Colin walked with Nox a few steps behind him for a few short minutes until the first creature appeared.

It was a pudgy, blue-gray humanoid, shorter than Nox, and stood stark naked in the magical lights. In its three-finger grasp, it held a club made of a human foot. A club that it gnawed on with a pleased look on its face as it enjoyed eating its weapon.

If this was his first opponent, Colin was sure he could handle it.

Walking forward, he decided to see how it would react. Any knowledge was good to have, especially when it came to enemies.

It noticed him when he got within ten feet, its bulbous bloodshot eyes locked on to him, and it comically raised its club and charged. Its yell as it ran was high-pitched and almost adorable as it held the foot’s stump by its ankle. He held still as it swung at Colin’s calf and impacted.

You have taken 2 points of damage and now have 280 remaining.

Honestly, he was a little disappointed. That damage was so low that as long as he wasn’t overwhelmed with sheer numbers, he could take them without issue. It almost felt like bullying to kill this thing but kill it he did. He swung his sword, and it split the little Demon’s chest open in one blow.

You have killed a Feral Squash Demon and have gained 5 EXP. You now have 3262 /9115 until Level 11.

“Wow,” Colin breathed out. “Is it alright that I feel bad about that?”

“Yes, killing these sorts of creatures always felt like squishing defenseless bugs. But look, here’s the benefits of real, normal, Dungeon,” Nox said, pointing at the corpse.

Colin looked and found that the little Demon’s corpse was evaporating as he watched, the particles collected into an ash-grey cube the size of a baseball. A few seconds passed, and Nox looked at Colin expectantly.

Yet, Colin just stared back, unwilling to ask the question that Nox wanted.

After a minute, Nox pointed to the hovering ball, “just touch the damn thing!”

Complying before Nox said anything else, Colin bet low to the box and touched it.

The item disintegrated, and a single Copper Bit fell to the ground.

The loot box has given you a Copper Bit! Remember that in dungeons, the greater the foe defeated, the greater the possible reward! So go forth and fight, DevilWalker!

“Interesting,” Colin commented.

“I’ve always thought so,” Nox agreed. “No one is quite sure how the process works down here. They just know it does and then try their best not to fuck with it. Why bite the foot that brings you wealth and power,” Nox said, kicking the dismembered foot.

“Can’t say that I disagree,” Colin said, pocketing the small copper piece. “Are all dungeons like this? I don’t remember the Dungeon Compound dropping loot boxes,” Colin said, walking forward some more. He added one more thought, “and how is this different than looting monster corpses in the wild?”

“This is unique to specific Dungeons. Most dungeons don’t have this system in place,” Nox told him. “Also, loot boxes have a ranking system of one to one-hundred. The boxes rank is determined by the level of creatures killed to form it and how many there were. Next time you see a loot box, try and use your new Appraisal skill on it. Any way, Loot boxes can have almost any item from anywhere in the world as long as it fits within the Dungeon’s schema. So this Dungeon will never give angel feathers but may offer fiend claws.”

“Cool,” Colin responded nonchalantly. He was getting actual money and possible gear, or other goodies from creatures he killed here. This made looting easier, but it also made it so that, hopefully, his luck attribute may come in handy. Well, if it didn’t help out in these circumstances, then what good was it?

“Well, let’s make the most of it,” he said, looking ahead and smiling. Forty feet away, three more Feral Squash Demons were chewing on various humanoid appendages and chittering amongst themselves. Each looking as if they were enjoying a lollypop compared to the people meat in their grasp.

Walking forward, he called out to the small Demons, “why, hello there. Wanna come get a bit of lean people meat?!” he called while flexing his bicep at the group. “There’s enough for all of you.”

All three looked at him and stared for a moment before raising their weaponized snacks and waddling towards him. With a yipping yell, the first of the three leaped into the air, remaining airborne for a surprising amount of time and raised the severed arm it held above its head like a hammer. He took a step to the left, swept his blade through the air, and bisected it in a single swipe.

With a twist, he flicked the throwing knife in his hand at the next in line, killing it in a single freezing blow to the head.

The last Squash Demon picked up the calf of the one Colin had already dropped, now holding two left legs, and ran at him swinging both wildly.

Shrugging, he crouched, caught the swinging knee that connected with him, and pointed a finger at it. He activated Lesser Knockback and watched as the little Demon fly backward, landing awkwardly and somehow comically on its head.

A quick series of pops and the prompt appeared.

