The blood on the white tiles of the dressing room looked frighteningly bright.
I breathed heavily, leaning my back against the wall. Every breath resonated with a sharp pain in my chest, and my mana channels felt like overheated wires, ready to burst.
— "Satoru-kun..." — Ai took a timid step toward me, her voice trembling from held-back tears.
— "We... we'll call an ambulance! The best doctors in Tokyo! My agency will pay for everything!"
— "Yeah... ask them to put a cast on my mana channels," — I wheezed, wiping my bloody chin with the back of my hand and smirking crookedly.
— "I'm afraid ordinary plantain and antiseptics are useless here, Little Star. My energy system is currently like overcooked noodles; the doctors will just hand me over for experiments."
I managed to focus my gaze on the girls with difficulty. Both were pale and terrified.
— "Alright, listen up. The concert is over, but the street is full of press. Marin, take Ai, get into her agency's car with tinted windows, and go to the secret apartment we talked about. Text me the address. Do not leave the house. Do not open the door to anyone."
— "What about you?!" — Marin clutched the edge of her skirt. — "Gojo-kun, you can barely stand!"
— "I need to stretch my legs," — I chuckled, though my lips hardly obeyed. — "Don't worry, I'll be there for breakfast. Takemichi!"
The guy, who had been huddled against the sofa the entire time, flinched as if struck by lightning.
— "Y-yes?!"
— "Do you know where the nearest open low-rank Gates are? E or D?" — I asked, pushing off the wall. My legs trembled slightly.
— "Preferably in this area."
Takemichi nodded frantically, taking out his battered smartphone and opening the public map.
— "There's one! A D-rank Gate opened a couple of hours ago at an abandoned construction site in Shinjuku. Guilds usually ignore such minor breaches until the last day; there's only an Association patrol there..."
— "Perfect. You're coming with me."
Takemichi's jaw dropped to the floor with a dull thud.
— "Me?! Into a Dungeon?! But I'm not a Hunter! I'll get killed in there! The monsters will tear me to pieces!"
— "You're going to carry my loot and shine a flashlight," — I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, ignoring the flash of pain in my shoulder.
— "Consider it payment for me listening to your depressing lecture about the end of the world. Let's go."
The abandoned construction site in Shinjuku welcomed us with a piercing night wind and yellow police tape.
In the center of the excavated pit, between concrete piles, a blue breach in space pulsated. A Gate.
Two guards from the Association were smoking nearby. Standard procedure for low-level gates — making sure stupid teenagers didn't wander inside for a selfie.
— "And how are we going to get past them?" — Takemichi whispered, hiding behind a rusty bulldozer. His teeth were chattering like a drum roll.
— "If we get caught without Hunter licenses, it's jail time! And I don't even have a gun!"
I didn't answer. I had no strength left for jokes.
Picking up a heavy rock from the ground, I threw it into an empty iron barrel on the other side of the construction site. A deafening crash echoed.
The guards dropped their cigarettes, drew their batons, and ran to check the noise.
— "Go," — I exhaled, and we quickly crossed the distance to the portal.
Stepping into a Gate always felt like passing through a wall of ice water.
Space warped, and the nocturnal Tokyo was replaced by a damp cave smelling of mold and rusty iron. The walls were illuminated by dim greenish moss.
[ You have entered a Dungeon (Rank: D). ]
[ Warning: Your mana channels are critically damaged. ]
[ The use of magical techniques (Blue, Red, Infinity) is blocked! ]
A gurgling, vile sound echoed from the darkness of the tunnel. And then they stepped into the light of the moss. Goblins.
Standing up to my chest, with green-gray skin, armed with rusty cleavers and clubs. About ten of them, no less.
— "AAAAA! GOBLINS!" — Takemichi squealed like a schoolgirl and dove like a fish behind the nearest stalagmite, covering his head with his arms.
— "Satoru, burn them! Use your laser magic! Destroy them!"
I stepped forward, getting into a fighting stance.
