Leaving Dener Town

As he entered the Dungeon, Roy got a bad taste in his mouth. He still vividly remembered how the Giant Snake Skeleton had "played" with him, even though more than a few days had passed since.

The Level 10 Monsters couldn't do anything to him, so he just called for Skelly, whom with he stormed through the first floor. Somewhat surprisingly, the Boss wasn't a Special, Mutant, of a higher Tier, or anything like that. It was just the normal, oversized lizard, that just so happened to be made out of bones. The same went for the second floor Boss. But Roy wasn't going to complain. After all, it was just easy EXP for his Familiar.

By the time they reached the Final Boss Room, Roy was already Level 20, so he excitedly equipped the White-Black Spirals gloves, and the Cold-Fire Bracelet.

As soon as he did that, his Attributes soared. He felt like a God that descended to the mortal world to rule everybody there. And in the next second or so, he was back to normal. He quickly checked his Attributes.

[Lucky Man Returned (Roy Luck)

LP 15 390 / 15 390

MP 18 000 / 18 000

STR 258

VIT 1026

DEF 831

AGI 426

WIS 1200

INT 1200]

Roy was quite satisfied with his Stats. And although they could be a whole lot better, it was good for someone without any real background, or affiliation.

With everything prepared, he entered the third floor of the Dungeon and the Final Boss Room.

***

He looked around, expecting to see a giant Monster looking down at him, only to be greeted by nothing but a giant, weirdly shaped, very dimly lit room. He walked around a little, before sensing imminent danger.

He quickly glanced around, still not finding where the Boss was...

'Unless-'

*BAM* a giant fist punched Roy deep into the ground.

The Boss was actually hiding just above him! With its Strength as a Giant, it could easily hold itself onto the ceiling, blocking out most of the light of the glowing stones.

Roy's whole body was now in the ground, aching all over. Just this one hit had dealt him almost 200 Damage, and it was a normal attack! If the Boss would have used a basic Skill, it could easily deal thrice as much, or even more.

The Boss was seemingly satisfied with the result of its attack, as it seemingly chuckled at Roy trying to climb out his hole.

'Its super strong, that's for sure. But that just means that I can better test myself.' he thought.

[Bullshit, you've just grown tired fighting the weaker Monster over the past few days. So you want to have a little "fun", right? (even though you're weak yourself...)]

Roy just smiled at his System's response.

He jumped towards the (Mutant) Skeleton Giant, attacking its huge body seemingly randomly. The Monster's whole body was made of bone, reminding people that Giants get their strength from their muscles made of bone. The bone-muscles make their Skeleton counterparts look like pale versions of them, without any of the other organic matter on them, like the skin, and other organs.

The Monster first tried dodging his attacks, but it was too big for that. It also blocked, but soon stopped doing that, as Roy was too weak to do it any damage. Nonetheless, Roy continued attacking, calculating its Attributes. He needed to know that, so that he could make his next moves wisely. And soon after, he got results.

The Skeleton's Strength was about 1 000, so a fourth larger than Skelly's, while its Defense was just 500, making it possible for Skelly to damage it with normal attacks. But, Skelly would also take a big amount of damage from the Boss. Now, there was also the VIT, and AGI Stats to account for, making the strategy making complicated.

In short, Roy would this time be the tank, Skelly would deal Damage when it had an opening, after which, Roy would use multiple Skills at once to land fatal and critical hits. Quite simple, but very risky.

Roy hesitated slightly, but soon called for Skelly. They attacked, slowly but surly, and weared the Monster down. While Roy didn't do any Damage with normal attacks, if he combined his Skills, he could deal more than a 1 000 Damage. Whenever the Giant attacked, Roy would jump in and take the hit for Skelly, other times he would dodge.

The fight progressed very smoothly, so much so, that Roy was beginning to think that something unexpected was gonna happen. But it never did. Still, Roy keep his vigilance even after they killed the Boss. Just because the fight was smooth, doesn't mean that the Boss didn't use Skills, or that it didn't deal any Damage. It was just negligible.

Anyhow, from the Skeleton Giant's drops, he got nothing but single ring. Which meant that it was probably that strong of a ring, or that Roy was unlucky. The ring was...

[(Trash+*) Ring: Mutant Giant's Ring - No LVL

Requirements: Base STR > LVL * 2

Adds: 33.33% STR

Description: A special Ring, that a Giant wore all of the time. He ate with it, slept with it, and even washed himself with it. When the Giant someday went through a Mutation, the Ring did as well. Even after the Giant's death, it was still used by him in the afterlife.

*For Promotion: Increases with the user's Tier

For Mutation: ???]

'Amazing! It's just amazing!' And that even more so confirmed his suspicions. Something must've been going on, he just knew it.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't equip it. Not at all, he happily equipped it, and it made his STR finally look more like his other Attributes. Whereby, before, it was lacking by a large margin. It was now lacking by a slightly smaller margin.

...

