Chapter 11

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The third item was a weapon.

“Item Name: Gruff’s Club (Weapon/Double-handed)

Blunt Damage: 28

Attacking Speed: Slow

Attacking Distance: 118

Durability: 49/50

Item Introduction: A giant club made of cast iron. It may be a little heavy and clumsy to use, but its attacks are potent.”

It was yet another piece of trash. Chu Ge was speechless, and his heart was heavy. He just killed a Boos! Why were the treasures so lousy? However, he still kept the club in his pouch. It was, after all, a treasure from the first Boss he had defeated and killed. He would keep it as a souvenir for remembrance. The last item had better be good.

“Oh? What was that?” Chu Ge was a little surprised at the squarish book he held in his hands. Even more surprising was that it was a skills book.

“Item Name: Poised to Strike (Skill Book)

Skill Type: Combat Skill

Skill Effect: Doubles next close combat power, but doubles the amount of strength spent.

Cooldown Period: 30 Seconds

Learning Requirement: Strength 12, Endurance 10

Skill Introduction: Accumulates power, then when the skill is cast, the caster will use his whole strength to attack. The strong attack resulting from the skill will affect many times stronger than that of the caster’s strength.”

“I see,” Chu Ge had a sudden epiphany. It was no wonder that the Gnoll’s first attack had been so strong because it had used a skill. In that case, there was no question about it. He had to learn the skill. But when Chu Ge tried to flip open the book to the first page, he found that he was unable to do so.

“Hmmm, that’s strange.” Chu Ge thought. What was happening? Why was he unable to learn the skill?

At that moment, there was a sudden voice that spoke beside his ear, “System Notice: Stats did not meet requirements. Unable to learn skill.”

“Stats do not meet the requirements? What are my stats like, again?” Chu Ge wracked his brain. He vaguely remembered that his Strength stat was only ten points. That was such a bummer. Having gotten a skill book but being unable to learn the skill, made Chu Ge a little annoyed. However, he did not wallow in his annoyance and remorse. If he did not have good enough stats, all he had to do was train. He was just two points away, and reaching 12 points in strength shouldn’t be too difficult. He had better continue clearing the Instance Dungeon. That was more important.

Besides, since he was able to gain a skill book through the Boss, he would be able to gain a second or a third skill book. Sooner or later, he would be able to obtain a skill that was within his learning abilities.

Thinking about it, Chu Ge organized his loot. After resting for a short while, he continued onward in his journey through the Instance Dungeon.

Crossing the mining section, right at the end of the mining section, was a large double door. Moving past the doors, Chu Ge came into a wide passageway, where a few Kobolds were walking up and down the hall in patrol.

However, the Kobolds here were obviously quite different from the Kobolds that were mining. Not only did some of them wear crude but straightforward leather armor, but the weapons they carried were no longer pickaxes. They carried a variety of rusted weapons, such as rusted metal swords, rusted daggers, and Chu Ge even spied two of the Kobolds carrying a bow.

Chu Ge took a second look at the Kobolds’ name—Kobold Bandits.

However, the battle with the Kobold Bandits was not any more complicated than the Kobold miners. Chu Ge even felt that regardless of whether it was a dagger, or a metal sword, or even a bow and arrow, none of the Kobolds would be able to break past his defenses, especially the bow and arrows. Because he was going to start a long-distance attack, Chu Ge did not even need to switch weapons to engage in melee battle. He merely shot at the Kobolds, killing them one by one from far away.

Twang!

An arrow hit the breastplate armor on Chu Ge’s chest and immediately bounced away, flying off.

“Haha! Such trash! With such a miserable attack, you would even dare to shoot at me?” Chu Ge said as the bowstring of the compound bow in his hands suddenly relaxed, and with a springing sound, the arrow shot off from the bow.

With a swoosh, the Kobold Bandit had taken a hit to the stomach and immediately started bleeding profusely. However, the Kobold Bandit did not care. The monsters, even if they were left with only a sliver of HP, they would appear as if everything was fine.

Swoosh!

It was yet another arrow that came at Chu Ge, and he hurriedly lowered his head.

“Bollocks! The thing actually aimed for my face! Thank goodness my reaction was quick,” Chu Ge cursed as he turned around to shoot another arrow in the faceoff with the Kobold Bandit and ended the life of that monster.

