〖Congratulations! You have slain the Pentegate Guardian〗
〖Flame +25.0〗
Maybe Luke and his team had faced the Guardian with a bit more bravery than needed.
The Guardian was a mutated beetle that could summon slime termites to aid it in its fight. The girls handled the summons while Luke finished the main monster.
"There’s our gate," he said, yanking his spear out of the monster as it withered into Flame. Slaying the Guardian granted them access to the first level.
〖Warning: You are entering a Beta-Rank Dungeon!〗
〖Objective: Defeat the Boss and move to the next level!〗
〖Level 1: Easy〗
The dungeon was a letdown compared to what Luke had imagined.
Any hunter would have been bracing themselves for a nightmare.
A five-level manifestation in Skeleton Town?
That sounded like untimely death, even if all were Beta.
But this first dungeon turned out to be a warm-up for Luke’s party.
SLASH! SPLUSH! FWOOSH!
The monsters were no match for Scarlett, Raven, and Vivian. Luke didn’t have to fight with them around him.
Even the boss posed about as much threat as a street dog.
〖Congratulations! You have cleared a Beta-Rank Dungeon!〗
〖XP +200〗
〖You have leveled up to LV. 25!〗
〖Congratulations! You have acquired the skill: Instill!〗
Despite doing nothing, Luke still got some experience points, and that was enough to take him to Lv. 25, unlocking a new skill too.
His last skill was Auto-Forge, which he unlocked at Lv.8.
The gap between checkpoints was getting bigger. By this scaling, Luke might acquire his next innate at Lv. 100 or so.
"Maybe I can use this to instill some sense into the system..."
He checked the skill’s description.
〖Skill: Instill〗
〖Description: Allows the user to incorporate systems into armor〗
"Wow. That sounds important," Luke said. "But what systems do I incorporate? Could this be the way I finally upgrade my armor?"
Questions piled up about his ability to summon beast armor.
Questions like its limits and its potential power. But if Luke’s journey had taught him anything so far, it was that he had to figure out everything on his own.
「Notice!」
「Your teammate: Raven Kingsley is leading at #7!」
"Huh? This little brat..."
"Don’t worry too much about it, brother," Raven said, leaning against a wall. "We still have four floors left to go. You might catch up."
"What makes you think I’m interested in racing you?" Luke chuckled, walking past Raven toward the others. "Now where were we—hey, who took the dungeon core?"
"That’s what we’re trying to figure out, you douchebag. No dungeon core. Only a portal to the next floor."
"What do you think, Luke?" Scarlett asked, looking for an explanation. "Is this a problem we shouldn’t overlook, or is this just how pentegates work?"
"I suppose the latter makes more sense," Luke replied. "Since all these dungeons manifested from the same source, they must draw energy from one master core on the highest floor. Imagine how concentrated that thing would be..."
"It won’t find itself, so let’s keep moving," Vivian called out, standing beside the portal, hands on her hips, and using the corpse of the goblin king as a podium under her feet.
〖Congratulations! You have completed the objective!〗
Stepping through the portal, the party found themselves back in the parking building, but one floor higher. A few steps ahead, the vortex swirled for the next level. They had the option to rest, but chose to push through instead.
〖Warning: You are entering a Beta-Rank Dungeon!〗
〖Objective: Defeat the Boss and move to the next level!〗
〖Level 2: Hard〗
They entered the portal just as ready as before, but this level brought real competition, forcing the girls to summon their beasts to keep up with the pace and buffs.
Luke did just fine with his spear and gauntlet, saving his energy for later, while making sure the girls didn’t take a hit.
Anyone would be lucky to have them on their team.
They didn’t just fight. They fought.
Dangerous yet beautiful. Deadly yet honourable.
Raven’s style of fighting was rough and relentless. Her strategy was to be faster and more savage than the enemy, hit them by surprise, and end them as quickly as possible.
On the contrary, Scarlett fought like a warrior tied to a cause, which was why the intensity of her combat always matched the level of the threat.