You have killed 3 Feral Squash Demon and have gained 15 EXP. You now have 3277 /9115 until Level 11.

He watched as all three bodies disintegrated, Colin’s throwing knife falling to the ground. The hovering ash coagulated into a single cube, an equal distance away from all three of the slain demons.

He touched it, and a five-inch by five-inch square of dried blue-gray skin landed on the floor.

The loot box has given you 1 Squash Demon Skin. Squash Demon Skin. Item Quality: 2. Durability: 30/30. Traits: Untreated.

Colin shrugged at the reward. Anything helps, and he could look into either selling it or looking to see how it could be used. He slid the skin into his dimensional bag and picked up the throwing knife he used and put it away.

Three more Squash Demons sat in a circle between himself and the double doors leading into the fort. The trio was talking to each other and seemingly enjoying whatever conversation they were having. It really was too bad that Colin didn’t give them a fighting chance. He blasted each quickly with Lesser Knockback and hacked them with his Xiphos before they could get back up.

No Loot Boxes were gained this time, but that was alright. His focus was on the scorched, chipped, clawed, bashed, and rotted ten-foot-tall, double door that laid undefended before him.

That only made it easy to enter.

Colin sheathed his weapons, grabbed one of the doors by its iron ring handle, and pulled until it opened with a loud creak. The room beyond looked like a medieval security checkpoint. The path in front of him was a hallway with chambers on either side visible only through thick grates.

The hall extended to another cage grate-wall where a table waited just to the left of a door shaped opening. Standing on that table was a Squash Demon, holding what looked like a weaponized humanoid spine, and wearing a security cap that hung loosely over its small head.

These things eyesight must not be excellent, Colin concluded. He was not hiding and wasn’t even that far away, yet this thing was still searching the room for whatever had made that noise it heard a moment ago.

So far, these Squash Demons had been easy pickings, so he was curious about what could happen with the one ahead of him. If it attacked, well, Colin was sure he could defeat it without trouble. If it didn’t attack, he would figure that out too. With any luck, by playing along with the Dungeon, he would see some more awesome stuff today.

As he approached, the Squash Demon in the hat jumped in surprise at his sudden appearance and raised the whip threateningly. It screeched a brief stream of gibberish at him, to which Colin raised his empty hands, trying to be as nonthreatening as possible to the little thing. It glared after a few seconds of silence and started tapping its foot impatiently.

Then, in a high pitched screech, the Squash Demon whipped the spine around and struck Colin in the bicep.

you have taken 15 points of damage and now have 267/ 282 health remaining.

“Owww,” Colin groaned, stepping away from the thing and immediately rethought his, ‘go with the flow’ approach.

Snarling just a little, he reached into his knife pack and drew one at random. It ultimately didn’t matter which, it only mattered that he hit the little prick.

Evidently, it did matter.

He threw the knife and threw it at the Demon, only to impact its upper bicep and detonate the whole Demon with the sound of shattering glass and splattering gore.

You have killed a Feral Squash Demon and have gained 5 EXP. You now have 3282 /9115 until Level 11.

He took a moment to clean the little bits of flesh that landed on his face before approaching the center of the mess. The knife was stuck in a piece of cold bone with small chunks of red clinging to it. Confusion was Colin’s primary emotion as he picked up the only whole part of the Demon remaining. The knife wiggled loose a moment later, and Colin took a moment to recharge its magic.

“Nox, what was that?” Colin asked, looking back at his shadow.

Nox did not step out of the shadow, he only answered Colin’s question, “Either Cold damage is its weakness, you got a critical hit on the rude little bastard, or it’s both. While this reaction is a little aggressive, it also probably has to do with how weak it is as a monster. If its Build Attribute is low, those reactions might be possible.”

“Huh,” he said, taking a second to absorb it all. He then smiled and drew his Steel Dagger of Lesser Chill, “I guess it’s time to have at it with these assholes, right?”

“Whatever you want,” Nox said, fading back into silence.

For good measure, and because he was hoping to level up the weapon, Colin also drew his Mythic Xiphos. He observed the dull gray metal that made up the blade before looking up and walking through the defrosting gore splatter that covered the area. He had just stepped through the doorway to the next corridor with several seats directly in front of him. To his left, an empty receptionist desk sat along with a half dozen marked doors behind it.

