Tier 1 Gate (6)

Lanz was still sitting on the hobgoblin like it was some kind of demonic beanbag, his legs splayed out, arms resting on what used to be its shoulder blades, head tilted back like he was waiting for the sky to hand him answers. His back hurt, his arms hurt, his pride hurt the most, but that was pretty normal.

"Unbelievable," he muttered, staring at the burnt sky like it had personally betrayed him. "I kill a Tier 1 boss and you give me less than a full level? My ex definitely designed this sh*t."

He, in fact, did not have an ex. Closest thing he had was an awkward desk partner in second year who once borrowed his pen and never gave it back.

The System didn't respond, which honestly felt more passive-aggressive than helpful.

Lanz groaned, slid sideways off the hobgoblin's back, and flopped onto the dirt like a worn-out rug. Ash puffed up around him in lazy clouds.

"I should've killed one more goblin," he mumbled to no one. "Just one. One f*cking goblin."

He rolled over, facedown now, arms stretched out. "I cleared a dungeon. A full-ass, boss-filled, trap-happy, pain-in-my-entire-body dungeon. And I'm one point short. That's psychological warfare. You can't convince me otherwise."

A loose tent flap fluttered in the wind somewhere behind him, what's worse, it sounded like laughter.

He closed his eyes. For a moment, he just lay there. Listening to the crackle of dying fires, the soft hiss of burned wood, the scent of smoke and roasted goblin hung in the air like some kind of haunted barbecue. Every inch of him felt like bruised fruit, his knuckles were scraped, his cloak was ripped, and his shirt underneath had so many holes it qualified as modern fashion.

The hobgoblin's body hadn't moved. Still lying face-down in the ash, blood pooling slowly beneath it, steam rising from where its side had cracked open.

Lanz reached one arm up like he was in a soap opera death scene.

"Tell my family I was a disappointment," he croaked dramatically. "But like, a really brave disappointment."

But is was still nothing. The System was immune to guilt trips.

He sighed and dropped the arm back down. "No one's even gonna clip this. What a waste of suffering."

Eventually, he sat up. Slowly, like an old man whose spine had been replaced with rusted springs. His knees cracked, his neck cracked, again. He was starting to think his organs might crack if he sneezed.

He dusted off his face half-heartedly, smearing soot across his cheek. "I didn't even get to loot properly. Didn't check the boss tent, didn't rummage through the trash pile. I've seriously been robbed."

The hobgoblin's foot twitched slightly, and Lanz instinctively scooted two inches away just to be sure.

"Don't you dare," he warned it, voice low. "You already had your final boss arc. Stay dead like a good mini-boss."

He leaned back, propping himself up on his elbows. The sky was starting to dim, but it was not full night yet, it's the kind of hour where the light looked tired. Which was fair, considering the forest had just been through a high-speed murder stampede and an improvised explosive boulder launch.

"God, I am going to feel this tomorrow."

He could already imagine it. Waking up sore, pretending it was just from oversleeping. Miko making fun of him for walking like a badly animated NPC, his mom asking why he smelled like grilled hamsters, Kaz probably would toss a cold can of soda at his head without comment.

He smiled a little at that.

Then he groaned again and flopped backward.

"Okay," he muttered. "Deep breaths. I'm still alive. I'm still conscious. I've got… nine fingers that aren't cramping. I can work with this."

The silence returned.

Just him, a wrecked camp, and one massive corpse serving as the world's least ergonomic sofa.

"Still not level ten," he whispered like a curse.

He eventually peeled himself off the dirt like a sad sticker and began doing the only thing that made sense after killing a boss: rifling through its stuff.

Or in this case, rifling through what used to be stuff. Most of the camp was ash and regret. He poked at a half-burnt crate, found a cracked bowl, and made a face like the universe just personally insulted him.

"No loot, no treasure, not even a weird f*cking orb that whispers forbidden knowledge? This dungeon's has got to have the worst Yelp rating."

He kicked a tent pole, it collapsed with a dramatic thud and a tiny puff of ash. Lanz coughed once, leaned over a pile of bones, and muttered, "Maybe there's a rusty dagger named 'Destiny' in here."

Then came the gurgle.

He paused, tilted his head.

He turned toward the sound and spotted it. Under a busted rack, half-squished like a bad sandwich, was a goblin. Barely alive with one eye swollen shut, and it was clutching its side like it didn't have much left in the tank.

They locked eyes.

The goblin looked at him with an expression that says, "Just do it already man🥀"

Lanz looked back with an expression that says, "You better be worth three EXP."

The goblin then dropped a single tear, not just from his eye, but from its leg too.

He exhaled like an old man with back pain, hobbled over, picked up the nearest broken pan, and stood above the goblin with all the presence of a guy who really didn't want to be here.

"Your sacrifices will not be forgotten."

Bonk.

The goblin let out one last pathetic squeak and flopped.

Ping.

[ENEMY DEFEATED – EXP GAINED: +3]

[LEVEL UP – Current Level: 10]

Lanz stared at the screen.

"…You're kidding."

He stared a little longer.

Then burst out laughing, but it wasn't heroic, it was the laugh of a man who had emotionally unraveled and was now taping himself back together with sarcasm and delusion.

"THANK YOU," he yelled to the sky, holding out both arms like he'd just won a raffle. "I take back half the insults I just said...maybe."

