Chapter 54 : One Month

Up at the top of a canyon and under a wide sky painted red by the sun, a couple leisurely lay down, holding each other’s hands while staring at the sky.

“You know, it has been a long time since we took a vacation like this.”

“Yes, maybe there is a bright side to being fired from that company.”

“Hmm… Maybe,… let’s enjoy our three month vacation to the fullest.”

*Tring!* *Tring*

As they were talking with each other, Resha’s phone rang. Naturally, Ryan took the phone out and turned it off.

“I thought we agreed to turn off our phones while we are on vacation.”

“Hehe...Sorry, I forgot.”

Under the red sun of the Grand Canyon, the couple, Resha and Ryan kissed.

******

*Beep*

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is unavailable….”

After he realized he couldn’t ask for help in the game, Daniel tried to contact Jurek in real life, but for some reason, his efforts were fruitless.

*sigh*

“(Maybe I should just take it easy and wait until I can ask for help?)”

As he thought that, Daniel went out from his house to start his daily training routine. That day, he doubled his training workload out of frustration.

He came back home later than usual. After washing himself and taking his meal, Daniel entered the game.

****

Stat WindowCharacter nameChronotitle100 Menslayer, Guardian SlayerLevel110ClassContractorHealth780Mana600Fame5000Infamy21,800Strength175(+80)Dexterity389Endurance54Wisdom51Intelligent64Sense134Luck38Stamina168

B77th of ‘Fairy Whisper Dungeon’.

As soon as he logged into the game, he activated ‘Silent Dead’ to avoid getting attacked by high level monsters. Without the portals, he couldn’t summon equipments and items on his beck and call.

It greatly hampered his battle prowess as up until that time the portals played a major role in his fighting style.

As he reassessed the situation, he couldn’t help but feel miserable. The only equipment he had this time were his merchant clothing, ‘Heaven’s Gauntlets’, ‘mage’s ring’, ‘One Ring’, and the hammer he uses to repair equipment.

Heaven's Gauntlet

A light magical gauntlet crafted by a great blacksmith. The gauntlet boasts its magical properties and sturdiness.

Defense : 50 (on hit) Durability : 50/50

+ 5% damage of attacks using fist

Automatically summons small magic shield around the gauntlet that can withstand 250 physical damage

Can cast a barrier for 50 mana that can last for 20 seconds.Its durability depends on the user's intelligence stat.

Requirement : Dexterity 300+

Mage’s Ring

A basic ring for a novice mage that doesn’t want to run out of mana.

Effect : +2 mana per second Durability : 50/50

One Ring

By equipping the ring, your status will be hidden from other users and NPC

Defense : 0 Durability : 100/100

Unfortunately the hammer was too small to use in combat. He had a feeling the hammer would break if he tried to use it to fight the monsters in the dungeon.

As for weapons, he practically had none. ‘Grave’, his sword, was in the secret warehouse. All of the Spears, Guns, knives, explosives, ‘petrified cady’s. Everything he used in fighting was in the ‘Secret Warehouse’. With portals became unavailable, those items were rendered unusable.

Chrono tried to remain calm. He closed his eyes and tried to think. No matter what, conquering the dungeon was out of the question. With his unarmed state, even fighting a single monster could cost him his life.

“(For now, maybe I should just go up until that point of no return at B71st floor.)”

With ‘Silent Dead’, he hides his presence. He doesn’t rely much on the pale light the floor provided as he sensed monsters using his ‘Fear Death’ skill.

Slowly, but surely, he travelled up the dungeon. From B75 onwards, the dungeon layout would change every three hours. Because of that, users had to explore the dungeon themselves instead of relying on maps.

It took Chrono hours to find the stairs to move up a floor. After trials and errors, he finally reached B71st floor.

He looks up at the pit hole used by the users to reach that floor. If a user dived into the pit hole, it will led to a vast underground lake where Chrono was.There were no pillars or walls surrounding the pit hole. It was impossible to reach it from his side.

“(Dammit!)”

He knew it, but as he saw it with his own eyes, he can’t help but to be depressed. Chrono sat on the floors as he think again. As he revised everything again , he could only came with one solution. It was fairly unreliable, but that was the only thing he could thought off.

*****

He took a deep breath as he resolved himself. The only way he could thought off was waiting for a party that trying to conquer the dungeon.

