ã€ŠThe Cardboard Explorerã€‹


 Chapter 38

    Raja concentrated his mana on his fists and kept punching the humanoid toad. Some of the punches hit while some of them were dodged by the humanoid toad.

    Annoyed and angered, the humanoid toad used its strong leg and launched itself upward into the air. The humanoid toad was fast and Raja was unable to stop him from launching upward.

    The humanoid toad reached the ceiling of the dungeon and gained his footing on it to launch himself once more towards Raja.

    However, before he could depart, a big spider shot a sticky thread towards him and ¡°Loud!¡± Shihoon activated his skill ¡®loud¡¯ and he started screaming towards the humanoid toad.

    The loud skill can amplify loudness to a certain degree. The higher the level of the skill, the higher the amplification.

    The humanoid toad wanted to evade the sticky thread by launching himself towards Raja but Shihoon¡¯s screaming halted his movement for a bit and he ended up being hit by the sticky thread.

    Although he was hit with the sticky thread and Shihoon¡¯s screaming, the humanoid toad was still barely able to launch himself to attack Raja.

    However, to his surprise, Raja was not at that location anymore. The humanoid toad was almost reaching the ground when suddenly, someone appeared out of nowhere beside him.

    Raja can silently appear there thanks to Shihoon¡¯s mute. With mana concentrated on his fist and the humanoid toad was in front of him, Raja punched the toad with everything he could.

    The humanoid toad was unable to defend himself from the punch and was sent one more time flying.

    Raja did not want to waste more time and launched himself towards the flying humanoid toad. However, while he was approaching the humanoid toad, a big tongue appeared out of nowhere to hit him. The tongue belonged to the humanoid toad.

    But, a more surprising thing happened. A man with cardboard equipment appeared out of nowhere neared the tongue and easily slashed the tongue.

    ¡°Pictures come to life,¡± said Shihoon as he used the picture of Cade. ¡°I knew you would use your tongue.¡±

    ¡°Arrghhhh!!!! STUPID MONKEY!!!¡± The humanoid toad was in pain as his tongue was cut, he was punched by Raja and at the same time, his body was getting sticky thanks to the sticky thread.

    ¡°Stupid toad, you are too loud!¡± said Shihoon as he was annoyed with the humanoid toad and then, he screamed with his loud skill to shut the annoying enemy.

    Shihoon can use his mute to shut the humanoid toad but then, his enemy won¡¯t be in pain. Shihoon was angry looking at the corpses of many explorers lying around and he wanted the humanoid toad to feel the same too.

    ¡°ARRGGHHHH!!!¡± The humanoid toad screamed in pain as he was hit by the loud screaming from Shihoon.  He hit the dungeon wall hard and started bleeding.

    ¡°YOU!!!! MONKEY!!! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!¡± The humanoid toad screamed at the top of his lungs in a rage of getting beat up by Raja and Shihoon.

    ¡®That loud monkey is the real problem! That dark monkey cannot land a hit on me before but now, because of that loud monkey, I am in this state! I need to think of something,¡¯ thought the humanoid toad.

    He planned to do something but then, Raja again appeared in front of him. ¡°You kill my party! My friends! MY FAMILY!¡± Raja was angered and with his fist concentrated with mana, he kept punching the toad without stopping.

    The humanoid toad was unable to do anything as he was heavily injured by the attack he received earlier and the sticky thread halted his movement too. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    He was stuck to the ground and was unable to run away. All he could do was lay there and accepted the beating until he died.

    ¡°That monster is strong and fast but it has weak defense¡­ It can talk too¡­¡± said Shihoon as he was looking at Raja punching the toad.

    ¡°ARRGGGHHHH!!!!¡± Suddenly, Shihoon heard screaming coming from the direction of Cade and Jonathan. Looking in that direction, Shihoon was shocked to see that Cade was on the wall of the dungeon unmoving.

    ¡°Cade!!!¡± Shihoon screamed and he ran towards Cade. Jonathan, on the other hand, was busy defending himself and the healer girl from the attack of the humanoid toad in front of him.

    He was unable to check if Cade was okay but the healer girl was able to see that Cade was in a really bad condition. She needed to heal Cade or else, he would die.

    Cade was lying motionlessly on the wall of the dungeon. He was coughing out blood and the pain was too much but he cannot scream from the pain anymore as he had no energy left in his body.

    Cade stared at the direction of Jonathan that kept trying to keep up with the movement of the humanoid toad and defended himself and the healer girl from the humanoid toad.

    ¡®I guess, this is what I get from raising too much of my luck and neglecting my other stats. My cardboard is fine but my body cannot stand the recoil of that toad attack,¡¯ thought Cade while he was staring weakly at Jonathan.

    The equipment that explorers wore did not work like inside the game. In-game, when a player wears a piece of equipment, for example, a shield that raises defense by 20 points, that player''s overall defense stat will increase by 20.

    However, the equipment that the explorer wore did not work like that. A shield with 20 defenses will not be added to the explorer¡¯s stat. Only the shield will have that defense.

    That shield can block an attack but if the explorer that used the shield was hit directly, only his body defense that will count.

    Cade¡¯s cardboard shield was able to hold the slap of the humanoid toad but that attack was too strong and his body was unable to hold the shield that was holding the attack.

    In the end, he was sent flying and smashed himself on the wall of the dungeon. The impact of that smash was in no way damaging his equipment but his weak body was easily damaged by the impact.

    ¡®I wonder if my maximum luck will save my life¡­¡¯ Cade was thinking this but slowly and steadily, his sight was getting dimmer and dimmer. His eyes were slowly closing and a few seconds later, he lost consciousness.

    Jonathan was worried about Cade and he wanted to send the healer girl to Cade but he was busy dealing with the humanoid toad in front of him.

    ¡°Kacha!¡± Jonathan and the healer girl suddenly heard a weird sound and Jonathan saw that Shihoon was nearby taking pictures of the healer girl.

    ¡®I don¡¯t need to worry anymore,¡¯ Jonathan smiled as he knew Shihoon would do something to save Cade. Now, he can fully focus on defeating the enemy in front of him.

    The humanoid toad kept attacking Jonathan but Jonathan always managed to defend from that attack.

    ¡°This shield is annoying!¡± The humanoid toad opened his mouth and let out his tongue. The tongue immediately wrapped the shield and it wanted to throw the shield away.

    Jonathan saw what the humanoid toad was trying to do, ¡°Armored Bear Soul Activate!¡± an energy silhouette of an armored bear appeared and wrapped Jonathan.

    Jonathan can feel his strength and endurance increased. He held his shield strongly so that the humanoid toad was unable to throw it away.

    ¡°What!!¡± The humanoid toad was shocked to see that the shield won¡¯t budge and decided to stop what he wanted to do.

    However, to his surprise, the shield suddenly moved forward fast and bashed him. The humanoid toad crossed his arm to protect himself from the attack and he was sent flying.

    To more of his shock, before he stopped from being sent flying, something hit him from behind. He can feel that the hit was packed with so much power.

    ¡°Crack!!¡± That unknown hit plus the momentum of him flying caused his backbones to break, ¡°ARGHHHH!!!¡± and he screamed in pain with blood coming out of his mouth.

    The hit on his back sent him flying again towards Jonathan. Jonathan did not want to lose this chance.

    With his increased strength from his bloodline skill, he put his greatsword forward and the humanoid toad was impaled by it.

    ¡°Kuhakk!!!¡± The humanoid toad coughed up more blood but Jonathan did not stop there. He moved his great sword upwards and cut the humanoid toad to two.

    The humanoid toad instantly died. Looking at the dead humanoid toad and around him and saw no more of that toad, Jonathan sighed in relief.

    He was dead tired from all the dangers he felt earlier and he fell on the ground. He remembered the healer girl that he was protecting and he looked behind him but she was gone.

    When Jonathan looked around, he saw two of her was healing the unconscious Cade. Jonathan knew that one of them was the real healer girl and the other one was Shihoon¡¯s summon.

 Chapter 1

    Ten thousand years ago, humans on Earth were gifted with something called the system. The system came out of nowhere and it came with only two functions.

    The first function was the ability to view their stats. Having the ability to view one¡¯s stats in data form was helpful for humans to keep tabs of what they lacked, how long will they live and so on.

    The second function was storage. There were only ten slots of storage with each slot can store up to 99 of the same items. The storage function was helpful to humans as they can bring many things with them while no one could steal the items they stored inside.

    Humans tried to figure out more about the system but they were unable to do anything more with it. Years of research were done on the system; however, they met a dead end. Even with so much research done on the system, no humans knew why they suddenly gained the system and they also did not know how to improve the system.

    Scientists, programmers, engineers and everyone on Earth gave up trying to find out more about the system. However, years later, something big happened. A portal appeared out of nowhere all around the world and inside the portals were dungeons with monsters in it.

    At the same time the portal appeared, some humans on Earth awakened the real system and gained the ability to use magic. The awakened humans then fought to the best of their ability to clear the dungeons and closed them so that the monsters inside won¡¯t leak outside.

    Humans finally found out the reason why they were gifted with the system. With the system, the awakener could kill the monsters because human-created weapons were ineffective against the monsters.

    The awakened humans kept fighting the monsters and later, they were called the Explorer. Explorers were not only hunted and killed the monsters but they also properly explored the dungeons for resources and many other things. The strong explorers were also somewhat of a superhero in society.

    Thanks to the discovery of magic, dungeons, and monsters, humans also made leap and bounds in their technology and that made humans able to explore space and thus started the ages of space travel and explorations.

    Upon getting the ability to travel far in space, humans found out that not only Earth but every other planet and stars were also getting invaded by the monsters. Explorers continued their jobs of exterminating the monsters but now it happened not only on Earth but on other planets and stars too.

    ***

    The Biscuit Star Sector was a small star sector with only ten planets in the vicinity. Just like how brittle and weak a biscuit was, that was how the condition of this star sector and thus the name of Biscuit Star Sector.

    There was nothing special or precious in the Biscuit Star Sector and thus, it never got caught in a war. Biscuit Star Sector was the most peaceful star sector in the universe.

    No matter how bad someone was, they never wanted to invade and conquer the Biscuit Star Sector because it was worthless and a waste of energy. There was nothing out of ordinary in the Biscuit Star Sector.

    Dineon was a small planet located in the Biscuit Star Sector with a population of around two billion humans. Dineon was the sixth planet out of ten located in the Biscuit Star Sector. Dineon was just an ordinary planet and most of the humans living on the planet were just ordinary humans.

    ¡°Oh~ that looks fun,¡± said a young man while he was smiling watching a video on his genius phone. The young man was around 20 years old with light brown hair and brown eyes. He had beautiful white skin but he was not a pretty boy. He was slightly handsome but there were a lot more men more handsome than him.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    However, he had a nice and beautiful smile. It was not an exaggeration to say that he might have attracted a lot of attention with just his smile alone.

    The young man continued watching the video and once it ended, he went to his room and got himself a few empty cardboard boxes. He grabbed a scissor, knife, glue and his stationary.

    The young man started drawing on the cardboard. After that, he started cutting the cardboard following his drawing on it earlier.

    Once the young man finished cutting the cardboard, he started gluing some of them and he finally created what he saw in the video earlier.

    On the floor were a short sword, a round shield, and a mouth mask. All of them were made from cardboard. The young man saw a craft video on the internet making things out of cardboard and he found it interesting, so, he made his version of cardboard craft.

    His craft was nothing fancy and even a kindergarten can be made better than that but the young man did not care about that. He was bored to death and he felt happy wasting his time making that.

    However, after making that cardboard craft, he bitterly smiled by himself. The young man looked around him and his smile disappeared.

    The young man sat on the floor in the living room. Other than the sofa, a small table, television, and a few cabinets, there was nothing else in the living room.

    There was no picture frame, there was no flower vase and there were no other decorations presented in the living room. The same situation applied to his bedroom, kitchen, and toilet. Other than a few important things, they were empty.

    The young man was the only one living in the apartment. There was no presence of someone else in his apartment. His parents, his siblings¡­ no one was there with him and there was a reason for it.

    The young man was Cade. He came from a powerful, influential and rich family, the Blue Phoenix family. The Blue Phoenix family was located in a huge star sector called the Phoenix Star Sector.

    There were 50 planets in the Phoenix Star Sector and ten of them were under the control of the Blue Phoenix family. The members of the family were all born strong and with huge potential once they awakened but that did not apply to Cade.

    Cade was the black sheep of the family. He was born with low growth potential and the entire family was ashamed of him including his parents and siblings.

    The family was well known with so many geniuses in the family that even the weakest of them all was with good potential. Cade, however, broke all of that when he was born. He had the lowest potential a human can get that in the history of the Blue Phoenix family, he was the first.

    Cade¡¯s family wanted to keep his birth a secret and thus they sent him to Planet Dineon. A maid raised him until he was ten years old and then, the maid was called back by his family. Cade had been living by himself since he was ten.

    He knew about his family and wanted to see them but he was forbidden to set his foot on Phoenix Star Sector and told anyone about himself or else they will end his life.

    He was also forbidden to befriend anyone from the Biscuit Star Sector because a family member of the family cannot befriend a low life inhabitant from Biscuit StarSector.

    Cade was afraid of getting killed and thus he followed everything he was ordered. He was afraid that they were watching him and never tried to do anything that they forbid him. Unbeknownst to him, no one was watching him.

    His family still wired him with money and that was it. All his life, Cade was alone. Even the maid that took care of him in his early life hated him. Cade had never gotten any love from his family.

    Cade knew how pitiful he was playing by himself. No family, no friends. He was all alone in the big empty apartment.

    Cade was currently in his second year of college. He did talk to his classmates but they were not his friends because Cade kept his distance from them. He feared that his family would kill him.

    Cade found the cardboard craft fun because he never played something like that in his life. He wanted to become an explorer but he was not awakened and thus he created the cardboard equipment.

    He did play by himself imagining he was a strong explorer using a long ruler as sword and pillow as a shield but they did not look like a sword and shield and thus it killed the fun.

    The cardboard he just created was shaped like a real sword and shield and it will be more fun compared to the long ruler and pillow. It was not fun playing by himself but it was better than nothing.

    Cade wore a black hoodie and then he equipped himself with the cardboard mouth mask, sword, and shield. Once he finished equipping himself, Cade stood in front of a mirror to view himself.

    ¡°I look silly,¡± said Cade but he was still smiling happily. Suddenly, his system activated by itself and a meter bar with an ¡®awakening¡¯ word appeared in front of him.

 Chapter 2

    ¡°Awaken?... Am I finally awakening my system?!!¡± said Cade excitedly. His potential was low and the chance for him to awaken naturally was slim. It not only happened to him but all humans with low potential had a low chance to awaken.

    80% of humans were born with low-grade potential. The low-grade potential was people with grade E potential, the lowest grade listed in the system. Humans with grade E potential had a super low chance to awaken their system.

    People with this potential rarely awaken and even if they awakened, they will be the weakest among the explorers. The only thing they could do was be another explorer¡¯s porter or servant or slave if they intended to survive as an explorer.

    Cade sat on the sofa and waited until the meter bar was full. It took about ten minutes for the meter to fill and Cade patiently waited for that.

    Ten minutes later, the system sent Cade a few notifications. Cade was too excited and did not read the notifications. He thought it was a normal procedure for the system to do that when someone awakened and he said yes to all.

    After a few times of ¡®yes¡¯, there were no more notifications. Flint opened his stats and new stats were shown in the system.

    Name: Cade

    Age: 20

    Lifespan: 60

    Potential: E

    Level: 1

    Stat Points: 0

    Vitality: 10

    Strength: 3

    Endurance: 3

    Dexterity: 3

    Wisdom: 5

    Luck: 1

    Skill: Link Growth, Level: -, Grade: Special, Effect: Anything link with the user can grow stronger.

    Cade had a lifespan of 60 years, which meant he will die of old age at the age of 60. However, that did not matter now as he had awakened.

    All explorers will be able to increase their lifespan as they level up. How many years will they get was based on their potential. The higher their potential, the longer they will live.

    However, the lifespan will only reflect their death due to old age. If they were in an accident, had a fatal illness and were killed by monsters or people, their lifespan will not affect that. Even when they are surprised and shocked to death can cost their life.

    However, in the age of magic and technology, the resurrection was possible. With the right conditions, it was possible to bring back the dead to life.

    Cade had E grade potential. With this grade, every time he leveled up, he will gain 10 stat points. People with higher grades of potential will gain more stat points when they are leveling up.

    This was the reason Cade¡¯s family kept his birth a secret from the public. No matter how high his level was, he cannot be on the same power as people of the higher grade but the same level.

    The stats difference between explorers of different grades were like heaven and earth. They were too far apart, especially when they were at a higher level.

    Other than his vitality, his other stats were really bad especially his luck. Out of the six stats, luck was the only stat human incapable of leveling up with their stat points. With only 1 point of luck, Cade will have a super hard time getting a monster drop and landed a critical hit on them.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Upon seeing his stats again, Cade sighed. Even if he had awakened, he was still part of the loser group. However, an awakener was still an awakener. When he became an explorer, the explorer title was enough to give him some fame to his name.

    Then, Cade looked at the skill he got from awakening. Everyone who awakens will automatically get a skill. The skill everyone got was random. If they are lucky, they will get good skills.

    Cade looked at his skill and he smiled when he saw the grade of his skill. It was a special grade skill. Special grade skill was not that rare. Many awakeners got special grade skills and most of them were different from each other.

    Just like the grade implied, the skill was special. Everyone with this skill will usually make a name in society¡­ if they had high potential.

    Cade might not be able to make his name known in the universe but he was happy nonetheless with the special grade skill he got. At least, his 1 point of luck favored him this time.

    ¡°Link growth, anything linked to me can grow stronger?? Hmm~ I wonder what kind of link the skill meant?¡± Cade was thinking what the skill meant. Did his skill consider to be something linked to him?

    Cade opened his skill list and out of three skill slots he had, one was occupied by link growth and the other two empty skill slots were glowing in blue. Upon seeing the blue glow, Cade was happy.

    He read online that there was no such thing as the skill slot emitted some kind of color that happened to anyone. Cade concluded that that meant he can make his skills grow stronger. Upon thinking of doing that made him excited.

    Cade was done viewing everything when he accidentally opened his storage slot. To his surprise, six out of ten slots of his storage were also glowing in blue. Cade was happy to see that. He can grow things he put in his storage¡­ was his conclusion until he saw that the glowing slots were filled with things he currently wore.

    However, all the things he wore were not inside his storage. Upon closer look, the picture of items in that slot faded.

    ¡°Hmm? What is happening?¡± Cade wondered and then he tried to bring out the item out of his storage. Unfortunately, it cannot be taken out. Cade tried to move the items to other empty slots but it was not moving.

    Cade had a bad feeling about it. Cade put his cardboard short sword into the storage and the slots where a faded cardboard short sword was located gained its color back. Cade tried to move the cardboard short sword to another slot and just like before, it was not moving.

    However, the system pulled out a new screen and upon reading what was written on the screen, Cade¡¯s face went white.

    Cardboard Short Sword (Link)

    Level: 1

    Next Level: 5 Level 1 magic crystal

    Durability: 1

    Attack: 1

    ¡°No way! No way!! No way!!!¡± Cade went panicked. Cade stored back his black hoodie, white t-shirt, black jeans, cardboard round shield, and cardboard mouth mask. He tried to move them out of the glowing slot but they were not moving.

    The stats of all of them were shown in front of him and they were all linked to Cade. The level, durability and other stats of them were seriously the worst he had seen in his life. All of them had 1 point. Only 1.

    ¡°¡­¡­..¡± Cade with only his underwear on his body sat silently on his sofa while looking at the white floor. He was silent for almost ten minutes until he snapped back to reality.

    Cade finally remembered that earlier, he got lots of notifications from the system and he suspected that that notifications were asking him about linking what he wore at the time.

    Cade felt like crying. He should have read it first before saying yes. Cade walked back to his room and took some clothes to wear and he suddenly got some ideas.

    Cade took out the cardboard equipment and burned them to ashes. He thought that if he destroyed them, the link would be broken. However, to his surprise, the faded picture of the cardboard equipment was still there in his storage.

    A minute later, they were restored. Cade blankly looked at his storage. He closed his system and lay on his bed. A few minutes later, he fell asleep.

    An hour later, Cade woke up and checked his storage and they were still there. He went to sleep because he thought that that was all a dream and when he woke up, it would not be as bad as his dream. However, it was not a dream.

    Cade started accepting his fate. He loses his mood of doing anything that day and all he did was lie on his bed blankly staring on the ceiling of his room. He felt like his luck stat said it all about what had happened.

    For the next few days, other than going to class, eating and using the toilet, Cade did not do anything else. Cade thought that he would finally be able to change his life but his carelessness cost him a lot. He regretted not reading the notifications properly.

    However, what was done cannot be undone. No matter how much Cade regretted it, he cannot change it.

    Cade stared at his storage and then he realized something.

    ¡°That¡¯s right! All of this equipment, no matter how weak they are, I can make them stronger. Equipment drop from monsters cannot grow stronger but my equipment can. I can still become stronger if I grow my equipment properly,¡± Cade suddenly came to his realization.

    With that sudden realization, Cade''s eyes were burning with passion.

 Chapter 3

    Cade made his decision to go through with the cardboard equipment and raised them to become a piece of strong equipment. It looked silly but with the growth potential, they could become stronger.

    After Cade made his decision, he registered online to get his license as an explorer. It was easy to become an explorer. All he needed to do was fill in the form online and wait for it to be processed.

    Explorer mostly used a nickname for themselves much like a superhero name. Cade decided to use the nickname ¡®The Cardboard Explorer¡¯ due to his cardboard equipment. Luckily no one used that name and Cade did not need to think of using another nickname.

    It took a week for his registration as an explorer to finish. During the one week he had, Cade bought himself some equipment as a substitute for his cardboard equipment before the cardboard equipment can be used properly.

    With one durability, they couldn''t make even one attack or defend. So, Cade decided to use other equipment first. He also needed to find out how much the increase will be when it leveled up.

    According to the data shown by the system, to level up the linked equipment, Cade needed to use magic crystal. Magic crystal was expensive and Cade did not have much money on hand to buy any of them.

    The only way he can get the magic crystal was by getting it dropped from monsters. However, even that was hard due to his super-low luck. He needed to work harder than anyone else if he wanted to become stronger.

    A week later, Cade got his explorer license. With the explorer license on hand, Cade can buy a license to enter the dungeon available.

    Whatever dungeons appeared; it all belonged to the government of that planet. For a guild, clan or family to raid the dungeon, they needed to buy the license from the planet¡¯s government.

    After they finished raiding the dungeon, 5% of their dropped items needed to be handed out to the planet¡¯s government as tax. No matter what planet it was, all of them applied the same rate of tax.

    There were two types of dungeon licenses. The first type was the full ownership of the dungeon. With this license, the buyer had full rights to the dungeon. Other than the 5% tax, the government had no right to interfere with the buyer of the license.

    Only the owner of the license and the people he or she is allowed to can enter the dungeon. If an explorer without permission from the owner of the license tried to get in, the license owner can do anything he or she wanted to that explorer and the government won¡¯t be able to interfere with their decision.

    The second type was a limited-time entry license. Just like the name suggested, the owner of this license can enter the dungeon for a limited time. The time varied based on their application. It can be days, weeks or years.

    However, if someone already bought the full ownership of that particular dungeon, a limited-time entry license will not be available but if someone bought the limited-time entry license before someone else buying the full ownership license, the license was valid until the time limit ended.

    As Cade just started to become an explorer, he couldn''t buy the full ownership license.

    Cade searched the Dineon government site for a dungeon with limited time license available and he found some. 90% of them were slime dungeons.

    Slime dungeon was the most unpopular dungeon in the universe because the slimes were weak and harmless. Even if they got out of the dungeon, they did nothing to the environment. All they did was digest the trash and garbage. They were helping the environment more than destroying it.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    There were even some people taking it as a pet to help them destroy their trash and garbage. Some bad guys even used them to destroy corpses and everything else.

    After browsing through the list of slime dungeons, Cade decided to take the grade E level 10 slime dungeon. This dungeon had five floors with all of them filled with grade E slime from level 1 to level 10.

    Every dungeon had their grade and level for their monster. It can easily be determined by any explorer using their system.

    It was better to raid a dungeon of the same grade as oneself as higher grade dungeon meant harder monsters and that was exactly what Cade did, choosing the right dungeon for himself.

    Cade bought the license for a week of entry. He wanted to buy for a longer entry time but unfortunately, he did not have enough budget for that. The location of that slime dungeon was quite far from his apartment.

    Cade needed to ride the train for 5 hours or used the teleporter if he wanted to reach there faster. Again, with his budget, he can only take the train. Cade waited for 3 days more before he got himself the license to enter the slime dungeon.

    Cade only had one week to hunt the slime in the dungeon and he decided to skip class for a week. Cade prepared a lot of things including food. With his budget, he bought many canned food to last for a week.

    With all the preparation done, Cade started his travel to the slime dungeon. Just like he planned earlier, he took the train and arrived at his destination in 5 hours.

    The slime dungeon was located in an empty abandoned building near the train station. Cade walked for 10 minutes and he found the abandoned building. Once he entered the abandoned building, he saw the portal to the dungeon.

    It was not the first time Cade saw a portal with his own eyes but this time, he saw it to get inside. There was no one around because the slime dungeon was unpopular.

    Cade took out his iron short sword and iron round shield he bought a few days ago. Both the short sword and round shield were level 1 with 10 attacks and 10 defenses respectively.

    Cade wore his black hoodie and jeans and equipped the short sword and round shield. Once he finished equipping himself, Cade entered the dungeon.

    ¡°So¡­ it is not that much different from what was shown on the internet,¡± said Cade. The dungeon was just a cave with monsters roaming around inside. Cade took out his torchlight and made way into the dungeon.

    Monsters inside the dungeon will not respawn once they are killed. Once all of the monsters inside the dungeon were killed, the dungeon will close by itself.

    A minute of walking, Cade saw a slime happily bouncing around in front of him. They were known to be harmless but Cade did not know that they were friendly too. The happy slime went towards Cade and bounced around him.

    It did not seem to want to attack Cade. Cade saw the slime and he felt guilty of killing it but, he needed to level up and killing the monsters was the only way to level up.

    Cade resolved his mind and swung the short sword towards the slime. The sword cleanly cut the slime however, the cut slowly healed by itself.

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s right. I forgot that they had resistance against physical attack,¡± said Cade. Before the slime was able to fully heal itself, Cade stabbed the slime core and broke it.

    The slime died and the system notified Cade that he killed a level 1 slime. No mention of the slime grade because it was a grade E dungeon and that meant all the slime inside the dungeon was grade E.

    The slime evaporated and left nothing behind. That meant, there was no item dropped. It was not a surprise to Cade because his luck was the lowest and it was impossible to get any dropped.

    When a monster was killed, there was a 50% chance that there was no item dropped, 30% dropped of magic crystal, 15% equipment, 4% skill book and 1% puzzle.

    Someone with higher luck will have a better chance of getting an item drop. Usually, a party or guild will bring with them someone with high luck to help them easily get an item drop. All the drop obtained from the monster had their value and will surely net them some money.

    Cade continued his exploration inside the dungeon and he met a few more slime. He kept killing all the slime he met and after his fifth killed, the system notified him of a level up. Cade was happy he leveled up. He got himself 10 stat points and he opened his stats to distribute them to his stats.

    Since Cade''s potential was E grade, he will only be able to get 10 stat points for every level up. Someone of grade D will get 20 points, grade C got 30 points, B got 40 points, A got 50 points and S got 60 points.

    While Cade looked at his stats, something crossed his mind.

 Chapter 4

    ¡°That¡¯s right! According to the description of my skill, anything linked to me can become stronger. My luck is linked to me¡­ does that mean I can raise my luck?!¡± thought Cade.

    10 000 years had passed since the appearance of the system and there was never once recorded that it was possible to increase luck. Some equipment can increase luck but that was not a permanent increase.

    There was never once in the history of explorers that someone capable of increasing their luck stat permanently.

    Cade felt excited thinking of that. Without wasting any time, he tried putting one stat point on his luck. Cade prayed in his heart that it would work.

    Luck played a crucial part for Cade to be able to strengthen his linked equipment. He needed a lot of magic crystal to strengthen his equipment. With low luck, he won¡¯t be able to farm many magic crystals.

    Once Cade decided to use one stat point on his luck, his luck stat increased from 1 to 2. Cade stared at his luck stat. Instead of 1, it was 2 now.

    Cade¡¯s mouth trembling and slowly it curled into a smile, a big smile. Cade started gasping for air and then, he jumped in the air celebrating that he can increase his luck.

    ¡°Woooohooooo!!!!¡± Cade screamed in joy. He clenched his fist hard and was extremely happy. He had never felt this happy in his whole life. He felt happier than when he awakened a few weeks ago.

    Without further ado, he poured all of his stat points on his luck increasing his luck stat from 2 to 11. Cade did not feel much different compared to before but he knew he would feel it once his luck was higher.

    With the new discovery of his link growth skill, Cade did not waste any more time and started hunting for more slime. He wanted to raise his level fast and increase his luck stat.

    A few hours later, Cade raised his level once more to level 3. He got another 10 stat points and used all of them on his luck. His luck increased from 11 to 21.

    After that, he continued hunting for more slime but he realized the quantity of slime on the first floor had dwindled. He found it harder and harder to meet another slime.

    He had been hunting them since afternoon and the first floor had almost gone empty. Cade checked his system and found out that there was only 2 more slime available on the first floor.

    The monster count was part of the system function. Whenever an explorer enters a dungeon, they will be able to keep track of the number of monsters present in the dungeon.

    However, only monsters they had killed once before will be able to be detected. If it was a monster they never killed before, there will be no count of those monsters.

    Since Cade had killed a slime, he was able to keep track of their number on the first floor. The two slimes left on the first floor were both level 2.

