Trapped in a Dungeon with a System

Chapter 18: // Second Rare Enemy



On the skeleton-filled grasslands of the second domain, a short young woman with white long hair, adult although some could doubt her from afar, rests on a rock where no enemy could reach her, eating a chicken sandwich, savoring it with delight as she drank coffee from a thermo bottle, a taste similar to cappuccino but also not quite the same.

With the money she had obtained from last time, Jae-Hwa was able to finally buy food and drinks, along with some daily necessities, totalling thirty credits.

Although she didn't exercise enough to lose a kilogram of her weight yet, the worry of losing more weight than her body could handle poked the back of her mind, considering she wasn't consuming calories until now, just losing them.

Otherwise, her life was a lot more comfortable thanks to these new items, but it's not like she could just loaf around forever, so after her morning routine and a bath, the halberdier rushed to enter the herbal graveyard.

It seemed like the commotion between the players and the guards of the portal had finished, even if only for the time being, so she had a much more relaxed teleportation process.

The objective for today was quite simple. Different from what should have been last time, she intended to actually level up and learn more from the monsters to actually improve her skill with the halberd.

From the moment she arrived to this new domain, she was greeted by three Skeleton Workers searching for minerals without having noticed her. Thus, without much of a problem, she was able to hit the side of their shells, causing them forcefully jump out of the ground and fall on their backs, defeating the enemies while receiving minimal damage, although there were no ores in the loot this time.

Even then, it was not enough. Knowing how the giant ants made of bone and mischief moved and attacked made it too easy for her and didn't contribute much to her battling necessities, so no matter how easy it was, if she wanted to improve, she couldn't always fight the same opponent.

"Even if they are in the sky, they don't seem bothered by the forest."

Her eyes glanced towards the birds of ghostly fire, flying high up in the sky with no care in the world. Some resembled hawks while others were leaning more towards crows, but the group didn't seem to be scared about the forest they were circling in their flight.

Having finished her breakfast, Jae-Hwa stored her thermo bottle and weapon in the inventory and walked over to the edge of the forest.

Towering dark oak trees filled the forest with leafage dense enough to only let slivers of sunlight enter the dark area.

One thing she had dismissed due to the first system announcement when arriving to this domain was that each area had their own name, contrary to the first domain.

The grasslands she started on were named , meanwhile, when taking a step forwards into the dark forest, a system message claims it as .

There was no visible end to the forest, the ground was muddy as if rain had poured endlessly even though the bark on the trees was dry and several cracks from twigs on the ground set the tension in her body, only pushing it further when she noticed they were not being caused by her steps.

The moment she had entered this forest, she was not alone. There was something walking around with enough distance to not be seen, however it was also cunning enough to do slow but heavy steps to cause the twigs and weak branches on the ground to crack louder.

To the right, she could hear voices, most likely from other people, although there weren't any sound of metal being hit or weapons being used. To her left was complete silence, interrupted by the occasional twigs being stepped on... For some moments her breathing was the only thing she could listen to, becoming heavier by the minute as she stepped further into the danger.

She knew how dangerous it could be, it even made her bones tremble and skin crawl with anxiousness of what could be hidden, but if she always ran away from danger, she would always keep on being her weak self — or so she thought, disregarding her own safety.

"The mud is sinking into my feet... It will definitely make me slip..."

Jae-Hwa traversed through the forest slowly while holding onto the trees and cleaning her soles on the ferns and grass that she found among the wet dirt in an attempt to maintain her footing as stable as possible.

After about five minutes of walking, she reaches some trees that had their rugged bark damaged with claws and a foul stench. Although they were not scratched in a sequence, it was clear they led to a direction, to a clearing ahead that contained more sunlight than the rest of the forest.

Withering roses bared their thorns as she approached what could have been a resting place, but is now infested by plants and flowers that could easily perfurate her skin, blocking the area and a cave that was hidden by vines and moss. Using her halberd's axe, she cut off the roots and obstacles that were in her path, causing some groans to echo in the darkness.

As she had finished clearing a circle around her, the growls grew louder and the crackling whisper of the twigs had returned along with a loud snore inside the cave.

Whatever was tormenting her with fear earlier was here, angry as well by the looks of it. The halberdier readied her weapon, holding the end of the shaft beneath her armpit and resting the bladed spear point with the same arm.

This isn't a human... But whatever it is, it sounds strong... And dangerous.

Cho Jae-Hwa searched her surroundings, looking beyond trees and mounds of dirt and moss, reacting with her eyes as something slapped against the muddy ground, as if jumping from one side to the other.

From one single sound echoing around the woods, a couple more started accompanying them, increasing in numbers as the monsters growl with rage.

"This is bad..." It was truly a stupid plan, even she admitted it, but it was also what she had been looking for: a real challenge.

