TOO HOT!!

What is this place supposed to be? A sauna!? Oh, right. It's on the freaking 2nd floor!!

After upgrading the Scout class, I ventured to this place so I could find something weak to fight. Since all the rats on the 3rd floor have learned their lesson and are fleeing the second they see (or smell, I think) me.

This second floor feels like being inside a boiler room. It's one big tunnel, bigger than the ones on the 4th floor, and it mostly consists of a big rock bridge that acts as the main path of this floor. Down below is several containers filled with boiling water that's constantly emptied and refilled after a certain amount of time. Just think how much jam they could make in this place.

Other than that, there are several paths into the walls, but the shiny new [Detect Monster] skill is getting some mad hits from them. Way too many for me to just walk inside. Maybe I should postpone the "field test" for the next floor...

But honestly, what's wrong with this Dungeon? The 5th and 4th floor transported water, and this floor and the 3rd was all about, I don't know, sterilizing it? Is that what a Dungeon's supposed to be like, or am I missing something?

Not wishing to stay here for too long, I made a beeline down the road while keeping an eye open for any monsters that could get the "smart" idea of taking a walk and leaving those cave nests of theirs.

It took a few days, mostly because it wasn't a one-way road to the next floor so I had to turn back when I reached a dead-end, but I finally found the opening to the 1st floor. I repeat: FINALLY!

And here's the 1st floor's layout: sort of a mix of the 9th floor labyrinth-like feeling and the canyon-like parts of the 8th floor. Nothing special to mention, except that this place got rave lighting. There are lots of shiny blue crystals all over the place. I wonder if they could fetch a penny. Let's stock some. Long live [Spatial Storage]~.

As for the local monsters, I hope that they are the same as on the 9th floor. As in, not only strong guys, but a few weaklings mixed in. I need something like that for my first challenge, not some macho monster. My status ain't that impressive, so I gotta take baby steps. ...okay, maybe skills are a little better than for your usual G-ranker. Just a little.

Name: Garami | [Migrant] Race: Grey Demon Gender: Female Level: 4/10 Traits: 2 Karma Value: -61 Main Class: Arachnid Assailant Lv.1

Skills: 25 Titles: 5 Blessings: 1 Aether Points: 8.0 HP: 8/9 MP: 7/9 SP: 11/17 STR: 8 VIT: 10 MAG: 9 RES: 9 SPD: 26 DEX: 31 INT: 120 LUC: 150 LP: 5

Skill List:

Skill List: Ability Skills: [Mana Auto-Recovery Lv.13] UP9 [Stamina Lv.8] UP6 [Strength Lv.3] UP2 [Vitality Lv.1] [Speed Lv.13] UP8 [Dexterity Lv.15] UP12 Attack Skills: [Darkness Bullet Lv.5] UP2 Active Skills: [Aura of Darkness Lv.10] UP8 [Cutting Thread Lv.1] NEW [Spatial Storage Lv.4] UP3 Passive Skills: [Rope Proficiency Lv.1] NEW [Lurk Lv.22] UP10 [Parkour Lv.16] UP12 [Ambush Lv.1] NEW [Camouflage Lv.6] NEW, UP5 [Fear Reinforcement Lv.1] NEW [Vital Point Knowledge Lv.1] NEW [Language Adaptation] Perception Skills: [Detect Monster Lv.3] NEW, UP2 [Nightvision Lv.29] UP12 [Tracking Lv.9] UP5 [Sense of Direction Lv.11] UP6 [Magic Eye of Sight Lv.25] UP5 [Identification Lv.20] UP6 Resistance Skills: [Darkness Resistance Lv.1] NEW Elements: [Lesser Darkness Element Lv.1] NEW Monster Skills: [Spider's Bite Lv.1] NEW [Spider Threads Lv.20] UP12

Title List:

Title List: Achievement Titles: [Reincarnator] [Giant Killer] [Fearbringer] NEW [Darkness Technique User] NEW Status Titles: [Migrant]

Okay, I admit. The skills ROCK! Way better than a weakling like me should have..., if I hadn't been down here for 9 months already, according to K-N. On the contrary, I should have been even more amazing by now! I'm such a slouch...