    ¡°Tracking these two slimes will be a pain,¡± thought Cade and it was true. The first floor was huge and it was common knowledge for explorers that all first floor of every dungeon was the biggest floor compared to their other floor.

    Cade did not know if he should search for the last two slimes or move on to the next floor. After a bit of thought, Cade decided to enter the next floor.

    His reasoning was simple. He did not enter the dungeon to complete it but to level up. However, Cade decided to go out of the dungeon as it was already late in the evening. He needed some rest after hunting for quite a while.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    It was his first time exploring a dungeon and thus, he felt much more tired than he used to.

    ¡°Maybe I should raise my endurance a bit,¡± said Cade as stamina was important if he wanted to last longer. Cade walked back to the entrance of the dungeon.

    While walking towards the entrance of the dungeon, Cade found one of the last two slimes on the first floor. Without wasting any time, Cade killed the slime. His level did not increase but to his surprise, the slime dropped a magic crystal.

    ¡°My first item drop!¡± said Cade excitedly. He took the magic crystal and inspected it. It was a grade E level 2 vitality crystal. Slime was only capable of dropping the vitality crystal and it was impossible to get another type of magic crystal.

    Cade stored it in his storage and continued walking out of the dungeon. Once he got out, it was already dusk and he took out a tent out of his storage and set it up beside the portal.

    Once he set up his sleeping place, Cade opened his storage again and he had more empty slots in his storage now. He was currently level 3 and he had 30 empty slots.

    The slots of the storage did not increase based on potential. It will always increase by 10 for every level up.

    Cade took out the vitality crystal. He inspected his black hoodie and to level it up, he needed five level 1 magic crystals. He got a level 2 magic crystal, Cade wondered if it was possible to use level 2 magic crystal?

    ¡°How do I use this?¡± Cade held the vitality crystal and tried shoving it to the black hoodie he was wearing. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Cade stored his hoodie back into the storage and tried putting the level 2 vitality crystal into the black hoodie slot.

    The crystal suddenly vanished and the system let out a notification, [Choose the stat to increase: MDef? Durability?]

    For his black hoodie, it had two different stats. First was durability and second was magic defense. The black hoodie¡¯s durability had 1 point while the magic defense was 0.

    It was not a hard choice for Cade and he chose durability. It was an easy decision for him. Even if the black hoodie had a high magic defense, it will easily rip if it had 1 durability and having high magic defense on it will be useless if it easily ripped.

    Once Cade made his decision, the notification disappeared and he checked his black hoodie new stats.

    Name: Black Hoodie

    Level: 1

    Next Level: 3 level 1 magic crystals

    Durability: 20

    Magic Defense: 0

    ¡°The vitality crystal contains 20 points of vitality¡­ 20 durability¡­ Does that mean it adds that 20 points of vitality to my black hoodie¡¯s durability? Cool~¡± Cade felt impressed with his link growth skill.

    If he kept adding magic crystal of higher grade, it was possible to make his linked equipment absurdly powerful. That thought alone made him filled with joy.

    He also realized that using a level 2 magic crystal was counted as two level 1 magic crystals. That was convenient as there was no more level 1 slime that can be found on the first floor.

    After Cade finished adding the vitality crystal and checked his black hoodie, he opened a few cans of food he brought and started eating his dinner. After that, he went online and played with his genius phone.

    A few hours later, Cade fell asleep until morning. Once he woke up in the morning, he ate his breakfast and went back into the dungeon. Cade went straight to the second floor through the stone stairs at the end of the first floor.

    He thought he would get lucky and found the last slime of the first floor but unfortunately, he did not find it.

    The second floor of the dungeon contained the same species of slime but they were slightly stronger than the first floor. All of the slime on the second floor was either level 3 or level 4.

    Once Cade found his target, he immediately went for the kill. After a few killings of level 3 slimes, Cade leveled up to level 4. He poured all of the stat points on his luck increasing it from 21 to 31.

    Cade continued his killing and after 5 hours of hunting the slime, Cade once again leveled up to level 5. Just like before, his stat points were put into his luck increasing it to 41.

    During his hunt before he leveled up to level 5, thanks to his higher luck, he got two level 3 vitality crystals. He did not use them yet and stored them in his storage.

    Cade got deeper into the second floor and even though his level was at five, his killing of the slime had become slower. The higher-level slime was much stronger and with his level 1 weapon, he had a hard time killing them.

    His weapon was too low-level compared to the level of the slime he was currently hunting. He used all of his stat points on his luck and thus, his offensive stats stayed at the same level while the slime was getting stronger.

 Chapter 5

    ¡°Should I raise my other stats too?¡± Cade wondered if he should do that. He deeply considered doing that but decided to focus on his luck first.

    The luck stat was the weirdest stat out of all the other stats. It cannot be increased normally by stat point; it won¡¯t increase naturally too and the highest luck stat ever recorded was 76.

    That luck stat belonged to a girl from the Cupcake Star Sector and it was 5 years ago that it was recorded. That girl was not an awakener and she was a normal human.

    A lot of powerful and influential families coveted her luck stat and tried to matchmake her with sons from their family.

    It was common knowledge that children will inherit some of their parent¡¯s stats and that was what the powerful family was aiming for.

    If the lucky girl marries into their family, she will be able to produce children with high luck. Having many children with high luck meant that they will be able to make more money.

    Luck was the most valuable and money-making stat because of its ability in affecting item drop. Item drop business was the easiest business to be done if someone wanted to become rich faster.

    They were too valuable and used in a lot of things. The magic crystals were widely used in many things. Based on the type of magic crystal, it can be used in a variety of things.

    Stat based magic crystals like the vitality crystal, strength crystal, endurance crystal, dexterity crystal, and wisdom crystal were widely used in buffed potions for increasing stats for some time.

    Elemental based magic crystals like the fire crystal, water crystal, and wind crystal were widely used as an energy source to power up tools, gadgets, vehicles, machines and many more.

    It was also used widely in potions and just like the stat buff potions, the potions from the elemental magic crystal will granted the user elemental power for a certain period.

    There was also monster based magic crystal like the dragon crystal, tiger crystal and turtle crystal that were widely used in the research of genes.

    This crystal helped humans in making the animal meat softer, taste like a certain monster, strong like a certain monster and many more.

    There was also recently researched how the monster crystal can help in refining the bloodline of monsters into the human body granting them strength similar to monsters.

    Other than the magic crystal, monsters will also drop equipment. They were random drops. Sometimes the monster will drop a piece of powerful equipment and sometimes it will drop weak equipment.

    However, no matter how weak the equipment was, they can be sold at a high price. They were sought after all around the universe because it was much rarer compared to magic crystal.

    Monsters will also drop the skill book. Skill books were highly sought after by explorer because they were the only ones that can use the book.

    For explorers to do well in a fight, the skill was a must. Having stronger skills meant a higher chance of survival but only those powerful explorers were capable of getting strong skills as they were richer and powerful that others dare not to challenge them.

    Lastly, the rarest and most expensive item dropped ever was the puzzle. The puzzle was pieces of big parts of something like a weapon, shield, monster, skill book and many other things.

    If someone collected all the pieces of that puzzle, he or she will gain a super strong and powerful thing from that puzzle.

    For example, if someone completes a puzzle piece of a sword, that complete puzzle will turn into a powerful sword. The sword was said to be able to kill S grade explorers in one hit.

    The part about one hit was merely rumored but it was the truth that everything that came from the puzzle was super strong and super rare.

    Every time a puzzle piece appears in the market; their prices will usually reach trillions of space credits. Powerful and rich explorers will usually go all-out in obtaining the puzzle pieces.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    There were also once that a huge fight between powerful explorers happened because of the puzzle pieces. Seven planets were destroyed from their fights.

    Unfortunately, during the fights, someone sneakily stole that puzzle and the explorers did not get their hands on that puzzle.

    ---

    The day ended but Cade was not able to level up. His killing speed had slowed because his strength had not increased.

    However, Cade still felt happy because thanks to his high luck, he got more vitality crystal. Before he leveled up to level 5, he got 2 level 3 vitality crystal.

    After he increased his luck to 41, his killing after that got him another three level 3 and one level 4 vitality crystal.

    Cade decided to camp inside the dungeon because he was deep inside the second floor and it will take a longer time to get back to the first floor and out of the dungeon.

    Cade did not set up his tent as he was afraid that the slime would attack him without him noticing. The slime was well known to be harmless and dislike attacking but the last few slimes Cade encountered weirdly attacking him.

    Luckily, he had his iron round shield to defend himself or else, he would get hit by the slime¡¯s tackle. He found it weird at the beginning that the slime suddenly attacked him but he concluded that it was because he had been killing too many of them.

    Cade did not feel discouraged by that and he welcomed that a lot. Killing the monsters without them fighting back was boring.

    He also needed some experience in fighting and the slime did not give him any of that. Now that the slime had started attacking him, Cade felt happier as he will be able to get some fighting experience.

    Cade took out the vitality crystals he got to level up his linked equipment. He used one level 3 vitality crystal on his black hoodie and raised its magic defense to 30.

    Name: Black Hoodie

    Level: 2

    Next Level: 5 level 1 magic crystal

    Durability: 20

    Magic Defense: 30

    ¡°Though my black hoodie is only a level 2, its magic defense is equivalent to a grade E level 3 equipment,¡± said Cade as he looked at his black hoodie¡¯s stats.

    He was happy that his black hoodie had leveled up but it was useless in the slime dungeon because the slime did not know any magic skills.

    Cade decided to increase his cardboard short sword level next. Cade used two pieces of level 3 vitality crystals on it and it instantly leveled up to 2. Cade put 30 stat points to the attack and durability of his cardboard short sword.

    Name: Cardboard Short Sword

    Level: 2

    Next Level: 4 level 1 magic crystal

    Durability: 30

    Attack: 30

    Cade looked at his cardboard short sword and he compared it to his iron short sword he was currently using.

    Name: Iron Short Sword

    Grade: E

    Level: 1

    Durability: 10

    Attack: 10

    ¡°My cardboard is better than this iron,¡± said Cade and he was quite proud of his cardboard short sword. Cade decided to use his cardboard weapon and stored the iron short sword.

    He did not know how well the cardboard weapon will fare against the slime but he had a good feeling about it because of the cardboard short sword¡¯s stats.

    With the last two level 3 and one level 4 vitality crystal, Cade decided to invest all of them to his cardboard round shield raising the level of the shield by 2.

    Name: Cardboard Round Shield

    Level: 3

    Next Level: 5 level 1 magic crystal

    Durability: 50

    Defense: 50

    ¡°Haha~¡± Cade started laughing silently. Looking at the defense of his cardboard round shield, he was getting extremely confident in defending himself against the more offensive slime he will meet the next day.

    His cardboard round shield¡¯s stat was equivalent to a grade E level 5 equipment. He was currently on the second floor and only level 3 and level 4 slime presented there.

    Their attack won¡¯t even be able to scratch his shield¡­ if it was a metal type shield. Cade did not know how strong his cardboard shield would be but he had high hopes for it thanks to its stat.

    Cade had no more magic crystal left in his storage. With nothing else to do, he decided to rest for the day.

    The next morning, Cade packed up all of his things into his storage including the iron short sword and iron round shield.

    Cade started equipping himself with the cardboard short sword and cardboard round shield. He stared at his appearance and decided to use the cardboard mouth mask too to cover his face.

    Who knew? Maybe there suddenly were other explorers coming in and saw him swinging a cardboard sword and they would laugh at him.

    He will feel embarrassed about that. Even without anyone seeing him, he already felt extremely embarrassed. He did not want anyone to know his identity and decided to cover his face with the mouth mask. With everything set, Cade continued his exploration in the slime dungeon.

 Chapter 6

    Cade felt weird equipping the cardboard equipment because it was too light. Compared to the iron sword and shield, it was like day and night. Although the cardboard equipment had good stats, its composition was that of cardboard, so it was light.

    Cade tried swinging the cardboard short sword and his swing was fast thanks to the cardboard¡¯s lightweight. He did not know how good it would be but he hoped that it would be good.

    Ten minutes of walking further inside the second floor¡¯s dungeon, Cade found a level 4 slime. He cannot wait to test his cardboard equipment and he decided to rush towards the slime.

    The slime was shocked by the appearance of Cade but it did not run away but instead, it took its position and launched itself towards Cade.

    With the fast-approaching tackle from the slime reaching him, Cade immediately put up his cardboard round shield to block the incoming attack.

    ¡°Bap!!¡± the slime tackle hit the shield and the slime recoiled backward. Cade was happy to see his shield was holding nicely but was shocked a few seconds later as his shield had a dent on it.

    Cade decided to let it go at the moment and swung his cardboard sword towards the slime. The sword nicely damaged the slime¡¯s core but it did not kill the slime.

    The slime was shocked by the shield and later the attack from the sword. It quickly tried to regain its footing but Cade did not want to waste the chance and swung his sword again.

    The second strike from his sword nicely cut the slime¡¯s core and killed it. The slime evaporated but there was no item dropped.

    Cade checked his cardboard round shield and short sword. He frowned when he saw that the cardboard round shield had a dent on it and the cardboard short sword was wet from the slime¡¯s body fluid.

    His short sword had become heavy as it started absorbing the fluid and it started to bent and softened too. Luckily his shield did not get hit by the slime¡¯s fluid, it only dented and Cade tried to fix the dent part.

    Cade checked his cardboard equipment¡¯s stat and was surprised to see that their durability had decreased too much.

    His shield lost 10 points of durability and left with only 40 points of durability. His short sword was worse, its durability kept dropping without stopping and in a minute, 0 points left.

    His short sword had lost its appearance as a sword. It was totally like wet cardboard. It was unusable. Cade tried to wipe it but it was the same.

    In the end, Cade put his cardboard short sword on the ground and burned it. It will restore to its original state in a few hours.

    Cade sighed. He did not know how he could make his cardboard equipment useful. He thought that maybe he will raise its durability more so that it can stand longer fighting the slime.

    He felt like the slime was the worst enemy for his cardboard equipment. He killed the slime but he felt like he lost more than he won.

    Cade took out the iron short sword and replaced his cardboard short sword. He still used the cardboard round shield because he felt that it was better when he used it to block the slime¡¯s tackle compared to his iron round shield.

    It might have a dent on it but after he fixed the dent, the durability increased a bit.

    Cade continued his explorations forward and found a few more slimes. He cannot kill them as fast as before but it was better than nothing.

    Cade finally found the stairs to the third floor and he got lucky as the last slime he killed near the stairs dropped a level 4 vitality crystal.Stolen story; please report.

    Cade did not waste any more time and used it on his cardboard round shield, raising its durability and defense by 20 points each. One more magic crystal and he can raise his shield to level 4.

    Cade decided to raise his round shield¡¯s level first before he focused on his other linked equipment. His cardboard shield helped in blocking the slime¡¯s tackle. It might take quite a lot of damage but it was better than the iron round shield.

    Cade moved on to the third floor. The third floor will be filled with slime of levels 5 and 6. They were stronger than the second floor¡¯s slime.

    Cade took a deep breath and took the stairs to the third floor. Upon reaching the third floor, a group of three level 5 slimes ambushed him.

    Cade was shocked by the ambush and he immediately took up his shield to block the attack.

    He managed to block two of the slime, however, the third slime¡¯s tackle landed on his side without the protection of any equipment.

    Cade was sent flying to the wall and coughed out blood. His vitality and endurance were too low to reduce the damage from a level 5 monster.

    The three slimes did not stop and it rushed towards Cade. As he saw that, he used every ounce of energy left in his body to roll himself towards the stairs.

    Due to his injury from the attack, he cannot stand up because it was extremely painful. It was the first time in his life he felt that kind of pain.

    The roll helped him reach the stairs and instead of walking down, he kept rolling towards the second floor.

    The three slimes did not want to let him go and followed him to the second floor. Once Cade reached the second floor, he immediately took out a healing potion and drank it.

    His body immediately healed and he stood up and readied himself to fight the slime. One of the level 5 slimes reached the second floor first and Cade used the same tactic the slime used earlier and ambushed that slime.

    His plan worked and succeeded in damaging the level 5 slime¡¯s core but it did not break. Cade continued slashing the core and after about six times of rapid slashing, the core broke and to his surprise, he leveled up to level 6.

    Cade immediately used the stat points to increase his luck to 51. He did not think of increasing his other stats when he knew he needed to do that the most because he knew he did not need it.

    He got hurt earlier because he was ambushed. He should have been more careful but because it was a slime, he never thought he needed to worry much. What happened earlier taught him a good lesson.

    No matter how weak a monster was, they were still a monster. No matter how nice a monster was, he still needed to be vigilant and careful.

    When Cade thought of the pain he felt earlier, he got angry at himself. He knew it was his fault and he should be more careful. He got too comfortable killing the slime and now he knew he should not.

    The other two slimes arrived and Cade bashed his shield to one of the slimes and sent it flying away from him while he slashed his iron sword towards the other slime.

    Just like earlier, he kept slashing the slime¡¯s core until it broke. Once he killed that slime, he did not stop and attacked the last slime. After a few seconds, he killed the last slime.

    Cade breathed heavily as that was the first time, he fought that hard. He did not feel happy about it and felt extremely tired.

    Cade saw the last slime evaporated and left a vitality crystal. He looked at the other one and that slime also dropped a level 5 vitality crystal.

    Cade collected both of them and he sat beside a wall and leaned on it. He stared at the two pieces of level 5 vitality crystal in his hand. Cade closed his eyes to stabilize his breathing.

    Once his breathing stabilized, he slowly opened his eyes and used the two vitality crystals on his cardboard round shield raising its level to 5.

    Name: Cardboard Round Shield

    Level: 5

    Next Level: 1 level 1 magic crystal

    Durability: 120

    Defense: 120

    Cade distributed the stats properly between the durability and defense. His cardboard round shield¡¯s durability and defense rose to a whopping 120 and it put it on the same level as a grade E level 12 shield.

    His shield had become the most important equipment he needed to kill the slime. Now that the slime had started to get much more aggressive, he needed his shield to hold itself longer.

    With his 51 luck, he will be able to get more magic crystal than before. It was evidenced in his fight against the three slimes earlier when two of them dropped a magic crystal each.

    ¡°With my luck this high, I will be able to farm more magic crystals. All of my equipment needs a lot of them,¡± said Cade. He sat there for about half an hour before he started heading back to the third floor.

 Chapter 7

    Cade¡¯s exploration on the third floor was moving smoothly. It was slower than before but he did not suffer any injuries as before because he had been treading carefully since the fight against the three slimes.

    Thanks to his high luck, he got more magic crystal than before. Every four to five slime he killed, he will get himself one magic crystal. He had collected about fifteen pieces of level 5 vitality crystal and five pieces of level 6 vitality crystal.

    Unfortunately, he was unable to level up. He realized that once he reached level 5, it was getting harder and harder to level up.

    However, he did not feel down about it because he got a good amount of magic crystal that he can use to power up his linked equipment.

    He decided to stop for the day and his third day inside the dungeon ended. Just like the two days before, Cade started feeding the magic crystal to his linked equipment.

    Name: Cardboard Round Shield

    Level: 6

    Next Level: 0 level 1 magic crystal

    Durability: 150

    Defense: 150

    Cade kept giving the vitality crystal to his cardboard round shield and once it reached level 6, he cannot give it more crystal. He now knew that his level was the limit level of his linked equipment.

    Once he leveled up to level 7, he will be able to give more crystal to his shield to level up. He still had quite a lot of vitality crystal. Cade did not know which equipment he should power up.

    A few minutes of thinking, he decided to power up his cardboard short sword. The slime fluid was still a big problem for his sword but he still decided to go with it.

    Name: Cardboard Short Sword

    Level: 6

    Next Level: 4 level 1 magic crystal

    Durability: 130

    Attack: 130

    A grade E level 5 monsters will have the maximum endurance of 50 points and 60 points for level 6. With his cardboard short sword¡¯s attack points, it could one-hit kill all the slime on the third floor.

    However, its weakness to the slime¡¯s fluid was the greatest enemy of Cade¡¯s cardboard equipment. He planned to wipe his cardboard sword immediately once he killed a slime.

    The cardboard can absorb the fluid but it was not that fast. If Cade cleaned it fast, it was possible to keep his sword fine throughout his exploration in the dungeon.

    The slime fluid was much thicker compared to water and it will take a while to be absorbed by his cardboard short sword.

    After Cade finished powering up his linked equipment, he went to sleep. Due to Cade staying in a dangerous area, he did not fall asleep for real.

    He just closed his eyes and was alert of his surroundings. He did not want the slime to ambush him like earlier in the day.

    Time passed and it was morning. Cade felt tired when he woke up because he was attacked by slimes a few times last night.

    One of the attacks almost hit him and he got lucky that the slime missed and he did not suffer any injuries.

    He also tried using his cardboard short sword like what he had planned and it worked perfectly. He wiped his sword as fast as he could and prevented the sword from absorbing the fluid.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Just like he thought, he only needed one hit to kill the slime. His cardboard sword had a tremendous amount of attack power. Slimes inside the dungeon won¡¯t be able to stay alive once they were hit by his sword.

    Cade continued his explorations and his pace was much faster than before. He needed to slash the slime¡¯s core once and the slime will die.

    There were no exceptions, all of the slimes he found met the same fate. As he killed more and more of the slimes, the slimes became more and more aggressive.

    It was like they were connected and they were angry that more and more of them died. Not only did they become more aggressive but smarter too.

    Usually, they will just directly attack Cade or ambush him but now, they were different. The slime fought with strategies.

    The slimes did not blindly tackle Cade. It now knew to wait, evade and wait for an opportunity to strike.

    Cade was impressed with the way the latest slimes he found fought. They thought more when fighting. Cade had gotten used to one-hit kill them but now that they knew to evade, he needed to hit them more than once.

    The most he had hit was ten times. That was how hard it was to kill them after they had improved themselves.

    The third floor was not as big as the first and second floors. A few hours after he started his explorations on the fourth day, he found the stairs to the fourth floor.

    Cade did not waste any more time and went to the fourth floor. On that floor, Cade will be able to fight level 7 and 8 slimes.

    Cade had a bit of trauma entering the new floor thanks to the ambush he got on the third floor¡¯s entrance. So, he entered the fourth floor with extreme caution. In his current stat, he couldn''t survive if he was attacked.

    His caution this time saved him because the slime did wait to ambush him at the entrance of the fourth floor. There were five of them.

    Due to them starting to fight with strategies, Cade took a bit more time to kill them. Once he killed the fourth slime, he leveled up to level 7. Just like before, he raised his luck to 61.

    The last slime he killed showed him how much luck he had because it dropped an armor. It was plain iron body armor.

    Name: Iron Body Armor

    Grade: E

    Level: 7

    Durability: 70

    Defense: 70

    Cade needed more protection and immediately wore that iron body armor. Once he wore it, he realized how heavy it was.

    ¡°This does not feel that good,¡± said Cade as he tried to move while wearing the body armor but it was better than nothing.

    With the new armor, he felt a bit safer than before. It was a bit hard to move but he needed it to survive. Cade continued his explorations forwards.

    The new armor did help him a lot. The slimes had gotten smarter and their attacks had started landing on him. Luckily, he had the armor or else he might have left the world.

    All of the slimes he met on the fourth floor also started moving in a group. Not once he met an alone slime on the fourth floor. The slimes fighting in a group were a huge problem for Cade.

    It took longer and longer for him to kill them. His fighting skills and strategies were tested to their limit. He felt really tired every time he finished fighting a group of slime.

    It was evening and Cade decided to head back to the third floor. He decided to stop hunting for the day earlier than usual because he was extremely tired.

    Staying the night on the fourth floor was not a good idea and thus he went to the third floor. There were still a few more slimes on the third floor but they were not a threat to Cade.

    Once Cade arrived on the third floor, he set up his camp. Cade checked his haul for the day. He was extremely glad for his high luck. He got a lot of magic crystals.

    He did not get any equipment other than the iron body armor he currently wore but the huge amount of magic crystal was enough to satisfy himself.

    He got ten pieces of level 5, five pieces of level 6, twenty pieces of level 7 and fifteen pieces of level 8 vitality crystals. If he were to sell all of the magic crystals, he would get a lot of money.

    Unfortunately, the magic crystals were important to him to increase the stat of his linked equipment.

    Cade planned to sell any equipment he found because he won¡¯t need most of them and to raise his chance of getting equipment drop, he needed to increase his luck.

    Cade knew he needed to start increasing his other stat but he had a feeling that he should keep increasing his luck.

    From all the knowledge he had about luck, he felt like the luck stat had its limit. He wanted to know what happened when he reached that limit. He speculated that the limit of the luck was 100 and he wanted to try reaching that limit.

    However, due to him having a grade E potential, he will need to reach level 10 to be able to get 100 luck. His rate of leveling had gone slower and slower and he did not know if he would be able to reach level 10 before his time limit entry to the dungeon ended.

    While he was thinking about all of that, an idea came across his mind.

 Chapter 8

    ¡°If I can increase my luck, can I increase my grade too?¡± Cade wondered. Seeing that his luck can be increased, it was possible that he can increase his grade, lifespan and everything else linked to him.

    Cade never once tried to check it but he was desperate to become stronger and he should try it even if it was not working.

    Cade opened his stats screen and stared at his grade E potential. Looking at it, he sighed. His special skill made it possible for him to increase his puny luck, he hoped that it could increase his grade too.

    Cade tried touching the ¡®grade E¡¯ on the system screen and to his surprise, besides it appeared a sentence.

    ¡®1000 Grade E level 1 magic Crystal¡¯ was what the sentence said. Cade¡¯s body started shivering with excitement. He felt like crying too. He was really happy that he could increase his grade.

    Cade tried touching his other stats too like his lifespan, age, vitality, strength, endurance, dexterity, wisdom, and level.

    However, out of all of them, only lifespan and age can be increased. Both needed stat points instead of the magic crystal.

    For one year increase of lifespan, Cade needed to use 10 stat points. As for his age, he can decrease his age for a year with 100 stat points.

    Cade was amazed that he can increase his lifespan and also reversed his age. However, he found it a waste to use his stat points there because his lifespan will increase automatically when he leveled up and he was still young to lower his age more.

    Unfortunately, his skill did not affect his other stat. Cade concluded that maybe that start was capable of increasing normally with stat points and link growth did not bother to affect that.

    With this discovery, Cade immediately poured all of the magic crystal he got that day to increase his grade.

    Thanks to his huge amount of magic crystals, Cade added 340 grade E level 1 magic crystals to increase his grade. He needed another 660 grade E level 1 magic crystals more to increase his grade to D.

    This discovery made him treasured all the magic crystals he got. They were totally useful to him. He extremely needed them to increase his linked equipment and also his grade.

    Both equipment and grade potential played a huge part in an explorer¡¯s strength. The higher their grade, the stronger they become. The better equipment they had, the stronger they become.

    Cade calmed down and went to sleep.

    He started his fifth day in the dungeon as usual. Once he had his breakfast, he headed to the fourth floor and continued his explorations.

    At his current pace, Cade could complete the dungeon before his time limit ended. There were only five floors in the slime dungeon and he was currently on the fourth floor on his fifth day.

    If there were no hiccups happening in his explorations later, he will be able to complete the dungeon before his limit entry license ended its time.

    He was excited to think that he might be able to complete the dungeon solo. He knew the slime was weak and the dungeon was weak overall but he was still happy nonetheless.

    ---

    Cade met his first slime of the day and similar to how all of the fourth floor¡¯s slime had been, they were in a group.

    Cade started his killing immediately. Due to the floor getting smaller and smaller, he arrived at the end of the fourth floor three hours after he started his day.

    Cade decided to take a rest for a bit before he advanced to the fifth floor. The fifth floor was the last floor of the dungeon and seeing what had happened to the fourth floor, he needed to be extra careful.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    It was also a common knowledge that the fifth floor housed the highest level monsters the dungeon can offer and they were strong.

    Other than that, the last floor will have a boss monster. The boss monster will usually exceed the dungeon¡¯s level limit and it was the biggest threat to all explorers who wanted to complete the dungeon.

    If an explorer wanted to complete and close the dungeon fast, he or she can go straight to the boss and kill it.

    However, no explorer wanted to do that because the monsters dropped items and that items were valuable. No one wanted to let that fortune pass.

    Cade checked his haul he had gotten. His high luck was working well that morning. He got himself a grade E level 8 bow and a grade E level 7 spear.

    They were grade E equipment and thus did not have anything special. He had no intention of using them but they still fetched quite a lot of money when he sold it. The equipment was left in his storage once he had looked at it.

    He also got twelve pieces of level 7 and ten pieces of level 8 vitality crystals. Cade used them all to increase his grade. He was currently halfway to increasing his grade to D.

    When he got enough rest, Cade went to the fifth floor. To his surprise, there was no ambush from the slime this time but he still stayed cautious.

    All of the slimes on the fifth floor were at level 9 and 10. He did not want to make any mistakes and always stayed vigilant.

    Upon walking further and further inside the fifth floor, he still did not meet any group of slime, even an alone slime had not once appeared in front of him.

    Cade had a bad feeling however, he continued forward. Once he felt like he had walked too far, Cade stopped.

    He opened his system and checked how many slimes were there on the fifth floor. Upon seeing the number of slimes, he was shocked.

    There were many of them but he did not meet any of them.

    ¡°Maybe they are scared of me?¡± Cade wondered. It felt like the slimes were evading him on purpose.

    ¡°If they were running away from me, this is not good for me. I can¡¯t get more items,¡± said Cade worried that he won¡¯t be able to get anymore item drop.

    While Cade was focusing himself on his system, something was coming fast at him. Without him realizing, an army of slimes had surrounded him.

    Cade sighed when he thought about not meeting anymore slime, unbeknownst to him that they were already surrounding him. Cade was again being careless.

    He closed his system and was shocked to see he was surrounded. ¡°Damn it!!¡± Cade immediately took a fighting stance readying himself to fight the army of slime.

