NOVEL NEXT Chapter 101 - 10.
[ Ascendance system quest: Become the Dungeon Boss ]
Sam was surprised: become the Dungeon Boss? He sat up almost as if his mind expected to get a better look at the window, but it moved with his vision.
Instead, he read more into it.
[ Ascendance system quest: Become the Dungeon Boss
-Become the Dungeon Boss in a Limited Dungeon.
-The Ascendant's information will be blocked from Appraisal.
-The Ascendant will use only his skills and items.
-The Ascendant can not bring allies.
Reward
-Skill: Appraisal blocker (S)
-Upgrade to a class skill
Note
-This quest cannot be abandoned.
-This quest will force-activate if the Player postpones or avoids it.
-Time remaining: 12h ]
Immediately after reading, he pushed the window to the side and took up his phone, reading about Limited Dungeons.
[ Limited Dungeon: A dungeon that opens up, usually in the outskirts of populous zones. It doesn't always follow local theme, danger level or reward scheme. More often than not, the Emergency Exit function is disabled.
The Dungeon Entrance only exists for a specific time, usually a day. Alternatively, depending on the Dungeon rules, it might close after successfully beating the Boss.
Due to the uncertainty of these Dungeons, entry is not recommended unless information has been gathered. ]
Dia looked distressed, an immediate change in tone from her earlier contentment, as Sam called Janik with a slight haste in his eyes.
Janik answered with a tone suggesting he was smiling and relaxed. "Hello, did you miss me al*"
Sam didn't let him finish and broke in with his information. "The bullshit System is making me a Limited Dungeon boss."
"You... What?" Janik was caught off guard with this information and used a few seconds to process. "Wait, really? Fuck, hold on. I'll come over. What room are you in?"
"I'm in 0187," Sam replied.
"Ok, I'll be there in... 15 minutes." The line cut when he confirmed that, leaving Sam to his thoughts.
Using the time to read more into what a Limited Dungeon was, how they worked, and the general information, he only got confirmation of what he had already read. They pop up near populous areas and only last for a short while, usually a few days at most. The rewards for clearing one are significantly improved compared to a normal Dungeon, but so are the dangers. More often than not, you don't have an emergency exit, so you either win or die.
The standard method was for strong Players to first enter the Dungeon, document what they do and find, and if they make it, they either won it or at least know the details. If they never come back out, they need to send in a larger and stronger group.
Looking at this from his angle, depending on how it'll work, assuming that the emergency exit function doesn't work, he'll possibly have to kill a bunch of players just to stay alive... Would that be worth it? His life for... tens? Hundreds?
No, the answer here was simple. He would do what he needed. When Players don't return from it, others should realise the danger and hopefully stop. Based on the information, they might just send in a larger group.
Checking the numbers and basing it on what he had appraised in Players on the Fourth Floor, he felt almost too confident. His total volley, not counting critical hits, triggered effects or Defence, was 8372.
The higher-end armour he saw on tanks and melee Players was around B to A rank, so the Defences were between 120-200 somewhere. A warrior with 30 in VIT and a HP boon would have around 800 Health, using 15 of his Thoughtform Psyhands as weapons would get through that. And that was without considering critical hits or his named weapons. With his 120 hands, he could, in theory, one-shot a party of 8. Perhaps more if the others are weaker.
Naturally, skills, shields and other things could skew this, but as a baseline concept, he was feeling oddly good about this.
Though, that said, if he were to take a hit or two he'd most likely be fucked. He did the math before based on Janik's numbers, and... it wasn't good,
Dia didn't seem to know what to do with this situation, in a slight panic situation she ended up biting him. Not enough to draw blood, but more as a flustered action to bring him out of his bubble.
"Ow! The fuck?" Sam exclaimed as his mind was pulled out of his murder-math. But seeing her worried expression, he realised he must have been acting weird.
Giving her a headpat as she let go of his arm, he could only chuckle at the situation. "Yeah... Don't worry, I'll be fine."
