CHAPTER 338 TIME TO FIGHT

CHAPTER 338 TIME TO FIGHT

Hancock received a dungeon key with her rewards as well. I told the duo we would wait until the next day to do the dungeons though. After we worked out together in the morning I showed them that we didn’t need to accept our daily quest reward. We could simply wait to accept the reward. That way if they got in a pinch in their dungeons they could use the Status Recovery to get back to full health.

I knew these little tricks from reading the manhwa of course, but they stared at me like I was some sort of genius. I let them praise me and we hung out for a bit at Hancock’s place. We would all challenge our dungeon later in the day.

Cha and Hancock were on better terms again. I wasn’t exactly sure what Hancock told Cha. I assumed it was some veiled flirtations and other acts that would make the woman blush and stutter.

My dungeon was at a carport, Jin-Woo’s was at a subway station, and Hancock’s was at an office building. We were all relatively close to one another. I couldn’t remember exactly what the dungeon of Jin-Woo’s entailed, but I was fairly certain we could pass the dungeons on our own. With potions in our inventory, armor and weapons handy, after I lent Jin-Woo some money, we were ready to go.

“Good luck, babe,” I said. Giving her another kiss. She grabbed onto my ass, keeping me close.

“I’m scared,” she mumbled.

“No you’re not,” I said.

“I’m kind of scared,” she amended.

“You’ll be fine,” I said. Jin-Woo standing awkwardly apart, I gave her a peck. “Force Summon yourself to me if it gets bad.”

“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. Wearing leather gear it was her original set of gear before she started making money in the world. A large mace at her back, she pulled out the brass colored key from her ample cleavage and walked up to the office building. Sticking the key in the front door I felt the Spiritual Energy shift but that was the only change.

“You see this?” She asked.

“Looks like a door to me,” I said.

“It’s a bright light to me,” she said. Hesitating slightly she gulped and walked through the door. I didn’t see her anymore. Her Haki disappearing from my senses I shrugged and walked away.

“What happened?” Jin-Woo asked, his eyes wide.

“She went into the dungeon,” I said. “Jin-Woo, what’s up with you man? You know as much as I do.”

“I don’t know,” he said, nervous. “I’m used to being the weakest Hunter. This idea of yours. Going beyond S-Rank is kind of scary.”

“It will take a lot of work, dude. But it’s possible,” I said. “Stop being so scared. That trial with the statues was a hell of a lot scarier than this.”

“You’re right,” he said. “I thought for sure I was dead.” He looked up to me as we walked. “You really saved my life there, man.”

“I did not,” I assured. “But if you feel so inclined you can give me your dungeon key.” I stuck my hand out.

“No thanks. I want to try it.”

“Fine, you can set me up with your sister as a consolation prize.”

“Stop joking about that,” he grumbled.

“Right...joking,” I said.

“I’ll kill you if you touch her,” he said. I laughed. I really did like the guy. Old me had been a half-friend to him. As the weakest Hunter, people talked bad behind Jin-Woo’s back, old me wasn’t any better. In some weird attempt to try to fit in, I joined in on making fun of Jin-Woo. I felt bad about it, of course, but still kept up with it. Only pretending to be his one friend to his face. I meant to make up for that.

We got to the carport my dungeon was at. The carport was a 6-story tall concrete structure. People streamed in and out in their cars. Curious how it would work I pulled out my own key. The copper glowed brightly as I moved it toward the walk-through opening of the port. When I pushed it to the opened door, white electricity shot out from the key, making a door where there had not been one before.

“Guess this is it,” I said. “Good luck.” Jin-Woo nodded and I stepped through the door. As I stepped in the scenery changed completely.

Shifting from a concrete structure, the interior altered so that everything was covered in thick moss. The moss growing on the floor and walls I was apparently inside a new dimension where the carport was overgrown with greenery.

Turning to the door it was covered over with a hard rock. Hitting the rock the thing didn’t budge but caused a screen to pop-up.

Warning

You may leave the dungeon only with

a Return Stone, or after beating the boss.

“Of course,” I said. Turning around I extended my Observation Haki out. Spiritual Energy flickering in and out of my range I pulled a 1-handed sword from my inventory. Wearing Gantz armor under my clothes I thought it best to be safe for the time being.

“Come here, whatever you are,” I said. Stepping out to the moss covered ground. The place was dark a short distance from me. Charging my voice with Tremors I roared out, ready to get this started. I was surprised to get a skill out of the move.

New Skill

Challenging Shout

Charge your voice with mana and call foes to you.

Potentially drawing their attention away from others.

“Cool,” I mumbled. “Didn’t even notice the mana.” I was brought out of my self-praise as the first beast ran at me. Big, it was about 5 feet tall on all 4s. As it lumbered toward me my Observation Haki told me all I needed to know. It was a bear. for new novels

As the monster gained speed it came into where I could see and I noticed a name over it’s head. In big orange letters it read, Swamp Bear.

“Bring it, Yogi,” I said as the monster roared. More noises of monsters running toward me sounded. I leapt up as the monster got closer. Driving my sword into the beast I barely punctured its hide. Then I sent a Tremor into the weapon. My weapon came vibrating quickly I sliced into it deeply. More notifications appeared but I jumped off and attacked again.

