The Extra's Dominance

9 The Stygian Lair[1]

My second day of academy classes were uneventful, I think that's good, but at the same time boring.

Well, I got called by some professors, by a lot. Some of them were coincidence but some were clearly intentional, I feel like they want to embarrass me.

They thought I'm not listening, so they decided to bully me, what are they? 10 years old?

Well, honestly, I'm not really listening to the lectures, but using the <Calm Thinker> and the <Understanding>, answering their questions is like a walk in the park, with weights as I used a lot of mana using those traits, but seeing them failed to embarrass me, feels satisfying so it's fine.

The system also recorded the lectures so I can study it later anytime I want, Some students noticed Yuki, including the main characters, but they didn't tell about her to any professor, so I think it's fine.

Professors didn't notice Yuki because they're focused on their lectures, and whenever they look at my direction, Yuki will go in the spatial storage.

So Yuki's existence is safe for now.

***

2 days later. Thursday.

It's now <3:30 P.M>, the professors said that it's only half classes today and we don't have classes tomorrow.

They said they'll have a meeting, but I know they're preparing for the freshmen's assessment test.

Well, we have 3 days and half of free time, and I already have a plan on how to use those time.

'I'm gonna enter a dungeon...'

Am I gonna get items or artifacts? Well yes.

But not just that, I need experience the most, I didn't neglect training, but I lack experience of real combat situation.

And also, to make Yuki rank up she needs to eat a lot of monster cores. Yuki eats pretty much everything but it will not make her rank up.

So those reasons are why I decided to enter a dungeon.

Luckily, in free time like holidays and weekends, students can freely leave the academy.

So there's no need to get permission to leave.

'A dungeon only exist in games and novels, I'm getting excited.'

I was really excited.

Though that thought didn't last as I remembered what dungeon I'm entering and its description.

***

"Let's see."

Currently, Raven is checking all the things he packed.

He doesn't know how long he'll be inside the dungeon so he prepared a lot.

"Looks like I have everything I'll need."

After checking the items he packed before hand, Raven put them in his spatial storage.

"Let's go Yuki."

-Kyu!

Then he retrieved Yuki who is waiting for him silently.

Yuki answered raising her wing like a salute.

'Cute.'

Raven left the academy about <3:40 P.M>, he's been readying himself to enter the dungeon even since his 2 artifacts got upgraded. And this time, Raven's sure he didn't forget to bring anything.

After leaving the academy. Raven rode a rapid train.

***

Raven arrived to the Zreles City after 10 minutes of leaving Lunar as it was only a city away from the academy.

After that, he traveled for half an hour to reach his destination.

The place is called like that because there's no animal, beast, or even monster in there, even the trees of the mountain are leafless and the color of them are black like coal.

And since no beast nor monster is residing the mountain, it is left unguarded. Making it easier for Raven to sneak in.

The dungeon Raven is planning to enter is an undiscovered dungeon!

In the novel, few months from now, the dungeon will be discover by the black market because it will overflow, revealing its location.

And at that time, the main characters 'coincidentally' happened to be near <The Sad Mountain> during the dungeon overflow. They saved a lot of civilians from the dungeon overflow, and then got titled as the 'Young Heroes'.

Well, that will not happen this time because of Raven's action, though, there's gonna be more events that can gain them that title.

'I'm basically trying to save a lot of lives. I'm trying to prevent the dungeon overflow by raiding it.'

Raven said to himself and shrugged, feeling a bit guilty for messing a part of the story.

Dungeon overflow happens when a dungeon boss is left alive for a long time. Or when the dungeon is not being raided for a long time resulting it to be full of monsters and the dungeon overflowing.

After killing a monster boss, a new monster boss will appear in that dungeon, the higher the rank of the boss monster that got killed, the longer time it will take before a new one appear.

Monsters spawn or repopulate endlessly inside dungeons, so some dungeons need to be attacked continuously.

After climbing the mountain for an hour or so, Raven arrived in front of a cave's entrance.

"This is a dungeon right?"

He asked the system. Raven can feel mana coming from the entrance, and with <Understanding>, he can pretty much confirm it. But he still asked just in case.

[You're right, it's a dungeon.]

"Can you appraise it?"

The system did not answer to Raven's question and just projected the dungeon's information.

=====

[The Stygian Lair]

Difficulty:F+

-It's very dark inside and it's full of traps. Goblins are also lurking at its every corner.