It was quite unreliable plan with the war and clash of clans happens everywhere around the continent. His only hoped was high level parties that didn’t belong to any famous clan. Nonetheless, the chance was low.

While waiting, he plan on increasing his own fighting capabilities. If help didn’t arrive, even if it was impossible, he might be able to do something if he reach the last floor.

Maybe because users went there rarely, the lake area were crowded with monsters. He could tell just by looking that the monsters there was hard to defeat as they specialized in defense.

All of the enemies there wore armor plating and equipped with various type of weapons. The whole floor occupied by monsters from orc family.

It was a lesser orc type monsters that were a bit short compared to the normal orc.Chrono recalled they were called ‘Demi Orc’.These monsters were not as strong as orc, regardless, their strength not to be underestimated.

Chrono walked around with stealthed while looking for a potential target. As he sneaked around between the rock, patiently looking for his first target, he saw a lone demi orc walking between big boulders southeast of the lake.

He took a deep breath before he quietly sneaked behind the ‘demi orc’. Just as he was on the attacking range, he attacked with all of his might using his fist.

boing!

He felt his fist bounce back as it hit the ‘demi orc’ thick skin. On top of that, he felt the ‘demi orc’ took close to no damage.

As it noticed Chrono, the demi orc unleashed its big axe towards Chrono. By a hair, Chrono managed to avoid it.

With his talent in predicting attack, he avoid all of the attacks. Unfortunately his punches and kicks damages was too low for his enemy to take notice.

Regardless, he didn’t gave up. He kept on attacking while dodging the monster attacks. The fight kept on going for hours. And finally, maybe because he was tired, out of negligent the ‘demi orc’ land a hit.

You have been hit

“(I’m not done yet!)”

Chrono kept on hitting with punches and kicks. He unleashed hundreds, or maybe thousands of attacks and counter attacks for hours. Sadly his enemy remained unfazed.

While he exchanged blows with the ‘demi orc’, one more ‘demi orc’ walking his way. As the monsters noticed him, it joined the fight.

With two monsters attacking him, it get busier. Later, the first ‘demi orc’ kneeled down as it used up all of his stamina.

“(Chance!)”

As Chrono saw that, while dodging the second ‘demi orc’, he snatched the big axe from the kneeling demi orc’s hand.

Then, he swiftly slashed the demi orc’s neck with the axe. With the orc high health, it didn’t die from the attack. While dodging the other demi orc’s attacks, Chrono relentlessly slashes the first demi orc on the neck.

You has slain a demi orc

“(Finally!)”

As Chrono about to feel relieved, the other demi orc attacked connected. Chrono’s body flung as it hit one of the big boulder.

You have been hit

The last attacked made him collapsed. And the other demi orc walk away as it saw Chrono turned into ‘corpse’.

‘Fake Death’

****

From the demi orc corpse, nothing Chrono could used as a weapon. The big axe broke terribly after he used it to kill the demi orc.

He had the hammer, but nothing he could do without furnace that was used for blacksmithing and repairing equipments.

The merchant class gave a heavy stats penalty if he tried to wear armors.Because of that, the plate armor was useless as well.

As Chrono couldn’t summon portals anymore, he decided to just leave the corpse without taking anything.His effort to find lone monsters after that was useless. He logout as he didn’t find any good target.

*****

As his main planned was to wait for help, he lessened his playtime while increasing his training time.

Daniel trained his body to its utmost limits. Through many months of training since he started to play Emperor Saga seriously, his muscles harden, he felt stronger and faster.

Thanks to the ‘Breathing Techniques’ he learned many months ago from a suspicious internet websites, he could cope with the rigorous training drill.

From his childhood, he was known for his fighting skill. But he never officially trained his body. He was fairly athletic, only not on the professional sportsmen level.

Still, he wasn’t satisfied. He want to be the best, the strongest under the heaven. Not just on his era, but the strongest warrior through the history and the era to come.

He felt he needed to go that far to be deemed as a person worthy to be an Emperor.

****

The system scan your real body to be beefier thus your character Strength,Dexterity and Stamina increased by 10.

Just like before, Chrono tried to look for a potential target. But after hours of searching, good target was nowhere to be found. Deep inside he thought it was strange, still, there were nothing he could do.