She let go but didn't seem convinced. "Zar look weird." Thinking about her words for a second, she shook her head. "No... Zar, feel weird."
"Yeah, I suppose. I'm going to be roped into something odd again," he sighed. "I t-" As he was about to continue his sentence, there was a knock on the door.
Sam psyhand reached over and unlocked the door. Janik came in immediately, Elara on his shoulder, as the lock clicked.
"How are you holding up?"
"Surprisingly well," Sam answered honestly.
Janik closed the door, came into the room properly and sat down. "So... please explain everything, just so we're on the same page." He looked surprisingly serious.
"There's not more to it than that. The hax-system gave me a personal quest, it's making me into a Limited Dungeon boss. I can't avoid or reject it, it sends me alone, I have a bit over 11 hours until it activates. But, I do get good rewards, an appraisal blocker skill as well as an upgrade to a class skill..."
Janik took a few long seconds to process before replying. Elara took this moment to slither over to Sam.
"I suppose those rewards are good, but... that's only if you survive. Fighting a structured dungeon group is probably not going to be as easy as monsters."
"True, but at the same time, having fought a lot of dungeon monsters, I doubt they will expect human-level intellect and cowardice," Sam smiled back with a slight sting at himself.
Janik chuckled. "Interesting choice of words, but I guess you have a point. Their damage and skill level will be something different, but monsters always stick to their skills. Rarely think about what they are doing. I don't think dungeon monsters have survival instinct, so... You got that going for you."
They shared a chuckle before Sam chose to continue the conversation.
"I'm just going to see how it plays out. Not going to pretend I'm not nervous, but I don't intend to just lie down and die. I'm going to try and use my voodoo influence to force the system to allow the Emergency Exit function. If that works out, I can just disarm or force people to leave... Hopefully..."
Nodding sagely, Janik seemed to approve of this plan. "That's not a bad idea, but... what are you going to do if there is no emergency exit?"
"I intend to survive, so..." Sam chose not to complete that sentence.
"Yeah... I thought as much," Janik looked at Sam with a defensive expression. "Not that I'm blaming you, I'd do the same. Just... Your skills are going to fuck over a lot of Players. Invisibility detection is not normal to have, and your damage potential is frightening. If there's no emergency escape, a lot of Players are going to die..."
"I want to blame the system, parts of me feel like this is it trying to silence me or something, but this also feels like a punishment for not taking the Solo Dungeon."
"You might be onto something there," Janik nodded again. "Suppose that's one way of giving you 'a choice'." Janik made air quotes with his hands.
"Thinking about it, I don't think it's going to be as bad as it could be. At least it's not going to be like the wave survival..." Sam caught himself scratching his arm like something was moving there.
"I kind of dislike saying this, but I think the Player Island... kind of desensitised me a bit to Player killing..."
"I don't think that's a good thing." Janik's expression had somehow become more serious than before.
"Oh, I agree. But at the same time, there's something in the back of my head that doesn't care." Sam felt weird shrugging this off, but during that motion, something clicked in his mind. "I can't say for sure but... This could be the mental effect we spoke about a while ago. How the System nudges or urges you to do things."
"Well... It's possible, but I can't say I'm too fond of your lack of reaction to this."
"I still agree. But I think we can worry about that if I make it out of this."
"True... You said you had 11 hours? I think you should prepare. The market might be weird, but your Assimilation thing could let you make a perfect set of armour, just get something cheap with the trait you want, and something high Defence without traits. That alone is broken as shit." Janik seemed to have shelved the morality aspect of things.
Though Sam didn't think he had shelved it for good. He knew this mentality was not a good one. But he liked the idea of building an armour set.
"I could also take what I want from the people that come for me, the ones I can't threaten to leave, I mean." Sam didn't want to blow money on something he'd end up changing anyway.
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"That... It isn't a bad idea. If it comes to this happening anyway."