=====

The appraisal skill of the system is good as it gets its information from Raven's novel and from the Higher Being. Both are responsible for the creation of the world They're in!

"Stygian Lair..."

Raven nervously muttered.

Originally, Raven planned not to touch this dungeon because it's too dark inside and it can lead him to his death.

But after acquiring the skill <Partial Transformation> from the [Cat's earring], he changed his mind.

As he also want to acquire the reward of the dungeon. Raven originally planned to save Zeals and buy the dungeon's reward in the future, but that would be a waste of money, and time.

So when Raven got the minimum requirements to survive the dungeon, He decided to raid and get the dungeon reward himself!

Raven is still wearing the training bracelets but he plans to remove them once the situation calls for it.

Raven activated <Partial Transformation> and turned his eyes into a cat's, then he added focused mana in his eyes to make his vision more clearer.

And with that, Raven entered the dungeon.

After entering, Raven can feel that the mana inside is a bit denser than outside.

Which is good for training.

"So this is why it's faster to get stronger inside dungeons..."

Raven mumbled while holding his head as a nauseating feeling washed all over his body.

It's pretty common when it's your first time entering a dungeon, fortunately, Raven didn't throw up.

***

[Raven's POV]

It's dark inside but I can see well, I still feel sick but I can now move normally.

Looks like I'm in a safe zone seeing no monster is around.

There's just a straight path so I walked in it.

After walking straight for about 10 minutes, I saw 2 tunnels, left and right. I can tell that the left one is a pretty relax path and the right one is not because I can see goblins' trails near it.

I studied informations about goblins after all.

Normally I would go left, but I'm here to have experience.

So I chose to go to the right path.

Not long after I went to the right path.

Swoosh–

5 arrows went flying at my direction.

It's not as fast as the moving targets I practiced on, so I can follow their trajectories easily, I transformed my fingernails into cat claws and coated them with mana.

Then, I slashed 2 arrows and dodged 2, the last arrow missed me.

Looking where the arrows came from. I saw 5 goblins about 3 feet tall with bows and arrows.

2 goblins are hitting one goblin.

'Maybe they're hitting the one that missed...'

Their distance is about 20 meters away from me.

Goblins are <F+> rank monsters as they can use weapons and have a fairly good intelligence.

The path we're in is narrow, so long range weapons are good in here.

"Too bad for you guys, I'm using a long range weapon too."

I took out my gun from the holster on my waist and aimed it at them.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

5 gunshots was heard consecutively.

Thud-

With a thud the 5 goblins fell to the ground almost at the same time. They're dead before they can even react.

"Now that's 5,000 Zeals."

I said while walking towards the goblins' corpse to collect their cores.

-Kyu!

But then, Yuki came out of the spatial storage. Looks like she can sense the monster cores.

"Well, I can settle for 4,000 Zeals."

***

Having no sunlight or moonlight entering this cave type dungeon, it's hard to say what time is it. Well I have the system so I can tell.

I've been here for 9 hours.

"This is one hell of a cave."

I've been trying all the path I can and creating a map while travelling.

Because of that, I encountered a lot of traps and goblins, I've been seeing goblins a lot that it's making me feel sick.

I can't even sleep well, goblins are good at ambushing as they know they lack strength to fight head on.

-Kyuuu!

I looked at Yuki trying to cheer me up and smiled.

"I'll lose my mind if you weren't with me."

I patted her, then continued exploring the dungeon.

After another hour of walking, I discovered a huge door. Looks like I'm near the boss.

I didn't enter nor open the door right away.

I camped near it instead and slept. This could be called a safe zone as weak monsters don't go near the boss room.

And obviously, Goblins are weak.

***

I woke up at <5:32 A.M>. Friday.

After getting ready, I entered the room.

And my eyes widened.

It's wide inside.

But what I saw inside is not the boss monster, but a herd of goblins. And it looks like this room is their base!

The room's floor and walls are soft, the ceiling is pretty rough as you can see some stalactites attached on it.

I immediately hid behind a rock pillar as I can see a lot of goblins patrolling the room.

Roughly counting, looks like there's about 50 goblins in here.

"What the hell?"

I unconsciously said.

[The Transcend Beings discovered you doing something interesting so they decided to make it more exciting.]

The system then appeared and said.

"Exciting my ass, they just want me dead, don't they?"

I tried leaving the room but the door didn't even budge.

"Fucking hell."

I cursed.

-Kieek?

