"Wait, what happened last night to cause all of this?" he muttered to himself, the sword in his hands dripping blood from the goblins, and his shield attached to his left arm.
"The only thing I could remember was the dinner I had eaten last night, and that is because I had puked earlier... How am I supposed to find a way out if I can't remember how I got here?" he thought to himself, pondering hard to remember what had happened, but his mind was blank. The only thing he could remember was from two weeks ago when he landed in France for business, but after landing at the airport, his memories were blank.
The only thing he could even begin to remember is the what he had ate for dinner, but anything beyond that feels blank.
'What was I researching yesterday ? or maybe I am misremembering, maybe I was playing video games, I don't know'
"Think, Hiroki, think!" he urged himself, attempting to remember how the hell he got himself inside a dungeon filled with monsters.
Despite the paranoia and stress, it would be a better option not to stay in one place and keep moving.
He called out, "System!" but the only thing that appeared was his skill list, not the status screen he used to read about.
The words "Night vision Level: 2" appeared before him, a simple text that floated in the air. "System," he muttered, and the text vanished. When he repeated the command, it instantly reappeared, much like a light switch flipping on and off.
He turned his head to the side and said the word again. The text smoothly traveled across his vision, centering itself no matter which way he looked. It was always there, right in front of him.
"System," he repeated, and the text winked out of existence. He then pictured the words in his mind and spoke a random word: "Tuna."
Just like before, the text reappeared.
He began to mumble other words, discovering that as long as he consciously thought about the system, it would respond. It took more effort than a simple verbal command, but it worked.
He had never seen a system like this in fiction before; a single line of text with no borders.
And the skill "Night vision Level: 2"
He guessed it was a skill acquired from the wolves or the goblins, meaning he could absorb abilities from monsters. It could also be a reward based on what he needed most. For example, if he killed a water monster in a forest, he might acquire a climbing skill.
Either way, his course of action was clear. He would only kill if it was necessary and gave him an advantage, or he would suffer more injuries like the swollen one on his leg. All he had were bandages and a little food to heal himself.
From his experience with video games, dungeons usually required a task to exit, whether that was killing the boss or taking the dungeon core.
There were exceptions, of course, and he hoped to find the entrance and escape unscathed.
He put his gear on the ground and began to rub the repulsive goblin scent on his clothes to cover his own blood. The bandages he had were slimy and mushy, and it took a strong resolve not to puke again.
After hiding his traces, he moved forward.
Minutes passed—nothing happened, but his heart kept pounding fast. It was still hard to believe that barely thirty minutes ago, he had been on Earth. Now, he was wandering through a stone corridor that stretched endlessly ahead, damp and uneven beneath his boots. His night vision painted the world in dim shades of green and gray, just enough to make out the jagged walls and cracked tiles. Every few steps, he hesitated, carefully avoiding stones that looked loose or suspicious, afraid one wrong move might trigger a trap. The stench of goblin clinging to his body made it worse; it seeped into his nose and throat.
Regardless the smell was to his advantage.
Rustle
A faint rustle made him pause. His eyes flicked upward—just in time to see a goblin dangling from a vine on the ceiling, lunging down like a predator.
It slammed into his shield, the impact rattling his arm as its claws scraped uselessly against the metal. He gritted his teeth, shoved it to the left with all his weight until the goblin's back slammed into the cold stone wall. The creature snarled and writhed, its rancid breath hitting his face.
Without thinking, he drove his head forward and headbutted the goblin square in the face. The jolt reverberated through his skull, but to his surprise, it didn't hurt nearly as much as it should have. The goblin, on the other hand, reeled in confusion, its yellow eyes crossing for a moment as it lost balance.
He didn't waste that moment. With a sharp exhale, he thrust his sword straight into its gut. The goblin let out a choked gurgle, but before it could fall and alert others with its cries, he yanked the blade free, shoved it into the creature's mouth, and drove it up through its throat. The sickening crunch echoed briefly before silence returned.
Thankfully, it died fast.
His breath came in ragged bursts, but he forced himself to look up again. The ceiling stretched high into the dark—so far that he couldn't see where it ended.
He blinked a few times, his vision sharpening until the shadows gave way to faint details: vines and leaves clung to the stone above, twisting together like a canopy.
The creature had almost gotten him without a sound. Now he was keenly aware—every step forward might hold something waiting above.
His kill count then increased by two goblins and one wolf. Thankfully, the confrontations were one-on-one, so he only sustained minor cuts on his arms. He had noticed something, though: wolves gave him more agility and perception, while goblins gave him more strength. He couldn't see how much his strength had increased, unlike a skill, but he could definitely feel it.
According to his calculations, he had traveled about a kilometer. The place was vast, but he couldn't complain, as there were no traps. However, a fatigue that wasn't proportional to the journey was catching up to him.
A screech echoed in the darkness.
It was close, yet distant—the sound of a goblin patrol. His night vision wasn't high enough to make out their numbers, but he could tell he saw better in the dark than they did. That much he had tested before: if he propped up a goblin corpse and held it just right, they had to get dangerously close before realizing it wasn't one of their own.
He was at a crossroads: ambush them here or retreat and take another passage.
He was about to turn back when a vine dangling from the ceiling caught his eye.
"I see," he muttered. "Perfect for a surprise attack."