He spun in a slow circle, still wheezing. "NOW I AM BECOME TEN. THE DESTROYER OF NOTHING—"

His voice cracked at the end.

A leaf hit his face.

He saluted the dead goblin like it had sacrificed itself for the cause. "Your tragic death was very helpful, buddy. Say hi to your 99 friends in goblin hell."

Lanz was still grinning like an idiot when the screen updated again.

[LEVEL UP – Current Level: 10]

[Reward: Stat Affinity Bonus Unlocked]

[Reward: Skill Fusion Menu]

"Oh. Okay. So now you give me something," he muttered, rolling his neck like it personally offended him.

He opened the new tabs and tried to act like this was normal. The stat affinity thing wasn't that exciting, just a dropdown menu where he could pick a favored stat for future growth. He hovered over a few like he was pretending to debate it, then dramatically tapped AGI.

"Congratulations," he said to himself in a monotone, "I can now run slightly faster when terrified, amazing. Peak evolution."

The system pinged again, except this one didn't sound the same, it was...lower. The kind of sound you'd expect before a cursed mirror whispered your name.

[DUNGEON CLEAR — Tier 1 Forest Gate]

[Gate Boss: Defeated]

[EXP Awarded]

[DEV BRANCH NODE UNLOCKED — CLASSIFIED REWARD]

Lanz tilted his head at the screen. "Huh. That doesn't look legal. And wait, that hobgoblin was the gate boss?! I thought bro was the mini boss?"

Another ping followed, more ominous than the first.

[DEV TREE: ACCESS GRANTED — WARNING: UNSTABLE SYSTEM TAG DETECTED]

There it was. A new icon at the bottom of his interface, but it didn't match the rest, there were no stylized border, no gentle animation, just raw code blinking inside a glitchy hexagon like the system had coughed it up by mistake.

He tapped it.

The screen that opened was ugly. Not in a rustic way, no, no, no, this was full-blown dev-console energy. Black background, white monospace font, a UI made by someone who didn't believe in icons or joy.

[Ghost Trace]

[Node Sync]

[Skill Fork – Warning: Unsafe]

[Override Tag Detected]

[Memory Fragment – Locked]

[Class: ??? – Inaccessible]

Every option flickered like it might crash if you stared too hard.

Lanz backed up instinctively. "This is some Doom 1 shareware that might eat my soul."

Still, he hovered over [Ghost Trace]. But there were no description, just a blank underline.

He clicked anyway, but nothing happened.

"The f*ck is this supposed to be?"

He scrolled through the rest. Most of it was locked or marked with things like [MISSING NODE LINK] and [CORRUPT FRAGMENT DETECTED]. At one point the whole screen blinked, turned upside down for half a second, and then snapped back like nothing had happened.

That seemed perfectly safe.

"This is either malware or a blessing," Lanz said, narrowing his eyes. "And I'm 100% gonna click all of it eventually because I have zero impulse control."

Just as he tried to scroll down, the menu blinked once… and closed itself.

"Rude b*tch."

He stood there for a moment, staring into the smoke, hands on his hips like someone who had no idea what they'd just done but was going to pretend it was intentional.

"Alright. Let's summarize. Level 10 gave me: a stat buff, a title slot, and a new skill slot. Pretty decent. The dungeon gave me: a haunted dev console." He clapped once. "Nice."

The system didn't even let him bask in the moment.

[DUNGEON CLEARED — FORCED EXIT IN 10… 9… 8…]

"Wait, what? No. I haven't looted the supply tent yet—!"

[7… 6…]

"There's a chest! I saw it! It was probably full of expired potions and tax evasion scrolls!"

[5… 4…]

"I swear if I miss out on even one useless trash-tier item, I will riot—!"

[3…]

"No no no no no no no—"

[2...]

"Wait wait wait wait—"

[1…]

End of Chapter 12.

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ALT SYSTEM — USER PROFILE: ZERO

Level: 10

EXP: 2 / 100

Next Unlock: Skill — Crimson Slash

Global System Tracking: DISABLED

World Rank Association: UNLINKED

Stats:

STR: 8 | AGI: 8 (Affinity: AGI) | VIT: 3 | DEX: 1 | INT: 4 | WIS: 0

[Available Stat Points: 3]

[Derived Stat — MANA: 20 / 20]

Skills:

[Basic Footwork Lv.2]

[Blade Control Lv.1]

[Parry Timing Lv.1]

[Feint Step Lv.1] (Active Skill)

[Reflex Sync Lv.1] (Passive Skill)

[Combat Awareness Lv.2] (Passive Skill)

[Skill Slot Available — Unassigned]

[Skill Fusion Menu: Active]

[Dev Tree: Tier 0 Access Granted] (NEW)

Equipment:

Aged Blade Fragment (??? Rarity) (Bound)

Goblin Dagger (Looted – Rusted, Jagged, Minor Bonus to DEX when equipped)

Spiked Boar Tusk Shard (Trophy Item – No bonus, kept as memento)

Lightweight Chest Padding

Boots of Basic Mobility

Fingerless Gloves (Basic)

Starter Cloak: Faded Black

Training Ring (+1 VIT)

System Highlights:

Title Slot Unlocked

Skill Fusion Menu: Active

Inventory Capacity: 10 Slots

Stat Affinity Bonus (AGI: Slight EXP Scaling Bonus)

[DEV TREE: Unstable Tag Detected — Handle With Care]