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"Achew...!" Kuro sneezed out of nowhere.
'Tch… is someone talking about me?' he grumbled in thought, but he quickly shoved the thought aside as the ground suddenly rumbled beneath his feet.
A massive centipede lunged out from the shadows, its dozens of legs scraping against the stone floor as it charged straight for him. Kuro's eyes widened. Without wasting a second, he pushed off his back foot and dove to the side, just in time for the creature to slam headfirst into the cave wall, sending bits of rock and a thick cloud of dust scattering everywhere.
The cavern was large, with jagged blue crystals jutting out from the cave walls, some stretching all the way down from the ceiling like stalactites. The crystals pulsed, casting an eerie glow that reflected off the damp stone floors.
Further behind him, deep in the back of the cavern, sat a giant nest. It was made up of twigs, bones, and chunks of blue crystals that were all tangled together into a massive pile. And resting inside were six eggs each about the size of a fully grown adult. Kuro's gaze flicked toward them for only a second before snapping his attention back toward the dust cloud in front of him.
His grip tightened around the hilt of his dagger, his fingers pressing firm against the black bandage wrap. Slowly a crooked grin spread across his face, as he lowered his stance and prepared for another attack.
From within the slowly fading cloud of dust, two glowing red eyes pierced through the haze. Then a second later, the centipede lunged out of the smoke in a full-on frenzy, its armored body rattling violently as it rushed forward.
Kuro clicked his tongue, sliding his dagger back into his inventory in one smooth motion. His hands came together in a blur, as his fingers weaved through a quick sequence of handsigns.
"Clone Jutsu..."
A small puff of white smoke exploded around him.
[ACTIVATING BASIC CLONE JUTSU]– Lv.15
As the smoke cleared, seven identical copies of Kuro stood shoulder to shoulder. None of them exchanged a word and instantly charged straight toward the centipede, splitting off in different directions to overwhelm and distract it. Meanwhile, the real Kuro stayed back.
Kuro flicked his wrist, pulling his dagger back from his inventory. He brought his hands up and immediately flowed through another quick sequence of handsigns. As he finished the final sign, a vibrant green layer of chakra wrapped itself tightly around the blade of his dagger, emitting a sharp, high-pitched whistling sound that echoed through the cave.
[ACTIVATING VACUUM BLADE JUTSU] Lv.8
The sound barely had time to fade before the centipede came barreling forward again. Its massive segmented body smashed right through Kuro's clones, each one vanishing into a mirage as it charged straight at him.
The moment it committed to the charge, Kuro sprinted in, lowering his stance to build speed. His feet pounded against the dirt floor, kicking up dust behind him as he closed the distance even faster than the centipede could react.
As soon as the gap shrank to about two meters, Kuro launched himself upward in one fluid motion, twisting his body midair. He then cocked his arm back, and drove the dagger forward, aiming straight down toward the centipede's armored head.
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[ NOTICE]
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[-1000 CP CONSUMED]
CAUTION! You have poured far more chakra than necessary for the jutsu!
➤ Vacuum Blade Jutsu Power Boosted by 100%
➤ +70% Power Bonus due to Wind Affinity Skill
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Total Boost: 170% Increase in Power!
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The moment Kuro drove his blade forward, a violent burst of compressed wind exploded from the edge, launching forward with a sharp crack of air. The speed was almost instantaneous as it was far faster than the centipede could even hope to react.
*SPLLOOOSSH*
Its head erupted like a water balloon under pressure. Bits of brain matter, shattered exoskeleton, and thick blue blood splattered across the cave walls, spraying the floor in sticky pools. Chunks even slapped against the nearby crystals, staining their glowing blue surfaces.
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[ NOTICE!]
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[YOU'VE DEFEATED THE HUNDRED-LEGGED TERROR, ZANKORATH.]
[YOU LEVELED UP!]
gathering rewards...
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Kuro dropped down, landing on the centipede's now lifeless body. He glanced at the blue notification hovering in front of him, clicking his tongue in disappointment. "Tch... I only leveled up once?" His eye twitched. "Are you fucking serious..?"
Kuro let out a groan, shaking his head as he plopped down onto the centipede's body. "And this was just a D-rank dungeon..." he muttered, running a hand down his face in frustration. "At this rate, I'll barely get any stronger..." His fingers absently tapped against his chin, thinking it through. "If I really wanna level up faster... I need to clear a higher-level dungeon."
His lips pressed into a thin line. "But the only dungeon key I have left... is the Tower of Madness." Just saying the name made a chill crawl up his spine. "Yeah... I don't know about that..." He ruffled his hair roughly, letting out a sigh as his mind kept running circles, trying to figure out what his next move should be.
