An Amazing Stone

"..."

"So, can you please tell me why there are powered up monsters here, System!?"

[Well... maybe... because your Luck is so high, it's making the worthwhile Monsters harder opponents, so that you can practice, and get better loot? They were near your limit, after all... And in that sense, you would indeed be lucky to fight them instead, right?]

" ... sure."

...

Some time later, Roy cleared the remaining normal rooms, and rested awhile in the second Safe Area.

When he thought he was ready for another challenge, he finally entered the first floor Boss Room.

*creeeak* the doors opened

*?*

"Excuse me?" Roy looked at the Monster in front of him.

"Why is this one sooo... weak!?"

[Giant Lizard Skeleton - LVL 10

LP 700 / 700]

"?" The lizard looked at Roy, waited for a second, and then charged at Roy at top speed with its Charge Skill.

Roy looked at it, a little confused. Its speed was at least three times slower than his, maybe more! So, Roy just sped towards it. He then slid under its stomach, dragging his sword above him *crack Crack Crack!*

Its rib cage destroyed, and with less than half of its LP remaining, it looked at Roy with horror. Thinking about escaping, but with no exit, it started running. It ran like its life depended on it, which it did. But, there was just one problem...

"It's just running in circles!" Roy laughed. The Boss Room was nine times larger than than normal rooms. With that in mind, just imagine a giant skeleton lizard running in the distance, then coming closer, and than running away again. Roy found it quite amusing.

He decided to just finish this "boss battle" quickly. A moment later, *Bam!* and its head exploded into bits and pieces.

A little later, Roy figured that it was normally strong. The only reason he thought it was weak was because the Mini Bosses were that much more powerful. Of course, Mini Bosses are usually just as difficult to deal with than normal Bosses, but Roy's happened to become that much stronger.

...

When Roy got to the second floor, he entered the Safe Area. Looking at the map, he saw that he could go fight another Mini Boss. But he decided against it. Rather, he went to a really long corridor type room. It led to the second floor's Boss Room.

Hes spent some time killing the different types of Skeletons, and under half an hour, arrived before the second floor's Boss Room. With a push, the door opened.

'And inside lay a-'

*peeeeew*

*Crash!*

"#%!*" Roy gnashed his teeth to relieve the pain. This was the third time these Monsters had slapped him away!

"I'm gonna kill the hell outta you!" he yelled angrily. This Monster was also stronger than it should be. But fortunately, it was only upgraded to Tier 1, and nothing else.

[(Uncommon) Giant Snake Skeleton - LVL 15

LP 1 500 / 1 500]

The snake was moving its two jaw bones happily, thinking how smart it was to wait at the entrance of its room to surprise Roy. Then, it quickly slithered away.

Although the snake wasn't as fast as Roy, it was still a force to be reckoned with. Its fangs were dyed a light red color, and were very sharp, easily cutting through metal. From head to tail, it was at least 50 meters long, with a diameter of around 3 meters. Size and strength grow together, so one can only imagine with what kind of force Roy was sent flying.

Roy got up and ran towards it. He brandished his sword at the Monster, slashing it across its bones. But it only left a small white mark. He attacked again and again, but to no avail. Only his Skills could deal any real damage.

With that in mind, he tried to pierce its skull, but it was very careful, not letting him get too close to its head. Instead, it tried to get on top of him, and dragged the tips of its rib bones over him, cutting him multiple times in the process. With that, the battle continued for quite awhile, the snake slowly wearing him down.

After quite a decent amount of time passed, Roy had become exhausted. Awhile ago, he began fearing for his life more and more, and now, it started to cloud his judgement. Every once in a while, he would start panicking and running away, making the snake very happy. Though, that wouldn't last long, with him calming himself down in a dozen or so seconds.

Roy was beginning to become desperate for an escape route. After all, if he died once, he was dead forever. And he wasn't counting on him reincarnating, because that had an abysmally small chance of happening. He thought of the I Give Up Stone, but he didn't have enough time to use it with the snake bothering him all the time. And if he concentrated on the stone, and not on blocking the snake's attacks, he would definitely be struck down, never to rise up again.

While Roy was thinking, the snake became increasingly bored of "playing" with him. It sensed that he was tired and distracted, and so, it decide to finish him off. It quickly slithered towards him, and it bit into his arm. Roy tried to move away, but it only made things worse.

