-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Their First Dungeon Raid(3)-

“I leveled up!” Chiba shouted immediately after recovering off her trance. Now, just before Kenshin put her on the ground, she felt a tremor going across her whole body. It’s a very familiar feeling which she had felt 52 times before, and including today, it became 53 times. At that time she knew she leveled up. Although she felt very happy, she could express it as she was still in the trance of leveling up, while her body getting accustomed to her increase in power.

During this process, she felt her magic power increasing by a slight margin while the control remained the same. She also felt herself getting more fit physically like she could run a marathon across Japan without taking a break. Not only that, but she also felt her skills, especially her [Water Whip] had a slight increase in power. All these things happened with just a level up. Had she gone the normal way of training nonstop, it might have taken more than a few months or a year to achieve.

This was why people chose to level up over training relentlessly. Gaining strength was just too easy this way.

“Congrats kid. You have become a little bit powerful. Feeling like going another round?” Joy asked with a smile. He was also happy for the girl who was bubbling up with excitement after leveling up.

“Yes. I want to test out my power with another one. Wait, let me see what this monster has dropped.” Like a true hunter, Chiba didn't forget to check her loot. She turned around to look for the monster’s corpse.

“Hey, Chiba, you sure are a lucky one. Look what this thing dropped.” At that time, Kenshin’s voice rang from the other side of the corpse. Hearing him, the girl ran towards him. After circling around the creature, she found Kenshin holding a shiny thing in his hand. It’s a locket in the shape of a triangle with some runes shaped like a lotus flower in the middle. The locket was attached to a necklace and giving off a light blue hue when the light flashed on them.

It's an accessory item.

Items dropping was already a rare thing, and even rarer was an accessory type item dropping. One has to know that, no matter what kind of armor or weapon a person holds, the effects could only stack once or twice. But that’s not the case with an accessory item. When using accessory items, the effects could stack as many times as six or eight. This was the reason why the accessory items were very expensive and rare to fond. Their drop rate was extremely low, and none in the whole world could create one.

The market price of an accessory item could go as far as a million gold coins if auctioned.

And the reaction of Chiba after seeing it was completely understandable when considering the above points.

Her mouth hung wide as she lost all her strength and nearly fell flat on the ground. Her eyes were so wide that they look like they would fall off at any moment. Sweat oozed from her pores. It was really too much for her to take.

“IT'S REALLY AN ACCESSORY!!!” she shouted loudly after taking a deep breath. She couldn’t believe her own luck. Running hastily, she tentatively took the necklace from Kenshin’s hands and inspected it closely.

“Gasp!! This necklace!! It increases my magic power and control!! There is also a slight chance of triggering a secret function that could triple my damage output. This! Its definitely a good item!!” the moment she held it, Chiba could able to feel the properties of the necklace. There was no need for them to appraise the item, as she could already tell it just by holding it. She was that sensitive to magic.

“Wow! You really are very lucky!!” Joy said with a hidden undertone while throwing a look at Kenshin. Who in turn, fake coughed and avoided his look. Shaking his head, he looked back at Chiba and said, “Hurry up and wear it. Then go and slaughter another one. Show us its properties.”

“Yes.” Chiba instantly ran up to another ogre that was quite far away from its group. Although she was excited, she didn’t lose her reasoning and challenge the whole group. She was outnumbered and outgunned currently. One step and a time, that’s the way to go.

After she ran off, Joy steadily walked up to Kenshin and asked: “So, what the real loot dropped from this thing?”

“A normal dagger,” Kenshin said, showing the real thing to Joy. Holding the dagger in his hands, Joy inspected it for sometime before handing it back to Kenshin. “That’s should probably fetch us a thousand or two golds. Maybe not even 1% of what that necklace might have cost you, but still you should keep it.”

“Haha! Don’t worry about such trivial things. Although I am not a filthy rich guy, still I won't feel bad about giving away that necklace. I don’t need any repayment. Let's take it as an investment for our future, which might get us high returns. What do you think?” Kenshin gave Joy a look but accepted the dagger from him.

“I have high hopes for the kid. She has the potential for a high classed magic caster.” Joy nodded and agreed with Kenshin on that note. They both had seen her godly control over magic and her skill. Even Kenshin who had a system to boost his power couldn’t claim that he could do better than her on the same level.

“Yeah. For a pure magic caster, their biggest weakness is their low stamina and weak defense. With a good team to back them up, they can play a vital role in raiding high-class dungeons and kill powerful monsters. I hope one day Chiba would be powerful enough to even solo a level 30 dungeon.”

“That’s a pretty tall dream…” Joy was surprised. After recruiting Chiba, it was his first time hearing his ambitions for their new teammate.

“Tall dream!! I don’t think so. You know, I was sent to the north during that incident. I was there in the ground zero when a huge arm suddenly tore the fabric of space and time, wanting to crossover. Can you imagine it? With just pure brute strength, it was able to tear a hole through the fabric of reality, space, and time. Ultimately it didn’t succeed, but I could never forget the pressure, the suppression that affected my very soul just from the hand that managed to come across this side.

What level do you think the owner of that arm should be? 500? 1000? I don’t know. I don’t want to know.

I am having my doubts about us being top of the food chain from that day. There is a ‘what if’ in my heart that repeatedly nagged at me, making me restless. It urged me to increase my strength as soon as possible. Its as if something is going to happen very soon!!

You know, that day when I fought with those two guys, I faced a shadowy creature. Her strength was unimaginable. I daresay, with just a punch she could have eliminated me for good…and she was just summoned here for a few minutes with just a fraction of her true power.

What do you interpret from this? Do we humans really standing on the top?” when he finished, Kenshin gave a deep look at Joy who had his mouth hung wide. It took him a few minutes to digest what Kenshin had just revealed. He hadn't gone to the north, thinking that it was just a waste of time and there were others to go in his place. But he had never thought such a thing happened. He had no idea as the whole incident was suppressed by DCB.

“Wait! You have faced a creature of darkness with that much power? Why didn’t you told me that? No wonder that necromancer was confident of your defeat!!”

“I could only run and hide. If not for those two’s help arriving at the right time, I would really have died. Forget it, I have started to this party so that all of us could grow strong and form an invincible team to face the approaching darkness in the future.” Kenshin finished indicating that he didn’t want to discuss this any further.

“I see. Then, we will become strong.” Joy nodded his head and vowed loudly.

“Haha. Okay. Hey, look! Chiba killed anoyther one. That’s faster than before!!”