[THREE DAYS LATER - ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT - 10:47 PM]
Alex had learned three important things over the last three days:
First: Unregistered dungeons were more common than people thought. Lowtown was full of minor rifts that opened and closed like infected wounds in reality. The city simply didn't have the resources—or the motivation—to monitor them all.
Second: Hunting alone was simultaneously more dangerous and more efficient. No party meant no help, but it also meant he didn't have to share souls. Every kill was his.
Third: He was developing a reputation. Summoner forums whispered about a "ghost hunter" clearing minor rifts at night. No one knew who he was—yet—but the rumors were growing.
Now he stood before his most ambitious target yet: a full dungeon.
Not a minor rift. Not a temporary outbreak. A real dungeon, the kind that normally required coordinated teams of five people to clear safely.
[Dungeon detected: Forgotten Den]
[Classification: E-Rank (High)]
[Recommended level: 8-15]
[Recommended party size: 5 summoners]
[Known creatures: Goblins, Shadow Wolves, Venom Slimes]
[WARNING: Dungeon boss present - Cursed Stone Golem (Level 18)]
[Status: Not officially registered, abandoned 2 years ago after fatal incident]
Alex read the system panel twice more, just to make sure he wasn't misinterpreting.
"Fatal incident," he murmured. "That means someone died here."
Grim, in small form at his side, tilted his skull. No words, but the gesture communicated something Alex had learned to read: Yes. And you might be next.
"Motivating," Alex said dryly. He checked his status:
[MASTER STATUS]
Level: 8
HP: 420/420
MP: 230/230
Souls harvested: 47.3/1000
Forty-seven souls. Three days of constant night grinding. His body ached, his mind was exhausted, but the numbers didn't lie—he was progressing.
Just not fast enough.
At this rate, it would take months to reach a thousand souls. And every night that passed, more people noticed his activities. The whispers grew louder. Eventually, someone would connect the dots.
The ghost hunter. The Celestial Academy reject. Alex Carter.
And when they did, questions would come. Questions he couldn't answer without revealing what—who—Grim really was.
"We need a big score," Alex said, more to himself than to Grim. "A full dungeon. The boss alone is probably worth... what, five souls? Maybe more if it's elite."
He looked at the entrance—a rusted metal door in the basement of a collapsed factory. According to records he'd found in buried municipal archives, this dungeon had appeared four years ago. A team of novice adventurers had tried to clear it two years ago.
Three walked out. Two went out in body bags.
The city had marked it as "too dangerous for threat level" and simply... abandoned it. They sealed the entrance, put up warning signs, and forgot about it.
Typical Lowtown.
Alex had spent six hours yesterday cutting through the seal. Now the door stood slightly ajar, absolute darkness beyond.
"Last chance to back out," he said to Grim.
The small skeleton stood motionless. Waiting.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. 'Your will is mine' and all that shit." Alex took a deep breath, checking his equipment one last time:
· Combat knife (bought on the black market, 150 crowns he could barely afford)
· Three health potions (cheap, probably diluted, but better than nothing)
· Hand flashlight (because Soul Sight drained too much MP for constant use)
· Dark, flexible clothing (because real armor cost more than he'd earn in a year)
Pathetic compared to what proper teams brought. But it was what he had.
"Intermediate form," he ordered. "Let's conserve MP until we really need it."
[Transformation: Latent → Intermediate]
[Cost: 50 MP]
[MP remaining: 180/230]
Grim grew to his four-foot form, scythe solidifying into real steel. The red lights appeared in his sockets, faint but present.
"Ready... master. I... lead. You... follow."
The teenage voice with that tomb echo. Alex would never fully get used to it.
They entered the darkness.
---
[FORGOTTEN DEN - LEVEL 1]
The difference between a minor rift and a real dungeon was immediately obvious.
Rifts were raw, rough tunnels, clearly unnatural but without real design. They appeared randomly and disappeared just as fast.
Real dungeons were built. By whom or what, no one really knew—the origin of dungeons was one of the world's great mysteries—but they had architecture. Purpose. As if someone had specifically designed these spaces to kill adventurers.
