Chapter 7 - Trial of beginnings

Once I crossed through the portal, my feet landed on a soft patch of grass. I was surrounded by tall bushy trees and clear skies as far as I could see. The portal closed behind me and marked the beginning of the dungeon's quest.

The area didn’t look too different from the first floor. I felt more relaxed seeing a familiar environment and a newfound wave of confidence flooded over me.

The one big difference was that it had a heavier vegetation growth, almost like it had been abandoned for centuries.

There was a dirt trail that led up the hill I arrived on. I checked the map in hopes of getting a marker like on the first floor. I concentrated on the map icon in the corner of my vision and it enlarged into my main view.

Although…

“Why is it blank?! I thought dungeons were meant to be explored.”

{No map available in summoned dungeons}

“Summoned dungeons…so this isn’t like an ordinary dungeon after all. I’ll have to go about this differently, who knows what could happen in here.”

I stuck to the trail since I was out of options, there was no telling what would happen if I got lost after all. Assuming summoned dungeons worked the same as regular ones, there was only one way to beat it and that was to beat the dungeons boss.

“What do people do in dungeons again?”

My anxiety rose to the surface as Kana’s warnings came back to me. Her biggest warning when telling me about dungeons was to never seek out the boss alone or you’d find something much worse.

Gulp

This isn't making me feel better, especially since I haven't come across a monster since I arrived.

Even though the area was open, I felt trapped being in there. The silence was louder than anything… I never thought I’d be anxious about not seeing any monsters.

I followed the path and noticed stone structures scattered along the way. It looked like fragments of a larger building or castle with strange carvings on them. The further I ventured, the larger the pieces got, until I was able to make out fully intact walls and bits of pillars along the side of the path.

They were covered in vines and grass, which only caused more concern. If something that large was blown to bits, I couldn’t help but wonder what caused it all. More than anything I just hoped it was dead.

“Ruins, it’s hard to imagine someone living in the Dungeon. I wonder if that’s my next stop-”

Suddenly a rustle in the bushes beside me forced my attention away. I quickly turned to it and pulled out one of the Chakram blades from my belt.

The next moment, a white fluffy ear as long as my forearm perked up above the grass, followed by a small round head. Red beady eyes stared at me as the creature continued to chew on a strand of grass.

“A Rabbit?”

Relieved that it wasn't a blood-soaked monster, I placed the blade back into its sheath. I relaxed my body and a name bar appeared over the Rabbit's head, the same way that it did before with the Chakram's.

{Rush Rabbit Lv2}

“Rush Rabbit…is that supposed to be the name of its breed? Hey, it’s got a level next to it just like me.”

Suddenly the rabbit hopped out from the bush and stood up at full length. Once it did, I noticed the insanely toned muscles in its legs that showed through the hefty level of fur on its body.

My calm demeanour was instantly washed away by the overbearing anxiety that flooded my body as the Rush Rabbit took another step forward.

Are cute and cuddly animals supposed to be that buff…?

In a blur of speed, the rabbit disappeared from where it stood and closed the distance between us. With a small hop off the ground, it managed to soar taller than most houses. I feared for what came next.

Its massive legs retracted back and took a wound-back position as its body fell back to the ground. Panic filled my eyes as they widened and my hands began to tremble.

It’s going to kick…I need to dodge!

My body moved on instinct and pulled back as far as I could. Just before hitting the ground, a pair of fluffy white feet burst through the air like a cannonball, past my face. The intense pressure of its paws pushed out a gust of wind from where my head ducked away.

It moved faster than I could see, every time it moved it was like its body became invisible.

With little to no effort the Rabbit hopped to the side and readied for another kick.

Its legs were a serious problem, I knew there was no chance I could pull off that fluke again. With dodging out of the question, I had to act first.

I fell back onto my butt and rolled through the grass and up onto my feet, as I reached for the Chakram a blur of white shot towards my head.

I can’t risk taking a hit like that, there’s a risk that even one touch would kill me as I am now!

I extended out my hand which held the chakram but nothing came of it. The rabbit stood in front of me, completely frozen in place.

Why isn't it attacking, is something scaring it?

I raised my Chakram into a brawler position, with both arms up as if I were about to start boxing. The Rabbit suddenly stepped to the right, outside of my vision and charged towards me. I couldn’t track it with my eyes but nonetheless, I moved my hand to block it.

No attack again.

It froze at the other end of my chakram's edge, less than a second from kicking me. It pulled away and hopped back.

