurance drills Nikolas favoured, thinking his abilities and system would bridge any gap. But now he saw that his body was the hardware that had to run the software.
He checked his progress. He had noticed that with every kill, he gained a point in a different stat—except for Speed. After fifty-one kills, his profile had transford.
[Primary Stats:
INT: 34 - HP: 28 - Strength: 26 - Defence: 27 - Speed: 11]
"Quite impressive indeed."
His stats were on a whole new level. But the real prize appeared as he looked deeper into his profile. By crossing the 20-point threshold in Strength, HP, and Defence, he unlocked three new abilities.
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