    However, the slime did not move. They looked totally angry¡­ or maybe rage and it was shown clearly in their eyes. They were shining red. It was scary.

    Cade¡¯s hair stood while looking at their eyes. Sweat started forming on his forehead and flowed down. Cade knew he was in an extremely dangerous situation.

    Suddenly, the ground shook lightly. It was not an earthquake and Cade felt like something big was moving towards him.

    Then, he saw something huge was coming. When it got closer, Cade saw an extremely huge slime. Compared to the slimes that had surrounded him, that huge slime was twenty times bigger than them.

    ¡°The dungeon boss,¡± Cade immediately knew the identity of the huge slime. It seemed like the boss slime was either controlling the slimes or buffing them.

    The boss slime stopped on its track and stared at Cade. Cade did the same but the boss slime was staring viciously at Cade.

    Cade wanted to stare viciously too but he was unable to do that because the pressure of the boss slime was too great. He felt fear.

    After a minute of staring, the boss slime smiled sinisterly with its red eyes. Cade felt goosebumps all over his body. His danger-sense was tingling violently and he realized that the army of slime had started attacking him.

    Cade blocked the incoming attack with his cardboard round shield and slashed the slime with his cardboard short sword. He killed the slime in front of him instantly but the one at his side tackled him.

    Thanks to his body armor, he did not suffer much damage but it hurt. However, he held it in and slashed that slime and killed it too.

    His one hit killed worked wondrously even against the level 9 and level 10 monsters.

    The slime army came at him fast and he moved as fast as he could too.

    Cade blocked an attack, slashed and killed the slime and at the same time got hit by another slime. This routine kept happening.

    Other than enduring the pain he felt, there was nothing else he could do to elevate the pain. He struck and then, he got hit. He did not know how he could dodge their attack because there were too many of them.

    Cade leveled up while he kept killing the slime. Instead of increasing his luck, he increased his endurance. At the moment, he needed to endure the attack coming at him and kept killing them.

    If he gave up, he will die.

 Chapter 9

    Cade suffered too much damage. He took out a potion and drank it while fighting the slimes.

    It never once crossed his mind that he would use a potion while exploring the slime dungeon. Slime was well known to be a friendly and harmless monster.

    He never thought that he would get injured inside the slime dungeon. However, he still bought some potions in case he needed it.

    That decision was correct but he did not have much of them and he will finish all of the potions if he kept getting hit.

    His situation was dire. If he knew he would end up in this situation, he would buy an emergency teleporter. With that teleporter, he can teleport outside the dungeon when he was in danger.

    That item was quite expensive but it was really useful. It was a life-saving item.

    The battle kept going, his body armor and cardboard round shield had suffered a lot of damage. It would break soon if he kept getting hit.

    Although he suffered a lot of injuries, the slime also lost a lot of its comrade. Cade had killed 50% of them and soon, all of the slimes will die.

    Upon watching their comrade had fallen one by one, some of the slimes started falling back. However, upon seeing them doing that, the boss slime ordered them to move forward.

    Due to fear of their boss, the slimes bit their lips and moved forward. Looking at the massacre that Cade made, they knew they wouldn''t last long.

    If they fall back, their boss will kill them and if they move forward, Cade will kill them. They were in a dilemma. They feared both their boss and Cade.

    Suddenly, a slime thought of something. In a crisis, its mind came with an idea. Its group was still further away from Cade and it will take a while before they reached him.

    Sneakily, slime 1 whispered something to slime 2.

    ¡°Are we going to follow the Boss?¡± asked Slime 1. Slime 2 frowned when he heard that.

    ¡°What do you mean by that? He is our boss, we should follow his order,¡± said Slime 2. When he said that, there was a bit of hesitation in his voice and Slime 1 caught on that.

    ¡°You know, Boss is an asshole all this time. He never once treated us well and now he wants us to sacrifice our life to protect himself,¡± said Slime 1 seriously.

    Slime 2 was still focusing on the fight that was happening but he still listened to what slime 1 was saying. He looked at Slime 1, ¡°So? That is our duty as his subordinate,¡± said Slime 2.

    ¡°Do you see how strong that human is? He only needs to slash at our core once and we are out! I am still young and I don¡¯t want to die yet,¡± said Slime 1 with a grim face.

    ¡°¡­¡± Slime 2 was silent. He stared at Slime 1 but he did not say anything.

    ¡°I also don¡¯t want to die,¡± a sweet and soft voice appeared beside Slime 2. Slime 2 looked at the beautiful and cute Slime 3 that stood beside him.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want you to die too,¡± said Slime 3 to Slime 2. Slime 2¡¯s core shook. Slime 2 and Slime 3 had been dating for a while and seeing the scared face of Slime 3, his core felt heavy.

    Slime 3 started thinking rationally. Thinking of the girl he loves died, he felt sad. He knew it in his core that they stood no chance in winning against that strong human.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    He and Slime 3 did not want to die but there was nothing they could do. Slime 2 looked at Slime 1.

    ¡°You have any idea?¡± asked Slime 2 as he knew his friend must have thought of something.

    ¡°Let¡¯s help that human,¡± said Slime 1 confidently but Slime 2 frowned again.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think that a human can do anything. He might be strong but he still suffered a lot of injuries. He is at least at the same level as us while our boss is far stronger than us,¡± said Slime 2.

    ¡°Tch, tch, tch,¡± Slime 1 shook its body left and right.

    ¡°That human is weak but that weak looking sword he uses is on another level. Our boss is around level 11 but I felt like that sword had the power of around level 13¡­ If we support that human properly, we might stand a chance of killing Boss,¡± said Slime 1 and he evilly smiled.

    Slime 1 cannot wait to see his boss die. He hated his boss to the core since his boss once stole his girlfriend in the past. He held a huge grudge against his boss and that wench.

    Slime 2 started thinking if it was the right thing to do.

    Looking at Slime 2, Slime 3 lightly nudging Slime 2 body. Slime 2 looked at Slime 3 and he blushed. Slime 3 lovingly stared at Slime 2. She wanted Slime 2 to agree to Slime 1.

    Slime 2 was defeated by that look and agreed to Slime 1 suggestion, ¡°By the way, how sure are you that the sword is strong?¡± asked Slime 2.

    ¡°100% sure. I once met a level 13 slime and he emitted the same kind of strength that the sword was emitting,¡± said Slime 1 confidently.

    ¡°And I am pretty sure that the boss knew it too. He tried to make that human tired by using sheer numbers against him. He knew he stood no chance against that human¡¯s sword,¡± Slime 1 continued.

    ¡°Spread the words,¡± said Slime 2 like a man. He showed his manly side to Slime 3 but Slime 3 only smiled while looking at her silly boyfriend.

    Upon hearing the words, Slime 1 started telling others about their plan. Just like what he thought, they all did not want to die and they hated their boss.

    They were thinking of defecting too but were too afraid to say anything. The words spread around the army of slime and slowly and steadily, more and more slime readied themselves to help Cade.

    They still got the buff from their boss and they wanted to use that buff to pay back to their boss for treating them like shit.

    The boss slime was unaware of what had happened to his army, he was concentrating on Cade. His mind was running wild and he prayed hard that his minions will finish Cade off.

    However, he got more and more impatient as well as annoyed when Cade kept healing when he was on the verge of dying.

    He was scared of the sword and did not want to risk his own life and thus he asked his minions to settle the fight.

    Suddenly, he saw his minions stopped fighting. ¡°Hmm? Why are they stopping?¡± Boss Slime wondered.

    ¡°You idiot!!! Why are you stopping? Keep attacking that human!!!¡± the Boss Slime screamed to the top of his fluid. He got mad that they stopped.

    However, even with that screaming, none of them were moving. ¡°Is this that human¡¯s skill! Stopping the movement of my minions?¡± thought the Boss Slime.

    But the slime¡¯s boss remembered that Cade did not once use any skill during his explorations inside the dungeon. He only used his sword to kill the slimes. How can Cade suddenly have had the skill? Skill book? But the slime did not know any skill that can stop the movement.

    ¡°Is it a skill that has some kind of limit?¡± thought the Boss Slime. ¡°But I cannot feel any magic coming out of that human?¡±

    ¡°Wait! He looks shocked too. Is it not his doing then? Could it be that there is someone else inside this dungeon right now?!!¡± The Boss Slime panicked.

    If there was someone else nearby and that person can use this heavenly skill, he won¡¯t stand a chance in winning. He might get one shot by that human.

    Fear started to fill his core and he started to retreat slowly. He did not want to die.

    Cade saw that the situation suddenly turned weird. The army of slime stopped attacking him and he saw that the slime¡¯s boss¡¯s face was filled with fear.

    ¡°Are they starting to feel fear towards me?¡± Cade wondered and then, he saw the boss slime sneakily trying to retreat. ¡°Should I attack that boss?¡±

    The Boss Slime turned the other way and started running away. Cade was shocked that the slime¡¯s boss was running away.

    Cade assumed that the boss did fear him but unfortunately that was not the case. The Boss Slime did not fear Cade, he feared the unknown ¡®explorer¡¯ nearby and the cardboard short sword that Cade wielded.

    When the slime¡¯s boss started running away, the army of slime suddenly moved and blocked his path. The slime¡¯s boss¡¯s face changed.

    ¡°That explorer can control their movement too!!!¡± The slime¡¯s boss got more scared.

    ¡°Attack!!!¡± Slime 2 shouted.

 Chapter 10

    Once the slimes heard Slime 2 command, they all started attacking the boss slime. The slime was huge and he cannot dodge the attack of the army of slime.

    All it could do was take the damage and endured it. The boss slime¡¯s focus was to escape from them. He was afraid that if he wasted his time fighting the other slime, the unknown explorer would appear and kill him.

    Slime was known to have high physical resistance and the only way physical attack worked on them was by destroying its core. Cade had been doing that since he started exploring the slime dungeon.

    However, the physical resistance rule only applied to the attack from other species. If a slime attacked another slime using a physical attack, they will receive the normal physical damage.

    With that many slimes attacking the boss slime, he received a lot of damage. The situation was dire for the boss slime and he decided to take action too.

    Cade was watching with interest at what was currently happening in front of him. He had no idea why the slime was attacking their boss.

    While he was looking at them attacking their boss, three slimes approached him. Cade saw the three slimes came to him and readied himself to attack.

    However, one of the slimes immediately moved and Cade weirdly looked at that slime. It did not look like it was trying to attack him. Cade lowered his sword.

    Upon seeing that, the three slimes sighed. They were Slime 1, Slime 2 and Slime 3.

    Slime 1 moved forward and tried to write something on the ground. Slime 1 had met a lot of humans before and he knew their language. Once it finished writing, Cade read it.

    ¡°We hate fighting and we mean no harm. Let¡¯s stop our war. Let us go and we will help you defeat our boss,¡± said Slime 1 with its writing. Cade was shocked by what he read.

    That meant, the slime rebelled. They were helping him kill their boss in exchange for their freedom. ¡°They must have hated their boss a lot and decided to do this,¡± thought Cade.

    He was impressed with their intelligence and felt a bit guilty of killing a lot of them. Cade felt like he made a huge mistake of attacking the slime.

    Cade knew they were attacking him because he attacked them first. They were getting revenge for their fallen comrade.

    Cade wondered if the other explorer knew about this and decided to let the slime go. He also knew the slime was harmless but he never thought they were this intelligent.

    Cade was the one at fault in this situation and he felt like his knowledge about the slime was too shallow. He always thought the slime was a mindless and stupid monster. He felt guilty.

    ¡°I am sorry for attacking your home,¡± said Cade and he bowed at the three slimes. They nodded and accepted his apology.

    Even if they tried to attack Cade for revenge, they stood no chance. Cade was too strong for them. Their focus right now was to kill their boss.

    While they were talking, the boss slime suddenly made his moves and started attacking the slimes. He was still in the dark about his minions¡¯ rebellion.

    Tentacles made from the boss slime¡¯s body fluid formed around the boss slime¡¯s body. The boss slime launched his tentacles and attacked the other slimes.

    Cade was shocked to see that the boss slime was capable of doing that.

    Cade was also angry that he dared to attack his own minions especially now that he knew the slimes were a nice creature. Humans did that a lot but he never thought that it happened in the monster community too.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Cade and the three slimes did not waste any more time and went to join the fight. Cade looked at his cardboard sword and it was wet and heavy.

    Thanks to its high durability, the sword still retained its shape but it won¡¯t be long before it crumbled. Cade needed to finish the boss slime as fast as possible.

    The boss slime saw Cade advance towards him and he felt more pressure. He did his best attacking his ¡®controlled¡¯ minions and now, the humans joined the fights too.

    His minions were too many and he cannot one-hit kill them as Cade did and now he knew what Cade felt. The slime boss did not possess any active healing skill too and his damage kept rising.

    Cade was getting nearer and it knew that Cade was much more of a threat compared to his minions. He decided to ignore his minions and focused his tentacles attack toward Cade.

    The slime boss¡¯s tentacles were moving fast towards Cade but Cade did not slow down and instead, he kept moving forward.

    One of the tentacles arrived and Cade evaded it and then cut that tentacle. He kept moving forward cutting and evading every tentacle coming his way.

    The boss slime was shocked to see Cade¡¯s movement evading his tentacles. He knew Cade¡¯s strength, endurance, dexterity was low based on what he saw during Cade¡¯s fight with his minions.

    Cade had a hard time evading their attack and always getting hit and the slime boss was right. Other than Cade¡¯s luck, his other stats were trash.

    However, the boss slime was wrong about one thing, Cade was unable to evade the attack of his minions because there were too many of them.

    With only the boss slime as his target, it was easy to evade his attack especially when the tentacles were straightforward in attacking him.

    There were no feints or anything else in the tentacles. It was really easy to dodge. Cade fought hundreds of slimes earlier and compared it with the tentacles, ¡°Meh~¡± it was too easy for Cade.

    The army of slime was much scarier compared to the boss slime. Tens of tentacles straightforwardly attacking at the same time was nothing compared to an army of slime fighting strategically.

    Cade was shocked earlier when he first saw the tentacles but once he encountered it himself, it was nothing much.

    They packed a lot of power but as long as it did not hit him, the tentacles were nothing. Cade got a lot of ¡®training¡¯ earlier when fighting the army of slime.

    Many of the slimes saw Cade getting nearer towards their boss and started attacking more and more to give more damage to their boss.

    Cade evaded another tentacle and arrived in front of the boss slime. The boss slime was worried but not too much because his body fluid was thick and his core was still quite far from Cade.

    He still manipulated his tentacles to attack Cade but his minions had started blocking his tentacles too.

    Cade started slashing his sword to open a path towards the boss slime¡¯s core, however, the boss slime¡¯s regenerative ability was stronger than normal slime.

    Every time he slashed, in a second, the wound healed. It kept happening and Cade did not know what he should do.

    But then, when he slashed once more, Slime 2 jumped forward and blocked the fluid from healing.

    The healing stopped. Cade and the boss slime were shocked. They were shocked because Slime 2 stopped the healing.

    Cade did not want to waste the opportunity and slashed the boss slime¡¯s body more.

    When the other slime saw what Slime 2 did, more and more of them moved towards the wound and stopped its healing. Bit by bit, Cade and the slimes were getting deeper and deeper into the boss slime¡¯s body.

    The boss slime shuddered. They were inside his body and he cannot digest them because they were not inside his fluid.

    The boss slime tried moving its body to shake Cade and the other slime out of his body but he was unable to do that.

    His minions had been attacking him non-stop and blocking his movement. The boss slime encountered the biggest crisis in his whole life.

    He did not know what he should do. He had no more tricks, skills or anything else he can use at the moment.

    Looking at his minions, he also realized something else. They were not controlled by someone else. They looked sane and some of them even mockingly smiled at him knowing he would die soon.

    The boss slime now knew that they betrayed him. He had been treating them well (he thought he was nice to them) all this time and that was how they paid him back.

    The boss slime gave up and he called his tentacles back into his body. He would just let Cade kill him.

    After continuously slashing the boss slime¡¯s body, Cade finally arrived in front of the boss slime¡¯s core.

    Slime 1, Slime 2 and Slime 3 were by his side. They looked at Cade and nodded at him asking him to destroy the core.

    Cade nodded back and without any hesitation, he slashed the core a few times and it broke to pieces.

 Chapter 11

    The boss slime¡¯s core was destroyed by Cade¡¯s cardboard sword and died. Cade was inside the boss slime¡¯s body and around him was steam coming out from the evaporating boss slime¡¯s body.

    Not only Cade, Slime 1, Slime 2, Slime 3 and few others slime also seeing the spectacle inside from inside the body of the boss slime. Cade felt weird as the steam was not hot or cold, it felt like normal air.

    After Cade killed the boss slime, he leveled up once to level 9. He did not distribute his stat points yet as he was viewing the vapors.

    About 30 seconds later, the boss slime evaporated completely and to Cade''s surprise, the boss dropped a skill book.

    Cade saw it and he cannot help but feel extremely happy. Skill book was super rare and he got one. ¡°Raising my luck is the right thing ever,¡± said Cade with a huge smile on his face.

    Cade put the skill book into his storage without viewing it. Suddenly, the dungeon started shaking lightly.

    Cade looked around and he knew the dungeon would disappear soon. He needed to get out of the dungeon fast.

    Cade turned around and saw many slimes collecting the drop item and put them in front of Cade.

    Slime 1 came forward and wrote on the ground, ¡°Take this and quickly leave this dungeon. It will be gone soon.¡±

    Cade took all of the drop items and put it in his storage. Most of them were vitality crystals and there were two pieces of equipment among them.

    Once Cade put all of them in his storage, he decided to leave. If he stayed any longer, he might have been trapped there or worse died alongside the destroying dungeon.

    The truth was, no one in the universe knew what happened to the dungeon when someone completed it.

    Some theory said that the portal closed but the dungeon was still there. It will reappear a few years later. There was also a theory that the dungeon was destroyed forever.

    Cade did not want to know what would happen and decided to leave immediately but then, he stopped his steps. He remembered something, the leftover slime.

    Cade looked behind him and saw that the slimes did not intend to leave the dungeon. He looked at the slime weirdly.

    ¡°You guys are not leaving the dungeon?¡± Cade asked the slimes.

    Slime 1 being the only slime who knew human language stepped forward and wrote on the ground, ¡°We are not. Don¡¯t worry about us and leave here fast. Humans will die if you get trapped inside the dungeon.¡±

    ¡®So, humans will die if they stay in the dungeon?...¡± thought Cade. He looked at slime 1 and asked, ¡°What will happen to all of you if you stay here?¡±

    Looking at the slimes relaxed nature, Cade thought that they will be fine but will they live inside the dungeon for all their lives.

    ¡°When this dungeon is destroyed, we will be sent back home,¡± Slime 1 wrote on the ground.

    ¡°Home? Where?¡± asked Cade. He thought it would be nice to know where they live. One of the mysteries of the monsters were their origins.

    After 10 000 years had passed since the appearance of dungeons and monsters, humans still did not know where they came from.

    There were theories they came from another universe or dimension. There was also the theory that they were the byproduct of human misdeeds and there were many more theories.

    However, no one managed to get any proof of their origins. In the beginning, everyone was eager to find out the mysteries but later, no one cared anymore.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    They just hoped that the dungeons and monsters did not suddenly disappear because their drop item was valuable.

    ¡°Our world,¡± wrote Slime 1 while smiling.

    ¡°Which planet?¡± asked Cade curiously but Slime 1 did not answer him. It just smiled at Cade.

    Looking at the response from Slime 1, Cade knew they did not want to tell him. Maybe because he killed too many of their comrades and did not want him to come to their planets.

    Cade felt guilty again. He decided not to pursue that further and left the dungeon. However, before he left, he bowed once again towards the slime and apologized for killing their comrades.

    After that, Cade immediately left them and rushed towards the dungeon¡¯s entrance. He had stayed too long inside.

    While passing through someplace inside the dungeon, he saw some of the walls had collapsed and he hastened his pace.

    Finally, he arrived at the dungeon¡¯s entrance and immediately got out of the dungeon. Once he got out, the white portal of the dungeon entrance slowly dissipated.

    A few minutes later, the dungeon completely disappeared. Cade got worried about the slimes. He wondered if they really will be fine.

    [Congratulations on completing the slime dungeon solo. Gain Grade E ¡®Conqueror¡¯ title and all stats increase by 10] the system suddenly gave a notification to Cade.

    Cade did not get surprised by the title gained because it was common knowledge of gaining the title after dungeon completion.

    Cade checked his stats.

    Name: Cade

    Age: 20

    Lifespan: 60

    Potential: E [504 / 1000 Grade E Level 1 Magic Crystal]

    Level: 9

    Stat Points: 10

    Vitality: 20

    Strength: 13

    Endurance: 23

    Dexterity: 13

    Wisdom: 15

    Luck: 61

    Thanks to the Conqueror title, Cade got a boost in all of his stats. He felt happy seeing his boosts in his stats. He can feel the effect of his stats increasing different from his luck.

    He had 10 stat points unused from leveling up earlier and decided to use it on his luck like he had planned all this time and increasing it to 71.

    ¡°My luck had almost reached the same amount as that lucky girl¡­ Am I a lucky boy now?¡± muttered Cade while looking at his high luck.

    Cade checked his limit entry license and had 2 more extra days. Alongside that, the license also listed his list of drop items and also marked red at the item he should use as his 5% tax.

    He got too many magic crystals and needed to pay quite a lot. Luckily, the license marked he paid using one of the equipments he got. He did not need any of the dropped equipment and thus he did not mind parting with one of them.

    The body armor he used against the army of slime was unusable. He decided to throw it away.

    Cade took out the equipment the license marked and put it on top of the license. The license glowed and enveloped the equipment and then the equipment was teleported to the government office as his tax. The license then disappeared as the dungeon had been completed.

    The license was made from special materials with few functions on it.

    One of them was recording the drop item and suggested which one should be paid as tax. However, even if it was recording the drop item, no one can see it and only the owner of the license was allowed to see the record.

    Even the government who issued the license could not see it. The tax could also be paid only using the license. So, an explorer could not cheat the government with their tax.

    If the license judged that the tax was not enough, it won¡¯t teleport the drop item. If after the dungeon was completed and the government did not receive any tax, the explorer became a criminal.

    Once Cade was done with all of that, he stored all of his equipment into his storage. He did not want to walk around the city with cardboard all over his body.

    Cade did not go straight home but stopped at a small caf¨¦ and had some late lunch before he went home.

    While eating his lunch, he realized something. He had awakened but he heard nothing from his family. He even completed a dungeon solo and no one from his family called him or anything.

    ¡°Are they keeping their eyes on me?¡± Cade wondered. Cade made quite a lot of fortune on his first dungeon exploring and were they not curious how he got too many drop items?

    Cade wanted them to keep an eye on him. If they were keeping their eyes on him, it meant that he was not fully being abandoned by his family. If not¡­

    ¡°It was all lies¡­ Now that I know that, I don¡¯t care anymore. If they try to kill me, I will kill them back. I am not a normal human anymore. I am an explorer and I have a huge potential of becoming the strongest of all,¡± said Cade with a determined face.

    He decided to fight back if his family ever tried to harm him but he knew in his heart that they won¡¯t even be bothered to do anything to him.

    His family was too high in a society that someone who was at the bottom won¡¯t even be in their eyes.

 Chapter 12

    ''TEET!!! TEET!!!¡¯ Cade¡¯s alarm clock rang. Lazily, he reached his alarm clock and turned it off. Cade arrived home late yesterday after he completed the slime dungeon.

    After he arrived home, he cleaned himself and went straight to sleep. He was too tired and took only a few minutes before he started snoozing.

    It had been a week since he skipped class. He did not want to go at first but thinking that he had skipped classes a lot, he decided to go.

    Cade prepared himself and took the bus to his college. His college was as lively as ever. Some students were studying in a grassy field, some students played sports, some playing around and many more.

    While he walked into his faculty¡¯s building, he saw from afar that a guild was recruiting freelancing explorers. Those types of recruitment were common.

    There were quite a lot of explorers among the students and it was easy to know who it was by looking at their attendance.

    Since explorers needed to go to many places far away from their home, they will usually be absent from class just like what had happened to Cade.

    In Cade¡¯s class alone, including him, there were 10 explorers. Some of them were much more active as explorers while some were exploring to get some pocket money for their studies and so they were usually coming to class.

    However, Cade wanted to explore the dungeon by himself. He wanted to go solo and thus, all that recruitment did not interest him at all.

    Cade was planning to go exploring another dungeon after he got enough rest from his last exploration.

    Cade¡¯s day in his class went without much happening. It was the same boring day he had as before. He had no friends and he had no intention of finding friends either.

    After his class ended, Cade went home as usual after he stopped at a supermarket to buy some groceries. He left his home for almost a week and there was nothing he could eat at home.

    Once he arrived home, he arranged his grocery properly in his refrigerator and cabinet. Once he was done with that, Cade went online to sell his equipment drop.

    He got five equipment in the beginning but he had thrown away the body armor and one of the equipment was used as tax. So, he only had three more of them.

    All three of the equipment was Grade E and thus, it will not fetch him a lot of money. However, that money will be enough for him to use for a few months. Cade was not a big spender, so, it will be enough for him.

    There were rules for the price setting of the equipment. The rules were based on the equipment grade, level, stat, and effects.

    One level was equal to 100 space credits. If a piece of equipment was level 10, it will have a value of 1000 space credits.

    A piece of equipment will commonly have two different stats. One was durability while the other depended on the equipment.

    If it was a weapon, it would usually have an attack stat or magic stat. If it was armor, it would have a defense stat.

    For every stat available, 100 space credits will be added not counting on durability. Having more than two stats for a piece of equipment was rare but when equipment had three or more stats, rather than 100 space credits, 1000 space credits will be added for three stats and 5000 space credits for four stats.

    However, that kind of equipment was super rare. Even if there were one, it will be a high grade.

    Some equipment had an effect and every effect a piece of equipment had will add 1000 space credits to their value.

    Lastly, after level, stats and effects were counted, the grade will determine their value. For grade E, the total value calculated earlier will be multiplied by 10.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    For example, a grade E level 7 bow with attack stat will have a price of 8000 space credits. 700 space credits for its level 7 and two stats meant another 100 space credits totaled to 800 space credits. Since it was grade E, it will be multiplied by 10 which will have the price of 8000 space credits.

    No matter the type of equipment, they would all use this basic calculation. However, some people managed to get more when the equipment had some aesthetic value or it was made from rare materials.

    The basic calculation was done to get the minimum price of that equipment.

    Cade had one level 7, level 8 and level 10 equipment. When he sold all of the equipment online, he got about 25 000 space credits. Enough for him to last for a few months.

    Once Cade finished dealing with the equipment, he took out the skill book he got from the boss slime. The cover of the skill book wrote ¡®Grade E Level 15 Physical Resistance¡¯.

    It was a good skill for Cade who fought close range and he decided to learn it by himself.

    All skills had grade and level. The grade and level will determine how strong the skill will be. However, the skill could not grow stronger. Its effect will become stronger when the user of the skill increased in stat but that was it.

    All explorers will get three free slot skills when they awakened. One was used for the random skill they got when awakened and left with only two slots.

    Luckily, the slot increased every time an explorer gained five levels and explorers can also remove the skill they had learned before. So, there was no need to worry about wasting a skill slot, only wasting money because the skill book was expensive.

    The skill book was that of low grade but at Cade¡¯s current level, it was suitable for him. Cade did not hesitate and opened the skill book.

    [Learn Physical Resistance?] said the system. Cade said yes and the skill book vanished from his hand. His mind was suddenly filled with information about the skill and he gained a lot of understanding about the skill.

    The process went on for one hour and after an hour, the system told Cade that he had learned the skill of physical resistance.

    Cade checked his physical resistance skill and upon seeing it, Cade was shocked.

    Skill: Physical Resistance (Passive)

    Grade: E

    Level: 1

    Mastery: 1% [Grade E Level 1 magic crystal]

    Effects: 10% physical resistance against physical attack from grade E opponent. The effect lowered by 90% when receiving an attack from grade D opponent. Ineffective against higher grade opponents.

    Cade was shocked to see that the level was reset and a new column was added mastery. Cade guessed that for him to level up his skill, he needed to increase his mastery.

    Looking at it, Cade knew it was the work of his link growth skill. Looking at his skill, he sighed. It needed more magic crystal.

    Magic crystal was not as expensive as equipment, skill book, and puzzle because they were common. For Cade, the magic crystal will be the most expensive to him because he had so many uses for them.

    He needed magic crystal for his linked equipment, he needed them for his grade increase too and now, he needed it for his skills.

    Even if the magic crystal were common, they were used for many things and their demands were extremely high. It was hard to buy them because big companies and factories usually emptied the magic crystal in the market by buying all of them.

    For Cade to get more magic crystals, he needed to get it himself. It was a hassle but there was nothing he could do.

    Cade checked the magic crystals he got from killing that army of slime. He currently had 80 pieces of level 9 and 50 pieces of level 10 vitality crystals. He got a lot of magic crystals from fighting hundreds of slimes at the same time.

    Cade decided to use the magic crystals to increase his potential grade first. It was important because it affects the number of stat points gained from leveling up.

    Cade used 56 pieces of level 9 vitality crystals and increased his grade from E to D. Now that his grade was D, Cade will get 20 stat points every time he leveled up.

    Cade used the remaining 24 pieces of level 9 vitality crystals to increase the mastery of his physical resistance skill.

    Cade¡¯s physical resistance skill¡¯s level increased to level 3. He can resist 30% physical damage from grade E opponents.

    Cade used the remainder of his magic crystals on his linked equipment. He focused on increasing his cardboard round shield to the limit before he started on his other equipment.

