Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society - Chapter 23 – New Students for the Fall Semester (5)
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Chapter 23 – New Students for the Fall Semester (5)

This was the first time I had ever seen a monster outside of the dungeon, so I tensed up for a second. However, once I noticed that this monster looked exactly like a pigeon, I relaxed. Of course, I knew better than to let my guard down around a monster, regardless of how it looked.

As I made this mental note, my body started shaking. I had originally thought that I had received a KaTalk, but it turned out that Su Ye-Eun was quivering like a vibrating cell phone.

“M-Monster,” she stammered.

“… Oy? Ability user, oy.”

“S-S-S-Scary.”

“Aren’t you an ability user?” I questioned skeptically.

“I-I c-can’t do a-anything with my a-ability.”

“Not with that a-a-a-attitude.” I grumbled sarcastically.

The people nearby were already running away screaming. Judging by the pigeon monster’s size, it probably couldn’t chase us underground. I grabbed the frozen Su Ye-Eun by the arm and began running.

I ordered testily, “Snap out of it! We’re running!”

“N-N-N-No, scary. W-We’re going to die.”

“Come on, what happened to the person who was cornering me earlier, asking me if I was an ability user!?”

Fortunately, Su Ye-Eun was light, so it was not too hard to run while dragging her along. Unfortunately, apparently the grotesque pigeon had decided to come after us. Before we could reach the underground tunnel, the pigeon flapped its wings and landed in front of us, completely blocking the way. I clicked my tongue and began running towards the opposite direction.

I groused in annoyance, “Did you plaster yourself with honey? Why is it chasing us!?”

Su Ye-Eun wailed, “I-I-I don’t know! I’m scared, save me!”

“Just don’t open your mouth! Screw it, I’m holding you.”

“H-H-Holding me?”

In an instant, I lifted her legs and maneuvered her into my arms as if I was a handsome prince carrying his princess. Now that the weight wasn’t all unbalanced on one arm, I continued to run with ease. Unsurprisingly, I was much faster running like this compared to when I was dragging her along.

Thoughts raced through my head as I ran. Should I go to where lots of people are? No, that would only make it dangerous for others. Is that the only underground road entrance? No, but the others are already filled with evacuees. I can’t bring the pigeon there. Then do I continue running until either Guardian or Freedom Wing shows up? That would be announcing that I’m an ability user. Then…!

“Ugh, Su Ye-Eun, you’re making this so much harder for me!” I crankily said.

“M-M-Me? Why?”

“Stop shaking!”

I redirected myself to a deserted alleyway. Would other people think of me as a hero leading the monster away from others? Or would they just think I’m a fool? When I reached the alleyway, people watching from their windows screamed and shut them quickly. When I glanced around quickly, I found security cameras installed nearby.

Not here. I continued to run. Soon, I reached an area where buildings were sparse. Apparently, I was now at a construction site as there were building materials stacked nearby.

Alright, perfect. It was crucial that I was in a place where no security cameras could watch me.

I glanced back. The pigeon flew past my head and landed at the construction site. I first let Su Ye-Eun down. She shouted with tears in her eyes, “W-Why did you come here? Why did you bring me too!?”

“Hey, Su Ye-Eun.”

“What!?”

“You better keep this a secret.”

“…?” She looked confused.

I picked up an iron pipe from nearby. It was around six feet long with an ideal thickness and weight. Although it bothered me that it had a dull end, I couldn’t do anything about it now.

Su Ye-Eun’s eyes opened wide when she saw me pick up the thick and heavy iron pipe without any heavy exertion.

She gasped, “Y-You’re an ability user!”

“It’s a secret that you need to keep,” I tersely replied.

I held the iron pipe with both hands and glared at the pigeon. It was hard to understand why it was targeting us. Was it targeting me or Su Ye-Eun? Although I wanted to know the answer, there was no way to communicate with it so all I could do was kill it.

The pigeon began to flap its wings. Before it could fly too high, I grabbed the iron pipe with my dominant hand and threw it up. White light spiraled around the entire pipe as I infused it with my mana. When the other dungeon explorers saw the color of my mana, they called me a Hero. 

Boom!

The iron pipe neatly penetrated the giant pigeon, pinning it to the wall. Mm, although its size was big, it was incredibly weak. Now I just had to get rid of all the evidence.

