With a choking scream the beast fell to the ground, covered in cuts and slashes, and I fell on my ass with a groan, “Fucking hell… nice one dungeon. Fire breathing lizard, how creative…”

  I could sense the by now familiar thrum of the dungeon and let out a sigh as I realized that it had just laughed at me. Which probably meant that there was either going to be more crazy monsters, or that there would be a change in the dungeon coming up. I didn’t mind too much either way, especially since the changes were never hard enough that I couldn’t work past them, albeit with a couple deaths here and there. Though… the loot and level ups made it all worth it.

  Over that last week, or at least what I assumed had been a week, I had managed to gain a few more rudimentary pieces of loot, like a leather jerkin, thin metal greaves, a slightly better sword, and a leather cap. It wasn’t much against the fire breathing lizards, but the jerkin had saved me from a few daggers already, so I was pretty happy with my haul so far.

  Thankfully, I had also found that the dungeon monsters would drop pieces of meat and food. Unfortunately the meat wasn’t cooked, but I hadn’t gotten sick from eating it yet, so I took that as a win honestly. Speaking of… the loot that had dropped on the other side of the lizard might have something useful.

  I sighed and winced as I got to my feet, feeling the burn wounds on my side that were still struggling to heal. It was the first one I had fought, and when its throat had lit up, I had just barely managed to jump aside in time. It had still managed to sear my side though, so that had made everything much more difficult as I desperately hid behind my shield, using block whenever I saw that tell tale red light in its throat. It was even more annoying because the damn lizard couldn’t blow the stream of flames for long, but the cooldown between uses was ridiculously short. It didn’t give me enough time to activate sword slash, so I had to just rely on quick slashes and slowly wearing the thing down. Though, it did seem like it was worth it in the end.

  I laughed as I crouched down and picked up the scale mail chestplate next to its corpse. It was heavier than the leather and greaves, but it wasn’t too bad. I would probably end up sacrificing a bit of mobility, but it would be worth it.

  I nodded and slipped it on over my head before picking up my sword and shield and beginning down the tunnel again, focusing intently on my senses to guide me forward and around any traps.

  It was quiet in this part of the dungeon, almost too quiet, but I knew better than to assume that meant I was safe. I had learned that the hard way already… The last time I had even breathed a sigh of relief after defeating a pack of goblins, I’d had to sprint past dozens of crushing traps and hordes of the little round shitballs of death. Yeah… I don’t know why, but the dungeon has a rather sadistic side to it.

  Which seemed to be rearing its ugly head again as I came upon a widening in the tunnel. My spatial awareness still wasn’t going off and telling me there were any monsters nearby, but I still gripped my shield and sword tightly as I slowly made my way forward.

  As I traveled further, the tunnel continued to widen, until it, for the first time since I had entered, came to an abrupt stop. Though… it wasn’t so much a stop, as it was a room. There was oddly enough nothing in the room, but on the far side of me I united three doorways. They each seemed similar enough at a glance, but as I stretched out spatial awareness, I noticed slight variations.

  There was light deep down the far right doorway, but… there was also the smell of sulphur and lizard skin. Down the middle doorway, there was seemingly nothing wrong with it at all. At least, until I felt the smallest of tremors in the ground coming from its direction. They were far away, but they almost seemed like… footsteps. I expected to have to look really hard with the left doorway in order to figure out what was wrong with it, but as I turned my head towards it I heard the screeching of goblins, and sensed a group of them charging towards me.

  I considered the other two for a moment before turning towards the left doorway with a smirk and preparing my shield and sword. Well, didn’t the old man tell me it was best to strike first? Besides, the more enemies I kill, the more experience I can gain! Let’s fucking go dungeon!

  I roared and braced myself, waiting for the screeching goblins to draw within range of my dash. I could sense that there were about ten of them, with six being in the front, and four being in the back. I wasn’t exactly sure what each weapon they had was, but when a slew of cheeky arrows, which I easily deflected, came flying towards me, I assumed that the backline was probably archers, with the frontline being warriors. That was perfect! I loved a good fight, especially when it came with the added bonus of slaughtering a bunch of fucking archer’s!

