I was sitting on the hospital bed while watching the wall—doing this helped me to concentrate for some reason. Thankfully, my female companion who sat nearby was just a cat, so her presence didn't distract me in the slightest.

Ciesta didn’t hide her disapproval. "Tut-tut, if my real body were here, you'd be head over heels for me already."

Don't be so sad. For some people, a cat is fine, too. Not for me, though. Definitely not. Thankfully, she didn't continue bickering and left me alone with my thoughts.

So, I need to choose the Path with the highest personal power if I want to defeat an Elite Boss on my own. And even then, my victory won't be guaranteed. . .Lifewalkers are presumably the best suited for a direct confrontation, but I have no way to become one. Moreover, they seem to be the most boring of the lot. Soulwalkers have many long-range abilities, so maybe I can hide somewhere safe and kill a more powerful enemy without getting close? In games, it's usually not possible due to artificial restriction, but in reality. . .

"In reality, Soulwalkers can indeed attack a Boss from afar, but this is usually only used to lure the monster into a trap where the rest of the group waits. Actually, there are whole Parties and Raid Groups that consist exclusively of mages with strong long-range attacks, but they are rarely as effective as a balanced team. Even with sixteen Soulwalkers concentrating their offense on one Elite Boss, they are unlikely to finish it off before it catches up with them. Moreover, powerful monsters often have long-ranged attacks as well."

Ciesta was nice enough to fill my lack of knowledge even after she told me to find the right answer on my own. I really couldn't help but admire her benevolence.

No one said that I need to defeat a Boss in a direct fight, though. So that leaves me with Truthwalkers, who have powerful Authorities and Miracles. Hmm. . . The System claimed that they need protection while preparing their trump cards, but if I'm stealthy enough, that shouldn't be a problem.

The puss didn't make any snide comments, so I assumed that I was on the right track. The problem was. . .

Ciesta said that both options I was considering were wrong. Did she mean that I should choose The Path of Life? No, that can't be right. Truthwalker is the way to go. There's no question about it. Could it be that she was trying to imply that becoming one through a cheat-like Perk was improper? Nah, she doesn't seem to me like a busybody who worries about fairness. If she was someone who blindly follows the rules, she wouldn't try to evade her responsibility of informing me about things I missed.

I creased my brows, trying to figure out what her deal was.

The main reason I was considering the Path of Soul was the Shadow of Humanity Perk. After all, it gives the highest increase to my personal power. . . Aha, so that's how it is!

In this moment of epiphany, everything became clear. The way to maximize my chances of success became totally obvious—I needed to enter the Path of Harmony while choosing the Shadow of Humanity Perk. The first was going to give me destructive Miracles, and the second 100% damage bonus against Bosses plus 50% bonus from ambushing! But there was a catch. . .

"I'm too weak!" I shamelessly declared with a wry smile.

My physical Attributes were abysmal, and my Fate was quite lacking as well.

It would take me years of training, unless. . .

"Unless?" The cat asked curiously.

"Unless it's j-just like you said, and I can gain Experience f-freely!" I concluded my deduction with a happy grin.

"Bingo!" Ciesta acknowledged my win as she applauded with her paws. Too bad that it didn't generate any clapping sounds.

***

What do you mean you aren't sure yourself? I asked Ciesta as we ascended the stairs to the next floor.

The cat’s small body didn't slow her down in the slightest as she followed me. "When Essence-less planets are introduced to the System for the first time, the sentient species inhabiting them are sent either to the Tutorial or to the Safe Zone. You are the first exception I've heard about, so I can't be sure if there's actually a System-generated restriction on gaining Levels placed on you or not. But based on my extensive knowledge, I assume that you should gain Experience just fine."

So there's no guarantee that it will work?

Even if I had managed to talk to her out loud for a bit, that didn't mean that was my preferred way of communicating. I felt way more comfortable relying on her mind-reading, and she didn't seem to be against the idea.

"We'll find out soon enough. But first, I want to clear up one misunderstanding. Improving your Attributes with training isn't as slow as you just assumed. At least not for someone of your species. Remember the Adaptive Learning Trait? Did you choose your Skills already?"

I would have picked them if I knew how. I mentally replied.

"It's good that you didn't. Who knows what useless things you would have taken otherwise?"

I opened the door and entered the hall. It seemed to be just another part of the hospital, so I decided to proceed to the next floor. Ciesta had advised on checking how tall the building was and if there was anything useful in the unexplored parts of it.

I gave the cat a questioning look. So, how much faster am I going to improve by training with those Skills you talked about?

She shrugged. "I'd say that with a suitable Skill, you could manage a year's worth of progress in a month."

Still seems slow to me. I had only a year left, after all.

"Yeah, this is why let's hope my method is going to work."

After passing a couple more floors, we reached the end of the stairway.