«Body Level: 12. Physical strength is negligible. Channels are burnt. That means we're working purely on the reflexes of the Six Eyes.»
The first goblin leaped, raising his cleaver to my face.
To my perception, his movements were slow, but my body... my body was catastrophically lagging behind my brain.
I tried to execute a spinning dodge, but a shooting pain in my chest caused me to stumble.
The blade glanced off my shoulder, ripping the blue fabric of my jacket with an unpleasant tearing sound.
«Son of a bitch... Marin will bury me alive for this hole! I promised not to tear it!» — this panicked thought turned out to be a hundred times more terrifying than the monster's strike itself.
I gritted my teeth, intercepted the creature's thin wrist, and twisted it inside out with a crunch. The goblin shrieked.
Without letting go, I drove my knee into his jaw. The monster went limp.
But two more were already flying at me.
I deflected a club strike, punched the green chest of the second one, breaking ribs, but the recoil resonated with such hellish pain throughout my weak body that I dropped to one knee.
The nauseating taste of iron returned to my mouth. I coughed, spitting blood onto the stones.
— "Satoru!!" — Takemichi screamed in panic, peeking out from behind the rock. — "What are you doing?! You just killed a Special-rank hybrid! I've seen enough of those in the Bureau; they tear cars in half! And you're falling from an ordinary goblin?!"
Sensing blood and weakness, the remaining eight goblins moved in on me in a tight circle, gleefully bearing their crooked teeth.
I tried to stand up, but my legs were shaking. If this kept up, I'd be torn apart by damn sandbox mobs.
Suddenly, time around me seemed to slow down, and a golden System window unfolded before my eyes with a mocking chime.
[Sync System: Urgent question for the Host. ]
[ Are you a masochist or just an idiot? ]
[Analysis: The Host is coughing up blood and preparing to die at the hands of low-level mobs, while having a balance of 1000 Coins and an unlocked Shop. ]
[ Advice: The "System Shop" section was unlocked 20 minutes ago. ]
[ There are healing potions in there. But if you enjoy struggling so much in front of a crying schoolboy — I won't dare interfere. ]
I froze, staring at these lines. In my mouth, the taste of iron clearly mixed with my own impenetrable stupidity.
«What a scumbag you are...» — I exhaled mentally, feeling the eye under my blindfold twitch.
— «Couldn't you have mentioned this BEFORE my ribs were broken? Did you really have to wait for bloody snot for the sake of drama?»
[ Sync System: I sincerely believed in your cognitive autonomy, Host. My mistake. From now on, I will remind you to breathe. ]
«Shut up and open the Shop. Fast.»
[ SYSTEM SHOP (Rank: Novice)]
[ Balance:1,000 System Coins. ]
[ Accrual History: +1,000 for critical Plot alteration: "Idol's Survival". ]
I mentally scrolled through the menu, ignoring the "Elixir of the World Tree" for a hundred thousand, and stumbled upon the basic section.
[ Healing Potion (Minor) — 100 Coins. ]
[ Description:Heals minor wounds, restores damaged mana channels but?.... ]
[Tastes like the unfiltered urine of an elderly goblin who survived the plague.]
«I don't care, I'm buying it! Two of them!»
Two small glass flasks filled with a murky red sludge dropped right into my lowered hand.
I pulled the cork out of the first one with my teeth and poured the contents down my throat at the exact moment the goblin's club was about to crash down on the back of my head.
The description didn't lie one bit. The taste was so vile that I almost spat out my own lungs.
But the effect was instantaneous.
The fire in my chest went out. The torn mana channels closed up with a pleasant chill.
The wound on my shoulder healed right before my eyes (a pity the potion didn't mend the jacket). The second flask restored my stamina to 100%.
The goblin's club sliced through the air with a whistle right where my head had been a second ago.
Because I was already standing behind its back.
— "Alright, you ugly freaks," — I cracked my neck, feeling my body obey me perfectly again, while the Six Eyes gleefully scanned the area.
