Dustin kept moving forward through the glowing tunnels of the beginner dungeon. Several hours had passed since he killed the snakes. He was completely covered in dried blood and looked incredibly disgusting. His clothes were stiff with the dark red stains, and the smell was starting to make him sick.
He kicked a small rock out of frustration.
Clack.
The stone bounced off the cavern wall. Right at that moment, Dustin sensed multiple things moving rapidly into his perception bubble. The mental map in his head lit up with fast, erratic signatures.
He quickly became vigilant. He gripped both of his steel daggers tightly in his hands and turned to face the direction of the disturbance. His muscles tensed as he waited in the pale light.
After just three breaths, a pack of creatures rushed into his line of sight. They looked like monkeys, but their fur was a bright, unnatural yellow instead of black or brown. Most of the monkeys were roughly the size of human teenagers. They bounded across the rocks with terrifying speed. However, two of the monkeys in the back were entirely different. They were massive, standing taller and wider than adult humans, and looked more like heavily muscled gorillas.
Dustin quickly scanned the newly arrived creatures. Thanks to his years of gaming experience, it took him less than two seconds to process the information the system fed into his mind. These creatures were called Golden Apes. Most of the smaller ones were common grade and ranged from Level 5 to Level 8. The two massive ones standing in the back were uncommon grade. One of them was a Level 11 monkey, and the largest one was a Level 14 monkey.
'I am in serious trouble now,' Dustin said to himself internally.
He stayed rooted to his spot and held his fighting stance. He did not attempt to make the first move. There were ten of the smaller monkeys and two of the massive ones. Even if these creatures possessed low intelligence, their sheer numbers made this an extremely hard fight.
Screech.
One of the Level 6 monkeys lost its patience and jumped directly toward Dustin's face with its claws extended. Dustin had been considering backing down slowly, but that option was gone now.
"Damn it," Dustin cursed.
He dodged to the right with a quick burst of speed. His high Agility stat made the monkey look like it was moving in slow motion. As he stepped past the lunging beast, he brought his left dagger down hard.
Slash.
He delivered a long, deep cut across the monkey's left arm and completely ruined the limb. The beast hit the ground howling in pain.
The smell of fresh blood sent the rest of the pack into a frenzy. More of the smaller monkeys started attacking Dustin all at once. They leaped from the walls and rushed him from the front.
Dustin kept his eyes darting around the chaos. He noticed that the two larger apes just stood there in the back. They were simply watching the commotion unfold.
'I really hope they don't join in,' Dustin thought as he ducked under a wild swing.
He kept dodging the relentless attacks from the smaller monkeys. He would weave through their grabbing hands and strike back with his daggers whenever he saw an opening.
Thud. Squelch.
He killed three of the smaller monkeys in rapid succession. It was not very hard to put them down, even with his naturally lazy body, because his level and stats were so much higher than theirs. But the entire time he was fighting, he remained hyper-vigilant of the two giants in the back. If those bigger monkeys suddenly decided to attack him, he would not have any way to fight them off while the smaller ones were still swarming him.
However, the two massive apes did not attack. They just stood with their arms crossed and watched as Dustin effortlessly slaughtered their subordinates.
This was simply the nature of the Golden Apes. The system had designed these specific creatures to be incredibly prideful. Fighting an enemy who could not even defeat their lowest ranking members would hurt their pride. Even as Dustin managed to kill their packmates one by one, the leaders refused to budge. They would not step in until the enemy proved himself by wiping out all the lesser monkeys first.
Dustin did not complain about their stupidity. In just a few minutes, he had killed all the remaining smaller monkeys. Yellow fur and blood covered the stone floor. Dustin stood in the center of the carnage. He was panting and slightly exhausted because fighting multiple targets at once drained a significant amount of his stamina.
Then, the strangest thing happened.
The Alpha monkey with Level 14 slowly raised its massive hands and started clapping. The sound was heavy and mocking. Beside it, the Level 11 monkey cracked its knuckles and started moving slowly toward Dustin.
This bizarre, human-like behavior completely stunned Dustin. He stared at the clapping giant for a second before shaking his head.
"Glad to provide some free entertainment for you overgrown hairballs," Dustin said while wiping sweat from his forehead. "But I usually charge an admission fee for a show this good."
He tightened his grip on his bloody daggers and took a fresh stance as the Level 11 monkey approached him.
But what shocked Dustin even more was that level 14 Monkey's next move. The Level 14 monkey stopped clapping, turned its back on the fight, and slowly walked away into the deeper tunnels of the dungeon. It was leaving them alone.
"Heh, so you expect me to die here by the hands of this underling, huh?" Dustin chuckled. He looked right into the eyes of the Level 11 ape. "We will see about that."
The giant monkey roared and lunged forward.
At the survivors place.
A huge commotion erupted in the whole camp. The morning hunting party had returned from the forest with massive news. Suddenly, glowing dungeon entrances had started appearing all over the woods. It became obvious to everyone that the system message from earlier was the cause. The tutorial period being increased by ten days and the mention of special events were directly tied to these new dungeons.
Within minutes, a large crowd of people had gathered in front of the cabin belonging to Andrew and Gareth. The camp was buzzing with fear and excitement. After discussing this whole matter privately for about half an hour, both Andrew and Gareth stepped outside to share their opinions and decisions with the camp.
Andrew raised his hands to draw the attention of the loud crowd. The murmuring slowly died down.
"This is a very sensitive matter and we should not take this lightly," Andrew said in a loud, clear voice. "As we all know, the duration of this tutorial has been increased. Not only that, but we might also face some kind of special event very soon. We do not know what that even means or what kind of monsters it will bring to our walls."
Gareth stepped forward to follow up after Andrew. He looked over the crowd with a stern, assessing gaze.
"To survive this upcoming event, what we absolutely need is strength," Gareth told them. "Right now, we are severely lacking in that department. These new dungeons will definitely help us grow stronger and get better gear. But to get those rewards, we must walk straight into danger. We have to explore these dungeons and fight off the monsters inside."
Gareth paused to let the weight of his words settle over the survivors.
"We will not force anyone to do this," Gareth continued. "If you do not want to join the exploration, you can stay here and maintain the camp. Only those who truly want to explore the dungeons and get stronger should step forward and join us."
This speech led the people in the crowd to murmur among themselves again. There were many different and controversial opinions. Some people argued that staying behind the walls was the only safe bet. Others argued that hiding would just guarantee their deaths when the special event finally started.
After a few hours of intense debate, the camp reached a consensus. Many people who had agreed to take the risk gathered at the center of the camp. They formed a total of fifteen different teams. Each team contained anywhere from five to ten people, balanced by their classes and abilities.
One of the teams was led directly by Gareth. After considering the logistics with Andrew, they both decided that Gareth needed to take the lead on the most dangerous target. He was going to explore a much bigger dungeon they had found, which explicitly required at least one Level 25 member to enter. Gareth was the only person in the camp who met that requirement except for Andrew.
His team was a carefully selected mix of fighters and support classes. Interestingly, this team also contained a young woman in her early twenties. She was from the new group of injured survivors that had arrived just the day before. Gareth had personally picked her to join his elite group, which surprised a few of the older camp members.
After a few more hours of preparation and gathering supplies, the fifteen groups marched out of the camp. They moved through the dense forest until they reached their respective dungeon entrances.