Zero walked over to the podium and placed his hand on it.

WHOOM!

The walls slid open to reveal a blue rift floating in the air.

"System, is there a chance that all the monsters are dead?"

[No, host. They have all already respawned.]

"Oh, okay." Zero nodded his head and was about to step into the rift before he lowered his leg again.

"System, why do you have all this knowledge about this world?"

[You will find out one day, host.]

"Is it because you've taken other people to this shitty world before?"

[No, host. I've only ever transitioned you to the world of Aurim.]

"Oh, okay." Zero raised his leg and lowered it again.

"Sys-"

[Please enter the rift, host. There is no purpose in delaying the inevitable.]

"Ugh, who knows?" Zero grumbled. "What if there are actually people coming to rescue me this very instant?"

The system went silent for a moment and then replied, [The possibility of that happening is close to none, host. Please enter the rift and stop wasting your time.]

"Fine. If I die, then good luck finding a new host."

[You will not, host. I can almost guarantee you that.]

Zero sighed and walked into the rift.

The feeling of weightlessness and disorientation came again, although it wasn't as bad as the first time Zero entered the rift. When the feeling finally disappeared and Zero felt solid ground beneath him again, he heard a voice.

"Welcome to the 5th Room. Please eliminate all enemies or survive for three hours to exit the Room. There is currently no Rule activated."

The lady with the robotic, monotone voice sounded out again.

Zero's eyes flew open as he said in desperation, "5th Room?!? Won't I be dead before I escape from this hellhole?"

But then Zero's entire body froze from shock as he took in the sight in front of him. Surrounding him were walls, and he seemed to be in a cavern of some sort with a high ceiling and wide walls and with tiny holes in the ceiling to provide light. But the thing he was most worried about was the glowing eyes peering at him from the darkness. With a pear-shaped body, a twitching dirty pink nose, a hairless tail, beady little eyes, and to top it all off; a disgusting-looking mouth with slobber gushing out.

"Rats. Big ones too," Zero grumbled. "I'd take a goblin over rats any day."

One of the rats suddenly rushed towards Zero without any warning.

"Beggars can't be choosers. Come at me, bastard!"

As the rat pounced towards Zero's face, he swung his shortsword towards its head. Zero's blade found its mark and struck the rat straight on the head, causing its warm blood to splash all over his face, even though the sword didn't slice clean through the rat as he wished.

Zero flung the dead rat stuck on his sword aside as it crashed onto the floor beside him.

[You have slain a Giant Rat. +5 Experience Points.]

With blood dripping off of his blade and blood covering his clothes and his face, Zero didn't know how terrifying he looked right then. The other rats, having obviously learned their lesson from their dead comrade, cautiously approached Zero. Then, two of them ran at Zero at the same time.

Zero swung the sword at the one in front of him, but the rat dodged and leaped aside causing Zero to miss. Instead, Zero kicked it in the face, causing it to let out a pitiful-sounding screech. However, the rat coming in from behind reached Zero at this point, opening its jaw and crunching into Zero's leg.

"AUGH! FUCK!" Zero let out a scream.

[Skill Acquired: Crushing Bite]

"Why does a rat have a fucking skill? And what am I even going to do with that skill???"

Zero twisted his body and stabbed down directly at the rat's head.

CRUNCH.

The rat's head split wide open, causing it to release its teeth from Zero's leg. Zero pulled out his blade and kicked the rat with his uninjured leg for good measure.

[You have slain a Giant Rat. +5 Experience Points.]

Zero then ran over to the motionless rat that he had kicked in the face earlier and stabbed his blade down at its head.

CRUNCH.

[You have slain a Giant Rat. +5 Experience Points.]

"Okay, I can do this," Zero tried to calm himself down. "They're just rats. Nothing to be afraid of."

Then, all of a sudden, the rats that were hidden in the darkness ran at Zero.

"Shit!" Zero cursed as he watched the rats storming toward him. He activated {Piercing Thrust} and his blade shot through one of the rats that were the closest to him.

[You have slain a Giant Rat. +5 Experience Points.]

He swung his shortsword in a downward fashion towards another rat that was too close for comfort, although he missed, causing the rat to come pouncing towards his shin. When the rat got close enough, Zero kicked straight up, causing the rat to soar backward and land on the rocky floor with a thump.

With a scream that he would consider to be a battle cry, Zero ran at the rest of the rats.

Zero laid on the cold cavern floor with the shortsword beside him as he examined his wounds that would surely be fatal to a normal human being.

"You know what? I kinda like this ability of mine," Zero said as he gasped for air.

[You have leveled up, host.]

"Really? Status sheet."

A black window appeared in front of Zero.

35/50 EXP

Name: Zero

Title:

Race: Human

Class:

Level: 2

HP: 20/100

MP: 2/19

STR: 3+

END: 5+

INT: 7+

AGI: 3+

"What's the pluses for, system?"

[You can increase one attribute by one. Select the one you would like to level up.]

Zero thought for a second then chose AGI.

If anything goes wrong, I can always run.

"Room cleared. All monsters were defeated. No rewards are available. Granting exit to all survivors." The monotone female voice suddenly rang out.

"Aw c'mon! I don't get anything? This is rigged. Isn't there only supposed to be a slight chance that there are no rewards? After all that I just went throu-"

Zero's words were interrupted by his vision going black as he felt a sense of weightlessness. He appeared outside of the entrance of the 5th Room, and he examined his surroundings as he crumpled to the ground.

"I'm taking a break. I don't care what you say. I'm done."

[Very well, host. Please recover and then continue on your way.]

Zero groaned.

A goblin slowly slid off of Kai's katana as he examined his surroundings.

"Get the last one, Anun, we have to hurry and map out this dungeon."

"Got it, Kai," Anun replied as he waved his staff. "{Bind}!"

The goblin Anun directed the spell at locked in place as if it was bound by invisible ropes.

Anun walked over to it and sighed, "Sorry, buddy. {Ice Arrow}!"

The voice suddenly rang out, "Room cleared. All monsters were defeated. Rewards are available. Granting exit to all survivors."

After Anun and Kai were both teleported out of the Room and into the corridor, Kai stood up and walked to the podium, and placed his hand on the glowing top of the podium. The portal shifted into a blue tone, emitting a soft hum.

"Let's go collect our rewards," Kai said as he walked towards the portal.

"That's what I've been waiting for," Anun replied.

As they both walked into the portal, they arrived at a spacious white room with several chests in front of them.

"You will be automatically removed from the Treasure Room after five minutes," The voice rang out.

As Kai and Anun both opened the chests, Anun spoke out first, "That's not right,"

"Yeah, these don't seem like first-clear rewards," Kai said as he furrowed his brow.

"Damn it, do you think someone else found this dungeon first?" Anun asked.

"It doesn't matter anyhow, after all, our job is only to map out the Rooms and their characteristics," Kai replied, "It's their business if they want to enter this dungeon."

"Alright then, let's go." Anun said as he collected all the spoils.

As the boys walked back out through the portal, the color of the portal returned back to its usual tint.

"Then let's continue."