— "Break time is over. Now it's my turn."
I dashed forward.
Without magic, without the [Blue], using only pure physical strength and absolute spatial control.
A spinning kick slammed the first goblin into the cave wall so hard that rocks rained down from the ceiling.
I caught the second one by the throat and hurled it into the crowd of its kin like a bowling pin.
Forty seconds later, it was all over.
I stood amidst a pile of green bodies, not even out of breath.
[ Killed:10 Goblins.][ Received:10 System Coins. ]
I stared at the notification.
— "Ten coins? For ten of them?!" — I indignantly kicked the nearest corpse.
— "The potion costs a hundred! Have you completely lost your minds with these rates in the System?!"
[ Sync System: Welcome to the world of grinding, Host. ]
[ If you want a lot of money, break the canon or kill Bosses. ]
[ Level Up!]:[ Current level: 13 ]
[ Received:5 Free Stat Points. ]
[ Warning: Automatic body reinforcement is disabled to avoid conflict with the growing mana of the Gojo Satoru template. ]
[ Manual stat distribution function unlocked. ]
[ Advice:I recommend putting points into Stamina if you don't want your skeleton to crumble into your underwear the next time you use"Blue". ]
— "Ah, so that's how it is," — I chuckled.
Unlike Synchronization, which simply haphazardly poured someone else's magic into me, the Hunter Level now operated by the clear laws of an RPG.
I mentally opened my status to see what exactly I had to work with.
[ VESSEL STATS ]
[ Strength:14 ] (Physical damage and carrying capacity)
[ Agility: 16 ] (Muscle contraction speed)
[ Stamina: 12 ] (Body density, regeneration, "pitcher" volume)
[ Intelligence (Mana): BLOCKED ] — Regulated by the % of Synchronization.
[ Perception: BLOCKED ] — Controlled by the "Six Eyes" skill.
[ Free points: 5 ]
«Mana and perception are blocked by Gojo's template. Logical,» — I thought.
«My brain and sensory abilities are already at the level of a demigod, but my body... my body is desperately begging for mercy.»
I obediently poured all five points into the [Stamina] stat.
My bones and muscles instantly responded with a pleasant, lingering ache, densifying right on the spot.
The "pitcher" of my body became a little thicker, and I felt that I could now survive at least one more hit without turning into a bloody mess.
Takemichi slowly crawled out from behind his stalagmite. He shifted his dumbfounded gaze from the scattered bodies to my fists, from which green blood was dripping.
— "You... you killed dungeon monsters... with street fighting moves?" — he whispered in holy terror.
— "And where did those bottles come from?!"
— "Taijiquan, inventory magic, and some dirty tricks," — I smirked, wiping my hands on the jacket of a fallen goblin.
— "Grab a sack, Prophet. Collect the magic crystals from their chests. We need to clear this place out up to the Boss if we want to make it to the girls for breakfast. And pray there are at least a couple hundred of these creatures here, or I'll go bankrupt on medkits."
Takemichi, still as pale as chalk, picked out small, cloudy crystals from the chests of the killed goblins with trembling hands.
Lacking a proper tool, he used a rusty, jagged cleaver that had fallen from the hands of one of the dead monsters.
The scene was as unheroic as possible: the "Savior of Worlds," a guy who jumped through time, wearing a school uniform stained with green blood, was working as a common loot gatherer.
I leaned against the cave wall, watching him through the black fabric of my blindfold.
My body, having received five points in Stamina, felt significantly better. My breathing evened out, and my mana channels no longer sparked with pain.
But I understood one simple thing: it wasn't enough.
— "Hey, crybaby," — I called out, peeling myself off the wall.— "Loot faster. We need to seriously pick up the pace."
— "I... I'm trying!" — he squeaked, tossing another sticky crystal into the canvas sack. The heavy goblin cleaver shook in his hands.
— "Thank God we'll kill the Boss and go home! My knees are already falling off!"
