I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion

Alexander the Great

He felt the cold hard ground break some of his bones into pieces, blood dripped out of his mouth. He was confused as to how he was still alive. But he couldn’t properly find out just yet as he was in immense pain, the pain was like having a million metal shards stabbing into the core of your body. He couldn’t help but moan and groan pathetically before finally opening his eyes.

He found that he was on a ledge that was hanging far down the cliff wall to which he fell on. And before him was a hole in the wall, a cave and at the entrance was the thief. Her light weight and nimbleness made her only come out of this disaster with a broken ankle, she limped out in pain while stumbling through the hole.

David had barely managed to slowly pull out the health potion, he was glad that it didn’t shatter during the fall, his lizard skin bag was durable. To him, it felt like forever considering his condition. He felt himself losing a single health every minute, and as his health plummeted down to three hp left. He was finally able to drink the red potion. It was both bitter and sweet in taste.

[+ 50 Health]

Health 53/100 Mana: 50/100

[Critical Condition Fixed!]

He felt his bones and flesh regrow slowly, his body grew warmer as his wounds had closed. He rested lightly till he was fit to stand up again. He couldn't help but rub the back of his head in discomfort, he had a bit of a concussion due to the fall, so he felt a little bit dizzy. He had to slowly walked into the cave, away from the ledge because he did not want to be near the deathly sword-like river.

David had to thank his armor for absorbing some of the fall damage or else he would had died. He felt that his armor took a huge hit, and he rightly guessed as he saw more than 1/7 of the durability was gone.

Low Grade Water Dragon Lizard Full-Set Armour (64/75 Durability)

He was able to check his armour status without being an appraiser because the item was already appraised. In this world, once an item is successfully appraised, it leaves an imprint where non-appraisers can see the items status by touch. That rope-like vine clearly was only fit for one person to cross at a time if the status was checked, so he couldn’t help but feel hostility for this ignorant girl who almost caused him to die.

Inside the cave he could see the thief, Sarina, looking excited from something. He then turned his head to see where she was gazing at. He had a hint of surprise in his eyes as he saw that at the end on the cave were three wooden chests. Treasure chests.

"Two of them are mine, you can have the last one over there" She pointed at the chest at the end, it was worn down, rusty and brown, whereas the other two she wanted were bright gold with crystal gems for decoration, giving off a wealthy vibe.

"No way! You almost had me killed!" David yelled in complaint, but the young thief went ahead anyway, taking out a silver lock pick to open one of the golden chests.

"If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't be here, you're lucky I'm giving you one, hummpft!" She said arrogantly while stabbing the lock pick into the lock. The reason was because David was level one in his class, she thought that he was an ant, weaker then her. She didn’t care if he was a noble. What was a noble to her? Someone she could steal from.

Click

"Hello trea......" But before she could finish her sentence, a small bloody hole appeared in her chest. Her heart was punctured cleanly which made her eyes grow wide open in disbelief before she fell, slumped dead.

David saw that the treasure chest was alive, it had sharp gnarly teeth, on the lid of the chest were two sinister looking eyes that had just opened, and a long sharp tongue poking out, which is what had stabbed into the thief heart, killing her instantly. David had obviously studied about traps during his one-week training period, but it was only the basics. His tutor didn’t know that there would be these creatures in this dungeon because he and that young dead thief were the first people ever to discover this place. He probably wouldn’t had died due to his armour if he blindly tried to open the chest, but he would at most be close to death.

The chest turned towards him looking in disdain, trying to taunt him as it ate the girl’s body. The flesh and bones had all been gulped up. But After getting over his initial shock, he pointed his right palm towards the monstrous chest.

“Fireball!” David shouted towards the unknown creature.

The arrogant treasure chest stared at the crackling ball of flame in slight fear, its movement were too slow to waddle away now. It then unexpectedly opened its mouth, David saw the inside of the creature, there were no sparkling treasures except the flesh of the dead girl.

'Crisp'

The monster swallowed the flaming ball. But this action made it start to cough out black smoke and ashes, the flame did intense damages before it died out inside the fleshly body of the chest. The chest smelt like a barbeque as the inside of the monster were cooked just a little, this made it go raging mad with fury.

