Free Web NovelChapter 38: The Contact
The contact the Rat King had promised was waiting in the shadows near the tunnel entrance. A woman with scarred arms and eyes that reflected almost no light at all.
"Password?"
"The drowned man sings."
She nodded once and turned toward the hidden door without another word. Nacho followed.
The tunnels beneath Valdris were older than the city itself. Ancient stonework, crumbling in places, reinforced with newer supports in others. The air was cold and damp, carrying the faint smell of stagnant water and something else. Something feral.
"The smugglers have been using the old cistern system," the woman said. Her voice was flat, businesslike. "They bring the cores in through an abandoned well shaft on the eastern edge of the city, transport them through the tunnels, and sell them to buyers who don’t want the Sanctum knowing about their purchases."
"How do they get the cores in the first place?"
"There’s a dungeon about three miles outside the city walls. Unofficial. Unregistered. They’ve been farming it for months."
An unregistered dungeon. That changes things.
Nacho had been hoping for a chance to level up, and an illegal dungeon was exactly what he needed. No oversight. No witnesses. Just him and whatever monsters were inside.
"Take me to the well shaft."
The woman led him deeper into the tunnel system, through passages that grew progressively narrower and more unstable. Twice, they had to climb over collapsed sections where the ceiling had given way. Once, they passed a skeleton half-buried in rubble, its empty eye sockets staring at nothing.
Finally, they reached a vertical shaft that rose into darkness above them.
"Up there. The dungeon entrance is about a quarter mile east of where you’ll surface. You can’t miss it. There’s a yellow glow."
Yellow mist gate. Just like the one in the ocean.
"What level are the monsters?" ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"The smugglers say between twenty and thirty. But they’ve been lying about a lot of things lately, so who knows." She handed him a small pouch. "Here. The Rat King wants you to use these when you find the smugglers. One dose each. They’ll be unconscious for hours."
Nacho took the pouch and tucked it into his inventory.
"What about the cores?"
"Bring them back. All of them. The Rat King will sort out what belongs to him and what’s your payment." She paused. "Don’t try to cheat him. He’ll know."
"Wasn’t planning on it."
She nodded once more, then melted back into the darkness of the tunnels.
Sigh... I need to get stronger fast so I can get rid of this Rat King guy. He’s a massive pain in my ass.
Nacho looked up at the shaft above him. His Titan Body made the climb easy, fingers finding holds in the rough stone without effort. Within minutes, he emerged into the cool night air, surrounded by sparse forest and the distant lights of Valdris.
The dungeon entrance was exactly where the woman had said it would be. A yellow glow emanating from a cave mouth at the base of a small hill. The mist swirled with the same otherworldly quality he remembered from his first dungeon in the ocean.
He checked his status one more time.
[Status]
Name: Nacho
Level 22 : 1,582 / 2,200 Experience
HP: 2,060 / 2,060
MP: 6,190 / 6,190
Still plenty of room for growth. Let’s see what this place has to offer.
He stepped through the mist.
[You’ve entered the Boss Room: Stone Hollow]
[Boss Monster: Greater Stone Golem (Rare) | Level 28]
[Warning: Additional enemies detected.]
The dungeon interior was a vast underground cavern lit by phosphorescent moss clinging to the ceiling. Stalactites hung like stone teeth above a floor strewn with rubble and bones.
And in the center of it all stood the golem.
It was massive, easily fifteen feet tall, made of rough-hewn granite that moved with a grinding, inevitable slowness. Its eyes were chips of amber that glowed with dull malevolence, and its fists were the size of boulders.
Surrounding it were smaller constructs, humanoid figures made of packed earth and stone that moved with jerky, puppet-like motions. Nacho counted eight of them.
[Stone Servant (Common) | Level 22 x8]
Eight minions and a boss. Not exactly a warm-up fight.
The golem turned toward him with a grinding screech of stone on stone. Its mouth opened, revealing a void that seemed to go on forever.
"INTRUDER."
"Yeah, that’s me." Nacho summoned two Silverion Daggers. "The name’s Nacho. Try to remember it while I’m kicking your ass."
The golem roared, and the battle began.
The first stone servant reached him before the sound had finished echoing off the walls. Nacho’s Combat Precognition showed him the attack three seconds before it happened, a clumsy overhead swing that would have taken his head off if he’d been standing still.
He wasn’t.
His body moved with the fluid grace of All Weapon Mastery, sidestepping the blow and driving his dagger into the servant’s neck joint in one continuous motion.
[-348 Damage!]
[Stone Servant: 652 / 1,000 HP]
Tougher than they look.
He twisted the blade, widening the wound, and activated Storm Manipulation at 10% power.
Lightning surged down his arm, through the dagger, and into the servant’s body. The electricity arced between the stone plates of its armor, superheating the air pockets trapped inside.
The servant exploded. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
[Critical Hit! -1,200 Damage!]
[You’ve slain: Stone Servant (Level 22). +440 Experience]
[First Tentacle: 11,282 → 11,281 Kills remaining.]
Stone fragments peppered Nacho’s face and chest, bouncing off Titan Body without leaving a mark. He was already moving, spinning toward the next two servants that were charging at him from opposite directions.
Time seemed to slow. Combat Precognition painted their attack paths in his mind like glowing trails, showing him exactly where they would be in one second, two seconds, three.
He dropped into a crouch and let their fists pass over his head, close enough to ruffle his hair. Then he sprang upward, driving a dagger into each of their chests simultaneously.
[-500 Damage!]
[-520 Damage!]
The daggers hummed with the homing enchantment from Dagger Duchess, sinking deeper on their own even as he released them. He pulled two more from his inventory without looking and activated Storm Manipulation again.
