After pondering over the issue of what weapon to make, I realised that I should just go gather materials, and something just might pop up. I left the shop and wanted to go to the adventurers’ guild, when I realised that it was already nighttime. The whole afternoon passed by in the proverbial blink of an eye.

I just went back home and slept.

* * *

The next afternoon

After getting off work, I went to the equipment store to buy armour. Just in case something bad happens. I entered the shop and bought some light plate armour. It looked terrible on me, but practicality first. I then went back to the adventurer’s guild to register.

Entering the building, I walked up to the counter, behind which Doris was sitting.

‘Getting some extra money, huh? You bastard, isn’t this moonlighting?’

‘There’s nothing in the code of conduct.’

‘You f*cker. So, you want me to register you?’

‘Yes.’

He handed me a document and asked me to fill in.

——————————

Name: Chen Nian

Occupation: Guild worker, Adventurer

Rank: Wood

Qualifications/titles: NIL

——————————

This wasn’t really like the RPG type of guild. It can only state what they can actually see or define. Skills, abilities, etc. can only be seen through the status menu. He read it and stamped it out onto a wooden dog tag.

‘This will help identify you when you die, you shitass.’

Not ‘if’, but ‘when’, huh.

Grabbing the dog tag from him, I left the counter, flashing the bird at him. The moment I turned around, I bumped straight into the hero, whatever her name was.

‘Oww…’ She hit her head on the plate armour that I had just bought.

Looking up, she noticed me. ‘Oh, it’s you. Did you accept the offer? So you registered to be an adventurer?’

‘No, I’m just registering so that I can mine ore in a dungeon. I heard that there was some good ore in the dungeon closest to the city.’

She clenched her teeth to the point where it almost broke. ‘So you’re saying that it is more worth it to go mining than to party with me, huh?’

‘Yes.’

‘Y-you bastaaarrrrddddd!’ She said, punching me in the stomach, right where the armour did not cover.

After vomiting blood, I stood up again and tried to walk past the hero, whatever her name was. She blocked me, before making the declaration:

‘You know what? I will follow you to the dungeon and observe you.’

‘Kay, kay, nothing I can say can stop you, whatever your name is.’

Hearing that, I could almost hear the sound of her confidence bearing a crack.

‘Elise, it’s Elise! How could you just forget someone’s name after meeting them!? Geez, I’ve never met someone like you!’

I took note of her name and ignored all other complaints. Finally managing to walk out of the guild, I went straight to the exit. The first dungeon should be easy for any job at my level, although I have never seen a job like mine. Even if it was somewhat hard, I sill have the hero tagging along. I left the town and walked along a cobblestone path. The path was actually quite short, and I only needed to walk for four or five hours to reach the dungeon entrance.

Dungeons in the game is somewhat different from dungeons in other games. In other games, dungeons are like brick structures underground where you have to kill monsters or solve puzzles. However, in ‘King’, dungeons are sort of like isolated areas of the map, which have monster generation and monster’s stats buffed by 3 times. That means that a monster of 5/3/6/1/8 will turn into a monster of 15/9/18/3/24 (TN: refers to the stat points respectively). There is also a boss that stays in the centre of the area. The dungeon is also somewhat rogue-like, allowing players to get upgrades while fighting in the dungeon. There are also random debuffs that can in some dungeons.

The first dungeon—Green woods—is a dungeon that was neither hard, nor easy at my level. I didn’t spawn in the starter village, so a level ten player is quite okay for this dungeon. There was a small debuff on damage, which reduces damage dealt by 10%. However, the game was quite realistic, with an attack to any artery dealing bleed damage, and an attack to any of the sensory organs removes that sense permanently. There is also a hidden boss that can appear at any time in the dungeon, but the possibility is about 0.0000075%. It is safe to say that there is almost no chance for me to run into the boss.

I entered the dungeon. The dungeon has a wall of light around it that separates it from the rest of the map. In the game, there would just be an empty space the size and shape of the dungeon in the middle of the map, which would only be filled in when inside of the dungeon. The moment I entered the dungeon, a message popped up, stating that I had entered the dungeon.

[System message

Player Chen Nian has entered a dungeon.

Damage dealt is being reduced by 10%]

There was a shine that appeared at the blade edge, blunting it temporarily. I drew both blades and prepared to fight.Monsters will be aggro’d the when you enter within 10 metres of them, or when you have a direct line of sight with them. There should be a few monsters nearby already, so the safest method is to kill all monsters near the entrance site, and then move towards the centre slowly.

I waited a moment, and about ten goblins started rushing towards me. Goblins are neither weak nor strong, having five of very stat, with the exception of the INT stat. I didn’t hesitate for a moment and stabbed the katana straight into the goblin’s chest.

In the special forces, I was taught ‘to kill without hesitation, or be killed without hesitation’. ‘To kill is not something evil, but to kill without reason is.’ Those were the word that my instructor had told me. At this point of time, I had a reason. They had attacked first, hence I now have a reason.