"[Slash]." Liam roared as he brought his sword down on a D-rank Green Wolf and it roared with its final breath before going still.
Harold felt a twinge of pity at the way it went down but he knew that if the roles were reversed, they would show no mercy.
Tuat was a strange place. Despite being underground, some of the areas had places that was even brighter than the surface. The place Harold's party was in was one of such places.
Tuat was divided into four layers. The deeper you went, the more dangerous the monsters.
The first layer was the Upper Stratum. The monsters there were usually within the strength ranks of E-rank to C-rank.
The Middle Stratum. Strength ranking of monsters were from B-rank to S-rank.
The Lower Stratum. From SS-rank to Legendary.
And finally, the Deep. No one in all of mankind's history had ever made it that far, even the Heroes of the past generations.
The Deep was a layer that was best left unacknowledged by mankind and due to the fact that none of the monsters had ever come forth, mankind was still at peace.
'At least, that was what my teacher told me.' Harold thought as he inspected the dungeon.
The area they were in was a meadow. There was no sun or sky but in the rooftop of the dungeon was a sky-blue ceiling and mana crystals that emitted light. In the center was the largest mana crystal which seemed to be the 'sun' of the floor.
The Upper Stratum was divided into ten floors, each of varying difficulty. Harold's party was currently on the fifth floor which was still considered safe, according to the Guild information.
"I'll handle the dissection." Harold said and removed a knife from has bag and walked in front of the monster.
"[Dissect]" Harold's eyes sharpened and he lowered the knife onto the monster's body and in a few, quick flashes, the monster was split into its parts and neatly arranged.
Harold heard a few impressed murmurs and he wiped the sweat that formed on his forehead and looked at his status.
[Harold
Level: 5
Job: Thief
Race: Human
Status: Alive
Strength: 10 Speed: 13 Perception: 20 Vitality: 12 Intelligence: 10
HP: 120/120
MP: 100/100
Skills: Dissect Disarm Trap Hack Slash Unlock Stealth Hide Breath
Dash Perseverance
Titles: Reincarnator
]
'As average as ever.' Harold sighed and closed his status window. It appeared like he had a lot of skills but most of them were just common skills that most could acquire with a bit of training.
Skill, just like magic, were a concept unique to this world. Skills could mostly be acquired through two means – one, spending skill points that was obtainable when one levels up and two, learning it naturally.
The first process was the fastest but also the costliest while the second was slower but cheaper. Knights and people belonging to organizations usually used the second method while adventurers used the first method.
Sadly, despite all his efforts, Harold had only earned a total of ten skill points which he had used to obtain the skill [Perseverance]. For him, it was a must have as it increased his HP regeneration rate and allowed him to survive wounds that would normally be fatal.
Skill points was a mysterious currency that the game-like system that this world used. When a person's skill points reached the required level, he or she would see a list of skills that could be purchased with their current amount.
The amount of skill points that one got at any level was random but for some people, they got more than others.
'That is the gap between those who are talented and those who are not.' Harold watched as Liam raised his sword and cut down an E-rank Dungeon Rat faster than most could follow.
Liam was at level 10 but his stats, skills and other aspects were far greater than what Harold could earn even if he reached that level.
'And not to mention, I did not get any skill points at birth.' In this world, most, if not all were born with an amount of skill points at their birth.
The skills gotten during one's early phase could potentially determine one's growth path and pace for the rest of their life.
'Forget being ordinary; I'm way behind most of the people of this world.' Harold thought bitterly as he followed behind his party while keeping an eye out for traps.
Downsides after downside, that was the story of Harold's life both on Earth and in this world.
"I guess this is the world's way of saying, once a loser, always a loser." Harold muttered with a faint anger simmering in his heart.
"Hold." Liam said and everyone stopped walking and looked at him.
"Floria, some light please." Floria nodded at Liam's request and held her staff up. A small, round ball of light forced its way out of the tip after a few seconds.
"Please take it over there." Harold was wondering what Liam would need light for in an area like this when he pointed at a place where two rocks were leaning against each other.
"Got it." Florian nodded and waved her staff and the light ball followed the movements and floated in the direction of the stones.
It was then. Harold received a tingling in his mind and grabbed Floria and Jasmine and leaped backwards.
The next second, like a bomb was let off, the stones exploded and blew everything back.
Jade held his longsword in front of him as an energy shield with the sword as the diameter spread to cover him.
Liam used his shield to block the fragments flying at him. Harold did not have any defensive skills which was precisely why he grabbed the two magic users.
Floria and Jasmine invoked the spell that they stored in their staffs and two shields of different colors emerged and covered the three of them.
"What was that?" Liam yelled and Harold closed his eyes that were now useless in the dust and smoke and focused all his mind on his hearing.
And he heard it. Skittling noises that would just be mild annoying in the kitchen but completely different in a dungeon.
In the entire world, asides from legendary monsters such as dragons, phoenixes and the likes, there was a certain type of monsters acknowledged to be the most dangerous in the world and particularly, Tuat.
Most of them were weak but the ones who were strong were absolutely strong. And their vast numbers were enough to easily wipe out an entire nation if they so pleased.
Harold was not quite sure which of them they were dealing with but the dread creeping on his spine was more than enough to tell him this was no afternoon tea party.
"Prepare yourselves! We're dealing with multiple Insect-type monsters!"