I checked around one more time for security cameras or anyone watching. Then, I put my hand on the bleeding carcass and stuffed it in my dungeon inventory. My inventory expanded by 10 slots each time I leveled up, so I now had 190 slots.

“So it actually goes in,” I murmured.

“Kyaaaak!”

I ignored Su Ye-Eun, who was screaming in terror, as I also stuffed the bloody iron pipe in my storage. Now, I only had to clean up the pigeon’s blood. As for the carcass, it would come in use one day. For example, when my father finally decided to register as an ability user, he could turn it in for money. It was the perfect crime!

“Su Ye-Eun, let’s go.”

“Y-You…”

She still seemed unable to calm down as she trembled with her mouth open wide. I sighed and held her hand, dragging her.

“Let’s go. We’re going to get found out by someone otherwise.”

“A-Ability user…You lied.”

“I’m not an ability user.”

I refuted her in anger. Then, with a face full of pride, I told her, “I’m a dungeon explorer.”

“…What’s that?”

Of course, I regretted my thoughtless disclosure immediately. Apparently, I needed to raise my intelligence stat more.

*

The 19th floor of the dungeon. 

Along with the past three floors, it was a place filled with lizardmen, which were humanoid lizards with hard scales.

Oddly enough, these guys wielded spears. Although I battled them at first thinking I could learn something from them, I soon discovered that they could only stab with brute strength and no finesse.

However, because they attacked simultaneously in groups, their attacks were considered difficult to dodge. Of course, that was for ordinary dungeon explorers, not me. My training had been brutal enough that they were a piece of cake for me.

“Shwik, attack the scraggy human!” croaked one of the lizardmen.

“He looks flavorless.”

“Mind your own business!”

With a spirited shout, I swung my Orc Lord’s Glaive and parried away the approaching spears. I then lowered my center of mass and charged straight at them. Once they missed their initial attacks, they were left with a huge opening because their spears were around nine feet long.

Even now, they couldn’t take a counter offensive stance as they watched me rush towards them.

“Shwik, dodge him!”

“Too late!”

With a short curse, I struck out and pierced through a lizardman’s neck with the glaive. However, there was more than just one target, so I hastily took out the glaive and engaged my next target.

“Avenge our brethren!”

“Shwik, avenge him!”

I grumbled, “They’re coming like bees.”

I imbued mana into my glaive as I swung it back and forth like before to strike down their spear attacks. Following that, I switched my grip on my weapon and, in a sequence of fast and elaborate moves, pierced the necks of the lizardmen one by one. After fighting the lizardmen for over a month at this point, I knew their movement patterns in and out, making it easy for me to defeat them.

The only limiting factor was my mana. Because the lizardmen had tough leather hides, it was impossible to kill them in one blow without using mana. As a result, my hunting speed naturally slowed down as I had to recover my mana in-between fights and it took over a month for me to climb to the 19th floor.

Of course, when I told Ellos about it, he bitterly said, “You bugged bastard!” In actuality, I wanted to encounter a real bug. Apparently, Ellos had found one on the 22nd floor and obtained a unique-grade sword. I was dying of jealousy.

“Grwaaaarrr! Strong human!”

“Call for reinforcement!”

“Reinforcement, called!”

“Reinforcement coming! Kruna coming!”

Hm?

When I began to quickly dwindle their numbers, the lizardmen began to spout something different than their usual fare. It was the first time something like this happened since I entered the dungeon.

Kruna. If I understood correctly, it did not mean reinforcement. Instead, it was a name of something, and I had heard of it before. Normally, the regular monsters from dungeon floors did not have unique names. However, I had heard from somewhere that named monsters had an extremely low chance of appearing among the normal minions.

These named monsters were much stronger than normal monsters and could even use special skills. In exchange for the higher difficulty level, they had a low chance of dropping a rare item. Most of the time, however, it ended in disappointment.

A named monster on the 19th floor. Curse my luck.

Why did it have to be a named monster and not a bug? I silently complained as I fixed my grip on the glaive. Although I had been repairing it at the Floor Shop, my desire to obtain a new spear had been growing and growing. Since all the lizardmen were carrying spears, I expected the 20th Floor Master would have one as well. No, I sincerely hoped so.