    Name: Cardboard Round Shield

    Level: 9

    Next Level: 0 level 1 magic crystal

    Durability: 250

    Defense: 200

    After his cardboard round shield reached the level limit, Cade used the leftover vitality crystals to increase all of his linked equipment. Luckily, he had more than enough magic crystals and made them reach their level limit.

    His other equipment had more or less the same amount of stat as his cardboard round shield. Cade loved making his equipment had the same amount of stat so that it was easier for him to keep track of them.

 Chapter 13

    Once Cade finished dealing with leveling up his linked equipment, he stretched his body and flopped on his bed. After a few minutes lying on his bed, he got up and went online to apply for more dungeon licenses.

    Before he started exploring the slime dungeon, Cade wanted to conquer all slime dungeons on the planet.

    However, after he got to know Slime 1, Slime 2 and Slime 3, he did not feel like doing that anymore.

    They were not monsters that loved fighting. They preferred peace. Cade felt guilty killing them and decided to not explore any slime dungeon.

    Cade searched through the list of dungeons in Dineon¡¯s government website for limit entry license but there were none currently available.

    All the low-level dungeons were bought by many big guilds for their new members and thus leave him with zero dungeons to go through.

    Cade sighed, ¡°Maybe I should join a guild,¡± thought Cade. If he wanted to get access to a lot of dungeons, the only way to do that was by joining a guild.

    However, there were advantages as well as disadvantages of joining a guild. For example, guilds preferred their members to form a party while exploring the dungeon but Cade did not want to join any party because of his luck.

    If people knew about his luck, many of them would want him at their party and that was a hassle. If more people knew about it, he might end up with the same situation as the lucky girl.

    ¡°Will girls come at me and want to make babies with me?¡± Cade shuddered when he thought about it. He did not want to go through that situation.

    The lucky girl got it easier concerning making babies because she was a girl. She needed to choose only one guy but Cade was a guy and in the current era, a man having many wives or mistresses happened a lot and were accepted by society.

    Men from a prestigious and powerful family usually married a lot of women and according to Cade¡¯s research before, even his father was the same.

    Cade¡¯s mother was the fourth wife and Cade had many step-siblings. His father was quite good at making strong children excluding Cade because they were all born with high potential and all of them started making names for themselves at a young age.

    Cade knew all of their names and faces but Cade wondered if his siblings even knew about him? Not that he cares about it anymore as he had decided to ignore his family and maybe fight them if they tried to harm him.

    He was an explorer and he had a huge opportunity of becoming super strong. He won¡¯t stay still and let his family bully him anymore.

    As there was no more dungeon limit entry license available, Cade went offline. He did not know what he should do now. Joining a guild or waiting until a new dungeon appeared.

    Cade walked out of his room and into his living room and then, he switched on the television. Upon opening it, it was a news channel with breaking news.

    ¡®A dungeon with time and level limit appear at Planet Snowball in Ice Star Sector!¡¯ The news title wrote. Cade was immediately pulled by the news.

    It was not weird for him to get pulled by the news because everyone else would surely get interested in it too.

    The reason was that there was never a dungeon with a time limit and level limit. The dungeon that had appeared all this time had no time or level limit.

    They usually appeared until some explorers killed off the monsters or the boss and then the dungeon would close and disappear. The dungeon would always stay open until someone closed it.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    The dungeon was also opened to anyone without any level limit. No matter how high or how low an explorer¡¯s level was, they can enter all the dungeons that appeared in the universe.

    A dungeon with time and level limit had never appeared once in the 10 000 years since their first appearance.

    The news then showed the footage of the dungeon and suddenly, Cade got a warning from the system.

    [Warning! Warning! Warning!] red letters were used to write the words. It meant that it was an emergency.

    [Clear the dungeon before the time limit ends!] said the system.

    [70:52:23] the system showed Cade the time limit for the dungeon. It looked like something would happen if the dungeon was not clear within the time limit.

    Below the time limit was the level limit. [Level 30 to 40] That meant only explorers between level 30 to level 40 were allowed inside the dungeon.

    ¡°I wonder what will happen if the dungeon is not clear within the time limit?¡± Cade wondered and the news host said something that interested Cade.

    ¡°We just got an update that the Snowball¡¯s government decided to see what will happen when the time limit ends. The high-level explorers from Planet Snowball were the ones asking them to do that.¡±

    ¡°Since this is the first time a dungeon of this type appears, they want to see the result. All of the high-level explorers guarantee the citizens that they will make sure to protect everyone if something bad happens.¡±

    ¡°The dungeon is at a low level so I can understand their confidence¡­ but this warning from the system is not good news. The system had never once sent this kind of warning when a dungeon appears,¡± said Cade while looking at the news.

    Cade felt like they were making the worst decision ever. No one knew the real reason humans got or were given the system. When the dungeons appeared, everyone concluded that the system appeared to counter the dungeons.

    However, when the dungeons appeared in the past, there was never any warning coming from the system but for the dungeon in Planet Snowball, a warning sign was given by the system.

    Biscuit Star Sector was too far from The Ice Star Sector and just by watching the dungeon entrance from the television¡¯s screen, the system gave Cade the warning sign.

    ¡°The threat of that dungeon must be huge,¡± thought Cade and he was afraid to see what will happen after the time limit ended. He had a bad feeling about it.

    After reporting the decision made by Snowball¡¯s government, the news followed up with the public reactions toward that decision.

    An interview with lots of people was shown and most of them disagreed with the decision made by them but only the normal citizen thought like that.

    Experts like scientists, explorers, and theorists, however, agreed with the decision made by Snowball¡¯s government. All of them said that if something like dungeon breaks happened, there were many high-level explorers available to handle the situation.

    The dungeon breaks were a theory made by humans when a dungeon appeared for the first time 10 000 years ago. The theory explained that all the monsters inside the dungeon would come out after a certain period.

    However, that theory was useless when the monsters easily came out of the dungeon a second after the dungeon appeared. There were no such things as dungeon break.

    ¡°Are they testing the dungeon break theory?¡± Cade wondered more because, at the moment, there was no news about any monsters coming out of the time limit dungeon.

    It looked like the monsters were restricted inside the dungeon. After the time limit passed, the monsters might be able to come out.

    Cade went online and saw the news about the time limit dungeon was trending on social media and every news website. The time limit dungeon had turned huge.

    On social media, many people were against waiting until the time limit ended, especially the citizens of Planet Snowball. They were scared because the system gave them a warning about the dungeon.

    They wanted the explorers to immediately close the dungeon. A lot of Planet Snowball¡¯s citizens went and did a demonstration in front of the government building urging them to close the dungeon immediately.

    It was understandable for them to do that as they were normal humans. If the dungeon breaks happened, they won¡¯t be able to protect themselves.

    Yes, there were lots of strong explorers and they guaranteed the citizens safety but who knows what might happen when the time limit ended?

    The explorers cannot be fully trusted either. Even if they were called explorers, they were still humans. Many humans were selfish, greedy and many more and most explorers were known to be high on those.

    Killing between explorers happened a lot due to their selfish and greedy nature. The clearest example of that was when the fight for the puzzle pieces happened before that destroyed seven planets.

    The powerless and helpless citizen cannot trust any of the words coming out of the explorers and thus decided to do the demonstration.

    Two days later, Cade saw the news and couldn''t help but be stunned at what the news was reporting.

 Chapter 14

    Planet Snowball, 5 minutes before the end of the time limit for the dungeon.

    A lot of spaceships were seen from space flying out of planet snowball. Not one or two spaceships but hundreds of them.

    The scene of spaceships leaving Planet Snowball had been going on from the day the snowball government decided to wait until the dungeon¡¯s time limit ended.

    The truth was that the snowball government did not want to wait but those high-level explorers from Ice Star Sector pressured them to wait.

    If the government allowed explorers to close the dungeon, those high-level explorers threatened to not do anything if something goes awry.

    They also said that they will move to another star sector and not close any dungeon that appeared on Planet Snowball in the future.

    The government cannot allow that to happen. No matter how low level a monster in a dungeon was, they were all strong and only explorers were able to kill them.

    Losing high-level explorers from the planet was a huge loss to the planet and they had no choice but to follow their ¡®suggestion¡¯.

    In the end, they were hated by their citizens and a lot of them started fleeing from the planet and moved to another planet.

    At the moment, there were no more citizens in cities nearby the dungeon. Only explorers and government employees decided to stay.

    They did pressure the government because they thought they will get some kind of huge profit and if they also left, that will leave a stain in their record if something bad happened after the time limit ended.

    They were confident that they could handle it because the level limit for the dungeon was level 30 to level 40.

    They were too far above that level that anything came out of that dungeon can easily be handled by them. So, they were not scared of anything. To them, the citizens were too paranoid.

    5 more minutes before the end of the time limit and many explorers had started gathering around the portal to the dungeon.

    Since no monsters were coming out of the dungeon for the past three days since the dungeon appeared, that meant that all of them would come out after the time limit ends.

    All they needed to do was wait there and kill any monsters that came out of the portal. Easy.

    Time kept passing and, in a minute, the time limit will end. None of the explorers were nervous but for the government employees, they were totally scared of what would happen.

    The government employees were after all normal humans. They stood no chance even against a level 1 monster because only awakeners can damage them.

    ¡®Tik¡­ tok¡­ tik¡­ tok¡­¡¯ time kept moving and from the system notification, only three seconds left.

    3, 2, 1. The time limit ends. The system suddenly blared in alarm with big warning signs while the system screen flickering and a new notification came from the system.

    [Immediately evacuate the planet if you are not awakened!!!] said the system. Everyone that was still on the planet was shocked by the warning from the system, especially the normal humans.

    The explorers that were waiting for monsters to come out of the portal got the same notification too but they ignored it and kept focusing themselves on the portal.

    However, they kept waiting but nothing happened. Nothing came out of the dungeon other than the portal started changing color to black-gold.

    ---

    Many citizens of Planet Snowball were currently on the spaceship outside the Planet Snowball area and they were all watching the live stream of the portal.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    Watching the portal changing color, they felt fear. From all the knowledge everyone had about portals, there was never once a portal with black-gold color.

    Portals to the dungeon came with different colors. The color of the portal represented the grade of the dungeon.

    E grade dungeon had a white portal, D grade dungeon had yellow portal, C grade dungeon had orange portal, B grade dungeon had green portal, A grade dungeon had blue portal and S grade dungeon had purple portal.

    The color of the portal did not help much in determining the dungeon¡¯s grade because the system will usually examine the dungeon automatically and tell their users the grade of the dungeon.

    Suddenly, the live feed of the portal was cut off without any warning. Everyone that was watching found it weird when suddenly someone gasped while looking outside the spaceship towards Planet Snowball.

    Everyone moved from their seats and went to the spaceship window to look at what that guy was seeing. Upon seeing Planet Snowball, they were all either stunned or shocked.

    Their eyes were wide open due to shock. Their mouth was shivering and trembling from what they saw.

    Planet snowball was covered with thick black-gold mist. No one can see the planet and all they can see was the black-gold mist.

    The media went frenzy when they lost their footage of the portal and when they switched to the view of the planet, their frenzies stopped momentarily from shock before they started the live feedback with the view of the planet from space.

    At the moment, every channel that live stream of what was happening to Planet Snowball was getting more and more viewers all around the universe.

    Most people did not know how they should react but the citizens of Planet Snowball that escaped the planet were filled with fear.

    The explorers from all the different star sectors that were watching the live stream frowned and some with a serious face. They all got warning notifications from the system.

    They did not know what had happened on Planet Snowball at the moment but they had a feeling that something really bad had happened.

    Some of those explorers¡¯ secretary or employees tried to contact the government of Planet Snowball but the line was not connected. It looked like the black-gold mist had cut off every communication with Planet Snowball.

    ---

    The explorers and everyone else on Planet Snowball at the moment had a bad feeling. At the top of their head in the sky were thick black-gold mist and there was no movement coming out of the portal.

    To normal humans that were on the planet, they were filled with fear and panic. To the explorers, they were restless.

    The explorers expected that monsters would swarm out of the portal but nothing came out of it but instead, the black-gold mist happened.

    They already found out that their communications were blocked or cut. Even contacting other people on the planet did not work.

    Suddenly, they heard screaming coming out of the government building. Some of the explorers ran to them immediately and they saw all of them were running out of the building.

    Before they could even ask anything, they saw something absurd was happening. One of the humans that ran out of the building suddenly stopped running and his body suddenly bulged as it will explode.

    However, instead of exploding, that guy grew fur and then he started screaming. He was changing into something.

    The explorers felt like it might turn bad if that guy finished the transformation and they all rushed forward to kill him but then, something fast jumped at them.

    The thing that was jumping at them was like a human but it was furry. Looking at the face of that thing, they gritted their teeth because it was a monster of a human-shaped but with the face and body of a gorilla.

    That gorilla looked a lot like a beastman from a fantasy comic. The gorilla was coming at them with its huge fist and slammed on the body of an explorer.

    The explorer blocked it but he was sent flying. The other explorers went and attacked the gorilla but they were shocked when their attack did not hurt the gorilla at all.

    The gorilla stared at them and it smiled. A chill went through the explorers¡¯ body and their face changed to fear when the gorilla suddenly, ¡°How do you expect to hurt me when you are not in the limit?¡± The gorilla talked!!

    The gorilla smashed the explorers nearby and killed them immediately. At the same time, the guy that was transforming finished the transformation and he had the same appearance as the gorilla that was killing the explorers.

    ¡°The humans, change into the monsters?¡± said one of the explorers shocked.

    ¡°Who are you calling monsters?¡± the first gorilla suddenly appeared in front of that explorer and killed him. After that, more and more humans started transforming into the gorilla.

    The phenomenon was happening to all the humans all around Planet Snowball and it only happened to normal humans. None of the explorers went through the transformation.

    The fight between the explorers and the gorilla monsters started but the situations were dire because the explorers were losing. No matter how strong the explorers were, none of them can hurt the gorilla.

    The system appraised the gorilla as in the range of level 30 to level 40 and only explorers between level 30 to level 40 were able to cause damage to the gorillas.

    Now, they were all finally aware of the warning from the system.

 Chapter 15

    When Cade was watching and reading the news all over the internet, a few hours had passed since the black-gold-mist covered Planet Snowball.

    At that time, all the media was reporting was about the black-gold mist. Explorers from other planets tried to pass through the mist and they were all suddenly lost contact with that explorers and they never came out.

    That was also another news that they were reporting. Other than the footage of the planet covered with the mist, there was no other footage shown on the news.

    However, when Cade was watching the news, they had moved on from that part to a piece of more shocking news. Even Cade was watching with his eyes and mouth fully opened.

    A video recording from 30 minutes ago was playing over and over on all news websites. It was the video recording of the mist dissipated and disappeared while it left nothing on the area.

    Yes, Planet Snowball and everyone on it had disappeared completely from Ice Star Sector. There was no more Planet Snowball in the universe.

    Planet Snowball had become a history of the universe. Everyone in the universe including all the explorers gasped at what had happened.

    The huge planet was gone without a trace. The previous location of that planet was empty of anything. Nothing can be found there.

    The citizens of Planet Snowball that managed to escape from the planet were crying as their birth planet was gone from existence. They had no home they could go back to.

    On the other hand, everyone in the universe was on high alert following the disappearance of Planet Snowball. Upon the disappearance of Planet Snowball, Ice Star Sector Alliance immediately sent people there to investigate what had happened.

    They lost one of their planets without a trace and that planet was the fifth biggest planet in their star sector and it was a huge loss.

    They regretted not listening to the system warning and did not hear the plea of Snowball¡¯s citizens. Now, they lost their planet.

    Due to their greed, they lost more than they gained¡­ No! they lost more without gaining anything. They not only lost the planet but also explorers on Planet Snowball.

    There were three S grade explorers on that planet and none of them came back. All of them vanished. S grade explorers were deemed national treasure and they lost three of them in a few hours.

    Other than learning their lesson of listening to the system warning, they gained nothing. Other than the black-gold mist, the planet disappearance and the loss of communication with the planet, there was no more information they had of what had happened on the planet.

    Everyone was talking about what had happened. It was the biggest news ever in the history of mankind. Bigger than the dungeon first-time appearance. Bigger than the lucky girl. Bigger than the war for the puzzle pieces. Bigger than everything.

    There were no explosions, black holes or anything else. It was only the mist and the planet silently disappeared.

    Cade was on the bus at the moment and he was still browsing through the internet reading the news about Planet Snowball. Not only him, everyone on the bus was the same.

    Some of them looked worried and concerned. Some were discussing among themselves about what had happened. Some were angry with Snowball¡¯s government and said they deserved it and some were quietly listening and viewing the discussion of others.

    Cade sighed while he overheard an angry woman blaming everything to the planet¡¯s government. Cade agreed with her.

    If they had taken action when the dungeon appeared, everything might be fine but instead, they waited to see what would happen.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    They did not listen to the warning the system gave and they paid the consequences by losing their planet. They reap what they sow.

    Every government in the universe had started releasing an announcement asking the citizen to report if they found any time limit dungeon. That dungeon had just become the biggest threat to humanity and they needed to give more attention to it.

    Thanks to the stupidity of snowball, they had zero information about the dungeon. They did not even know how the dungeon looked inside.

    They did not know what to expect with the dungeon other than if the time limit ended.

    Cade arrived at his college and went to his class as usual. For the past few days, he had been visiting the government website for a limited entry dungeon license but it was to no avail.

    There were none available. The big guild swept every new dungeon immediately after their appearance. There was nothing Cade could do.

    ¡°How is it working with that guild?¡± Suddenly Cade heard a girl talking nearby. She was in his class. Cade looked at the direction of the voice and a group of girls were talking with each other.

    Cade recognized one of the girls because that girl had just awakened a few days ago during class and everyone knew her since that day.

    Her name was Sera. She had beautiful red hair and her face was beautiful too. However, she was a bit wild and acted like a boy. No boy dared to get near her because she usually beat them.

    When she awakened, she got a special skill called fire manipulation. The name of the skill said it all about what the skill was capable of. With that skill, she can easily control any fire she can find without much effort.

    Her potential growth was A grade and with the special skill, she already had the potential to stay at the top of A-grade explorers.

    When the big guilds caught wind of the news about Sera, they went full force to recruit her. However, most of them went home disappointed when Sera decided to join the Aqua Crane Guild.

    Aqua Crane Guild was the number one guild in Dineon. They had a lot of achievement in Dineon for completing a lot of high levels and high-grade dungeons that appeared on the planet.

    They rarely went to recruit anyone but they made an exception to Sera due to her special skill. Sera did not want to waste the opportunity and decided to join them.

    She went exploring a dungeon with her guidemate a few days ago and just came back. Her friends were curious about her adventure and asked her.

    ¡°Hmm~ how to say this¡­ It was too easy,¡± said Sera while looking up. She was bragging that the dungeon she went to was not a challenge to her.

    Her friends were in awe with what Sera had said and they continued their questions and Sera kept bragging about herself.

    Cade frowned when he was looking at Sera bragging. He knew that she might act like that because she was with her friends and hoped that she did not mean that.

    Many explorers lost their lives while exploring the dungeon because they were careless and think too highly of themselves.

    Cade went through that moment a bit in the slime dungeon and learned his lesson went he was ambushed by the slime. Luckily, he did not lose his life.

    Cade decided to move to another seat as the girls had gotten too excited and it became too noisy. Sera saw Cade was moving and she recognized him as fellow explorers.

    News of Cade becoming an explorer was known to everyone in his class but they did not hear any story from Cade because Cade likes to keep it to himself.

    They knew Cade was the type of person that did not talk much and they never tried to ask him anything. They also knew that Cade¡¯s potential was E grade and there was nothing special about him.

    Since Cade awakened at his home, no one knew his link growth skill and thus no one even bothered to ask him because of his grade.

    However, they did not know that Cade was not an E grade anymore. He had already advanced to D grade and possibly higher in the future and it was all thanks to his link growth skill.

    Sera was staring at Cade and she suddenly felt annoyed at Cade. She took out a lighter from her storage and lit it up.

    Her friends looked at her with a questioning face. With the fire from the lighter, Sera manipulated the fire and moved it to form a fireball on her palm.

    ¡°Is she showing off her skill?¡± her friends and everyone in the class thought. Suddenly, they were all shocked when Sera shot the fireball towards Cade.

    Cade did not see the fireball coming at him and suddenly he heard voices from his classmates, ¡°Cade! Behind you!¡± screamed his classmates.

    Cade looked behind him and a fireball was on his face. The fireball blew on his face and Cade was sent flying backward. He broke some tables and chairs around and fell on the floor.

    ¡°Sera!! What are you doing?! Why are you attacking Cade?¡± asked one of her friends. However, before Sera can answer her friends, an arrow flew straight towards Sera.

 Chapter 16

    Noticing the coming arrow, Sera manipulates the fire to form a small shield made of fire to protect herself from the arrow.

    However, the arrow emitted cyan aura and easily passed through the shield of fire and shocked Sera. Sera immediately moved to dodge the arrow and she succeeded¡­

    Is what she thought when another arrow was coming fast at her. Instead of making another shield of fire, Sera coated her fist with fire and caught the incoming arrow.

    To her surprise, the arrow was not moving normally, it was spinning fast. Sera needed to use more power to catch it but she failed and the arrow hit the floor.

    She looked in the direction of the arrow and saw a guy with black hair wielding a bow. That guy stared at Sera fiercely as he was mad with Sera¡¯s attitude.

    Sera recognized that guy instantly as he was one of the few explorers in her class. He became an explorer much earlier than her and Cade. It meant that he had more experience in fighting compared to Cade and Sera.

    ¡°No matter how high the grade of your growth potential, if you are too arrogant and look down on people too much, you won¡¯t survive long as an explorer,¡± said the black hair guy while staring at Sera.

    Sera clenched her teeth as she felt pressured by the black hair guy. It looked like that guy was far stronger than her.

    It was fine for her to look down on Cade as he was weaker than her but Rico was on a different level compared to her.

    The black hair guy was Rico. He was well known among their classmates to be the strongest explorers in their class. All the other explorers were nowhere near his level.

    Rico came from a prestigious family but he was different compared to others of the same status as him. He had his pride but not arrogance. He hated fighting and had a huge sense of justice.

    Looking at Cade being bullied by Sera; he could not stand it and thus the attack on Sera happened. He needed to teach Sera a lesson of not being arrogant.

    Sera extinguished her fire and stared at Rico. She knew she cannot beat him and decided to leave the class. Before she left, she looked at Cade that was still lying on the floor with disdain.

    Once she left, the class calmed down. Most of them did not know what to do when Sera suddenly attacked Cade. They were all normal humans and there was no way they could stop an explorer.

    Luckily, Rico was there to stop whatever Sera was trying to do to Cade. Looking at Cade that was unconscious on the floor, some of them came closer to bring him to the infirmary.

    However, before they could get to him, another girl was already beside him. She was Cynthia, their class most beautiful girl.

    Her golden long hair, her soft and white skin with her beautiful golden eyes will make anyone who saw her fall in love with her.

    She was the most beautiful girl in their class and unknown to them, she was the most beautiful girl in their college. Not only them in the same class, other boys and even girls from other classes knew of her beauty and fell in love with her.

    Cynthia stood beside the unconscious Cade and she showed her beautiful smile at Cade.

    ¡°You can stop pretending. Sera already left,¡± said Cynthia while looking at Cade and beaming him with her beautiful and dazzling smile.

    When the others heard Cynthia, they blinked their eyes. There was no way Cade was conscious after an attack from an A grade explorer.

    However, to their surprise, Cade slowly opened his eyes and stared at Cynthia. Cynthia was looking at Cade and her face was shining like sunlight in the eyes of others but to Cade, he was unaffected by her beauty.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Cade lifted his body and sat on the floor. He looked at Cynthia and asked, ¡°How do you know I am fine?¡±

    ¡°I saw you took out something to block the fire and you jumped voluntarily backward to make it look like you were blown by the fireball,¡± said Cynthia and again showing her dazzling smile.

    ¡°Rico knew too,¡± said Cynthia and she directed her face towards Rico who had already gone back to his seat without caring about Cade.

    Cade looked at Rico and saw him calmly sitting on his seat reading a book. Cade sighed and he stood up and arranged back the chair and table blown away by his fall. It was not a surprise for them to be able to see through his acting as both of them were explorers with lots of experience.

    While he was arranging the table and chair, he realized that Cynthia was staring at him. Cade looked at her and asked, ¡°Is¡­ something wrong?¡±

    Cynthia did not answer him and instead, she smiled. Cade awkwardly smiled back at Cynthia as he did not know what she wanted from him.

    ¡°This girl is a problem too,¡± thought Cade. Cynthia''s origin was unknown to everyone in their class. No one knew her family and she never talked about it too.

    She was not born in Dineon and it was not weird for foreigners to come study on another planet but her identity did not look that simple.

    Everyone knew for sure that she was not a commoner and she probably came from a prestigious family by the way she acted.

    However, many boys searched her identity on the internet and they found none. Usually, people from the big, prestigious and wealthy family had some of their information on the internet no matter how small and insignificant that person was but that was not the case for Cynthia.

    There was none about her. There was no data about Cade too on the internet due to his family not registering him in their family. Cade thought that maybe she was in the same situation as him but that was unlikely. The reason was that her eyes were bright.

    Her eyes had no inch of sadness in it. It looked like she lived her life happily. Cade had been living his life without much happiness and he can easily recognize someone with a happy life. Cynthia¡¯s eyes had a lot of happiness, no it was filled with happiness to the brim.

    After Cynthia smiled at Cade, she left him alone. Cade then continued what he had been doing. A few minutes later, the professor arrived and the class started as usual.

    At the time where Cade was busy focusing in class, new news about the time limit dungeon surfaced.

    At the moment, another three, time limit dungeon appeared that shook the universe. The first dungeon was located in Planet Desktra at Roum Star Sector.

    The dungeon had a time limit of one week with a level limit of level 70 to level 80. Roum Star Sector Alliance at the moment was moving fast to gather as many levels 70 to level 80 explorers to close the dungeon.

    They were on high alert as they did not want Planet Desktra to vanish like Planet Snowball. Besides, their dungeon at the moment had a much higher, level limit compared to the dungeon in Planet Snowball.

    That meant, their dungeon was harder compared to the time limit dungeon that appeared on Planet Snowball. They decided to give huge incentives to explorers that gave many contributions towards closing the time limit dungeon to attract many explorers joining the exploration.

    The second dungeon was located in Planet Lapto at Techan Star Sector. The time limit for this dungeon was three days with the level limit of level 20 to level 30.

    Just like what Roum Star Sector¡¯s Alliance had done to attract many explorers joining the exploration to close their time limit dungeon, Techan Star Sector¡¯s Alliance did the same.

    Their incentives were a bit smaller because their dungeon was of the lower level. There was no need to give much but what they decided to give was more than enough to attract explorers of level 20 to level 30.

    The last dungeon that appeared had shockingly appeared in Planet White Snow of Ice Star Sector. The news was too shocking because Planet White Snow was located next to Planet Snowball.

    Not only that, it was only a few days ago that Planet Snowball vanished and now, its neighbor was next. This inflicted extreme fear amongst the citizen of Ice Star Sector.

    ¡°Will another planet of this star sector vanish?¡± said one of the citizens.

    ¡°Are we all going to die soon?¡± said another.

    ¡°Mom, let¡¯s move to another star sector!¡±

    ¡°I am going to quit my job and move to another star sector.¡±

    ¡°I hope we can close this dungeon.¡±

    ¡°I am sure we will not make the same mistake a few days ago!¡±

    ¡°We can do it! Let¡¯s cheer for the explorers to succeed!¡±

    Ice Star Sector did not want to make the same mistake and they decided to offer a huge incentive. However, before they even announced the incentives, all the guilds and explorers who met the level limit started moving towards Planet White Snow voluntarily.

 Chapter 17

    Cade finished his classes for the day and went home. On the way home, he found out about the three new time limit dungeons. The news about them was all over the internet.

    The most news was about the dungeon at Planet White Snow. It was the second time limit dungeon that appeared at the Ice Star Sector.

    The first was a total disaster and less than a week, another one appeared. The ex-snowball citizen did not yet recover from their shock and suddenly another one appeared.

    Not only that, the ones that escaped to Planet White Snow were blamed for bringing their bad luck there. They were blamed and hated by the citizens of Planet White Snow.

    It was understandable for them to do that because there was a high chance that they would also lose their planet. Thinking of that, they needed someone to blame.

    Other than that, the space area was jammed packed with spaceships coming out of the planet with many humans evacuating the planet.

    Explorers were traveling in another spaceship entering the planet with the mission of closing the time limit dungeon.

    The explorers from Ice Star Sector were shown to have united to close the dungeon in Planet Snow White.

    Those guilds that had enmity against each other decided to let them go at the moment and worked together by sending their explorers for the mission of closing the time limit dungeon.

    Many huge name explorers from the Ice Star Sector were seen on their way to Planet White Snow. Many were there either participating or escorting the ones that will be participating.

    It was a weird view for everyone when so many strong and popular explorers were seen together at the same place.

    Usually, they decided to stay away from each other to avoid fighting but at the moment, they were all together due to the threat of the time limit dungeon.

    Up until that day, no one knew what happened to Planet Snowball. No hints were left. It was a dead-end for the investigator that went to the scene.

    Cade was watching the news and he frowned too. He also felt worried about the current situation. He also wondered if the dungeon that appeared on Planet White Snow was the same dungeon that appeared on Planet Snowball.

    It was too weird for suddenly another time limit dungeon appeared right at the next planet after Planet Snowball.

    Cade was not the only one that thought of that. Many people had the same thoughts too. However, there was no way for them to know anything due to insufficient information.

    Even the system did not give them any more information other than the time limit and level limit. There was no grade and no species of monsters mentioned by the system.

    Usually, when a dungeon appears, the system will let out the grade of the dungeon, the levels of the monsters inside, the floor of the dungeon and the species of the monsters inside.

    With only a little information available, many explorers speculate that the dungeon was mixed with monsters and grade. Only their level will be within the limit.

