Chapter 14

Remy once again fell to the ground. His breath was erratic and he struggled not to choke on his own blood.

He watched as the rain of disgusting rat flesh fell on him. The headless corpse stayed upright for a few more seconds, before landing pathetically near him. Together with the large amounts of blood that spilled out of its neck, it formed a disturbing image.

Thankfully, Remy had to endure the unpleasantness for only a few moments before everything began turning into mana particles. Even the tooth still stuck in his shoulder, he noticed.

'Status' Once he realized his life was no longer in danger, Remy opened the system page. During the fight and right at the end it dinged a few times.

[Status.]

Name: Remy Riverson

Age: 15

Level: 4 (0/2100)

HP: 7/130 ( +0.1/min)

MP: 9/120 (+0.3/min)

STR: 8

VIT: 7

DEX: 10

AGI: 30

INT: 12

Points: 10

Perks: [Unyielding I]

Skills: [ Mana Manipulation I] [Observe I] [Dagger Mastery I]

'Holy sh*t! I came so close to dying.' Remy could feel laughter bubbling in his throat. He almost died, but he managed to live. How could he not feel relief and happiness at the moment? He allowed himself a small chuckle.

"Hehe, gah, it hurts to laugh." Remy stopped his foolish behavior and focused on the new additions to his status page.

He leveled up, reaching level 4 and gaining another set of points. These ones, he hoped not to spend early like the others.

As glad as he was about gaining another level, Remy was more interested in his new Perk and Skill.

[Unyielding]

Rank: I

All damage taken by the user is halved when at 10% HP or lower.

Remy couldn't really figure out how he felt about his first Perk. Normally he should be happy at getting one, but he literally had to almost die to get it. It was a useful thing don't get him wrong, but all the damage being halved when he was around 13 HP was not much of a benefit.

'Well, not right now.' He believed once his HP pool grew larger the Perk will prove more useful.

[Dagger Mastery]

Rank: I (Amateur)

Experience: 300/12

All damage dealt by the user using daggers, knives, or similar weapons is increased by 5%.

'Now, this does put a smile on my face.' He thought. A 5 % increase might not mean much, but during a fight, it will add up considerably with each hit. Besides, anything that made him more dangerous also made him, by extension, safer.

Remy didn't forget the world waiting for him outside the dungeon was not exactly paradise.

Thankfully, this unfortunate adventure did not end in disaster. Instead, it actually allowed him to get a bit stronger. Remy did not know that his personal power was not the only one getting bigger. The traumas he suffered in this place also began building his psychological foundation for a stronger character.

Remy stood still for a couple of minutes waiting for his system to reverse the state of his body. Like the last time, the degrading process halted and forced upwards into regeneration.

When thinking about the natural order of things, something like this was already quite miraculous.

His system was basically dragging Remy from the grave.

'Another thing to keep hidden.'He thought. The fact that he won't die, no matter how serious the wound, was incredible. As long as his HP didn't hit 0, he could basically recover from anything. Who knows what would happen if people found out about this?

Seeing that his bleeding stopped Remy shifted his weight, trying to get up. He managed to get on both feet right when the Alpha had finished disintegrating. He was glad it did, having a huge tooth stuck in him was getting uncomfortable.

The monster core it dropped was larger than that of his brothers, about the size of a baby's fist. Remy just threw it inside the [Inventory], not bothering with it for the moment.

'Speaking of cores…' Remy looked at his left hand. Just as he expected, it was beyond messed up. It was bright red in color, the palm's skin was actually charcoal black. The wrist was broken and he was missing his index finger. The fact that every nerve below the elbow was fried was a blessing in disguise. At least he wouldn't feel the pain.

The more he looked at his left arm the more nauseous he seemed to get. When he was about to vomit he snapped out of his trance and shook his head. He knew his system would take care of it. It appears he would now find out if it regenerates missing parts too.

Also, he prayed to whatever god was listening that his nerves would come back last. He really didn't want to endure the, probably, maddening pain. Unfortunately, it seems that he won't be granted that wish. A wisp of feeling was already returning, it won't be long before Remy could feel everything.

He might as well finish up here. He took back his dagger and began looking around the Core Room. Besides the interesting aesthetic with the Mithril veins running through the floor, there was nothing much.

The only things to note were the flowers scattered around and another door on the opposite side he came from. He didn't wish to leave this place until he was healed so the flowers were the only thing that occupied his attention.

"Observe"

[Mithril Blossom]

If he remembered right, Mithril Blossom was a flower that grew near rich Mithril sources. Its state of maturity could be discerned by how many of the five petals had turned green. It was quite rare as it required not only Mithril to be around, but also enough space and no sunlight to grow.

Remy was a bit miffed at a flower not tolerating sunlight, but this was a different word so he just let it go.

Although rare, he didn't know what they were used for, but Remy still placed each one in his inventory just in case they were valuable. After picking the place clean he gained 5 fully matured flowers, 11 with four green petals and 24 with only three of them colored. They must have been growing here for some time since there were none with less maturity.

Seeing as he did everything that was to do here, Remy sat down, leaning against the wall. He closed his eyes and passed out like a light.

He didn't know whether to call it sleep or a coma, but Remy woke up from it after who knows how many hours. Judging by the fact that his entire HP had gone back to full, that meant more than half a day had passed. So it was probably a coma…

His stomach's grumble chased away the last bit of grogginess remaining. With a sigh, he took out another potato. As he was peeling it, he realized that his left hand had completely healed, even his finger was restored like nothing ever happened.

'Definitely keeping quiet about this…'. Remy now thought the most useful thing the system gave him was his HP stat. Apparently, he could actually regenerate missing body parts.

As he began munching on his raw, dirty potato, Remy realized how fortunate it was that he passed out as he did. That meant he skipped out on feeling all the pain.

He got up and stretched, his bones popping here and there. It was time to leave this place. After giving one last check to make sure he didn't miss anything he opened the door and began walking through another set of tunnels.

As frustrating as it was, this part of the dungeon was also a maze that mirrored the other one. It took Remy another few hours to navigate it all.

During this time he encountered quite a number of rat-men, but they were quickly dealt with. Not to mention the fact that they were not the most powerful combatants around, Remy's speed was way above theirs now. There were also no more wounds to bother him like the last time.

He curiously used [Observe] on them, but the results were disappointing.

[Rat-man]

All of them were called the same. Remy at least hoped their species had a more interesting name, but apparently not. At least he trained his [Observe] a bit...

By the time Remy had explored the rest of the dungeon and found the exit, he was already sick and tired of this. He really wanted a break. The exit was also an unassuming wooden door that cracked a bit when he opened it.

He was greeted by another tunnel. Remy was about to curse when he noticed this one was different. It lacked the glowing green veins running through it and the atmosphere was much less oppressive.

Soon, he reached the end. Remy had to shield his eyes from the bright light. The previous clearing welcomed him, but with no Sigilians present this time. He somehow came out from the same place that he entered. He wasn't surprised, dungeons were indeed pocket spaces that messed with the natural order of things.

He let out a tired sigh and thought about his next move.