Sam was surprised at Janik's response. Sam knew he had a mixed view on Player killing, after all, Janik was the person who helped him with his first PvP. Though that might be due to the who, more than the what.
Taking the room tablet, Sam started checking the market for something that could aid, as Elara chimed in.
"Master, you can use the money you set off for me."
"But, that's money you earned." Sam tried to at least hint that it's her money, she earned it, and he wanted her efforts to matter.
"Yes, I earned it for you. I never intended to use it." Sporting a wide smile and lightly wagging tail tip, it was clear this was her goal all along.
Sam sighed with a smile. He halfway expected this, but he felt fine with at least trying to have her use it on herself. Though he could always just use it on her if he found something good later, he had to admit that his current desperation to stay alive was a powerful motivator.
The $10 million she had racked up on top of his 3 was a solid boost, taking that into account, he checked the market for anything good.
The only good thing he saw was another Spirit-boosting Ring, this time for +10, though it cost him $6 500 000, so it dug deep into their wallets. Besides this, there was nothing he felt was useful to him. Things needing mana, no resource converters, nothing that would do much for him specifically. Which felt surprisingly anticlimactic after Elara somewhat gifted him ten million.
Sure, he could get some worse armour and pick some good traits, or some weapons, but he had a feeling that... there might be more of that once this thing starts going.
Ordering delivery to his room, he waited for it to arrive for now. "I found a ring, giving me 10 Spirit, but that's it."
"Not bad, but shame there's no good skills," Janik replied. "But it's not like you need anything else. Your invisibility and sheer damage output while remaining invisible is horrifying, to be honest."
"Yeah, I suppose that works, but I don't want to just murder them, at least not if the emergency exit works. But... I suppose I will have to make an example out of someone, somehow, to make future threats work..." Sam sighed at the end of his statement.
Janik slumped back in his chair, bending over the backrest to stare at the ceiling. "Well, now what, then? Do we just sit here and wait for 11 hours? I mean... Not much I can do, I know, but it's not like I'm going to be able to sleep anyway."
"I don't know. I feel relatively confident in my skills, and as sad as it is to say, I might be oddly specialised for this kind of thing."
"What, you mean fighting a party of skilled Players?" Flipping his head forwards to stare judgmentally at Sam, Janik tipped his head back after completing his statement. "I suppose you might be, spreading out weapons, massive damage, invisibility, the thoughtform thing..."
Before Sam could reply, there was a knock at the door.
"Player Sam Carter, I have a delivery for you." A male voice explained.
"Oh, that was fast." Sam got up from the sofa and walked over this time. Now that there was someone other than Janik, he didn't feel like flaunting his abilities just yet.
Opening the door, he saw a young man, early 20s, wearing a shirt and pants.
"Good evening." He made a nod before continuing. "I need to see your Player ID, and as a security test, I would like it if you could confirm the item I'm bringing."
"Oh, yeah," Sam commented slightly flustered, he should have seen the ID part coming. It wasn't hidden or hard to find, he just didn't have it at hand. Handing it to the young man, he continued. "I just ordered a Spirit boosting ring, 10 points, I assume it's that one."
The young man took the ID card, scanned it and made some checks on a tablet before looking satisfied, returning the card.
"Everything checks out," he smiled, producing the ring from a small container in his inner pocket, handing it to Sam surprisingly unceremoniously. "Thank you, and have a good night."
The young man left after giving Sam another nod, leaving Sam alone at the door. He closed it and entered the room, checking the info prompt on it before putting it on.
[ Conditions met ]
"Mother fucking fuck," Sam exclaimed as soon as he saw the window pop up. "Another conditions met thing."
Janik's eyes narrowed. "Again? You just got the quest, what does it want now?"
[ Damage potential passed threshold: 10 000.
The next phase will start after the completion of the Ascendant quest. ]
"Err... It's activating a 'next phase' after the quest is done..." Sam replied honestly but confused. "My damage potential has apparently surpassed ten thousand, so something triggered."
