The city of Porto breathed history in every tiny space. The ancient cobblestone streets told stories spanning almost 1,000 years, while the Douro River reflected the colorful houses perfectly aligned along its banks. The squares, crowded with men and women, mingled with hurried footsteps and the smell of coffee, reminiscent of the distant Atlantic. In the heart of the city, the Catholic cathedral called Sé do Porto, born exactly 892 years ago, stood imposingly, its walls worn by time, with Gothic-style windows that seemed to guard secrets never before revealed.

  At the cathedral's green door, a boy in a white beanie stood motionless, silently observing the gate of the building, as if waiting for something extraordinary to happen there, sooner rather than later.

  "It's here..."

  Jonas Solberg had chosen a solo dungeon (a maximum of one person) to complete. His body didn't falter, stutter, or tremble. But interestingly, he also didn't seem like someone necessarily confident, just level-headed.

  He chose a level 7 dungeon. Slightly above what he was currently at (Level 4), but unlikely to pose any real challenge. It was quite common for Exterminators to undertake missions of slightly higher levels than their own if they at least had a solid strategy.

  But he didn't. Jonas hadn't thought twice before jumping out of the hospital window.

  It was Thursday. The Sé do Porto was open to visitors. Naturally, people were coming and going, and some were still casting curious glances at the boy, who simply stared coldly at the door.

  Because in his view, it wasn't a door.

  A portal?... Wow, I always wanted to check one.

  With the same green color as the door, there was a spiral spinning effusively. Bright and even a little golden, it was extremely attractive to the touch. People walked through this as if it simply didn't exist.

  Jonas realized he had no choice but to enter this portal, and also that he was the only one capable of observing it. There was no way to get into the church; the entrance was completely blocked by that thing. Well, maybe there was a back entrance, but that didn't matter.

  "Here we go." With a deep breath, he took two steps forward.

  ※ ※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※　※

  Jonas's vision grew blurry, and then nothing. Not black, a total nothingness, like the vision of the blind.

  But then, light.

  A vast, clear space opened up before him. Empty, covered only by large pillars on all sides.

  There was no trace of the church, no cross, no pews, only the granite pillars that connected at the top forming semicircular shapes. There were three corridors: left, right, and front. Well, there was also down, the path Jonas came from, but that one was closed, even though checking that path never occurred to the boy.

  There was no sound, pure silence. It waited for the player to take the initiative.

  "INVENTORY."

  With those words, the transparent blue system opened to the tab Jonas intended. There, he found all the few materials he had gathered, mission items (currently 0), and items given by the association itself as a gift to the Exterminator for his registration, like some potions.

  Among them, Jonas clicked on "Compass" and immediately felt the weight in his coat pocket. Reaching in, he pulled out a small, round metal object. With the letters "N, W, E, S", there was a small red dot on the second-to-last letter.

  "Hmm, so the boss is to the right? Very well, let's go."

  He took slow, careful steps toward the east. Until he came across a gate.

  It was enormous, made of wood, at least three meters high.

  "I was not expecting this..." He gave it a little nudge, his fingers seeming insignificant compared to such a massive structure. Then, a small push that proved futile. The gate didn't even creak.

  "Is this a strength test? I guess there is a minimum amount of strength required to open this."

  He remembered: 13 Strength. That was all he had for points in that stat. What if the required points were 15? Then he'd never be able to open it.

  It had to be enough.

  "C'mon!" Jonas rolled up both sleeves and pulled. His teeth chattered, his head pressed against the door, helping as well. And the door began to open, the wood creaking. Everything he ever wanted.

  But Jonas fell to the ground.

  "Ahhhhhh..." He was sweating, barely standing.

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  The door slid shut, slamming closed with all its might.

  Jonas understood as he gasped down on the floor: He didn’t have enough Vitality points.

  Perhaps it didn't force a test of strength, but of vitality. And he only had 10.

  "S-Shit, I..." He stood up, and with a final sigh, tried to push it again.

  Just to fall again.

  "Wait a second... OPEN STATUS."

  The blue box arrived. But Jonas's eyes focused only on one specific attribute:

  Stamina: 3/30

  "This is all that's left!? You've got to be kidding me!"

  "Hey, dummy." The voice came out of his mouth, yet it was not his.

  "What do you want..."

  "You know, I could open this door. My Vitality points are enough. You just need to ask~"

  "Shut up. I'll do this alone." Once again, Jonas positioned himself on both feet.

  "Well, you better hurry up then." The entity forced Jonas's eyes to roll back.

  "Otherwise, you're gonna have a bad time."

  Beside him, two Goblins appeared. Green and dirty, walking slowly in his direction. Both holding daggers.

  "SHIT!!" Jonas found himself in grave danger. The Goblins were just a few meters away from him.

  He grabbed the gate handle and tried to push, but fell to his knees. In desperation, sweat dripping from his forehead as he felt their presence slowly approaching, Jonas tried to push anyway. Until his hands were too weak, so he could only use his chest and head.

  And they dashed.

  Once again, Jonas was too ambitious, and he paid the price. Who would have thought, attempting a dungeon of a much higher level was such a bad idea? Who would have thought that he would be attacked by two incredibly weak creatures at the very moment when that couldn't happen to him?

  Well, that didn't happen to Jonas. He had a plan.

  "INVENTORY!!!"

  The millisecond it took to open was agonizing. But it opened. He quickly clicked on "TEMPORARY VITALITY POTION FOR 2 MINUTES."

  A weight fell into his pocket. His sweaty, tired hands rushed to it, stumbling and almost dropping it.

  But he drank.

  He could almost feel the monsters' breath on his neck; he could already smell a horrible stench of rotting Goblin flesh.

  But he opened the door.

  "AHHHH!!"

