Chapter 8: Absorb
"They got killed on the way out," William muttered.
"On this floor? There should be nothing here that can take the two of them out," Violet said. She looked at the bodies closely, realizing that only the tank and the assassin had been brute-forced around, and as for the newbie, his neck was slit.
"He tried to follow them," she said, "maybe to spy and see what they were doing."
"That was a terrible idea, he could have woken us up," William said. Then he spotted another set of blood on the ground. It was darker than normal, which meant it was the blood of a monster.
"That’s the blood of a monster, they indeed fought something powerful here," he said.
"Hmm, whatever it was, it must have been terrifyingly strong to do that to them," Violet said as she walked over to the assassin and saw one of the artifacts. She picked it up and showed it to William. "I guess we can keep this then."
William saw the artifact and let out a sigh. The very thing that they had betrayed them for, they could not even leave the dungeon with it. He searched the body of the tank and found the second.
After they were done, he turned and looked at the newbies, who were still shaken to their core.
"After you leave today, I want you to understand something. The dungeons are unpredictable and dangerous. They may exist in known rules that have worked from time before, but always keep an eye out for the possibility of anything happening at any time." He finished what he had to say, and they all started moving again, leaving the dungeon. The only body that William suggested they carry was that of the newbie. They would bury him as a sign of respect.
As soon as they left the entrance of the dungeon, William paused and looked at the dungeon. He could not shake the feeling that something was different, unique about the dungeon today after they entered it. He let out a soft smile that held more confusion than anything, then he turned and walked away. But in his mind and heart, he had a feeling that he would be returning to the dungeon.
[...]
Five days in total went by while Kael was busy asleep. His consciousness returned like a wave, and he was reconnected to the dungeon. To him, it felt as though he had closed his eyes and opened them again, but the system came to pop that bubble.
[Welcome back, you have been asleep for five days]
[Operational power full]
"What the hell? Five days?" Kael was in shock when he heard that. So much could have happened in the five days that he was asleep.
[Mission completed successfully]
[You have gained a reward]
"Mission? Oh wait, the one to kill two humans? I guess I did take out two."
He stared at the screen for a long second, and then he spoke, "What is the reward?"
[You have gained a skill, Absorb]
[Absorb Lv1: This skill allows you to absorb one skill from a dead human or alien being in the dungeon and use it in the dungeon as you wish.
Cost: 1 Operational Energy per absorb.
Max: Three absorbs per day.]
[Current Total Operational Energy: 110]
[Complete more tasks and behave like a dungeon to gain more operational energy]
"A skill? That’s pretty cool, haha, I can do something more than opening walls and watching now.
Absorb. Being able to take skills will be fun, I could use a fireball and attack an unsuspecting adventurer, hehe. Not that I should just do that."
He read what remained and saw the details about operational energy, which he was guessing was the energy he needed to run things. He needed to be careful with that if he did not want to fall into another very deep sleep.
Now that he was done seeing what he had, the next thing that came to mind was to see who was in the dungeon right now, so he began searching the floors. But he did not have to search for long, as the very moment that he checked floor one and floor two, he saw over a hundred people inside.
"What the heck is going on!" he asked in confusion, and the walls of the dungeon hummed.
"Why the heck are there so many here, what do they want?" He decided to find out by leaning in and hearing the discussion of two young adventurers that were on floor two together.
"I don’t get it, what is the fuss about this dungeon all of a sudden?" one asked. He was taller and had slicked-back black hair, a bow and quiver of arrows on his back. A dagger rested on his side as well.
"Bro, are you living under a rock? What the hell do you mean, what is happening? If you don’t know, why did you agree to come with me?" the shorter one asked. He had on some light cheap armor that had seen better days, and a longsword was on his waist.
"Because you asked, and after leaving wood rank for iron rank, I’ve needed some quality training. I want to rise to bronze as fast as possible, that way I can actually start taking some good missions," the first one explained.
’Hmm, from the discussions I have heard from all the adventurers so far, I can already make out the fact that there is a ranking system for adventurers. It starts with wood, then iron, and then bronze. I wonder what is next,’ Kael thought while listening to them.
The shorter adventurer palmed his face and pulled it down, the way you did when you could not believe what was happening.
"A few days ago, two silver-ranked adventurers left this dungeon. They brought out two freaking artifacts from the dungeon, the types that would sell for tens of thousands of gold coins.
So now everyone wants to see what this dungeon could have. Maybe we might be the lucky ones."
’Ohhh, so that’s it, these assholes came because they want to take from me, tch.’
