Chương 6

Congratulations! Your Guide, Champion Kerrigan Bluemont, has unlocked your Status! A large blue screen appeared in front of me. DUNGEON DIVER — PERSONNEL FILE John O'Donnell Race: Human (mana-less species — Integrated) Class: None — unavailable until reaching Floor 2 Level: 3 Unspent Status Points: 6 Health: 100/100 Mana: 8/8 Mana Regeneration: 0. 1/min — Baseline for a mana-less species. It is what it is, bud.

STATS Strength: 18† Dexterity: 14† Constitution: 13† (+15% — Armor of Raziel) Intelligence: 10 — We didn't touch this one. This is all you. Willpower: 11 † Adjusted values. Adjustments performed at Integration and during the Tutorial Dungeon, courtesy of your friendly and neighbourly AI, per Federation Standard §77-C, Subsection: You're Welcome. Unadjusted baseline available upon request. Requests are currently denied.

ASSESSMENT RECORD (PERMANENT) Conduct: 97 (S) — Cooperation: 95 (S) — Creativity: 91 (S→SSS) Public Grade Display: ON [Hide Grades] — This feature starting from Level 10. SKILLS Spear Mastery — Lv 3 (F) Sphere of Intuition — Lv 1 (SSS) — Mana cost: 0 Fire Mastery — Lv 15 (F) Judgment of Raziel — Lv 1 (S) QUESTS Fury of the Fallen Angels — details unveiled on Floor 3. Raziel's Fall — details unveiled on Floor 3.

TABS [Achievements — 5] [Inventory] [Streaming Panel — NEW] (1 unread notification) [Global Leaderboard — calculating your position…]"Holy shit. That was a lot of information." I looked at Bluemont though, who apparently was Champion Kerrigan Bluemont.

"Champion?" I asked. Bluemont didn't even look at me.

"You should tell the AI to give you a summarized version of your status. Otherwise, it will keep showing all that crap with the comments every single time," he said.

"This is so pretty," Hailey said, looking in front of her.

"It's so organized." I looked at our healer and I smiled. It was a good thing that we could find something beautiful in this crazy situation. Humans are adaptable, I thought. We returned to baseline fast. Maybe there was a way through this. All of us cooperating, moving forward as a team, surviving. Then either taking the same offer Bluemont had taken, or fighting the war for our planet. I smiled at that. At the size of the alliance it would take to do something like it.

When I looked back at Bluemont, though, he was staring straight at me — specifically, at the top of my head.

"Now," Bluemont said, "as your guide, I am tasked with guiding you and helping you understand how everything works, mana and all these things. However, since there's just a few of you, I really don't wanna bother with group questions. So, one at a time, you'll come to my personal hut and I'll answer your questions and give you tips on what to do."

"Why can't we do this here?" Lucas frowned.

"Isn't it better if we can synergize everything and—""No," Bluemont cut him off.

"It would just interfere with your build. Humans are too easily swayed by others. You first have to do what's best for your own class and then fit the class into the group, not the other way around. That's how people get killed." Lucas raised his hands, defeated.

"All right. All right. I didn't know that."

"You." Bluemont pointed at Marcus.

"You come first." Marcus followed him out while we sipped on the ice-cold beer that Mateus had brought us.

"This guy is bananas," Hailey said, looking at us.

"Can we really trust him?"

"He does look insane," I chimed in, "but he also is a Champion, apparently."

"A Champion?" Tina frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"It said in the description when we unlocked our statuses," Lucas explained. I was glad that I wasn't the only one paying attention to things.

"So he probably was pretty good at what he did, at the dungeon at least. He seems to think it's all a scam and that we're gonna get fucked, but maybe we need someone like him," I said.

"You know, we need to build a strong group. We need people to come together." Everybody nodded. Fifteen minutes later, Marcus came back with a smile on his face.

"The guy is pretty prepared," he said. Then, looking at me: "John, it's your turn now." I nodded and went to see Bluemont in one of the huts. This one didn't have as big of a space enchantment, and I found the middle-aged man staring at the bottom of the empty bottle of liquor in his hand.

"Close the door," Bluemont said, and I turned toward the shack entrance and saw that indeed there was a dilapidated door. I closed it and a wave of light expanded from it, covering the entire hut. Before I could even sit, Bluemont said in a curt tone, "Someone will try to kill you very soon." I wasn't even seated, and I took a second to do that and stare at him.

"Yeah, it's what the tutorial is trying to do," I said.

"You don't get it, kid." Bluemont slammed the bottom of the bottle on the table.

"I'm not talking about monsters. Well, I'm not talking about monsters from the tutorial, at least. I'm talking about those that wear human skin. You got three S-ranked pieces of equipment, and that means everybody out there is going to try and fuck you because they wanna take that. Soon people will start realizing how powerful equipment like yours is and how big of a difference it makes. It's just a matter of time before people will hunt you down. You have a big target painted on your back.