Meanwhile, Vivian was the weakest, but also the bravest. Fighting side-by-side with her rabbit, she brought dexterity to the team, making up for her low damage.
But with all that strength came some weaknesses.
Vivian was easy to overwhelm. Scarlett and her phoenix just weren’t in sync. And Raven always put herself in danger.
While fighting wraiths, Raven entered the eye of the mob with her hound just to get as many kills as they could.
But being that close drained her stamina, and she risked getting consumed by the monsters.
SWOOSH!
Luke threw his spear.
It whistled through the air, dodging Scarlett and Vivian before piercing through the wraiths holding Raven captive. One of the monsters tried to escape, but the spear tracked it down too and punctured its ghostly body.
The spear then returned to Luke like a boomerang, leaving Raven panting on the floor.
She looked up at Luke, realizing that she had judged him wrongly.
Without the spear, she would have been hurt. If Luke had a sword, running into the wraiths would be useless.
"Raven! Are you alright?" Vivian called out, sending her Seraph Leaper to help Raven up.
Raven got to her feet, but she couldn’t keep her beast summoned. The Crimson Hellhound flickered a couple of times before it disappeared. She had drained her reserves just as much as her stamina. What a rookie way to throw a match.
"Here, you can absorb these cores," Scarlett suggested, holding out five monster cores.
"Thank you, Scarlett. Did we clear the phase?" Raven asked.
"Yes, we did. What’s left is the boss now."
From a distance, Luke watched the girls care for each other, but he was over the babysitting. He wanted monster blood on his clothes, and he’d been deprived of that for too long.
"It seems you guys aren’t strong enough to continue," he said, walking forward, "So should I take the lead starting with this boss?"
"I’m sorry, Luke, but not yet," Scarlett said, stopping him with a palm to his chest. "We need you 100% from the third floor upwards. Trust us just to finish this one."
Luke looked at the timer:「Hunter Trial Day 1| Remaining Time: 3:14:59」
The captain of the mercenaries wasn’t wrong when he said there was no rush in clearing all five floors today.
Right now, their remaining time was uncertain.
They could finish up at the last second, or they could still be stuck on the final floor when the clock ran out.
But making it into the final floor was the goal.
The rules of the trial permitted clearing every threat in a zone you entered before the timer finished, but you couldn’t cross into a new one afterward.
If Luke soloed the second-level boss, they could speed up, but Scarlett was right: If they wanted to attempt all five floors today, then his first burst should be saved for the third floor when the difficulty is even greater.
"Alright, you have seven minutes," Luke said, finding a place to sit.
"Thank you," Scarlett replied, rallying the other girls into the boss chamber.
While they got in, Vivian whispered to Scarlett, "My lady, why are you so confident in my brother? How sure are you he can handle the third floor?"
Scarlett had one reply: "You’ll see."
Meanwhile, Luke fiddled with his new spear.
He ran his fingers over the steel and carvings, then he compared it to the Primate Metal of the Hell Ape Gauntlet. The Primate Metal was on a different tier.
Luke gripped the spear with his gauntlet and thrust it as far as he could. The spear sliced independently through the dungeon before returning to him.
"+3 Turns and 75% Tracking Accuracy," Luke whispered, throwing it again. "This is a very good weapon for any ranger.
If they can incorporate an Affix into a weapon, could I incorporate something similar to my armor?"
Luke scratched his head, wondering if that was possible.
It felt like the answer was right in front of him, but he couldn’t see it.
Then it hit him. He slapped his forehead and chuckled. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t realized it when it had been right in front of him the whole time.
〖Name: Aspect Of Conquest〗
〖Class: Simple〗
〖Magnitude: 10.0〗
Luke retrieved the Aspect of Conquest from his inventory, the reward he got from the Insect World.
With his new skill, Instill, he could incorporate the Aspect into his armor the same way an Affix goes with a weapon.
〖Do you wish to Instill the Hell Ape Gauntlet with Aspect of Conquest? 〗
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