The vine stretched far overhead, anchored somewhere deeper in the shadows. Without hesitation, he climbed the wall and seized it, imagining how he could swing down at the right moment and cut the goblins apart before they knew what hit them.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan—until a faint flicker of light raced down the vine. The instant it touched his hand, the vine erupted with crackling, blue-white sparks. A violent surge shot through him, and for a moment he lit up like a lantern.
Every nerve shrieked. His muscles locked, his jaw clenched, and the world blurred under a wash of searing light. He couldn't hold on. With a strangled cry, he lost his grip and slammed to the floor-Thud!, twitching as the last arcs sputtered off his armor.
The sound was enough, let alone a light show.
The goblins snarled and broke into a sprint, forming a tight cluster as they rushed him. His body still buzzed with the aftershock, but he forced himself onto his feet, shield raised and sword ready.
The fight was on—three against one
He faced three goblins. The first one pounced, its weapon hidden behind its back to bait him. As he raised his shield, the goblin revealed a hexagonal iron shield of its own. They collided, but he held his ground. He braced himself as a second goblin lunged low, aiming for his thigh, and deflected the blow with his sword. The last goblin circled wide, targeting the exposed ribs on his right.
He pivoted his shield and bashed the right goblin's wrist, sending its dagger clattering to the ground. The shield-bearer goblin shoved him again, pushing him toward the wall. He sidestepped sharply, smashing the edge of his shield into its temple and following up with a kick to the face.
As the left goblin saw its chance, it made a quick thrust toward his gut. He rotated his sword to parry the blow, then sliced a shallow cut across its forearm. The now-disarmed right goblin scrambled to grab its dagger. He stomped forward, delivering a strong kick to knock it backward.
The shield-bearer recovered, charging with its shield to protect its allies. He feinted left with his sword, then drove his shield under its chin, staggering it. The left goblin regrouped and launched a fast slash at his face. He ducked low and thrust his sword straight through its belly.
The right goblin, now recovering, charged wildly with its dagger raised overhead. He withdrew his sword, pivoted, and cut upward, the blade tearing through its ribs.
The final goblin, the shield-bearer, roared and charged forward desperately. Hiroki planted his feet, locked his shield, and pierced its exposed armpit with his sword. The goblin collapsed, its shield slipping from its lifeless grip.
"That would have been bad, " he muttered.
"But I gotta say this was impressive," he said, thinking how many views a fight like this would get on YouTube, even if it were told to be CGI. "Like 10 million, at the very least."
"Back to reality-My hands are a little torn, it seems, from the shock of that thing. Which reminds me, what is that?"
He looked at it, the pulsating vine on the ceiling that was supposed to be his rope for ambushing the goblins.
He threw his sword, aiming to cut it.
It rotated as it crashed to the vine canopy a faint rustle being heard.
It shook violently, and beams of bright blue electricity flashed from it, sending his sword flying in a random direction.
A foul, green fluid dripped from the string, as if it were a living, creature.
"Well, I don't know, man," he said, while placing his bloodied hand on the cold stone wall for support.
"What are weird plan-"
Shock.
An electric current streamed from his right palm and, with a sudden boom, it eroded a section of the wall.
He was so stunned by this that he stumbled and fell to the floor. It was a weak attack, something that could be replicated by hitting a plaster wall with a hammer, but it meant one thing:
a text appeared before him: "Level 1: Shock has been acquired!"
"So I was right," he thought, a rush of confidence surging through him. "I can acquire skills from monsters."
It was obvious what he had to do next. He was injured, his palms were bloody, his legs ached, and he was completely exhausted. He had to rest. But the adventurous boy inside him whispered, "We can light up the entire town, hehehe, let's farm!"
He continued his journey, and the fights became surprisingly easier. Even though the shock skill needed him to be in direct contact with the enemies to injure them, it was an excellent distraction.
The looks on the goblins' faces when a human generated a searing bolt of shock from his palms, illuminating the darkness to reveal his terrifying visage, was hilariously funny.
Shock, distracted, sliced. Shock, distracted, sliced.
This became his routine as he exterminated about ten more goblins and three wolves, their pathetic bodies piling up as he continued his stride.
It was obvious that his speed and strength had noticeably increased.
That wasn't the real issue, though—it was his growing lack of stamina.
A few minutes later...
"Finally found one. Wait, maybe two of them..."
Two of those strange, vine-looking monsters had attached themselves to the ceiling, creating a bizarre decoration of pulsing, glowing strands.
How did he know there were two?
He followed the vines with his eyes, tracing each stem back to where it anchored into the ceiling. One vine had grown from a crack near the corner; the other sprouted a few feet away. Even without moving, a careful glance was enough to count them separately.
A few quick goblin daggers he threw at them were enough to sever their connection from life.
Level 2 Shock has been acquired!
He tested the skill on a nearby wall. A flash of blue electricity erupted from his hand with a violent boom, instantly carving a crater the size of his two fists in the stone.
A grin spread across his face.
"This is insane," he muttered, the blue sparks of his new power still dancing on his fingertips as he moved to take on other goblins and the vine monster.
Still, he didn't reach level 3.
He traveled forward, the injury in his leg becoming more and more painful.
Then, he saw a light.
Mind you, this was the second time he had seen a light other than the shock one he had created, light around the totem and now this.
It had a warm, vibrant orange glow, almost like the sun.
He approached it.
To see...
"Damn, like how?" he said as the light basked his face with it's warm glow.