Ciesta explained, "This building has thirty floors above the ground and five below. From what I gather, the Dungeon Core is at the bottom."

I tried to open the last door, but it didn't budge. A large "SECURITY" text sign was on it. It's locked, huh. . . It wasn't strange that it was locked. Rather, it was surprising that each door before that was open.

Should I force my way through? I would need something to help me break the lock.

"That won't be necessary." The cat said.

She gestured for me to step back, and she didn't need to ask me twice. I retreated ten feet away from the entrance and watched what she was going to do.

The cat muttered something incomprehensible, and then, out of nowhere, a beam of light appeared and shot towards the door lock. I expected the lock to be destroyed, but instead, the whole steel door was blown off.

What the?! Encountering bipedal dogs and talking cats was one thing, but seeing actual magic first-hand was another. Before I noticed, my mouth was wide open from surprise.

"I'm strictly forbidden from helping you in actual combat, but some light lockpicking should be fine."

You call this lockpicking?! Doorblowing would be a better term!

After a short exploration, I concluded that this floor wasn't a part of the hospital. Instead, it belonged to the security company that monitored the whole building.

"And in the m-mind of any American, s-security means guns!" I exclaimed enthusiastically.

Who needs magic when he has modern weapons? The stupid System "evacuated" humans, but wasn’t it just trying to save the monsters from being bombed? Wouldn't my Quest be easily completed if I could get my hands on a military base with missiles and stuff? With those overbearing thoughts, I started to search for weapons.

"I checked the technology level of your civilization before being sent to help you. You were close to the peak of Essenceless development, which is rare among newly introduced sentients."

What do you mean by that? I inquired.

"It means that your people had, at most, a couple of hundred years before being destroyed. Each universe has a defensive mechanism that prevents sentients from advancing their science far enough to threaten the balance. In the case of you humans, universes usually don't need to do anything before you self-destruct, though."

Thanks, I can't agree with you more—we humans are so amazing!

"That wasn't a compliment, though. . ."

Have you ever heard of irony?

"Oh, so you were sarcastic? Sorry, it's hard to notice when mind-reading."

Sarcasm and irony aren't the same thing, though. I decided to educate her about the difference between those terms someday.

Oh, found it! In one of the security rooms, a black metallic item was lying on the desk as if waiting for me.

It's Colt 1911, a classic tested by time.

I wasn't a gun enthusiast, but I had received some basic training thanks to my Mom, who hired an ex-military man to teach me a thing or two. I was still not sure why exactly she did it, considering that she didn't want me to train in martial arts or any active sports for that matter.

I knew the most common firearms, how to prepare them for action, and how to reload. I had also spent a few dozen hours on the shooting range, so there shouldn't be much of a problem with my accuracy at short or medium range.

With fascination, I picked up the pistol and checked how well it fitted in my hand.

"I didn't want to crush your hopes back when I read your thoughts about bombing monsters to oblivion, but it won’t work the way you think it should. First of all, you can forget about the sources of energy on which your kind built your civilization. I'll explain it in more detail someday later, but for now, it's enough for you to know that the power’s only going to be on inside Dungeons."

Now that you mention, the lights had gone off just after the Fusion but came back when the building turned into a Dungeon. So electricity is out of the question, as well as everything that relies on it?

"Exactly. And while things like firearms still work, don't get cocky. That toy you are holding right now won’t be as effective as you think, though still better than that yellow thing which failed you in the last battle."

I found it strange that the machete designed for cooking was more useful than the weapon made with advanced technology.

"Kobolds, by default, are as weak as human children at the same Level, so why do you think you struggled so much? Just as you guessed, it's the Essence Field mentioned by the System that stopped you from killing that dirty thing in one go."

This invisible barrier was, in a way, even more effective than a bulletproof vest. Plus, it covered the monster's whole body without stifling its movement.

"Yeah, this is why in the Tutorial, people are given the opportunity to train and to get an Essence Field of their own before facing their first real fight. At the first Trial, they just need to slay a helpless slime."

I remembered how I almost died in my first encounter with a monster and couldn't help but envy everyone else who had it much easier.

By the way, was bringing this kobold to me a part of your plan?

"The one I led to you was literally the weakest out of their entire Tribe. Of course, there are some animals in the Dungeon, so you could have killed them instead, but I wanted to see if you had what it takes to defeat something that's actually a challenge. Don't give me that pitiful look. If you hadn’t managed to defeat it, then I would have intervened in a way that would have saved your ass without you suspecting anything."

No-no, my feelings just got hurt by the fact that you just assumed that I would be eager to kill an innocent kitty or doggy just to get some EXP.

"You sure are strange. Most people in your shoes would be pissed at me for what I did."

If I were "most people", I wouldn't have ended up being left out in the first place, would I?