— "Home?" — I was genuinely surprised, tilting my head to the side. — "Who said we're going home after the Boss?"
Takemichi froze. The crystal slipped from his fingers with a quiet thud. He slowly turned his head toward me.
— "Then... where are we going? To the girls?"
— "One D-rank dungeon won't be enough for me to fortify the Vessel even by a third," — I started counting on my black-gloved fingers.
— "If I return now, the next synchronization spike will turn me into bloody jelly right on the rug in Ai's secret apartment. So here's the plan: we clear this place, and then we hit four more dungeons in a row. Down to zero. We slaughter everything that moves."
Takemichi's eyes widened to the size of tea saucers.
— "FIVE DUNGEONS?! IN ONE NIGHT?!" — his scream broke into ultrasound, echoing off the cave vaults.
— "Are you crazy?! Guilds spend hours on a single dungeon! Hunters need rest! Mana needs to regenerate! We'll get killed! I will definitely get killed!"
— "Mana is for the weak," — I cracked my knuckles, heading deeper into the tunnel.
— "I'm leveling up physical stats now. Move your legs, porter. By the end of the night, we must become farming legends."
The next twenty minutes turned into a branch of hell for the dungeon's inhabitants.
Normal Hunters advance cautiously. They check for traps, scan corners, and lure mobs out one by one.
I just walked forward.
The Six Eyes gave me absolute spatial awareness. I knew where the goblins were hiding even before they had time to swing.
Without magic, relying solely on my increased bodily stats and the reflexes of the Strongest, I turned the clearing process into beating up babies.
Step, dodge, right hook. Crunch of a jaw. Sweep, grapple, a hip throw straight into a stalagmite.
— "Ninety-eight... ninety-nine... one hundred," — I counted monotonously, snapping the neck of another green freak.
[ Received: 1 System Coin. ] [ Received: 1 System Coin. ] [ Received: 1... ]
The System's drop rates were absolutely laughable, but the monotonous grind was doing its job.
My Hunter level slowly crept up, and I distributed the free points evenly into Strength and Agility, turning my weak body into the perfect killing machine.
Soon the tunnel widened, leading us into a massive underground hall illuminated by the eerie crimson glow of crystals.
The Boss.
The Hobgoblin Shaman towered over the ground at a good two and a half meters.
He was draped in human skulls (likely from past, unlucky Hunters) and gripped a crooked wooden staff that reeked of dense, heavy mana.
— "Satoru!" — Takemichi squeaked, diving like a fish behind a boulder right by the entrance.
— "That's the Boss! A magic type! We can't go at him head-on, we're done for, we don't have a tank!"
— "Tanks are for those who don't know how to dodge," — I chuckled, walking casually toward the monster.
The Shaman roared, slamming his staff into the ground. The tip flared with a toxic green light, and without any warning, a pulsating orb shot toward me at incredible speed.
Out of the habit of the "Strongest," whose body is always protected by the barrier of Infinity, I wanted to simply swat it away with my hand like a pesky fly.
But the Six Eyes, working at their limit, instantly dissected the structure of the incoming spell.
«Super-concentrated acid. Will burn through flesh and bone in a fraction of a second. Must not touch.»
My brain reacted faster than I could even get scared. The points in Agility saved my life.
Instead of blocking, I spun sharply on my heels, dropping into a slide.
The acid orb flew a millimeter from my shoulder and hissed as it crashed into the stone wall behind me, instantly melting a deep, smoking hole in it.
— "You sneaky green bastard," — I smiled coldly, feeling the adrenaline dump into my blood.
— "You almost ruined my jacket."
The Shaman tried to launch a second orb, but the distance between us had already closed to zero.
The Boss's eyes widened in surprise — mages weren't used to anyone rushing up to them so quickly.
With a growl, he attempted a backhand swing at me with his staff.
I caught the wooden shaft with my left hand. The points invested in Strength made themselves known: the wood cracked pitifully under my fingers.
— "My turn."
