Dungeon hunt

Depending on the dungeon type and difficulty, there were different ratings placed in resting places made by the dungeons themselves. They served as a warning, but also guidelines on how to better survive a certain hunting ground. Looking at the large board in a wide corridor, Travis and Leaf started reading through.

The first information provided was divided into three categories. Reading from left to right, they were the average monster level (AML) to be expected, the average monster level reported by the latest guard patrol (which was done at least once a week, depending on dungeon difficulty), and the highest AML ever recorded since the dungeon begun being monitored.

This dungeon was very simple, only being granted 2-4 silver stars on each of the three ranks. Every one of them represented 10 levels worth, and if the levels exceeded 100, one golden star was equal to 10 silver ones (pictograms were useful for illiterate people).

Secondly, there was a statistic showing how many floors there were, this time as a numerical value. 7 was a decent number for a low-level dungeon like this one, and Travis only smiled at this news. ‘7 floors means 7 opportunities to level up quickly.’ The floors themselves were described as ‘mostly narrow and low, but occasional caves make them acceptable as hunting grounds’. Travis already knew this was an underground-type dungeon (since there was no dungeon-like structure outside), but it was good to see a confirmation.

Thirdly, some commonly sighted monsters were described. In this case, it was a dungeon full of huge rats, starnose moles, bats, snakes, and some goblins. He grimaced a little at just the thought of his last encounter with humanoid monsters. Boar monkeys in Penalty Zone were agile and capable of using tools, and goblins could be treated as a lesser version of them. They were rather small (typically at most 1 m tall), and their weak vitality meant they were easy to take out. The problem came from their ability to wield human-made weapons and make weapons for themselves. Truly, those small things were a menace and one that could come in packs nearing three dozen at once. He shook the thought.

‘Levels are between 20 and 40, so neither their Endurance nor Strength will be great. Care still must be taken, but this dungeon is nothing too serious. Especially since I’m not alone.’

He looked at Leaf, who was still reading some minor information about the dungeon. Feeling his stare, she turned her head with a little questioning expression.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” he shook his head a little. “Are you ready?”

“*Sigh* As ready as I’ll be, I guess,” she made a little wry smile. “Caves are really bad for rangers, so I’ll be in your care.”

“I suppose so,” he shrugged a little. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” she shook her head. “Everyone must level up at their own pace. If this dungeon suits you, I’m fine with that.” Leaf said, her tone full of understanding.

‘Everyone must level up at their own pace…’ he smiled a little, reminding himself of someone. ‘I’ll visit soon.’

“Thank you,” he nodded to her. “So, how about we go and hunt?”

“Sure.”

-1 hour later-

They descended the stairs, entering floor 2 of the dungeon. Overall, the structure was claustrophobic, barely 2 m tall, width of about 3 meters not granting much freedom of movement. Thankfully, the monsters that appeared sometimes weren’t too strong. Rats and bats were fast, but mostly came alone and didn’t pose many difficulties. Snakes had a powerful bite but were easy to avoid and tended to not go outside of the territory they guarded.

Goblins, on the other hand, were quite nasty. Just a group of four of them was able to injure Travis enough for him to require Leaf’s assistance. However, the efforts he was putting in were paying off.

[You have leveled up!]

A third level up today meant 5 points all spent into Endurance again. Putting it at 55, Travis gave out a small sigh of relief. ‘After I finish today’s daily, I’ll be at 60 Endurance total, which means nearly 800 HP. That should be enough for now.’ for once, a cheerful thought in his mind, if only for a moment. Maybe he’ll be able to push through more than he intended? He wasn’t sure. ‘Leveling is still rather easy because of the gap between me and the monsters, but it’s already starting to slow down.’ a vision of needing to fight for hours just to gain a single level was distant but getting closer. However, Travis shook his head. Don’t think about that just yet. That’s the future. Here and now is where the experience lies.

He inspected the walls of the place, trying to look for any starnose moles that could be hiding nearby, waiting to ambush them. After finding a suspicious spot, he stabbed using Pacifist and quickly followed up with his regular dagger. Within half a minute, he brought another monster down. ‘Their levels are near 25, maybe 30, but not higher.’ he came to the conclusion after some time. The fights he was partaking in weren’t on his level, but neither was he. Despite being level 14, he had stats similar to what he should have once he reached level 20. All in all, he was fighting enemies that were mostly on par with himself.

They didn’t meet many people around, as far as hunting went. In the first place, this dungeon was rather large despite being underground-type. Travis wasn’t sure how accurate the information was, but the information board claimed the dungeon stretched about two hundred meters in all cardinal directions, measuring from the entrance. Secondly, many of those who came would be already on floor 4 or deeper. They didn’t care for lower-level monsters and instead went as deep as they could. Who knew, maybe some even went to fight the boss monster? Just how powerful could a monster of such a place be?