And that armor of yours is bound. Bound gear unbinds on the corpse, kid. That's why they'll want you dead and not just robbed." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Well, first of all, I only have two pieces of S-ranked equipment and—" Bluemont's eyes went wide.

"You have an S-ranked skill? Is this dungeon giving out skill scrolls this time?" I frowned.

"Hasn't it always been like this?"

"No," Bluemont replied, eyes wide.

"Not for a long time. This. Holy—" He cut himself off several times, babbling, clearly half drunk.

"What does this mean?" I asked.

"I'm not following. Also, the System sort of aggregated my score, I guess, and upgraded the skill to triple S." Bluemont stared at me right in the eyes. He had two piercing, icy blue eyes, and I felt them bore into my soul.

"What's the skill?"

"Um, it's called Sphere of Intuition." Bluemont looked down at the table.

"What's the effect?"

"It kinda allows me to see everything in a sphere, just normally. Like, I can see, in a radius of twenty feet, everything that happens at once. It also sort of tells me when people are out of mana, apparently. Their faces look scrambled." Bluemont looked shocked at what I had just said.

"Listen up, kid." His voice was almost trembling.

"And listen well. Have you told anything about this skill to the others?"

"No, not really," I said.

"Good," he snapped.

"Very good. Do not ever mention what this skill does outside of this hut. The streaming does not pick up which skills you have and use, because they fear the Sorvos Empire would use that against you once it comes to a potential war. It usually never does, but holy shit, the System is handing out S-ranked skills."

"Is that good?" I asked.

"And why— so you, y-you don't want me to tell people because you're afraid that our enemies will listen to that? And what? Like, can they even interfere with the dungeon?"

"Oh, yes, they can. They're not allowed to watch the streams, but if you think they don't have a way to get information on the main dungeon divers, well, I have a bridge to sell you."

"You guys have that expression as well?"

"It just got translated to Common," he replied.

"Yeah, kid. Let's not debate linguistics here. Your skill — you have to do everything you can to grow that one skill. It won't show from the outside. They will know you have some kind of perception skill, perhaps even an S-ranked skill. But do not, under any circumstances, let anybody know what that skill does. Even if you meet your mama, you just gotta shut the fuck up and not tell anyone. You're already a target as you are. But now, a triple-S-ranked skill?

It's not gonna be greedy fucking humans coming after you. Once you get to the third floor—" Bluemont shook his head. He put the bottle down, missed the edge of the table, and caught it.

"Anyway, let me actually get to something else, because if I hold you up too long, they will get weird about it. What pieces of equipment did you get?"

"Uh, can I share the description with you somehow?"

"Yeah, just think about it and touch the item."

"One of them is locked in the Inventory."

"It doesn't matter. You can still do that." With some finicking, I managed to share both descriptions with Bluemont.

"I don't get it," Bluemont said to no one in particular.

"Is this motherfucker the luckiest or the most cursed piece of shit I've ever met?"

"Hey, I'm right here," I said.

"I know." He rubbed his face.

"All right, this is what you're gonna do. You need to grow strong and you need to do it fast. You need to grind as many alphas as you possibly can, and you have a fucking tactical nuke in your arsenal."

"What?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Judgment of Raziel is a marking Skill. A pretty famous one," Bluemont said.

"And this is how people like me used to get S-rank skills — through equipment only. That's why I was surprised that the System is sending scrolls out now. But do you know what it does?"

"Why is there no description?"

"Skills cannot be contained by one simple description," Bluemont said.

"Skills are mysterious, kid. They're way more complex than you think. If you knew what some people can do with a manapult— Ah!" he shouted.

"Oh, goddammit, System. Why didn't it say anything?" His skin was suddenly smoking.

"Are you okay?"

"Eh, whatever. Don't ask. It's just gonna make it worse. As I was saying — your Judgment of Raziel allows you to mark one monster for five mana, which sounds like a lot, but it's gonna take you almost an hour as you are to regenerate that much. Once you do, though, once you do have enough mana, you can mark a target, and now every single hit that you deliver is converted to multiplied fire damage. And you have Fire Mastery at 15. Do you understand what that means?" I cringed. I wished I understood it better.

"I guess that the damage is going to be more than what I usually do, because it goes through the Fire Mastery." Bluemont nodded slowly.

"You'll see it. Trust me, it's not something you can picture well. So you'll have to hunt down Alphas now. Immediately. The whole plan changes. Use your group or go alone, kid. You have that choice.""'Selfish assholes die in wars.' I'm repeating the System AI's words, so I don't think I can."

"Well, careful whom you associate with, then."