Roy screamed in pain. The snake's fang had dug into one of his arm's veins and traveled downwards to his wrist. With a yank, the snake tore his arm open, blood gushing everywhere. But suddenly, Roy felt like he had an epiphany. Since his sword wasn't sharp enough to damage the snake's bones, without using Skills, why not try fighting fire with fire? Following this line of thought, Roy sprang into action.

First, he used Abnormal Strength, making his next attacks stronger. Then, using Slash, and Cut on the same point on one of the Monster's thin fangs, he broke the fang off of the snake. While using two different, but similar Skills, Roy had a strange feeling, like he shouldn't be doing that. Nonetheless , the fang was cut off, and that was all that mattered.

Afterwards, Roy grabbed the giant fang with both his arms, throwing his sword away. And with Abnormal Strength still active, he used Double Slash on the Monsters's head. The Boss didn't even have enough time to react before its head cracked open.

*whiish* the Giant Snake Skeleton disappeared

...

*pant pant pant* Roy was still gasping for air, even after the fight was over for more than 15 minutes.

"Shit!" he cursed. He knew that these "upgraded" Monsters were too much for him. If things continued like they were, then he didn't have any chance of beating the final Boss. So, after some contemplation, he decided to:

"Give up... I have to give up, or else I won't even have the chance to challenge this Dungeon ever again. And I'm not taking my chance on the final Boss being normal."

Roy took out one of the I Give Up Stones, and activated it after some hesitation.

***

Currently, Roy was walking towards Dener Town, still pouting about losing a Dungeon.

After arriving, he asked around for some information regarding good training spots. The most common answer was the Crack. There, the Monsters were a lot stronger than elsewhere near Dener Town, but still maintained their low Levels. The only downside was the abysmally low EXP that they gave.

Roy currently wanted to train his skills, so that was actually a good thing. He could stay in the lower Levels for longer, to be able to retry the Dungeon, while still gaining real-combat experience.

...

At the Crack, Roy proceeded cautiously. The Crack was basically just an opening that lead into the mountains. Inside, there were several giant green crystals sticking out from the ceiling, and floor, ranging from at least 20 to as much as 55 meters big. It's just like a massive cave, and there were countless boulders riddled about. Just from looking around, Roy could see several two-to-five-member-patrols of Warrior Skeleton - LVL 8 to 13. Leading them were Elite Skeleton, ranging from Levels 10 to 15. The weakest patrol, of all of these, was about half as strong as the three (Mutated) Fighter Skeleton he fought in the Skeleton Army Dungeon.

Roy, using the bones he had from before, lured the weakest patrols to a secluded place in the forest. One by one, they fell down. After awhile, he started attracting some groups together. Sometimes fighting three, or four, other times six, or seven Skeletons at a time, his skills slowly increasing.

And although he was progressing smoothly, he thought that this was still too slow. He became more and more daring, even challenging Level 13 patrols, which were one of the strongest near the entrance.

With him attacking patrols left, and right, he eventually cleared the opening. So, after some thought, he went inside.

Roy didn't have any stealth-related Skills, and he also wasn't ever professionally trained in this field. The only option left for him was to hide behind boulders, attacking or ambushing the Monsters that were passing by.

In just four hours, he experienced more real combat than ever in his life. Before, when he was clearing the area around Dener Town, the Monsters were too weak for him to elevate his skills by a noticeable margin. With that, I don't mean that he's an expert or elite, just that the 'new people to God World boost' made him luck out and gain too many levels for the Skeletons around the town to pose any real threat anymore.

Roy continued to advance, further and further into the mountain. In time, he began encountering groups of throwers, and archers resting together. He killed them, of course, but that aroused suspicion.

'The Monsters are finally noticing something is amiss' Roy smiled. Although Skeletons have lower intelligence than humans, they aren't dumb. So, they figured out that, first, there were patrols going missing. And second, some of the groups resting were also gone! They became vigilant in their search for the one responsible.

Roy started spotting Skeleton Scouts, that were at least LVL 5, usually 9 or 10, starting to roam around. Being in the Scout class, they were more agile, as well as sneakier than their normal counterparts, quite suitable for finding out what was going on. There was also an increase of other class-specific Skeleton, which are of course, stronger opponents than bare handed ones.