The bear had dark green fur to blend into the moss. 5 feet tall on it’s paws, it was near 11 feet on it’s hind legs. As it roared from the damage I had done I stabbed into it again and again. Moving quickly from dodge rolls to attacks as I read over my notifications.

New Skill

Piercing Strike

Stab more easily into armored foes.

Critical Damage is more common.

New Skill

Quick Reflexes

Increase your strength with the help of mana.

New Skill

Weakest Link

Know where to strike to deal the most damage.

With a yell I used Piercing Strike in the animals throat. My Tremor Fruit activated automatically and shot into the beast’s head. It toppled over dead as more of its brethren came at me. 2 bears this time a white light surrounded me as I leveled up. My HP and MP didn’t heal but I felt stronger. I was ready to go again as I got more stats.

Moving between attack and dodging, the Gantz suit proved more than helpful. After another 2 bears I had leveled again. Feeling stronger after each kill, I brought up my screen.

Solo Leveling

Name

Weston Woon

Level

3

Job

None

Fatigue

12

Title

None

Rarity: Unique

Not seeing a reason to use it I walked to the open air of the top floor. Still no cars or people, everything was coated in moss. I felt like I was in a swampy Upside Down from Stranger Things. Guided by my Spiritual Energy I killed a couple more green slimes with a Blast Wave, but noticed the big boss monster. It’s name hovered overtop of it in big red letters.

Slime Lord Hullent

I had learned that the letter color mattered when I was fighting a monster. White meant they were weak, orange meant strong, and red meant far above my level. I grew excited as the faceless slime rotated as I got closer. Some minor slimes around it I sent a huge Blast Wave out. The area vibrating the slimes shook and burst.

The big boss began to roll toward me like a bulldozer. The moss ripped up from the immense speed I poured water out of my body. Jumping onto the disc I raised above the Slime Lord as it rolled passed. Dropping down I stabbed toward it, but to my surprise my weapon chinked off the Slime.

Cursing I slashed again, only for a spark to fly and the sword to bounce back. About to keep striking, the slime jumped up at me. It’s gelatinous body touching me I heard and felt my flesh sizzle as the acidic beast ate into me. Yelling out I cursed as I moved the disc of water to separate us. Pushing off the water I landed far away. Shifting into Kame Mode I healed slightly but the Slime Lord was rolling toward me again.

What followed was a half hour of me attacking sporadically. The monster was a confusing beast. My sword doing nothing I focused on Blast and Mana Waves. When my MP was out I drank potions or relied on just my Tremor fruit, chakra, Nen, and Haki. Brought far enough to bring all my strength out, eventually something changed.

When I sent a huge tremor into the Slime Lord it suddenly burst. Spewing out acid. Narrowly escaping, I thought I would be killed by the acid, but instead of making a giant wave of water as it burst, the Slime Lord turned into hundreds of little slimes. They scattered over the car port and scuttled back toward one another. As the slimes touched, they conglomerated, becoming bigger until they were gigantic again.

Cursing my stupidity I understood the skill the boss was using then. He could take a certain amount of damage, but then when it was hurt enough it would split into the hundreds of slimes that made it up. I could actually kill the slimes then.

As I attacked again my blows bounced off of the body, but I had a chance. Getting in the zone I hit it over and over until it split once more. Sending out huge blast waves the now very weak singular slimes burst and I got over half before they met back up.

The Slime Lord was invulnerable again, but the amount it could absorb was far less. It took me less than half the time to beat it down. After it burst open a 3rd time, I killed enough that it was only about my height when it came together. Unable to turn invulnerable this time it fired acid at me but I broke it apart and killed it after I used another Mana Potion.

The Lord became an oozing green puddle under me as I got a lot of notifications.

New Skill

Thick Skin

Charge your skin with mana to strengthen it.

Congratulations

You have slain Slime Lord Hullent.

You can now leave the Dungeon.

I looked around and as the green goo evaporated, 1 item appeared from it.

Skill Stone

Learn the Unbreakable Skill.

Use: For a short time you will be impossible

to harm.

Rarity: Rare

Walking over to it the item prompted me if I wanted to learn the skill so I pushed yes. The small stone with a blue rune on it disintegrated. Having leveled 3 times from the fight I brought up my last notification.

New Title

Slimy

Water based attacks do more damage.

A terrible title name I couldn’t help but wonder if it would help my water-chakra attacks. Curious, I brought up my Status Screen and changed the title from Bear Hunter to Slimy.

Solo Leveling

Name

Weston Woon

Level

16

Job

None

Fatigue

88

Title

Slimy

HP

252

MP

56

Strength

28

Vitality

28

Agility

28

Intelligence

28

Sense

28

Free Pts.

0

Skills

Challenging Shout (Lvl 7) Piercing Strike (Lvl 11) Quick Reflexes (Lvl 10) Weakest Link (Lvl 6) Mana Wave (Lvl 11) Focused Blast (Lvl 10) Thick Skin (Lvl 2) Unbreakable (Lvl 1)

Happy with my gains I whistled as I headed out of the dungeon. I got my quest rewards as soon as I exited, making my good mood all the better.