A sharp chop with the edge of my right hand — and the magical staff snapped in half.
The Boss let out an astonished roar, but I didn't give him a chance to recover.
A knee strike to the stomach — the creature's ribs caved inward with a crunch. The Shaman doubled over, spitting green saliva.
A finishing right hook, into which I put my entire body weight and momentum, landed perfectly on his jaw.
The Hobgoblin lifted off the ground, flew three meters, and smashed into the wall with a wet thud. The cave shook.
The Boss slowly slid down to the floor and went still.
[ Killed: Hobgoblin Shaman (D-rank Boss). ]
[ Received: 2 System Coins. ]
[ Level Up! ]:[ Current level: 15 ]
[ Free points: 5. ]
I stared at the shimmering golden lines. Two coins. TWO. For a dungeon Boss.
— "Two coins?!" — my shout, full of righteous fury, made Takemichi flinch in fear.
— "Are you kidding me?! Even in Genshin Impact, the chances of pulling a legendary without a guarantee are more generous than your economy! It's a freaking Boss!"
[ Sync System: A goblin is a goblin, Host. ]
[ Just because this macaque put on a skull necklace and picked up a glowing stick doesn't make it elite loot. ]
[ If you want mountains of gold, go kill dragons. ] [ For now, say thank you that it dropped anything at all. ]
«Everything into Agility,» — I growled mentally, finally accepting the fact that a complete sadist had coded the algorithms of this System.
— "Collect the Boss's core," — I snapped irritably at the dumbfounded Takemichi, shaking the green slime off my hands. — "And grab my shoulder."
— "Why?" — he obediently clung to my jacket like a zombie.
Over his back, he slung a heavily jingling sack — a dirty canvas bag he had luckily stripped off some weird goblin gatherer right at the beginning of the cave, and was now dumping all the drops into it.
In his other hand, Takemichi was still gripping the rusty cleaver.
— "Where is the nearest dungeon with a higher rank around here?" — I asked, adjusting my slipped blindfold.
— "Whether it's occupied by guilds or not doesn't matter. I don't care at all."
Takemichi swallowed nervously. He didn't even need his smartphone.
— "H-higher rank? I... I saw it on the news this morning! A C-rank Gate opened in Yoyogi Park. But a major guild is conducting an official raid there tonight! The area is already cordoned off, it's full of Association guards and reporters with cameras!"
— "Perfect," — my smirk grew wider. — "Hold on tight."
I raised my free hand and folded my fingers into a specific gesture — the very one the original Satoru Gojo used to compress spatial coordinates.
Pouring a fraction of my restored mana into it, I activated the technique.
Spatial magic couldn't just easily break through the isolated barrier of the Dungeon to the outside.
The world blinked, turned inside out, and with a nauseating jerk, we were tossed right to the very beginning of the cave.
We tumbled out right in front of the blue, pulsating exit of the Gate.
Takemichi collapsed to his knees, trying to keep his dinner down.
— "Move your legs," — I ordered, hoisting him up by the scruff of the neck and shoving him straight into the portal.
A step through the icy film — and nocturnal Tokyo hit our ears with the noise of cars and a damp wind.
We found ourselves behind the yellow police tapes of the abandoned construction site. The Association guards, smoking five meters away from us, didn't even have time to realize where we came from, continuing to swap their tall tales.
— "Give me the exact coordinates of the park," — I said, taking out my phone, while the "Prophet" convulsively gasped for air, leaning against the rusty bulldozer.
Checking the map, I folded my fingers into the teleportation gesture once again. I didn't even give Takemichi time to recover.
This wasn't an elegant combat teleportation, but rather a rough, brazen dash across the city on pure power.
Space collapsed with a sickening squelch, and nocturnal Tokyo hit our ears with a cacophony of sounds.
We materialized right in the center of Yoyogi Park. More accurately, we materialized at the very epicenter of a carefully planned media campaign.
Dozens of powerful spotlights flooded a massive, purple-pulsating C-rank portal with light.