…

Seconds spent walking turned into minutes spent fighting, which then turned into a repeated session of the activities. As he fought, Leaf scanned the surroundings, but she did step in on a few occasions when he was at risk of getting overwhelmed. Bill and Jay were serving as scouts (as she’d usually use them), but the space was too small for Berry to come out.

-Around 17-

They took a look around the small cave they found on their way into the tunnels. Already, they had traversed to floor 4, and the difficulty of the monsters suddenly spiked upward. The average level went from what felt like 20 to nearly 30, and that made Travis pant with tiredness after every encounter. Rats that used to be slower than him now became faster, bats that already were difficult to hit were now nearly impossible to track with eyes, and the attack power of starnose moles reached so high that a successful ambush took out nearly 100 HP from Travis in a single hit. Goblin packs also increased in size, now more often than not totaling about a dozen monsters.

But despite those increments, neither of the two decided to step back. Travis had already leveled to level 18, higher than he expected, and his HP totaled 780. Any new stat points were invested into Agility to match the need for increased reflexes. After all, Strength wasn’t that as important at the moment. Just a few percent more power didn’t change much in how quickly he would defeat monsters, but being able to avoid a few more attacks was great.

They kept on advancing forward at a steady pace, but the effects of long hunting started weighing down on Travis. Despite Leaf giving him some herbs that helped fight the tiredness, there was no denying that this dungeon was becoming too much for him to handle now. In the first place, it has been around 4, maybe 5 hours since they descended into this place.

After killing the last of a goblin group, Travis leaned on the cave’s wall and sighed. ‘I can’t be pushing myself too hard. I still have a Daily Quest to finish.’ he somewhat dreaded the thought of needing to perform the set of exercises assigned by the System after a long hunt like this, but the most he could do right now was simply accept it. ‘On the bright side, it’s 7 points more for me to spend.’ he lifted his head to look at Leaf. The elf woman was keeping a distance of about 2 meters from him, looking over him with a bit of curiosity, but her eyes also glaring into nearby corridors every now and again. There was no sign of tiredness coming from her, not a single drop of sweat on her clean skin. Truly, just walking around, even with her backpack, wasn’t too tiring.

Travis took a deeper breath.

“Want to call it a day?” he asked and immediately noticed how Leaf’s sapphire eyes sparkled.

“Gladly,” she replied shortly, forming a little smile.

-About 3 hours later-

Stepping onto the road, they could only barely make out the shapes in the somewhat dim forest. The sun had set about two hours prior, but they decided to keep on going for some more time. During their walk, Travis began scoring exercises to finish the DQ. While Leaf did raise an eyebrow at his doings, she didn’t ask once about why he was doing it. Was it because she believed he was doing something that was needed for himself? Or because she thought it’d be rude to ask? Travis didn’t care. What mattered to him was the final stretch of the run he had just finished.

[You have completely cleared the daily quest ‘To become strong.’]

[7 stat points have been awarded.]

[You fulfilled the optional condition.]

[Selecting random reward...]

[‘Runestone of smoke’ has been awarded.]

‘Huh? What’s that thing?’ he thought as he noticed a small stone appearing in his hand. Its size was perfect for throwing. Dark in color, and on its smooth surface, Travis could see some kind of engraving, looking like two circles connected with a curved line going beneath them both.

[Runestone of smoke

Rating: Normal

Durability: 50/50

Cost per use: 500 MP

After supplying it with mana, it will instantly convert all spells within 5 meters into smoke. Consumes durability based on the number and strength of spells changed.

*Cannot be repaired.

*Non-physical spells cannot be converted.

Weight: 50 g]

‘…It’s not bad.’ he thought. ‘But it’s a shame it consumes so much MP. There’s no way I’ll be using this anytime soon.’ he thought, closing the notifications. He took a look behind himself and saw how Leaf was walking toward him, no more than 50 meters between her and him. Pocketing the stone, he turned a little toward her, standing in one spot. While he still had a notification about completing his DQ open, he decided to assign the remaining points to Agility. With that, he awaited until Leaf reached him, and continued on the way.

With the night starting to close in, they decided to set up a camp in the forest. Walking around and gathering some wood to use for a campfire, Travis started… pondering on the entire situation.

Perhaps it was the day that had transpired, an increase in his stats, or just boredom, but his thoughts started slowly drifting toward the bigger picture of the situation.

So far, he was only looking at the immediate situation, and it didn’t pay off nicely, not at all. And, when he thought about it, Cecilia’s quest to get to Autir also fell into that category.