Colin looked to the right. A humanoid demon taller than him was standing there, its exoskeletal frame scraping against itself as its hand moved to draw the rusty sword on its back. It spoke in a garbled language that came out harsh due to the sharp teeth and triple forked tongue it sported. Its tail was segmented like a crocodiles, but thin and moved with prehensile dexterity.

When Colin didn’t respond, it approached and raised its blade in the air above its head before dropping it like a guillotine. Colin dove to the side, and the sword missed him easily, its weapon crashing into the stone brick floor and sinking in a foot before stopping. To which, the unknown Demon quickly pulled the weapon free and turned to face him again.

Colin activated Kinetic Vigor and Lesser Knockback in quick succession before running at the thing. The spell had less effect than he was hoping, only causing it to falter for a second. This happened since the invisible force of kinetic magic was still working against it. Still, he jabbed the Simple Dagger of Lesser Chill into the weapon arm of the Demon and grimaced as the blade only sunk an inch past the exoskeleton.

So Colin left the blade sticking in the Demon’s forearm, leaving the chill enchantment on the weapon to do its work. While he ducked under the hooking punch of the Demon’s free hand and spun around to swing his Xiphos at its midsection.

The Xiphos sunk deeper than the dagger and cracked the Demon’s exoskeleton as the blade also cut into it.

With a bellow of rage, it kicked Colin away, and he tumbled a few feet away, being careful to keep from cutting himself with his own sword.

You have taken 21 points of damage and now have 261/282 health remaining.

He stood quickly and withdrew a throwing dagger from his pouch and checked the enchantment before grabbing another. With two in hand, He threw both, one after another, and let the effects take hold.

The first was the water element drench rune that did exactly as advertised. As the knife flew, water particles followed the weapon like a vapor trail and impacted the same spot as the throwing knife. It found its mark in the Demon’s midsection, clattering to the left of its bleeding gut wound. The second throwing knife was the same Lesser Chill throwing knife that he’d thrown at the Security Squash Demon, and it flew true into the open wound.

It looked down at its wounds, pulled the enchanted dagger out of its forearm with a tinkling of ice breaking, then looked from it to Colin. It threw the dagger to the ground and walked towards him again. It seemed that this thing could not move faster than a walk for some reason, and Colin capitalized on it.

He pulled out one more of the enchanted throwing knives and took a moment to aim before throwing the hastened knife.

The rune’s original description was that it increased the attack speed of the person wielding the inscribed weapon by a small amount. The book had no explanation of what would happen if used on a projectile weapon, so this was actually the first test. To his delight, the weapon flew a little faster than the blades’ aerodynamics should have allowed, impacting the freezing gut wound with extra force.

The Demon’s guts exploded into frozen chunks, and it mewled in pain as it tried to keep the newly leaking wound from spilling out everywhere. Seconds passed, and it collapsed to its knees, then to the floor in a heap.

You have killed a Lesser Plated Demon and have gained 40 EXP. You now have 3322 /9115 until Level 11. Your Short Blades skill is now level 5. Your damage, attack speed, and reaction time with short blades has increased by a small margin.

While the fight was a bit one-sided towards him, that didn’t mean it was easy. He had nearly bottomed out his mana from the Kinetic Vigor use and had used three of his enchanted throwing knives in conjunction to defeat it. Without Kinetic Vigor, Colin wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t have been able to overcome it, even if the bonus was small.

Colin walked over to the corpse and watched as it disintegrated formed a box out of the resulting ash. After touching the Loot Box, he watched as the small cube disappeared, and an opaque, green rock with lighter shaded bands dropped to the floor.

The Loot Box has given you a piece of Malachite. Uncut Malachite Chunk, 57 grams. Item Quality: 4. Item Durability: 100/100.

Nodding at the gemstone, he slid it into his backpack and reached to pick up the throwing knives and recharged them before putting them away. He thought about ways that he might be able to fight them and came up with a few possible ideas while he crouched behind the receptionist’s desk. Without mana, he was effectively weak against the Demon he’d just fought and needed it to be full for the next encounter.

After several minutes and a few close encounters with several Plated Demons walking past and not looking by the desk, Colin ambushed the next one that walked by him. He activated Kinetic Vigor, climbed on top of the desk, and swung the Xiphos across the creature’s neck.

The Mythic Xiphos crunched through the Lesser Plated Demon’s exoskeleton and sliced through the meat of its neck. Blood oozed out of both parts of the severed neck, and the Demon died garbling in confusion.