Technicians with cameras bustled around, a pretty reporter with a microphone was broadcasting something live, and an elite strike group from the "Silver Wolves" guild had lined up right at the entrance.
Knights in gleaming enchanted armor, mages with staffs radiating arrogance, and their leader — a muscular blond with a massive two-handed sword.
And then, right in front of their perfectly arranged formation, we tumbled out of thin air.
Me — in a jacket smeared with green blood, with a black blindfold over my eyes, breathing heavily from mana exhaustion.
And Takemichi. A schoolboy with a dirty canvas sack on his back and a rusty goblin cleaver in his hand, whom I was still holding by the scruff of the neck.
A dead silence fell. You could only hear the hum of the spotlight generators. The cameras instantly pivoted toward us.
— "Hey! Who the hell are you?!" — barked the leader of the "Silver Wolves," stepping forward and toying with his sword.
— "The area is cordoned off by the Association! This is a C-rank, civilians have no business being here! Guards, remove them!"
— "Out of the way, extras," — I said coldly, not slowing my pace and walking straight at him.
— "My potion buffs are burning out."
— "What did you say, you blind idio...?"
The blond tried to block my path by placing a hand on my shoulder.
With my free hand, I simply brushed his palm away. My fifteen Hunter levels and the points poured into Strength did their job.
The elite C-rank tank swayed, lost his balance, and flew aside with a clatter, crashing into his own mages.
— "A-A-A-A-A-A!" — Takemichi suddenly howled, engaging absolute panic mode.
His voice broke into a hysterical falsetto, exactly copying the intonations of a certain guy in a green cloak from a parallel universe, whom a goddess had dragged into a fantasy world.
— "I'M SOOOORRY! WE DID IT BY ACCIDENT! I'M NOT WITH HIM! I WAS JUST PASSING BY!"
— the "Prophet" strained his voice, dangling in my grip while I dragged him to the portal.
Tears burst from his eyes in all directions. — "THIS IS ABUSE! I'M A MINOR! THEY FORCED ME! PLEASE, DON'T FILM ME, MAKIMA WILL KILL ME! I WANT TO GO HOOOOOOOOME!"
— "Just shut up, you whiner," — I chuckled, ignoring the camera flashes and the shouts of the guards running toward us from the barriers.
We stepped into the purple haze of the portal exactly one second before the guards' hands could grab our jackets.
[ You have entered a Dungeon (Rank: C) ]
[ Warning: Host's mana is depleted(1%). ]
[ Magical techniques are blocked. ]
The C-rank environment was starkly different from the goblin cave. The air here was damp, heavy, and smelled like someone forgot to take out the trash in the middle of the July heat.
A strange purple ooze squelched beneath our feet.
— "Yeah, Satoru-desu," — Takemichi muttered doomed, falling to his knees right into the ooze and clutching his head with his hands.
His hysteria instantly gave way to an absolute, hollow apathy. — "We're in a C-rank. Without magic. With a rusty knife. I'm going to make great feed."
A massive drop of green, translucent slime, the size of a passenger car, detached from the cave ceiling with a wet sound. A Giant Acid Slime.
It landed right in front of me, dissolving the rocks beneath it.
And from the crevices in the walls, THEY began to crawl out with a sickening rustle. Magical Cave Cockroaches.
The size of a sturdy bulldog, covered with a tough chitinous shell that gave off a faint aura of mana.
— "Oh, look," — I cracked my knuckles, smiling in anticipation. — "Here comes the EXP."
I bolted from my spot.
The points invested in Agility turned me into a blurred speck. The slime tried to shoot a stream of acid at me, but I was already at its side.
A direct spinning kick — and the monster's jelly-like body popped like an overinflated balloon, splashing the walls with foul-smelling slime.
Next, I crashed down on the cockroaches.
It was disgusting. Hideously disgusting. But for the sake of leveling up the Vessel, I was willing to endure it.