Increasing his stats, level, and abilities all served one connected purpose: to be used in the Apostle’s Competition. Whether he liked it or not, he was a part of that thing, and he had a dozen enemies, each of which could be willing to end his life to win. But… when he thought about it, he didn’t know what other Apostles even were. He never had good knowledge about the gods in the first place, and that could be his downfall. No, if he wanted to really improve the way he went about things, he needed to learn about his competitors as well as improve his survivability. With that in mind, he asked RALS a simple question. ‘What are the gods in the pantheon?’

One question after another, he received his answers and read through all of them diligently. Even after he sat down with Leaf to eat something before going to sleep. Later, after he helped her prepare to sleep (by binding her hands and legs), he resumed his Q&A session with RALS, slowly getting more and more information. Deep in the night, while fighting the urge to sleep, he kept on reading. If he was to become stronger, he needed to be prepared. And to be prepared, he needed to learn about the big picture.

-Meanwhile-

“Hah, he’s finally learning,” a woman said, sipping a bit of her coffee. She was dressed in a long coat, reaching to her knees, deep blue in color, and covering all other clothes she had underneath. On her feet, a pair of nicely fitting shoes were present, black in color, clearly made for running. “Wouldn’t you say so?” she turned to her right, focusing her brown eyes on the god sitting in an armchair next to her. She shook her head a little, getting her curly, shoulder-length hair of red color out of the way, showing more of her pristine-like, fair, and clear skin. A thing that stood out most from her looks was her pointy ears poking from between the hair.

“Finally, he is,” Redion sighed. “I was starting to think he’d stay stagnant forever.”

“Can’t blame him,” the woman shrugged a little. “He’s not really bright, but he’s starting to get what it’s all about,” she smiled, turning her gaze back to the display in front of them both.

Both she and the god next to her were sitting in a small living room of a house Redion had built for himself in the God’s Realm. A small abode, so to speak, made for himself to pass his time. A god’s life was boring, at the end of everything.

“I hope that’s the case,” he sipped his tea. “It’d be a shame if he lost before the Competition really began.”

“Though, I don’t get one thing. Why pick him?”

Redion looked from the woman to the cup of tea. He stirred it a little, causing the dark liquid to flow in circles. “What do you say, Beatrice? Why did I pick you?”

She looked back at the display for a moment. A ponder marked her face for but a moment before she asked, “An outcast? Is that what you mean?”

“Not exactly. You didn’t read his files, so you wouldn’t know. I picked him because of his sister,” he replied slowly. “It was her wish for him to have a good life. I decided that since he couldn’t find a class for himself, I’d help him.”

“Oh. That’s sneaky of you,” Beatrice chuckled momentarily, curving her small lips into a smile that appeared to hold far more than she let on. “Will you tell him?”

“I don’t plan to. There’s been enough shit in his life not of his fault.”

“You say that, and yet you didn’t build in any failsafe for Daily Quests on System’s first activation, in fact bringing more shit not of his fault into his life.”

“I didn’t expect him to be as dumb.”

“Second time out of two it's happened. Did you not read my list of complaints?

“I did. I just didn’t think about it being an issue. What are even the odds?”

"However small, you shouldn't disregard probabilities," Beatrice sighed lightly. "Oh well, what about 'Restore' ****?"

"I made the System cap consumable spells to one use."

"Alright, that's a way to work around," she nodded. “And ‘Repair’ cloning?”

“Turns out, the system was making a void call. It's fixed now."

Beatrice nodded, her expression softening slightly.

"Did you resolve the 'skill points from quests' exploit, then?"

"...I... gah, I knew I forgot something. Well, but what are the chances he will find that out?"

“You underestimate the power of dumb people, Redion. He'll stumble upon it, even by accident, and exploit the living hell of it.”

“...I don’t think so,” Redion smiled wryly. “You managed to find it because you’re an exploiter by nature. He won’t.”

“Eh… that’s what I get for being a beta tester. Should’ve let me fix those myself," Beatrice sighed, stirring the black liquid in her cup.

“As if you’d be able to.”

“You underestimate what I can do in 400 years, Redion," she replied with a cut tongue. "WiFi comes in handy in the Hall of Fame."

“…”

“Whatever. Can’t change it now, can you?” she rolled her eyes with a smirk.

“Yberion wouldn’t allow that.”

“Yeah. Reggie wouldn’t approve, either,” she chuckled again and took a sip. “I wonder. Since the duration of the Competition is 5 years, do you think he will get to level 500?”

Redion shrugged momentarily, stepping onto the wooden floor. “There’s a lot of time, but who knows if he’ll go and level up as much. And even if he does, the monster level is pretty low compared to your times. Reaching 400, maybe 450 is possible, but 500… not in 5 years.”