In her inventory there were still one and , so her chances of victory were not exactly zero, but even then, with how much careful she needed to be, Jae-Hwa worried about the unexpected numbers.

From the space between the trees, a bark covers the growling just before it becomes silent once again. In the dark, a couple of red lights appear, flowing like fire, blinking slowly as they gaze towards the short halberd user.

Consequently, the amount of fire lights start increasing. The pair of eyes all looked at her, causing a cold sweat to start running down her forehead as another fire resembling a smile starts manifesting in some of them.

"Five... Seven... Ten... You have got to be kidding me...!"

One of the monsters stepped forward, while the others kept hidden in the shadows.

Perhaps otherwise majestic when it was still living, its skull swayed around along with the soulless fire in the eye sockets and mouth.

A large dog stepped forward, almost her size with spots of rotten flesh and charred black fur, a skull with sharp teeth for a head being held by the cervical bones and a tail made of bone that seemed able to cut through anything.

Despite the possible threat of her sacred element weapon, the enemy remained calm, studying its opponent.

In reaction, Jae-Hwa did the same, readying her weapon for defense.

—ENEMY———————————————

ENEMY NAME: Skull Hound

HEALTH: 95/95

SKILLS: ,

Skull Hound... Even if the health is greater than the ants, it has the obvious weak point, it's neck, but for some reason it's not backing down or feeling threatened at all... If anything, it's telling me to battle it.

...Just what is happening?

Jae-Hwa slowly increased the distance between her legs until the heaviness of her polearm was manageable and let the hound approach. When it was finally close enough, a swing of her axe makes the enemy retreat.

Her actions were too predictable, even she knew that, however wielding a halberd was proving to be tougher than what it should usually be, even with her passive skill .

"I have to move more." With a click of her tongue, Jae-Hwa takes a step forward and lets her weight fall to the waist, turning simultaneously with her arms as she performs a wide left-to-right slash that just barely grazes the enemy.

ENEMY HEALTH: 74/95

"Because of the element advantage, it definitely hurts, doesn't it? I think I'm getting the hang of it, so come on!"

Falling for the threat, the giant dog growls with rage as its claws become drenched in fire and the scarce grass below its rotten paws burns effortlessly.

Taking a few steps back, the creature suddenly leaps towards her head in an attempt to place a scar in her beautiful face. In the nick of time, she manages to stop the dirty paws from reaching even one strand of her white natural hair, being now in a struggle of power against the raging hound that was trying to bite her head off.

"You bark so much for something weaker than me!"

Jae-Hwa could not avoid nervously smiling as she throws the mutt's body away from her.

So close..! I have the strength to overpower them and to also use this halberd, so why can't I do it properly!?

She slowly flexes her legs, almost crouching as she rotates the weapon above her head until the axe part is pointing to the ground to her right, readying her next attack as she imbues it with her skill, making her body glow an orange light and the foe grow weary.

As the enemy attempts the same attack pattern, leaping towards her head, the halberdier balances her body back slightly before performing a wide crescent swing using her whole body, causing her to also fall to the ground as the is cut in half and explodes into particles.

—CONGRATULATIONS————————

+ 17 EXP

CREDITS: +4

DROPPED ITEM(S): Bone x2, Charred Pelt x1

While grunting in pain from forcing her body to get up, the blade of the Ceremonial Nanite Halberd's axe cracked as a layer shedded into dust and it became sharper than before.

As she was still in risk of battle, the halberd's effect activated to aid her in battle.

Just before she could recover from the fall, another hound barks as it charges to her at full speed. Before her mind is able to process, her hands move unconsciously, twirling around her weapon until she finds a horizontal resting stance, similar to how one would use an axe.

Dragging her left foot in a backwards ninety degree radius, her arms follow and not long after Jae-Hwa swings her weapon faster than usual as she used her whole body to perform the spinning cut and split another of the hounds in half with a single slash.

Her eyes close for a mere moment, inhaling the foul stench of the forest she was in, waking up her crazed pale eyes. Her halberd spins some more, the combined bladed parts creating a silver circle in its movement, resembling a moon.

As another foe attempts a duel, her blades swing once more, this time creating an arch of light as the halberd sharpened itself after easily defeating another enemy.

Holding the spear point at the muddy ground with only one hand, a purple haze in her eyes dissipates. It was present for merely a moment, but made possible for her mind to start accompanying the wild movements of her instincts.

So this is how it feels to have complete control... I get it now. It's not that I wasn't able to use it properly, I just didn't trust my capabilities, so it hindered me into thinking it was heavy.

"This weight— This uncertainty I have on myself, is something that I have to eventually face."

The barrier between her true abilities grew thinner by the second as she felt more threatened than ever.

Her pale green eyes were in control, she was finally able to somehow move in her savagery, watching with attention and more precision the movements her enemies made, not that she could underestimate them just like that.