As he felt frustrated with the situation, Chrono took a gamble and attacked two isolated ‘demi orc’ at once.

By using an ambushed elements, he took them by surprises. As expected, the surprised kicks was rebound as it hits the monster thick skin.

Chrono kept on attacking despite of the weak damages he gave. While dodging both monsters attacks, Chrono hurled fists and kicks on his target.

Losing focus may greatly put him on disadvantage as it would affect his dodges. With his near to zero defense, it only took four hits from the ‘demi orc’ for his health to reach zero.

After hours of fighting, Chrono noticed both of the monsters speed decreased. It was because of their lowering stamina.

“(Let’s try this!)”

When he saw that, Chrono sneaked himself in between both monsters. He brought the fight in close proximity as he kept on blasting fists and kicks.

The half-wit monsters tried to attack Chrono as usual, but it end up with them landing hits on each other as Chrono dodged their attacks.

“Graar!”

“Graar!”

You has slain a demi orc

You has slain a demi orc

“(Heh)”

After repeating the tactics several times, Chrono managed to slay both monsters. With his new tactics, he could took on two, or maybe three at once. Without taking any loots, Chrono left for a new target.

Unfortunately, after that he only found group of five or more. Feeling frustrated, he logout after hours of searching.

******

After a week.

He was alone in real life. And now he was alone in the game too. It was a lonely battle, It took him everything he had just to stay sane.

While he swung the sword around, he occasionally losing focus as he thought of his situation. Until now, Daniel could only find peace from his training. But recently, even that was taken away from him.

After he beat two monsters at once, strangely they start to move in a group of five or more. He tried to engage them, but it ended with failure. Thankfully, ‘Fake Dead’ saved him.

With much hardship after countless of tries, he managed to beat five monsters at once by dodging their attacks in close proximity while letting them hits each others.

As strange as it could be, the next day the monsters only moved in a group of seven.He tried to engage them and it was in vain. ‘Fake Dead’ saved him countless of time, yet his character level remained constant.

“AARRGGHH!”

*clang* *clang*

Daniel screamed as he threw his sword to the wall. For a week, not a single party pass through. On top of that he failed to increase his character level.

It felt he wasted his time searching and fighting monsters as it always ended with him casting ‘Fake Dead’ without killing a single monster.

*huf* *huf*

Daniel sat on the ground while wiping the sweats he got from his arduous training. He looked at the sword he threw out of rage. As he calmed down, he picked up the sword again with a new determination.

“(If I can’t strengthen my character in the game, I will use my real strength!)”

With that in mind, Daniel continued his training drill.

*****

Second week.

The system recognized your mental aptitude was of that a warrior. Your Character wisdom and sense increased by 20

Since he used fists and kicks to fight, the durability of his boots, ‘Heaven’s Gauntlets’, ‘Mage’s Ring’ and ‘One Ring’ had plunged.

To avoid those items broke into unrepairable state, he kept all rings in his pocket while leaving the ‘Heaven’s Gauntlet’ and the boots at the ‘Safe Spot’.

With his bare hands and feets, he continued challenging the monsters group. He satisfied his hunger with the lake’s water and foraging mushrooms around the area.

Without the ‘Mage’s Ring’ he carefully managed his mana while moving through the area with ‘Silent Dead’ skill.

At the end of the week, he finally beaten group of seven ‘demi orc’. It was the same tactic of maneuvering their attacks to their owned teammate and snatching their weapons to use it against them.

Unfortunately, the next day the monsters only moved in a group of fifteen.

“(Dammit!)”

*****

Third Week

Foraging skill increased to intermediate level 5

By surviving countless battle barehanded, you acquired ‘Battle Harden Fighting Mastery

Monster Fighting Mastery (Passive) (Beginner level 1) :

The strongest fighting mastery in the world only granted to those who experience life and death situation countless of time.

Fists attack power : + 100%

Kicks attack power : + 100%

Can throw away enemy up to three meters distance. (Damages based on enemy weight).

As you stole a lot with your dextrous hands, you learned the skill ‘Snatch’

Snatch (Active) (Beginner level 1) :

The lowest of ruffian need no work as they can just stole others belonging.