Quickly doing the math, it all checked out. With his named weapons, not counting critical hits or triggers, he could do 7645, the electrical damage from this was 1529, fire damage was 765 and Static Charge hit 220. This totalled up to 10 060, barely passing 10k
Janik was surprised. "First of all: Jesus... Second: Can you get out of it?"
"I... don't think so." Sam tried mentally rejecting, but it didn't change anything. He even took off the ring, lowering his damage potential, but it didn't change anything. "Danm, it seems the system either doesn't check again and considers me 'accepted' or something, even if I take off the ring."
"Well... fuck..." Janik sounded defeated as he slumped even further down in his chair. "First, you're going to play Dungeon Boss, then after that's done, whatever this is will do its thing. I don't even know what to do to help."
"Well, if shit goes down and I don't come back, if you take care of Elara and Dia, I'm satisfied with that," Sam answered honestly. Since he was going to fight other players again and again, not knowing the limits or rules, he felt like there was a need to just comment on it.
"That goes without saying, I meant something to help you through this," Janik replied in an almost fake condescending tone.
Janik's response, though weirdly dismissive, was incredibly comforting.
"That's my main worry, I'll figure out the rest. The more I think about it, the easier it becomes. If the emergency exit works, I'll do my best to threaten and non-lethally make them leave. If that's not the case, well. I intend to make it out of there, so it's going to be swift."
Sam felt surprisingly calm, perhaps all the stuff he had been through so far had made him too used to this.
"I guess I'll stock up on food, drink...Perhaps a bunch of energy drinks. I don't plan on getting too tired and getting attacked when I sleep." Doing a quick check on his Item Box, he still had plenty of slots left, and similar items, at least if they were small, stacked so there wasn't an issue for space.
"I suppose we can go shopping a little, see what we find. But sleeping is probably a good idea." Janik's expression stated, quite clearly, that he knew this was probably going to be impossible.
"Yeah, let's go shop, there might be something neat on the market when we get back and, perhaps I'll be tired enough to sleep after the initial shock wears off," Sam smiled, hoping this was going to happen.
As the group left for some late evening hoarding of sustenance, both for now but also in case he's in there for weeks. His track record wasn't exactly pleasant with the System as it was.
He got a bunch of energy drinks, water and food. Enough to keep him going for a while before it becomes a problem. Returning to his room he spent time with them until he finally felt tired enough to go to bed, setting an alarm for an hour before the timer expired.
Waking to the alarm, feeling like his head had barely touched the pillow less than half a minute ago, he was anything but well-rested. Janik had taken the couch so he was at least here when things happened, he also woke to the alarm even though it was in the other room.
Sam went through his morning routine and double checked everything, this ate up a solid half hour of time, leaving only 30 minutes on the clock.
"I have been thinking," Sam talked halfway to himself. "Even if it's confirmed that the Emergency Exit works, I don't want you to enter. Not only because the System might fuck with you and disable it for just you... But if it lasts for a while in 'me time' in there, I might not be a fun sight."
Smiling sadly to himself, he thought back on what he became at the end of the wave survival. He was in there for months, and in the end, murdering everything became such a habit that he started having fun with things. Talking to objects, finding interesting ways to almost torture them for amusemenet, testing out things.
Things he never really shared with the others, nor did he intend to.
Janik nodded. "I get it, but let's hope you don't go that far." His normal smile had made way for a much more supportive, almost father-like expression.
The rest of the time was spent in surprising silence. It wasn't depressing or sad, just that they didn't have anything special to speak about. Everything was prepared as far as he could consider, now he just wanted to get it over with so he could go into the next thing.
[ Time remaining: 14 minutes. ]
[ Time remaining: 8 minutes. ]
[ Time remaining: 3 minutes. ]
[ Time remaining: 20 seconds. ]
[ Time remaining: 00 seconds. ]
[ Ascendance system quest starting. ]