The next day
Naruto awoke on the ground.
His whole body screamed in pain, sleeping in the ground was an experience he only had a few times in his life.
Rubbing his neck, he got up and examined his situation. The darts were in his legs. They didn't disappear only because he drank the water.
At least the water had purified the poison before it could take effect on him, or he would die while sleeping.
He started to extract the darts. He did it fast, the longer he delayed, the more pain he felt.
There were 14 darts including his arm. It hurt, and he needed water to heal it, he drank all of it before he fainted.
But he couldn't get out in such a state, instead, he used an amount of red chakra to heal most of it. Even without that, his body healed faster than others. The injuries he had were from the darts he had extracted.
"Huf, this place is such a hell. Now I need to kill rats that are half of my size? I think that Lady overestimated me by sending me to the second difficulty..." Naruto complained but he knew that she wouldn't send him to his death.
The three people he met from here told that she was fair and helped the climbers while they had the will to continue.
The only thing he could do was strive and find a way to get through.
Sitting on the bed, he wanted to rest a little more, but he couldn't, he needed to eat. All of his actions needed a lot of energy and without that he couldn't do anything.
"It said that I'm in the inner circle, huh. Then I suppose there will be the thing I need to kill, but... if the rats in the passages were that big, how big would be the boss of these dudes? Sigh..." Letting out a depressed sigh, Naruto prepared himself to leave the room and kill some rats.
Saving the empty bottle in his inventory, Naruto looked in the room trying to find anything new but nothing, it was the same as the others.
With everything ready, he left the room and unequipped his boots. This time he was paying attention to the ground; he didn't want to step into another trap and lure some rats with his weaker body.
Now looking everywhere, he noticed that this place had a lot of mushrooms, and they were way bigger than the others. Picking up one of them, he checked the information.
[Big rat mushroom: Only the big rats can eat this, it has poison.]
"Big, huh. That makes sense I think, then I can kill them using these mushrooms as bait? Let's try it after I find another pool." Erasing those thoughts, Naruto continued his way to the water.
At first, he thought that it would take longer to find it, but that wasn't the case, after walking for five minutes he found it.
In the middle in a giant plaza there was a pool, this was bigger, and some rats were guarding it. There were 3 of them.
He could hear that one of them took a sip of the pool and returned to his job. As he continued looking for 30 minutes, the rats did the same.
In that situation he couldn't do anything more, only kill them.
Channeling a large amount of chakra into his hand, he grabbed a stone as big as his fist. A small one couldn't do much damage, but what about this?
His hand hurt and the veins were popping out, like they were about to break in the next second.
Feeling that the situation wasn't good, he threw the rock straight at the rat's head. The rat couldn't react to that and died without noticing it.
The scene of seeing their best friend killed in front of their eyes, traumatized the rats and went on a rampage. Without thinking twice, they ran straight to Naruto. Seeing them like that, Naruto threw a stone at one of them and leapt over the other to crush him with his hammer.
But this time he couldn't kill it with one strike.
[The Big rat takes 28 dmg]
He couldn't get enough impulse to gain force and kill it in one strike.
Dodging the other rat, he left them and started throwing stones.
[The Big rat takes 3 dmg] [The Big rat takes 3 dmg] [The Big rat takes 4 dmg]
He could do good damage with them, but the problem is that his hand couldn't handle it with his poor control.
Saving the hammer in the inventory, he took out the sword and used the tip of the edge to nail it into the rat's head.
[The Big rat has been killed]
The other rat almost exploded seeing his best friends killed in front of him and went after Naruto in a rampage.
Naruto tried to pull the sword out of the rat's head, but it stuck.
Tsk, how annoying...
Taking a step back, he waited for the rat running towards him, his hand was almost useless, and the pain reminded him to look at his HP.
[Hp:520]
They didn't hit me once and only using my chakra did I lose 1/3 of my hp? Argh...
Feeling the pain on both hands, Naruto felt annoyed. Nothing could go right in this place.
As he channeled the chakra into his leg, he could feel how his nails broke a bit from the sudden impact.
Waiting for the rat, he dodged it to the side and kicked the rat's head.
[The Big rat takes 34 hp] [The Big rat movement slows down] [The Big rat has been inflicted with the abnormal status: confusion]
That's a good dmg. but it's harder to land a kick, and confusion? Just move his small brain out...
With the rat in that state, Naruto didn't lose time and grabbed his hammer again, crushing its head.
His legs and hands felt in pain, but he didn't lose time. Approaching the pool, Naruto filled the bottle and started to drink. He did it three times and waited.
The feeling of his hands and legs being massaged from inside was painful but at least healed all his injuries.
With his body recovered, he approached the rat's bodies and broke them down.
[Rat leather: a leatherworker can make a leather armor with enough pieces] [Low quality]
[Soul fragment x3]
[Strength fragment: 0.3%] x2
[Agility fragment: 0.3]
"Every rat just drops the low quality one? Or do I need something to get the others?" He felt irritated, every piece he got was low quality.