Mana consumption : 10 mana per second

Effect : 1) Increase hands speed by 200%

2) While active attack drop to 0

3) + 10 infamy every time skill level increase

Normally, he would be happy with the new found skill. Despite that, his situation didn’t changed. No one came to the B71st floor of ‘Fairy Whisper’ dungeon.

Regardless, the new skills were extremely useful for Chrono to fight against the monsters. He stealthily approached the group before he dive in and snatch one of the monsters weapon.

He then swiftly attacked the unarmed ‘demi orc’ as he dodged the attacks from others. When the weapon broke, he used his fists and kicks to finished off his target.

With enhanced damaged of his fists and kicks, Chrono could inflicted considerable damages to his enemies.Because of that, he managed to kill monsters much faster without the needed to wait for their stamina to reach rock bottom.

He also didn’t need to dodge attacks for long as he just need to use ‘Fake Dead’ or just escaped after he slayed his target.

Chrono started to adapt with his new lifestyle. The problem was, he still stuck in dungeon. The ten days off by the caravan was long gone.

He knew it by heart the caravan would not extend their stay at ‘Egil’ just because of him. If he ever get out of the dungeon, he might need to catch up with them or just find a new caravan doing ‘Merchant Class Upgrade’ quest.

Eached day, he looked up at the ‘Pit Hole’. As he wait,he hope for one day a party would come out of that hole and save him.

The waiting and hoping gradually turned into despair. Slowly, it wear him out mentally and physically. At the end of the third week, Chrono was about to give up.

******

Fourth Week.

The system scan your real body to be beefier thus your character Strength,Dexterity and Stamina increased by 10.

By adapting the life in the dungeon, Chrono able to beat the monsters around the floor on a whim. It was not because the skill was broken as normal fists and kicks natural damages were quite low.

The increased damaged provided by ‘Battle Hardened Fighting Mastery’ skill barely matched a normal weapon damages.

Despite of that, Chrono focus, skill and battle tactics made him capable enough to obliterate monsters at that floor.It was not a deed normal user could do.

As he cleared the monsters around, Chrono took out an axe he got from defeating the ‘demi orc’. In front of him was a tree he want to cut.

He grew tired of waiting around. He decided to move to the next floor and see how far he could go. For that, he need to prepare.

After he cut down the tree, he smashed the boulders around . It took him quite a while to turn the tree into lumbers and the boulders into bricks as he lacked the equipments.

With the materials acquired, he made a simple furnace. Using the ‘Ember’ spell he learned, he sparks fire into the furnace.

Barbarian Furnace

Rough and unrefined, it can just barely hold fire for simple blacksmithing.

Durability: 50/50

Using the furnace, Chrono melted the plate armors he got from defeating ‘demi orc’. With his smithing hammer, he shaped it back into something small and compacted.

It took him quite a while as the furnaced fire was all over the place.It was so bad that the fire sometime burned his hands.

For Chrono that always used good equipments for crafting, it was a first for him receiving damages from crafting.

Nevertheless, he managed to craft what he want. He was satisfied, despite of his health point reduced greatly.

“(Phew, it felt like a battlefield!)”

Compact furnace

A compact furnace that can be carry around by blacksmith so they can do their work anywhere. Used for simple blacksmithing but a skilled blacksmith could used it for some mediocre work.

Durability 100/100

Using the ‘compact furnace’, Chrono repaired the gauntlets and the rings. Once he finished, he used the leftover metal to craft more items.

Taylor’s Needle

A needle used by a tailor for tailoring. Nothing special about it.

Bayonet

An all purpose knife used by an experienced hunter.

Durability : 60/60 Attack : 50

He kept the ‘bayonet’ on the back of his waist. For the needle, he used it to repair his boots and clothing.

As he finished preparing, he went downstairs to begin his challenge against the dungeon.

****

Monster Fighting Mastery (Passive) (Intermediate level 1) :

The strongest fighting mastery in the world only granted to those who experience life and death situation countless of time.

Fists attack power : + 200%

Kicks attack power : + 200%

Can throw away enemy up to three meters distance. (Damages based on enemy weight).

Snatch (Active) (Intermediate level 1) :

The lowest of ruffian didn’t need to work as they can just stole others belonging.