After Roy completed everything got to do with completing a Dungeon for the first time, he headed back to Dener Town. There, he looked around for awhile. He decided a while back that he would leave Dener once he finishes his "mission", so of course he would look around for "old times" sake. Dener was a basically a Level 0-20 area, so once you hit that, you couldn't really progress much anymore.

When that was done, he searched for a trade wagon to go with, because he didn't really have planned route, and he could earn a little. There were a bunch of areas around Dener, which had higher Levels, and each one had its own temptations. Their first stop would be Sinn City in same-named Region, which were both huge.

They departed the same day right after dinner, so Roy didn't have much time on his hands, but it was still better than nothing.

They talked on the way there, so it wasn't boring. Roy even met quite a few nice people.

But right as they were in the middle of an enormous valley, everything around them turned dark purple-ish. It was midnight, and someone cast a sleeping Spell! And a strong one at that!

"Everyone, stay focused! It's a Tier 1 eternal-sleep Spell! If you fall asleep under its effects, you won't wake up no matter what! If you see anything shout who and what it is!" This was probably directed at Roy, who understood fully.

Everyone was looking around, trying to spot something suspicious, but they didn't see anything. Some started collapsing right away, while some were completely dazed, not seeing anything in front of themselves.

Finally, someone shouted "It's Skeletons! I only see Elite ones, there are even special Classes among them!"

"And all of them are Level 20!" someone else yelled. People were beginning to freak out. After all, Elite Monsters were 8 times as strong as their normal counterparts. And now a group of them teamed up to ambush them!

'I knew the raid went too smoothly! So we'll have this hiccup, and continue things as normal?'

But there were still some, who were composed. They attacked together in pairs, targeting the lone Monsters.

Roy quickly jumped out and started attacking a Skeleton swordsman. After he took care of it, he looked around, only to find that the Monsters were coming like a swarm, there were more than 20 that you could count with a quick glance. He started attacking another two Elites to give some breathing room to his comrades. But when he looked back at the wagon, he found that most of the men were already killed, forever asleep, or fighting hopeless battles. The Spell-caster was still unfound, so all they could do was focus on the melee attackers.

The leader of the trade group finally yelled out:

"Everyone, disperse! Abandon the wagon! The Spell uses 10 MP/s of the victim, if it drains you, you'll be as good as dead! And don't think of drinking Mana Potions, if you have any, because that only accelerates the drainage!"

"Every man for himself!" someone shouted and darted out of the location as quick as he could. But he was soon incinerated into nothing but ashes by a dark flame. Out of the flame walked out a single Crystal Skeleton Chieftain Mage, angrily glaring at the people before it. It yelled out a loud rattle, confusing many present, before casting another Spell on the nearest person to it.

'That sounded familiar...' Roy thought.

'Shit...' It was after him! Roy dashed like crazy, activating Wind Rider without hesitation. Some Skeletons wanted to stop them, but he was like an eagle, jumping above his enemies. He ran straight up a cliff, stepping onto any ledge, or root that he could find. When he was at the top, his pupils shrank.

There, a Skeleton Chieftain Archer stood, seemingly smiling at him, before it knocked an arrow onto its bow, and fired it.

*slick-* it went straight through Roy's right shoulder

Roy trembled in fear. How could they have know that he would escape in this direction? Was it because of that, that the Mage let him go as he pleased?

He didn't have time to think. He just dashed behind the archer, in a random direction.

He ran, and he ran for his life. He didn't dare look back. And when he finally saw the suns rising, he realized that he was on top of a mountain!

But he was already in the air, he couldn't turn back. He could only hope for a soft landing.

And what he saw was a deep, deep hole. Actually, it was a giant pit, right behind the mountain peak!

After more than a few seconds of falling...

*THUD*

...

Roy's POV

It's dark. Dark, and cold.

[Host has been in eternal-sleep for /Time/]

There it is again. So this is what it's like to be eternally asleep? Have I really succumb under the Spell?

And there's this strange smell.

What is this strange smell?

Is this...?

Abyss?!! Could I have fallen into the Abyss?!

No, this is somewhat different. It's...

[Host has been infected by an unknown parasite. Because the host is in a state of eternal-sleep, full control of the body will be given to the parasite, until the day the Host awakens.]

Really? Did it really have to crawl up my nose. That just gives me shivers...

[Merging: 0%] ... [Merging: 10%]

[(new) Host is undergoing a Mutation. Increasing (new) Host's Stats accordingly.]

Oh? So I'm screwed by a factor of 5?

[Merging: 30% / Mutation: 0%]

[Merging: 44% / Mutation: 20%] ... [Merging: 58% / Mutation: 40%]

[Merging: 72% / Mutation: 60%] ... [Merging: 86% / Mutation: 80%]

And it's going to complete at the same time?

[Merging: 93% / Mutation: 90%] ... [Merging: 96.5% / Mutation: 95%]

[Merging: 100% / Mutation: 100%]