Suddenly, a group of three Monsters started nearing him. There were two LVL 15 Elite Skeleton, seemingly escorting one LVL 5 Crystal Skeleton Chieftain. The Chieftain's a special type of Monster. It was an Elemental Monster, not being, meaning that it still retained some of the characteristics of their normal version, but those are tweaked in a way to resemble the original Element.

[Crystal Skeleton Chieftain - LVL 5

LP 2 500 / 2 500]

[Elite Skeleton - LVL 15

LP 6 000 / 6 000]

In this case, the Crystal Element, the Monster has abandoned most of its Agility, and quite a sum of Vitality. In exchange, its DEF, and INT are both risen by +150%, STR by +64%, and WIS by a whopping +400%!

Roy was still unnoticed by the group of three, and was deciding whether to attack them, or run away. Their Power was about the same as the three (Mutated) Fighter Skeleton - LVL 10, maybe a little higher. But the problem was, he couldn't kill all of them, not with the time he had. If he started a fight with them, it would take at least a minute and half to finish them off. But in that time, at least one of them could alert the "tribe" of Skeleton that he was here. In that case, he would be finished.

'Although, there is another option...' he thought to himself. He could just kill the Chieftain! Currently, he was a nobody. He didn't have contacts, he didn't have power, and he wasn't an expert. The only thing going for him right now was that he had a nice bit of Coins, but that would also run out with time. If he could get something nice from the Skeleton, then he could rake in a huge profit. With this, he could also test his Luck Attribute. If it really was boosted, and he obtained something rare, then he could start selling his services. He could also join a Guild, or an adventurer group much easier. Because, who wouldn't want to get better and more abundant loot from Bosses?

So, he decided. He jumped up and sprang into action. Activating Wind Rider, he dashed towards the Chieftain.

'Double Slash: both between the Chieftain's eye sockets'

*sound of a crystal shattering*

'It worked!!'

But it was too early to celebrate. Both of the Elite Skeleton turned towards him and used their own Skills. Roy retorted using Cut, and Slash. But the Skeletons' Strength was overwhelming. Couple that with them using Skills, and you get a flying Roy hitting a hard, crystal wall.

Roy groaned, but he still ran towards the disappearing Skeleton Chieftain. The two Elites split up, one going towards Roy, attacking him, the other to alert the tribe. Roy ducked, but was deeply cut along his left arm. And then he saw it, a magical looking stone, hidden among the other drops of the Crystal Skeleton Chieftain. He became ecstatic, and quickly grabbed it, and everything else the Skeleton dropped, and he ran towards the exit, with his life depending on it.

The Elite chased after him, but was too slow. Some other Skeletons also saw and blocked him, but he was a couple times faster than they were. Even after he left the Crack, he still ran, panting like crazy.

...

After sprinting madly for 10 km strait, which took him roughly one minute, he was pooped (in the tired sense). No only had he been extremely nervous, but he was also killing Monsters in secret for well over 4 hours. He nearly collapsed, right there on the street, but he didn't. The only logical thing here was to rest in an inn, or somewhere else, before continuing.

But surprisingly, Roy didn't. The first thing he did was to go to the Adventurer's Guild, and had the strange stone appraised. He did try looking at it himself, but the information about it was hidden completely, so he basically didn't have any other choice.

Awhile later, the appraiser told his this:

"Appraising this Item costs 45 Gold Coins, sir. But because you're a Citizen of this town, you only need to pay 36 Gold Coins." he said with a warm smile.

"That much!! Isn't this going a little overboard!?" Roy asked, shocked out of his mind.

"Not at all. This item is worth it, I assure you. I'll even not tell anyone about this stone, if you don't want me too. And that's for free!" the man said, still beaming brightly.

"... Okay. Here you go..." Roy handed the money over reluctantly.

"Sure, have a nice day."

***

Inside an inn's room

"No way! How the hell did I get this?!"

[Familiar Stone: Crystal Skeleton Chieftain - LVL 5

Crush this Stone to get a Crystal Skeleton Chieftain (LVL 5) as a Familiar. You can only use this Stone, if the Monster inside is at, or below your Level. This Item is consumed upon use.]