Chapter 31 - Progression

Niko turned towards Ivanic and asked, ¨That old monster, what is his skill?¨

Ivanic shrugged and said, ¨Who knows, all I know is that he was able to take over the whole mountain by himself. In fact, the mountain was a dungeon! That monster conquered a dungeon all by himself!¨

¨Wait, so what can be considered a cheat skill? And does that mean all dungeons that are conquered can be owned?¨ Zheng asked with a curious look. The question he asked piqued his interest in Niko as well.

¨Hmm, not exactly. Only a small percentage of dungeons are allowed to be owned after completion, no one exactly knows how a dungeon can become a property, it might have something to do with the way it was completed, and regarding cheat skills… If you are able to beat a dungeon alone or fight multiple people of the same level, you might have a cheat skill. Some of these skills are extremely terrifying and some people are even making theories as to why these skills came to be. Some people say it was created by the creators of the world while other people say these are inheritances of those who lived in this world before.¨ Ivanic said.

¨Inheritance?¨ Candreva tilted his head as if he was confused about the matter.

¨Hm, I am not exactly sure but when I was first summoned here, there had been various talks on how they might be leftover skills from those who had lived in this world before us but fallen, who knows?¨ Ivanic shrugged.

Niko´s heart raced. The old monster completed the whole dungeon alone!? How powerful was he!? Niko was also asking the question, ¨Do I have a cheat skill?¨

To a certain extent, he would be able to fight and maybe even take on dungeons by himself if he is able to get powerful spirits. What was interesting was the fact that his skill might actually have been an inheritance skill. The book he had retrieved from the library in the preparation world was called, ¨Spirit Kings Inheritance¨ Which raises the question, ¨Was the Spirit King a real person?¨

If the Spirit King was a real person, it would raise questions about the world they were currently in, and where those who were here prior to them went before these monsters took over.

…

Time flew by in a blink of an eye, and Niko has already been in this world for over a week. Throughout this whole week, Niko and his group were grinding non-stop, as if the world was ending.

Usually when a game requires a lot of grinding many people would become bored rather quickly and switch to a new, better game. However, despite the fact that they had no choice but to grind in this world which resembled a game, boredom was the last thought in their mind. Constantly fighting to survive and become stronger never got boring. Although it was dangerous Niko was slowly understanding why people would do the crazy things they did back on Earth, such as skydiving, climbing, and many other daredevil like actions. All of this gave him a strange feeling, a feeling of thrill.

Niko had also adapted to this world much better, and although he might feel strange towards certain scenes, his acceptance of the ruthlessness in this world has become much stronger.

Boars had become their main source of experience as they have been killing them nonstop. Niko and those who came the same time as him had already leveled up to level 3, whilst Ivanic leveled from 3 to 4 as the boars didn't give him enough experience.

Niko has also gotten much closer to the members of his group, however, he was still cautious. From experience, from books, as well as from what he has witnessed in this world, humans are greedy creatures, therefore, he needed to watch out for anything.

The loot from the boars was also unimpressive as it only dropped shards. It was almost time for them to move elsewhere as these boars were not dropping enough experience. Niko has spent his points on intelligence so that he could control more spirits as he wanted to build an army. He wanted to be exactly like The Spirit King from the cave.

The mantis spirit was also close to taking its proper form and the other two spirits were quite powerful for his level as well. The mantis was Everywhere he went, he kept his spirits hidden as it could always catch others by surprise.

In the same forest, they had been killing the boars before, they stood facing over another dead boar on the ground.

Niko faces the others and says, "This is the seventh boar we have killed today… And I am sure other groups are also experiencing the same thing... Do you guys notice something strange?"

Zhang nodded, "The number of monsters appearing is increasing at an alarming rate and they seem much more aggressive… If this continues things will be very bad…"

Ivanic also adds,"It is indeed strange. This world is too mysterious, let's hope things don't get worse."

Zhang kneeled down towards the boar and stated, "Let's take this boar back, we have enough resources now to exchange it for contribution points so we can get ourselves some proper equipment."

Everyone agreed. They didn't have armors or anything that could support them in battle, their dirty Earth clothes were simply not good enough. Clothes like this in this world were meaningless, at least for the life they were currently living.

They were opposed to handing resources into the so-called Protectors as Ivanic has said many bad things about them. However, they really needed these pieces of equipment, therefore they decided to do it.