  The door slammed shut behind him, and his body automatically threw itself to the floor, all his limbs spread wide, his tongue gasping for air.

  "I DID IT!... DAMN IT, I FREAKING DID IT! THANKS FOR THE POTION, MR. PRESIDENT!"

  But before he could truly celebrate, his own voice interrupted the party.

  "Hey, I didn't mean to bother you, but... Look ahead."

  When he did, he could only swallow dryly and freeze.

  A huge horde of Goblins, Wolves, and Slimes. The most basic demons there were, but in absurd quantities; their danger was the same as Lucifer's.

  "Oh no." Jonas crawled backward until he had nowhere else to go.

  The monsters waited a while until they finally detected the player's presence. Footsteps, footprints, and slime came towards them.

  "Shit... No no no no no—wait. OPEN STATUS."

  They appeared. Everything was as usual. Level 4, 13 Strength, 10 Vitality, etc. But something interesting was right at the bottom:

  WARNING! DEBUFF APPLIED! DUE TO POTION, YOUR STAMINA IS INCREASED 900 POINTS FOR 5 MINUTES.

  "1-100?!" Jonas stammered to himself. It was a completely astronomical level for where he was.

  Seeing what it meant, Jonas extinguished all his nervousness and fear and stood up as if he had never suffered in his life, as if tiredness did not exist.

  "INVENTORY."

  Calmly, he grabbed an item given by the association called "Dagger: King Luís I, Lvl. 5."

  As soon as he clicked, the dagger appeared in his hand at the same moment the blue screen disappeared. It was yellow, sharp, and small, but he felt that it was mostly durable.

  He smirked. "Let's farm."

  This time, Jonas was the one dashing forward.

  He tore a Goblin apart in a single attack. Agility was his best attribute (15).

  His slight Perception (11) detected a wolf trying to bite his neck from behind. But with just a glance, he dodged; the wolf pierced through and ended up biting a Goblin. Taking advantage of the opening, Jonas quickly plunged the dagger into the gray wolf's back, which howled until it died.

  Jonas felt his left arm greasy and viscous, as if some presence were there. Seeing it, there was a disgusting blue goo that was slowly robbing his arm of its ability to move.

  When he looked ahead, he saw more blue goo flying towards him, right at his head, which luckily he dodged at the last second. It came from three Slimes, who were hiding at the back of the room, just firing those fluids.

  One after another, they launched more goo. Closer, wolves leaped toward him, and Goblins threw knives.

  But that was no problem for Jonas Solberg.

  Grabbing a poor wolf that was passing by, he stretched it out in the air, making it the target of all those objects. Then, as if it were a hammer, he struck two Goblins with the creature, stunning them. When he noticed, he was at the side of the three Goblins.

  Oh, this explains a lot. On top of the Slime's head, there was a small, transparent box. Actually, every single creature in that room had one, but Jonas only had time to visualize it then. It said: 'Slime, Lvl. 1.'

  That was when he noticed: Every single demon in that room was only from Lvl. 1 to 2. That was the range.

  Ah, so that's Mana Observation? The one she... she... His features visibly turned downcast for a moment, but he quickly recovered by shaking his head.

  T-That's past, ignore it... ignore it damn it. Ignore it!!

  He slashed the dagger against the Slime's bulging eyes; the Slime responded by squirting water until only a puddle of the liquid remained.

  The other two basically did not react. They were Slimes, after all, irrational beings, probably without the concept of "fear," simply recharging their attacks.

  That was a mistake.

  Jonas cut the eye of the closest one and threw the dagger at the one furthest away. In exactly 3 seconds, both imploded.

  "Is this HeraCrox muscle memory? I don't care. This is so cool," he said, enjoying every second of it.

  When he turned back, he stared all the remaining creatures in the eyes at once. Even the Slimes, who previously didn't know what "fear" was, instantly developed that feeling.

  For all of them, without exception, all the demons fled backward until they disappeared into the darkness.

  "Hahahah!!!" Jonas laughed. He deserved it. I mean, he had just made a bunch of monsters fly away without any real consequence. No injuries, no scratches, no fatigue due to the potion, just a bit of goo left over from when he shook his arm.

  "Onto the next target. Come on." He took out the compass and took a good look.

  "Hm, same as before? So this was just a preparation room or something?... Ok."

  He turned to East once more. And this time, there was no need to take a deep breath, just to walk.

  Glob glob glauh

  These weird sounds came from a few meters behind him.

  Without a second thought, Jonas turned around. But immediately his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

  "W-What the hell is this?"

  It was a creature, gigantic, much bigger than the old door, at least 5 meters tall.

  It was made of rusty metal pieces, resembling a robot or a Transformer, with green skin and remnants of gray fur all over its body. The palm of its hand constantly and endlessly produced blue slime, and its head was half-wolf, half-goblin, both smiling confidently with blue goo dripping down their faces, two bulging eyes falling onto their cheeks.

  The smell was horrible and unbearable. The smell of dozens of monsters fused into a single thing.

  Jonas read the name from Mana Observation: 'Goblinstein, Lvl. 8.'

  A ridiculously difficult and impossible mission for a level 4 boy, literally double what he was now.

  "And they all merged into 1?! Only 1?! Oh, goddammit...! OPEN STATUS!"

  The blue screen opened in front of him. Jonas only read one thing at the bottom:

  WARNING! DEBUFF APPLIED! DUE TO POTION, YOUR STAMINA IS INCREASED 900 POINTS FOR '1 MINUTE.'

  1 minute. That was all he had. He had only one small minute to kill that giant and powerful monster.

  It was worth remembering that if the potion's effect wore off, Jonas would lose all his strength and energy.

  It was also worth remembering that this wasn't even the boss of Sé do Porto's dungeon.