And yes, I'm going spidey! Rogue was also attractive, but I don't have the limbs to use daggers. Nor do I have any daggers on me. And the bonus skill from having the class as the Main Class ain't something I need. I mean, I already have [Lurk]!

To clarify, in addition to the one Main Class everyone has, starting with a beginner-tier class from when one is born, one can take up to 4 different Sub Classes, as long as one pays the AP for them and clears the class requirements. If I had high enough stats and AP, I could buy four Sub Classes even now as a Grey Demon! I'd be one impressive little demon if I could do that.

The difference between Main Classes and Sub Classes would be the extra skill you get from the Main Class, and that the growth-alteration of status values is doubled for the Main Class when compared to the Sub Classes.

To make an example, Arachnid Assailant, for example, gives 4 bonus points to DEX and SPD's growths, with VIT having been decreased by 2 points, but if Arachnid Assailant was my Sub Class, SPD and DEX would have a boost of 2 each while VIT is decreased by just 1 point.

...thinking about it, I'm gonna be quite the speedster from now on, won't I? That should compensate for my paper-thin armor, considering that VIT is not gonna grow with level-ups unless I increase the level-up growth for it by 2 points. Good thing the status growth can't go below 0...

AAAAAANYWAY, I've been trying out the skills, not that I could grind their levels much when traveling through the steam-filled 2nd floor (the threads got all limp and useless on me), but the results are...unclear.

There haven't been many opportunities to use [Spider's Bite] unless I tried to bite myself.

[Cutting Thread] seems to grant cutting properties to threads, but all I can produce is big blobs of web strings, which seems to be incompatible with the skill. Guess I need to make them thin as wires if I want them to cut stuff, so further testing gotta wait until then.

And [Rope Proficiency]? I got no threads to "equip", not that I had the hands to use anything that even resembles a weapon, rope or not. Even if the skill works with stuff that only resembles ropes, like threads. Again, this guy has to be put on the wait.

...huh? Doesn't this mean that I got nothing outta this class? ...nah. My stats are gonna be better now. That's something.

Moving on with the program, it's time to hunt! I'd probably be scared out of my pants of the thought of fighting a monster if I was still a human, but maybe it's because I'm a (self-proclaimed) blood-thirsty demon, or because I've lived inside the ruthless society known as a Dungeon for too long, but I'm getting excited in a good way at the thought of a proper monster battle. The snake I crushed on the 9th floor doesn't count as a battle.

*Smack!*

Ouch! My face! That stupid notebook of mine suddenly sprang up from my shadow. What gives?

Question. Has owner Garami forgotten that the 1st floor contains a special quest?

...whoops. Completely forgot about that. Okay, where do I find..., forget it. It popped up on its own now.

Quest: Cutting the Water-Knot, Part 1 Quest giver: World System Administration Quest Description:

Connection with the Water-Knot of Glavras and the World System is now fulfilled! However, the Dungeon is still covered with a stealth barrier, so it is still impossible to precisely locate the entrance to the Dungeon.

Plant Disruption Beacons (provided by the quest window) across the Dungeon to disrupt the stealth barrier and allow other individuals to enter the Dungeon.

Quest Content: Place 6 Disruption Beacons on different strategic spots on the 1st floor of the "Water-Knot of Glavars" Dungeon: 0/6 to receive the Disruption Beacons. Rewards: 5 Aether Points.

Okay, I can do that. Except I got no idea where those spots would be.

Answer. Leave that to this unit.

I knew I could count on you! You're starting to return to your former glory, K-N!

And do to that, I started to search through the 1st floor so that K-N could decide where we should place those beacon thingies. Crap, now I want some bacon and eggs...

But not snake eggs! Why are there so many cobra monsters on this floor? Is this the Dungeon's first line of defense or something!? ...oh, it is. Guess the reason why they've not invested in much "personnel" on the other floors is due to them having stuffed this floor so full of snakes. Ugh, why snakes...

