Chapter 20 - Forgotten Souls

For the next few days Yuki taught Jobon, Rui, as well as Katsumi how to hunt and kill monsters for exp. Most of them were small goblins which were no danger to any of them. Each and every day, they hunted monsters non stop until their body couldn't move anymore.

"So this is what you've been doing everyday to get so strong?" Rui asked Yuki.

"Ya, basically. You get used to it after a while and your body does everything instinctively," Yuki replied.

"To be honest, if we could one day do all the crazy stuff you did that day, doing all of this work will be worth it," Katsumi said.

"Having huge blades under your command as you state your dominance over the world. That sounds like a cool superhero power," Katsumi continued as they all laughed together.

As the days passed, Yuki eventually became bored of the forest. All he did all day was follow his team around as they killed monsters and gained exp. They now knew how to survive on their own which meant that they didn't need his assistance anymore. Even if he wanted to kill some monsters, he knew that his team needed the exp more than him.

"Hey, you guys have been getting used to the forest now. For the time being I want to go find a better way to get exp. Remember on our first day in the new world, the cloaked man mentioned dungeons. I want to see what they have to offer," Yuki proposed to his team members.

"Sure, but only on the condition that we come with you! We can't let you leave us again," Rui demanded.

"I promise I won't leave you guys again, I've learned my lesson. Plus, it would be much better if you 3 stayed here and gained some more exp. I don't know what kind of dangers we may face in the dungeons. The fact remains that I should be the one to go and explore it. Once I finish, I'll come back and we can go through it together," Yuki tried to reason with the others.

"You promise to come back?" Rui asked.

"I promise!" Yuki replied. He could see a small light within Rui's eyes. Yuki didn't want Rui's innocence to disappear. He was a younger version of himself. A person who hadn't become corrupted because of the cruelty of others. Yuki saw himself as an older brother to Rui even though they were around the same age.

That day, Yuki said his goodbyes to his team and headed back to the city to stock up on food and equipment before finally heading out to look for a dungeon. He already knew exactly where the closest dungeon to him was located. While he didn't remember the specifics, he knew the very basics of everything about the new world.

After walking for what seemed like hours outside the city, he reached the dungeon gate. It was located at the side of a mountain. The gate itself had a dark green glow to it. Without even entering Yuki knew which clan ruled this dungeon. Nevertheless he entered with no hesitation, after all, he had people awaiting his return.

[Welcome to the dungeon: Forgotten Souls]

[Level recommended: 1-5+]

"There are 10 stages within this dungeon. After each stage, there is a save point. After you have reached it, you can leave the dungeon and come back later on to continue your quest here. If you choose to leave without reaching the next save point, all the exp you've earned after your previous save point will be lost," The robotic explanation voice said.

"If you agree to these conditions, please step forward to begin your quest," The voice continued.

Yuki opened his inventory and pulled out "Lucky Sword" since he didn't want to use "Fallen angel of hell" until he was level 60+. Only then would he find himself worthy to wield its tremendous power.

Without any second thoughts, he walked forward. Just as he took one step forward, skeletons started coming up from the ground. Each one was wearing armour which made them look like an undead army. Yuki didn't care, all that he needed was to exterminate each and every one of them.

Before he began the massacre, he wanted to see if he could see "Lucky Sword's" information chart. Just like Katsumi had taught him, Yuki double tapped the sword and just as he expected a chart came up.

[Weapon type: Sword]

[Name: Lucky Sword]

[Rank: C]

[Attack: 35]

[Description: Power: Item drops, including exp from any monster would be doubled if they are slayed with this sword. "The greed of the monsters accumulated overtime. Once it had reached a certain point, it manifested itself into existence. The greed of the monsters turned into a weapon which would harm them instead of assisting them."]

"Such a sad story but this sword could actually be of use to me," Yuki thought to himself.

Yuki took a deep breath and began to slay the skeleton monsters. He cut down each one of them with one slice. They were simply too weak to actually do any damage to him.

This murder streak went on for about 15 minutes before Yuki finally noticed something wrong. There were only about 50 monsters around him, even if they carried a sword and a shield, it didn't matter as Yuki would cut through them like butter. However their numbers didn't decrease, there seemed to be exactly the same number of monsters as there were once he started the battle.

His first thought was that there were an infinite amount of zombies but that didn't make any sense since it was a dungeon for level 1-5. It would be way too difficult for a level 1 player to fight this many zombies and defeat them. He kept slaying the monsters until a sudden thought came to him.

[Open: profile]

[Player: Yuki Kaito]

[Level 2: 31400/40000]

This had proved his second theory, since Yuki hadn't gained any exp, it meant that he hadn't actually been killing the zombies. All he did was cut them but they regenerated just as fast as they were cut. This meant that Yuki needed to hit them at a specific spot to kill them permanently.

...

While Yuki was busy in the dungeon, Rui, Katsumi and Jobon continued to hunt monsters in the forest, not relenting for even a moment as they needed to make their leader proud. After a while though, they grew tired and took a little break at which they sat down together and began to eat the lunch they had brought for themselves. 

As they continued to take their break, a shadow emerged from the woods. It was a man who wore a dark brown cloak which barely even showed his face. All the 3 of them could see was his large smile which looked to be more of a grin. 

"So I hear that you have a connection with someone called Yuki," the cloaked man said. 

"Yes we do... so what of it?" Jobon hastily replied which brought the cloaked man to grin more. 

"He's being suspected of murder, I suggest you hand him over to the authorities," the cloaked man said. 

"... W-we don't really know where he is right now. We'll get back to you later when we see him again," Rui replied while clearly lying. 

"How about this... if you help us capture him, I can offer you more silver than you'll ever need during your lifetime. You must hate going around hunting monsters like you're some kind of cavemen. So just hand him over and you'll never have to work a day in your life," the cloaked man offered. 

Hearing his words clearly infuriated Rui however, Katsumi stopped him from saying anything while Jobon stood up from the log which he was sitting on before shaking the cloaked man's hand with a gentle smile on his face.