  I laughed and braced my shield in front of myself as I reached towards the void to find the power that I was searching for. As I reached towards the void, it happily swirled as it sensed my reach. It could sense the incoming battle, and I could tell that it was excited by the thought. It offered me the power I needed gladly, and I grinned as I felt a surge of energy flow throughout my body. With a roar, I flashed forward using dash, closing the distance with the goblin warriors and throwing them off guard as I used the momentum to slam my shield into them.

  I heard the satisfying crunch of bone, and the angry screech of the goblins before whipping around and activating sword slash, carving down and across, slicing off two of their heads. They fell to the ground with a thump, but at the same time I heard the twang of bowstrings, and my spatial awareness pricked, showing me where they would hit. My body moved quickly to dodge it, and I sent up another thanks to the old man. He had been a pain in the ass of a teacher, but damn it if he wasn’t a good one!

  I growled and whipped around towards where the archers were and pointed my sword at them, “Gods I hate archers! You’re all fucking dead!”

  In answer, the goblin archer’s screeched and shot another slew of arrows towards me. At the same time, I heard the screams of the other three warrior goblins running up behind me, and with a sigh of annoyance, I activated dash again. My whole self filled with power, and I flashed through space until I came to a stop right in front of the frantically reloading archers. They glanced up in surprise and fear, and began to screech, but I was quick to silence them before they could.

  I clenched my shield fist shut and reached towards the void, activating blow and feeling power surge through my arm and the shield as well. With a roar I slammed my fist and shield into the first archer, sending them flying through the air until they hit the wall with another satisfying crunch before slumping to the ground, dead. The other two archers discarded their bows and attempted to pull out daggers, but they were far too slow.

  I activated pierce, feeling more than seeing the power spread over the sword itself. My arms filled with power, and I drove my sword through the next goblins chest, feeling an explosion of blood spurt from it and cover my chest. I began to turn to slash the other goblin, but I felt a sudden intense push of pressure on my side and I growled in pain. I glanced down in annoyance at the archer goblin that was frantically stabbing my side and kicked them hard in the side. It fell backwards with a screech and I activated sword slash, slicing it in half with a quick and vicious strike, sending blood everywhere.

  My spatial awareness pricked, and I cursed and tried to activate leap, but suddenly I found myself unable to move. I struggled and strained, but there wasn’t even a smidge of movement, almost as if I had been locked still with chains. But it wasn’t just that! It was almost as if my skills had been locked as well, and I could hear the goblin warriors coming! Fuck fuck fuck fuck!

  I strained and pulled with all of my might, but this time, I was too late, and a few moments later, the goblin warriors were on me. They held nothing back as they smacked and stabbed me with their grubby little clubs and shortswords, hitting me over and over and filling the air with their screeches. I had the scale mail still, which was honestly the only reason I was still alive, but as their little swords and clubs stabbed down over and over, I could hear them denting and bending it ever so slightly.

  Still though, the scalemail did a good job protecting me, especially with the leather armor below me. That is, it was doing a good job protecting me. The goblins were dumb as all hell, but they were still smart enough to realize that stabbing the armor wasn’t getting them anywhere, and they began to lash out at my arms and legs instead. Pain flowed from my body along with my own blood, and I screamed in pain and curled up. Fuck! Fucking hell this hurt so much! If only I could move! And then the lot of these goblins were dead! If only I could… move… wait…

  I growled and gripped my sword, wincing as my arms and legs screamed in pain. I could feel my vision going dark, but I growled and fought against it, grasping a hold of my sense of self and anchoring myself back to reality. I could sense the three goblin warriors that were still screeching and attacking me, but they weren’t the problem. The problem was the fourth goblin that had been in the back with the others. I had assumed that it was simply just an archer like the others, but with what had just happened to me… I had a feeling that it had to be something else.

  It definitely took priority, especially since I had no clue how long of a cooldown that spell had over me. If they were able to cast it again… I was pretty sure I would actually die. And yet… I still needed to deal with these damned warriors! Maybe if I used Berserker’s Rage… but… something about that skill just screamed of danger. I had been able to break free from the effects by dying, or with the intense euphoria of leveling up, but what if I didn’t level up? Then I would just be a mindless ball of rage, and that was the worst thing that could happen in this dungeon. After all, so many of these traps, monsters, and the challenges that it had thrown my way had required quick thinking, adaptability, and good decision making. That berserk state… was as far from those as can be. No, I’d rather just take the level loss from dying today, though, since it was my first time today, I think I shouldn’t lose anything immediately.