You have killed a Lesser Plate Demon and have gained 40 EXP. You now have 3362 / 9115 until level 11. Congratulations! You have gained the subskill for stealth: Assassination Level 1. You are more than a killer of men, women, monsters, and anything else that moves. You strike when and where your target least expects it. If they expect it at all. Damage with all physical attacks while stealthed deals an additional 25% damage, Critical hits while stealthed deal an additional 50% damage, chance to automatically kill a foe (regardless of actual damage) 0.5%.

Smiling, Colin reread the new subskill twice to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. This skill was his ticket to defeating enemies that were just a little too tough for him. Hell, there was even a small chance of auto killing an enemy. This was so up his alley that he was giddy with anticipation to use it.

So Colin activated the Loot Box that appeared, getting himself a handful of Copper Bits, and got back behind the desk again. Waiting for his next target, hoping to net a few hundred more experience points before leaving this area.

- -

Two and a quarter hours later, Colin had killed six more Lesser Plated Demons. Four of those were killed instantly with Assassination’s extra critical damage. The others took a little work, but thanks to the additional damage dealt with the first attack, many died after only a few more hits from his Xiphos. These confrontations leveled his Assassination skill and Stealth skills once and leveled up Kinetic Vigor and Kinetic Magic with them.

The most recent one took a little more than the rest to kill, but it eventually succumbed to his attacks just like the rest.

You have killed the Lesser Plated Demon Lieutenant and have gained 100 EXP. You now have 3662 /9115 until level 11. Your Living Mythic Xiphos is now Level 5, it now can gain a boon to enhance it further. Choose carefully for this will shape the future of this life you created.

Colin didn’t have to call up any sort of sheet to see the possible boons, the relevant page came up automatically.

Keen edge 1

Increase critical hit chance of this weapon by 5%

Potential 1

Increase all additional magical damage this weapon deals by 2.5%

Physical Defense 1

Increase defensive movements when wielding this weapon by 10%

Shear 1

Increase the physical damage of this weapon by 5%

“Holy shit,” Colin breathed. While none of the percentages were game-changers, the fact that they were all in the first stage of their progression said a lot. Keen Edge 1 was overall useful to deal extra damage. Potential 1 would currently only increase the damage he deals with Aligned Strike, but it would still be helpful. Physical Defense 1 would increase his movements when he moved to defend against the opponent’s attacks, Shear 1 would just increase the damage the weapon normally dealt.

Why did the game give him such hard choices?

Annoyed with himself, the first thing he crossed off was Keen Edge 1. It only increased the chances of a critical hit by a small percentage. If the damage had been increased, this choice would have been a lot harder. He, again, hated himself for dropping Shear 1. His weapon already grew a little stronger per level, and while the continuous bonus would have been nice, it just wasn’t worth it now.

That left him with a choice between Physical Defense 1 and Potential 1. He debated back and forth for a minute, with arguments like ‘it’s hard to attack if you’re dead’ and ‘the more damage you deal, the less you have to defend.’

But, in the end, he knew what the best choice for him was.

Congratulations! Your Living Mythic Xiphos has gained the ability; Potential 1. All skills, abilities, and spells that can be channeled through this weapon now deal 2.5% more damage.

Honestly, he hated choosing between one good thing and another. This felt was like choosing between cake, pie, brownies, AND cookies. How was asking anyone to make that sort of choice fair?

But he dismissed the prompt and saw his weapon emit a soft red glow. He looked at the blade and found that a new channel was being created with the flat of his blade. It started just before the tip of his sword and moved down into the crystalline handle. There the red glow stabilized into what looked like roots inside the facets of his diamond grip.

It was a cool effect but ignorable until later. No Demon’s had appeared while he was debating his choice, so he figured that it was time to explore the next areas.

He started with the doors behind the secretary’s desk and was quickly disappointed. Most of them were ransacked security offices with little but paperwork and broken furniture left in them. Only one of them had anything in it, and its resident was still there, dead with his head slumped on the tabletop. The exciting thing was that the guard’s belt held a small item that looked familiar caught Colin’s attention.

He removed it and got a pleasant surprise.

You have found an unbound Information Tablet, 160 Grams. Item Quality: 5 Item Durability: 55/60. Information Tablets were initially created to allow others to see your status and other abilities like Minimap. But now it can do other things like long-distance communication and personal note-taking.

The item was about six inches tall, three inches wide, and around a third of an inch thick. It was made of steel, and what he assumed was some kind of dark glass. At the bottom of the tablet, a small button sat, indicating to Colin where the front was considering it looked exactly the same otherwise.