This place had been a mine once, according to records. But now the mine tunnels intertwined with stone hallways that were definitely not human-made. The walls were covered in runes glowing with sickly green light. The air smelled of sulfur and something sweet-rotten.
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Alex activated Soul Sight briefly, just to scan the area ahead.
[Soul Sight activated - 10 MP/minute]
Auras appeared. Half a dozen of them, white and faint, clustered about twenty meters ahead.
"Six contacts," he whispered to Grim. "Low level. Probably goblins."
"Strategy?" Grim asked, his voice echoing in the narrow hallways.
Alex thought quickly. Three days of experience had taught him that brute force worked against individual weak creatures, but groups required tactics.
"You draw them. I'll wait here. When they pass me, I'll hit them from behind. We'll trap them in the middle."
"Risky... for you."
"That's why I have this." Alex pulled out his knife. It wasn't much, but he'd been practicing. His stats had increased with his levels—he was still weak compared to real summoners, but no longer completely useless.
"Understood. I... draw."
Grim advanced, his bony footsteps echoing. Alex pressed himself against the wall, turning off his flashlight, trusting in the faint glow of the wall runes.
He heard Grim ahead. A scream—something between a howl and a shriek—followed by combat sounds.
Footsteps. Approaching fast.
Three goblins ran past Alex, chasing Grim, completely unaware of the human pressed against the shadows.
Alex waited until they passed.
Then he attacked.
His knife sank into the last goblin's back—a clumsy strike, not fatal, but enough to make the creature scream and stumble.
[Ambush critical hit! -78 HP]
[Goblin Warrior HP: 42/120]
The goblin spun, yellow eyes blazing with hate and pain. It swung a crude club—just a bone wrapped in leather, but definitely capable of cracking Alex's skull if it connected.
Alex dodged—barely—the weapon passing so close he felt the air displacement.
He stabbed again. This strike caught the goblin's neck.
[Critical hit! -156 HP]
[Goblin Warrior HP: 0/120]
[Goblin Warrior killed!]
[+45 EXP]
[Soul harvested: 0.2/1000]
The creature crumpled, dark green blood staining the stone floor.
The other two goblins had heard the combat. They turned, seeing him—
And Grim struck from behind.
His scythe cut through both in a single fluid arc.
[+45 EXP] [+45 EXP]
[Souls harvested: 0.4/1000]
The three remaining goblins ahead, realizing they were trapped, tried to flee deeper into the dungeon.
"Pursue them?" Grim asked.
"No." Alex had a better idea. "Let them run. They'll lead us to more of their group. More efficient than searching room by room."
"Smart... master."
They followed the fleeing goblins at a safe distance. The creatures' panicked shrieks made tracking them trivial.
Two minutes later, they reached a larger chamber—an old mining extraction hall, expanded by dungeon forces into something three times its original size.
And it was packed.
Alex activated Soul Sight briefly, counting auras.
[MP: 160/230]
Fifteen goblins. Three shadow wolves—larger than normal wolves, with black fur that seemed to absorb light. And in the corner, something pulsing with sickly green: five venom slimes, each the size of a barrel.
"Shit," Alex whispered. "That's too many for frontal combat."
"I... can take. Many." Grim sounded confident, but Alex noticed the skeleton had tensed. Even in Intermediate form, these odds were dangerous.
"No. We need to level the field." Alex looked at the three goblin bodies they'd left in the hallway behind them. "Reanimate. I'm going to use Reanimate."
"The... fallen enemies?"
"Exactly."
Alex knelt beside the nearest goblin. The creature had been dead less than five minutes—fresh, relatively intact.
Perfect.
He placed his hand on the corpse, focusing on the skill.
[Reanimate - Activated]
[Target: Goblin Warrior corpse (fresh)]
[Cost: 25 MP]
[MP remaining: 135/230]
[Duration: 20 minutes]
Magic flowed out of him. The corpse shuddered. Green skin withered, flesh accelerated decomposition, falling away until only a skeleton remained.
A skeletal goblin. Smaller than Grim, more fragile, but definitely mobile.
It stood, empty eye sockets turning to Alex, awaiting orders.
"Incredible," Alex murmured. He reanimated the other two bodies.