Its eyes went red and its body started to tremble, and the room started to quake as the treasured chest monster moved its body forward. The creature was in a berserk state. This scared the shit out of him, but he quickly calmed down to breathe.

Shooting another fire ball at the creature, the only direction it the creature could take was forward, so the ball of flames crashed in the chest easily. This time a small fiery ember had latched onto the skin of the chest, and it caught fire quickly.

It went senseless, screeching out stridently like a dying spider, the high pitch scream coupled with the wailing body, David couldn't help but feel a tight feeling in his chest, it was getting hard to breathe.

‘Die faster please’ He pleaded.

The dying scream went on for a little longer, haunting him for a moment until a holographic notice came before him.

[Notice]

Health 53/100 Mana: 10.4/100

[Killed 1 Green Rank Mimic]

[+ 4.08 Dungeoneering EXP]

[+ 4.08 Ball Handler EXP]

[+ 4.08 Sphere Summoner EXP]

[+ 10.2 Fire Ball EXP]

‘Sigh’

Slumping down in cold sweat, his hair became messy and wet while his forehead creases in pain. He was breathing heavily while trying to recover his mind and body as he meditates.

His health is too low at this moment, and it takes him three hours just to regain just a single point of health back. A single mana point is regained every ten minutes, so he had to rest for about around a week to get back to full health naturally.

His eyes caught sight of the burnt flesh of the dead mimic, and he then suddenly find myself scared of chests, big or small, you never know if there is a mimic beneath it all.

Looking around this small cave David couldn't help but think that it would be joke if the other two chests were mimics, he thought that there should at least be some wealth here or why else go through the trouble of creating a hidden room, that no one had ever found, except for now.

The cave could not be seen from the top of the cliff, even when you climb across the vine. Discovering this place was pure accidental, so he didn’t know if this was a blessing or a disaster. He was now staring at the two chest, he decided to shuffle closer to them slowly until he got around a few metres in front of the golden coloured box.

Hmmmmm....

He pretended to be someone greedy, rubbing his hands and laughing the same way the thief had did before, he put on a show to pretend he was going to open the golden chest. But suddenly, he quickly unsheathed his bone dagger, before rushing off towards the golden chest, he stabbed out towards the head of the chest.

[Notice]

Health 53/100 Mana: 11.4/100

[Killed 1 Green Rank Mimic]

[+ 11.22 Dungeoneering EXP]

[+ 10.2 Sphere Summoner EXP]

He knew that it would have low intelligent, so he easily tricked that mimic to kill with his dagger by stabbing it in the brain, he didn’t have enough mana to use his fire or water magic spells. He also found out that when he killed the mimic with the dagger, he didn’t get any exp in fireball, waterball or his title, which was obvious.

He then checked the status of his dagger. The dagger as lost one points in durability, he thought it was because it was used to kill.

Low Grade Lizard Bone Dagger (59/60 Durability)

Not wasting any time, he did the same thing towards the last chest, the old worn out plain chest which was smaller than the other two. He had used his dagger to forcefully open this chest. He didn’t lose a single point in durability for his dagger this time, maybe it was because he didn’t kill anything, but then the chest clicked. This was his cue that it was now opened and inside the hollow box were some objects, a vial of green substances. It was bubbly and murky, green and muddy.

‘What the heck is this?’ He thought in disgust before putting it in his bag.

‘I wonder if Alfred could appraise it...’

The other object inside was a round crystal clear blue stone, his fingers wrapped around it softly, the touch of the stone felt and smelt cold and salty like the ocean water, it texture was icy. He did not know what the stone was until his personal interface opened with a message.

[Note]

[Crystal Sphere Detected: Low Grade Water Crystal]

[Sphere Summoners can absorb crystals or magical object if they are spherical]

[Do you want to absorb it?]

[Yes/No]

Ye...Yes

He thought carefully before deciding to do it, he was curious. The cold blue stone disappeared into a flash of light, the light entered through the middle of his forehead making him cringe as he felt the freezing crystal aura inside his body, making him shiver coldly before paying attention to what happened next.

[Please Choose One Option]

[Regenerate 100 Mana]

[+50 Dungeoneering EXP]

[+50 Ball Handler EXP]

[+50 Sphere Summoner EXP]

[+50 Tennis Ball EXP]

[+50 Fire Ball EXP]

[+75 Water Ball EXP]

'So, this exclusive to my class? Just because I am a Sphere Summoner, I could absorb magical spheres? Or is it because of my title? Doesn't this seem a little too OP...’ He thought happily at this outcome even if he was confused.