Luckily, this quest doesn't seem to eat too much of my time. The Dungeon has some strange mana flowing underneath the ground, sorta like blood vessels, which are visible to me thanks to that Magic Eye skill. Taking K-N's advice, I followed them to perfect locations I could stab the beacons into.

Things went smoothly, as in not becoming snake food, until the 5th spot. There I found a rat has made a nest-for-one and was lazying around. Grr, so envious..., I mean, such a pain. And such good timing. I did prioritize the beacons, but that's not saying I shouldn't let an opportunity to test my combat skills slip between my claws.

Now, let the battle begin!!

...how do I start the battle? Let's try intimidating it. *Hiss*!

Eh? Now the rat's running towards me..., OUCH!! The stupid rat bit my leg! Get off!

I blasted the rat with a [Darkness Bullet] to its face so it would be forced to release my front limb. The damage itself wasn't anything to write home about. The rat released me only because it was startled.

Feeling irritated over the wound on my limb, I spit a batch of spider threads at the rat. The rat didn't dodge and got hit by the sticky substance head-on again. He's not that educated in the arts of dodging, is he?

...let's not try to think of whether it's because the sight of a creepy demon spitting out white junk at him made him freeze on the spot.

I circled the rat, who was head-first stuck to the ground, and wanted to use the [Spider's Bite] skill to poison the rat when I remembered that the rat's supposedly a host for parasites. Just biting it shouldn't be too risky, I think, and I've experienced enough stuff down here to not be faced by the idea, but for safety (and sanitary) reasons, I'll just try to hold the rat down while applying [Aura of Darkness] on the rat.

After a while and a few more rounds of web spitting, the rat gave its last squeak..., or not. I couldn't hear it since its face was muffled. Rather, I don't think I could finish the deed if I could hear its pained voice. And now that I think about it, trapping someone like that and gradually eroding their vitality away like that..., I'm a piece of trash.

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Your level has increased. You have gone from Lv.4 to Lv.5.

You have earned a total of 0.1 Aether Points.

Due to the Blessing: "Champion of Alvatria", an additional 0.1 Aether Points were earned.

Your Karma Value has decreased.

I can't say I disagree with the decrease in my Karma. Let's hope that the higher levels make it easier to kill the next monster. This is an eat-or-be-eaten world, but I should at least give the... "prey" a merciful end. Or at least prevent me from hearing their cries.

---

After the rat battle, I made sure to place the 5th beacon in a remote spot behind some rocks in the rat's "bedroom" so that it wouldn't be discovered (and potentially destroyed) by the local monsters. Now I'm looking for the final place to stick this beacon into and get the job over with.

Luckily, there was such a spot nearby. There was one tiny..., okay, not tiny. It's a big problem here. One with scales.

Name: none | [Beast Slayer] Race: ****** ******* Gender: Male Level: 11/70 Karma Value: -27 Skills: 45 HP: 421/421 MP: 89/89 SP: 225/254 STR: 389 VIT: 367 MAG: 165 RES: 210 SPD: 113 DEX: 152 INT: 98 LUC: 87 LP: 20

What the f*ck is this!!? It's a huge-ass snake that could easily be mistaken for a wall! It's that big!

The fact that I couldn't get any info about its race got my attention before I remembered seeing something similar to this guy on the 9th floor. Maybe it's supposed to be the boss on this floor, but further down the Dungeon, it's been reduced to a simple mob?

Whatever the case, it's luckily leaving this place. It didn't notice me. Phew. Who was the idiot who said they wanted a battle or other stupid stuff? THIS ONE! ME! Where's my "a complete idiot"-title!? I feel like I deserve it at this point!

A few minutes after the boss snake had left the area, I snuck forward and planted the beacon into the final "power spot" or whatever I should call it. And at that moment...the world trembled. Why's it shaking? Stop the shaking! I'm getting sick...*urgh*...