"Whatever, time to eat."
But he wouldn't be careless for that, even if he was very hungry. Naruto looked at the whole place looking for traces of other rats. After being sure that no one would come here, he returned to the pool.
With hunger filling his mind, Naruto started to clean the rat. One of these could feed him enough.
Grabbing his sharp rock, he started to clean the organs and drain the blood. Since he noticed that the taste was better when he did that, he continued doing it every time.
More than an hour later, the body was ready and only needed the fire to cook it.
"How long have I been here? I wonder how everyone was doing..." Lately Naruto was thinking about it, he couldn't help but being trapped in this place really affected him. He started to talk to himself to dissipate the solitude, but it was hard.
The only companion he had was the system.
Remembering the fight, he fell into thought. The fight wasn't hard, he could kill more of them, even tens only if he couldn't get hurt every time he used his chakra... Iruka and Gai will teach him that next year, but without that guide, he could only do it by trial and error...
His control really improved, at least now he knew how to fortify his body with it, but he could feel it. The amount he really used for reinforcement was tiny compared to the amount he sent to his hands or legs.
It got better since his [Dexterity] increased but since it reached the 20%, nothing changed.
At least now he found that these big rats could give more fragments, and it could continue to increase more than 20%, but with that he needed to find the cap of that augmentation.
Leaving those thoughts, Naruto focused his attention on the food in front of him.
When it was ready, he started to eat. He had been hungry all these days without eating properly.
Eating the first piece, he noticed that the taste was better, a bit strong but edible.
As he continued eating, he was waiting for the poison. It didn't take long to appear, after two minutes the system window appeared.
[Acquired abnormal status: Poisoned] [Lose 2HP/s]
"2HP? Then, the resistance can continue growing as the others, huh. This will hurt..."
He continued eating and when he was satisfied, the status changed a bit.
[Lose 2.5HP/s]
Accustomed to it, he supported his back against the wall. Waiting as the poison took effect on him, with the pool beside him, he didn't need to worry about his health.
The only thing he needed to endure was the pain, so he waited until his HP were below 100 before drinking the water.
Looking at his resistance, he could see the change.
[Poison resistance: 21.4%]
"Well, this surely increased faster when I put myself to the limits, heh." Nodding satisfied, Naruto continued eating.
Ten minutes later he stopped eating and checked his status again.
[Poison resistance: 24.2%]
"Mm the more it increased, the more time it took I guess I need to take my time to increase the others as well." Naruto said helplessly.
"Let's continue training my control, I guess if I can increase it..."
With a full stomach, Naruto began his training. He was doing the same Gai-sensei told him, cover his body with a thin layer of chakra. That was the reason he could use the rocks and only suffer internal damage, but the surface of his skin looked fine.
In a few days he would do it. Covering his whole body wasn't that hard, but he didn't know how to continue after that.
So, he thought about what he needed right now.
"I can't and I don't need to do exercise here, maybe later they will drop the vitality fragments? Just look how to hit harder without losing my hand in the middle."
With a clear goal, Naruto began to try it. Now he could do it better than the first time he fought with the rats, but the price was his hand. He needed more force to kill them, but he couldn't control the wild chakra. That was his goal now, control it until he could do the same as now without harm himself.
Days continued to pass quickly.
Two weeks later.
Naruto didn't move off his position, he noticed that in this place there were less rats than in the previous stage. He only left the plaza when he needed food and returned before it could change. He was using the leather of the rats as a bed, and he didn't need to worry about anything other than his training.
This was the first time he made a training so exhaustive, but the progress was terrifyingly fast. He slowly increased the amount of chakra and with his better control he noticed that in fact the stat could increase, even more combining it with the fragments.
[Strength: 23.3%]
[Dexterity: 28%]
[Agility: 22.4%]
He just killed a few rats and got 0.6 in it, the other 7.4 he got it with his training.
Naruto felt proud seeing his progress, knowing that he was progressing was a thing, but seeing the numbers made it easy to know that he was doing it well.
Now he can cover his whole body in a thin layer and that's all, only useful to avoid minor injuries in the skin.
Another thing he had noticed was the change of the attack and defense.
[Attack: 19 (hammer) [22(bare hands)] [Defense: 3] That was his stats when his stats were 20%.
Covering his body and concentrating a small amount on his hand, he saw how the numbers changed.
[Attack: 32 (hammer) [37(bare hands)] [Defense: 3+2]
This really changed a lot.
"Now I can kill them with two hits? Or with one if I hit their heads? Hehehe" Naruto was satisfied, but he wouldn't stop there. He would continue until his [Destery] reached its cap.
But something was bothering him these days.
"Why didn't I find any clue in the other zone? It isn't supposed to have a secret?" He didn't find any secret the system mentioned the first day.