Wracking his brains for thoughts, he finally decided to choose waterball. He wasn’t sure if he made the right choice, but he guessed that since the stone was water attribute, his water skill gets a bonus, and he didn't like wasting things. He will most likely choose the option that yields the better result from now on in the future.

“Choose waterball” He said with a finalized voice.

Water Ball has levelled up!

Water Ball [Level 2, EXP 26.5/150]

He didn't know if this transaction was worth it, as he doesn’t really know the value of low crystal stones or experience points. He had a feeling that he should had choose something else, something that’s more difficult to level up, but that’s a thought for next time. He also found that he gained a little more than 75 exp as promised, the bonus 1.5 exp must be because of the title.

He glanced once more inside the worn-out chest and found that there was something that he had almost overlooked, it was a small piece of paper, worn down, mouldy and old. He picked it up with care before reading the content.

‘What's round, fragile and holds half the formula to life.’

"Eh, what the heck is this?" He said confused, with a baffled expression on his face. But seeing that it's nothing but a weird riddle, he placed it back inside the chest, and stored that sentence towards the back of his mind before walking back towards the entrance of the cave and onto the ledge.

Stretching his body to warm up, he decided it was time to climb the vine hanging down from outside the cave. This scared him because of the sound of the river roaring from below keeps sending chills down his spine. It takes a lot of strength and energy to reach the top, although it did take him around nearly an hour, he was finally safe on top of the cliff. The trio were not there, but he was glad anyway to finally be away from the river, he was also thankful that the vine did not break during his climb, he felt very lucky.

With a little bit extra mana back, he felt like he could continue at any time, but he was still tired and exhausted. His hair was drenched in sweat coupled with his heavy breathing, after a short rest he finally had the strength to move on.

He saw footprints leading further down the tracks, so he followed it closely. He had to pause every now and then because it took him a long time to get through the new tunnel, he was careful about any traps or enemy that could possibly come out. Using his tennis ball to scout the way, this made him gain exp freely in both his title and his tennis ball, but luckily there wasn't any danger. His mana also went up again during this journey, as he got to the end, his face went blank, he was dumbfounded.

It looked like a small outpost made of crude wood, sharp wooded fence surrounded a small village where miniature green humanoids were in abundant. Goblins all wearing hard leathered amour, holding spears and swords, some even had bows. There was a taller goblin that stood out from the rest, leading the pack and giving orders, it wore a dark green robe and it was holding a magical wooden staff. It was a goblin shaman.

He then had suddenly felt a hand grabbed him from behind, the big hand covered his mouth and stopped him from making a sound, it turned out to be the monk, he moved him away from the goblin villages sight and towards a giant boulder where the other were hiding.

David Lee /Age 18

Dungeoneering: Level 1 [EXP 19.38/100]

[Note: Duneoneering levels give you higher Health and Mana, also granting access to exclusive restrictions in this world]

Health 54/100 Mana: 29/100

Titles

[Ball Handler] [Level 2, EXP 131.31/150]

[All kinds of Ball Handling have its proficiency is increased by 2%]

Class: Sphere Summoner [Level 1, EXP 18.36/100]

Sub Class: Nil

Attributes

Strength: F

Constitution: F

Defence: F

Resistance: F

Dexterity: F

Intelligent: F

Wisdom: F

Willpower: F

Perception: F

Charisma: F

Total Average: F

Skills:

Fire Ball [Level 1, EXP 76.52/100]

[Cost: 20 Mana]

[Summon a Fireball, size and strength increases with level]

Water Ball [Level 2, EXP 26.5/150]

[Cost: 20 Mana]

[Summon a Water Ball, size and strength increases with level]

Sphere Contract [Level 1 Permanently]

[Cost: Nil]

[Three contracts available, 1/3]

[Once all three contracts are used, this skill automatically disappears]

Contract 1: Tennis Ball [Level 2, EXP 89.76/150] [Cost: 10 Mana]

[A blessed bouncy ball, used to play tennis, can now level up]

[Bonus Effects: Nothing]