Chương 4: Hunted in the Depths

Luke picked up the pace. No point sneaking anymore. The three enemies were already in sight, scattered across the clearing, and they were going to see him either way.

"Hisss!" One of the lizard-creatures spotted him first. Its shrill cry cut through the cave air, and the other two snapped their heads toward him. Luke drew a knife and threw. Missed.

"Shit." The monsters charged. The first kobold came straight at him, fast and low, its tail sweeping across the ground in a wide arc. Luke dodged on instinct. He'd seen that move before. The rat had done the same thing. But the second kobold was already airborne. It launched itself at him from above and slammed into him, knocking him flat on his back. A fist crashed into his ribs. Luke kicked out, forcing the monster back, then drove his knife into its shoulder before it could recover.

Without stopping, he pulled another blade from his holster and threw it. The knife hit the kobold in the leg. The creature shrieked. I missed. He'd aimed for the face. Hit the thigh. No time. Something heavy struck his back. The third kobold's tail. Luke hit the ground and rolled, the air bursting out of him in a gasp, but one of the creatures slammed into him and grabbed hold. Luke had a knife in each hand, so he started stabbing.

Again and again, he drove the blades into the kobold's back, climbing the creature like a living wall while it thrashed beneath him. Every strike sank deep. Every movement dragged him higher. When he reached its neck, he shoved a knife in from the side. The kobold staggered backward, choking, one hand clamped around its throat. Its knees buckled. Luke threw himself away before it collapsed. [You have slain Cave Kobold – Lvl 2] The other two froze for half a second, growling at him.

One crouched, ripped the knife out of its own leg, and pointed it at Luke. Luke stared at it.

"Truce?" The word slipped out before he could stop it. Dry. Stupid. The kobold answered with a snarl and charged. The other began circling, trying to get behind him. Luke backed up, slipping just out of reach, fighting to keep both of them in sight. The kobold with the knife was worse now. Smarter, or at least more dangerous. Luke kicked it hard in the chest, making it stumble, then ducked at the exact moment the second kobold's tail whipped over his head. That was when he threw the smoke bomb.

The black sphere struck the ground and cracked open with a sharp snap. A thick cloud of gray smoke exploded outward, swallowing the clearing in seconds. The kobolds hissed and stumbled, losing sight of him. That was all Luke needed. He surged through the smoke and slammed into one of them from behind, throwing his full weight onto its back. They crashed down and rolled across the ground, but Luke was already moving. Knife in hand. Neck exposed. Quick, precise strikes. Instinct took over. His hand knew where to cut.

The kobold thrashed beneath him, claws scraping stone and dirt, until its body finally stopped moving. [You have slain Cave Kobold – Lvl 2] [Your class [Assassin] has reached Level 1!] Assassin has granted bonus attribute points: +2 Agility, +1 Strength, +1 Vitality, +1 Perception, +1 Free Point. I did it. Luke could barely believe it. The odds had shifted. Two dead. One left. The smoke was beginning to thin when he stood. Then he felt it.

A sharp pain burned through his lower back, sudden and vicious, like a red-hot needle being driven into him. Luke staggered and twisted around. The last kobold stood behind him, breathing hard, wounded, furious. It was holding two knives. It picked up my knife. The monster spun. Luke raised his arm to block, but the blade sliced through his skin. Before he could react, a tail smashed into his ribs and hurled him to the ground. The kobold didn't hesitate. It leapt onto him and drove a knife into his abdomen.

Pain blew through him. Luke screamed, grabbed the creature, and twisted with every bit of strength he had left. He shoved the monster sideways and stabbed his own blade into its back. Then he kicked the kobold away and rolled, gasping, shaking, barely able to get to his knees.

"Hisss!" The creature charged again. Panic took over. Hot blood soaked his shirt. He had been stabbed. He could barely breathe. Couldn't think. He just kept yanking knives from his holster, one after another, and throwing them. [Mana: 60/70] [Mana: 55/70] [Mana: 50/70]... [Mana: 0/70] The knives kept flying. Shoulder. Chest. Neck. The kobold didn't stop. It kept running, kept shrieking, closing the distance while Luke dragged himself backward, out of mana, out of strength, out of time. The kobold jumped.