"Don't worry. I'll figure it out. So, what about the lance? I was very confused about—""Don't worry about the lance. That's another can of worms that we don't want opened right now. Your priority is to start leveling up Judgment of Raziel and your Fire Mastery, and they will, once you get to the alphas. That's your secret weapon, kid."

"The lance—""Getting to Spear Mastery level 15 is hard. You will understand why when you see the effects of Fire Mastery at level 15."

"One more thing," Bluemont said.

"You got Status Points from leveling? How many?"

"Six."

"Dump them in Strength. All of them." I opened my Status and put all six points into Strength. Strength: 18 → 24 It didn't feel like much of anything, which was almost disappointing. Then I picked up my spear off the table, and it came up like it was made of paper. After my talk with Bluemont, I went back to the group and told them I wanted some time alone to open my chest. I said chest, singular. I didn't want anybody getting ideas about how many I actually had.

Bluemont had told me to come back once we killed an alpha. He hadn't said how to find one. I guessed that was like the information about Mana Bolt — something the System didn't want guides handing over. There was a lot it wanted us to work out for ourselves. I also guessed the alphas wouldn't be hidden. On the way to the haven I had passed strange markings and tracks. Without the Sphere of Intuition I would have walked straight by them. With it, they had been as clear as day. The System left hints out there.

You had to be able to see them. I had asked about the streaming, too. Bluemont said the panel only opened at night. During the day, divers were left undisturbed, so they could focus on the tutorial dungeon. Now my three chests sat in front of me on the floor of the small shack. D-Ranked Intelligence Chest B-Ranked Corporate Chest S-Ranked Insanity Chest It was time to open them. I started with the D-Ranked Intelligence Chest, a plain wooden box with iron corners and a large "D" stamped on the lid. I unlatched it.

You have opened a D-Ranked Treasure Chest! Inside, lined up in a padded row, sat three small glass vials. The liquid inside was blue and completely clear. Item - Minor Potion of Clarity (Rank - D) - Consumable (3) Description Restores 10 Mana. Clears mana exhaustion from the mind instantly. Tastes like cold coffee. HR is aware.

"Not bad," I muttered. I then summoned the B-Ranked Corporate Chest. It was a polished box of dark walnut and brushed steel. It also had… wheels. Like, office-chair wheels.

"What the fuck?" I opened it after struggling to keep it in place. You have opened a B-Ranked Treasure Chest! Inside, resting on gray felt, was a lanyard. A laminated badge hung from it. John O'Donnell — Team Lead. Item - Team Lead Badge (Rank - B) - Unique Description Congratulations on your promotion! This badge unlocks the Team Management Panel. Monitor your team, track engagement, and lead them to synergistic success. Someone has to be responsible for performance reviews. It's you now.

The badge dissolved into motes of light before I could even decide whether to touch it, and a new tab appeared at the edge of my vision. [Team Management Panel — NEW] I opened it. TEAM MANAGEMENT PANEL Team: [Unnamed] — Members: 5/5 Team Lead: John O'Donnell Group XP Share: ACTIVE — kills are split among all members within 300 feet. Marcus — Level 3 — 210 feet Hailey — Level 3 — 195 feet Tina — Level 3 — 200 feet Lucas — Level 3 — 188 feet [Gathering more info for synergy report…] Honestly, this begged the question of how the AI had decided that I was the team lead. It might have been because I had been leading the team. Well, that was kind of obvious, I guess. I wasn't sure, though, what this did exactly. It said it was gathering more info for the synergy report. Whatever, it was time for the last chest. The chest that appeared in front of me was the same matte black as the one the lance and the Armor of Raziel had come from. There was, however, a red lining to it.

I suppose that was for the insanity. I was a little scared of opening this one. Getting a chest because of an insanity thing is, I don't know, creepy. An Insanity Chest. I hoped it wouldn't spawn a horror or anything like that, but I flipped the clasp and opened it. You have opened an S-Ranked Treasure Chest! There was no blinding light this time. Inside, resting in a shallow depression of a red pillow, sat a small glass bead. I picked it up and held it to the light. There was some dust in it, like sand.

Item - The Negative Second (Rank - S) - Consumable (1) One second removed from a timeline. Crush it to stop time for one second. Everything stops. You don't. Single use. No, you cannot get another one. I read the description three times. One second where everything stopped and I didn't. This came from the 5: 01 achievement. The system really loves its achievements… I thought about what Bluemont had said about people trying to kill me. I had to hurry up and reach level 10.

For some reason, we weren't allowed to hide our assessments just yet. Maybe it was to showcase what got the better rewards in order to establish our hierarchy of some sorts. But it was hard to judge. Bluemont had said that whatever the reason was, this was the main thing that diver killers looked at to pick their marks. My thought was barely finished when… Voices. They came from outside the hut. And it wasn't my group.