“Time remaining: 04:10:59:58”

“Time remaining 04:10:59:57”

He scratched Shadow's ear and the wolf's eyes slid open. He had gotten noticeably bigger but still looked pale and skinny. Shadow no longer bit him. Arne’s stumble rumbled. He stood up and stretched himself.

He went to the merchant and bought a big loaf of bread, this would fill his hunger for a long time. After that, he walked to the adventure guild. The town was rather silent today, he wondered why.

He looked at the quests, and saw that there was no combat related quests. In other words, there was no quests that would aid him in killing 10 goblins. Logan sat there sipping on his drink. They made eye contact for a short second, Arne thought about saying hi but decided against it.

He walked over to the combat merchant and bought twenty arrows. He then walked over to the clothes merchant and finally bought himself a new shoe. He held it up in triumph.

He walked out. Arne thought, “Should I practice my aim or slimes again or do something else.” He needed the most efficient way to get stronger, he needed to train and up his stats. Simple as that.

He walked out towards the forest as he was pondering over the question. Slimes felt too weak to make real progress out of. He wondered what he could fight. Instead of walking he started light jogging, maybe he could gain some speed or stamina.

He felt a lot more fluid, maybe that’s what shadow circulation did. He continued jogging into the forest and quickly spotted a slime. It felt slightly useless to crouch and sneak his way up, especially when Shadow could take two or even three slimes by now, but you have to be tactical.

He put his finger over his mouth, signalling Shadow to be quiet. “Quiet.” The squeaky voice inside his mind said. He had understood it rather well. Arne rolled from bush to bush and soon closed in on the slimes. He shot an arrow. Bullseye.

“+1 Xp”

“Bow mastery 8.3/1000”

He realized. He needed to level up in order to improve his skills. He walked over and picked up the arrow. If killing monsters was the most effective way to gain Xp, then he needed to kill a lot of monsters.

Arne knew of one spot where there was a lot of monsters, naturally it was dangerous. It was one of the weakest dungeons but it could still prove difficult. He had to be tactical. He was sure that he could kill one or two mobs and then run away.

There was a lot of giant rats in this dungeon. Giant rats were easy to lure and easy to kill, they bleed out quickly. They were also easy to outrun and they were stupid. This made for a perfect target for an archer.

He started jogging towards the dungeon, Shadow followed behind him.

“+1 speed.”

He reached the entrance to the dungeon. Technically it was a -FF tier dungeon that had existed longer than Arne had known. When he was young, he’d stumbled upon this place and gotten chased away by rats.

-FF dungeons had no reward for clearing them. The mobs inside the dungeon also didn’t venture outside of the dungeon. The dungeon had no boss and the dungeon crystal was minuscule.

He reached the dungeon. The enter to the dungeon was the end of a sewage system. It was completely dry, no sewage flowed through it. Arne could see the sewage tunnel descend into darkness, only small lantern lights coloured the way.

He saw no rats. He rested up a bit and entered the sewage system. The second he did, multiple boxes flashed up in his vision.

“Dungeon has been entered.”

“Error!”

“Dungeon can not be left until fully cleared. Restricting user movement.”

Behind him a continuously fading blue wall appeared. He tried moving through it but it pushed him back. He was stuck in the tunnel. He couldn’t believe it.

Arne punched the wall. Arne said, “Damn stupid system! You’re going to get me killed. “ His hand hurt. He really was weak.

He heard squeaking coming from deeper in the tunnel, the sound was approaching him. He had attracted some enemies. He did not like that fact, at all. He took out his bow, and charged it, ready to shoot at a moment's notice.

He waited, and soon a curious gigantic rat came twinkle-toeing down the tunnel. Arne thought, “Focus.” And released his shot, it hit the rat in the abdomen. The rat screeched and began running back. Blood sprayed out.

Shadow growled, secretly he was scared of the rat and didn’t want to fight it. He had only fought bones and slimes up until now.

Arne fumbled for another arrow, and shot it. It missed and broke against the stone. He fumbled for another arrow and shot it before aiming hoping that he’d get lucky. He did not. The arrow broke and the rat escaped. The rat would bleed to death, but not before he would alert the other rats.

….

RATS POV

“Comrades.” He cried out, the other rats looked towards him.

“Comrades. I have been gravely wounded and will soon perish. “Comrades. Please alert the elders for me. Alert the elders that an intruder has entered the…” The rat bled to death.

“An intruder.” The rats began shrieking.

They ran to the elder, and informed him off the intruder.

“Comrade, you tell me an intruder has come into our country. Comrade, assemble the battle units. We will slaughter this intruder and feed them to the children.”

….

Arne’s POV

Arne saw a window pop up on his screen.

“+4 Xp”

Arne thought, “I must have killed that rat.” He started walking deeper into the tunnel, Shadow following closely behind.