Chapter 76: Return

The ankylosaurus charged at him again. This time, James didn’t fight it head-on. He slid under its belly, his sword slashing at the soft underbelly. It was merely for a moment, but Something drew James' gaze as the boss monster charged past him—a green light shone at the corner of his eye. When James squinted, a glowing green jewel was attached at the center of its belly, radiating green motes of light.

The monster then stretched its iron tail. The massive flail swung down towards James like a comet. James leaped to the side, dodging it with ease. He then lobbed several ice spears toward it. The spears bounced off harmlessly. They didn't even make a dent.

Like a rampaging bull, it swung its tail left and right at James without abandon. The exchange of blows kept happening for some time. James shot some arrows from his crossbow while the monster pummeled him with its tail.

Both of them were at a stalemate. James couldn't penetrate its armor, and the monster couldn't hit him. Its charges were slow—as long as James could watch out for its stomping legs, he could dodge them. On the other hand, its tail swings were fast. But since they needed preparatory moves, James could see them coming.

“Damn…” James cursed as he slipped under the behemoth once again. He knew what to do, but he was reluctant. He knew the glowing green jewel on the belly of the behemoth was the weak point. But if he attacked it, that meant he might lose the dungeon core.

“Well, there is no other choice!” James slid for the umpteenth time. James cared more for his life than some dungeon cores. As the behemoth rampaged like a bull, he stabbed his sword deep into the square jewel located on its belly. The sword embedded itself into the behemoth and broke his lightning sword into two halves.

James threw away the other half of his lightning sword and ran toward his raptor, trying to grab any weapons. As the metallic behemoth stumbled, ten Nirvok spawned from a magic circle, all ready to butcher him to pieces. James run to his raptor and reached for his leather bag.

“ARGH!!” With a halberd from his leather bag, James faced the ten Nirvok that swarmed him. James didn’t think he would be able to use his weapon skill because a halberd was technically not an axe. But he managed to activate his Powerstrike and his V-Slash skill.

With the combination of his ice and mind magic, the ten Nirvok that were summoned as the last measure were killed. James was about to approach the robotic dinosaur before an alarm rang from it. A sense of urgency overwhelmed him, telling him to run.

However, it was too late. As if intending to take down James with it, the ankylosaurus exploded, sending spikes and shrapnel everywhere, including at James. His shield had blocked most shrapnel from destroying his head, but the shrapnel still hit him on his flank, and the bigger spikes that flew out had penetrated even his dustmail.

James was thrown back, coughing blood as one of the spikes from the explosion had hit him squarely in the stomach. As James lay helplessly at the brink of death, a notification from the system appeared in front of him. The system certainly couldn't read the mood as it congratulate James for his achievement.

[Floor completed.]

[Congratulations. You have completed Dungeon CF1452. You have triumphed. You will receive two merits and 500 coins. Life Ring will be given as your reward.]

[Life Ring:
When a fatal strike occurs, the Life Ring will summon a healing light, recovering the user. The Life Ring can only be used once. It can also be used manually.

This artifact was precious in the time of Immortal Lord Pharoh the Great. It was told that the king would grant a castle for a single ring. Nevertheless, alchemists and scholars saw it as a failed creation since it can only be used once.]

“Fuck you!” James cursed as the reward gave him exactly what he needed. But James didn’t want to follow the system’s shit. “Buy me a health potion. It can heal this shit, right?”

[Warning! Dungeon CF1452 is collapsing. You will be expelled to Earth in five seconds. All items you have obtained will be transported with you.]

“Eh?” James tilted his head as something unexpected happened. White light enveloped him as the scenery crumbled. Everything was turning to dust before his very eyes.

The teleportation this time was violent. James was thrown like a ragdoll back to Earth, skipping the loading screen room entirely. The broken mini Huma and his leather bag filled with all of his weapons were dropped beside him.

“Shit!” James felt the spike embedded in his torso move, and it sent a sharp pain to his brain.

“System? Where is my health potion? I have the money, right?!” James groaned.

[100 coins have been deducted. A health potion will be teleported to you shortly.]

A black box dropped beside him. The system provided assistance by marking where it had dropped the box, even though it was a mere 10 centimeters away.

James took a deep breath as he held the spike lodged in his stomach. With a groan, he held on to it and pulled it out forcefully. Blood gushed from the cavity in his stomach. As his consciousness wavered, he poured the health potion on the wound.

Then, he lay on the ground. James was reminded once again how brutal the world inside the dungeon was. Just a moment of carelessness, and he was almost dead. He thought he was safe due to how his skills worked. He had health potions, copious amounts of weapons, even shields that could deflect a weapon skill. But it was all useless.