  I growled and bared my teeth as I felt one of their blades pierce through my leather bracers. Fucking fuck! Alright, this one dies first!

  I heard a victorious screech from the warrior, but as they began to pull their sword back, I viciously snapped my arm to the side, catching the blade between my forearm bones. The goblin yelped in surprise, and then I yanked my arm again, sending them sprawling flat on their face with a loud grunt of pain. It struggled to get up, but I moved quickly, ripping their blade out of my arm and stabbing it down into its back with a vicious roar.

  They screamed in pain, and I could hear and feel the other two goblin warriors behind me charging forward to attack me, but my attention wasn’t on them anymore. I could kill them later, but right now, I just needed to find that fourth goblin again!

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  I growled and activated sprint, racing forward and stretching out my senses in all directions, wildly hoping that spatial awareness would catch the goblin first. I had sensed it already, but after that it seemed to have hidden itself. There was my discarded first sword, the corpses of the first three warriors, over there were the corpses of the three goblin archers, and there… right over there, I could sense a slight shift in the darkness. Not much, but just the barest of shivers, the faintest of movement in the air, and the slightest smell of vileness that came off of all goblins. It must have been a stealth skill, but it was insane to think that a goblin would have one! Hahaha! Gods I loved this dungeon!

  I bared my teeth in a feral grin and locked my eyes in the direction of the unmoving darkness, growling under my breath with wild amusement, “Ahhhh… there you are, you little shit!”

  The slight shift in the air changed, tingling with the barest hint of fear. It must have been rather terrifying to think that you were safe, and then to have your complete enemy just look straight at you? Haha… the poor beast, at least its worries would be over soon!

  I raced forward, and with a roar of laughter I slashed aggressively at where I knew its head should be, feeling an immediate push back of force and a scream as blood seemingly appeared from nowhere. I must have hit the damn thing in the shoulder, which meant that it had to be taller than normal goblins. Otherwise that strike would have gone straight through their neck… Shit!

  I cursed and gripped my sword as my spatial awareness went off again. I could sense the goblin warriors coming from behind me, and the blood that was leaking from my arms and legs was still coming fast, but I still made sure to coat my foot with the power from blow and send it straight down where I could sense the goblins head should have been. Thankfully, I aimed true and I felt another cracking crunch as my heel shattered the goblins skull and sent gore everywhere.

  It was satisfying to know it was dead, but then the warriors were on me again, and I fell into my fighting stance. They had ripped my first blade from my hands and threw it across the room, but thankfully they hadn’t been able to rip my shield from me and I still had it strapped to my other arm. I blocked the first club strike with the shield, dropped low and lashed out with the sword, just barely skimming it along the chests of the other two goblins, and then darted forward and activated bite, tearing into the throat of the club goblin. I heard and felt the ding of the other two goblins swords on my scalemail, and with a vicious spin I slammed my shield into them both, sending them flying back with a grunt. They shook their heads and struggled to get up, but I didn’t give them the opportunity and darted forth, gripping the handle of the blade with both hands and stabbing it down over and over into their chests until they were both dead.

  Only when their bodies lay still did I relax, and with a sigh I laid down and closed my eyes, stretching out my spatial awareness around me, “Damn… Why do I get the feeling of the three options, this might have been the worst one? Like, a goblin that could stun and skill lock me… what a pain in the ass. I have to be careful of those in the future… but I guess I should start forward again.”

  I grunted and stretched my senses over towards the loot, making my way over to each item and peering at it. Most of it was simple bags of col, but off the corpse of one of the goblin archers I found a new pair of leather bracers and even a pair of gloves off the corpses of the warriors. I expected something off the goblin ‘mage’, but it seemed that the only thing that dropped was a vial of liquid.

  I considered it a moment, before shrugging and taking a small sip of it. I mean, what was the worst that could happen? I died? Ha! Though that would be a pain, I was still curious, and as I felt a surge of energy flow through me, I realized that I must have made a pretty good decision because damn! That tasted good, and not only that, but I could feel my wounds healing themselves. It wasn’t a complete heal of course, but I could definitely feel its effects, and my Unending Vitality was glad for the extra aid in repairing the damage that had been done to me.

