Chapter 5

The Odd Cave

[Raids] Raging Storm Blood Wolf!!! In need of raid members!

by user WolfTamerZ1

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[Guilds] Silver Ocean Guild Recruiting Now!!! In need of profession-based classes as well as healers!!!

by user EpicPwu

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[Classes] Best build for Black Frost class?

by user WhyAreYouReadingThisHaha

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[Classes] Winged Orphan vs Infernal Infant, which is the better advancement for Nephilim Neonate?

by user iRanOutOfUsernames

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[Dungeons] New Cave found near Saleima, anyone interested? *NEW*

by user Lloyd

"Hoho?"

Click!

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Freedom Fantasy Forums, abbreviated as 3F, was the official internet forum for the game Freedom Fantasy. It has been popular ever since the day Freedom Fantasy was announced, filled by soon-to-be players' expectations, speculations, as well as their hype for the game.

As one of the main spots for information gathering, it was very popular among players. Lost was one of these players. He opens the site regularly to stay updated. Currently, he was interested in one of the posts.

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New Cave found near Saleima, anyone interested? (Recruiting Explorers)

[Recruitment: Dungeon]

Lloyd

Level 83 Soul Mask

Hi, I am Lloyd from the Ouroboros Guild. Recently, we've found an unexplored cave in the Hootan Forest right next to Saleima. Using the Dungeonmeter item, we've discovered that it is C-Ranked, unusual for a place in an F-Ranked area such as Hootan. We'd like to explore it by ourselves, but we lack manpower, is anyone interested to team up with our Guild? We'll distribute the loot evenly.

NanoRe

Level 78 Moth Monk

Seems fun, I'll be bringing my guild along.

Pxan02

Level 59 Beetle Battler

Finally, a chance to level up!

NanoRe

Level 78 Moth Monk

Calm down lmao.

AllKnighter

Level 81 Knight

I'll join in as well.

Lloyd

Level 83 Soul Mask

Great! Then we'll meet up at the Adventurer's Guild.

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Adventurer's Guild.

Saleima, West Continent.

"Are you ready?!" shouted the red haired player. He wore a red mask, the pattern resembling that of a red t-rex.

"Yes!" replied everyone else.

There was a group of people, each with their own diverse gear and style. One of them wore armor from head to toe, with a sword sheathed on their right. Another had a martial artist's robe, with the drawing of an insect sewn on its back. Another looked like a cowboy cosplayer, with a red bandana on his neck and a whip on his belt.

Lost was not among these people. He was at the table across, sipping his tea and stalking them like an edgy anime villain.

"Hohoho..." he laughed like an edgy anime villain.

Why was he acting like this? He tried to join the party, but he didn't get in.

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Lost

Level 23

Can I join too?

AutoSaver

Level 82 Cowboy

Aren't you a little low leveled to join a C-Ranked dungeon? Try again when you level up, noob.

Lloyd

Level 83 Soul Mask

Auto, don't be rude.

Lost

Level 23

It's fine, thanks for the advice :D

But he still wanted to know the location of said cave, as he never found it in weeks of hunting slimes and killer rabbits. And thus, he decided to tail them. And for AutoSaver's comment, he was a little bit furious.

'I'm gonna steal your loot.' he thought, having a smug grin on his face.

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"Wow."

Brakk!!

Tangg!!

Schwing!!

Kwush!!

Tdhew!!

Phwuack!!

The party was on the way to the cave. They killed every single monster they met with a single hit. As a result, they left a lot of corpses, and it became a trail. Lost decided to not follow them anymore, rather he decided to make good use of their kind actions.

"Thank you, high-levelers."

"Lesser Devour."

A disturbing image of dark shadows overlayed with the graphic of teeth and tongue covered Lost's arm. He was still not used to this, and he got goosebumps whenever he used it.

[You have failed to obtain a skill/characteristic from Dire Wolf.]

[You have failed to obtain a skill/characteristic from Wild Boar.]

[You have failed to obtain a skill/characteristic from Killer Rabbit.]

[You have failed to obtain a skill/characteristi...]

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[You have failed to obtain a skill/characteristic from Wild Boar.]

[You have succeeded in obtaining the skill 'Blood Gnaw']

Blood Gnaw Active Skill

Bites at an enemy, deals damage proportional to 150% of a normal physical attack. 15% chance of ignoring armor on that target while also leeching some damage.

*Hungry Hand can be used to bite an enemy.