My boot smashed through the chitinous shell of the first insect with a crunch. I caught the second one by its antennae and smashed it into the third one with full force.
— "Collect the cores!" — I yelled, dodging the mandibles of another mutant.
Takemichi, sobbing, crawled through the puddles of slime, squeamishly gouging cloudy pebbles out of the remains with his rusty cleaver.
— "I'm a savior of worlds... I was supposed to fight gangsters... not gut bugs in a sewer..." — he mumbled under his breath, tossing cores into the jingling sack.
After ten minutes of intense cardio combined with pest control, the hall was cleared.
I breathed heavily, shaking the purple slime off my sleeves with disgust.
The golden System window blinked happily.
[ Killed: 1 Giant Slime (Rank: C) ]
[ Received: 5 System Coins. ]
[ Killed: 20 Armored Magical Cockroaches(Rank: C) ]
[ Received: 2 System Coins. ]
I froze. My eye under the blindfold twitched.
— "Two coins? For twenty of them?" — I took a threatening step toward the empty air where the notification hung.
— "This is C-RANK! C-RANK, YOU PIECE OF GREEDY SCRAP METAL! Why do they give 0.1 coins each?!"
[ Sync System:A cockroach is a cockroach even in C-rank, Host.]
[ Do you want inflation? ]
[ I can make it so the potion costs 10,000 coins instead of 100. ]
[ Shall we alter the economy? ]
«I am going to uninstall you someday,» — I mentally promised, grinding my teeth.
— "Satoru..." — Takemichi's pitiful voice came from behind. — "My bag is already full. And it stinks. Can we go home?"
— "Too early," — I turned toward the next tunnel, from which even more disgusting rustling was emanating.
— "We've only just begun. If the System wants me to collect pennies, then I'll scrub this place so clean not even bacteria will be left. Move your legs, we have a whole hive ahead of us."
And we stepped deeper into the darkness.
With every step deeper into the cave, the smell of rot became increasingly unbearable.
The tunnel walls were completely covered with a thick layer of pulsating purple slime, in which the bones of unlucky monsters were stuck here and there.
Or Hunters.
I walked ahead, cracking my knuckles. Takemichi trudged behind, dragging a sack along the floor that was growing heavier by the minute, and muttering prayers to all the gods he could remember under his breath.
— "We're almost there," — I threw over my shoulder when the Six Eyes detected a massive cluster of mana ahead, radiating concentrated acid.
— "Satoru, that's the Boss room! We don't have a healer!" — Takemichi squeaked, bursting into tears, pressing himself against the wall, and shaking the rusty cleaver.
— "I didn't prepare for this! This isn't a gang brawl with 'Valhalla' or Toman! We're just going to be turned into minced meat here!"
The tunnel abruptly widened, leading us into a huge underground hall resembling the stomach of a giant monster. And in the center of this hall stood her.
The Acid Rot Queen.
She was a hideous chimera: her lower half consisted of dozens of segments of an armored centipede, while her upper half was a shapeless mountain of greenish slime, inside of which floated the half-digested remains of past victims.
Seeing us, the creature let out a gurgling shriek that made our ears pop, and hurled a hail of acid spikes in our direction.
— "Get down, laborer!" — I yelled, darting from my spot.
The points poured into Agility turned me into a blurred shadow. The spikes hissed as they pierced the spot where I had stood a fraction of a second ago, melting fist-sized holes into the stone.
Without Infinity, it was impossible to tank that. Without magic, I couldn't just erase her with [Blue]. I'll have to work with my hands. Again.
I dashed toward the Queen in a zigzag pattern, dodging the whipping strikes of her mandibles.
The chimera tried to cover me with a giant wave of slime, but I pushed off the nearest stalagmite, soared into the air, and landed right on her armored back.
My boots slipped on the ooze, but I kept my balance.
The Six Eyes flawlessly pinpointed the core — a dimly flickering melon-sized crystal hidden deep beneath the layers of slime and chitin on the back of the creature's neck.
— "Let's crack open this canned food!"
