laulau20

Chapter 88: Homing Shot

Added 2025-06-12 18:42:57 +0000 UTC

James walked toward the treasure chest atop a pile of gold coins, jewels, and jewelry. Suddenly, the disk beeped—the dot that had appeared on it earlier was now moving closer to the center.

“That chest, huh?” James muttered. Among the five chests, the radar pointed toward the middle-right one. James’ eyebrow twitched, wondering why it wasn’t the center. But he ignored the nagging feeling and prepared to do his ritual to open them. “Alright, stay in the corridor, please.”

James attacked the chest. The usual purple flash—indicating that the chest was protected—flared up. James then opened the chest from afar, using his usual combination of spider web. The chest opened without any issue. Inside was a pair of gauntlets and a hexagonal medallion.

[Gauntlet of the Forbidden Gorilla:
Increases the user’s Strength by 50% for 5 minutes when activated.]

“I’m taking this,” James said. The gauntlet had some naming issues, but James didn’t care. The most important thing was that it had a skill. He then proceeded to open another one. The moment he attacked the chest, it sprang open, releasing a purple gas inside.

“Retreat! Unknown gas detected!” a soldier exclaimed. His fellow soldiers began to run, with James leading. Using his ice magic, he blocked the hallway. James’ experience in the previous dungeon had helped him once again.

“Shit! We lost four chests!” a soldier cursed.

“We didn’t lose them. Just wait until the poison gas dissipates,” James said. Yes—unlike in real life, poison gas in the dungeon had a hard time limit. It defied logic.

The soldiers, some of whom had also been trained as SWAT or other special forces, twitched their eyebrows at James’ declaration. But since he was their commander, they didn’t object. James hadn’t failed them yet.

There were a lot of things he wanted to complain about, such as the dragonkin earlier. It would’ve been better if they had surrounded it. The most blatant mistake was when James had been ambushed. But as the army always said: it doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to work. And James fit the criteria so far.

On the other hand, James frowned because the system refused to tell him anything about the gas. It wouldn’t reveal anything unless James experienced it himself.

After ten minutes—which felt like forever—the purple gas finally disappeared. The soldiers warned James that the room might still be contaminated, but he paid them no heed. He dismantled the ice wall and walked to the box. There, he found a lump of misshapen metal.

[Gilded Troupe (Broken):
A sword that could cut the future. It was a dangerous item, and the alchemist had trapped the container in such a way that the sword would be destroyed unless the chest was opened in a specific manner.]

“Can we repair this sword?” James asked.

[No. If you had acquired it while it was partially broken, the shop could have repaired it upon opening the chest. However, since Survivor James acquired it after it was completely broken, the shop cannot repair it. It can, however, be sold for 100 coins.]

“That’s new,” James muttered. He then handed the lump of metal to a soldier to be placed inside the Metal Raptor. “Take this. The system said it’s worth 100 coins.”

“Alright. Next one. Keep your distance, everyone,” James said.

The next three chests opened without any issue. One chest contained 1,000 coins, and the other two contained scrolls. Since manual looting was activated, James didn’t know what scrolls they were.

“You may take all the coins. These scrolls are mine. Tell me when your skill levels are five and above or when your levels are above twenty. You may take future scrolls then,” James said. He then eyed his henchmen, wondering whether they had any dissatisfaction.

“Well… I’m the one who took all the enemies,” James whispered to himself.

[You have obtained an EXP scroll.
You have leveled up to Level 52.]

[You have obtained a Bow Mastery skill scroll.
Your Bow Mastery is now Level 9.]

“How much is it again to upgrade the bow skill?”

[It will cost you 200 coins to upgrade your Bow Mastery.]

“Well, do it then,” James said. It felt like forever since James could afford to waste coins like this. He remembered the times he had to struggle for coins, constantly debating whether to save them or upgrade his skills. Back then, he didn’t even have the leeway to buy health potions.

[Congratulations. Your Bow Mastery has been upgraded to Novice Bow Mastery Level 1. You have obtained a new bow skill: Homing Shot.]

“Homing? Does that mean my skill will chase enemies?”

[The arrow can only deviate by a 15-degree angle at most. It will not track enemies beyond that range.]

“Interesting,” James said. The chance to use ranged weapons inside the dungeon was limited—most of the time, enemies were too close. Despite his inflated stats and bow skill, James was not confident in hitting enemies more than fifty meters away. But with this skill, he believed he could aim accurately at over 300 meters.

“Alright. We have one proof. Now, let us go look for the other one.”

“Where should we go, boss?”

“Just wander to the previous floor and see whether the radar blips,” James answered. The soldiers sighed, but at the very least, they didn’t have to search every nook and cranny of the place—thanks to the radar the dungeon had so kindly given them.

They searched for anything valuable. James saw soldiers pocketing gold coins and jewels.

“You know you can’t bring them to the real world, right?” James commented. He had thought about pilfering the gold coins too, but since they couldn’t be eaten or brought back to Earth, he ignored them, sparing them no more than a glance. If this had happened in the first dungeon he conquered, he might’ve acted like them. But now, he knew better: items not marked by the system couldn’t be brought into the real world. These gold coins and bars were useless.

The soldiers glanced at the pilfered coins and gold bars in shock. They then threw away most of them. But greed still won them over, and they took one or two coins with them.

James let them be and moved on. Returning to the eighth floor, he checked the radar disk. There was nothing there. Apart from the portal and the giant door room, there wasn't anything worth noting. James then returned to the sixth floor, where he had been ambushed before.

“Could you take this? I want to check how far this thing can detect the proof,” James said as he handed one of the proofs to a soldier. He then walked further and further away. Apparently, the radar was only effective within a range of around fifty meters. However, there was a convenient arrow at the corner of the radar, denoting where the proof was. Seeing such a helpful feature, James realized this radar encompassed the entire floor. Now he just needed to go to the previous floor. If there were any arrows, that would mean a proof was located there.

