There's a little over 150 000 E-Rank Dungeons in all of Niger.
"With my Rank where it is, I can only enter F-Ranks and E-Ranks so I might as well start binge clearing E-Rank Dungeons from now on."
I drove around for a while looking for any E-Rank Dungeon that either had no Warriors who had previously entered or a very small number of them. Finally, I came across one that only had what looked like a single party previously enter. Like in all Dungeons sites, there was a metal pole behind its fence that had a tablet like template that displayed the number of Warriors that have entered the Dungeon.
"Five people, huh? Must be a party, I'm sure there's at least a few out there that are completely empty but District-2 is a big place, chances are it'd take hours for me to actually find one. So I'll make do with this one."
I parked my car then went to the Gate to verify my ID. I gave it to one of the two guards guarding the Gate. As he took it, his previously dim expression changed entirely.
"F-Rank, it's you, isn't it? The F-Rank Warrior who recently cleared an E-Rank Dungeon on his own!" He said.
"Seriously? You're kidding right? I'd understand why the receptionist would know something like that so quickly but these guys!??... News can't travel that fast, can it?"
"Uh...yeah. That's me alright. How'd you know?"
"Well aside from the fact that the guards you met yesterday when you came out can't stop talking about you at HQ, you're in the top 50 of District-2's hottest Dungeon topics right now. Here, take a look-see." He showed me his phone, there were a number of headlines; 'Newbie Warrior solo clears Dungeon', 'They say the third time's a charm, F-Rank proves it's actually the first', 'Zeke Party tragically perishes in E-Rank Dungeon after weakening Boss, first F-Rank Warrior finishes the job', stuff like that. I knew it'd be quick for certain people to know but in terms of how long I expected it to become 'public' knowledge, I have to say, it was way faster than I thought it'd be.
"Word gets around, huh?"
"That is does. I'm surprised you didn't know." Said the guard.
I'm not particularly a news person, so I rarely check feeds like that.
"So, are you planning on solo clearing this Dungeon as well?" The other guard asked as the first gave me back my ID after verifying it.
"What does he mean by that? I thought I made it specifically clear that I only cleared the previous one by "luck". Seems some people don't care about how I solo cleared the Dungeon, just the fact that I did it. Which leads them to think that I can do it again, I mean, I can, but still...I don't want the public to think that just yet. Incurring more attention than needed this early won't do me any good. But it's not like I can really keep stuff like that a secret so I guess I might be asking too much."
I tried to answer the guard's question as humbly as I could, making sure to make it sound like nothing was certain.
"Well, I only cleared the previous one by luck, so I can't say for sure, but we'll see....I had hoped to find one with no other Warriors in it but..."
"Ah yes. A party of five entered the Dungeon not to long ago." He said.
"I see, well then. Guess I might as well join them." I said as I went to enter the Gate.
Both guards then uttered in unison:...
"Good luck!"
I was then met with an entirely different environment from the one I was met with yesterday.
"So it's nothing but forest this time around, huh? If that's the case then my guess would be Goblins-erk...!"
I felt a slight uncomfortable sensation for a second. It went away as fast as it came. My head felt a little heavy as I couldn't help but put my hand on it.
"What the hell was that feeling?" I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"Felt like my brain was throbbing. For that split second, all my senses were heightened beyond anything that I'd ever experienced before. But it's gone now so...might as well forget about it."
Since it didn't last, I decided to ignore it. I started walking around the forest afterwards.
About 30 to 40 minutes later, I still hadn't came across any monsters.
"Hmm... Let's see about getting a bird's eye view."
I took a few steps back, then ran straight towards the first big tree I saw, I jumped before reaching it too close, landed on it, then started running upwards horizontally on it. After coming very close to the top of the tree, I jumped even higher to look down from above. I still didn't see anything. I landed safely on the ground after falling back down.
"Hmm, just where are those damn-!-hmp!"
~Swoop~
A sharp sound. I tilted my head to my left side instinctively. Afterwards, infront of me, was a tree with a short spear sticking out of it. The spear was very poorly made, even calling it rough around the edges was putting it lightly, but it was still enough to get the job done. I was sure it'd easily take down an alpha Werehyena in one swing.