As James lay down, several soldiers with a medic ran to him.

“Hurry! He’s bleeding!” a soldier rushed to him with a medic who brought first aid, but the others hesitated.

“He is a monster!”

“He’s James, you idiot! Didn’t you watch the news? He was tasked to raid this dungeon a month ago!” another soldier answered. The medic, who finally understood her assignment, immediately went to work.

“The wound is closing!” the medic said.

“As expected. He is a monster!”

“Survivors got superpowers, idiot.”

“Sir, are you okay? Good lord, I’m not trained for this,” the medic said as she felt James's nape, searching for his artery and wondering what drug she needed to inject him.

“I’m fine. Just let me lay low for a while. I was hurt, alright? There are no enemies here, right?” James groaned as he mumbled incoherently. He felt weak, and his strength wasn’t returning. He wondered whether he should splurge and buy a hematonic potion, but being the thrifty corporate slave he was, he held on to it. He was already back on Earth. There were no enemies here.

“We should bring him to a hospital,” the medic said. “Where’s the stretcher?”

“On it. Is he stable?” the soldier gestured to the others behind him.

“He’s conscious and responding. The vitals are a little weak, but stable. He should be fine with a two- or three-day rest. Maybe?” the medic shrugged.

“Alright. Let’s get him on board. Ambulance or helicopter?”

“Anything that gets to the hospital faster. We need to make sure he survives.” The medic then came.

“Done. Helicopter is coming. We must save him at all cost!” the soldier spoke through his radio. A helicopter then came and picked James up with the stretcher.

The incident came up on the news. Not even a day later, a press conference was held near the town hall. Douglas, the mayor, together with Silas, confirmed that the dam had been freed and the engineers had been allowed to inspect the damage.

“Was Mr. James okay? The recording showed that he was pierced by some kind of pole,” the reporter who had viewed the recording asked.

“Mr. James is fine. I just got word from the hospital that he is alive. He said he could do the other raid tomorrow,” Silas said.

“I see. That is great news. We also saw that James poured out some liquid on his wound.”

“The liquid is called a health potion. It is supposed to seal any wounds. It can be purchased by any survivor,” Silas answered.

“Some dungeon items seem to be more advanced than Earth’s technology. Will the guild monopolize these weapons and items?”

“If you are asking about whether we will sell health potions to the public or not, the answer is no—at least not in bulk. This is not a definitive answer, but this liquid costs a currency called coins, accessible only to survivors. We do have a sample, but our research team is currently struggling to recreate this product.”

“Thank you, Mr. Silas. How about magic and other artifacts?”

“Our research team is struggling with that as well. ”

“Do you have any idea why dungeons appeared?”

“Our knowledge regarding this matter is as good as yours. We don’t know who or what this system is or why they took our lands just to replace them with dungeons located in another space. Some researchers said this was caused by a multidimensional being or god, but we have no conclusive evidence.”

“Thank you, Mr. Silas. So far, only James’s team seems to be the only one that have had any success in conquering dungeons. Will he provide training, advice, or mentorship? This is important because some analysts said that if we let this go on, it might take thousands of years for James to free Earth.”

“James had ventured with other survivors. Right at this very moment, our guild members are trying their best to tackle a dungeon in North America. Only time will tell whether they will succeed or fail.”

“James could do it alone. What’s stopping others? Is it because he is half-monster? Did the system somehow play favorites with Mr. James? Was he special in any way before?”

“That is a good analysis, Mr. Ben. We don’t have conclusive evidence of the system playing favorites. However, we know that every survivor will receive a unique skill upon entering a dungeon and killing a monster. James’s unique skill lets him steal some kind of monster's powers. There is also a side effect of that power—that is, his body, as you might have known.”

Silas then continued, “James’s unique skill might have been more powerful than most others. But this is not conclusive evidence that the system is playing favorites. Other guild members have also reported being able to enhance or change their body.”

The press conference lingered on for some time. James, who was lying down in a hospital, turned off the TV. As always, the news was boring. When James was still human, his body fit perfectly on this hospital bed, but now that he was a chimera, this bed was a little bit too small for him.

Silas then came with a few other men in suits.

“Greetings, Mr. James. How is it going? Was the food to your liking? If you don’t mind, let us start the debriefing. We can’t help but notice that you seemed to bring quite a bit of loot from the dungeon. Since there were no other survivors inside that dungeon, you are the only source of our information. We are quite eager to listen to your adventure there.”

“I failed,” James sighed. “The dungeon core was destroyed.”

The debriefing then began. James wondered how he had fucked up.