The wolves didn't charge right away. They stood there, muscles tense, glowing yellow eyes tracking every twitch of Sharath's tricycle-mounted machine gun. Behind them, the slimes jiggled ominously, and the ice boars snorted plumes of frost into the damp cavern air.
🐧NeuroBoop's voice purred in Sharath's mind."Three distinct monster species on the same floor. Either the dungeon is broken, or it's trying to put on a variety show for you."
Sharath cracked his knuckles. "Well, I guess we're the headliners then."
Thermo the Hero(?)
Before anyone could react, Thermo leapt from the princess's shoulder, landed right in front of the lead wolf, and hissed with such conviction you'd think he was a lion in disguise. The wolf froze for a split second, clearly confused by the sudden arrival of a palm-sized furball screaming death threats.
Then Thermo swatted the wolf's nose with a paw.
The wolf actually whined. The soldiers stared. The princess clapped. Sharath grinned."Good boy," he whispered, raising his M416. "Now let's dance."
The Battle Erupts
Sharath opened up with a precision volley, aiming for cores in slimes and headshots on wolves. His soldiers fell into a rhythm — three cutting down anything that got too close, two scooping slime goo into barrels, and one running barrels to the waiting tricycles for extraction.
The air was chaos: acid spit sizzling against stone, frost from boar breath chilling the edges of Sharath's armor, wolves lunging and snapping, bullets whizzing, and Thermo darting in and out like a furry ninja to swat any monster that dared to ignore him.
The princess, in the thick of it, unleashed water bullets rapid-fire, catching wolves mid-leap and slamming them into stalagmites.
🐧NeuroBoop's commentary was relentless."Sharath, you're hitting at 92% accuracy. Impressive. But Thermo's at 97%. Just saying."
"Don't encourage him," Sharath growled, blasting another slime.
The Floor 3 Boss Door
By the time the floor was cleared, the barrels of goo had been swapped out so many times the transport teams were starting to chant "One in, one out!" like a warehouse loading dock.
Sharath checked the space bag — 40 wolf corpses stored, plus smaller monsters crammed into his personal inventory like a morbid game of Tetris.
When they finally reached the massive stone door carved with snarling wolf heads and tusks, they collapsed around it for a three-hour rest. Soldiers ate rations, the princess practiced her aim, and Thermo curled up in Sharath's lap, purring so loudly it sounded like a small engine.
Boss? What Boss?
The door creaked open, shadows spilling out. Inside, the actual boss — a towering hybrid of wolf and boar with a mane of bristling fur and tusks like jagged swords — began to step forward.
Sharath didn't even let it finish its dramatic entrance. He raised both Uzis and unloaded a torrent of magic-enhanced rounds straight into its chest.
The thing roared, stumbled, tried to retaliate — and then collapsed in a heap before anyone else had even moved.
🐧NeuroBoop sighed."You could have at least let it monologue. There's a whole genre of people who enjoy that."
"I'm not here for theater," Sharath said, stepping over the corpse to check the loot chest.
The Loot Haul
The chest didn't disappoint:
20x Boss Monster Meat — massive slabs of wolf-boar hybrid flesh.
20x Low-Level Healing Potions — enough to stock a small clinic.
2x Common Skill Scrolls — meh, but still valuable.
1x Uncommon Skill Scroll — jackpot.
Sharath didn't hesitate. He tore open the uncommon scroll and felt the magic sink into his bones. A moment later, glowing text appeared in his vision:
Skill Acquired: Appraisal (Level 1)Allows user to view basic properties of items, creatures, and people.
"Alright, 🐧NeuroBoop," Sharath muttered, "organize my status screen."
The AI sounded almost smug."Finally. I've been waiting for you to ask. Stand by for the RPG experience you never knew you wanted."
Moments later, an immaculate panel unfolded in his vision — complete with neat icons, color coding, and sarcastic tooltips.The AI sounded almost smug."Finally. I've been waiting for you to ask. Stand by for the RPG experience you never knew you wanted."
A soft hum filled his head, and then his vision flickered. Lines of glowing golden text arranged themselves into neat columns, each section tagged with a tiny icon that looked suspiciously like 🐧NeuroBoop wearing a crown.
[STATUS PANEL – UNNATIRAJYA VERSION]
Name: Sharath Virayan DarshaRace: Human (Possibly Dangerous)Age: 12 (Mentally 30+ due to reincarnation weirdness)Titles:
Young Master of House Darsha
Heir to Lord Darsha's Territory
Dungeon Menace
Unnatirajya Founder
Patron of Goo (…why is this a title?)