"Huf, just search here, if this place doesn't have it, I will search for the others when I leave this stupid place..." Naruto gritted his teeth, completely annoyed.
But he was used to it. The only thing he needed to do was continue training until he could clean this place and leave it.
Two weeks later he could use the same amount as a month before without hurting himself.
The first week the % increased more than 30% with his training, he thinks that it was fine as the other was increasing as well.
The problem came when he reached 35%. The soul fragments stopped giving him stats.
"So, as the 20%, the 35% was the cap of this zone?" It was obvious, but he felt a bit annoyed by that. The only good news was he could continue increasing his proficiency.
[Strength: 28%]
[Dexterity: 35.8%]
[Agility: 27.2%]
[Poison resistance: 31.2%]
The poison resistance was increasing slower, but he couldn't eat more than that. He also tried to increase the others, but it was harder because the effects were stronger, and he needed more time to recover for it.
[Nausea resistance: 29.1%]
[Confusion resistance: 26.2%]
"I guess this will be the new focus of my training, what a pain. Well, just start after I increase the others at their cap."
Naruto could continue with his training but seeing the new attack he didn't want to wait.
[Attack: 34 (hammer) [46(bare hands)] [Defense: 3+2]
The only thing that bothered him is that the hammer now was useless. He didn't understand but after that, the dmg with the hammer didn't increase and only his bare hands did.
"I need to kill them with my hands? Well, this will be a practice for later, I guess." Muttering with annoyance, Naruto left the plaza and started to search for some rats.
He didn't take long to find a pack of them; they were guarding another pool.
Equipping the boots, he grabbed a stone.
"Huf, let's try this. I hope this can be better than the last time."
Channeling the chakra into his hand, he threw the stone to the rat's head.
Naruto could see how the rat's head disappeared, and the body was sent flying away.
[The Big rat takes 64 dmg]
"...Surely it was better, those poor things didn't stand a chance against me." Naruto spoke arrogantly.
With his hand intact and the rat dead, Naruto quickly grabbed another and did the same.
His body felt lighter, he didn't need to make any effort to dodge them. With his agility and dexterity increased, it was easier for him to control his body. The fact that the rats were bigger made it easier.
The problem with the previous zone was the size of the rats, they were "small", and he hadn't tools to treat them.
Using this time to practice his control and throwing skills, Naruto took his time and wanted to kill them only with rocks. It would be funny and it was easier than doing it with the hammer.
At first, he didn't understand why the hammer had less damage, but after a few trials he did it. It was because he didn't know how to handle it properly. After using his chakra a few times with it, the grip broke.
[Rusted hammer has broken]
Naruto felt pity remembering it, but he couldn't do anything with it, even saving in his inventory was impossible. So, he used it to build a monument for a rat pack.
The fight continued and less than ten minutes later, Naruto killed the pack of 8 rats. They dropped 5 fragments of strength, 1 of dexterity and 2 of agility.
Satisfied with the loot, Naruto continued all day doing the same and before he ran out of energy, started to look for a bedroom.
He continued like that for another two hours. Noticing that it didn't matter if he went around, he just went in a straight direction toward the deeper zone.
Killing some rats on the way, he was exhausted, but he made it.
Beside the door, he could see the bedroom. He felt curious about what the other room had inside, but he needed to sleep.
Entering the room and taking off his clothes, Naruto went to sleep.
Awakening the next day, Naruto felt relief in his whole body.
Sitting in bed, he took a sip of the water and organized the things he needed to do.
Increase the resistances
Increase the stats at their cap
Continue the training (later)
Find the secret (in progress)
Escape the dungeon (hopeless)
With his list ready, he left the bedroom and approached the nearby door.
[You have found the Royal Guardian's Room]
[Do you want to challenge?]
Naruto was speechless after seeing that dialogue box.
"Now these rats had a Royal Guardian?"
Seeing the giant door in front of him, Naruto turned and went in another direction. But he noticed something strange.
"Eh? The bedroom is still there?" He felt stunned for a moment, but he reacted fast with joy "Good! At least now I have a permanent residence!"
He left the place with a lighter mood. He needed to kill some rats and increase the last points.
That continued for more than two weeks. It was faster because he was only killing the rats with his fists and used the rest of time eating mushrooms.
[Strength: 35%]
[Dexterity: 36.2%]
[Agility: 35%]
[Vitality: 64%(yellow)]
[Adaptability: 88% (yellow)]
[Poison resistance: 35%]
[Nausea resistance: 35%]
[Confusion resistance: 35%]
[Attack] [52(bare hands)] [Defense: 3+2]
Satisfied with his progress, Naruto was ready.
With his bottle filled and tens of rocks in his inventory, Naruto approached the gate.
[Do you want to challenge the Royal Guard?]
"Yes"
--------------------------------------
Thnks for reading.
I have been busy since I got my last diagnosis, and I haven't had the time to wrIte like I was doing before. Sorry for letting things like that.
Have a good day.