One thing was certain, the monsters of this Dungeon...had a slightly higher intelligence than the Werehyenas I fought before, meaning that while they were indeed also E-Rank monsters, they were a lot stronger. Goblins.
"So I was right." I said as I looked behind me and was met with a group of what looked like over ten Goblins.
"Ikna ukus."
"Ikna ukus. G'nori."
"Nakiier! Nakiier!"
They all blabbered among themselves.
"Is that their language? 'ikna ukus', wonder what that means. No matter, they'll be more chances to learn monster language. Now, is the time for some action!"
I took the spear that they previously threw out of the tree it was stuck in.
"I don't feel any Mana from it. Looks like monster weapons aren't different from normal ones. They don't have Grades and what not. Which means that even I, an F-Rank, can use them just fine.
I took a fighting stance. Clenched my muscles, tightening my grip on the spear, so much that the wood it was made of started to crack as if it was about to break. I then threw the spear at the one Goblin who wasn't holding one, I gathered he was the one who threw it in the first place.
"Here, you dropped this!"
~Swing!~
The sound from when I threw it was way sharper than when he did. It took his head, leaving only a lifeless, headless body that then fell flat on the ground seconds after. The spear then went on to cut two trees down one after the other as it also fell apart.
"These guys are a lot smarter, after seeing what I just did, they'll probably be a lot more scared than the Werehyenas were when I took down their alpha."
How wrong I was.
"Nakiiera sai! Ikna ukus nakiiera sai! Nakiier a G'nori! Nakiier a G'nori!"
They all started attacking after one of them screamed whatever the hell that was.
"What the!?"
I quickly activated my Brawler Skill.
"Demolition Strike." I uttered.
Half of them lost their lives as a result.
~Throb~
"Erk! That feeling again."
My senses spiked up once again, it threw me off for a bit since it came out of nowhere but I quickly adjusted and used it to my advantage as I then finished off the rest of the Goblins that were left with consecutive normal punches.
"Dude! Copyrights!"
You know that's not how I meant it.
Anyway.
A message quickly popped up after I was done.
[Report. Hidden Quest: Goblin Demolition has been completed. Now calculating rewards...]
[Mana Capacity has increased by 40. Strength has increased by 50. Speed has increased by 20. Health has increased by 30 and Intelligence has increased by 10. Now redesigning overall Warrior info...]
Name: Raid
Surname: ???
Affiliation: Awakened Warrior
Class: Blacksmith
Skills:
• Craft C-Rank : ....
• Repair C-Rank: ....
•• Improve D-Rank: ....
• Weapon Fanatic C-Rank: ....
•• Bladework A-Rank: ....
••• Sunset Slash: ....
• Treasure Hunt B-Rank: ....
•• Soul-Piercing Eyes C-Rank: ....
• Mine D-Rank: ....
• Item Space B-Rank: ....
• Brawler C-Rank: ....
•• Demolition Strike: ....
• Cultivator C-Rank: ....
•• Astral Unification C-Rank: ....
•• Fury of Dantian D-Rank: ....
• Resilient Regeneration D-Rank: ....
• Hypermove E-Rank: ....
• Trigon Element King D-Rank: ....
•• Ifrit E-Rank: ....
•• Tetrax F-Rank: ....
•• Marid F-Rank: ....
Rank: F
Level: Locked
Mana Capacity: 20188
Strength: 3890
Speed: 4183
Health: 5684
Intelligence: 7000
[Final rewards are being allocated. Subject has received 16 E-Rank monster cores.]
I put the monster cores in my Item Space.
"My Intelligence Stat is the highest one aside from Mana Capacity right now. And Mana Capacity itself is very close to the F-Rank Max. Since the two compliment each other more than the others, the higher they both go, the better. I mustn't forget the Trigon Elemental King Skill, along with its Sub-Skills, as long as my Mana control and amount increase, I can use them better."
"How those Goblins reacted to me surprised the heck out of me though. Seems like unlike the Werehyenas, these guys don't let fear dictate their actions. That might be tough to deal with....wait...will it really? Now that I think about it, this might actually be a good thing. Heh. I know what I need to do now."