    However, no one can confirm that speculation because there was zero information about the inside of the dungeon.

    Cade decided to stop reading the news about the time limit dungeon and went to Dineon¡¯s government website to check if there will be any limit entry license available.

    Upon opening the website, there was an announcement from the government in urgent need of scientists. They were to recruit a lot of them.

    They also wrote why they wanted to hire scientists. Dineon¡¯s government wanted to research making an item or equipment that can lock someone¡¯s level at a certain level.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Reading the announcement, Cade knew what they were trying to do. The threat of the time limit dungeon was huge and it had a level limit too.

    If they can create an item or equipment that allowed someone to change their level, it was possible to send high-level explorers to enter the time limit dungeon.

    With that item or equipment, the risk of failing will be lowered because the high-level explorers were stronger than lower-level explorers.

    Cade agreed with what they were trying to do. He liked it that the government was taking the initiatives to do something that will benefit many people.

    Cade clicked the announcement and there were so many people applying for that. It looked like they knew how important the project that the government was pursuing.

    At the moment, everyone knew the highly dangerous time limit dungeon. If there was someone that knew nothing about it, that meant that the person was either in a coma or vegetable.

    Cade went back to the main page and clicked on the limit entry license page. To his surprise, there were a lot of limited entry licenses available.

    ¡°Are they changing their policy?¡± Cade wondered but he knew the real reason for this. They wanted to prepare every explorer on the planet for who knows when the time limit dungeon appeared in Dineon.

    Cade immediately scrolled down the page to look for a suitable dungeon. He found a few dungeons that interest him.

    The first dungeon was the level 10 horn rabbit dungeon. It had 5 floors like the slime dungeon and all the monsters inside were horn rabbits.

    The second dungeon was the level 10 big wing butterfly dungeon. It had the same floors as the horn rabbit dungeon.

    The third dungeon was the level 10 big tongue toad dungeon. This dungeon had 10 floors.

    The horned rabbit was a monster with a horn on any part of their body. Most of them had a horn on their head but there were some of them with a horn on their arms, legs, tail, and others.

    There was also some horn rabbit with variations to their horn like a drill horn, a horn made of diamond, a branching horn and many more.

    The horned rabbit was an interesting species. The big wing butterfly was quite the same as the horn rabbit too.

    All of the big wing butterflies possessed wings twice or bigger than an original butterfly. Other than that, some of them had more pairs of wings and some with different patterns on their wings.

    The big tongue toad was the most boring species out of the three. They all looked the same and had a big and long tongue.

    The tongue was their main weapon and combined it with their strong jump and thick skin, they were quite a formidable monster.

    The big tongue toad was inferior in appearance compared to the horn rabbit and big wing butterfly but their strength was far superior to the other two.

    The tongue can deliver a strong attack, the jump made their attack had more variations and their thick skin can receive a lot of attacks and protected them properly.

    If it was someone else, they would surely choose either the horn rabbit or big wing butterfly. However, Cade decided to go to the big tongue toad dungeon.

    With the universe currently in chaos, Cade needed to challenge something harder if he wanted to grow stronger.

    The big tongue toad was enough for him at the moment to give him some challenge. He did not know how he would fare against the toad but he will do his best.

    Once he made his decision, Cade applied for the license. It will take a few days for him to get the license and he started making his preparations.

    Thanks to his previous explorations, Cade had quite a good amount of money. He decided to buy armor and many potions.

    The toad was strong and it can attack from afar. With his current stats, it was quite hard for him to endure any attack that landed on him. So, he needed the assistance of armor to protect himself.

    An armor can prove to be important to him as it had helped him a lot when he was exploring the slime dungeon.

    As for potions, it was a no brainer to know how important it was to him and how he survived the army of slime thanks to them. He decided to buy a lot of them.

    Cade shopped online for his armor and potions. He was too lazy to go out and bought it himself. It was the age of technology and everything was easier than before especially when someone wanted to buy something.

    Everyone possessed the shipping teleporter. This teleporter was a cheaper version of the normal teleporter and it was exclusively used for teleporting non-living things.

    Due to its function of only teleporting non-living things, it was cheaper and easier to produce compared to a normal teleporter that can teleport all things, living and non-living things.

    Due to the shipping teleporter, online shopping had become easier and explorers used them a lot when they were selling their drop item.

    The shipping teleporter was used widely in the universe because it had a lot of safety features to prevent scam, damaged products and many more.

    It did not take him long before he found what he wanted to buy.

 Chapter 18

    Cade¡¯s preparations for the big tongue toad dungeon finished without much problem. He bought armor, many potions and also an emergency teleport badge.

    Cade had almost forgotten about the emergency badge and almost spent all of his money on potions. Luckily, he passed through the badge while viewing other items.

    After Cade had finished his preparations, to his surprise, he got the limit entry license. Usually, it took a few days but he got it in a few hours.

    ¡°They must have taken this seriously,¡± thought Cade. With the threat of the time limit dungeon, everyone was increasing their efficiency. Dineon needed to increase their strength and issuing the limit entry dungeon fast will help the explorers on the planet becoming stronger faster.

    Cade will need to travel for about 7 hours with the train to get to the dungeon. He decided to take the midnight train and will arrive at the dungeon in the morning.

    With everything done, Cade spent his time for the rest of the day playing games on his genius phone.

    When it was time for him to take the train, he left his apartment and went to the train station. Just like he thought, it was empty¡­ was what Cade thought.

    ¡°Why are there so many people?¡± To Cade''s surprise, there were quite a lot of people at the train station.

    Cade recognized that some of them were explorers based on their attire and posture. Maybe all of them were explorers.

    ¡°Are they traveling to a dungeon too?¡± thought Cade. He thought that maybe they all got a waking call with what had happened to Planet Snowball.

    There were a lot of explorers but most of them decided to stop exploring at some point.

    There were many reasons and one of them was fear of death. Explorer was a dangerous career. Life was always on the line and they can lose their life in a mere second after they stepped inside a dungeon.

    Everyone was scared of death and that was normal to humans. The ones that got too scared will quit but the one that had more courage will usually go on as explorers.

    Another reason was money. Explorers were usually thought to be rich but that was not true at all.

    Those that got rich were thanks to their luck and they got lots of drop items. However, most explorers did not have that kind of luck and rarely got a drop item.

    With every exploration, they needed to buy potions, equipment, foods, and many other things and most of them were super expensive especially equipment.

    Without much gain from the dungeon, they needed to spend more on their equipment and that cost them a lot, that many explorers declared their bankruptcy after five or six explorations and quits the career altogether.

    Looking at the scene of the train station, Cade knew that most of them were returner explorers after they quit at some point before as he can see the nervousness in their eyes.

    They must have come back due to the looming threat of the time limit dungeon.

    While looking at all the explorers around him, suddenly, someone tapped Cade¡¯s shoulder. Cade looked beside him and a beautiful girl with golden hair was smiling dazzlingly at him.

    The girl was Cynthia and Cade stared blankly at her without knowing how he should react to her sudden appearance.

    ¡°Are you going to a dungeon too?¡± asked Cynthia with her beautiful and dazzling smile. Cade did not know why but he felt like he might go blind if she kept smiling dazzlingly at him like that.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    ¡°Yes, I am but¡­ Urm~ Can you stop smiling like that. I don¡¯t know why but you kind of emit some kind of light when you smile and my eyes hurt,¡± said Cade bluntly. He cannot help it and said it like that because his eyes cannot take it.

    ¡°Is he openly flirting with that pretty girl,¡± some explorers who overheard that whispered to his companion.

    ¡°Lol, that sentence sounds lame,¡± said another explorer nearby and there was also some chuckling as they thought it was funny.

    Upon hearing Cade¡¯s words, Cynthia looked around her and she was under a lamp and moved a bit from the lamp.

    ¡°How is it now? Do your eyes still hurt?¡± asked Cynthia and she continued, ¡°I am sorry that I hurt your eyes. I have a special skill that enhances light and I did not have full control over it yet. So, my mood sometimes passively affects the light around me.¡±

    The other explorers around them that were laughing at him suddenly fell silent.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°So, he was not flirting,¡± said one of the explorers around them.

    ¡°Ah, could it be that in class last time too?¡± asked Cade. No wonder that when Cynthia smiled at him before in class, her smile was weirdly dazzling. Now, it all makes sense.

    ¡°Ehehe~ I am sorry. That¡¯s why you are kind of not responding to me at that time,¡± said Cynthia while she smiled innocently at Cade.

    ¡°So, which dungeon are you heading to?¡± asked Cynthia. She was kind of curious to see which dungeon Cade had chosen. There was no other reason other than her curiosity.

    ¡°¡­¡± Cade felt like not answering her but it will be rude since she asked nicely. ¡°Big tongue toad dungeon,¡± said Cade.

    ¡°What a coincidence! I am heading there too~¡± said Cynthia happily and again she smiled while at the same time, the light nearby went brighter.

    The explorers around them had their mouth opened as they finally knew what Cade was feeling earlier. This time the light was brighter and it affected them too.

    ¡°The girl must have felt much happier than earlier¡­ the light is freaking bright!¡±

    ¡°My eyes~,¡± said an explorer and he covered his eyes with his hand.

    ¡°Where is my sunglasses,¡± said another explorer while rummaging through his storage.

    ¡°I am going to wait a bit further from her,¡± said another explorer while he walked further than Cade and Cynthia.

    Cade, on the other hand, got affected the most by the light because Cynthia was in front of him. The bright light made it hard for him to see her.

    ¡°Err¡­ Cynthia, your light is too bright,¡± said Cade while he also moved his hand to cover his eyes.

    ¡°Ahh!! I am sorry again,¡± said Cynthia and she tried to control her emotions. Her face blushed a bit as she felt like she was incompetent in controlling her skill.

    ¡°It is fine¡­ I can understand that,¡± said Cade while he awkwardly smiled. He saw that Cynthia was embarrassed at what had happened and decided to continue their talk earlier.

    ¡°Are you going alone there?¡± asked Cade to divert the topic of her skill.

    ¡°Huh? Y-yeah. What a coincidence right?¡± said Cynthia and she smiled again but the light was not as bright as before. Cynthia did her best to control her emotions.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you in a guild? Where are the other members?¡± asked Cade again. He knew that all explorers in his class had joined a guild including Cynthia.

    He also remembered that Cynthia joined quite a popular guild too and she was recruited by them. He found it weird that she was by herself.

    ¡°Oh, that¡­ I quit the guild,¡± said Cynthia while pouting her lips a bit. It looked like something happened between her and that guild. Cade did not want to pry further but Cynthia continued with her talk.

    ¡°They recruited me because of my status as a princess and all that flowery talk they said to me before were all lies,¡± said Cynthia and she looked pissed thinking about that.

    However, Cade heard something weird from what she said¡­

    ¡°Princess?¡± asked Cade while staring at Cynthia.

    ¡°Yes, I am the sixth princess of the Golden Dragon Star Sector¡¯s Royal Family,¡± said Cynthia while smiling at Cade. She looked a bit proud of herself too but not arrogant.

    Cade, however, was speechless and not only him but everyone else around him was the same as him. They were all looking at Cynthia like they saw a ghost¡­ no, an angel.

    ¡°You are joking, right? That was a good joke you made there and I almost got fooled by you,¡± said Cade. He refused to believe that. There was no way a princess from that kind of family came to a weak planet like Dineon.

    There were a lot of other better planets in the universe that were 100 times better than Dineon with 100 times better college too and she chose Dineon? She was just playing around.

    When others around Cade heard him, they also came to their senses and realized that Cynthia might be joking around.

    Cade believed she was joking for a reason. No one was able to find out anything about her and she might have been a princess but how can when no one was able to find out anything about her but that guild knew about it?

    It did not make any sense at all.

 Chapter 19

    The Golden Dragon Royal Family was one of the top 4 strongest families in the universe. Anyone from that family can be considered a monster with their strength.

    The family had many S grade explorers in their rank and there were even rumors that they also had someone in their family who had a grade beyond S.

    The family was feared and revered by many people due to their strength and anyone that tried to pick a fight with them had never survived. All of them were insanely strong.

    Added to that, they were in control of an entire star sector and named the star sector after their family name, Golden Dragon Star Sector.

    The Golden Dragon Star Sector was the biggest star sector in the universe with 200 planets in them and all 200 planets were under the control of the Golden Dragon Royal Family.

    When Cynthia claimed that she was a princess from the Golden Dragon Royal Family, it was shocking but at the same time unbelievable because that family was super popular and their basic information was all over the internet.

    However, there was nothing about Cynthia and that can only mean that either the family hid her data or she was just a commoner and lying about herself.

    It was also weird that the guild she joined before knew about her when if Cade was not mistaken, that guild was not a top guild. That kind of guild couldn''t get any information about her if her family was hiding her information.

    Besides, it was also weird that she easily told others about her identity when her family was hiding it. Cade was unable to believe her words.

    ¡°I am telling the truth and I know what you were thinking. There is a reason why you cannot find any information about me on the internet and the guild master of the guild I left recognize my face when he visited the Golden Dragon Star Sector in the past. So, he used that knowledge to rope me into his guild,¡± explained Cynthia.

    ¡°¡­¡± Cade did not know how to reply to her explanation.

    ¡°And, you are the first person that I tell this in person,¡± said Cynthia. She looked a bit annoyed but she still smiled a bit. She did feel a bit annoyed at Cade¡¯s reaction when he thought she was joking.

    Cynthia had never once intended to keep her identity as a princess a secret but since no one was asking her about her family, she never tried to say anything.

    There was a reason why no one was asking her. They knew that she came from some kind of a big family and seeing that they were keeping it a secret, there must be a reason for that.

    Asking something that was meant as the secret was really dangerous especially if the secret came from a big and powerful family.

    ¡°You said that there is a reason your information is not on the internet, why is that?¡± asked Cade. Even if she said that that did not explain anything about her being the princess because there was no evidence.

    ¡°An idiot in my family got himself a weird skill book named data blocker. The skill can block any data and information about something on the internet¡­ forever. That idiot learned the skill and tested it with my information and resulted in everything related to me being wiped out forever from the internet,¡± said Cynthia and she got more annoyed when thinking of that.

    ¡°Now, whatever information related to me will be deleted automatically when it reaches the internet. So, you won¡¯t be able to find anything about me from the internet,¡± said Cynthia and she looked a bit sad as well as annoyed when thinking about it.

    Looking at Cynthia¡¯s face, Cade sighed and decided to not pursue it further and tried to believe whatever she said. It was not his business if she tried to hide it or not or if it was true or not. They were not friends, only acquaintances.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    No matter who she was, it had nothing to do with him but he still felt curious as to why she came studying at Planet Dineon.

    ¡°If you are a princess, why do you come here for your studies? I am sure that there are many other better colleges all around the universe and your family has their university too,¡± asked Cade. She was a princess and if he was not mistaken, the Golden Dragon Royal Family had their university.

    The university was one of the top universities in the universe and outsiders will have a hard time getting in but a member of the royal family will always be admitted to that university.

    In the beginning, the university was founded for the members of the family but as time passed by, they started accepting outsiders too.

    However, only the best of the best outsiders were allowed to attend the university. There was a reason why they did that. It was to procure the partner for their family member.

    In better words, the ones chosen as students for their university will marry a member of the Golden Dragon Family. All the students that were not part of the Golden Dragon Family had been approved by the family to marry a member of the family.

    They did not want their family members to marry useless people and thus, they did that. Only talented people were allowed to be part of the family.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know the real reason but a fortune teller in my family said that I should attend this college,¡± said Cynthia. She did not mind studying on Planet Dineon because she was happy that she got to travel outside the Golden Dragon Star System.

    ¡°Even the fortune teller herself did not know the reason but she said it was important for me to come here. It has something to do with the future of our universe,¡± continued Cynthia.

    ¡°Future of our universe? Does it have something to do with the time limit dungeon?¡± thought Cade. He did not say it out loud but everyone who overheard their conversation had the same thought.

    At the moment, the time limit dungeon was the biggest threat the universe had ever met. Everyone was extremely nervous about how their future will be.

    ¡°So, Cynthia is some kind of important with what will happen? I wonder what her role will be?¡± thought Cade more but he decided to stop thinking about it too deep. It was not related to him anyway.

    ¡°So, where is your guard?¡± asked Cade. There was no way they would let their princess go to a faraway planet without any guard.

    ¡°Guard? Why would I need a guard?¡± asked Cynthia back with a questioning face.

    ¡°First of all, you are a princess and second, you said it is important for you to be here. That means it is also important for you to be safe and alive. If something bad happens to you, then, our future will be dark,¡± said Cade.

    The others around him that have been eavesdropping nodded their head. What Cade said made sense. She needed to be safe for their future to be bright since she said it was important for her to be there on their planet.

    ¡°This star sector is the safest in the universe, so there is no need for a guard. Everyone here is nice and there is no one bad and strong enough that will threaten my life,¡± said Cynthia with her smile equipped with the dazzling light, again.

    Everyone who heard her including Cade did not know what to feel. They felt a bit conflicted at her statement. She blatantly said that everyone in the star sector was weak but with a compliment that everyone was nice.

    She was not wrong though because the strongest explorer in Biscuit Star Sector was an A grade. There was no S grade explorer in their star sector.

    Besides, everyone living in Biscuit Star Sector was peace-loving and hated conflict. That was why there was no war between planets happening in the Biscuit Star Sector.

    Everyone who heard her cannot help but smile awkwardly. It was like another waking call to them after the disappearance of Planet Snowball.

    ¡°If someone is trying to harm me, I have with me an item that will instantly teleport the strongest member of my family here to deal with the threat,¡± said Cynthia with more dazzling light.

    The light, however, did not feel warm because it sounded like a threat. ¡°Try to sneak attack me and you will die,¡± was what everyone heard including Cade.

    Cade sighed and he looked at Cynthia and said, ¡°Well, whatever your mission is on this planet, I wish you luck.¡±

    Cade then tried to leave her alone when Cynthia suddenly held his arm. Cade was stunned with Cynthia¡¯s action.

    ¡°W-w-w-what are you doing?¡± Cade stuttered when he said that because this was the first time a girl held his arm. He was nervous.

    ¡°Why do you think I told you everything about me?¡± said Cynthia with a sinister smile.

    ¡°????????¡± Cade¡¯s mind was filled with a question mark and he smelled trouble.

 Chapter 20

    Cade was sitting on a seat inside the train and on his way to the big tongue toad dungeon. He was frowning while looking at the view outside the train.

    The reason for that was because of Cynthia who was currently sleeping on a seat beside him. A few hours ago, Cynthia told him the reason she told him about her identity.

    It was to gain trust from Cade. Why would she need Cade¡¯s trust? She wanted to recruit him to join her party.

    Cynthia had been planning to find people to form a party with her when she was told to go to Dineon. Having a party will surely help her a lot in doing her important mission or role that the fortune teller had predicted.

    When the guild she joined before invited her, she thought it would be a good opportunity to form a party.

    However, she dislikes all of them. They did not blatantly do anything bad to her and she did not hate them but Cynthia felt no synergy with them. Other than that, they were flaunting their grade every time but unable to give the result of someone at that grade.

    They were not explorers that Cynthia wanted as her party member. Later, she also found out that after she joined the guild, the guild had somehow used her name to make some kind of shady deals here and there.

    Those deals made her decision to leave the guild. They tried to persuade her to stay but they failed. Cynthia was not a girl that they can use as they want and she hated it when someone used her name for something without her knowledge.

    After she left the guild, she decided to recruit people by herself. Her first target area in searching for her party member was her college. She had been observing many explorers there and finally, she found someone and that person was Cade.

    There was nothing special about him but Cynthia felt like he was a great choice. Her mind tried to be rational but her heart tells her that he was the right choice.

    She did not know if she should follow her mind or her heart but she decided to follow her heart when she saw Cade was attacked by Sera.

    Something about Cade¡¯s action drew her in but she did not know what. In the end, there she was by Cade¡¯s side trying to persuade him to join her party.

    When Cynthia made her offer to Cade, to her surprise, Cade immediately said no without much thought. Cynthia was shocked by Cade¡¯s answer.

    She thought that Cade would agree after he listened to her and knew about her real identity but he did not even care about that.

    To Cade, getting involved with someone that high in the society like royalty was a hassle. They had a lot of problems hovering around them and he did not want to get involved in any of them and thus his quick rejection towards Cynthia¡¯s offer.

    Other than that, Cade did not want to get involved in the important matter that Cynthia will face in the future.

    Cynthia, however, did not want to give up and decided to cling on Cade for the rest of the journey to the big tongue toad dungeon.

    There was also a reason why Cynthia¡¯s chosen dungeon this time was the same as Cade. She spied on him and decided to go to the same dungeon as him.

    At the time when she chose the dungeon, she assumed that he would agree and for convenience, it was easier for them to go to the same dungeon. Unfortunately, not everything happened as she wanted.

    Luckily, she chose the same dungeon. She can cling on to him until he agrees. Even if she was unsuccessful in roping him in after they finished exploring the dungeon, they were classmates and she could try again there and maybe follow him again to another dungeon.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°I should quickly run away from her after the train arrives,¡± thought Cade while he was intently watching the night view through the train¡¯s window.

    As time passed by, Cade felt sleepier and ended up falling asleep. A few hours later, the train arrived and Cade woke up from his sleep and to his surprise, Cynthia was sleeping while hugging his arm.

    Cade massaged his head as he suddenly felt like he would get an extreme headache during his exploration this time.

    Cade tried to silently remove his arm from Cynthia and after hard work, he succeeded without her waking up. Cade immediately left his seat and got out of the train.

    The train then left the station¡­ with Cynthia still sleeping inside. Cade felt a bit guilty doing this but he needed his peacetime.

    Cade then bought some breakfast at the train station before he took a cab to the big tongue toad dungeon.

    Upon reaching the dungeon, to Cade''s surprise, it was bustling with explorers. There were tents everywhere from tents for resting to tents selling things like food, equipment, potions and many more.

    The happening was common on every dungeon but this was the first time Cade saw this with his own eyes. His first dungeon was super unpopular and thus there were no people there.

    Cade did not go straight inside the dungeon but sightseeing around the shops available there. There was nothing that interested him and thus he did not buy anything.

    Cade then took out all his linked equipment and equipped them. He wore his white t-shirt inside and black hoodie outside and also his black jeans. All of them had magic defense stats.

    Since there were variations among the big tongue toad, it was possible that some of them can use magic skills. Having equipment with magic defense will be helpful to him.

    At the moment, all his linked equipment had reached their limit level until Cade leveled up more and at their level, they were all equivalent to a D grade equipment.

    Cade¡¯s equipment had the possibility of going beyond that if he did not need to increase their durability. With two stats needed to be increased and only 10 stat points per magic crystal, that was as far as his equipment can go.

    Cade had a theory that he did not yet test and he hoped it worked. The last time he leveled up his equipment, he had been using E grade magic crystal. What if he used D grade magic crystal? Will he get more stat points to increase his equipment stats?

    He wanted to try that and that was why he came to the toad dungeon. This dungeon had a yellow portal and that meant it was D grade. Yes, Cade chose a D grade dungeon for his second explorations.

    Even if the dungeon¡¯s grade was D, not all of them were D grade. There will be many E grade monsters too that can be found. So, Cade can still farm for E grade magic crystal to increase his physical resistance skill.

    His potential growth grade was currently at D grade. Cade had upgraded it before from E grade but the magic crystal it needed now was a whopping 10 000 Level 1 D grade magic crystal.

    The amount almost made him vomited blood. He needed to kill thousands of D grade monsters to upgrade his growth potential to C. Cade wondered how much magic crystals he would need when he reached C grade.

    Thinking about that made him sighed and had a slight headache.

    ¡°You can¡¯t enter?¡± Suddenly Cade overheard some explorers talking nearby.

    ¡°No, my level passes the limit,¡± said the explorers while sighing. He was disappointed that he couldn''t enter the dungeon.

    ¡°Level passes the limit?¡± Cade wondered what they were talking about. The toad dungeon was low level but everyone regardless of level can enter but that explorers said that he passed the level limit?

    The toad dungeon was not a time limit dungeon where it also limited the level range.

    ¡°Sigh, I will head back home and ask for a refund from the government and find some other dungeon within my level,¡± said that explorer who cannot enter the dungeon. He looked disappointed.

    ¡°All these changes happened because of the time limit dungeon. Since the tragedy of Planet Snowball, everything is changing,¡± said another explorer with a worried face.

    ¡°Even we who live in this peaceful star sector do not feel the peace anymore. We can all die if the time limit dungeon appears on this planet. Now, everyone is rushing to become stronger to protect ourselves and our family,¡± that explorer continues.

    ¡°Changes? The dungeon is changing?¡± Cade was shocked by what he had heard. He immediately took out his genius phone from his storage and went online.

    Cade searched about the changing that was happening to the dungeon and to his surprise, many changes were happening to the dungeon after the appearance of the time limit dungeon.

    It did not get much attention because of what was happening to the planets where the time limit dungeon appeared but the changes were huge.

 Chapter 21

    The first change that was happening to all the dungeons was the level limit. If the dungeon had level 10 monsters, only explorers at level 10 and below can enter the dungeon.

    No matter what all the explorers did, they cannot enter the dungeon if their level exceeded the level of the monsters. Only those at the level limit were allowed to enter.

    However, if an explorer leveled up inside the dungeon and passed the level limit, he or she will be fine. They will not get kicked out of the dungeon. They can continue their explorations until they stepped out of the dungeon.

    Once they stepped out of the dungeon, they will be unable to get back inside.

    The second change was happening to the monsters. Before the changes happened, all the monsters that were killed will die forever and the monster inside the dungeon would be depleted and when all of them died, the dungeon will disappear.

    However, the new changes were truly shocking. The monsters can respawn. If the monster dies, they will respawn someplace inside the dungeon.

    At the beginning of the changes, no one realized this but they soon found out that the number of monsters shown by the system did not decrease. They stayed the same even after they killed some of them.

    No matter how hard the explorers tried to eliminate all of the monsters, there will still be the same amount of them inside the dungeon.

    The third changes were on the dungeon floor. Usually, the first floor will be the biggest floor out of all the floor the dungeon possessed.

    The new change however made it that all the floor was the same size as the first floor. All of them were huge.

    If an explorer took five days to explore the entirety of the first floor without fighting the monsters, he will take almost the same amount of time on another floor too.

    The fourth change was related to the dungeon floor too. Before the changes happened, explorers can only find the dungeon boss on the top floor but after the changes happened to the dungeon, all floors had a boss.

    The explorers called them the floor boss. The floor boss can only be found at the end of the dungeon in an enclosed room. Unlike the boss before the changes, the floor boss will not roam around the dungeon. It will only stay in that room.

    To enter the next floor, explorers needed to defeat the floor boss once. Everyone who participated in defeating the floor boss can go to the next floor.

    The floor boss also was said to always drop an item either the magic crystals, equipment or skill book. The chance of getting an equipment and skill book was higher by defeating the floor boss.

    However, they can only defeat the floor boss once and after that, no matter what they tried, they will be unable to fight the floor boss again.

    The fifth change was the weirdest change ever. If the floor boss at the top floor was defeated, a new floor will be added and the level limit of the dungeon will increase.

    For example, if someone defeated the big tongue toad boss on the tenth floor, the eleventh floor will appear and the level limit of the dungeon will increase from 10 to 11.

    When Cade was reading this, he gasped. He was shocked by that. That meant that the dungeon had now become permanent. It will keep increasing its floor and level limit whenever someone defeats the top floor boss for the first time instead of disappearing like before.

    The last change was the most groundbreaking and heaven-defying changes ever. No one can die inside the dungeon. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Whenever an explorer died inside the dungeon, they will revive outside the dungeon and the system notified him or her that they will be forbidden from entering any dungeon for a while. Other than that, they will also lose a level, some stat points and all the equipment they were using.

    Cade did not know how to react to the last changes. It was too much of a change. Explorers had been losing their lives most of the time when they entered the dungeon.

    The dungeon had now become like the dungeon in games. Respawning monsters, floor boss, reviving¡­ all of them were something common in games. It was not as threatening as before.

    ¡°This is weird¡­ this is too similar to games. Are dungeons created by humans?¡± Cade wondered. If it was something that appeared naturally, the changes won¡¯t be this drastic. It will happen slowly like how animals evolved taking thousands to millions of years.

    The changes were too similar to games that humans had been making all these years and it looked like the permanent dungeon was helping humans by not killing them permanently.

    ¡°This is suspicious. It is much more suspicious that this change happens after we lose a lot of humans¡­ no, explorers on Planet Snowball. The creator of the dungeon seems to want to reduce the casualty among the explorers,¡± thought Cade.

    He was not the only one suspicious of this. Everyone who smarts enough was thinking the same. At the time Cade was reading the information about the changes happening to the dungeon, all the powerful families had started their research regarding the creator of the dungeon.

    Some theories said that the system and the dungeon were created by the same person or there were two of them collaborating to make the system and the dungeon.

    However, it did not make any sense that the creator of the dungeon created the destructive time limit dungeon and at the same time making changes to the dungeons that were already available in the universe by not killing anyone.

    The time limit dungeon killing rates were higher compared to the permanent dungeon. Even the system warned everyone about the time limit dungeon and never once warned about the other dungeon even after the appearance of the time limit dungeon.

    That meant that the creator of the system and the creator of the dungeon were still on good terms but then, was the creator of the time limit dungeon was a different person?

    Did the time limit dungeon creator love destruction and created the time limit dungeon to destroy planets in the universe? Or was he or she enemies of the system creator and dungeon creator?

    If what they thought was right, they needed to find that person and stopped him or her from creating more of the time limit dungeon.

    However, this theory was unlikely. The power of the system and the dungeon were not something a human from 10 000 years ago can achieve. Even after 10 000 years had passed, no one was able to recreate the system and dungeon.

    Another theory was that the system and the dungeon were created by a higher being to help humans become stronger.