Looking at the device, he internally groaned at the memory of Eldrin, the High Guard Captain back in Willows Cross, telling him to get one of these. He’d forgotten simply because of several things happening, and it was a mistake that he now had rectified. If he had known for sure that Information Tablets were essentially Smartphones, he would have gotten one sooner.

But, oh well, what was done was done, and now he had one. He pushed the button, and a prompt appeared.

You are holding an Unbound and Unowned Information Tablet. Would you like to bind this item to you? If you choose yes, this device will connect to your Character information to allow for connected and, from there, optional use.

Colin chose yes, and the prompt disappeared. In his hand, the item lit up with a white light that read, “Connecting to a new user. Name DevilWalker. Please wait while we configure your device.”

Pocketing the item, he planned to look at it in a few minutes. You know, after he was done, making sure no one was around to ambush him while playing with his phone.

Across the corridor, where he’d seen the first of the Lesser Plated Demon’s, Colin found two doors. The first he opened led to a holding cell that might have been used as a torture chamber. You know, given the number of dark stains that were on the floor. Colin did a brief search of what little the room had, but nothing really stood against the Demon’s who occupied this place.

The last door led into a hallway where low and behold, more doors waited to be opened and explored. Colin stepped inside and closed the door behind him, only to have the door to the left open wide. Reacting on instinct, Colin dropped low and activated stealth. His only hope was that the Demon before him didn’t see him.

And oh, he recognized the type of Demon that was walking into the hallway. How couldn’t he? Although much smaller than the one he’d met, he would never forget the form of the Werewolf Dragon Demon that told him where to find the class he got. This one stood only around five feet tall, had fur in various colors of gray, and carried its overlong arms up near its chest instead of down near the floor.

Should he attack it, or leave it be?

It had only taken a few steps into the hallway before freezing and sniffing the air. The wolf kept smelling the stale room as its head started slowly turning to face Colin. Its eyes were closed as it focused on the smell, so Colin worked quickly. He activated Kinetic Vigor, aimed and used Lesser knockback with his non-dominant hand, and drew his Xiphos with the other.

This time, the spell threw the Demon backward with a loud yelp, and he charged with Kinetic Vigor’s improved speed. His spell knocked the Demon into the wall behind it, and Colin’s shoulder slammed it into the wall again, before thrusting his blade into its chest. The Demon yelped in pain before something changed.

Its eyes started glowing an evil red, and its body spasmed as muscled bulged beneath Colin’s weight. Electricity arc between the bristles of the Demon’s fur and ran through Colin, hurting him as if he’d just touched a live wire.

You have taken 24 points of damage and now have 258/282 health remaining.

“Fuck!” Colin cried, pushing himself off the Demon and away from it’s aura. The Antagonist activated Aligned Strike on reflex and swung his Mythic Xiphos at the creature’s exposed neck.

You have killed a juvenile Dracowolf and have gained 56 EXP. You now have 3718 / 9115 until Level 11.

The neck was cut almost in half with the desperate power Colin had thrown into that attack. He was more than a little surprised Aligned Strike did anything to the Demon, weren’t they supposed to be very evil? Unless it just did less to evil creatures or his sword’s new bonus was already coming in handy.

Or maybe he was overthinking this, and it didn’t really matter.

In the end, the Demon evaporated, leaving a Loot Box in its place. But before he could touch it, all five doors in the hall opened, letting Lesser Plate Demons and more Juvenile Dracowolves look into the hallway. All of them clearly saw him, and all seemed to smile in their own grotesque way.

The first five stepped into the hall, with the Lesser Plate Demon’s drawing their unmaintained weapons. Colin reactivated Kinetic Vigor and let his mind work furiously to come up with a plan. He’d need one to get out of here.

Then his hope dropped when a personage appeared. From behind the second wave of oncoming Demons, a small bipedal creature in a deep crimson robe stepped forward. It carried a staff writhed and twisted in its grasp, yet somehow was perfectly still in its grip. What little could be seen of its face was sharp, bloodlessly pale, and scarred.

Even if Colin could defeat these Demon’s coming after him now, he was not sure he could beat that guy. Whatever it was, it gave Colin the willies.

“Run, DevilWalker! That’s a roaming boss!” Nox yelled from his shadow, seconds before the creature lowered its hood. The act revealed that where its eyes should have been were only sockets covered over with clean skin. Then it smiled at him, and the head of it’s staff started to glow.