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[ NOTICE!]
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You've Obtained the Following Items:
[LEATHER POUCH]
[RUNE STONE]
[EXO GAUNLETS]
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As the pop-up appeared, a sudden flash of blue light flickered right beside him. Slowly, the glow began to take shape, forming into three distinct items. The first was a small leather pouch, stitched tightly with a silver string. The second was a black stone etched with a strange glowing blue symbol. And lastly, was a pair of reddish-orange gauntlets.
Kuro shuffled over, cracking his knuckles. "Alrighty…" he muttered, licking his lips as he rubbed his hands together. "Let's see what we've got here."
His hand reached out for the leather pouch first, turning it over in his palm. "Huh… first time getting one of these," he mumbled, brow furrowing. "Wait… what do these even do again?" Without wasting another second, he tugged the silver string loose and pulled it open, peeking inside to check its contents.
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[ ITEM: LEATHER POUCH]
Leather pouch opened...
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45,000 RYO
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Kuro's eyes shot wide as he stared at the number glowing on the screen. "Holy shit… that's my rent for the whole month," he grinned, shaking his head. "I'll gladly take this... I might even buy something from the store."
A thought crept in as his gaze lingered on the zero's. 'If I can get more of these... I could probably buy a new place altogether.' His current apartment was straight-up garbage. It was tiny as hell, with barely enough space to stretch without hitting a wall. And even half the place was crawling with spiders, and mold practically claimed one corner of the room. Not to mention, the constant stench of... something. Like dried-up piss mixed with... he didn't even know what.
It sucked, sure, but it was dirt cheap, cheaper than anything else in the village by a long shot. His wallet liked it, but he had to get a new place soon.
As those thoughts passed through his head, the leather pouch flickered in a bright golden hue before dematerializing into thin air.
"Alright… moving on," Kuro muttered, shifting his gaze toward the rune stone.
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[SKILL: EXOSKELETON]
[TYPE: RUNE STONE ]
Breaking this rune stone will grant you a skill…
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Kuro's lips pressed together slightly as his eyes scanned over the description on the screen. "Huh… this is the first time I've gotten a skill without having to actually earn it," he muttered under his breath. Normally, every skill he unlocked he'd have to do a specific action respectively to get it. Like how he only unlocked the Shurikenjutsu Techniques skill after tossing a shuriken over and over again.
With a small shrug, he reached out, grabbed the rune stone, and crushed it in his hand.
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[ SKILL GRANTED!]
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[-EXOSKELETON SKILL INFO-] -Lv.1
- (EFFECT), "EXOSKELETON": Forms an invisible layer of armor around the user's entire body, reducing incoming damage from physical, chakra-based, or elemental attacks.
-14% damage reduction-
COST: 320 CP per usage
TIME: 10 MIN
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Kuro's eyes scanned over the text, a slow grin tugging at his lips. "Yeah…this is gonna come in handy," he muttered. Even if the damage reduction wasn't anything crazy right now, it was still something. Being able to shave off even a bit of damage could be the difference between surviving or dying.
Plus the fact that it protected him from all types of attack was absolutely crazy, a straight-up lifesaver. The only problem was that the chakra cost was straight-up ridiculous for a single skill. Blowing through 320 chakra points just to use it definitely wasn't cheap. But honestly, if he could manage to level it up a few times and increase the damage reduction, it would totally be worth it then.
Rolling his shoulders a bit, Kuro shifted his focus and reached for the reddish-orange gauntlets sitting in front of him.
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( RARE ) – [ITEM: THE HUNDRED LEGGED GAUNTLET]
[TYPE: GAUNTLET ]
[LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: C- ]
[STRENGTH: 9+ ]
[HEALTH: 12+]
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"Nice…" Kuro muttered under his breath, eyes scanning over the gauntlet's stats. "Other than my flak vest, which got shredded...the only thing I got left that boosts my stats is my leaf headband… and honestly, it does jack shit." He let out a small hum, rolling his shoulders as he flipped the gauntlet around in his hands.
It wasn't bad. Not the best either. But considering what he was working with, it was a solid upgrade. Leaving no room for him to complain, he just had to be humble. "Status screen," Kuro mumbled, swiping his hand down to pull it up.
━─━─━─≪◈ STATS ◈≫─━─━─━
[NAME] ➤ Kuroshin Kagemura
[AGE] ➤ 13
[LEVEL] ➤ 23
◇───INFO───◇
[JOB] ➤ NONE
[TITLES] ➤ Courage Of The Weak...
