Chapter 18: Party Hunt I

“Yeah. I heard Lyria is one scary lady.” Gloria mumbled. A few [Players] back at her home would often talk about this place in a tone that suggested their horror. Some would even break out in cold sweat at the mere mention of the dungeon’s name.

“If its that impossible to clear the dungeon, how will we finish the tutorial?” Teo asked, feeling hopeless. “How will we awaken then?”

“By reaching level ten,” Gloria said. “Don’t you know—ah! I forgot you have never gone to school.” She sighed and shook her head. She really hated this citizenship division.

She grew up hearing the stories from her parents about the world twenty years ago when such things didn’t exist. Everyone’s treated as equal before the law, and people get to choose their government. She longed to see the world practicing this concept again. The concept known as democracy.

“Teo, there are two ways to complete our awakening.” Gloria raised her index and middle fingers. “When you reach level ten, the system will give you a prompt. It’ll ask if you want to finish the awakening process. If you choose yes, the tutorial will end, and you’ll return from where you came as an awakened [Player].”

Teo nodded his head at her, indicating that he understood. Gloria returned the gesture, then continued from where she left off.

“But, if you don’t want to awaken at level ten, you can choose to continue with the tutorial. When that happens, you will have two choices. Either kill Lyria, the final boss of this dungeon and finish the tutorial or abandon awakening.” She finished with a solemn look on her face.

Teo silently listened until she finished her explanation. This information was new to him. No “Lyria-survivor”— the moniker given to the [Player]s who escaped this dungeon— ever mentioned it. His worries were put to rest after knowing that an awakening was possible even without visiting all ten floors. His chest felt light, as if a weight was lifted off.

However, there was something he was curious about.

“What is the point of us going through this whole tutorial business?” He asked, curious.

Gloria matched her hawk-like eyes with his, a neutral look about her face as she shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. But what I do know is that only your level will be reset, leaving everything intact.”

Teo inhaled a deep breath after she finished. “You mean to say,” he began, grabbing Gloria’s attention, “that we will be back to level one with stats reflecting our level ten. Is that it?”

“Yes.” The Smith descendant bobbed her head.

“What about the skills and their levels that we currently have?” Teo inquired.

“They might stay as it is. Only the level resets since you choose a class. Everything else will probably remain unchanged. I’m not sure since I forgot to ask about it.” Gloria shook her head, lamenting at her overlook.

Teo scratched his chin as he began thinking. He already had more than a hundred points in all attributes. Compared to the humble beginning, he had come a long way. There was still thirty more attribute points to gain before reaching ten. He had no qualms about retiring by then. He might not come under the ‘best’ bracket, but he didn’t mind. He had no problems with being an average [Player].

Strength wasn’t what he was after; it was status and power. He wanted to taste the flavor of being a privileged class.

XXX

“You learned [Tame], right? Let’s go get some zombies. I want to see that skill in action.” Gloria said as she climbed to her feet.

“Sure. Though, I can only control a few zombies at best.” Teo replied, avoiding direct eye contact with her. He felt his face burning from lying through the teeth, but it couldn’t be helped. It was for his own survival and wellbeing. Dominator must remain a secret no matter what. “I’d also like to see your penetrating homing bullet in action.”

Gloria smirked, showing her whites. “Then don’t blink even for a second. It’s faster than your thoughts.”

“We’ll see.” Teo smiled. After spending some time with her, followed by the long conversation they had, he could now talk normally with her. He was walking on pins and needles after knowing her background all this time. She was even kind enough to reveal a little about one of her skills.

**A few minutes later**

It didn’t take them long to track down a level one zombie. They both had maps, thus making the entire process a piece of cake.

Gloria looked over, nodding her head at the zombie they found. “That’s our target. Show me what you’ve got.”

“Sure.” Teo shrugged his shoulders, then stepped up to the idle monster. He narrowed his eyes and activated [Observe]. The wooden sword, which he retrieved before coming, was held in a reverse grip by his left hand.

Zombie Level 1

HP: 40

Status: idle

WIL: 2

Proficiency +0.05%

Now for the skill. Mana pulled out of his [DanTian] as it channeled into his head, ready to project his willpower into the target.

Warning!

Target is too far for skill to take effect.

Eh? Teo blinked, got a little closer, then activated the skill again. It didn’t work.

“What’s wrong?” Gloria asked, raising her eyebrow at his strange actions.

“Tame seems to have a range. It wasn’t there in the description, though.” Teo exclaimed, furrowing his brows.

“Not everything is mentioned in the description. Few things you’ll have to figure out on your own.” She said, pulling the rifle from her back. Then she held the gun as tight to her shoulders as she could, taking aim. “Get out of the way. I’m going to incapacitate it first.”

“Hey, wait.” Teo hissed as he scurried back and stood next to Gloria, eyeballing the futuristic-looking gun with interest. His eyes then followed the holder of the said gun. Dainty fingers held on to the massive rifle snugly so that she could shoulder the recoil without breaking her bones. Her oval face scrunched up in concentration as she aimed at the monster.

“Watch carefully,” Gloria was too occupied with adjusting her power so that her skill wouldn’t kill the monster outright to notice Teo’s eyes on her. She fiddled with the gun’s mechanisms, and only after making sure all was set, did she voices a warning.

“Already doin’ it,” Teo replied, eyes now fixed on the gun’s barrel.

On the other hand, Gloria was busy focussing all her attention as she pulled on a bit of mana from her [DanTian] before activating the skill. The trick to controlling the power output of any skill lies in the appropriate management of mana. Sometimes, it was better to supply mana manually than to let the skill do it automatically. She learned this trick from her late grandfather.

After making sure that she had everything under her control, Gloria pulled the trigger.

From the barrel, a blob of blue energy barely the size of a marble fired out. The zombie, which was attracted by the sounds of their careless talking, suddenly found itself kissing the floor. Its left leg separated from the pelvis, blown off from the impact of a speeding blue blob. Black smoke frothed from the stump, filling the air with a charred meat smell.

“Phew!” Gloria exhaled the long breath she had kept holding for a while. “It’s hard to control strength.”

“Oh, you controlled your strength?” Teo deadpanned, then pointed his index finger at the groveling zombie missing half of its body. “That’s what you call ‘controlling’ strength?”

“It’s still alive, though. That’s enough.” She shrugged carelessly. “Stop complaining and use your skill already. I want to see what this Tame looks like.”