    Maybe the time limit dungeon was created by a demon king or something and that higher being had predicted it will happen in the future and prepared humans by creating the system and the dungeon.

    This was possible because there were so many things unknown to humans even after they got the system, the dungeon appearance, and the monsters.

    Cade was reading every information about the changes happening to the dungeon and he sighed. He took out his emergency teleport badge and frowned.

    Now that he won¡¯t die even if he was killed inside the dungeon, there was no need for the badge. It might be helpful to those that use normal kind of equipment but to Cade, his equipment was linked to him and there was no way he will lose it.

    Losing a level was nothing much to him. He did not mind losing a level if he could stay alive. He can gain that level back.

    Once Cade made sure of the changes that had happened to the dungeon, it was time for him to start his second explorations.

    Cade did not want to waste any more time as he was afraid that Cynthia would find him. Now that there was a level limit to the dungeon, it was possible that she could not enter.

    She had been an explorer for quite a while and her level must be higher than 10. For Cade to not meet her, the best place to hide was inside the dungeon.

    Cade took out his cardboard mouth mask and wore it. He lifted his hoodie and covered his head. With the mask and hoodie, no one will be able to recognize him.

    Cade took out his cardboard round shield and cardboard short sword. He tightened the round shield on his right arm and held his short sword on his left arm.

    It had been a while since he wore his cardboard equipment. He blushed as he felt embarrassed at his appearance. No matter how much he had gotten used to the cardboard equipment, it still felt embarrassing.

    Added to that, this time with a lot of people nearby.

 Chapter 22

    ¡°So, you can¡¯t enter this dungeon? The news is true?¡± asked Raja, an explorer who quit a few years ago after he almost died exploring a dungeon for his second time. Due to him quitting early, his level was low.

    He was not the only one, his friend that was coming with him to the big tongue toad dungeon quit around the same time as him. As a result, his friend was at a low level too.

    After Planet Snowball vanished, they both decided to become an explorer again just like everyone else. Not for money or fame but for safety.

    ¡°Yeah¡­ I am only one level above the limit and I cannot enter this dungeon,¡± said Deury, Raja¡¯s friend.

    Both Raja and Deury decided to explore the big tongue toad dungeon together but unfortunately for Deury, he cannot enter due the new level limit rule applied to the dungeon.

    They did not know if they should separate or choose another dungeon. While contemplating what they should do, they saw a man with a black hoodie and a cardboard shield strapped on his left arm passed them.

    ¡°Pfft~ What is that? Is he playing around?¡± said Deury while pointing his finger at Cade. Not only him, everyone around who saw Cade was laughing or snickering.

    ¡°Is that guy going inside the dungeon with that cardboard? He wears ordinary clothes too,¡± said Raja while he was observing Cade.

    ¡°That guy must either be too poor or there is some problem with his brain,¡± said Deury while covering his mouth holding his laugh.

    ¡°Is no one going to stop him? Going in like that is a suicide,¡± said Raja. He was not laughing and showed a bit of concern at Cade.

    ¡°Well~ there is no need to worry about him. The dungeon¡¯s new rules will make sure no one dies inside the dungeon. Even if he died, he will be revived outside the dungeon,¡± said Deury.

    Raja nodded as he remembered that the dungeon¡¯s rules had changed. Everyone was safe inside the dungeon. If they died, other than their level decreased and they lost all their equipment, they will still have their life.

    While Raja and Deury were talking about Cade, they saw someone approaching Cade. It looked like that person tried to stop Cade from entering the dungeon with his equipment.

    However, from afar, Raja and Deury saw Cade shakes his hand and made some gesture that he was fine and continued walking forward towards the dungeon entrance.

    The guy who approached Cade also shakes his head with a disappointed face. Raja and Deury¡¯s face frown.

    ¡°Someone did try to stop him but he still went forward. There is no need to worry about that guy,¡± said Deury while looking at Raja.

    ¡°You are right,¡± Raja sighed and lightly shakes his head. He continued, ¡°he will learn it by himself how dangerous the dungeon is.¡±

    Then, they continued their discussion about their plan to enter the dungeon. In the end, Raja decided to join someone else¡¯s party and Deury went to apply for the license for another dungeon within his level limit.

    As they were discussing what they should do, the explorers around them were betting on how long Cade can survive inside the dungeon.

    Many of them betted that he will revive outside the dungeon in less than ten minutes. While others considered that there will be many other explorers inside that will help him somehow and he will last at most 30 minutes.

    Some explorers just wanted to be different than others and bet that Cade will survive inside the dungeon. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Before Deury left the area, he also put in some bet for fun. He was just like everyone else betting that Cade will revive outside the dungeon in less than ten minutes.

    Deury did not wait for the results however and left the area. Raja, on the other hand, found a party that allowed him to join.

    All the explorers that made their bet were waiting patiently while looking at the entrance of the dungeon. A few explorers were revived outside the dungeon. That meant they died.

    However, looking at all the explorers that revived, someone suddenly thought of something. All the explorers that died inside the dungeon and were revived lost all their equipment including their clothes and underwear.

    That meant they were naked. How in the world will they be able to recognize Cade? They did not know what Cade looked like and all they knew about him was the cardboard.

    Everyone looked at each other and they all sighed. They should have realized it earlier. Before they took back their money, someone volunteered to get inside and followed Cade.

    Everyone was clapping their hands and cheering for that guy. After that, the explorer who volunteered immediately went inside the dungeon.

    He kept asking about Cade to the explorers he met inside and luckily, they all saw him. There was no way they did not notice him. The cardboard attracted too much attention. That explorer followed the direction of the explorers that saw Cade.

    ***

    On a train station far away from the big tongue toad dungeon, a beautiful girl with golden hair sat on a seat pouting with an annoyed face.

    Everyone who saw her was attracted by her beauty but none of them dared to get near her because she looked annoyed.

    However, even with that face, she was really beautiful. All the guys and some girls who saw her were mesmerized by her beauty. Some girls got jealous looking at that beautiful girl but did not dare get neared the beautiful hair.

    The beautiful golden-haired girl was emitting some kind of aura that made everyone scared of her. There were also other explorers nearby and they all can feel how strong that beautiful girl was.

    That beautiful golden hair girl was Cynthia. She was angry and annoyed that Cade did not wake her up when they arrived at the train station nearby the big tongue toad dungeon.

    She woke up when the train stopped at the fifth station after the station she was supposed to get off.

    Cynthia woke up in the middle of the night and saw Cade was sleeping. She knew that Cade did not want to join her and was afraid that he would leave her when she was sleeping.

    Due to that, she decided to sleep while holding Cade¡¯s arm. If Cade tried to wiggle out of her arm, she would feel it and wake up.

    To her disappointment, she did not wake up and Cade left her by herself on the train. She wondered how in the world that Cade managed to get away without her realizing.

    Unknown to her, it was her fault. She was sleeping too soundly and when Cade tried to let her go of his arm, she was annoyed that someone was disturbing her sleeping and pushed Cade¡¯s arm away.

    Cade did not waste the chance he got and left her sleeping by herself. He did not worry about her safety because first, Cynthia was strong. Cade can feel it when she hugged his arm.

    Cade did not know Cynthia¡¯s potential growth but he was sure that it was at least A grade.

    Secondly, Cynthia was a princess and she did say that she had an item that will teleport the strongest explorer in her family to her instantly when she was in danger. If someone tried to do anything to her while she was sleeping, the item would activate by itself.

    Thirdly, Cade did not believe that she had no guard at all. She was a princess and there was surely a guard or two guarding her in the shadow.

    She might tell the truth that there was no guard around her but maybe that was because she was unaware of it.

    Even if she said that people in Biscuit Star Sector were nice and peace-loving, that was the majority of them not everyone.

    No matter where it was, there was surely some scum that caused trouble and problems. There were no such things as people with 100% kindness. That was a delusion.

    Cynthia was waiting for a train that went back to the station nearby the big tongue toad dungeon. She was grumbling and complaining about Cade not being nice enough to her.

    She also vowed that when she found Cade, she wanted to kick him once.

    ¡°He was not a gentleman at all!! How can he just leave a girl sleeping by herself on the train!! I thought he was nice but he was not nice at all!!¡± said Cynthia.

    ¡°Cade, just let me kick you once! Just once!¡± said Cynthia with her sinister smile but to others, her smile was angelic and she was more beautiful with her smile.

    A flame was ignited inside Cynthia. She wanted to kick Cade once and also wanted him to agree with joining her party. She will never let Cade go.

    Cade was walking inside the dungeon and he suddenly felt chill.

 Chapter 23

    ¡°What is with this chill?¡± thought Cade while he was hugging his shoulder from the sudden chill. Cade looked around him but other than the nearby explorers who were looking at him weirdly, there was nothing dangerous that made him feel the chill.

    Cade slightly tilted his head and continued walking further inside the dungeon. Everywhere he went, there will be explorers around and they all looked at him weirdly.

    He expected them to stare at him but he still felt embarrassed. Fortunately, his mouth mask and hoodie covered his face.

    No one knew his real face and he did not need to worry about people laughing at him when he walked around without his linked equipment.

    When Cade entered the dungeon earlier, he did not know if there were any changes to the dungeon layout too as he only had one experience going inside the dungeon.

    However, looking at the explorers nearby, it looked like there were some changes happening to the dungeon¡¯s layout. He did not know what changes occurred to the layout but he can guess it.

    Looking at the explorers drawing and taking pictures of the dungeon, the dungeon might have turned to a maze.

    Before this, it was common knowledge that the dungeon was quite linear. There might be some with one or two different paths but they all lead to the end of the floor.

    Cade did not know how complicated the maze was but it might have been just a simple maze as the explorers around him did not look that concerned about it.

    Cade did not mind about it either but he did get worried that there were too many explorers inside the dungeon.

    Cade tried to find some big tongue toad but unfortunately, when he found one, a party of explorers was fighting it.

    It was unethical to steal kill and he did not try to do that. It was fine to do that when the party was in danger but they all looked at ease fighting the monsters.

    Cade kept walking and he found none. They were all taken by someone. Cade sighed. In the end, he decided to go deeper into the dungeon¡¯s first floor and hopefully to find a toad on the way.

    The deeper Cade went, the lesser the explorers he found and after about 30 minutes of walking, He finally found his target. A lone big tongue toad. It was as big as an adult human but the height was much lower compared to a human.

    Cade checked his system to see the toad¡¯s grade. On the first floor, only level 1 toad can be found but since the dungeon was that of D grade, there were E grade and D grade toad to be found there.

    Cade did not want to fight a D grade toad yet. He felt that he was still not fully prepared for that.

    Once he checked the system, the toad he found was E grade. Cade sighed in relief. He took out his cardboard short sword from his storage and equipped it.

    Cade took a deep breath and rushed towards the toad from behind the monsters. The toad sat there yawning as he was bored that there was no one around.

    The toad decided to find another toad but when he turned around, a brown sword was coming at his face. The toad was shocked but he instinctively jumped backward immediately.

    Cade¡¯s sword hit the ground but he was not surprised. Instead of waiting, Cade immediately followed up with another slash with his sword.

    Seeing the next attack coming, the toad got serious. Instead of attacking Cade, the toad jumped backward once more but his jump this time was stronger than before. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Due to that, the toad kept his distance from Cade immediately. Cade missed his second attack and he looked at the toad that was already quite far from him to make another slash.

    Cade tried to run towards the toad but before he was able to do that, the toad opened his mouth and a big, thick and slimy tongue launched at him fast.

    Cade immediately put out his shield to block the attack. However, once the tongue hit the shield, he regretted it. He should have evaded the attack.

    Cade was sent flying backward and he fell rolling on the ground. He immediately tried to get up as another attack was coming at him. However, he was too late.

    The only thing he could do was block it again with his shield. He was once again sent flying by the tongue attack.

    Once Cade was on the ground again, he tried to stand up. His body was shivering from pain. He was not in pain because of the attack but because he was falling on the ground.

    The toad attack did not seem to exceed the defense his shield provided as his shield was totally fine. Its durability went down a bit but that was all.

    Looking at the situation, Cade knew that his equipment would do well inside the dungeon but he was not up to standard.

    Other than his luck, all his other stats were slightly better compared to normal humans. However, that was not enough to fare well against a monster, especially a strong monster like the toad.

    Monsters inside the dungeon had level and grade but there was one more thing that the system did not state in their evaluation.

    Upon more and deeper research, humans found out that each species of monsters had a different amount of stat even if they were of the same grade and level.

    Humans assumed that they all had the same stats and the only difference about them was their skill and the way they were fighting.

    However, research showed that different species of monsters had a different amount of total stat points. Thus, humans started putting another parameter for the monsters, difficulty.

    The slime dungeon that Cade completed before was of difficulty 1. The lowest difficulty ever. All the monsters with difficulty 1 would possibly have a maximum of 10 stat points in each of their stat at level 1 E grade. The maximum amount will increase by 10 for each increase in level.

    If the monsters had a difficulty of 2, the stats will be twice of difficulty 1. All higher difficulties followed the same rules.

    The big tongue toad dungeon had a difficulty of 3. That meant, the toad had three times more stats than what the system predicted with their levels and grade.

    The toad that Cade was fighting can have a maximum of 30 stat points in each of its stats. With the attack that Cade had received earlier, Cade knew that the toad¡¯s strength surpassed his.

    Other than his luck, all of his stats were below thirty and only his vitality stat and endurance stat were above 20.

    Cade did not suffer from any injuries but he still felt pain all over his body. The toad retracted his tongue back but he did not stand still while his tongue was retracted.

    The toad took a big jump forward to close into Cade. Cade was out of his tongue range at the moment. If he wanted to kill Cade, he needed to close the distance.

    Cade saw the big jump the toad made but instead of retreating, Cade went forward. Their distance closed fast.

    The toad tongue fully retracted. The toad was still in the air and he launched another attack with his tongue as Cade was now in his tongue¡¯s range.

    Cade did not stop his advanced and he kept moving forward while the tongue was coming closer and closer towards him.

    Cade tried to block the tongue again but instead of straightforwardly blocking the tongue, Cade tilted his shield a bit to his side, to change the direction of the tongue.

    The tongue hit his shield and it was misdirected to his side and hit the ground. His parry worked but he was halved succeed in his plan as he was pushed aside quite a bit by the recoil of the tongue attack.

    Due to the recoil, Cade loses his footing and he fell on the ground. He quickly stood and evaded the tongue that was sweeping the ground towards him.

    Cade successfully evaded the tongue and the toad also successfully landed on the ground and the toad retracted his tongue back.

    ¡°So, he can only attack twice every time he uses his tongue,¡± Cade saw that the toad will retract back his tongue every time it attacked using it twice.

    In the beginning, he thought that they were too far away. It was true that they were far away and it was evident when the toad jumped forward to close the distance.

    The second time the tongue was launched, it attacked twice and was retracted even when their distance was not far from each other.

    How many times the tongue can attack was not a concern to Cade as he planned to do something else. He saw a lot of other explorers did the same and he knew he could do it too.

 Chapter 24

    The tongue attack from the toad kept coming and every time it reached Cade, he would parry it using his shield. He had been parrying the attack many times now.

    In the beginning, he was always pushed aside by the tongue but bit by bit, he had gotten used to it and his parried had become better and better.

    ¡°It is time,¡± said Cade and his face became serious. He parried another attack and evaded the second attack. The toad retracted back his tongue and launched another attack immediately.

    The toad was annoyed with Cade kept parrying his attack. He had lost count on how many attacks he had made.

    It was not like monsters had unlimited energy and the toad had started to get tired. The toad wanted to end the fight immediately but he did not know-how. The toad frowned but he still kept attacking Cade.

    Another tongue attack came directly towards Cade. Cade raised his shield and perfectly parried it but he did not waste the opportunity and slashed the tongue with his sword.

    The sword perfectly cut the tongue in two and blood started gushing out of it. The toad saw his tongue was cut and pained rushed through his body.

    The toad was in pain and immediately retracted his tongue back. He felt like crying but the pain was so much that his tears did not come out.

    Cade did not rest. He saw the toad pulled back its tongue and ran forward towards the toad. The toad was in pain and did not realize that Cade was coming at him.

    Once the toad fully retracted his tongue, he moved his hand and inspected his tongue. The toad¡¯s tongue was not as beautiful (in his perspective) as before and it was dyed in blood. The toad was thinking about how he can restore it.

    While the toad was focusing on his tongue, he got careless and forgot about Cade. Cade was coming at him fast and when the toad finally realized that Cade was coming, it was too late.

    Cade was already in front of his face. Cade slashed his sword at the toad¡¯s face. The toad did not have much time to react and was slashed by the sword. The toad was slashed to two.

    ¡°Sigh~¡± Cade sighed. He felt a bit frustrated not because he failed to kill the toad but because he wasted too much time practicing his parrying.

    Cade¡¯s cardboard short sword was equivalent to a D grade weapon of the same level and a level 1 toad won¡¯t be able to withstand its attack no matter how high the toad¡¯s difficulty was.

    The toad was evaporating and it dropped an E grade level 1 endurance crystal. Cade picked up the magic crystal and stored it into his storage.

    Instead of continuing forward, Cade decided to rest for a bit. The toad was not an easy opponent. He did go through quite a bit of difficulty but once he was able to parry the attack properly, the toad was not that hard to defeat.

    Cade took out a bottle of mineral water and drank it. While drinking the water, a few explorers passed through him.

    Since they already saw Cade¡¯s earlier, they did not mind him much but they were surprised to see that Cade was fine.

    However, there was someone else that was much more surprised than others. He was not only surprised but spooked at how Cade was fine.

    He was hiding at a corner nearby Cade. That guy was the guy who volunteered to find Cade in the dungeon due to the betting. His name was Shihoon.

    Shihoon was looking for Cade and he finally found him but at the time, Cade was fighting the toad. He was surprised to see that Cade was doing quite well fighting the toad with only his cardboard. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    However, his surprise turned to spook when Cade cut the toad¡¯s tongue with the cardboard sword. It got spookier when the cardboard sword cut the thick skin toad easily and killed the toad in one attack.

    When he thought back when Cade was parrying the tongue with the cardboard shield, it got spookiest. He felt goosebumps all over his body.

    ¡°That cardboard is not normal! It must be a piece of equipment,¡± thought Shihoon. ¡°That¡¯s right when I think properly, there was no one stupid enough to use cardboard in a dungeon.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard or seen someone selling this kind of equipment. Usually, equipment like weapons and armor is made of metal,¡± Shihoon tried to remember if there were any equipment that looked as silly as the cardboard but to his memory, there were none.

    ¡°The kid looks interesting too. He is obviously a beginner but his equipment is high grade considering that it can kill the toad in one attack. Is he from a powerful family? I doubt that. His clothes¡­ are cheap.¡±

    ¡°Those from the powerful family will usually wear expensive clothes. No way in hell they will touch cheap things but that cardboard is unusual. The best possible scenario is that he got it from a monster drop.¡±

    ¡°He looks interesting, I want to see more of what he can do with that cardboard,¡± Shihoon decided to follow Cade to observe him.

    After he saw Cade fighting the toad, he already forgot his purpose of finding Cade. He already forgot about the bets and felt more interested in Cade¡­ Cade¡¯s equipment.

    Cade was resting and he realized that he should take a longer rest. He checked the time and it was 10 in the morning. He took quite a while fighting a toad but he learned to parry.

    Cade looked at his stats and he sighed. He did not know when he would level up. Fighting a level 1 monster will not help him much in leveling up. He was level 9 and the experience he got fighting level 1 monster was small.

    At his pace, it will take a long time for him to level up to 10. Without leveling up, he won¡¯t be able to strengthen his equipment.

    Not only that, he needed to kill as many monsters as possible to farm magic crystals. Magic crystals were the most important ingredient to strengthen his equipment and skill.

    Cade¡¯s skill at the moment needed the magic crystal the most. He had never once gotten hit directly by the toad, so, he did not know how effective physical resistance was but he knew that the skill will save him in a lot of situations.

    Cade did not want to try the skill¡¯s effectiveness because his stats were low. Even with the resistance, he could die in one attack.

    Cade decided to rest for 15 minutes before he continued his exploration.

    ***

    A train arrived at the train station nearby the big tongue toad dungeon. The train door opened and a beautiful girl with golden hair walked out of the train.

    The morning sunlight bathes her in its light and she shone in it like an angel. Everyone at the station was staring at her. She saw a little boy staring at her and she smiled at him.

    With her smile, she shone more and everyone¡¯s mouth opened wide. They were all mesmerized by the dazzling beautiful girl that they saw.

    The beautiful girl walked and left the station. She headed towards the big tongue toad dungeon. She took out her genius phone and opened the image folder.

    ¡°I better ask around if they saw Cade. With my smile, they will surely help me,¡± said Cynthia and she found Cade¡¯s picture. She took it secretly in class after she decided to recruit Cade.

    ¡°Urm~ I feel like a stalker¡­ A princess like me is doing something like this¡­¡± Cynthia felt like crying. She did not want to give up though. So, she steeled her heart and resolution.

    With Cade¡¯s rejection, she felt more fired up to recruit him. She knew that Cade was unwilling but that unwillingness was what drew her more.

    If she told others about her identity and asked them to join her party, they would all agree immediately but not Cade. With Cade¡¯s refusal, it was enough for her to know that Cade was not someone who was greedy and fame seeker.

    She will not have to worry much about his loyalty if he joined her party and she felt like they will work together well.

    With Cade¡¯s picture on her genius phone, she asked around the tents for Cade. After an hour of asking and walking around the tents, unfortunately for her, no one saw him.

    ¡°I guess I need to search for him inside the dungeon,¡± said Cynthia and she decided to search for him inside the dungeon. Cynthia stood in front of the dungeon¡¯s portal and walked forward. When she was reaching the portal, she was suddenly blocked by something.

    ¡°??? What is happening?¡± Cynthia wondered. She put her hand on the portal and some kind of barrier was blocking her.

    ¡°Miss, if you are over level 10 you cannot enter the dungeon. The dungeon now has a level limit,¡± an explorer beside her said to her.

    Cynthia stared blankly at that explorer trying to process what he said, ¡°¡­¡­¡­. WHAT!¡±

 Chapter 25

    Three days had passed since Cade entered the big tongue toad dungeon. At the moment, Cade was at the end of the first floor. He still had not leveled up to 10 and thanks to his luck, he farmed quite a lot of magic crystals and at the same time found a problem that came with his high luck.

    Cade felt no need for equipment drop. However, his high luck made him get a lot of equipment drop. It was not as much as the magic crystal but there were still quite a lot of them.

    Cade did not need any equipment because he had his linked equipment. What he needed the most was the magic crystal. The magic crystals were widely used in strengthening his equipment, skill and growth potential.

    However, due to his high luck, the magic crystal that he wanted did not appear and instead he got the equipment.

    It was fine if it was the E grade but he needed the D grade magic crystals the most to increase his growth potential. All the D grade toad that he killed dropped equipment or something else. He was frustrated at his fortune.

    He knew he could sell the equipment for a lot of money but that was not what he needed at the moment.

    Other than that, Cade also got himself about five skill books. Four of them were the big tongue skill and one was the toad skin skill.

    The big tongue skill was a skill that let the user increase the size of their tongue based on the skill level. Since the skill was level 1, it can only increase the tongue twice the normal size.

    Since skill cannot be upgraded or leveled up, it was fixed like that. In other words, the big tongue skill was useless unless the person has some kind of fetish to the tongue, they might feel like the skill was useful.

    The toad skin skill lets the user turn their skin to that of a big tongue toad. It will increase their defense.

    However, Cade felt like the skill will be unpopular because the toad¡¯s skin was ugly. It was useful but when someone used it, they would turn ugly. Maybe those that did not mind that might buy it but it was a level 1 skill, so no one might have wanted it.

    ¡°This can still fetch me some money, but I wonder how much will I get for this,¡± Cade was looking at the pile of raw materials he got from killing a lot of big tongue toad monsters.

    There was also something else that changed. Before the changes happened, only magic crystal, equipment, skill book and puzzle pieces will drop.

    However, after the changes happened, a new type of drop was added. Material drops. The chance of getting material drops was higher compared to magic crystal.

    The material drops made Cade much more frustrated compared to the equipment drop. The material drops took more of his magic crystal drop compared to the equipment drop.

    Cade¡¯s storage was now filled with material drops of the big tongue toad. Their tongue, skin, eyes, heart, liver, legs, arms and many more.

    They were grossed. If girls saw that, they would scream ¡®kya~ kya~¡¯ disgusted at that. Cade wanted to throw them away but he did not know if it would be useful and maybe it had some value.

    In games, materials like the eyes, heart, and liver were either being used as the ingredients for potions or as food.

    The legs and arms were either used as food or making some kind of equipment. The skin will usually be used as ingredients for clothes or something similar. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    However, that was all the games. This was a reality. Maybe it will be useless but since this was new, maybe there will be people who wanted to research the materials.

    Due to that, Cade kept them all. However, looking at all of them piling up in his storage, he cannot help but wanted to vomit. He did not know if anyone wanted to buy all of them. There were too many of them in his storage.

    Even with all that though, Cade knew that the materials can be used for something because when it was stored in his storage, the storage can appraise the materials.

    The materials had stats of their own. Normal things like food, normal clothes, and normal equipment cannot be appraised by the storage and they had no stats.

    The things that can be appraised by the storage can be used against the monsters. So, the materials might have its uses. Maybe this time, explorers need not worry about equipment drop as the material can be used to make equipment.

    Cade was currently resting outside the boss room. At the moment, many explorers were resting there too. They were all waiting for their turn to fight the boss.

    From what Cade heard from the conversations of the explorers near him, the boss was not that hard to deal with.

    The boss was a big toad with the same skill set as all the other toad they found on the first floor. The only difference was the size. That was it.

    Due to its big size, it was easy to defeat it as it was an easy target to hit. The big size also restricted some of its movement and it was slower too.

    According to some of them, there was one party of explorers who fought the boss toad and the boss toad tried to jump high but it hit the dungeon¡¯s ceiling.

    It embarrassingly dropped on the ground and got a headache as well as hurt itself giving chance for the explorers to easily kill the boss toad.

    When Cade heard that, he cannot help but chuckled at it. Cade thought that the toad was somehow an intelligent monster much like the slime.

    The difference between them was that the slime was nice but the toad was aggressive. It will attack anyone it found without mercy. There was not once Cade met a toad that ran away from a fight. They all would attack him once they saw him.

    Due to their aggressive nature, Cade felt no pity for killing them. Cade felt guilty killing the slime but not the toad. If the toad that he found ran away from him, he might consider letting that toad go but if it was attacking him, no mercy.

    While Cade rested there, he recognized a few familiar faces. Not like he was an acquaintance to them but he just saw them passing by when he was exploring the dungeon.

    As for them knowing Cade, everyone knew him because of his cardboard equipment. He sticks out like a sore thumb wherever he went because of his cardboard.

    Some of them already realized that the cardboard was not normal. Some of them even realized that the normal clothes Cade wore were not normal too.

    Those that realized that all saw Cade fighting the toad while they were passing by. They were all shocked to see Cade slashed the toad with cardboard.

    Cade looked ridiculous in their eyes because of the cardboard at first but once they saw what that cardboard can do, all those thoughts ridiculing Cade were gone.

    They all respected him¡­ not because he was good at fighting or something similar but it was because Cade endures the humiliation of equipping something silly like the cardboard.

    From what they saw the way Cade was fighting, they all knew he was a beginner. Not like they were any better but they had watched strong explorers fight before and knew how a beginner fought.

    From all of that crowd, Cade saw the most familiar face he had seen while he was exploring the dungeon. Cade stared at that man and that man was aware of the stare and tried to pretend to not be aware of it.

    That man was Shihoon. The guy who had decided to follow (stalking) Cade. He was true to his words and had been following Cade since he decided to do that.

    He had also secretly taken pictures of Cade fighting the toad using the cardboard. He had quite a lot of collection of that. Every time Cade stopped to rest, he would check his genius phone and organize the picture he took.

    Cade realized about him being followed a day after he entered the toad dungeon. He saw the same man over and over again most of the time nearby.

    He was wary at first but after a while, he realized that the man did not intend to do anything bad to him. He was curious why he was following him but every time he tried to approach that man, that man ran somewhere.

    Since the man had no intention of doing something bad to him, Cade decided to not pursue it further. He did wonder why Shihoon was following him.

    Since Shihoon sat in the crowd and did not seem to want to go somewhere else, Cade decided to talk to him.

 Chapter 26

    Trying to pretend that he was not aware of Cade watching him, Shihoon was unaware of Cade approaching him.

    When he realized it, Cade held his shoulder to stop him from running away. Shihoon tried to stay calm and he moved his head and looked at Cade.

    Shihoon smiled at Cade calmly, ¡°Is there something you need?¡± said Shihoon with a calm voice. His heart was not calm. It was beating fast and he even tried to hold his sweat from coming out.

    He was nervous. It was not like he was scared of Cade but he knew he had been stalking Cade for the past few days and he even took many pictures of Cade¡­ He felt guilty and embarrassed about his behavior.

    ¡°Why are you following me for the past few days?¡± Cade just went straight to what he wanted to know. He was not the type to love making long conversations. He loves going straight to the topic.

    Cade¡¯s voice was not low and since they were all in a cave, his voice was magnified and that attracted the attention of everyone neared them.

    Cade asked the question loudly because he did not want Shihoon to run away. With a lot of people watching, Shihoon will be unable to run away.

    Everyone nearby was watching them. Their eyes fell on both of them. Cade was somehow used to people staring and watching him thanks to his cardboard equipment besides, no one had seen his face, so, he was fine.

    For Shihoon on the other hand, it was the first for him. With all the eyes staring at him, he started sweating. His calm act earlier had started to crumble.