Luke kicked. A fallen blade spun up from the ground, and he caught it. With the last scrap of rage in his body, he drove the knife into the creature's neck. The kobold fell on top of him anyway, pinning him under its weight. Its grip tightened once, then went weak. Luke groaned through clenched teeth and shoved the knife deeper. The monster went limp. They went down together. [You have slain Cave Kobold – Lvl 3] Luke stared up at the cave ceiling, fighting for breath.

"Shit… I got stabbed. I'm actually gonna bleed out…" Heat pulsed through his body. The pain burned hard, then harder. Darkness began closing in at the edges of his vision. [You have reached Level 1! Human (Rank F)] Race Level Up Bonus Stats: +1 Strength, +1 Agility, +1 Endurance, +1 Vitality, +1 Perception, +1 Intelligence, +1 Free Point. Something changed. A different warmth spread through him. Not fever. Not pain. Something cleaner. Like his body was putting itself back together. The agony vanished.

Luke's eyes widened. His breathing steadied. Slowly, he touched his abdomen where the knife had gone in. Nothing. The wound was gone. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I heal when my race level goes up? He had read something like that online, but the world was drowning in rumors, lies, and half-truths about the System and the new society.

Almost everything sounded like desperate people trying to sell certainty in a world that didn't have any left. But this had really happened. He had been dying. Now there wasn't even a scratch on him. Maybe those posts weren't all bullshit after all. And if that was true, what else had people gotten right? [You have acquired a Race Skill] Luke stood slowly, still dazed, and looked around. Silence. The bodies lay still. No enemies left. He ran his hands over himself. No cuts. No bruises. No hole in his stomach.

Even his HP, mana, and stamina were fully restored. He felt renewed, almost untouched, like that fight had happened to somebody else. Luke touched the new skill. A description appeared in front of him. [Identify (Common)]: Allows you to analyze objects, equipment, and creatures to reveal basic information. The higher the skill level, the more detailed the analysis becomes. He didn't waste another second. Luke ran to the gazebo. It was simple: a circular stone shelter, one wooden table, one chair under the roof.

Dust covered everything. The whole place looked old enough to crumble. On the table sat an old leather bag.

"The key has to be in here…" Luke grabbed it and opened it in a rush. When he shook the bag, a folded piece of paper fell out, but he ignored it at first. His eyes were fixed on what came tumbling out. Something hit the table with a dull clack. Hope sparked in his chest. Then he looked. A rock. Another fell after it. Then another. The bag was full of them.

"…Seriously?" Luke frowned at the useless pile.

"Maybe the old owner was really into throwing rocks at monsters…" Then his mind caught on something he had skipped over.

"A bag…" He froze. A real bag.

"So… where's the owner?" Luke looked around. Only kobold corpses. No bones. No body. No sign of a person. Can monsters even carry gear like this? Or maybe… it wasn't theirs. His gaze returned to the paper he had ignored. More alert now, he picked it up and unfolded it. His hands froze the second he saw the writing. And worse, he could read it.

"God help me. I'm trapped down here. I can't find a way out." Luke swallowed.

"Other people have been here…" His eyes slid toward the tunnel, then to the waterfall beyond it. Was the jump the only entrance? The note didn't say. Maybe it only meant this floor of the dungeon. Maybe it meant the whole world down here. For a moment, none of that mattered. Someone else had been here. Someone had written that note, left it behind, and never made it out. Which meant Luke might not be the first person trapped down here. Just the next. They had never found the key. Never activated the portal.

And that thought sank into Luke like a cold weight. The key wasn't just hidden. Someone had already failed to find it. Luke forced himself to move. He slipped through the shadows of the underground forest, skirting the field toward the second lit area. Along the way, he found more enemies scattered across the terrain: rats, kobolds, the same ugly rhythm of claws, teeth, and violence. But something inside him had changed. The fear was still there. Of course it was. He wasn't an idiot.

But the part of him that hesitated before killing was getting quieter. That scared him more than the monsters, because the worst part was, it helped. Maybe urgency was burning it away. Maybe survival was doing what survival always did. Or maybe he was simply getting good at this. That was the problem. At last, he saw it. A massive set of stone double doors rose ahead, sealed shut, their surface lit by two torches mounted on either side. In front of them stood two armed kobolds, motionless, waiting.

"Guards?" That tracked. This was probably the official entrance to the floor, the path challengers took if they came the normal way, descending through the dungeon instead of falling into it like a complete idiot. Luke approached carefully, then stopped. Something in the air felt wrong. Heavy. The kind of stillness that pulled at his skin. The kobolds saw him.