“Alright. That’s good enough. Let’s go to the previous floor,” James said.

“Yes, sir.” The soldiers picked up their gear.

The group went back to the dangerous swamp. Now that they had secured the fortress, there was no need to use the secret path in the middle of the cursed lake. James looked at the radar—it didn’t show any reaction. He tried raising the radar high as he walked toward the next portal, holding it like a phone searching for signal from a cell tower, but still there was no reaction whatsoever.

James and the group then backtracked to the town on the fourth floor, where he had vanquished a large number of goblins. He kept peering into the radar, hoping the device would show some kind of reaction. But the device remained unresponsive. James grew annoyed, wondering whether he had to go all the way back to the first floor. In the worst-case scenario, the device was broken.

The empty scenery had lulled them into carelessness. The danger began when they headed back toward the third floor. As they were enveloped by the portal, they arrived right in the middle of the snake nest, with several humongous snakes staring at them.

“Huh?”
Silence enveloped the scene as the snakes and James stopped what they were doing and stared at each other. James hadn’t expected an ambush because they had cleared this area before. He didn’t expect the snakes to respawn here.

“Retreat! It’s an ambush!”
Soldiers scrambled for safety while James drew his sword. He pulled his sword and shield from his back and threw the halberd away. As golden motes of light emanated from his sword, he lunged and cleaved one snake with his Vorpal Slash. He was afraid the long reach of the halberd would hinder his movement in this space.

Four other snakes joined in. James then unleashed another sword skill, Hurricane. The sword traced a diagonal arc as he spun around, killing two snakes while another two got to him.

The last two remaining snakes entwined their bodies around James, intending to choke him. If they had gone for a bite, they might have harmed him. Unfortunately for them, there was no way they could overpower James and his inflated stats. After freeing his arm from their grasp, James hacked at one of the snakes.

He then turned to the other snake. The last snake chomped down on him. James felt pain as its fangs bit into his neck. The snake thought it had won, but James’ stats saved him once again—the fangs didn’t penetrate deeper than a few millimeters.

With brute force, James grappled with the snake. His hands forced its mouth open. His fist came soon after and embedded itself deeply into the snake’s skull. After a few more pummelings, the snake was dead.

“What the hell? Why were these snakes still alive?” James cursed.

[Congratulations. You have earned 150 coins. Your Attacker class has been upgraded to level 31.]

When the battle was over, the soldiers barged in with their axes, ready to chop some snakes—but they didn’t get a turn. It wasn’t their fault; their previous experience had taught them to flee immediately during an ambush. It was James who acted differently. Thanks to his experience, James knew he could win. That’s why, instead of retreating, he attacked.

“Damn… I see. So that’s why these snakes were back…” James muttered as he saw the radar on the ground. Instead of one blip, it now had another blip at the edge.

Name: James
Age: 35
Sex: Male
Level: 51
Coins: 1270
Merit: 9

Stats:
STR: 160 (↑2)
DEX: 157 (↑2)
MAGIC: 116 (↑3)
MANA: 1080 (↑20)

Skills:

Novice Axe Mastery Level 5 (Powerstrike, V-slash, Boomerang)
Novice Sword Mastery Level 1 (Hurricane, Vorpal Lunge)
Novice Bow Mastery Level 1 (Quickshot, Homing Shot) (↑1)
Beginner Dagger Mastery Level 1

Magic:

Mind Flay
Sense Alteration
Mana Sonar

Class:
Attacker (Level 31) (↑2)

10% bonus when attacking
STR, DEX +1 per level

Shop (Level 2):

Health Potion (100 coins)
Hematonic Potion (50 coins)
High Potion (300 coins)
Antidote (50 coins)
Poison Dart (10 coins / round)
Bullets (10 coins / round)
Grenades (50 coins / piece)
Arrows (50 coins / dozen)
Metal Pocket Arrows (100 coins / dozen)
Sell Function / Repair Function
Merit Shop: (10 Merit / Skill)

Unique Skill – Chimera (Level 2):

Stomach Slot: Goblin Stomach (Iron Guts)
Left Arm Slot: Minotaur Leader’s Left Arm (STR +25%)
Right Eye Slot: Eyes of Mana (Mana Sense)
Right Arm Slot: Golem Arm of Valhalla (STR +30%, Physical Resistance +30%, Negative Trait: Repairable, Mana -200)
Leg Slot: Ratking’s Legs (STR +25%)
Lung Slot: Flaming Tiger’s Fire Lung (Fire Breathing Skill, Negative Trait: Mana -100, Magic -10)
Heart Slot: Golem Core (Poison Resistance, Negative Trait: Mana -250, Magic -10, Repairable)
Torso Slot: Orc’s Torso
Head Slot: Orc’s Head
Mouth Slot: Shadow Snake Fang (Intermediate Life Leeching)
Skin Slot: Flaming Tiger Lord’s Firefur (Fire Cloak Skill, Fire Resistance, Physical Resistance +15%, Negative Trait: Mana -100, Magic -10)
Tongue Slot: Elite Nirvok’s Tongue (2-meter Appendage, Medium Paralysis Poison)
Ear Slot: Land Shark’s Ear (Echolocation: 10 meters)
Extra Slot 1: Mana Core (Water Spells: Ice Spear, Water Manipulation, Magic +60, Mana +1000)
Extra Slot 2: Jumping Spider’s Spinneret (Thread Creation)
Extra Slot 3: Kraken’s Arm Tentacle (Reach: 5 meters, Negative Trait: STR -10%)
Extra Slot 4: Mana Core (Wind Spells: Wind Gust, Wind Wall, Magic +20, Mana +300)