"Mmm, mmm, mhnh..."
Dustin was moving forward through the glowing tunnels of the dungeon while whistling his favorite song under his breath. The pale light from the cavern walls cast long shadows across the stone path.
It had been around two hours since he regained his stamina. He had taken a solid rest, cooked the remaining fox meat from his storage, and eaten his fill. Once he felt completely recovered, he started walking again to explore the dungeon and clear the system's mandate.
On his way deeper into the cavern, he encountered a few attacks by different monster species. Fortunately, almost all of them were below Level 10 and were not very hard to deal with. Dustin easily massacred them with quick strikes from his steel dagger. After that brief string of fights, his progress for clearing the dungeon reached twelve out of fifteen. Now, all he had to do was kill three more species over Level 7 to finally escape this place.
While walking down a wide corridor, he opened the shop section.
DING.
The basic section of the shop appeared in front of him. He did not need anything from this section at the current moment since his stomach was already full from the fox meat. He swiped the screen to the right to open the Starter Shop.
[ STARTER SHOP ]
[ Basic Healing Potion ]
[ Description: Can cure any basic injury quickly, but ineffective on any fatal injuries or poisons. ]
[ Cost: 200 points ]
[ Basic Poison ]
[ Description: Can kill any lower-level species below Level 30 in just a few minutes to several hours. Effects may vary based on the species' stats. May be ineffective on anything higher. ]
[ Cost: 500 points ]
[ Normal Sword ]
[ Description: A normal sword made of steel. No special effects or buffs. ]
[ Cost: 150 points ]
[ Ignis-Edge (Level 1) ]
[ Description: A normal steel sword with fire-affinity mana added while forging. Gives a 5% boost to fire-type attacks. Also increases Agility by 3, Stamina by 2, and Endurance by 4. Weak against water and similar attacks. ]
[ Cost: 560 points ]
Dustin looked at the numbers and did the math in his head. He had earned 67 points for killing the evolved Level 11 monkey earlier. He still had 156 points left over from his previous balance. That gave him a total of 223 points.
He could actually purchase the Basic Healing Potion right now. However, he did not have any major injuries. His arms and legs were slightly hurting from all the intense fighting he had done earlier, but spending 200 points on minor aches felt foolish. That was almost ninety percent of his total savings. Wasting a potion on muscle soreness did not seem wise to him at all. He preferred saving his hard-earned points to get a better weapon.
The reasoning was pretty simple in his mind. Everyone loved cool items, especially when they came with stat boosts. If he saved up, he would not only get a cooler weapon but also receive a increase to his attributes. According to his gamer mindset, stat boosts were always worth spending a few hundred extra points.
He thought carefully about what specific weapon he should buy when the time came. After some serious consideration, he decided to stick with a high-tier dagger.
He had never used any real weapons in his entire. He had joined a martial arts class during his teenage years, but it was a traditional Asian style that mostly focused on hand-to-hand combat. Because of that, he did not know how to properly wield a sword, a bow, or a spear. His new class was Rogue, and the system had naturally granted him the ability to use daggers instinctively to some extent.
After walking a bit further, he encountered a group of small, rat-like monsters. He quickly checked their levels using his system vision. It turned out that all of them were below Level 5.
He just decided to ignore them. Killing them would not fill the dungeon requirements, and they would not even provide enough experience to matter. He had already killed several low-level monsters on his way here without seeing a single level-up notification. Furthermore, his efficient energy management philosophy firmly advised against doing meaningless labor. He kept moving past them and started whistling another tune after the first one ended.
"Mmm, mmm, mhnh..."
A little while later, the tunnel opened up into a wider cavern. He found a large cluster of strange eggs laying directly on the stone floor. They were surrounded by many different types of thick, glowing grasses that had been woven together to resemble a giant nest.
Dustin stepped closer to inspect the nest. He sat down near the edge and gently touched one of the large eggs with his hand.
'It feels just like a normal egg,' Dustin thought as he rubbed the smooth shell.
A second later, his own common sense fired back at him.
'It is an egg, so it will obviously feel like an egg. Stupid.'
He shook his head and stood up quickly.
"I probably should move forward before your mommy comes home," Dustin said. He waved a casual hand at the eggs and hurried forward into the next section of the dungeon.
The path sloped downward into a massive chamber filled with strange, glowing blue moss. Sitting right in the middle of the room was a familiar face. It was the massive Level 14 Monkey. It was the same golden monkey that had walked away earlier while expecting Dustin to die by the hands of its lackey.
"Yoo, monkey," Dustin called out. "Surprised to see me?"
The giant Monkey was holding a weird fruit that looked like a mango, except it was bright blue. The monkey looked at Dustin, popped the entire fruit into its mouth, and swallowed it in a single gulp. It slowly stood up to its full, terrifying height. The beast stared down at him with a look that seemed to acknowledge Dustin as a worthy opponent.
Dustin slid both of his steel daggers out of his belt and took a low fighting stance.
"It finally seems I am worth fighting you, huh?" Dustin chuckled. He did not wait for the beast to make a move. He pushed off the ground and charged forward.
There was only a three-level difference between this one and that Level 11 monkey he had fought earlier. Dustin did not think there would be a massive gap in their raw power. The smaller monkeys had only been a few levels below the Level 11 monkey, but the difference in stats there had been huge. However, in Dustin's understanding of games, significant power jumps usually came with drastic visual changes. Since this one also looked very similar to the last one, he assumed the boost would not be completely overwhelming.
Regardless of his assumptions, Dustin remained incredibly vigilant. He closed the distance in a heartbeat.
Swish.
Dustin slashed upward with his right dagger. The monkey brought its thick, muscular arm down and successfully deflected the blade. The steel scraped against the dense yellow fur.
The fight broke out into a rapid exchange of blows. Dustin kept up a relentless assault, while the giant monkey focused entirely on defending itself. Dustin managed to slip past its guard a few times and landed some minor cuts on its chest and arms. Blood began to mat the golden fur, but the beast did not panic.
Then, the situation completely changed.
The monkey suddenly leaped backward to create some distance. It reached down with lightning speed, grabbed a heavy chunk of stone from the cavern floor, and whipped it forward like a professional pitcher.
Dustin tried to dodge, but the projectile was simply too fast.
Thwack.
The heavy stone slammed directly into Dustin's right side, right over his liver.
"Gah," Dustin choked.
Even though he had a decent Endurance stat for his level, the impact hurt like absolute hell. A shockwave of pure agony radiated through his entire body. His vision blurred for a split second, and his knees instantly buckled under the immense pain.