-Dungeon Heart-

Although two high damage values floated, there was no prompt from the system indicating the completion of the mission. The zombie guardian was yet to die. Maria flopped on the ground exhausted after her last usage of the Explosion Ring. As for Kenshin, his MP was nearly depleted and was now experiencing a mild headache. It was a side-effect of the depletion of ones MP.

“Is it still alive?” Maria asked after seeing a tensed Kenshin who hadn’t relaxed after using his magic attack.

“Yes!” Kenshin replied unconsciously. His mind was occupied, thinking about how to confront the monster.

The green fog was yet to clear, and the visibility was very low. Not to mention, the fog was highly toxic in nature. It was out of the question for Kenshin or Maria to enter inside the fog. They could only wait patiently for the monster to come out on its own.

Fortunately, they don’t have to wait for long as it came out after some five minutes or so. Its appearance was very pitiful. The rotting flesh on its body was burning from the explosion it had suffered, and its right hand was missing. Its left hand was dangling to the side, seemingly useless. Its shining shield was nowhere near, presumably abandoned during the explosion.

Maria supported her body with her arms and tried to get up.

“Sit down and take rest. I will take care of it” seeing Maria making an effort to get up, Kenshin consoled her. The condition of the guardian was very pitiful; without its shield, it had a very low defense. With its physical status, Kenshin was sure its AGI was also affected by a lot.

He was confident.

“GRROAR” the zombie guardian roared in anger. These living things had given it too much problem which it hadn’t expected. It’s sorry state was all because of them. Kenshin slowly approached it, holding his sword tightly. His walk turned to jog, before slowly transforming to full-paced sprint. When he approached the guardian, his sword flashed like a serpent towards the monster’s head. His sword was coated with ‘Will’ for extra ATK power.

As he slowly sheathed his sword; a thin line appeared on the monster’s neck. Without a noise, the Zombie Guardian’s head fell down from its body and rolled onto the floor.

[Ding* You have successfully completed, Compulsory Quest 1]

[You have gained]

4000 G X 50 EXP Zombie Guardian’s Glittering Shield 1 life

[Ding* you have killed Zombie Guardian Lv 40]

[Gained 200000 EXP(X 50 EXP)]

[You have gained 3 levels!]

[Muto Kenshin][Human]

[Class: Magic Knight(a fixed increase of 2 points in INT, STR, and DEF)]

[Level 16][20700 Exps for next level up]

[HP 390/490] [MP 5/86]

[Titles: Bane of Spectres(Active)(Status: 2% of base ATK/10 Minutes)]

[ATK: 45(+60); DEF: 36(+60); AGI: 44(+4)(-5); PHY: 39(+10); INT: 41(+2); WIS: 13; WIL: 12; LUK: 14]

[Unassigned Attribute points: 15] [Unassigned Skill points: 17]

[Lives: 2]

[Skills]

[1. Replication Lv 4][1987 Exp to next level up]

[2. Passive Regeneration (Passive/Always active) Lv 7][750 Exp to next level up]

[3. Tireless Body (Passive/Always active) Lv 2][40 EXP to next level up]

[4. Flaming Slash Lv 4][900 EXP to next level up]

[5. Explosion Ring Lv 0][2000 EXP to next level up]

[6. Death Stare Lv 0][1000 EXP to next level up]

[7. Mirror Reflection (Passive/Always active) Lv 0][2 EXP to next level up]

[8. Summon Minions Lv 0][1000 EXP to next level up]

[9. Death Slash Lv 1][1652 EXP to next level up][Equipment effect]

[10. Opposites Lv 0][10000 EXP to next level up]

[Equipment]

[Worn out Gloves DUR: 1/20][+4 AGI]

[Cape of Intelligence DUR 12/34][+2 INT]

[Skeleton Knight’s Sword DUR 70/100][+60 ATK]

[Skeleton Knight’s Chest Plate DUR 62/100][+60 DEF; +10 PHY]

With his level up, Kenshin felt a little energized. It was purely emotional as physically there was no change. Kenshin didn’t hastily assign all his points, he swiped the windows from his eyes and sat down on the ground to take a breather.

Both him and Maria sat down in silence as they recuperated from their exhaustion. Kenshin’s Tireless Body and Passive Regeneration worked extra hard, hence after some half an hour later, he felt good. During this time when he was resting, he scrolled through the map. He found that, except for the zombie guardian that came out, there was nothing that could pose them a threat was inside. In short, there were no monsters left.

Standing up, he made his way towards the place from where that guardian had come from. He wanted to find out exactly what was inside.

“Where are you going?” Maria asked seeing Kenshin standing up.

“To that place from where the monster came from” Kenshin answered.

“You sure there are no more monsters?” She came to know that Kenshin had an ability to perceive anything that moves. If he was going inside, then that means there were no more monsters present.

“Take care!” she said with a worried tone. She was completely drained after her last magic skill. If not, she would have gone with him.

“Mm!!” Kenshin agreed to her and browsed the map, just to be extra careful.

“You also sit there and recuperate” saying so, he slowly walked towards the empty room.

Though the map had shown him an empty space, the inside of the room was far from empty. There was a massive tree that took more than 80% of the space inside the room. Aside from that, there was nothing else present. The walls were made of same materials as the dungeon wall.

Kenshin noticed that there was a hollowed space inside the tree trunk, to where there was a wooden stairway present. The hollowed treetrunk was glowing an eerie red color as if something insidious was going on inside of it.

Gulping his saliva loudly, he slowly made his way towards the wooden stairway. Holding his sword tightly, he took a step at a time. There was no guarantee of what would pop up, so he had to be extra careful.

With each step he took, his vigilance level increased by a point. Finally, he reached the hollowed entrance. What was inside had blown his mind.

The hollowed out space of the tree contains nothing but a red crystal which was glowing red color periodically and inside that crystal was a humanoid child floating with his/her eyes closed. Kenshin was so surprised that he had forgotten to breathe for a second. Never in his life had he expected to see a floating child inside a sealed space of the dungeon.

[Ding* you have encountered dungeon core of Ekla’s Garden]

The sudden notification of the system had brought him back to reality.

For the first time since the dungeons had appeared in the earth, someone was close to the truth behind all this.

***

Somewhere else, inside a luxuriously decorated room, a very beautiful girl opened her eyes as they sparkled with golden radiance. Her light blond hair flowed like a waterfall, all the way to the floor. Currently, she was sitting on her bed after waking from her sleep.

“He finally found him” muttering with her bell-like voice, she smiled elegantly while looking towards nothingness. If one had to concentrate, they would be able to see a glowing red chain attached to her right leg and disappearing to somewhere else.