The effect of ended, not that it meant she was in a pinch, after all it became obvious. To improve on her skill with a more advanced weapon like the halberd, she just needed to go with the flow of her weapon and then try her best to replicate it until she can master those movements. The rest would be adjusted by the system and her passive skill... she was sure, that's what her wild side told her.

"Hiyah!"

Jae-Hwa swiftly switched the axe head to the spike on the other side, swinging it upwards directly at the cervical bone to detach the head from the body. Even then, the monster was able to walk, although the directions and attacks were at random.

After performing a full circle with her polearm, the short halberdier smashes the bones of the hound like a lumberjack.

"Four down, six to go."

To her luck, they decided to come at her individually, however after the most recent monster had vanished from dust, their strategy changed and decided to attack as a group.

From the left and behind came bites while from the front and right several fiery claws attempted to scratch at her face.

In an attempt to protect herself, she rotated her halberd around, left and right, blocking every attack that came at her. Tired of useless attacks, the six remaining Skull Hounds group around her and pouce at her head.

Waiting for the right moment, she lowers her body, low enough to have mobility with the halberd and spins around, slashing the enemies countless times.

Just as the foes vanish into dust, three of them somehow remain alive despite the damage and start howling in unison.

Beneath the dark of the woods, several howls join as countless pairs of eyes made of fire start appearing out of nowhere.

"Is this their second skill? I don't know about that many though..."

At least more than twenty hounds surrounded her, all howling together as a cold air invaded the haunted woods. The daylight progressively darkens for a starry night to take over, contaminated by the shine of a red bloody moon.

"Yeah... I don't think that's supposed to happen..."

The snore in the cave that has been getting increasily annoying suddenly stopped and the wolves resumed their attacks.

The three that were heavily wounded retreated into the darkness while a pack of at least ten hounds attempted to take out Jae-Hwa's life.

As she evaded and deflected the attacks, although some still hit lightly, she was eventually cornered to the entrance of the dark cavern, bothered by the hanging vines being in front of her eyes.

A few seconds pass, no further reaction from the hounds. It was as if they were expecting something, someone to act or for something to appear as they all sat down and waited patiently.

"Just what in the hell..? Why do I suddenly feel so uneasy..?"

A system panel pops up in front of her, to her surprise.

—WARNING—————————————

Status Ailment was applied.

Due to Phantasmagoria's Blessing, the status ailment was annulled.

———————————————————

"Fear!? How did—!"

Before she could even finish her words, a large fist hits her back with tremendous strength, making her fly towards one of the trees in the distance, throwing her to the ground with extreme pain in her torso.

Just as she tries to breathe with everything she had remaining in her lungs, turning her pained body to whatever thing that hit her, a loud and violent roar echoes to the outside.

Taking steps as heavy as boulders, a giant covered in white fur, double her size with rotten flesh and a skull covering the mound of meat that should be it's head left the cavern with rage.

HEALTH: 87/150

—RARE ENEMY————————————

ENEMY NAME: Silverback Skull Werewolf

HEALTH: 135/135

SKILLS: , ,

Why did it do so much damage!? Even with the defense I have... It's like I have nothing protecting me...

This is bad... My head hurts... I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open— Not to mention this excruciating pain...

"Good grief." A voice becomes present in the distance, jovial and feminine with a strange calming tone to it.

"Thanks for triggering the rare enemy. The dominance skill is annoying since it inflicts , but thanks to you I was able to avoid it... You know, you were doing good, but you learned your way with your polearm too late... Anyway, smell this, it will help."

On the ground, the mysterious lady places a bag with a yellow substance of a strong scent.

She was familiar, Jae-Hwa could swear that she saw this individual before. Red, or rather, crimson hair that shone beautifully with the moon's light, although what should have been beautiful golden eyes were covered by a dark cloth. Even then, beastly wolf ears and fluffy tail, there was no more need to deny.

It was like seeing a ghost, for to Jae-Hwa, that was no other than...

"Marni?"

The young lady flinched, as if she knew who she was referring to, but just responded with a scornful expression as she materialized a longsword with a light blue blade with waves engraved on it, a dark gray hilt and handle, contrasting to her cold words.

"Rest up, we will talk after this. We will have a long conversation."

—CURRENT STATS——————————

PLAYER NAME: CHO JAE-HWA // LEVEL: 5 <164/170 EXP>

BLESSING: Phantasmagoria

TITLE: Giant Slayer

HEALTH: 87/150

DAMAGE: 43 (+28) // DEFENSE: 35 (+15) // ENERGY: 35/40

WEAPON: Ceremonial Nanite Halberd

ARMOR: Reinforced Hunter's Garb

ACTIVE SKILLS: , , ,

PASSIVE SKILLS: ,

CREDITS: 41


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