“Alright, that should be have been the last one,” Chu Ge looked at the passageway in front of him. The seven to eight Kobold Bandits that were patrolling the passageway had all been killed. Now, the obvious thing to do was to continue searching for loot.

12 bronze coins, one damaged dagger.

13 bronze coins, a low-quality dagger.

14 bronze coins, a short curved bow.

11 bronze coins, a tattered leather armor.

“Darn! What are all these trashes? These treasures could not even beat the drops of the Kobold miners from before,” as Chu Ge continued searching for loot, the more he became speechless at the standard of the loot gained. He only found a bunch of junk equipment. Not one item was useable.

12 bronze coins, one Kobold’s gold. Alright, at last, he finally found something decent.

14 bronze coins, Kobold’s candle, tattered leather boots.

Fine, alright. Chu Ge was down to the last body. He looked at the last Kobold bandit’s corpse and started searching for loot.

13 bronze coins, one Sapphire.

“Item Name: Sapphire (Material)

Item Introduction: A piece of naturally-formed Sapphire gemstone. It is the best material for jewelry.”

“Wow!” Chu Ge exclaimed. That was a good find.

He looked at the marble-sized Sapphire gemstone in his hands, thinking to himself, that it was a naturally-formed Sapphire gemstone. It should be worth quite a bit of money.

He kept the gemstone in his pouch, then continued his foray into the Instance Dungeon. At the end of the passageway, was yet another double door. At the other end of the doors, was a stone-paved ladder that went downwards.

The ladder was a little narrow, and Chu Ge climbed down carefully. Because it was too dark and dim, he had no choice but to take out the flashlight he had prepared beforehand to shine around and find his way. Suddenly, there was a scuffling noise that came from overhead. It was moving at a swift pace, and it seemed as if there was some organism that quickly flew over his head.

The sudden sound of quick movement frightened Chu Ge and made him shudder. He shone the torchlight upwards, but there was nothing to be found. There was only the dark ceiling of the quarry cave.

“What the! What’s going on? Chu Ge stood in his spot for a moment, feeling anxious and doubtful. But the surroundings were very silent. After hesitating for a second longer, Chu Ge finally decided to continue heading further into the Instance Dungeon.

Chu Ge soon reached the end of the ladder, and the surroundings suddenly became bright. He had come to an excavation site. The ceiling of the mining cave was about three meters tall, and many pillars supported it. Because the area had been heavily excavated, it had become an area that extended in all directions. From the light of the torches, from time to time, Chu Ge could see the reflection of the exposed ore. He could also see the Kobold miners that were waving their pickaxes, hard at work mining. The clinking and clanking sounds of the pickaxe hitting the ore were echoing around the cave. And because of the humongous size of the cave, the Kobold miners were slightly spread out. But that suited Chu Ge’s intention well.

Chu Ge finished off the Kobold miners one by one, killing with great pleasure.

Because the Kobold miners were so dispersed, most of the time, Chu Ge only needed to face one or two Kobolds each time. Under these conditions, he did not even need to use melee weapons much, merely finishing off the monsters from a far distance with the compound bow.

Now, he was already somewhat familiar with using these weapons. If the target was hit in a vital area with the force of a 60-pound bow, then most of the time, the target was instantly killed. Besides, he felt that his arms were beginning to get stronger. At the beginning of his adventure, he felt the strain of drawing the bowstring, but now, he was already used to its weight.

Unfortunately, there were too few Kobold miners. Besides a handful of pieces of Kobold gold, he did not manage to find anything of worth. It was either bronze coins or trash like Kobold’s candle.

Chu Ge saw the second Boss of the Instance Dungeon at the center of the mining area.

The Boss was a patrolling-type Boss. The moment Chu Ge saw it, the Boss was leading two Kobold soldiers carrying a short spear and heading in his direction.

Because of its distinctiveness, Chu Ge knew it was a Boss the moment he laid eyes on it.

But why was it different? That’s because the Kobold looked rather old. It had a white beard and white hair. It held in its hands, a candle that it carried around like a torch. In the other hand, it held a staff. It was covered in a cloak that was dirty and made with an unknown skin. It had a bit of an aura of a mysterious psychic.

Of course, the most unusual thing about it was that it had a red skull symbol on top of its head. Obviously, it was another Boss. What’s more, it was a magic-type Boss. And its name was Felag, the Kobold Firescryer.