    ¡°I- I- am a photographer,¡± said Shihoon stuttered a bit with his words. He continued, ¡°I think you look cool and handsome with this-,¡± Shihoon pointed his finger on Cade¡¯s cardboard shield, ¡°-cardboard thing you have.¡±

    ¡°I stalked you for the past few days to capture pictures of you with your cardboard thing,¡± said Shihoon. His eyes were trembling a bit and he did not plan to say that.

    What he said came automatically from his mouth due to his nervousness. He had intended to lie or deny what Cade was asking but due to so many eyes staring at him, he blurted that out automatically.

    Everyone who heard that including Cade were blinking their eyes at Shihoon and then, they all looked at Shihoon weirdly.

    Cade who was holding Shihoon¡¯s shoulder instinctively let go of Shihoon. He took a step back and he made a dry laugh.

    ¡°I hope you do not do that again¡­¡± said Cade surprised by Shihoon¡¯s answer. He stopped talking for a bit before he continued, ¡°Or I will report this to the police.¡±

    Then, Cade left him alone but he came back to Shihoon, ¡°Please delete my picture¡­¡± and then left Shihoon immediately.

    Everyone who heard that looked weirdly at Shihoon. They thought that Cade was weird but there was someone weirder who thought that the cardboard looked cool.

    However, to those that had seen what the cardboard can do, can somehow understand Shihoon¡¯s feeling. It looked ridiculous but the effect of something ridiculous abled to do something amazing can make anyone felt it was cool.

    But to them, it was not to the point that they wanted to stalk Cade. They all sighed and shook their heads at how ridiculous Shihoon was.

    Shihoon, on the other hand, had a red face due to being too embarrassed. He was hiding his face from embarrassment.

    He did not know why he said that. He followed Cade because he found him interesting¡­ no, his cardboard equipment was interesting. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    He only wanted to know and was curious about what the cardboard equipment was capable of doing. He did not know why he blurted that. Shihoon decided to leave the dungeon. He cannot stand the embarrassment.

    He did not blame Cade as he knew it was his fault by saying that.

    ¡°Is he my fan?¡± thought Cade. He felt bad if that was the truth but he still disliked someone taking his photos secretly. He stalked him too.

    When he looked in the direction of Shihoon, he saw him leaving. When he thought properly, it did not look like he was his fan so he did not feel guilty. He hoped that he would not meet him again.

    Cade continued waiting for his turns to enter the floor boss room. Once it was his turn, he entered the boss room.

    Everyone who was waiting saw Cade entered by himself and most of them wondered if he could survive the boss with his lousy cardboard.

    Only those that had seen the capability of the cardboard knew that Cade would be fine, possibly. They saw themselves how strong the cardboard was and they had no doubts about its capability.

    The door closed and Cade continued forward and came into a huge empty room. A magic circle appeared on the ground and the toad boss appeared.

    It was big. As big as a two-story house. The size did make Cade feel intimidated but it did not look like it was powerful.

    The boss toad launched its tongue and it was huge. Cade did not parry that attack but evaded it. Parrying or blocking that huge tongue was suicide.

    Even a normal tongue attack from the big tongue toad was powerful and that huge tongue was for sure powerful too.

    The tongue hit the ground and left quite a crater there. Cade did what he was used to doing to defeat the normal toad, slashed the tongue.

    His attack landed on the tongue and blood spluttered out of it. The boss toad screamed in pain and from that scream, Cade can confirm that it was a monster.

    Cade followed up his attack with a few more slashes against the tongue. The boss toad retracted its tongue back and decided to use its arm to attack Cade.

    ¡°That was new,¡± said Cade. The toad he had met had never used their arms. They either use their tongue or jumped around and kicked their opponent.

    The arm smashed the ground but Cade easily evaded it. The other explorers were right. The boss toad was too slow.

    Cade slashed that arm. The toad tried to retreat but it was too slow. Since it cannot jump, the boss toad loses most of its mobility.

    Cade moved near the toad and slashed its body. The boss toad tried attacking but Cade had no problem evading all of its attacks.

    The fight between them continued with Cade slashing the toad and the boss toad attacking Cade but Cade evaded the attack.

    The fight did not last long. It was around five minutes and Cade succeeded in killing the boss toad.

    The boss toad dropped a skill book. It was the toad skin book but it was the boss version. It was a D grade level 1 skill. The effect of the skill was stronger than a normal toad skin skill.

    Unfortunately for Cade, he did not level up. He thought he would level up if he defeated the boss but that did not happen.

    The teleporter to the second floor appeared. Cade took the teleporter and went to the second floor.

    His explorations on the second floor were not that much different compared to the first floor. It took him a bit longer to reach the end of the second floor due to the toads getting a bit trickier and smarter in their attack.

    However, it did not pose many problems with Cade. Cade fought two variant toads on the second floor.

    The variant toad looked the same as a normal toad but they had a blue tongue. Their tongue was as cold as ice. Whatever was hit by that tongue, a bit of ice will form.

    The freezing was not that strong as the toad were low level but Cade felt like it would be troublesome when they were higher level.

    Cade wished that he got a skill book from that variant but unfortunately, they only dropped an endurance crystal.

    There was nothing he could do with that drop. It was random and he cannot control it. Cade defeated the boss on the second floor as easily as the first floor.

    Again, Cade was unable to level up. He had been fighting lots of toads but he was still not leveling up. He felt a bit frustrated and annoyed but there was again nothing he could do about it.

    He can only keep fighting until he leveled up. He took a total of 5 days to complete the second floor. When he was on the second floor, he ran out of food.

    Cade did not want to get out of the dungeon and remembered about the materials drop. He had a lot of toad¡¯s meat.

    The storage appraisal said it was edible. Cade steeled his heart and decided to eat that meat. To his surprise, it was not bad. He decided to continue his explorations with the toad¡¯s meat as his source of food.

 Chapter 27

    3rd Floor

    ¡®Slash!¡¯ Another big blue tongue toad was killed. However, before Cade could take a breath, another two of them were coming at him.

    Excluding the two big blue tongue toads that were coming at him, Cade had been fighting eight of them nonstop.

    Cade had been on the third floor for two days but he never once fought these many big blue tongue toads.

    They were usually by themselves and Cade never once met a group of them. He might be in the same situation as the slime dungeon when the slimes decided to fight in a group after too many of them were killed.

    Cade was happy fighting a lot of them but the big blue tongue toad was stronger than the big tongue toad and their tongue ability to slightly freeze things they touched was annoying.

    Cade¡¯s sword and shield had become quite heavy from the accumulated ice formed on them when they touched the blue tongue.

    The increased weight of the ice reduced his speed a lot. It was getting harder and harder for Cade to evade the attack because he was getting slower.

    With his puny stats, without his strong linked equipment, he was nothing. The big blue tongue toad¡¯s difficulty was 3.5 and that meant they were 3.5 times much stronger compared to the monsters with difficulty of 1 with the same level.

    Comparing them to the monsters of difficulty 1, their stats were estimated to roughly reach a maximum of 100 stat points per stat and that was for an E grade blue tongue toad. D grade was much stronger.

    Comparing that to Cade¡¯s stats, he was far too weak to defeat them even if he was level 9. The level meant nothing if his stats were low.

    His linked equipment was the one that was helping him a lot fighting against his opponent.

    His fight against the two blue tongue toads continued but, he was losing. Cade was getting tired with the increased weight and longer fights.

    Cade did not know if he should use the emergency badge. The potion he had can heal his wounds but it cannot heal his fatigue.

    The army of slime was easier for Cade to defeat compared to the big blue tongue toad. His fight against the toad had surpassed the time he fought the army of slime plus the boss slime.

    Cade was not the type that exercises a lot and his stamina was low. With his stats that were slightly higher than a normal human, he could not fight for long. He was at his limit.

    Cade decided to use his emergency badge. However, before he could even use his badge, another Cade suddenly appeared and attacked the toad.

    Cade was surprised by the appearance of someone that looked like him but he immediately knew that it might be someone else¡¯s skill.

    With the help of another him, Cade was able to fight the big blue tongue toad and killed one of the two while another him killed the other toad. To Cade''s surprise, he leveled up to 10 and gained 20 stat points thanks to his D grade growth potential.

    The toad that was killed by him dropped a skill book while the toad that was killed by another him did not drop anything.

    Cade took the skill book and it was the blue tongue skill. The skill had the same effect as the blue tongue toad.

    Cade looked at another him and that guy disappeared. Cade looked around and he saw someone familiar. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°You are¡­ the stalker,¡± said Cade to the familiar man. He was Shihoon, his stalker. He had not met him once since they separated on the first floor.

    ¡°Urm~ Please stop that, I am not your stalker anymore. This is a coincidence,¡± said Shihoon with a bit of a panicked face. It was a pure coincidence that he met Cade.

    ¡°¡­What is the skill that you use?¡± asked Cade. He was curious about the skill that Shihoon used.

    ¡°Picture Come to Life. I can summon anything I want from a picture for a few seconds but the picture will disappear when I use this skill,¡± said Shihoon happily revealing his skill.

    It was not much of a secret because many people knew about that skill. It was a common skill.

    ¡°¡­I thought I asked you to delete my picture,¡± said Cade while staring at Shihoon. Shihoon suddenly realized he should not say that to Cade.

    ¡°Ahaha¡­¡± Shihoon laughed awkwardly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I keep it because it is useful with my skill,¡± said Shihoon making excuses. ¡°You saw it yourself just now how good it was.¡±

    Cade looked at Shihoon and decided to let it go. Shihoon did not look like a bad person and he did save his life.

    Well, he was a bit creepy with the stalking but Cade knew that he had not been following him since they separated on the first floor.

    ¡°I thought you left the dungeon?¡± asked Cade. He did remember that Shihoon immediately left from the embarrassment he got.

    If he went out and came in later, he won¡¯t be able to reach the third floor this fast. If he did reach the third floor this fast, he must be strong.

    ¡°Well~ I did intend to leave the dungeon but I realized that it will be a waste of time going back since I was already at the end of the first floor. I waited for you to leave the first floor and then, I continued my exploration¡­ without any stalking,¡± said Shihoon.

    Shihoon was telling the truth. It took them three days to travel to the end of the first floor and going back without defeating the boss was a waste.

    With the new dungeon¡¯s rules, once someone has defeated a floor boss of a dungeon, they can just skip that floor to the next floor when they enter the dungeon again in the future.

    If Shihoon did not defeat the first-floor boss before he came out of the dungeon, he needed to travel three to four days again to reach the end of the first floor.

    ¡°Is that so. Hmm¡­ then, this is for you,¡± Cade threw the skill book, blue tongue to Shihoon. Shihoon caught the book and blankly stared at it. He looked at Cade with a blank expression.

    ¡°As thanks for saving my life,¡± said Cade. He smiled a bit but Shihoon cannot see that because of the mouth mask. Cade felt a bit uncomfortable with Shihoon but he did feel thankful to him for saving his life and gave him the skill book.

    Cade got quite a lot of skill books during his time exploring the toad dungeon and giving one of them to Shihoon was not a loss to him. His life was much more precious compared to the skill book.

    ¡°Are you giving this to me?¡± asked Shihoon with an unbelievable face. Skill book was precious and super rare. Whenever someone got their hands on it, they would either learn them or sell it.

    Even the weakest of the skill can sell for quite a lot of money. And here was Cade who casually gave Shihoon a skill book.

    Shihoon looked at the skill book and he was much more surprised because the blue tongue skill book was rare. Out of the three skill books that can be gained from the big blue tongue toad, the blue tongue skill book was the rarest.

    ¡°I cannot accept this. This is too expensive for a small help I give you,¡± said Shihoon while he tried giving the skill book to Cade.

    Cade stopped him and he took out something from his storage. He took out two books from his storage and Shihoon instantly recognized the two books. They were skill books.

    Cade showed Shihoon the title of the book and Shihoon blankly staring at it. ¡°Blue tongue¡­¡± Shihoon sighed. ¡°Then, I will take this. I forgot that you got quite lucky with the item drop.¡±

    ¡°How high is your luck that you usually got a drop¡­ you even got two blue tongue skill books,¡± asked Shihoon. He had been following Cade before and he knew how many drops Cade got.

    For every ten toads Cade killed, seven of them will drop something. Rarely did Shihoon saw Cade get nothing from killing the toad. Shihoon assumed that Cade¡¯s luck must be high.

    Cade did not answer Shihoon¡¯s question and he left him to find a place to rest. He was extremely tired from fighting the toad. He needed to rest.

    Shihoon saw Cade leaving and he decided to leave too. He took a different path from Cade because he did not want Cade to misunderstand him as a stalker anymore.

    After a few minutes of walking, Cade found a place to rest. He decided to stop exploring for the day and started setting up his resting place. It was just a simple portable fireplace for him to cook some food.

    Once he finished cooking, Cade checked his stats and he had 20 stat points he can use to increase his stats. He contemplated on which stat he should increase.

 Chapter 28

    While eating his food, Cade was thinking deeply about where he should use his 20 stat points. If he followed his earlier plan, he would increase his luck.

    However, his situation at the moment suggested that he should raise his other stats. Cade wanted to increase his luck but he also felt like the toad was becoming harder and harder for him to handle.

    Since he arrived on the third floor, he never once fought a D grade big blue tongue toad. All the ones he fought were E grade. The E grade already gave him a lot of troubles and the toad had started fighting in a group too.

    If he met a group of D grade big blue tongue toad in the future, he would die. He will immediately be killed and revived outside the dungeon.

    He did not want to experience the feeling of dying. Even the thought of that gave him chills and a lot of fear.

    ¡°Emm¡­ Should I raise other stats? But I want to have higher luck. Right now, I get many materials and magic crystals. I have lots of equipment too and quite a few skill books thanks to my high luck,¡± said Cade while he was considering what stat he should raise.

    ¡°But I still never once got my hands on any puzzle piece. If I can complete a puzzle, I might be able to raise my stats with it and I don¡¯t need to worry much about increasing my growth potential because I can rely on the puzzle,¡± said Cade.

    Cade continued eating his food and he stared at his stats. After having a few chews on the toad meat he cooked, Cade made his decision.

    Cade had gotten used to eating the toad meat. It was a bit hard to eat at the beginning but now, he had no problem eating them as long as they were cooked properly.

    That feeling was the same when he first ate sushi. He vomited the sushi but once he ate sushi the second time, he kind of liked the taste and got used to it as he ate more of them.

    Once he made his decision, Cade poured all of the 20 stat points on one of his stats. Cade checked his stats.

    Name: Cade

    Age: 20

    Lifespan: 70

    Potential: D [0 / 10 000 D grade level 1 magic crystal]

    Level: 10

    Stat Points: 0

    Vitality: 20

    Strength: 13

    Endurance: 23

    Dexterity: 13

    Wisdom: 15

    Luck: 91

    Due to Cade leveling up to 10, his lifespan increased by 10. It was normal for the lifespan to increase for every 10 levels an explorer gained. When Cade¡¯s level reached 20, his lifespan will increase by 20 and at 30, it will increase by 30.

    Cade decided to follow his plan by increasing his luck. With 20 stat points, he increased his luck to 91. His luck far exceeded the lucky girl. He can now be called the lucky boy if people knew about his luck.

    At the moment, only Shihoon had somehow kind of known that Cade had high luck but it did not look like he would tell others about it. He had no idea how much Cade luck was but he knew it was high.

    Though Cade feared a bit that he might not survive further into the dungeon, he still hopes that he will get the puzzle piece to increase his stat. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Now it is time for me to increase my linked equipment,¡± said Cade and he opened his storage to increase his linked equipment level.

    When Cade opened his storage, to his surprise, an empty slot with blue light appeared beside his linked equipment. The empty slot had the same color as his linked equipment slot.

    ¡°Could it be?¡± Cade immediately tried to put something on the empty slot and immediately after that, the system asked him if he wanted to link with what he put on that slot.

    Cade remembered the time he just blatantly agreed to link the other equipment without knowing about it. He had so many regrets before but he was quite happy now.

    Cade said no and the thing he put on the slot was immediately put back on its earlier slot.

    ¡°What should I link next?¡± Cade thought for a bit and he suddenly came up with an idea. Luckily for him, there were some unused cardboard boxes in his storage.

    When he was preparing for his exploration for the big tongue toad dungeon, he bought a lot of things and they came with the box.

    Cade was lazy, so he did not throw away the boxes and stored them in his storage. Since Cade decided to take on the character of using the cardboard, he decided to properly go through that.

    He even put his nickname on his explorer license, ¡®The Cardboard¡¯. He should properly embrace that nickname.

    Cade decided to make armor of cardboard. Cade finished his food and took out the cardboard boxes. Cade started making his cardboard armor.

    It took him about an hour to finish making the armor. It was just a simple body armor to cover his body. Cade stared at it and thought that he would look sillier with the armor.

    However, no matter how sillier he looked, he decided to do it. With the finished cardboard armor, Cade put it on the blue slot in his storage. The system asked if Cade wanted to link with it and Cade said yes.

    Nothing magical or mystical happening. Only that the cardboard armor was now on the blue slot permanently. Cade took out the armor and wore it.

    He did look sillier. Cade put it back on his storage and started using the magic crystals he had collected since he got into the dungeon to strengthen his linked equipment.

    Cade wanted to test on something. The system said that for Cade to strengthen his equipment, he needed to use the level 1 magic crystal.

    The sentence was a bit different compared to when he wanted to increase his growth potential and increase the level of his skill. There was no mention of grade.

    When Cade used the E grade level 1 vitality crystal, the stat increased by 10. Cade wanted to test if his linked equipment would get more stat points if he used a higher-grade magic crystal.

    Cade used a D grade level 1 endurance crystal on his cardboard armor. However, to his disappointment, it only increased the stat by 10.

    ¡°So, it is fixed¡­¡± Cade felt a bit disappointed. He decided to save his D grade magic crystal for his growth potential. He will only use the E grade magic crystal to strengthen his linked equipment.

    Cade increased all of his linked equipment to level 10 including his newly made cardboard armor. They were all roughly had a stat of 250 in their stats.

    With his newly added linked equipment, Cade felt like his choice of increasing his luck was right. He did not need to worry about being attacked on his body anymore thanks to his cardboard armor.

    With all of his equipment finished upgrading, Cade decided to level up his physical resistance skill. However, before he wanted to close his storage, he realized something weird was happening to his linked equipment.

    All the slots where the linked equipment was located in the storage were blinking. It was not a fast blinking like an emergency happened but a slow blinking. The blue color slowly dimmed and then, became bright again.

    Cade touched the cardboard round shield slot and a new notification appeared from the system.

    [Add anything on the equipment to upgrade]

    ¡°¡­ Upgrade? Aren¡¯t I upgrading it all this time?¡± Cade wondered what happened but he thought that it might be something good. He decided to add something on his cardboard round shield.

    Cade remembered the iron round shield he had before, in the beginning, collecting dust in his storage. Cade moved the iron shield and put it on his cardboard round shield. A new notification from the system appeared.

    [Added the material?] asked the system. Cade said yes. Immediately after he confirmed his choice, the iron round shield disappeared from his storage. The cardboard round shield on his arm also disappeared and entered his storage.

    The blinking slot of the cardboard round shield stopped blinking and a meter bar with the percentage of 0% appeared on that slot. Cade stared at it and the percentage increased to 1% and then 2% and 3% and went on.

    It looked like it would take a while for the meter bar to fill. Cade decided to increase his skill level while waiting for the upgrade to finish.

    At the moment, Cade¡¯s physical resistance skill was at level 3 with the effect of lowering physical damage done by the E grade opponent by 30%.

    Cade poured all of his leftover E grade magic crystal on his skill and increased the level to 5 with damage reduced by 50%. Cade smiled. Half the damage will help him a lot.

    Cade checked his upgraded shield and it was at 98%. The percentage increased to 99% and then 100%.

    [Choose the new stat to add?]

    [1. Def2]

    [2. Iron]

 Chapter 29

    ¡°So, the upgrade let me put a new stat on my linked equipment. Def2? I wonder what this will do? Will I get to increase my shield¡¯s defense every time I use a magic crystal on it?¡± thought Cade.

    ¡°And iron? If I choose this, will my cardboard turn to iron?¡± thought Cade again. It might not be a bad idea to turn his cardboard to iron. It will help him a lot especially if he was dealing with fire or water.

    Cade made his decision and chose to add the iron stat. The system immediately acknowledged his choice and a new stat was added to his cardboard round shield.

    Cade checked his new cardboard round shield¡¯s stat.

    Name: Cardboard Round Shield (iron)

    Level: 10

    Durability: 250

    Defense: 250

    Iron: 0 [1 iron magic crystal]

    Upon opening the stat of his upgraded cardboard round shield, ¡®iron¡¯ stat was added to the shield.

    ¡°There is not much change from this upgrade other than the iron stat,¡± said Cade.

    ¡°I wonder what this iron stat will do? To increase the iron stat, I need the iron magic crystal¡­ They are quite expensive compared to the magic crystal related to stats,¡± said Cade.

    Cade did not know what the iron stat can do. He just assumed that it would turn his shield to iron the higher the iron stat was.

    After Cade was done inspecting the stats of his shield, it was time to see his new shield. He closed the stat and saw the picture of his new shield. He could see that his shield had changed color. Maybe it was not cardboard anymore.

    Cade took out the shield from his storage and to his surprise, there was quite a change happening to his cardboard round shield.

    The most obvious changes were the color of the shield. Cade¡¯s shield was usually brown, the color of cardboard. From afar, it was obvious that it was cardboard.

    The shield¡¯s color had now turned from brown to gray. It did not look like iron but it just changed its color to gray.

    Cade thought that the shield¡¯s composition would change to iron but that did not happen. The shield was still cardboard but instead of brown cardboard, it was now gray cardboard.

    It did not turn heavier and it was light as usual. It also still had the foamy characteristics of cardboard. The composition was the same as before.

    Thanks to the changes in color, the cardboard looked like it was made from slightly expensive cardboard.

    Other than color, the shape of the shield had changed a bit. The shield had now turned slightly larger compared to before.

    Before the upgrade, the cardboard round shield was flat. It was just a circle shape of cardboard. It was no wonder people were laughing at Cade and even Cade himself knew how ridiculous the shield looked.

    After the upgrade, however, the cardboard was not flat. It was now slightly concave like a real round shield. It still looked obviously like cardboard but it had better shape now.

    ¡°This looks better than before,¡± said Cade while smiling. He was happy that his cardboard round shield looked much more reliable compared to before. Even Cade himself sometimes had doubts that his shield can last longer during a fight.

    ¡°I should start upgrading my other linked equipment,¡± said Cade and he started inspecting his storage for other things he can use to upgrade his other linked equipment. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    Cade decided to use the iron short sword he used in the slime dungeon and the iron body armor he had been using since entering the dungeon to upgrade his cardboard short sword and cardboard body armor respectively.

    There was a reason why Cade upgraded them using the iron equipment. He wanted to give his cardboard linked equipment the iron stat.

    While inspecting his new cardboard round shield, Cade found out that it resisted water and fire better than before. It was still cardboard but it can resist water like a piece of normal equipment made of iron.

    His cardboard main weaknesses were water and fire. Whenever water or fire was involved in a fight, his cardboard equipment¡¯s durability will decrease like water flowing out of a bottle. It was really fast.

    The fire was much more severe as it will easily burn his cardboard because it was just a stack of paper.

    The waiting for the upgrade to finish continued for a few minutes. After the waiting had ended, Cade chose the iron stat to be added to his sword and body armor.

    For his body armor, the choice of stat was the same as the shield but the sword was slightly different. There were three choices, two were different from the shield and body armor.

    One of them was the iron stat that Cade had decided to choose. The other one was the atk2 stat. The last one was the sharpness stat.

    The sharpness stat was a new stat that Cade had never heard of before. Cade could guess what it could do based on the stat name.

    As Cade had aimed earlier to choose the iron stat, he ignored the sharpness stat. If he can upgrade his equipment again, he will surely choose the sharpness stat.

    Since he can upgrade his equipment at level 10, Cade deduced that he could upgrade his linked equipment one more time when he reached level 20.

    He was still far from level 20 and thus he chose to upgrade his equipment to cover the equipment''s weaknesses.

    Cade checked his upgraded cardboard short sword and cardboard body armor stat and all of them were the same as the cardboard round shield.

    All of them needed the iron magic crystal to increase the iron stat. Cade did not need to worry much about buying the iron magic crystal because he had many skill books that he can sell to get enough money to buy lots of them.

    Cade wanted to farm the iron magic crystal by himself but unfortunately, from his knowledge, there was no dungeon in Biscuit Star System that dropped the iron magic crystal.

    He needed to travel to another star sector to be able to farm the iron magic crystal. To Cade, it will be a waste of time to travel that far when he can farm lots of skill books for more money and then use the money to buy the iron magic crystal online.

    Cade took out both his newly upgraded cardboard short sword and cardboard body armor to see their new appearances.

    Just like the cardboard shield, the cardboard sword was flat too. It had a cross shape and that was it.

    After the upgrade, it was not flat. The flat cardboard short sword had now changed its thickness to that of a normal sword.  It took the appearance of the sword used as its material to upgrade.

    The handle was easier and comfortable to hold. It looked like a proper sword and was gray. However, it still looked like cardboard but with better craftsmanship applied to it.

    Cade¡¯s cardboard body armor¡¯s new appearance made him gasped. It had changed. Cade sloppily made the body armor but the upgrade fixed that completely.

    When Cade made the body armor, it was just two big rectangle pieces of cardboard joined by a strip of cardboard on the shoulder. It looked hideous and silly but after the upgrade, all of that had changed.

    Just like the shield and sword, the color turned to gray. It was still made of cardboard but the appearance of the armor was amazing.

    It took the shape of the armor Cade used as the material to upgrade the body armor. It was not a rectangle and had a nice shape. When Cade wore it, it fit perfectly and he kind of looked cool with it.

    The craftsmanship applied to the cardboard body armor was extremely higher than the sword and shield. Cade was totally happy with the new shape of his body armor.

    He was not creative enough to craft the cardboard properly and just made do with it as long as it can link and be useful to him.

    ¡°With this, it will not be too embarrassing,¡± said Cade while smiling. Compared to the rectangle armor he made, the upgraded body armor was like heaven and earth.

    With Cade fully equipped with his upgraded linked equipment, he looked cooler than before. Cade tried to get used to his upgraded linked equipment.

    There was nothing much he could test with his shield and body armor. He just tried to slam the shield and his body equipped with the body armor on the wall to test their durability and they were much more durable than before.

    As for his sword, he tried to slash on air to get used to the new shape of his sword. It was still as light as before so Cade had not much concern on the weight of the sword.

    Cade tried to slash the sword at the wall and he can feel it was better than before. After a few more tests with them, Cade sat on the ground again and checked his other linked equipment.

 Chapter 30

    Cade checked his storage again to choose something that he can use as material to upgrade his other linked equipment, the hoodie, mouth mask, white t-shirt, and jeans.

    He decided to hold on upgrading his mouth mask because he had his plan on it after he saw that the body armor changed shape after the upgrade.

    Cade wanted to change the mouth mask¡¯s shape too and he had an idea on what he can use as material to upgrade it.

    At the moment, Cade had lots of endurance crystals, skill books, and other equipment.

    If he used the endurance crystal, he could put the endurance stat on his equipment. It will greatly help him in his explorations since his endurance was low.

    However, looking at his newly iron stat, the new stat will be zero. It will not be able to help him at the moment. He put that idea away.

    For skill books, he thought that maybe his equipment will acquire skill if he used them as the upgrade material. However, none of the skill books in his possession was something that he likes. He dismissed the idea completely.

    As for the other equipment, they were either weapons or armors. Cade did not get any clothes equipment he can use.

    He can use the weapons or armors but looking at his upgraded cardboard equipment, Cade was afraid that the clothes will be hard and uncomfortable to wear.

    He did think that that won¡¯t happen if he used the cardboard equipment for example. Even after it turned to iron it still had the cardboard textures. However, he did not want to try it.

    The upgrade was irreversible and if he messed up his linked equipment, it will affect him a lot.

    Cade was dependent on them like normal clothes. He did have normal clothes with him but he rarely used them in the dungeon because they cannot provide him with any protection against monster attacks.

    When his clothes linked equipment started smelling bad, that was when he would wear normal clothes. Since Cade¡¯s linked equipment cannot be destroyed forever, he did not wash the clothes, he burned them and then waited for it to restore itself to new and wore it again.

    He had been doing that a lot since he started exploring the big tongue toad dungeon. Many people were passing by and if he smelled bad, people will start talking about it and he might gain another kind of fame.

    Cade was already popular with his cardboard, if he got popular for smelling bad too, he did not know where to hide his face.

    He might not be able to get a girlfriend too if he had the smelling bad fame. Cade did pass by some explorers that smell bad and he did not want to be like them.

    ¡°What should I do? The skill book is total no. Using the weapon or armor is a no too. Endurance crystal? That is the best choice now. Or should I just wait until I get out of this dungeon?¡± Cade thought properly of what he should do.

    In the end, he decided to wait until he got out of the dungeon. He will buy some clothes equipment he likes and use them as the upgrade material once he got out of the dungeon.

    ¡°I guess that¡¯s it,¡± said Cade and he closed his system and decided to rest for the day. He did not want to continue exploring the dungeon for the day.

    ***

    Big Tongue Toad Dungeon, 4th Floor.

    ¡°Leader! Leader! Hold on! Don¡¯t close your eyes! Stay with me!¡± a dark skin man was running while carrying an injured man on his back while shouting at him to stay awake. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    The dark skin man was Raja. After he separated with his friend, Deury, he joined a small party of explorers to explore the big tongue toad dungeon.

    ¡°Ra-ja¡­¡± said Nick. The man that Raja was carrying was the leader of the party he joined. He was heavily injured and blood was everywhere on his body.

    With tears, Nick said, ¡°Le-t me d-own¡­ You¡­ sh-ould¡­ run a-nd warn o-ther expl-orer about t-hat thin-g.¡±

    Raja was running as fast as he can and he was injured too but not as much as Nick. He was running to the best of his ability because he wanted to save Nick.