Cost: 50 Mana

Cooldown: 30 Seconds

[You have failed to obtain a skill/characteristic from Wild Boar.]

[You have failed to obtain a skill/characteristic from Killer...]

[You have failed to obtain a skill/characteristic...]

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Lost followed the trail of corpses, using Lesser Devour on each and every single one of them. Sadly, the only skill he had gotten from almost a hundred corpses was just the Blood Gnaw skill he got from the corpse of a Dire Wolf.

'Finally, a combat skill for this hand.' he thought.

But it was also something that he'd prefer not to use. The reason was his lack of mana.

"Status."

Lost

Level 23 Monster Eater HP: 4,911/4,911

MP: 18/858 Strength : 46

Vitality : 32

Dexterity : 31

Agility : 43

Intelligence : 31

Luck : 5

Stamina : 42 Skills:

[Lesser Devour], [Speed Burst], [Blood Gnaw] Abilities:

[Hand-to-Hand Combat (F)], [Unarmed Combat (F)] Characteristics:

[Hungry Viscosity], [Black Iron Body]

"Only about 17 times huh..."

"Wait."

Lost looked at his stats section.

Strength : 36

Vitality : 32

Dexterity : 31

Agility : 33

Intelligence : 31

Luck : 5

Stamina : 32

"Where's my bonus points?"

"Shouldn't my equipment-"

He stopped.

"Oh right, I'm not wearing any."

He didn't match his past equipment requirements. He couldn't wear them, so he sold them all in the marketplace to get some quick cash, or in this case, feoh.

"Also.."

"The heck is up with my luck stat!?"

Luck : 5

"...f-five?"

'Wait, don't tell me..'

"The reason my skill/characteristic stat obtaining rate is so low is because I skipped over putting points into this stat?"

Lost felt dumb. How could he skip over a stat point? As an ex-professional gamer, it hurt his pride.

"Alright, next level, I'm putting every stat point into luck!"

Lost continued following the trail of corpses that was created due to his Hungry Arm. He decided not to use Lesser Devour on anything, because his mana was almost empty.

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pant...

pant...

'Where the heck are they?'

The trail of monster corpses has stopped. Lost knew why this happened.

"I took too long Lesser Devour-ing the corpses!!"

As a result, the players have left his range of corpse-fying defeated monsters, and the defeated monsters turned into white light.

dorodorodorokk!!

"What's that?"

It sounded like falling rocks, big ones at that.

'The cave..?' Lost thought.

He ran towards the source of the sound.

"..!!"

It was the entrance of a cave, however, a pile of large rocks covered it, blocking the entrance. There seemed to be dust in the air, implying that it occured recently.

[You have equipped the characteristic Black Iron Body.]

"Speed Burst."

Pswhew!

Duhmm!

The combo of Black Iron Body and Speed Burst dealt incredible damage to the boulders.

Bakk!

Duhmm!

Bakk!

Duhmm!

Bakk!

Duhmm!

Soon, the blockage was cleared away.

"Whoa, this combo is so OP I almost forgot about how this class caused me suffering at first."

"...almost."

Lost went inside the cave, and he couldn't believe his eyes.

"What kind of-"

The cave's interior didn't look like a cave, at all. It looked like a rich person's house. Other than the now destroyed entrance, the rest of the cave looked strangely like the work of modern architecture.

"Huh.."

He continued wandering around and saw a staircase leading downwards. It seemed to be well built, for a supposed 'cave'.

When he finally reached the bottom, he saw a door. It was a metallic door, seemed to be busted open, with scorching marks still visible.

'Did those guys do this?' Lost thought while inspecting the door.

"AAARGHH!!" a scream echoed through whatever was behind the door. Lost recognized this voice, it was the cowboy who mocked him for being level 23.

Lost smiled, but it was only for a minute.

'He's level 82 right? For him to scream... what the hell happened there?'

'Guess there's only one to find out.'

He ran straight inside. It finally looked like a cave, he was relieved. There was signs of combat on the floors and walls.

"Auto, stay there!"

Their voices were now near. But Lost came across a problem, he was met with a fork.

'Left or right... Hmm...'

Lost couldn't decide, so he grabbed a rock from the ground. He took a baseball pitcher's stance, and he uttered two words.

"Speed Burst."

He then threw the rock at an immense speed towards the left path. To which a sound responded.

"Who the fuck threw a rock?!" shouted a voice he didn't know the owner of.

"It's this way."