It was then, I heard a noice coming from my side. Turning my head to the source.

I saw 3 goblins looking at me with wide eyes.

Without wasting a moment.

I kicked with my feet onto the ground and dashed toward the goblins.

My fingernails turned into claws, I covered them with mana, then I slashed towards the goblins, and in the midst of the slashing motion, I poured mana to the training bracelet I have on my wrist making my hand heavier.

Then my claws slashed downward toward the head of the goblin in the middle.

SLASH!

Not just a slashing sound but also blood splashing resounded around us as the head of the goblin popped like a balloon.

After that, I spun my body to the right, drawing an arc motion with my left foot covered with mana.

Bam–!

I pinned the head of the goblin from my right to the ground.

Its head was crushed.

After that I saw the last goblin running away.

I pointed my left hand on its direction. And casted a magic.

"<Bind>"

A black rope made of mana erupted to the ground below the goblin and restrained it.

It's a simple restriction magic I learned from the books I got in the Red Wolves' Mountain.

Also after acquiring the [Ring of Gluttony] my mana changed to color black, it was transparent pink before. And even when I'm not wearing the ring, it doesn't change the color back. Not that I really care but black is nice.

I dashed to the restricted goblin and stabbed its neck with my claws.

Thud-

They're all dead.

"Tsk, dirty."

I clicked my tongue and casted <Cleanse> to my body.

[You have a great fighting sense, even the Transcend Beings are impressed, the way you used your training bracelets to make your attack heavier is splendid.]

The system complimented.

"They can go to hell then."

I'm not interested to what they said, I'm suffering because of them.

I stored the goblin corpses in my spatial storage.

"I need to get out of here."

It got pretty loud while I'm killing them. So goblins will come here any moment now.

I then started to adjusting some of the functions of the magic <Bind>.

After reconstructing some of the magic's function. I aimed my right hand to the ceiling of the room.

"<Grapple>"

A magic circle appeared in my hand.

Then a similar black rope shot out from it, but on the tip of it, there's like a claw made of mana.

It propelled toward a thick stalactite.

Crank-

With a clutching sound. The claw like tip was connected to the base of stalactite.

Then I climbed the magic rope.

I found a small footing near the stalactite so I transformed into a cat and settled there and started to form a plan.

After that I canceled my magic, <Grapple>, the rope disappeared in thin air.

[You're really good at this.]

The system said.

"I just adjusted some things to make that magic, I also have the help of <Understanding>."

I answered with a shrug. The books I got from the dead mage was full of useful theories about magics, helping me to be more proficient in mana and magic.

"Yuki."

I called.

-Kyu!

Then Yuki came out from the spatial storage, she looks at me weirdly at first because it's the first time she saw me in my cat form.

But not long, Yuki approached me and rubbed her head on me.

I smiled, unfortunately, I have something for her to do.

"Okay Yuki, can you fly all around the room and look at every disgusting green shits down there?"

I said.

"Just fly near the ceiling and use stealth."

I added.

-Kyu!!

Yuki saluted using her wings and flew away.

'Cute.'

I'm glad that she bacame my familiar.

***

Based on what I saw from Yuki's eyes.

A total of 53 goblins are here, and 22 of them are long-range weapon users.

"I need to get rid of all long range users and just shoot the rest dead from up here."

-Kyu!

"Yes you did a good job."

I patted Yuki with my cat paw.

It feels weird.

"Anyway, let's kill them when they fell asleep."

Is what I thought first, but I need to leave here as quickly as possible.

No reason, I just feel impatient.

So I went back down and waited in the corner of the room. In this corner only 5 goblins can enter at the same time.

And not waiting for long, 4 goblins came.

I went out in cat form and they looked at me with curiosity.

Seeing that I'm smaller than them, they approached me with a grin on their faces.

When they were a half meter away from me I cancelled the skill and went back to being human, except from my fingernails that is still in the form of claws and coated with mana.

SLASH!

Then slashed my claws to them horizontally.

One died and the other 3 were wounded.

-Kie—

"<Silence>"

The 3 tried to scream but no voice came out as their mouths were covered with black mana. I casted a magic on them.

I slashed the 3 goblins down and they died quietly.

"I'll just do this again and again, easy peasy."

I said with a carefree whistling.

As I was storing the goblins' corpses to hide my trace.

-KIIIEEEEEEEEKKKK!

A loud ear-tearing scream echoed throughout the room. I turned my head where the sound came from.