This time, the door swung open on its own.
Maximus stepped in.
The room was a bedroom with a small bed and several toys in the corner, resembling a child's room.
Maximus swiftly spotted his victims seated at a table in the corner with a boy resembling a doll, similar to the doll girls he had just met. They appeared to be having a tea party together, but Maximus knew it was nothing of the sort.
They turned to look at Maximus the moment he stepped into the room.
[+70FP]
[+70FP]
--
[1,010FP]
Jonathan and Cynthia froze. Their eyes widened in terror, as though they were about to pop out, as they stared at the Shadow Reaper, who had calmly walked into the light.
"Caretaker, you've decided to join us for tea?" the doll boy asked, turning to the humanoid figure covered in bandages and draped in a coat, excitement shining in his eyes.
Maximus glanced at the contents of the teacup. It was filled with a red liquid, maggots, and several other disgusting things that made his stomach churn and caused him to turn his head away the moment he looked at it.
"I'm not here to join you for tea. I'm here to remove the intruders," Maximus responded.
The doll boy's widened, then narrowed in frustration.
"Why?! Why don't you allow them to stay a few minutes longer? This isn't fair! You know how lonely it is waiting in this room all day long. Why can't I keep just one toy this time, someone who would accompany me and the others during our tea parties?" the doll boy said, his tone and expression filled with grievance.
He pointed toward the toys lying on the other side of the room near the bed. Suddenly, the toys began to twitch unnaturally, as though they were rising to their feet.
Maximus glanced at the toys, noting the puddles of blood beneath their feet before pulling his gaze away. He inhaled deeply but remained silent. He calmly shook his head at the doll boy and walked toward the table.
The doll boy stepped down from his chair and blocked Maximus's path.
"Don't come any closer! Don't take away my toys!" the doll boy shouted at him, his eyes turning bloodshot.
The toys on the other side of the room were also looking eerily at Maximus.
Although Jonathan and Cynthia could only hear the Dungeon's Final Boss's guttural voice, they were able to understand the ongoing conversation through the doll boy's words.
"Please, I don't want to complete this dungeon anymore. Please take my life!" Cynthia screamed first, her voice filled with pain and agony as streams of tears poured down her face.
Her hands clenched tightly around the teacup, rattling violently as though she was unable to let go.
Initially, she would have done anything to survive, but after entering this room and listening to the doll boy's words while being forced to drink the disgusting tea in her hand, she would rather die than live through such horror and torture.
Jonathan attempted to speak but quickly shut his mouth. He would also rather die than endure such torment, but he couldn't forget about his family, whom he still had to care for, a main reason he had been raiding dungeons ever since his awakening.
His mental fortitude was levels above Cynthia's, who had just become a Hunter and had also ventured into dungeons for her family's sake.
Jonathan had come this far and couldn't think of giving up. Even if there were the slightest chance of escape, he would take it. However, the problem was that there was none.
The only escape route before him was death.
Jonathan's eyes dimmed as he lowered his head and closed his eyes, his expression filled with hatred, pain, and terror.
Maximus froze in his steps.
He hadn't expected Cynthia to utter such words or Jonathan to react the way he did. But he swiftly recovered his composure and nodded. He sank into the shadow beside the bed frame.
Cynthia's eyes widened in shock, blinking at the Shadow Reaper's gesture before he vanished into the shadows.
"Hehehe, are my eyes deceiving me? The Shadow Reaper just nodded at me! Of course, now I understand. You can walk through fire. You're not afraid of stepping into the light either. You aren't the usual Dungeon's Final Boss, are you?" She said, her solemn tone shifting into an amused chuckle.
She snapped her head to the side as the Shadow Reaper emerged from her chair's shadow.
"What are you? A glitch? A new dungeon update?! Don't tell me you're the Dungeon's Final Boss's lost cousin because he hasn't been doing a good job handling it!" She stared at Maximus with an almost inhuman intensity.
Jonathan listened to her words and trembled in fear.
[+90FP]
[+100FP]
--
[+1,200FP]
Maximus saw that despite her words, her fear of him was steadily rising.
PTUII!!
Without answering her questions, Maximus swung his cutlass against her neck, ending her life.
[+100FP]
[+120FP]
--
[+1,420FP]
PTUII!!
Before Jonathan could react, he decapitated him as well.
Maximus's movements were swift and deadly.
The last thing Jonathan felt was his life draining, and the thought of his family, flash before his eyes before he was met with total darkness.
"Nooo!!" the doll boy screamed, attempting to grab their bodies, but Maximus swung his leg and kicked him back. He collided with the door with a loud 'BANG!!'
The doll boy landed on the wooden floor like a rag doll. He didn't get up but wept profusely, slamming his fists against the floor with resonating 'BANG! BANG!!'
Maximus grabbed Jonathan and Cynthia and dragged them out of the room.
"Wait! Where are you going? Why don't you stay a while longer and play with me?" the doll boy shouted, racing toward him hysterically.
Maximus didn't halt. He swiftly closed the door behind him.
He placed the bodies with the others. He didn't know what would happen to them after the Dungeon run was over. So, he threw them into the blazing room.
Despite there being hardly any windows, the smoke didn't linger in the hallway; it vanished into the walls.
Once he was done, Maximus returned to his office and sat down in his chair.
[Mission Complete. You have successfully defended the Level 1 Dungeon - The Abandoned Orphanage and eliminated every intruder.]
