Chapter 17 — Quest: Pain

Chapter 17 — Quest: Pain

[Quest No. 27 completed.
Gained +7,000,000 EXP.]

[Status]

[Name: Alisar
Level: 49
EXP: 35,110/4,000,000
Rank: 3]

HP: 8,570 (+480)
MP: 11,700 (+1,560)

Strength: 233 (+16)
Defense: 219 (+16)
Speed: 405 (+16)
Intelligence: 222 (+16)
Magic Power: 217 (+16)
Magic Defense: 471 (+16) (+108)

Free Attribute Points: 40 (+128) (-108)

Skills: —

Special Skills:
• Training Room (Rank 2)
• Alchemy (Rank 1)

Another four days have passed.

That is—four days for me, and only about four hours for the outside world.

It’s evening now. The sun has slipped under the horizon, but full darkness hasn’t arrived yet. The air has turned cool and quiet. I’ve just finished another run in the dungeon.

During this time, I went in there four times.

The first time, I left 53 health potions in the dungeon boss’s room.

After that—fifteen for each subsequent run.

In total, I left 98 health potions there.

Yes, changes appeared.

But… not the ones I expected.

The dungeon really is growing.

Slowly—but growing.

The rabbits’ average level went up.

Level 6 monsters appeared.

The boss, though, is still level ten.

Although… I think that’s just a matter of time.

Now, when I fully clear the dungeon, I get 2,720 EXP.

Before, it was 2,310.

A small increase, but an increase nonetheless.

Which means—I was right.

A dungeon is like a living organism.

The more resources it receives, the faster it develops.

No, there are still no treasure chests, no magic scrolls, weapons, artifacts—nothing yet.

But I don’t need that anyway.

What matters most is combat experience.

Yes, even if it’s against monsters that weigh three or four kilos.

Even if they look ridiculous.

They’re still dangerous if you get careless.

And the most important thing—it’s all real combat practice.

My sword stance has become more solid.

My hand stopped trembling at the moment of a strike.

I learned to retreat without panicking.

To see the arc of a jump.

To feel the tempo.

Yes.

Even fights with rabbits are combat experience.

Well then, I’ll keep doing this.

--

[Quest No. 28 completed.
Gained +8,000,000 EXP.]

--

[Quest No. 29 completed.
Gained +9,000,000 EXP.]

--

[Quest No. 30 completed.
Gained +10,000,000 EXP.]

[Special Skill [Training Room], Rank 2, complete.

Skill advancing to: [Training Room], Rank 3.

User, please leave the current

Space.]

At last, my “Training Room” skill advanced to Rank 3.

Yes, it took roughly twenty days.

That is—twenty days for me.

While for the outside world, only three passed.

I sighed.

Looks like I’m starting to… slack off a little.

Although, thinking about it, that’s not surprising.

At my usual pace, finishing three tasks would have taken me about twelve days.

And I stretched it out to twenty.

Yes, I really started thinking less about efficiency.

I just picked up a new habit.

During the day—I step out of the Training Room, lie down on the warm, soft grass under the open sky and just… rest.

Sometimes I even doze off, feeling the wind stir the grass and the warm sunlight lightly touch my face.

Turns out, sleeping under the open sky is surprisingly pleasant.

And my dungeon trips have started to bring me real enjoyment.

Yeah… now I literally wait for an hour to pass so the monsters will spawn again.

It’s like waiting for the next episode of a favorite show.

Even if each episode resembles the last—it’s still interesting.

And with every run there really were small changes.

Not huge, not in-your-face—but I could feel them.

The most noticeable—was the dungeon boss.

He’s level 16 now.

And the magic stone left after he disappears

has become about twice as large as before.

Also, in the last four runs, after defeating the boss, a treasure chest began to appear.

Small—about the size of a jewelry box.

But the contents… were a big letdown.

Inside, every time, there were four vials of health potion.

All four times.

So I go into the dungeon, leave more than twenty potions in the boss room,

and in return I get four!

Come on, at least give me a rusty knife… or a ragged cloak…

Something new!

Something interesting!

But no.

It’s like the dungeon is mocking me:

“Here you go, human. Drink. Stay healthy.”

Although—fine.

I have enough health potions anyway.

And the real treasure for me is the magic stones.

I looked over at the pouches by my tent.

Two pouches, stuffed to the brim with rabbit-monster magic stones.

Yeah, there are definitely over a thousand here.

Maybe fifteen hundred.

Count them…

I’m too lazy.

And there’s not much point.

What matters is—I stockpiled them.

All right, I should check my status window.

Since the Training Room skill’s rank increased… I need to make sure.

Though…

Okay, let’s see.

I opened the status window.

[Status]

[Name: Alisar
Level: 54
EXP: 4,086,050/5,500,000
Rank: 3]

HP: 9,770 (+1,200)
MP: 15,800 (+4,100)

Strength: 273 (+40)
Defense: 259 (+40)
Speed: 445 (+40)
Intelligence: 262 (+40)
Magic Power: 257 (+40)
Magic Defense: 701 (+40) (+290)

Free Attribute Points: 90 (+340) (-290)

Skills: —

Special Skills:
• Training Room (Rank 3)
• Alchemy (Rank 1)

[Special Skill. Training Room (Rank 1)

Description: The skill grants access to a special space.

Functions:

The user receives tasks; completing them grants EXP.

All tasks require physical actions performed personally by the user.

Rewards increase in proportion to task difficulty.

Time effect: Time inside the room flows 480 times faster than in the outside world.]

Now time in the Training Room flows 480 times faster than in the outside world.