[MP remaining: 85/230]
Three skeletal goblins now stood before him. Primitive, clumsy, but they were his.
"Okay," he said, his mind working through the battle plan. "Grim, you take the left flank. Skeletons, go center—I don't need you to win, just to distract. I'll circle right, target the slimes first. They're slow but their venom can take down even Grim if enough hits land."
"Risky... splitting forces."
"This whole damn dungeon is risky. But if we stay grouped, the wolves will flank us and the slimes will block our escape routes."
Grim tilted his skull. "Your... command. I... execute."
Alex took a deep breath.
"Now!"
The three goblin skeletons charged into the chamber, howling—a horrible, grating sound, air forcing through throats with no vocal cords.
The effect was instant. The living goblins turned, seeing their fallen comrades turned undead, and panicked.
Perfect chaos.
Grim entered from the left, his scythe cutting through two goblins before they could react. The shadow wolves, trained by dungeon instinct to protect the group, lunged toward him.
The goblin skeletons hit the center of the formation, bony claws tearing, drawing attention, creating confusion.
And Alex slipped through the right.
The venom slimes, slow and dim-witted, didn't notice him until it was too late. His knife pierced the first—a slimy, disgusting sensation, but the creature simply deflated like a popped balloon.
[+35 EXP]
[Soul harvested: 0.3/1000]
The second slime tried to envelop him. Alex rolled aside—barely—acid splashing where he'd been standing, smoking holes in the stone.
"Too close!" He stabbed down, penetrating the slime's core.
[+35 EXP]
[Soul harvested: 0.3/1000]
Three slimes remaining. Alex grabbed a potion from his belt, drank—it tasted like cough syrup mixed with dirty water, but his HP restored 50 points.
Movement to his left. One of the shadow wolves had noticed the vulnerable human. It broke away from its attack on Grim, eyes gleaming with predatory intelligence.
"Shit." Alex couldn't outrun a wolf. Not even close.
The wolf leaped—
A goblin skeleton intercepted, throwing itself into the wolf's path. Fangs closed on fragile bones, crushing the skeleton to pieces.
[Reanimation destroyed]
But it bought Alex two seconds.
Two seconds to circle toward the next slime and stab it.
[+35 EXP]
Two slimes remaining. But the shadow wolf was free now, and it was ANGRY.
"GRIM! A LITTLE HELP!"
"Busy!" The skeleton was dealing with the other two wolves simultaneously, his scythe spinning in a deadly dance. He'd reduced the goblin pack to five, but they were coordinating, attacking in formation.
Alex was alone.
The wolf lunged again. Alex dodged—but not fast enough. Claws raked his left arm, pain exploding.
[Critical hit received! -120 HP]
[HP: 300/420]
[Status: Bleeding - lose 5 HP every 3 seconds]
"SHIT!" Alex stumbled backward, his back hitting the wall.
The wolf advanced, growling, savoring the kill.
Think. THINK.
His eyes fell on the nearest venom slime. Then on the wolf. Then back to the slime.
Crazy idea.
"Hey, Fido! Over here!" Alex pushed off the wall, running—not away from the wolf, but TOWARD the slime.
The wolf chased, faster, gaining—
Alex slid under the slime at the last second, passing beneath its gelatinous mass.
The wolf couldn't stop. It crashed directly into the slime.
The venomous acid reacted instantly. The wolf's howl was cut short as its fur, skin, flesh dissolved.
[Shadow Wolf killed by Venom Slime]
[No EXP - indirect kill]
[No soul harvested - not killed by companion]
"Damn," Alex panted. No soul. But at least he was alive.
The slime, now confused and partially dissolved from consuming the wolf, was easy prey. Alex waited for it to finish "digesting," then stabbed it when it was vulnerable.
[+35 EXP]
One slime remaining. Alex circled it—difficult with a bleeding arm—but managed to stab its core after three attempts.
[+35 EXP]
[Soul harvested: 0.3/1000]
He spun toward the main battle.
Grim had killed both remaining wolves and was finishing off the final goblins. The two remaining reanimated skeletons were in various stages of destruction but still fighting.
Thirty seconds later, it was over.