[Reward Extraction has been activated. You will obtain a fraction of the Dungeon's Final Boss power. You may use your Fear Points to obtain additional rewards by extracting the stats or skills of the Dungeon's Final Boss - The Caretaker (Shadow Reaper).]
[Please note: If the stats or skills to be extracted do not meet the required Fear Points, you may still use them to obtain a lesser version.]
A series of notifications appeared before Maximus as he opened the system.
[Do you wish to accept your reward? Yes / No.]
Maximus selected 'Yes' without hesitation. Instantly, his vision blurred as he lost consciousness.
**
Maximus regained consciousness in his room. Immediately, an overwhelming feeling of weakness struck his body, followed by a sudden surge of power flooding through him.
His muscles bulged, bones cracked, and veins popped across his skin under the tremendous pressure. Mana flowed through his body from nothingness, infusing every tissue and organ.
"AHHHHHH!!!" Maximus's lips snapped open as he screamed, a mixture of pain and excitement filling his voice.
He was unable to bear the brunt of the transformation happening within him, yet he couldn't help but be delighted.
It lasted only a minute before the transformation ended.
Maximus lay on his bed, sweating and breathing heavily as he struggled to regain his composure.
He slowly sat upright and looked down at his body. It was no longer frail. His muscles bulged outward and were clearly defined.
He touched his solid abs, his stomach, and his muscles that felt hard yet soft at the same time. Still wearing only his boxers, he could clearly see how lean and muscular he had become.
Maximus had previously possessed a muscular physique, earned through relentless training that pushed his body to its maximum potential in this new life.
However, he had lost it due to depression, then regained a little through hunger and starvation. Now, he had regained it once more, and it felt even more solid than before.
"Status."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Name: Maximus Vale]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Age: 21 ]
[ Talent: Final Boss Role-player [???] ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ Mana: D- ]
[ Strength: D ]
[ Agility: D ]
[ Physique: D- ]
[ Dexterity: D+ ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Attribute: None ]
[ Skills: ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The status screen unravelled before him.
Maximus realised that he had truly obtained some of the Caretaker's power. Even if it wasn't the complete power, it was still enough to push him into the ranks of a Level 1 Hunter and raise all his stats to D-rank, making him no different from an official Hunter.
[Reward Extraction —
[Skills: Shadow Jump (D+): Instantly move between connected shadows.
[Extract: 1,000 FP]
Chain Throw (D+): Throw a weapon tethered by a chain to strike a target at range. [Extract: 1,000 FP]
[Passive Boss Effects: Morale Pressure (D+): Hunters under sustained pursuit experience panic buildup. [Extract: 1,000 FP]
[Use Fear Points to extract the stats or skills.]
Maximus rubbed his nose silently, realising that he didn't have enough Fear Points to extract all three options. After a brief moment of contemplation, he chose to extract [Shadow Jump (D+)].
This skill was invaluable when dealing with multiple enemies or when fleeing.
[Extraction complete. Congratulations, Maximus. You have extracted [Shadow Jump (D+)].
Please note: Due to the absence of the [Darkness] attribute, the efficiency of this skill will be reduced by 50 per cent.]
[Fear Points: 420 FP]
[You may obtain the [Darkness] attribute if you wish to utilise this skill at 100 per cent efficiency.]
Maximus frowned when he saw the system message.
If he had known that obtaining [Shadow Jump (D+)] without the [Darkness] attribute would reduce its efficiency by 50 per cent, he would have chosen [Chain Throw] or [Morale Pressure] instead.
"Can I get a refund?" Maximus asked.
[No. There are no refunds.]
Maximus sighed in defeat. "How much does the [Darkness] attribute cost?"
[Darkness Attribute: 2,000,000 FP]
"How am I supposed to get two million Fear Points? Even if I tortured five of them for an entire day, I don't think it would be possible to obtain such a huge amount," Maximus muttered, his brows twitching.
He sighed tiredly; his expression filled with defeat and a mixture of complicated emotions as he remembered that he had just taken the lives of four Hunters.
With his Final Boss [The Survivor] skill, he was certain that one of them would return alive, but he wasn't sure who it would be.
He slumped back onto his bed.
Maximus used the remaining Fear Points to extract [Chain Throw].
[Extraction complete. Congratulations, Maximus. You have extracted [Chain Throw (D)].]
Skills were graded from F-rank to S-rank, further divided into F-, F+, and higher tiers. Most Hunters awakened with E- or D-ranked skills and had to train them gradually to improve their rank and increase their combat proficiency.
Only a few Hunters awakened with F-ranked skills, and they were considered the weakest among Hunters. The higher the rank of a skill upon awakening, the greater one's potential and the faster they can grow stronger.
For those who awakened with F-ranked skills, they had to struggle to catch up with peers who possessed higher-ranked abilities. Of course, some awakened with no skills at all, just like him, who had no business being a Hunter.
They weren't even classified as Hunters but were instead known as cannon fodder, the weakest of the weak, below even F-ranked Level 1 Hunters.
Stats such as Mana, Strength, Physique, Agility and Dexterity were different. They could be developed through training, mana crystals, or dungeon rewards.
Attributes, however, were vastly more different. They were obtained only upon awakening and could not be changed. Attributes amplified a Hunter's overall abilities and potential.
A Hunter with an attribute could defeat another Hunter of the same level who lacked one. Such individuals were known as Talented Hunters.