Chapter 12

[Status.]

Name: Remy Riverson

Age: 15

Level: 3 (40/900)

HP: 50/120 (+0.1/min)

MP: 120

STR: 8

VIT: 7

DEX: 10

AGI: 20

INT: 12

Points: 10

Perks: [None]

Skills: [ Mana Manipulation I]

Four hours have passed since the incident with the monster core. At first Remy kept constantly moving and ambushing the rat men he encountered. He was fortunate in the sense that he didn't encounter groups bigger than two.

He can't remember how many he killed, but it was enough to bump him up another level. This time however, he held off on spending his points. He was already capable of defeating everything he had encountered up until now so spending anymore seemed like a waste.

If something happened he wouldn't hesitate to use them however. Wasteful or not, he preferred living to regret it rather than dying.

By now, he had finished exploring most of this section. The tunnels formed a rudimentary maze, but it wasn't complicated enough for Remy to get lost in. At the moment he was resting near a small stream he found.

When he saw it for the first time he realized how thirsty he had gotten. By now, he really couldn't be bothered to give a damn if the water was drinkable or not. It looked safe in any case. This was an isolated space so not many organisms should have come in contact with it.

Normally, it would be an insane idea to drink water from a place filled with rats. However, these were monsters. They were living spells that forced mana to take on the properties of flesh. This meant they were not biological in nature and did not pollute the place they resided in.

In any case, Remy had gotten rid of his thirst. His hunger was also not a problem. By now he was eating raw potato like it was the most natural thing in the world. It was amazing what facing death so many times in a day could do to a man.

The only thing he lacked was sleep. He was tired from all the fighting and constant tension. Unfortunately, this was not a luxury he could afford at the moment.

Other than that, his wounds were slowly recovering even though he took a bit of damage here and there while fighting. He still couldn't use his right hand, but everything else was getting better. It still hurt like hell when he moved, but at least he wasn't in critical condition anymore.

Remy drank another mouthful of water and stood up. There was one corridor left that he didn't explore. Everything else was cleared and mentally mapped.

After a few minutes, in which he didn't encounter any more rat men, he reached a decrepit wooden door.

'This is either the exit or the boss room' He thought as he stared intensely at it.

Remy called it the boss room, but in this world's terminology it was named as the Core Room. Monsters and dungeons were technically the same phenomenon just on a different scale. Thus, dungeons had a core as well that managed all the mana inside.

However, it was pretty much impossible to take it out. You got normal cores by defeating the monster, but how do you defeat a pocket dimension like the dungeon? In any case, that was not what Remy was concerning himself with.

Since the natural matrix already created a dungeon, the mana could only form into monsters now. The Core Room was the location where the first one was created. A monster called the Alpha or the 'Boss' in Remy's gaming terms. It was the oldest and the one who had absorbed the leftover mana from the dungeon's creation and formed almost at the same time.

That was as far as his memories informed him about it. Again the public knowledge was much too limited. For example, Remy knew that Alphas never left the Core Room, but he didn't know why.

What he did know for certain though, was that the Alpha was much more powerful than its other siblings. And since he explored everywhere else he had no choice but to enter the Core Room now.

He staked up to the door and slowly opened it. He wasn't so much of a fool to go charging in there so he just slightly cracked it and peered inside.

A large cavern extended outwards. Inside was much brighter compared to the tunnel he was currently in. He couldn't see the ceiling as it was shrouded in darkness but the floor was brightly lit by the many Mithril veins running through it.

Scattered around were several flowers. The five petals of each one alternated between a pure white and a neon green. Most had just three colored petals while some of them had four. A few lacked the white all together.

As curious as Remy was about the strange flowers, he's attention was brought to something entirely different.

It was definitely another rat man, but it was quite different from all the others. It's fur was not grey and ruffled, but black and smooth. It's muscles bulged ferociously, its biceps being bigger than Remy's head. The biggest difference however, was its size. It was easily two times larger than a human, probably around four meters tall.

It looked like a living nightmare to Remy. The rat men species itself was a bit disturbing, but this one took the cake. Fortunately, it was currently sleeping so Remy didn't have to deal with it for now.

He glanced around, but seeing as there was nothing more of interest inside he brought his attention back to the Alpha. He's positivity was already gone, he had no illusions about having to get past that thing. So he might as well learn as much as possible about it while he could.

Now, Remy was not some kind of veteran hunter. He had no idea what he was looking for. He only hoped inspiration struck him and he discerned some possible weakness. Meanwhile, the Alpha rat continued sleeping away without worry.

After a few minutes of intense concentration Remy was beginning to get dejected. He was keeping close to the door while peeking through its slight opening. He couldn't really get anything useful.

Just when he was about to give up the system notification dinged in his ears. Unfortunately, its timing was not very good. The dungeon was silent and Remy had his full focus on the boss. While looking at it he was, naturally, quite tense.

Having a sudden bell ring in his ears made him jump in fright. He loudly gasped and his knee jerked forward, banging on the door. He almost lost his balance, but caught onto the wooden frame quickly. He completely ignored the system and looked towards the Alpha.

Beady, red eyes met his own. The monster had been awakened and it did not look happy to see Remy. A disturbing hiss left its snout as the creature got up while keeping Remy in its sight.

Remy, for his part, took the intelligent option and slammed the door close. He didn't even look back as he ran away. Fight the huge, scary rat man with only half his HP and no plan?

There was no way he'd go into that with such a big disadvantage.

He stopped at the end of the tunnel and glanced towards the door. It wasn't opening, much to his relief. It seems that Alphas not leaving the Core Room was indeed true. Just in case, he stood there another ten minutes or so, but nothing happened.

Remy retreated to the location of the small stream and made himself comfortable. Well, as comfortable as he could be in this place. He'll wait for his regeneration to be over before attempting anything.

His right arm was still busted and he was not planning on fighting that thing with only his left. It worked on the smaller rats because he kept ambushing them, but this will be an open fight.

He opened the system and saw that he had gained a new Skill.

[Observe]

Rank: I (Amateur)

Experience: 300/1

The user may discern information about creatures, objects or other beings.

Remy realized he had obtained a staple skill of most systems he had read about in fiction. He might not have wanted to gain it under that circumstance, but at least it was not as bad as the first one.

He took out his dagger and looked at it.

'Observe' He mentally commanded.

[Steel Dagger]

Remy's eyebrow twitched. Was that the only thing it would tell him? While it was definitely useful, it didn't amount to much. Then again, it was only rank I so he shouldn't expect too much from it.

Time passed as Remy waited until his HP was back to full. He contemplated his approach to fighting the boss. He knew he would have to get past it if he ever wanted to leave this place.

At some point he passed out from exhaustion. It was a good thing he killed everything in this part of the dungeon and nothing had reformed yet. Those few hours of sleep would do miracles for his energy.