Silence fell over the chamber. Silence except for Alex's heavy breathing and the drip of his blood hitting stone.
[Combat complete]
[Total EXP earned: 847]
[You have leveled up! Level 8 → Level 10]
[Total souls harvested: 50.8/1000]
[HP: 265/480 - Maximum HP increased!]
[MP: 85/270 - Maximum MP increased!]
Alex slid down the wall, exhausted. He drank his second potion—the third needed to be saved for emergencies.
[HP: 315/480]
Still bleeding. He fumbled in his backpack, pulled out the basic medical kit he'd bought. Awkwardly wrapped his left arm, applying pressure.
[Status: Bleeding - Stopped!]
Grim approached, reverting to his small form to conserve MP.
[MP remaining: 35/270]
The small skeleton tilted his skull, looking at Alex's bandaged arm.
"I'm fine," Alex lied. "Just a scratch."
Grim didn't respond—couldn't in small form—but the tilt of his skull communicated skepticism.
"Okay, more than a scratch. But I survived. That's what matters."
They sat there for ten minutes, Alex recovering MP and breath. The corpses around them began to dissolve—when dungeon creatures died, their bodies gradually disappeared, turning into mana essence that fed back into the dungeon. Within an hour, there would be no evidence this battle ever happened.
Except for the loot.
Alex forced himself up, exploring the chamber. The goblins had accumulated a stash: a few coins (67 crowns—not bad), a dagger that was better quality than his knife (he immediately swapped), and three mana crystals the size of marbles (he could sell them for 50 crowns each).
"Not bad for the first room," he murmured. "How many levels does a dungeon like this typically have?"
Of course, Grim couldn't answer. But the system did:
[Forgotten Den - Structure]
Level 1: Upper Tunnels (COMPLETED)
Level 2: Intermediate Chambers (UNEXPLORED)
Level 3: Depths (UNEXPLORED)
Boss: Cursed Stone Golem Chamber (Level 18)
Clear progress: 34%
"Thirty-four percent," Alex laughed humorlessly. "Great. Only twice as much fighting to reach the boss."
He allowed himself another five minutes of rest, then forced himself to continue. Staying still in a dungeon was asking for trouble—reinforcements could spawn, or something worse might come investigating.
---
[LEVEL 2 - INTERMEDIATE CHAMBERS]
The next ninety minutes were a blur of tactical combat.
Alex had found his rhythm. Grim fought directly, Alex provided tactical support and reanimated fallen enemies to create temporary distractions. It worked—not elegantly, not perfectly, but it worked.
They cleared room after room:
· Goblin den with eight warriors and a shaman (the shaman almost fried him with lightning before a reanimated skeleton tackled it)
· Wolf lair with a pack of six (he learned Reanimate worked best on quadrupedal creatures—skeletal wolves were surprisingly effective)
· Slime nest with dozens of small acid slimes (annoying but easy once he identified their cores)
By the time they reached the stairs descending to Level 3, Alex's status showed:
Level: 12 (+2 since last check)
HP: 380/560
MP: 140/330
Souls: 89.7/1000
Status: Fatigued, minorly wounded, but functional
"Almost ninety souls," Alex said, looking at the progress. "This single dungeon gave me almost double what three days of grinding produced."
He looked at the stairs descending. Absolute darkness beyond.
"Boss on Level 3," he continued. "Cursed Stone Golem, Level 18. That's..." he did the mental math, "seven levels higher than me. Ten levels higher than when I entered."
Grim stood motionless at his side. Waiting.
"I should probably go back. Consolidate gains. Come back when I'm stronger."
He looked at Grim.
The small skeleton said nothing—couldn't. But something in his posture communicated a simple question:
Is that really the kind of person you are? The one who retreats?
Alex thought about the last three years. All the work, all the sacrifice, playing it safe, being careful.
And it had gotten him an F-Rank companion and expulsion.
"Screw it," he said, standing up. "We came here for the boss. Let's go kill the damn boss."
He descended the stairs.
Grim followed, red lights flickering in his sockets. If Alex didn't know him better, he'd swear the skeleton was pleased.
---
[LEVEL 3 - BOSS CHAMBER]