"Hisss!" Both charged. One came in low, almost crawling, fast as a predator. Luke drew a knife and threw. Missed. The creature closed in and threw a punch. Luke dodged and drove both knives into its side. The second kobold came from behind, twisting into a tail attack. Luke ducked, and the tail struck the first kobold and sent it flying. Luke took the opening. He stabbed the second kobold in the abdomen, not wasting time aiming for the neck, which the creature protected on instinct.

He drove the blade upward in repeated, brutal strikes until the monster's guard broke and its throat was exposed. The next cut ended it. [You have slain Cave Kobold – Lvl 2] The other one was already back on its feet. It charged. Luke cut its leg. The creature stumbled, hissing. He threw two more knives. Missed again. But this time, he didn't freeze. He ran, jumped, hit the kobold in the middle of its charge, and slammed it hard to the ground, driving the blade deep when they landed.

The thick flesh resisted, but Luke forced the knife through. [You have slain Cave Kobold – Lvl 3] [Your class [Assassin] has reached Level 2!] (Class Bonus Points Acquired) [You have acquired a Class Skill] Luke stood, trembling. His legs felt weak. Not just from the fight. The weight of the violence he had just committed was starting to press against the back of his mind, piling up in a place he didn't want to look at too closely. He stared at a scratch on his arm.

"So… class level ups don't heal." His HP, mana, and stamina hadn't been restored.

"Only race levels, then." He scanned the area. No sound. No movement. Luke let out a breath and opened the System screen, touching the new skill. [Knife Throwing (Common)]: A true assassin never wastes an attack. Grants proficiency in throwing knives and light projectiles, making ranged strikes feel natural and deadly. Luke's eyes widened. Knowledge slammed into him. Grip. Angle. Spin. Force. Distance. Point of impact. How to account for drag and the dead air inside the cave.

How to draw and throw without wasting motion. How to let the wrist finish the work. It was like years of training had been shoved into his body in a single breath. Not taught. Installed. Luke pulled a knife from his holster and looked at a nearby tree. The instant he chose the target, his body moved. His arm snapped forward. The knife spun cleanly through the air. He didn't think. He didn't have to. His mind had already done the math the moment he aimed. The blade struck the trunk dead center. Luke stared.

Dead center. Only one thing came out.

"Okay. That's insane." And terrifying. The skill had adjusted everything. His aim. His reflexes. Even the way he drew the knives from his holster. Every draw felt smooth now. Natural. Like his body had finally learned a language it had only been imitating before. But he couldn't stand there admiring himself. What he needed was right in front of him. The massive stone double doors. Luke approached and pushed. Nothing. He pushed again, this time with his full weight. The giant slabs didn't move.

A System window appeared before his eyes. [Notice]: This is the final floor of the Dungeon and houses the Forgotten Temple. These doors can only be opened from the inside if you possess the Statue Key, currently guarded by a Boss. Luke went still. His mind snagged on one word. Boss? The note. The bag. The silence. It all clicked at once. The dungeon hadn't trapped him by accident. It had saved him for last. He stared at the door, then looked around. The air near it felt sacred in the worst possible way. Too quiet.

Too patient. Like something had been waiting here long before he arrived.

"Don't tell me I have to kill a boss to get out of here…" The words came out weak. The abandoned bag in the gazebo. The desperate note. The inactive portal. The sealed door. No one had completed the challenge. Luke felt the truth settle over him like stone. The statue hadn't lied. Something down here was waiting to kill him. Somewhere deep in the darkness, a breath echoed. Slow. Ancient. Something was waking. From the center of that abyss, two eyes opened, and a voice followed, deep as the stone itself.

"Who woke me?" The creature focused. Images of the floor flooded its mind: the underground forest, the dense trees, the faint purple glow of crystals pulsing along the cave's edges. Its awareness swept across the terrain, slipping through roots, stone, shadow, and silence. Then it stopped. There. Near the sealed gate stood a human. Young. Breathing. Alive. Staring at the door as if he expected it to open on its own.

"Well…" A smile touched the being's lips in the dark.

"Looks like the System sent me another visitor." This one was still breathing. The words rolled through the abyss, low and amused.

"Let's see how far this one gets." There was something in the voice now. Excitement. Anticipation. Hunger, maybe. In all those years, no one had ever awakened it.

"I see… an assassin." The being's smile widened in the dark. It wanted to see how long the assassin would last. This time, the dungeon might finally be interesting.