  I drank the rest of the potion and cracked my neck with a chuckle, feeling the rest of my stab wounds and the final vestiges of my burn wounds almost entirely vanish. Damn that was good… I probably should have saved it since I could feel a level up coming here soon, but eh, what’s the point of saving those anyway? I’d rather lose a bit of a healing potion than lose a whole level anyway.

  I shrugged and reached inside the void, activating sprint and feeling that familiar surge of powerful energy flow through my legs. I darted down the tunnel, cautiously dodging around a few more pitfall traps and sliding under a heavy stone door that dropped down from above. It was the same as before, but as I continued forward, I noted that the dungeon had begun to widen once again, and then I found myself in another triple gateway again.

  Like before, they each seemed similar, but as I stretched my spatial awareness down each tunnel, I could see how different they were from each other. The one on the right smelled like reptiles, and I could hear the scraping of slithering scales on stone, the one in the middle smelled of acid and toxins, and the one on the left sounded of metal dragging on stone, almost as if a massive beast was walking along with a massive weapon dragging behind them.

  I considered the three of them again before smirking and racing down the left tunnel. After all, that would be where the next creature was, right? It didn’t matter if it was strong or anything like that. I just needed the levels! If I struggled against fodder, how the hell was I supposed to take on the dungeon boss by myself? It didn’t matter where each of these tunnels led, as long as it wasn’t those little demonic shit balls of doom, I would kill whatever creature came my way!

  The sound of metal grinding on stone suddenly grew louder, and then spatial awareness pinged and with a yelp I dropped to the floor, just barely dodging an unbelievably long sword that flashed towards my neck. I heard a rattling thump, and was hit in the face with the smell of decaying and rotting flesh as I rolled to the side, just barely dodging the sword again.

  I cursed and activated leap, flying upwards and over the wide swipe of the sword again. It must have been some kind of warrior skeleton, but for these strikes to come so fast… and with that kind of reach… This was insane!

  I heard that rattle again and ducked, but this time the skeleton twisted its sword at the last second and I only barely survived by knocking into it with my shield. I wildly tried to get to my feet, but the sword came flying by again and I was forced to hide behind the shield once more. Then it slashed from above, to the left, from the right, the upper left, the right, and then from above in a wild flurry of powerful blows that gave me no room to fight back against in any way, shape, or form. It was oppressive, unbelievably oppressive, and the loud ringing of its heavy strikes shook the shield so hard that I could feel my bones and muscles begin to ache, even though I hadn’t been blocking for long.

  I cursed and activated block, forcing the skeleton to strike at the invisible shield, but it didn't really change much. Though it did give my arms and muscles a chance to relax and recover, which was good enough for now. But… how to get around this, how to get around this… block could only do so much, I didn’t have enough time to activate dash or leap, which meant I couldn’t get closer to it, and if I couldn’t get closer to it than I was fucked!

  I growled as I felt the block skill dissipate, and felt the corpse’s blade begin to batter my shield once again. It was an infuriating amount of strength, especially since the damn corpse shouldn’t have had any strength in the first place! But what made it really problematic was the fact that it was able to strike over and over again. All I needed was to be able to avoid one, maybe two strikes. If I could do that, I should be able to get close enough that using block and my other abilities could cover for myself. If only I could just… dodge! Wait… wait a fucking second… Why am I acting like I can’t? Void! Oi! You there?

  There wasn’t a response for a long moment, but then I felt that swirling void lash back and forth with amusement, brushing up against me. I could sense that it already knew what I wanted, but in classic cheeky matter, I could also sense that it wanted me to actually ask it. It was annoying if I was being honest, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but chuckle as I reached out towards it. I asked for its help, and it happily swirled around me, offering up the strength with a burr of happiness and causing a new status screen to appear before me.

  New Skill Learned!

  Dodge (Novice)

  Allows the user to dodge a casted skill or spell

  I laughed and turned my attention back to the fight at hand. Hahaha! This was fucking perfect! Now… Let’s get this tunnel over with, eh?