[HP] ➤ 943.2/945
[CP] ➤ 1600/3500 ( HIGH-GENIN)
[FATIGUE] ➤ 23
[AVAILABLE ABILITY POINTS: 11 ]...
◇───STATS───◇
[STRENGTH] ➤ 52.5
[AGILITY] ➤ 59.5
[SENSE] ➤ 40.5
[HEALTH] ➤ 45.5
[INTELLIGENCE] ➤ 53
◇───SKILLS───◇
[BASIC TAIJUTSU TECHNIQUES] ➤Lv.15 (PASSIVE.) [Basic Melee attacks inflicted on an opponent is increased by 36%. ]
[BASIC SHURIKENJUTSU TECHNIQUES]Lv.13 (Passive) [When throwing small concealed weapons, damage inflicted is increased by 31%.]
[WIND AFFINITY] ➤ Lv.7 (PASSIVE.) [Whenever a Wind Style jutsu is used, its power is increased by 70%.]
[BASIC KUNAI TECHNIQUES]Lv.18 (PASSIVE) [Basic kunai attacks inflicted on an oponent are increased by 46%.]
[EXOSKELETON] Lv.1 (ACTIVE) [Forms an invisible layer of armor around the user's entire body, reducing all incoming damage by 14%.]
◇───JUTSU'S───◇
[TRANSFORMATION JUTSU] ➤ Lv.13
[BASIC CLONE JUTSU] ➤ Lv.15
[SUBSTITUTION JUTSU] ➤ Lv.13
[VACUUM BLADE JUTSU] ➤Lv.8
[GALE PALM JUTSU] ➤Lv.10
[GREAT FIREBALL JUTSU] ➤ Lv.2
[HIDING IN THE MIST JUTSU] ➤ Lv.3
━─━─━─━─≪◆≫─━─━─━─━
His total stats were sitting at an average of 45 now, which, compared to where he started, was a huge jump. And yeah, he could feel it, it felt like he was running on pure adrenaline, 24/7.
At first, he'd been nervous about dumping too many points into strength. The last thing he wanted was to end up looking like one of those overly bulky bodybuilders. That's why he made sure to balance it out, investing heavily into speed. Enough to build a lean, athletic build. But so far, he's happy with how his stats are balanced out.
But what really had him grinning... was his chakra. His CP had finally broken past the thousand mark, and then some. Sitting at a clean 3 thousand now. That was just fucking awesome for him. It meant he could stop being stingy with his chakra now.
Still, a part of him couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Even with all the grinding, his CP level was still stuck around Genin level. Honestly, he figured after everything he went through, it would've bumped him up to at least low-level Chunin by now. But... it wasn't all bad. Sitting at three thousand CP meant he didn't have to be so stingy anymore. He could afford to be a little greedy now.
His new jutsu's had also leveled up a couple times after putting in some training with them. But even then, he knew he had to be careful with how he trained, especially with the two newer ones. Unlike the Vacuum Blade Jutsu, which only ate up 250 CP per cast, the Great Fireball Jutsu cost a ridiculous 2300 CP every time he used it. And his hidden mist Jutsu cost 1000 CP cost per usage. Which was wild, considering it wasn't even a high-rank jutsu and just a C-rank.
Then again, rank didn't always mean raw power. Sometimes it was about how complex the jutsu was to perform or how much chakra control it demanded.
The Great Fireball Jutsu was definitely powerful, but it was surprisingly easier to pull off. The Vacuum Blade Jutsu, on the other hand, was way more technical. It had way more steps compared to the fireball. First, you had to gather the wind nature energy, then carefully mold it, and finally coat that chakra perfectly around the blade. Mess up even one part, and the jutsu would fall apart.
Fireball was simple in comparison. Just focus your chakra, convert it into fire nature, and release it. Straightforward. But even though the Vacuum Blade was ranked higher at B-rank, it honestly felt pretty underwhelming when compared to most B-rank jutsu out there. Sure, it was useful, but in terms of raw power... yeah, it wasn't exactly crazy or anything.
"Alright... that should be everything," he hummed, brushing the dust off his hands. His eyes scanned the area one last time, making sure he hadn't missed anything. Looked pretty cleared out. With a small stretch, he rolled his shoulders, letting out a breath.
Then his gaze shifted back toward the cluster of giant eggs sitting near the far wall. His lips tugged into a small frown. 'Man... shame I can't shove one of those into my inventory…' he sighed, scratching the back of his head. Would've been nice to sell… or hatch… maybe.
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[ NOTICE!]
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[You have defeated the boss and successfully cleared the dungeon. The dungeon is finally closing.]
Do you wish to leave?
[Y/N]
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He raised his hand and pressed Yes.
. . . . .
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