Chapter 12: Skill Shop

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Skill Shop

Kyle lowered his shoulder and slammed into one of them, knocking it aside.

He twisted his body and slipped past the second.

A spear swept toward his back. He heard the wind move.

He immediately ducked. The spear passed above his head.

He didn’t stop.

He sprinted toward the corridor.

"GRRAAH!"

The goblins chased after him. Kyle glanced over his shoulder.

More than half of them were pursuing him.

"Damn!"

He accelerated.

His years of hunting had given him excellent endurance, and the goblins were unable to immediately catch him.

But they didn’t need to. One goblin suddenly threw its spear.

Whoosh!

Kyle heard the weapon cutting through the air.

He twisted his body.

The spear grazed his side.

Blood immediately soaked through his leather armor.

"Tch!"

Kyle clenched his teeth. The wound wasn’t deep.

But it was enough to remind him how dangerous the situation had become.

He continued running, the corridor stretched ahead.

Then, he saw the faint moonlight, it’s the entrance.

"I can make it!"

Kyle pushed himself harder.

Behind him, the goblins continued pursuing. One final spear flew toward him.

Kyle threw himself forward.

The weapon struck the stone wall beside his head.

Bang!

Kyle rolled across the entrance hall before scrambling to his feet.

The moment he crossed the dungeon’s boundary, the goblins stopped.

They stood at the edge of the cave-like entrance, staring at him.

Kyle slowly backed away. His chest rose and fell heavily.

Blood dripped from the wound on his side.

For several seconds, neither side moved.

Then Kyle looked at the goblins one final time.

"...I almost died."

He slowly wiped the blood from his side.

"This dungeon..."

Inside the dungeon, the goblins eventually turned around and returned to their camp.

They had successfully defended their territory.

And inside the throne room, Ragnar stared at the screen in disbelief.

"...He escaped."

He had expected the goblins to defeat the hunter.

Instead, the human had managed to fight through their ambush and escape alive.

Ragnar slowly smiled.

"Interesting."

His eyes gleamed with excitement.

"So that’s the strength of a human hunter in this world."

He leaned back against his throne.

"This world is definitely not the game anymore."

----

Several more days quietly passed.

The human hunter who had entered Ragnar’s dungeon that night never returned.

At first, Ragnar had expected the opposite.

After all, the hunter had clearly realized that the place was a dungeon. He had fought his way through the goblins, escaped with his life, and witnessed the strange entrance hall with his own eyes.

He had assumed that once the hunter returned to his village, he would immediately tell everyone what he had discovered.

Then, sooner or later, adventurers would come.

One person would become five.

Five would become twenty.

And before Ragnar knew it, an entire group of humans would probably be standing outside his dungeon.

Yet, nothing happened.

The only visitors Ragnar received were the occasional wild animals that accidentally wandered across the dungeon’s boundary.

"...Strange."

Ragnar sat upon his obsidian throne with one leg crossed over the other, staring at the system screen floating before him.

"Didn’t that guy report this place?"

He tapped his fingers against the armrest.

"Or maybe he did, but nobody believed him?"

That possibility made Ragnar chuckle.

It wouldn’t be particularly surprising.

If he were an ordinary villager and someone suddenly returned from the forest claiming to have discovered a massive stone building that had somehow appeared deep within the wilderness, he probably wouldn’t believe them either.

However, Ragnar quickly became more serious.

"Or maybe..."

"They’re preparing before coming here."

The thought caused his eyes to narrow.

Perhaps they were currently preparing a proper expedition.

Ragnar leaned back against his throne.

"If that’s the case..."

"I’d better make sure my goblins are ready."

He immediately opened the dungeon map.

The familiar layout appeared before him.

The entrance hall.

The cave-like entrance leading into the actual dungeon.

The corridors.

The Goblin Camp.

And finally, his throne room.

Everything remained unchanged.

There were no red markers indicating intruders.

No unfamiliar movement.

Nothing.

Ragnar stared at the empty map for several seconds before eventually relaxing.

"Well..."

"At least they haven’t come yet."

And honestly, Ragnar wasn’t particularly disappointed.

If anything, he was relieved.

He still wasn’t ready to deal with a large group of humans.

His dungeon was practically empty.

His strongest combat force consisted of eleven beginner goblins.

He himself was only Level 4.

If a group of experienced adventurers came rushing into his dungeon right now, there was a good chance they would completely destroy everything he had built.

Time to become stronger.

He closed the dungeon map and opened his status interface.

[Name: Ragnar Lindgren

Level: 5

Race: Demon]

Ragnar stared at the screen.

"...Level 5."

A grin slowly spread across his face.

He had finally reached Level 5.

Over the past several days, Ragnar had stopped relying entirely on his goblins to deal with the beasts that wandered into the dungeon. Whenever a creature entered his territory, he would personally leave the throne room and hunt it down.

At first, it had only been weak animals.

Several forest wolves.

Wild boars.

Large birds.

Even some strange creatures that Ragnar had never encountered in the original game.

However, as time passed, the beasts wandering into the dungeon became slightly stronger.

Some possessed sharp claws, others had surprisingly powerful bodies, and a few even possessed primitive magical abilities.

Ragnar killed every single one of them himself.

More importantly, Ragnar had discovered something extremely important.

He gained experience from anything that died in the dungeon, even if they are killed by the dungeon’s monsters.

The more dangerous the creature, the more experience he received.

Earlier a familiar notification suddenly appeared.

[Ding!]

[Dungeon Boss has reached Level 5.]

[New System Feature Unlocked.]

[Skill Shop has been expanded.]

Ragnar tapped the Skill Shop icon.

The familiar interface appeared before him, except this time, several previously unavailable skills were highlighted.

"Let’s see..."

He adjusted the price filter first.

Since he had almost no Soul Points to spare, he ignored everything expensive and narrowed the list down to skills costing only one or two Soul Points.