"You have a point. In any case, Essence Field is a phenomenon that makes it way harder to deal damage to the beings of higher Ranks and Levels by those inferior to them. It also effectively protects the Field’s possessor from the attacks not enhanced by Essence. Basically, when you use melee weapons, some of your natural Essence enters them. Things like bullets, on the other hand, are completely independent. Moreover, the Field also works in a way that negates both mass and velocity on their own rather than combined. It means that for the same kinetic energy level, physical attacks with a lower mass but a higher speed would be less effective if not outright useless."

I gave the Colt in my hand a pitying glance.

This world is so unfair to you, my metallic friend. . .

"With this gun, you would need to spend about ten bullets to deplete a weak kobold's EF."

So a whole clip for one kill? It wouldn't be such a bad deal if I had more of those pistols or magazines. Let's continue the search, then.

"The last thing I want to mention is that the System doesn't recognize firearms as a part of you as a Player. It means that you'd still need to deal the final blow in melee. And even then, you'll get an EXP penalty."

This is still better than charging ahead with my pitiful physical stats.

After turning the whole floor upside down with the cat blaster’s help, I found two ready-to-use Colts and eight 10R magazines for one hundred shots in total. Also, by luck or fate, I incidentally found a fully loaded shotgun hidden in one of the guard's lockers. I was rather familiar with this model—Winchester 101—was scribbled on its dark barrel, and who doesn't know the classics? Getting a one-use trump card was a pleasant surprise. Though, considering that it had two rounds, maybe it was a two-use trump card, instead?

While arming myself to the teeth, I didn't miss the fact that the surveillance room was functioning without any problems. After making sure that I didn't miss any useful items anywhere on that floor, I approached a big monitor to which information from the cameras was being transmitted. It was just one out of many such monitors. This one, in particular, was responsible for the cameras on the bottom five floors.

Something strange is happening on the second floor. I creased my brows as I watched the real-time video.

Dozens of cats were locked in a wide room that seemed to be a hospital's waiting room. They were restless, and some tried to leave, but without any success. Just outside the room's door, five kobolds stood guard, the biggest of them with a terrified puss grasped in his hands.

"Those monsters are creations of the Dog Concept, so it's only natural that they hate cats while at the same time treating them as a delicacy."

Shouldn't you feel sorry for your kin? With your power, it should be easy for you to save them. Why are you so heartless to your brethren?

Ciesta glared at me. "As I already said many times, I'm not a cat. I'm just borrowing the body of one."

Just wait for me, little fellows. I'm going to save you from those cruel monsters.

I couldn't watch as the bipedal dog bullied a little kitty, so I moved my attention to other screens.

On one of the monitors, I found a detailed map of the whole building. Just as I suspected, this place was a high-end hospital. The twentieth to twenty-ninth floors was a long-term care area for patients like me who required a lot of attention for months or even years. The tenth to nineteenth zone was a non-intensive care unit where people waited for scheduled services like surgeries or spent the time in rehabilitation afterwards. The fifth to ninth floors were where most of the facilities for the actual medical treatments were located.

The first floor was the main reception area, though both the tenth and twentieth floors had one as well. The twentieth floor reception was where I met Ciesta.

The second and the third floors were where the general patients were examined. And the fourth. . .

So what's where you came from! It explains why there are so many cats in the building.

The fourth floor was a veterinary unit. Currently, it was completely empty, but I could guess that the kobold had just moved the animals. I had found the cats, but what about the dogs? I briefly checked multiple screens but didn't see any.

"Most likely, the main part of the Dungeon is underground, where the cameras don't have access. Anyway, you can rest assured, Kobolds usually treat other canines with the utmost of care and respect."

While checking the map, I found another thing of interest to me—on the twelfth floor, where the patients with issues related to muscles and bones were placed, was a special rehabilitation facility that was not much different from a gym. I decided to visit it later to see if it could help with my training.

"I doubt that it will be that helpful compared to gaining Levels or working on your Racial Skills."

It couldn't hurt, that's for sure. Wait, what is that?

The camera on the twentieth floor caught an event that was going on near its entrance right now.

A group of seven kobolds were gathered around the door that I had blockaded just before, barking at each other, presumably discussing their plans to get inside.

Can you understand what they are saying?

"Of course I can. But there's nothing of worth being said, so don't even bother. Anyway, if you are interested in communicating with those savages, then you'd better hurry up and kill some of them."

I'm not sure that murder is the best way to start a mutual conversation. . .

"There's no progress without sacrifice. When you get to Level 5 and unlock the System Shop, you will have the opportunity to get your Gear. The universal translator is just one of its basic options."

At that time, the most robust kobold among the group with a stone claymore in his hands approached the door and prepared to show it who was the boss. It seemed that dog-shaped Experience Points were eager to help me understand their strange language by sacrificing themselves for my Level-ups!