I leisurely hunted down the lizardmen, when suddenly, I felt a sharp presence. I backed off a little. When I laid my eyes on the thing giving off that aura, I was dumbfounded.

“There was a female!? Shouldn’t you be called a lizardwoman then?” I exclaimed out loud.

“Human, don’t stare! You, you not my type!”

How did I know the lizardman-uh-woman was female? For one, there was a light pink ribbon on her smooth, scaly head. Unlike the lizardmen who were carrying spears, this guy…or rather, gal, was wearing a fancy robe and carrying a wooden staff. But wait, what did she just say?

“Heroic Strike!”

“Gwarrrr, eeeeek!”

When I replayed what she said, fury fizzled into my bones and I instantly imbued all my energy in my spear and threw it. In my anger, I had activated my Heroic Strike. Without even a chance to react to my move, my spear penetrated Kruna’s abdomen as she screamed and then perished.

Until now, I had to spend dozens of seconds concentrating to transfer the energy from my body into the spear. However, I had just succeeded in activating the skill instantaneously. I wasn’t sure if getting insulted by a female lizardman was the way I wanted to learn this trick though.

[You have defeated the named monster, Kruna. You have obtained the reward, ‘Headband of Wisdom’.]

[High-rank Spear Technique has reached level 4! Your insight into the Way of the Spear has increased. The amount of mana required for High-rank Spear Technique has decreased slightly. You can display your full strength with any spear.]

[You have created the skill Heroic Strike! It concentrates the body’s energy and mana into one point and strikes out. The amount of HP and MP it uses is proportional to the charging time used. This skill may only be used by its creator. The skill level is adjusted to lower-rank level 7.]

[You have created a skill! Heroic Strike is a skill that has never existed elsewhere. Created with the most exquisite combination of energy and mana, this skill is a feat which must be passed down to future generations. You have obtained 1 skill point as reward. Current skill points: 3]

“Eh…?”

Wait, what’s this? Creating a skill?

I could not understand why my Heroic Strike had suddenly been systematically recognized as a ‘skill’ by the dungeons. Regardless of why it occurred, an extra skill point was always appreciated. Not to mention, becoming a skill meant that its might was guaranteed. All in all, it was nothing but good news.

At this unexpected gain, I grew excited and even forgot about the disgust I felt from Kruna. As I was about to check the skill in depth, I finally noticed the lizardmen growling and surrounding me.

“Ah.”

“He killed Kruna!”

“Male killed pretty female!”

“Kill Human!”

“Pretty? What is? The ribbon?”

I had asked out of sincere curiosity but the lizardmen reacted sensitively.

“Shaaaak!”

“Killed precious female! Kill male!”

“Shwik, we cut it!”

“C-Cut what? Y-You bastards! Don’t get near me!”

Taken by surprise, I couldn’t help but stutter. I only regained my calm after blowing all of those lizardmen away with Tempest

“Don’t be so harsh. You wouldn’t be able to tell she’s female without the ribbon anyways!” I snarled.

“Shwiik! Kill Human!”

“Human insult dead Kruna!”

“Kill Human!”

[You have created the skill, ‘Provoke’. By imbuing your shouts with a bit of mana, it draws the nearby enemies toward you. It is a skill suited for a warrior of noble mindset who wishes to protect his weak allies by means of self-sacrifice, and it requires 10 MP per use.]

I was flustered by this. “W-What?”

Something was strange. I had not gained any new skills since Spirit Mastery, but I just created Heroic Strike and Provoke out of the blue. But was it just me or was this skill description trying to make fun of me?

“Alright, fine! All of you, come at me! I’ll reach the 20th floor today!”

[You used the skill, Provoke! You draw nearby enemies toward you!]

“Die!”

“Kill Human!”

“Shwik, avenge Kruna!”

“Human meat!”

“Meat down there!”

“Down where? Where do you think you’re aiming!?” I hollered indignantly.

After that, I ran around so much gathering up lizardmen that blisters formed and popped on my feet.

Killing the gathered up lizardmen with Heroic Strike was much more efficient. The downside was that I had paid too big of a price to figure out this strategy Apparently, I needed to raise my intelligence stat more.