Level: 12HP: 620 / 620MP: 1,350 / 1,350Stamina: 890 / 890
Strength: 52Agility: 74Endurance: 58Intelligence: 102Luck: 37 ("Could be worse. At least you're not cursed." – 🐧NeuroBoop)
Skills:
Firearms Mastery (Magic-Integrated) – Lv. 4
Magic Engineering – Lv. 5 (aka: making things that scare blacksmiths)
Inventory Management – Lv. 3
Item Box – Lv. 1 (Fits more junk than your father's old garage)
Appraisal – Lv. 1 (Finally, you can stop guessing what shiny rocks do)
Negotiation – Lv. 2 (Warning: prone to turning into extortion)
Basic Swordsmanship – Lv. 1 (Why bother? You have guns)
Special Equipment:
Twin Magic Uzis – Infinite ammo via mana recharge or auto-reload every 30 minutes.
Magic M416 Rifle – Enhanced accuracy and bullet velocity.
Spatial Storage Bag (Large) – Holds almost anything that isn't emotionally heavy.
Ice Boar Hide Armor – Resistant to cold, mildly waterproof, smells faintly of bacon.
Achievements:
Cleared Dungeon Floor 1 (Slime City)
Cleared Dungeon Floor 2 (Slime & Ice Boar Fiesta)
Cleared Dungeon Floor 3 (Wolf-Boar Hybrid Horror)
Collected Over 100 Barrels of Slime Goo (Why though?)
Sharath scrolled through the panel, eyes widening."This… is amazing."
"You're welcome," 🐧NeuroBoop said smugly. "Now, if you could stop almost dying in stupid ways, maybe we can get some of these stats higher."
Thermo, peeking at the panel like he could actually read it, meowed as if to say "You forgot to list me as a skill."
Back to Unnatirajya
With the boss dead and the floor cleared, Sharath called the retreat. The barrels of slime goo kept flowing out of the dungeon, escorted by the transport teams. By the time they emerged into daylight, the smell of monster blood and goo clung to them like an aura of questionable life choices.
Back in his territory, Sharath directed the unloading himself — wolf corpses to the warehouse, smaller monsters to the processing sheds, and the boss meat straight into cold storage.
Lord Darsha came to inspect the haul and whistled. "That's… a lot of wolves."Lord Bassana, already doing mental profit calculations, muttered, "Could make an entire winter coat line from those hides…"
Three Days Later: The Smell of Regret
Sharath was neck-deep in managing Unnatirajya's problems — organizing market stalls, planning road expansions, and dealing with a merchant dispute over stall placement — when a frantic knock rattled his office door.
A servant, pale and covering his nose, burst in. "My lord… the wolves… they're… rotting."
Sharath froze. "Rotting?""Yes, my lord. The smell—" The servant gagged mid-sentence.
It hit Sharath like a lightning bolt. Of course. Only elemental monster corpses like the ice boars kept indefinitely; everything else decomposed like… well, normal dead animals.
🐧NeuroBoop chimed in cheerfully."Congratulations. You've basically built the world's largest compost heap in your warehouse."
The Lab 2.0 Plan
Sharath marched to the warehouse. The moment the doors opened, a wave of putrid stench rolled out, strong enough to make two soldiers drop their spears and stagger away.
The wolf hides were mottled, the meat blackened in spots, and flies swarmed in happy clouds.
Sharath groaned. "We're not doing this again."
The next day, he began drawing up plans for a new laboratory — far more sophisticated than his first one. This one would have:
Temperature-controlled storage rooms powered by elemental ice cores.
Air filtration runes to keep the smell down.
Dissection and preservation stations for studying monster biology.
A magical cold storage vault for high-value corpses and meat.
Thermo's own "observation platform" (which was really just a heated bed in a sunlit window).
Lord Bassana, upon hearing about the lab, perked up. "If you're building this, we could start a side business in preserved exotic meats. Premium market."
Lord Darsha just shook his head. "This boy is going to turn our estate into a cross between a factory and a zoo."
Thermo's "Help"
Construction on the new lab began immediately. Thermo "assisted" by sitting in the middle of blueprints, swatting at pencils, and occasionally knocking over small rune components just to see if Sharath noticed.
At one point, Sharath glanced at him and muttered, "If you're going to be here, at least make yourself useful."
Thermo responded by curling up on top of the magical cooling core like it was a heated pillow.
"He's technically testing it for comfort," 🐧NeuroBoop said."Uh-huh," Sharath replied. "And I'm technically a saint for not throwing him out."
By the time the first cold storage room was finished, Sharath was already planning the next dungeon run — not for slime goo this time, but to fill his lab with properly preserved rare monsters.
And if the dungeon wanted to throw wolves, boars, and slimes at him all at once again?
Well… his Uzis were ready, Thermo's claws were sharp, and the goo barrels were waiting.