  The power flowed up from the void, spreading over my body much like how the power from dash did. Though, instead of the void taking control of my body, it seemed to almost empower my limbs and movements. Not only that, but the wickedly fast attacks from the corpse seemed to slow down, and as I walked forward, I easily leapt over the next strike from the warrior corpse.

  Then life sped up again, but this time I was prepared for it. I deflected the next strike off of my shield, used dodge to duck the next blow, used block, dodge, block, dodge, until I was next to the corpse warrior, and with a roar I reached instead for sword slash. My arm roared to life with power, but as I sent it flying towards the corpse warrior, something told me that sword slash wouldn’t be enough.

  I ground my teeth together, feeling blood well up as my sharpened teeth tore up the inside of my mouth. I knew that it might anger the void, but I still reached out towards the void, activating blow and sending it out towards the surge of power that was coating my arm. The void wasn’t the most pleased at the ask, but it was even less so when I reached towards it yet again, grasping a hold of the power for pierce as well.

  I winced as I expected it to snap at me, but surprisingly enough it settled down with only a slight grumble. It obviously didn’t like me demanding power from it over and over again… but it seemed that it was willing to understand why I was if nothing else. That was good of course, because as my blade slammed into the side of the seven foot tall corpse warrior I felt massive levels of resistance.

  The warrior corpses bones and flesh, though decayed and rotten, were incredibly tough and hard. In fact, they were actually strong enough that sword slash on its own didn’t have the pure strength and force behind it to even bite into them. Blow was able to fix that, but even with all of that blunt force, they still weren’t able to break the bones, which pierce was able to fix by splitting them apart. The three of them all at once was a lot of power, and I could feel the effects of it already with the muscles in my arms straining and tearing along with dozens of ruptured blood vessels.

  If I was being honest, it was agony, but as my sword flashed through its midsection almost as if it was butter, I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched its two halves fall to the ground with a loud thud. Agony was soaring hot and loud throughout my entirety, but I was still able to keep my head on my shoulders enough to stomp in the corpses bones, scattering them and snapping them off at the joints. It was only a matter of moments before they were scattered all over, and then the familiar surge of euphoria screeched through me and I let out a laugh as my wounds were healed instantly, and my status window appeared before me.

  Level Up!

  Name: Will

  Race: Chimera

  Level: Twenty- Two(New!)

  Title: Einha Slayer

  Abilities:

  Enduring Heart

  Unending Vitality (Incomplete)

  Death's Favoured (Incomplete)

  Skills:

  Sprint (Master)(New!)

  Berserker’s Rage (Rare)

  Claw (Apprentice)

  Bite (Apprentice)

  Sword Slash (Apprentice)(New!)

  Pierce (Apprentice)(New!)

  Blow (Apprentice)(New!)

  Leap (Beginner)

  Block (Trainee)(New!)

  Dash (Trainee)(New!)

  Axe Smash (Initiate)

  Hammer Bash (Initiate)

  Dodge (Initiate)(New!)

  Passive Skills:

  Spatial Awareness (Passive)(Average)(New!)

  Hardened Body (Passive)(Apprentice)

  Acid Resistance (Passive)(Trainee)

  I smiled and made my way around the corpse, looking for loot. That was a good level up… Level Twenty- Two, and sprint had finally become master! Not only that, but I had also increased sword slash, pierce, blow, block, dash, and even spatial awareness’s proficiencies. Plus with this new Dodge skill, I was starting to feel like I was actually getting somewhere. If I remembered right, didn’t the old man say that level twenty five was also supposed to be a pretty big marker for adventurers as well? Only three more levels until I was there… I wonder what changes would be in store for me?

  I sighed and got to my feet and cracked my neck as I looked down the tunnel again, “Well… I guess there’s no point in sitting here thinking about it. The dungeon has decided that its multi dungeon exploring time, eh? Well, I’m all for an adventure! Let’s fucking go dungeon!”

  I felt that now familiar thrum pass through the dungeon walls and floor, and with a smirk I discarded the goblins shortsword. I dropped low and lifted up a regular sized sword, humming in surprise as I felt an almost supernatural lightness to it. Oh yeah… this was some good loot. I wonder how the dungeon was going to make me use it?