I put all my new Strength into my right fist and brought it down on a joint in the carapace. The chitin crunched pitifully.
The creature shrieked and began to thrash wildly, trying to throw me off into the acid puddles.
A second strike broke through the armor. I plunged my arm elbow-deep into the scalding slime.
Pain slashed through my nerves, but I felt the hard surface of the crystal, gripped it firmly with my fingers, and with a primal roar, tore it out.
The Queen froze. Her enormous body shuddered, and then with a loud squelch, it slumped, turning into a giant, harmless puddle of putrid sludge.
I jumped down to the ground, breathing heavily and shaking off my smoking jacket sleeve.
My arm was red from burns, but regeneration (thanks to the Stamina points) had already started its work.
[ Killed: Acid Rot Queen(C-rank Boss). ]
[ Received: 500 System Coins. ]
[ Level Up! ]:[ Current level: 18]
[ Free points: 15 ]
I exhaled, feeling the pleasant wave of leveling up wash away some of the fatigue. Five hundred coins — now we were talking.
— "Hey, System" — I mentally addressed it, distributing the points evenly among Strength, Agility, and Stamina.
— "Where's the loot? I just dug around elbow-deep in acid."
As if answering my question, two glowing objects materialized above the puddle of slime. A golden one and a gray one.
I stepped closer and grabbed the golden drop. It was a massive ring made of blackened metal, bearing the image of a fanged muzzle.
[ Item:Greedy Looter's Ring (Rank: C) ]
[ Description: An artifact for those who are ready to hang themselves for a penny. ]
[ Increases the drop chance of System Coins from common monsters by 50%. ]
[ Penalty: Causes mild paranoia and the urge to recount your change at stores. ]
— "Oh, yeah!" — I triumphantly threw up my fist holding the ring, ignoring the sarcastic description.
— "Goodbye, pennies! Hello, a proper grind! Takemichi, we're rich!"
— "We're... alive..." — the schoolboy sobbed, crawling out from behind a boulder. — "Please tell me that's it."
— "Almost. Something else dropped here," — I reached for the second, gray item.
Usually, gray highlighted junk that could only be sold to the System shop for a couple of coppers.
In my hand, there was a strange plastic jar with a dispenser.
[ Item:Hair Styling Gel "Absolute Arrogance"(Rank: Trash) ]
[ Description: Made from the extract of the Rot Queen's slime ]
[ Provides no stats. ]
[ Maintains the shape of your hairstyle even after a nuclear explosion, a fall from a skyscraper, or a direct meteorite hit ]
[ Can only be washed off by the tears of virgins ]
I stared blankly at the jar for a few seconds. Then I shifted my gaze to Takemichi, whose hair had hung down in pitiful, dirty icicles from the dungeon's humidity.
Then I instinctively touched my own white hair, which stuck up in perfect spikes despite the fights, blood, and acid.
— "System" — I narrowed my eyes. — "Is this a hint?"
[ Sync System: No hints, Host. ]
[Just a statistical fact:too much passive mana is spent maintaining your anti-gravity hairstyle.]
[Use the gel, save energy]
[Your personal stylist will thank you ]
— "I'm definitely going to delete you someday," — I grumbled, but stashed the jar in my inventory. Marin really might appreciate it.
— "Satoru," — Takemichi walked up to me, rattling the full sack. His face expressed extreme despair.
— "The Gate is starting to flicker. The dungeon is cleared. The cordon outside is still there. How are we going to get out? You have zero mana!"
I looked at the blue oval of the exit pulsating at the end of the hall. I really had no mana.
Teleporting past the journalists and Association guards wasn't going to work.
— "We'll walk out like true winners," — I smirked crookedly, slipping the Looter's Ring onto my finger.
— "On foot, brazenly, and through the front door. Let them try to stop us."
I grabbed Takemichi by the shoulder, and we stepped into the portal, returning to nocturnal Tokyo.
A long walk without magic awaited us ahead.