Hidden dungeon mission

Alden stood outside what seemed like a derelict building, situated in one of Durban's many townships. The old abandoned building was surrounded by other old houses and it seemed like nobody came around this particular building. Apparently, from what he had heard, there were rumors of a ghost living in the house but Alden didn't come to look at any monsters. He came to slay them.

On entering the house, Alden climbed the stairs and went to the top floor. Before him, his holographic screen was open and there was a map on it. He was following the map directions and the directions led him to a small toilet that had no door. On peeking inside, Alden saw something which made his heart beat rapidly with excitement.

There was a round inexplainable hole in the air, It seemed like the space before he had been torn, and within the hole was a liquid-like substance with movements similar to the waves in the ocean.

Alden took a deep breath in and walked into the portal before him. This would be it, this was where his journey as a Ranger began. Alden walked through, his heart full of anticipation, his mind ready for whatever awaited him on the other side.

Alden walked into the dungeon and when he came through, he found that he had walked into a forest. The trees were extremely tall and their branches and leaves allowed no sunlight through, if there was even any sun in this place. Alden didn't even have any time to get used to the surroundings when he heard low growling from the bushes surrounding the place he was standing.

"Time to test out my new powers!" Alden said, a grin of excitement on his face. Then he realized something, he wasn't sure how to use his powers since he hadn't used them before. Alden decided to just will it and hope it happened, otherwise he was dead meat for whatever awaited him behind the bushes.

"Puppet creation!" He cried out, spreading his hands out. Then he saw it happen: a wooden puppet began to form, slowly taking shape.

A notification rang in his head.

[PUPPET CREATION (lv 1) ACTIVATED]

[-10% ENERGY]

[PUPPET BEING CREATED]

[1/1 PUPPET CREATED!]

[PUPPET MASTERY ( lv1) ACTIVATED]

Very soon, a wooden puppet had formed, it stood up to 2 meters tall, and it lacked facial features. It only had the limbs of a human but it wasn't identical to a human, it was just a basic puppet. Alden guessed it sucked that he could only create one puppet but this had to do. Alden concentrated and tried to make the puppet come a few meters closer to him, which it did. Alden guessed he had to give instructions regularly to the puppet and wondered if he'd be able to give them fewer instructions when he leveled up.

Alden watched the bushes around him cautiously and then from his right, something approached him with a flash, Alden saw it late and he ducked down, hoping to avoid whatever had jumped for his head. He barely avoided it and when he looked up to see what had attacked him, he saw a grey wolf with some sort of black gas surrounding its body. A system alert sounded, and on the screen before him, the animal's stats appeared.

[SHADOW WOLF (lv 1)]

[ASSASIN TYPE MONSTER]

ATTACK: OKAY

DEFENCE: LOW

MOVEMENT: GOOD

"Ohh, so that's why it crept up on me like that," Alden mumbled, trying to calm his shivering body. He could feel fear engulf him whole as he stared at a creature that would gladly go to any length just to kill him. Alden forcibly calmed himself down and forced himself to focus, getting distracted by fear at a time like this could result in his death. He still had the puppet near him, if he had come here with the same stats that he had when he had first awakened, he would be no match for the wolf, but now he had a winning chance.

Alden willed the puppet to charge at the wolf but the wolf easily avoided its punch and leaped away from the puppet. Alden didn't want to leave himself too open so he brought the puppet back and made it stand between him and the wolf. He threw a quick look around the terrain, he needed a plan. Alden remembered that he had other skills. "GRAVITY (lv 2), GLITCH (lv 1), and REPLICATE (lv 1)".

Alden had not properly understood those abilities but he had an idea of what they could do since he had used them unconsciously. "REPLICATE" was extremely useless to him at that moment since that skill could only copy others' skills. He had copied "GRAVITY" from someone when he was falling that day, but he guessed the system chose the most suitable skill to help him survive at that moment. "GRAVITY" had stopped him from falling any further and it was then that the skill "GLITCH" came in.

As far as he knew, it was a teleportation ability that had transferred him back to the safety of the building roof. He decided to make use of his skills to beat the wolf. He wasn't sure it'd work but he had to try so he willed the puppet to move to the wolf's right. The wolf was standing directly across him growling at him. It didn't attack because it was wary of the puppet but it wasn't going to give up on its prey so easily.

The puppet attacked the wolf from its right causing it to leap forward away from where the puppet used its fists to strike into the ground.

It was just before the wolf landed that Alden activated "GLITCH". In the spot where Alden stood, a rainbow-like light appeared for a split second as the spell activated

[GLITCH (lv 1) ACTIVATED]

[-5 ENERGY]

Alden appeared above the shadow wolf with a flash before activating another skill.

[GRAVITY (lv 2) ACTIVATED]

[-3 ENERGY PER SEC.]

Alden's arms glowed blue as he swung his fist unto the head of the wolf. His fist at that moment weighed quite a bit and that hit sent the wolf crashing into the ground. His puppet quickly arrived at his command and finished off the wolf with a single punch.

[SHADOW WOLF ELIMINATED!]

[+1 EXP]

"This is going to be a long day," Thought Alden, as he clasped his aching arm.