“I think he will.”

“What?”

“He’ll get there,” she repeated, looking at a relay of Travis fighting. “He’s not the smartest one around, but he’s got the spirit. He’s been shown a lesson, he’ll learn it soon enough,” Beatrice smiled a little. “Either that or he’ll die. The choice is obvious.”

Redion looked a little away. ‘I hope it is.’

“Though, you were allowed to give him a skill and something else, right?”

“Well, the rules stated ‘a single item and a single skill to boot’.”

“So, what item will he receive?”

“What? What do you mean? He got RALS. That’s already an item he got, no?”

“No?” she made a little ridiculed expression. “I mean, can he change it? Does he own it? Does he have the bragging right about it?”

“Well… triple no. Where are you going with this?” Redion raised an eyebrow.

“Look at this like that. You created RALS, update it, and perform maintenance and bug fixes. You gave Travis access to it so that he can view his skill tree, and access and change his stats, but he’s not the owner. You didn’t forfeit ownership in his favor. Is all of that true?”

“…well, yes. I can argue that he does own control over his stats through RALS, unlike other denizens of that world, but… the rest is true. Why, though?”

“So, bear with me here, you DIDN’T give him an item.”

“…what?” Redion made a stupefied expression. Then, he sighed. ‘What did she come up with this time?’ “Why exactly?”

“It’s like 'the Internet'. People create content and share it with others through it, but none of them actually own the Internet. They’re only using it. They’re users. The Internet belongs to those who created it and later to those who maintain it. So, by that logic, you are the owner of RALS, and Travis is a user. A ‘Player’, if you want. Therefore, he didn’t receive RALS, you just gave him access to it. Technically speaking, from his perspective, that’s not an item.”

“…how is that not an item?”

“Because it doesn’t have a physical form in that realm. On strictly technical grounds, RALS is imaginary. It’s physical here, not there.”

…was there ever a moment when Redion felt as stupefied as in that moment? He wasn’t sure. What Beatrice said did make some sense, but…

“Beatrice, listen. Even IF what you said is true, that is still out-of-universe reasoning given to an in-universe problem. Following that logic, why didn’t I just give him, I don't know, a NUKE? What I gave him was within the bounds of reason. Just like everyone else, I gave him a way to access his skill tree. Assuming you are even right, what could I give him?”

“Out-of-universe? Then what about learning camps for Soldiers? Do they own the weapons they use for training?”

“…that was my bad. But even so, how do you prove it? How do you prove that RALS, or just access to it, isn’t an item he owns?”

“If I have access to enter a guarded room, can I give it to someone else without telling the owner? I can’t, probably even with them knowing. ‘Access’ isn’t something you can hold or give to someone else. It’s knowledge. Others will know that you have access, but just because you do, you can’t allow anyone else to have that access, unless you are the owner, no?”

“…maybe. So?”

“What about an item? I have a mug. It’s physical, I can touch it,” she extended her right hand, and a small piece of porcelain appeared in it. “And now I don’t. It’s yours,” she said, throwing it toward Redion. “I can give up my ownership of an item in favor of someone else. Can Travis do that with RALS? Can he just go ‘I don’t feel like having RALS anymore, let that elf girl have it instead.’? No. At most, he can form a party with her, but that won't grant her ownership of the system. He only is given access. You are the owner who can change who can use it, not him,” she pointed a finger at the god. "If you want to look at it from RALS perspective, you are the 'root user', and he is just 'a user'. You can control everything within the cluster, but he can only control what you allow him access to."

Redion looked at her, and then back at the display. “…there is a good reason you are called ‘The Goddess of Fraud’. Even Yberion didn’t see this. And I have to admit, neither did I. But… hmm, it is true, actually. I will have to talk with him about it, but I don’t think he’ll disagree. So, if I can give Travis an item, what do you think it should be?”

“Let me prepare it. And I’ll talk with Yberion about it. I’ll make sure there’s no loophole this time around.”

“You?”

“What? Give me at least this much involvement. You didn’t even care to tell me that an Apostle’s Competition would be held until you chose your Apostle.”

“…fine. I’m kind of scared about what you’ll do, but please do.”

---

[[Name: Travis Salliv
Class: Apostle of Tricks & Manipulation
Level: 18
HP: 780/780
MP: 70/70
WP: 125/320]

[Strength: 37
Agility: 68
Intelligence: 35
Endurance: 60
Wisdom: 18
Sense: 25
AP: 0]

[Possessed abilities: Suggestion lvl.2, Hypnosis lvl.1]

[Current status: No anomalies]]