Chapter 22 Kun's Lair

"Those guys look familiar, where have I seen those faces…"

Alex frowned and looked carefully at the guards outside the cave.

"Oh, I remember now, aren't they the missing students that's been on the news this morning?"

After looking at them for a while, a look of enlightenment covered Alex's face.

That's right, those guys are indeed the missing students.

Just before going inside the Alter Dimension, Kris also told him to tell her if ever he saw these guys in here.

But Alex didn't really take it seriously that time, he thought that there's a low chance that this problem is near where he is.

Never did he expect that they were really near him!

Alex scratched his head with a frown.

"Aish, what am I gonna do about this? Should I go back and tell it to Kris now?"

Alex deliberated about it for a while before coming to a decision.

"If I go back now, my time will just be wasted."

He raised his head and looked in the direction of the cave again and said,

"For now, I should check out what's inside that cave and the students as well."

"With how I am now, I am confident that I can fight anyone under level 25 if I distribute my remaining free attributes."

Alex said, then with a thought, he called out his character panel.

'Status!'

(AN: Just gonna add this, kinda nostalgic.)

[Name: Zero]

[Class: Dungeon Master]

[Level: 6]

[Talent: Fortune's Embodiment]

[Health: 800/800]

[Mana: 840/840]

[Strength: 30] | [Constitution: 30] | [Agility: 30] | [Intelligence: 59] | [Charisma: 26]

[Free Attributes: 190]

[Skill Points: 45]

[Skills: Sacrifice (U), Monster Manipulation (A), Lord's Sanctuary (A), Fireball (D), Earth Spike (D), Wind Blade (D), Freeze (D), Water Ball (D)]

…

While Alex was hunting, he didn't immediately distribute his free attributes.

Since he was mostly just sitting at Ferri's back, he didn't really need to increase his stats immediately.

All of the battle was handled by Ferri while occasionally, Alex would throw a fireball or some other magic to support.

Because of that, it was not only Alex who leveled up but also Ferri.

With Ferri's increase in stats, they started hunting higher level monsters from level 6 to level 10.

That's the reason why Alex managed to level up 3 times in such a short amount of time.

Additionally, thanks to him using [Sacrifice] on every monster that he killed, he piled up quite a number of free attributes.

Speaking of [Sacrifice], Alex looked at the boar that he just killed and used [Sacrifice] on it.

[You used 'Sacrifice', you gained 5 attribute points.]

Then, Alex turned his eyes back at his character panel and pondered how he would distribute his attribute points.

After a while, Alex finished allocating his free attributes and looked at his new status.

[Name: Zero]

[Class: Dungeon Master]

[Level: 6]

[Talent: Fortune's Embodiment]

[Health: 1400/1400]

[Mana: 1240/1240]

[Strength: 80] | [Constitution: 80] | [Agility: 80] | [Intelligence: 99] | [Charisma: 26]

[Free Attributes: 0]

[Skill Points: 45]

[Skills: Sacrifice (U), Monster Manipulation (A), Lord's Sanctuary (A), Fireball (D), Earth Spike (D), Wind Blade (D), Freeze (D), Water Ball (D)]

…

Alex nodded in satisfaction.

With a smile, he said, "Good, with this status, I can confidently say that anyone under level 25 is no match for me."

The reason why Alex only said level 25 even though his status has increased by a lot is because, at level 25, 'players' will go through class advancement.

Here, a qualitative growth will happen that will make their stats double or even triple!

That's why Alex didn't dare to say anything about those at level 25 or higher for now.

"By the way, I should also learn the stealth skill, it will be useful in infiltrating inside the cave."

Alex learned [Stealth] from the skill tree.

[Stealth]

[Details: Enter stealth by using mana and hide your presence from your surroundings. Certain actions might cancel the stealth.]

[Consumption: 1 Mana/second]

[Cooldown: None]

…

"Now, I'm good to go!"

Saying that, Alex ordered Ferri to stand by here and remain hidden before casting [Stealth] on himself.

Then, slowly made his way towards the cave in the distance.

When Alex got near the cave, he got a clearer look at the students guarding outside.

They have a hollowed look in their eyes and they appear to be unconscious.

Like puppets being controlled by the puppeteer.

Seeing that, Alex frowned, "Huh, what happened to them? Are they being controlled or something?"

Alex observed them for a while before he walked inside the cave.

He doesn't have time to waste right now, every second is consuming his mana because of stealth.

With his mana, he can only use stealth for 20 minutes.

That's why Alex didn't have the leisure to observe everything meticulously.

"Hmm? What is this?"

When he entered the cave, Alex felt the surrounding atmosphere change somehow.

As if to answer his question, a notification appeared in his eyes.

[Hint: You have entered the broken dungeon 'Kun's Lair'.]

[Hint: Do you want to fix the broken dungeon 'Kuns Lair'?]

[Yes / No]

…

Seeing this, Alex was surprised, "I didn't expect that this cave was actually a broken dungeon!"

Broken dungeons are dungeons that got their core broken and so leaving only the place with no master.

If Alex chooses to fix this place, it will become a part of his territory.

For Alex, this is a good thing so he will fix this place and add it as his territory.

However, Alex doesn't plan to do it immediately.

Right now, his focus is learning the truth about the students who were kidnapped by an unknown existence.

If he chooses to fix this dungeon now, it will cause a commotion which could startle the unknown existence behind the kidnapping.

Alex has a feeling that he will meet that existence inside the dungeon.

That's why Alex is being careful as much as possible.

"I will take this dungeon after I finish my task here."

Dismissing the notification, Alex continued his way inside the dungeon.