What’s–what’s going on here? Is it because of my blades?

I moved my blade at it, aiming at its chest. Even with such a large distance between us, the rabbit moved out of the way. It wouldn’t let me keep my blade aimed at it, no matter how safe it was.

“So that’s it huh, you’re afraid of getting hurt. You must be pretty weak to attacks then, just like me.”

It was at that moment, that Kana’s advice flooded back to me.

…

One week ago.

“Rei, under no circumstances can you fight a Rush Rabbit like a regular monster! They aren’t like other monsters, they’re coward fighters! They only attack when your back is turned or if they think you won’t block it, so you need to fight smart.”

“Why do I have to wait for them, can’t I just attack them myself?”

Kana waved her finger in front of my nose like I was a child.

“There’s no chance of that happening, those things are insanely fast, so you wouldn’t be able to catch them anyway. They run away as soon as you try to attack, it’s better to just lay a trap for them with a good counter.” Kana replied.

…

I’ll have to listen to Kana’s advice…A counter is my only option at this point!

I lowered my Chakram and pretended not to see the Rush Rabbit stepping into my blind spot. If I pulled out my weapon, even a second too soon then it wouldn’t attack me. If I pulled them out too late…well let’s just say I didn’t want to think about that.

I had to wait for just the right opportunity if I wanted it to work. It was a gamble but I trusted in my body, it never failed me in the past.

As the rabbit burst forward I closed my eyes, I gripped tightly to the Chakram as the sound of rushing wind approached from behind me.

I snapped my arm out with a sharp motion and put all my strength behind the swing. I felt the tough resistance of the skin against the blade which made my hand slow down.

“Kyaaaa!!”

The Rush Rabbit wailed out as a spurt of blood gushed out from its side. Its skin was softer than a Funk’s, it felt like nothing but fur.

I glanced over my shoulder at the struggling rabbit and grit my teeth.

It’s not deep enough…

I knew I was weak but I didn’t expect to have that much trouble with it. Even with all my weight behind it, I couldn’t force the blade through completely.

The Rush Rabbit put up a fight, and even to the end it refused to die by my hand. I kept pushing, no matter how it happened, I needed to kill it!

“HYAAAAAAA!!”

“Kiiiiiiii!”

We dropped to the ground in our tussle and I pulled my chakram out, the blade sliced across its belly and opened a large gash across its fur. The blood sprayed out at a gross amount and stained the pure white colour of its fur to a bloody red.

The last wailing screams of the rabbit fell to silence as its blood filled a pool around its lifeless body.

“Huff…Huff…I did it.”

My heavy pants were silenced as screens of victory appeared over the rabbit's corpse.

{Congratulations!}

{User has slain a Rush Rabbit}

{25 Exp Gained}

A string of messages appeared one after the other, but my attention was swept away by the adrenaline that rushed through me.

I got the gist of it from Uriel's voice but my eyes were coldly locked on the bleeding corpse of the Rush Rabbit. I had killed Funk’s before but that felt different, what I had just done felt important.

A necessary step in the road to change.

The look of horror was replaced by a smile, a toothy grin cracked out from the corners of my mouth. My excitement reached an all-time high as I celebrated with raised arms.

“I did it…I killed a strong monster!”

Seeing as it was a dungeon and nobody else could hear my embarrassing cheers, I decided to go all out.

As I celebrated loudly in the open woods a familiar whisper surfaced from the back of my mind.

{User has slain a monster for the first time since awakening, Arsenal is now available}

“Arsenal…?”

A bubble appeared in front of me on the panel of light, containing a strange icon of a symbol I had never seen before. The words hovering over it were ‘Arsenal’ and at the top of the screen were the words, “Skill menu”.

“So Uriel isn’t the skill I obtained? Does this Arsenal thing do something important, if that’s my skill then shouldn’t I know how to use it?”

I focused on the icon and a list of details appeared over it on a separate screen.

{The ability to consume a fallen enemy, turning their essence into a skill}

“This…this can’t be right! If this is true, then wouldn’t I have unlimited skills…something like that is completely passed the title of unique skill. Is that even allowed?”

{User must select a phrase to activate skill}

If what I read was right, then Uriel wasn’t my skill but rather a side effect of the Gift that Ellios gave me. I needed to see just how strong my new powers were first-hand, I didn’t want to waste another second.

“A commanding phrase? I should choose something simple and easy to remember, but what…?”

At that moment only one word came flooding through my mind, the words that have been etched into my brain like a dagger against a tree.

“Devour.”