Two hundred forty times was more than enough as it was.

And now… 480.

You could call that a massive advantage.

But…

It feels like my sense of time is breaking.

I arrived in this world five days ago.

Five.

But for me,

it’s already been… a couple of months.

Maybe more.

I’m already losing count.

If this keeps going…

I don’t know where that leads.

All right. Enough thinking.

I need to see how the Training Room itself has changed.

I activated the skill.

In the next second—the familiar stone walls.

Training Room (Rank 3)

And yeah… almost nothing has changed.

No strange patterns.

No new objects.

No mysterious mechanisms.

But the size…

At Rank 2 the room was 20×20 meters.

Now—it’s 40×40.

Four times the area.

And still—empty.

An empty, echoing space.

I swept my hand through the air, as if to test whether the air itself had changed.

But—everything’s the same.

“All right,” I muttered. “More space to set things up.”

I could put a bed here.

A table.

Training dummies.

I could even build a house.

The thought flickered up on its own:

What if… I build a little farm in here?

But I dropped it immediately.

There’s no sun here.

Only a steady, diffuse light with no source.

Plants wouldn’t survive.

“Then just a house,” I told myself. “A small one. Cozy. A home I can come back to.”

Now, let’s get to the main task.

I opened the task window. The numbers there… had changed. A lot.

[Quest No. 1]

[Squats — 0 / 10,000

Push-ups — 0 / 10,000

Jumping in place — 0 / 10,000

Plank — 0 / 100 min

Sit-ups — 0 / 10,000

Sword swings — 0 / 10,000

Evasion — 100]

My days of “buckling down” and finishing one task per day are over.

Back then—at Rank 2—that really was possible. Hard? Yes. Painful? Very. But doable.

And now…

Now, to finish one task, I’ll need at least three to four days of genuine hard work. No lazy breaks, no long stretches lying on the grass, no “later… after… once I rest.”

And if I keep doing the tasks lazily like I am now?

If I keep stalling, “resting five more minutes,” doing the exercises without full effort…

Yeah, then one task will take fifteen to twenty days.

Well… what was I expecting?

If I could keep completing tasks as easily as before and earn millions of EXP in a couple of days—I’d become the most powerful person within a month. Probably.

But the world isn’t that kind.

And the skill isn’t that simple.

All right. I’ll try starting with the new task.

Evasion—100 times.

I took a deep breath and confirmed the task.

In the next second, gravity crashed down on me, increasing by about sixfold.

I took a deep breath.

I hate this moment.

So… what exactly am I supposed to evade?

Bang!

Something slammed me right in the stomach—sudden, without the slightest warning. Not even a “hit”—just an explosion of pain, like a cast-iron weight barreling into me at full speed.

I doubled over and fell to my knees, gulping air.

“Ghh… damn…!”

The air was completely knocked out of my lungs.

The floor blurred before my eyes, and in front of me something small and white rolled along, wobbling.

A ball.

An ordinary ball, about the size of a tennis ball.

I managed to push myself up a little and, gasping, reached for it.

It was light. Definitely not metal. And overall… it weighed almost nothing.

Pom.

The ball vanished in my hands.

“Hey, wait, what?..”

Bang!

In the exact same spot as before.

“Ah… damn…” I gritted my teeth. “This time… it hurts more…”

I folded up, clutching my stomach with both hands. The air was blasted from my lungs again, and I could only breathe in rough gasps, trying to regain even a little breath.

“Enough… stop!” I exhaled loudly.

In that same instant the increased gravity vanished as if it had never been. My body went light at once, my movements natural again. But the pain… dull, deep, throbbing—still clung to the muscles under my ribs.

Without thinking for even a second, I created a health potion. My hands were shaking as I brought the vial to my lips, but I downed it in one go.

A warm wave rolled through my body, spreading from my stomach across my chest, back, and arms. The pain disappeared as quickly as it had come—as if it had never existed.

I breathed out in relief and slowly got to my feet. “I thought… this would be the easiest of all the tasks…” I muttered to myself. “Just dodge a hundred times… just…”

Damn.

Can I even complete this task at all?

I barely saw the moment of impact.

The ball appeared too fast—just bang, and it was already slamming into me. I opened the task window:

Evasion: 2 / 100

“What?..” For a second I didn’t understand what I was seeing.

So… even if I get hit, it still counts?

Wonderful.

So to complete the task, I just need to get hit a hundred times?

Endure that pain a hundred times?

Although… yeah, I should be thankful for that.

If the task only counted successful evasions, and hits didn’t count—I don’t know if I’d be able to complete it at all.

But at the same time…

Thank it?

Or curse it?

Because whoever designed this task—that someone is definitely a sadist.

All right, that’s enough.

I need to clear my head a little.

I’m not ready to keep working on this task.

Or the others either.

It’s just… too much.

The moment I thought about leaving, I found myself beside my tent.

The air here was fresh, the ground warm under my feet.

Yeah, the dungeon.

A trip there right now will definitely lift my spirits.

I headed for the entrance.

Even my step felt a little lighter—I really had been looking forward to this.

I was even a little excited.

But…

When I took a step into the dungeon—

I smacked my face into something.

THUD.

I bounced back, clutching my nose on instinct.

“The hell?!” I blurted.

It was like hitting a glass door.

But there had never been a door here.

I slowly reached out and ran my hand through the air.

Yeah, there’s definitely something there.

Solid. Smooth. Invisible.

A barrier.

“What?..” I started feeling around.

The entrance was completely blocked.

No gap.

No “maybe I can squeeze through.”

Just a dead wall of air.

“Why?..”