Mana consumption : 6 mana per second

Effect : 1) Increase hands speed by 300%

2) While active attack drop to 0

3) + 10 infamy every time skill level increase

B77th floor

Without using ‘Silent Dead’, he worked his way fighting monsters until B77th floor. It was the end of the fourth week. As the day end, it was official that Chrono had been stuck in dungeon for one whole month or three month in game time.

He lied on the cold dungeon floor while using ‘Fake Dead' as he recalled. One month ago, he fell from the first floor to that place.

He was determined to shake away the calamity befell on him. He tried, he tried as hard as he can to get out of that place.

After one month, he could only felt despair. He could kept on going but he was sure that the B79th floor boss would be a giant obstacle on his path.

If by some luck he was able to defeat that boss, B89th and B99th boss would be a bigger obstacle. Infact, it was near impossible.

That day, he felt he should just lied down like that. He don’t want to think anymore. He just lose all the motivation to keep on going. As he closed his eyes he slowly felt drowsy. For the first time, he slept in the game.

*****

“Hey, mister. Why are you here?”

“.........”

“Hey, wake up! Why did you sleep while in the game anyway?”

As Chrono slowly open his eyes, he saw a girl. A girl with a purple hairs, pointy ears, short stature and wore a thief cloth. She was from Holf race, a mix race of hobbit and elf.

The girl made a puzzle looked while looking at him, so was Chrono. Ignoring the girl, he stood up while looking around him.

That was when he noticed the girl was not alone. He saw warriors and magicians equipped with high end equipments and some non fighter type support users.

“You guys…..why are you here?”

“What, what kind of stupid question was that? We are here to conquer the dungeon!”

Chrono’s eyes widened as he heard the girl. At that time he felt all kind of emotions, he tried to conceal it as it was embarrassing in front of the girl.

After a month of despair, he saw light. As he want to give up, he found hope.As if he found a dim light of hope while in the abyss of darkness, he decided to see it to the end using everything he got.

“( Maybe I can go on a little longer)”

Stat WindowCharacter nameChronotitle100 Menslayer, Guardian SlayerLevel128ClassContractorHealth800Mana630Fame5000Infamy22,000Strength223(+150)Dexterity463Endurance54Wisdom71Intelligent64Sense154Luck38Stamina227

******

The top floor at the DT entertainment building.

In the dark room where it used to be a researched facility to create Emperor Saga. A middle age man intently watched the big monitor in front of him while holding a cup of wine on his right hand.

From his behind, a door suddenly open and Alex came through. As he saw what the middle age man watched he quickly knew that man agenda.

“How about it? Is he interesting enough?”

“Yes, quite amusing he never knew to give up. And *heh* I miss that fighting style.”

As he recalled how he tinkered with the game and let monsters flooding the first floor of ‘Fairy Whisper’ dungeon made him chuckle a bit.

After that, as if he loved to play god, he pulled his string to make it hard for Chrono to survive in the dungeon.He was fully capable of that, because he was the sole creator of Emperor Saga, Dmitry Vladimir.

Since Alex introduced Daniel to him, Vladimir had used his right as the creator to watch over Daniel in the game.

Robbing one of the largest world’s back, finishing of high level guardian, destroying a giant clan in a single night and to top it off, the fighting style he was familiar with like meeting an old friend.

Chrono’s feat had arouse his interest to the man named Daniel. While looking at his boss crazy smirked, Alex told his opinion.

“No matter how I think about it. Isn’t it taking it too far letting him go through that?”

“And I thought boughting that guy company stocks and sold it prematurely just to force him to go bankrupt was far more evil.”

*ehem*

“Like I told, you. We need him as our ‘weapon’. It must be him, no one else can do it. For that, I need him to play Emperor Saga seriously, not doing something else.”

“And you fired him?”

“T-That…. I had no choice! The game master department start getting suspicious they might target him to get us!”

“No matter, I will decide if he can survive this one.”

As Vladimir said that, he noticed Alex put out a file on the coffee table in front of him.

“What was that?”

“I compiled the information of the hidden class that we would gave him in that file.”

“What?! Are you THAT confident he will pass my trial?”

“If it just a measly dungeon he can conquer it a thousand time.”

“Heh, we'll see about that my partner in crime.”

On his own remarked, Vladimir smirked again.

“We are both sinners.”

Alex said that as he sat beside Vladimir. Like it was some kind of entertaining show, both of them watched Chrono’s adventure.

****

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