    Nick continued, ¡°Wh-en you ge-t out o-f th-is pl-ace, pl-ea-se tell my f-ami-ly that I am so-rry. I love th¡­¡± After saying that, Nick¡¯s eyes turned cold. He died.

    ¡°No! No! Noooo!!!! Leader! Nick! Wake up! Please, please wake up! Please!! Nick!!!¡± Raja was begging Nick to stay awake, however, Nick died. No matter what he said, there was nothing he could do to prevent Nick¡¯s death.

    Raja¡¯s step stopped. He put Nick¡¯s body on the ground and stared at him. Raja¡¯s eyes started gleaming with tears and he cried while hugging Nick¡¯s body.

    Supposedly, with the new dungeon rules, anyone who died inside the dungeon would evaporate and be revived outside the dungeon. However, Nick¡¯s body did not evaporate.

    Not only Nick¡¯s body, everyone in Raja¡¯s party went through the same things. They all died but they did not evaporate and revived outside the dungeon.

    ¡®Klak! Klak! Klak!¡¯ footsteps can be heard from further in the direction where Raja came from. When Raja heard that, shivers ran through his whole body and he looked in that direction.

    Raja gritted his teeth and he looked at Nick¡¯s body. ¡°I will pass your last words to your family. I am sorry, leader. I need to leave you here,¡± said Raja and he wiped his tears. His journey with his new party was short but he got close with them easily in a span of a few days.

    Raja treated them like his own family and the same went to Nick and his other party members.

    After saying his last words to Nick, Raja stood up and continued running leaving Nick¡¯s body there. A few minutes after Raja left Nick, three humans¡¯ figures were walking towards Nick¡¯s body.

    ¡°Hoh~ Look who we found here. The monkey that ran away earlier,¡± one of the human figures said. The other two stayed silent. He raised his leg and stomp on Nick¡¯s body.

    A small explosion happened and Nick¡¯s body exploded to pieces. ¡°Heh,¡± that human figure was satisfied with what he had done. The three of them continued walking.

    ¡°Let¡¯s chase that other monkey,¡± said the human figure that stomps on Nick¡¯s body. The other nodded in agreement to that suggestion.

    The three of them lowered their body and jumped forwards. Their jump was so strong that the ground break.

    ***

    A day later.

    A long blue tongue was launched at Cade at high speed. Cade used his shield and easily parried that tongue. Without wasting any more time, he cut the tongue in two.

    It was the same strategy he had been using in fighting the big tongue toad all this time but after he upgrades his linked equipment, killing them became much easier.

    Cade launched forward and slashed the big blue tongue toad in two easily with his new and improved cardboard short sword.

    The toad evaporated and dropped an item. Cade stared at the item and ¡°YES!!!!¡± he screamed and jumped in joy because the toad dropped a puzzle piece.

    It was the fifth puzzle piece that Cade got for the day. However, he was happier this time because he got a different part of the puzzle.

    After Cade increased his luck to 91, he rarely got nothing when he killed a monster. They will always drop something. His probability of getting the skill book had increased and he got quite a lot of them including the rarely blue tongue skill book.

    The first four puzzle pieces that Cade got were all the same one. They were the E grade big blue tongue toad¡¯s limbs. The puzzle piece that he just got earlier was the E grade big blue tongue toad¡¯s head.

    According to the system, there were 4 parts of the puzzle for the toad. Cade was currently in possession of two of the four parts. If he found the body and blue tongue puzzle piece, he would be able to complete one of the puzzles and used them to increase his stats.

    The thought of getting more stat points made him feel so happy. He could not help but want to kill more big blue tongue toad.

    Cade was closed to the boss floor room of the third floor. However, he decided to wander around more until he got the body and a blue tongue puzzle piece.

    While wandering around and killing the tens of toads, Cade finally got himself his third puzzle piece. It was the E grade big blue tongue toad¡¯s head. All that was left was the blue tongue puzzle piece.

    Cade continued his killing and suddenly, he met a familiar face again. It was Shihoon. Both of them were surprised to see each other.

    While Cade was looking at Shihoon suspiciously, Shihoon looked the other way like he was guilty of something.

 Chapter 31

    ¡°You¡­ you were stalking me again, right?¡± asked Cade. Shihoon had a history of stalking Cade and looking at his guilty face, that was the only thing that came to Cade¡¯s mind.

    Shihoon immediately moved both of his hands forward and with his head, he shook violently meaning no, he did not stalk him.

    ¡°No! No! This is a coincidence! A coincidence!¡± said Shihoon, denying what Cade was asking.

    However, Cade did not buy that. Shihoon looked suspicious. Immediately, he drew his sword, took a fighting stance and dashed forward.

    Shihoon was shocked that Cade suddenly attacked him. He took out a picture and used ¡®picture come to life¡¯ skill. The picture shone and then disintegrated immediately.

    After that, a magic circle appeared in front of Shihoon and a man in a hoodie with gray cardboard equipment came out of it. That man was another Cade, with his newly upgraded linked equipment.

    ¡°Stop him!!¡± ordered Shihoon as Cade was coming fast at him. However, he was surprised when Cade suddenly passed through him and attacked something behind him.

    Shihoon looked behind him and saw a big blue tongue toad was injured by Cade. The toad did not die because it succeeded in jumping backward before the attack landed, reducing its injury.

    After that one slash, Cade followed up with another dash towards the toad and slashed it again with his sword. This time, his attack landed perfectly on the toad and the toad died.

    Shihoon was staring at the situation blankly. The Cade he summoned just stood there motionlessly beside him.

    Cade stared at Shihoon and said, ¡°I thought you said this is a coincidence? What is that?¡± Cade pointed his finger to another him that was standing beside Shihoon.

    ¡°Ahaha¡­¡± Shihoon dryly laughed. He looked straight to Cade¡¯s eyes and with determination, he immediately got on his knees and kowtowed to Cade. Cade was surprised by Shihoon¡¯s action.

    ¡°Boss! I am sorry! I saw you yesterday and you look cooler than before with that new cardboard you have. I couldn''t help it~ I got curious and¡­ stalking you again. Forgive me boss!¡± said Shihoon.

    He was telling the truth. Shihoon coincidentally saw Cade the day before and was attracted by the new look Cade donned. He did not want to stalk Cade at first but after seeing him in action with the new equipment, he could not help it.

    ¡°You¡­¡± Cade suddenly got a headache. He was not a celebrity or anyone famous at all but now, he needed to deal with a stalker¡­ fan? Cade did not know if Shihoon was his fan or purely a stalker.

    ¡°Boss, you won¡¯t kill me, right? You even saved me just now!¡± Shihoon begged Cade. He was already almost at the end of the third floor. If Cade killed him, he needed to restart the third floor again.

    ¡°Stop calling me boss. I am not your boss and I am not a cruel person that kills everyone I dislike,¡± said Cade and he sighed. He suddenly felt extremely tired.

    ¡°You had no intention of harming me so I don¡¯t think you deserve to be killed,¡± said Cade and he decided to left Shihoon alone.

    ¡°Let¡¯s explore this dungeon together!¡± Suddenly Shihoon suggested that they explored the dungeon together.

    ¡°I prefer to be by myself,¡± said Cade and he took the item drop he got from the toad he killed earlier.

    ¡°You know, you cannot survive by yourself in the dungeon. It is okay on the lower floor, but the higher you go, the harder it is to fight by yourself. You even need my help before,¡± said Shihoon. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Shihoon was right. He had experience going to a higher floor before and even if the dungeon was low level, the monster was usually stronger than the explorer.

    No matter how high the grade of the explorer, they all needed to team up when they reached the higher floor of a dungeon.

    The stubborn ones who preferred to work alone usually died earlier than the ones who decided to party with others. No matter what the explorer did, the monsters will usually be stronger than them at the same level.

    Cade stopped on his track when he heard that. He knew it in his heart that he cannot work alone forever. He already went through two situations where he needed to have someone else by his side to survive.

    The first time was on the top floor of the slime dungeon. If the army of slime did not decide to betray their boss, he had no chance of surviving the dungeon.

    The second time was fighting the group of the big blue tongue toad. If Shihoon did not appear and helped him, he might have needed to start exploring the third floor again.

    Cade knew all of that but he still stubbornly did not want to team up with anyone. His reason was his high luck. If many people knew about it, they would want to use him. Cade did not want to be used by anyone.

    ¡°I will be fine by myself,¡± said Cade and he continued walking leaving Shihoon by himself.

    ¡°Sigh, the kid is quite stubborn. Even with his new equipment, I can see he was struggling to fight a group of that toad,¡± said Shihoon and he decided to follow Cade from behind.

    Shihoon cannot help himself to stay away from Cade. All the time he was stalking Cade, he was getting fonder and fonder towards Cade. If he can help Cade, he will do his best to do that.

    He had a feeling that Cade might need his help soon and decided to stay close to him. He will try to persuade Cade again to party with him.

    ¡°I feel like I am becoming more and more like those maniac fans who wanted to get close to their idol and do everything to get their attention,¡± Shihoon realized that he was slowly going that way though he was pretty sure that it was not like that.

    Cade, on the other hand, felt a bit of pressure with Shihoon following him from behind. He minded it a lot but he cannot chase Shihoon away because at the moment there was only one path forward.

    Shihoon did not take any of Cade¡¯s pictures but he just followed him quietly and watched him fighting every monster they met. He also sometimes fought the toad that came from behind them.

    After spending a few hours together, Cade had gotten used to Shihoon¡¯s presence. He was feeling the pressure of someone watching him earlier but now, he felt nothing.

    Continuing forward, Cade met another big blue tongue toad. He killed the toad but unfortunately, there was still no puzzle piece for the blue tongue part.

    Luckily, on the third floor, the big blue tongue toad was common. The normal big tongue toad can only be found at the beginning of the third floor. After that, Cade found none of them.

    Moving forward more, Cade finally arrived at the boss room. Many other explorers were waiting for their turn to enter the boss room.

    ¡°This is weird,¡± a voice came from behind Cade. The voice belonged to Shihoon.

    ¡°What is weird?¡± asked Cade. He did not find it weird that many explorers were there. It was not that much different compared to the first floor.

    ¡°The amount of people here is quite the same as when we were waiting on the first floor,¡± said Shihoon.

    ¡°Maybe all the people on the first floor that wait with us arrive here at the same time as us,¡± said Cade. Both of them had somehow naturally been able to talk to each other like there was nothing happening between them.

    ¡°Ugh~ Kid, are you stupid? Do you think that everyone waiting on the first floor with us succeeded in defeating the boss? And, do you think that everyone here waiting with us is the same one we met on the first floor?¡± asked Shihoon.

    ¡°Well¡­ I still don¡¯t see what is weird with this situation¡­¡± Cade still did not know what was the weird thing that Shihoon meant.

    ¡°I said just now that not everyone that fought the boss can defeat the boss. Let say, 20 people, wait their turn to fight the boss on the first floor. After 20 of them fight the boss, only half of them succeed and go to the second floor.¡±

    ¡°On the second floor, 10 of them fight the boss again and only 5 of them succeed,¡± said Shihoon. Cade looked at Shihoon and he still did not get what was weird with it.

    ¡°Sigh, what I want to say is, the higher we go the less explorers we will meet but the one waiting here is as many as when we are on the first floor,¡± explained Shihoon to the still not understand Cade.

    ¡°What is so weird about this? There are many explorers after that that will pass the boss and fill the place of the one who fails,¡± said Cade.

    ¡°There, you said it yourself, ¡®many explorers¡¯,¡± said Shihoon. ¡°Don¡¯t you find it weird that suddenly many explorers came here?¡±

 Chapter 32

    ¡°You mean¡­ something happened outside that made more explorers go inside a dungeon?¡± asked Cade. There must have been something that urged many of the explorers to flock the dungeon more.

    ¡°I think that is the only explanation. We have been inside this dungeon for eleven days and we don¡¯t know what is happening outside. Maybe something big like another planet disappears and that opens the eyes of many more explorers to start entering the dungeon to train themselves,¡± said Shihoon.

    Cade frowned. That could happen but Cade felt like that was unlikely. What happened to Planet Snowball was because of human stupidity but their stupidity woke up many people.

    If Planet Snowball¡¯s government took action at that time, nothing might happen.

    The time limit dungeon has become everyone''s main priority and they would put a lot of effort into closing the dungeon. Failing seemed unlikely unless something unexpected happened and it was possible to happen because no one knew what was inside the time limit dungeon.

    Cade remembered before he got inside the big tongue toad dungeon. The news said that Planet White Snow, Planet Desktra and Planet Lapto had sent hundreds of experienced explorers inside the time limit dungeon to close them.

    With that many explorers, Cade cannot imagine them to fail. Cade did not want them to fail either. This concerns the future of their universe.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope nothing like that is happening,¡± Cade sighed. He did not want to think negatively and hoped for the best of them.

    ¡°Something is happening that made explorers flocking the dungeon,¡± suddenly, a voice came from behind them. Cade and Shihoon turned back and saw a big bulky man standing behind them.

    He wore a full-body blue armor with a huge blue shield and a huge blade on his back. He looked cool with his armor. Cade saw the armor and his mouth was opened from awe. Shihoon, on the other hand, took out his camera and started snapping pictures.

    ¡°I am sorry for interrupting your conversations. I am Jonathan,¡± said Jonathan while extending his hand to Cade and Shihoon for a handshake. However, both of them were busy. Cade was in awe staring at the cool armor and Shihoon was with his antics taking lots of pictures.

    ¡°Ahaha¡­¡± Jonathan lightly laughed looking at the reaction of Cade and Shihoon. Cade snapped back to reality and saw Jonathan¡¯s hand. He immediately grabbed Jonathan¡¯s hand for the handshake.

    ¡°I am Cade,¡± said Cade. ¡°Is your armor a piece of full set equipment?¡± asked Cade. Sometimes but rarely, monsters can drop a piece of a full set equipment. It usually consisted of full body armor or clothes and a weapon that will work well with the armor or clothes.

    Full set equipment was stronger than a collection of equipment forming full set equipment. A full set of equipment was much much more expensive than buying an equipment one by one to form a full set of them.

    The full set equipment was also usually sold at an auction rather than in a shop. So, only rich people can buy them. Jonathan might be someone from an influential family.

    ¡°My armor and this big ass shield,¡± said Jonathan while pointing at his shield and he smiled. He then looked at Shihoon taking his pictures and awkwardly smiled at Cade. Shihoon stopped taking Jonathan¡¯s pictures after he felt like he had enough pictures.

    He stored his camera back and introduced himself to Jonathan. After that Shihoon asked if Jonathan was part of a powerful family. Only those riches will usually wear the full set equipment.

    Without any surprises, Jonathan did come from a powerful family. He came from the Armored Bear family. Although they were a powerful family, it was only in the Biscuit Star System. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Compared to other powerful families from another star sector, they were not that powerful. Jonathan wore the blue bear equipment set. One of his family members got the drop from the blue bear dungeon that appeared a year ago and gifted it to him when he awakened a few months ago.

    He had a C grade growth potential but his family liked him a lot and thus gifted him the blue bear equipment set. The equipment set was just an E grade equipment.

    When Jonathan introduced more about himself, to both Cade and Shihoon''s surprise, he was only 16 years old, a high schooler. His body build and face looked like he was in his late 20s.

    ¡°I thought you were older than me¡­¡± said Shihoon, surprised with Jonathan¡¯s age. Jonathan awkwardly laughed at them. He got that a lot from everyone he met.

    ¡°A high schooler with a piece of cool full set equipment and here I am a 20-year-old college student with cardboard equipment,¡± thought Cade while looking at Jonathan¡¯s cool blue armor.

    It came to his mind that if he was accepted by his family, will he be treated like Jonathan? Cade sighed. It would be nice if that happened but his family was not as nice as Jonathan¡¯s family.

    ¡°Are you here alone?¡± asked Shihoon. Jonathan was a high schooler and added to that, he was from a powerful family. There was no way he was by himself.

    ¡°I came here alone. This dungeon is low risk, so my family sent me here to test me if I can survive in this dungeon by myself,¡± said Jonathan.

    ¡°So, you did not join any party?¡± asked Shihoon.

    ¡°No. My family said that I need to do this by myself,¡± said Jonathan with a determined face.

    ¡°¡­ You won¡¯t be able to survive further if you are by yourself. You should join a party. I am saying this from experience,¡± advised Shihoon.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ but my family wants me to do this by myself,¡± said Jonathan. He did not want to disobey his family and hesitated if he should join a party.

    Jonathan himself knew that it was harder and harder in killing the toad. He experienced it himself and he was also considered it himself if he should advance further without joining a party.

    ¡°How about joining our party?¡± offered Shihoon. ¡°At the moment, there are only me and Cade here. Oh, don¡¯t mind his equipment¡¯s appearance, they are not useless,¡± said Shihoon while pointing at Cade¡¯s cardboard body armor.

    When Cade heard Shihoon, he frowned, ¡°When did I agree to join your party?¡± asked Cade. He never once agreed on joining Shihoon. He did get used to Shihoon¡¯s presence but that did not mean they were a party.

    ¡°Jonathan, stop listening to him. He is a tsundere. He kept saying no but now, he did not mind me staying with him,¡± said Shihoon while smiling at Jonathan.

    ¡°I am not a tsundere,¡± retorted Cade.

    ¡°And about your family¡¯s test. I am sure that they did not mean for you to do this alone and wanted you to realize that forming a party is important. If you look around here, you can see that everyone forms a party including me and Cade,¡± said Shihoon while he pointed his finger at everyone around them.

    ¡°But still¡­¡± Jonathan did not know if he should join Shihoon or not. He still hesitated a bit and thought for a bit.

    After thinking for a while, he made his decision. Even if he can revive after dying in the dungeon, he did not want to die. He did not want to go through that situation.

    Jonathan agreed to join Shihoon¡¯s party and Shihoon was happy that his party grew. With this party, they could survive at the higher floor of the dungeon.

    ¡°You said earlier that something did happen outside, what happened?¡± asked Cade. Cade remembered that when Jonathan was talking to them earlier, he said something about the reason the explorers flocking the dungeon.

    ¡°Ah, since you guys enter this dungeon earlier, you might not know that other than the three, time limit dungeons that appeared at Planet White Snow, Planet Desktra and Planet Lapto, another five of them appeared at different planets a day after that,¡± said Jonathan.

    Upon hearing that, both Cade and Shihoon were shocked. Three of them were already a lot and now another five appeared. That meant, eight time limit dungeons appeared at the moment.

    No, they were inside the dungeon for a few days already and it was possible that more of them had appeared and the earlier time limit dungeon that appeared before might have

    already been closed or finished their time limit.

    ¡°And, one of the five dungeons that appeared was located on this star system,¡± said Jonathan with a serious face. Cade and Shihoon¡¯s face changed.

    ¡°Which planet?¡± asked Shihoon. He hoped that it was not the planet where his family was.

    ¡°Planet Chocoky, Planet Dineon¡¯s neighbor,¡± said Jonathan. Shihoon sighed in relief because his family was on another planet. Luckily, it did not appear on his home planet.

    Cade wondered if anyone succeeded in closing the time limit dungeon. He was inside the dungeon and there was no way for him to get any news about what happened outside.

 Chapter 33

    Cade, Shihoon, and Jonathan were still waiting for their turn to enter the 3rd-floor boss toad room. The line was quite long and it looked like it would take a while before their turn arrived.

    Cade felt a bit bored waiting. Looking around, from afar, Cade saw a big blue tongue toad jumping around leisurely.

    ¡°Since this stalker forces me to join his party, I guess it is fine to let him wait in the line here,¡± thought Cade and he felt like it was a good idea.

    ¡°Stalker, I am going to hunt some toads nearby,¡± said Cade to Shihoon.

    ¡°I am not a¡­ Don¡¯t go too far,¡± said Shihoon. He wanted to retort that he was not a stalker but he was. He realized it.

    ¡°Then, can I come with you?¡± asked Jonathan with a smile. He took off his helmet, so, his face was visible. Although he looked older than he was supposed to, he still emitted the teen''s aura.

    ¡°I am bored waiting like this and the line is still quite long,¡± said Jonathan. Jonathan did not only feel bored, but he also wanted to move around a bit.

    Cade looked at Jonathan and he thought of something. ¡°Okay, you can come with me,¡± said Cade. He preferred to go alone but he thought it was not bad to let Shihoon by himself. Let him get bored waiting alone.

    Other than that, Cade wanted to see the blue bear full set equipment in action. The equipment looked cool and he cannot help it but wanted to see it in action.

    ¡°Wait, you guys want to let me wait here by myself?¡± asked Shihoon. He felt bored waiting.

    Cade left without answering Shihoon. Jonathan just smiled at Shihoon and said that one of them needed to wait there in line. Since Shihoon was the one that proposed (forced) the idea of teaming up, he could at least stand in line and wait for their turn.

    Jonathan followed Cade from behind.

    ¡°You must be displeased that brother Shihoon is forcing you to form a party,¡± said Jonathan. He could feel that Cade did not like the idea of forming a party.

    ¡°You are right but he was not wrong about the monsters getting stronger and stronger¡­ I cannot fight alone anymore,¡± said Cade. Even if he was forced to join Shihoon, he knew it himself that Shihoon was right.

    ¡°I hope that I did not fail this test made by my family,¡± said Jonathan, still worrying about the test by his family that wanted him to explore the dungeon by himself.

    ¡°I think I agree with what stalker said earlier. Your family must have wanted you to realize this yourself. When I see you, Jonathan, you look a bit na?ve and follow whatever your family says,¡± said Cade.

    ¡°They must have done this to make sure you learn this yourself and are not following their orders blindly like this. As I said earlier, even if I stubbornly wanted to do this by myself, I knew that I needed to work with someone else, so I am sure your family thought the same,¡± said Cade.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Jonathan thought about what Shihoon and Cade said properly and deeply. ¡°Thank you, brother Cade, for telling me this,¡± he still did not buy the idea that the test by his family was for him to realize about forming a party but he still thanked Cade for his words.

    ¡°You know, we are not that far in age¡­ it felt weird for you to call me brother. Just Cade is fine,¡± said Cade. Since Cade usually stayed away from people, he never once got so close to someone younger than him.

    Having someone calling him brother felt a bit awkward and weird. He was not used to that title and besides, Jonathan was not in a huge age gap with him. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    ¡°Okay¡­ Cade,¡± said Jonathan. Jonathan was taught to address everyone older than him properly and he had quite a hard time calling Cade by his name but since Cade was older than him, he followed what Cade had wanted.

    ¡°Oh, there are two of them. I take the one on the left, you can take the one on the right,¡± said Cade while pointing at the two big blue tongue toads that wandered around there.

    Jonathan nodded and he wore his helmet back. He ran towards the big blue tongue toad on the right to fight it. Once he was near the toad, Jonathan drew the great sword and shield he was carrying on his back and took a battle stance.

    Cade looked at Jonathan and he can feel the fighting aura coming from Jonathan. ¡°He looks cool with that armor,¡± said Cade while he was staring at Jonathan.

    The toad saw Jonathan and just like how other toads were in the dungeon, it started launching its big blue tongue towards Jonathan.

    Jonathan moved forward and he blocked the tongue attack straightforwardly with his shield. However, he was not even forced back by a step. Jonathan completely stopped the tongue attack.

    The toad was shocked and Cade was impressed with Jonathan. If Cade tried to block that, he will be sent flying.

    Jonathan moved closer to the toad while blocking the tongue but the toad kept jumping backward to create a distance between them. However, the toad ran to a corner and had nowhere else to run away.

    The opportunity arrived and Jonathan did not waste any more time, ¡°Armored Bear Soul, activate!¡± said Jonathan with a serious voice.

    A silhouette of a bear made of energy with armor all over its body appeared behind Jonathan, and ¡°Roar!!!¡± it roared. The energy of the bear flowed towards Jonathan and he was enveloped by the energy.

    With that energy enveloping Jonathan, Cade can feel that Jonathan¡¯s stats were increasing. With the increase of stats, Jonathan did not waste any more time and slashed the cornered toad with his greatsword.

    In one slash, the toad was cut in two and died instantly. Jonathan deactivated his skill and stored his shield and greatsword back to his back.

    The toad evaporated and a skill book was dropped. Jonathan stared at it weirdly. It was the first time he ever got a skill book as a drop. His luck was not that high and he had only once got himself an equipment drop.

    Looking at the skill book, Cade knew that his luck was the one responsible for that. After seeing Jonathan in action, Cade felt a bit bitter with himself especially when he saw the skill used by Jonathan.

    Cade shook his head to get rid of the bitter thoughts and he looked at his target. Cade was used to fighting a single toad by himself and he just ran forwards without thinking.

    Just like the toad that Jonathan fought, the toad that Cade targeted also launched its tongue to attack Cade. He was not capable of blocking the attack and Cade skillfully parried the tongue attack without much problem.

    Followed up with that parried, Cade slashed the tongue to two and rushed to that toad. When he got in front of the toad, Cade slashed it with his cardboard sword and the toad died.

    Looking at Cade fighting, Jonathan was shocked to see that Cade¡¯s cardboard equipment was capable of killing the toad.

    He remembered Shihoon¡¯s words earlier about not minding Cade¡¯s equipment¡¯s appearance. It was better than it looked. Watching Cade in action, he finally knew how good Cade and his equipment were.

    Cade finished the toad faster than Jonathan because Jonathan¡¯s armor and huge weapon and shield slowed him down. Cade¡¯s cardboard equipment did not weigh him much and thus did not slow him down.

    The toad evaporated and to Cade''s surprise, the toad dropped a puzzle piece. Looking at the puzzle piece, Cade was overjoyed that it was the last piece he had been looking for the past hour, the blue tongue puzzle piece.

    Cade clenched his fist as he was happy that he completed a puzzle. He can now use them to get free stat points.

    Jonathan came close to Cade and was surprised to see the puzzle piece. He had only heard and saw a picture about them but this was the first time he saw the puzzle with his own eyes.

    ¡°Whoa~ this is my first time seeing a puzzle piece¡­ Cade, you need to hide it fast or someone else will try to snatch it from you,¡± said Jonathan worried that someone will snatch it. He knew how valuable the puzzle piece was.

    Cade took the blue tongue puzzle piece and the system let out a notification.

    [Grade E Big Blue Tongue Toad all puzzle pieces found] after the system said that the other three puzzle pieces that Cade found earlier automatically came out of his storage.

    All the four puzzle pieces moved by itself and they combined by themselves. It took a second and a small complete replica of the big blue tongue toad appeared. It shone brightly and entered Cade¡¯s body.

    [Gain 35 stat points]

 Chapter 34

    Once the complete puzzle of the big blue tongue toad entered his body, the system notified Cade that he got 35 stat points.

    Cade immediately opened his stats and he had free 35 stat points. Without any hesitation, Cade used all of them on his luck.

    However, to his surprise, only 10 stat points were used. A notification from the system appeared.

    [Luck reaches maximum.]

    Cade took a look at his Luck stat and word ¡®max¡¯ appeared beside his luck stat points. Looking at his luck stat points, Cade felt a bit weird with the max limit of his luck.

    He thought that the maximum luck will be 100 stat points but apparently, the maximum luck was 101 stat points. His luck reached the maximum at 101 stat points.

    Since he cannot compare it with anyone else, that meant it was indeed the maximum amount of luck that a human can have.

    ¡°I did not know you had all the other puzzle pieces too,¡± said Jonathan who was looking at Cade absorbing the complete puzzle earlier.

    ¡°Well¡­ Can you keep this a secret?¡± asked Cade. Looking at Jonathan that was loyal to his family, he might have been loyal to his comrade too. Cade can trust him in keeping his secret.

    ¡°About the puzzle pieces? You already absorbed it, what was it that I should keep a secret?¡± asked Jonathan. Even if people knew about Cade in possession of the complete puzzle, there was nothing they could do because Cade had already used the complete puzzle.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you find it weird that I have all the puzzle pieces?¡± asked Cade. Cade did not want to say it, he hoped that Jonathan could catch what he was trying to say.

    Jonathan stared at Cade and thought about what Cade meant. Upon thinking properly, he finally understands everything. ¡°Okay, don¡¯t worry about it,¡± said Jonathan.

    ¡°Thank you, as thanks, do you want a few skill books?¡± asked Cade. Although he said it was as thanks, Cade wanted to bribe Jonathan.

    ¡°Well, if you want to give me some, I will gladly accept it,¡± said Jonathan while smiling and he knew why Cade wanted to give him some skill books.

    Without hesitation, Cade took out a few skill books from his storage and gave them to Jonathan. Jonathan was shocked to see that many skill books but he just took it without much question.

    They both smiled at each other. ¡°I don¡¯t think it is our turn yet, so let''s kill a few more toads,¡± asked Cade. Jonathan agreed and they went around looking for other toads.

    However, before they continued their hunting, Cade decided to put the leftover 25 stat points he got from the complete puzzle to his vitality increasing it from 20 to 45. With his luck at maximum, Cade can pour all his stat points to his other stats.

    A few minutes of walking, they found a big blue tongue toad wandering by itself. Since there was only one toad, Cade and Jonathan decided to try fighting it together.

    Jonathan decided to take on the role of a tank and started luring the toad. Since he did not have provoke related skills, he can only make some noise to attract the attention of the toad.

    He had low expectations but to his surprise, the toad took the bait. Cade told Jonathan earlier that the toad in the dungeon was aggressive. A simple noise like that can easily get their attention.

    Jonathan got the toad¡¯s attention and the toad started rushing towards him. He readied his shield to block the tongue attack of the toad. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    The toad launched his tongue and it hit the shield but Jonathan completely blocked the attack. Cade did not waste his chance and slashed the tongue.

    After that, he charged towards the toad and killed it as usual. It all went down perfectly but since there was only one opponent, it was too easy.

    ¡°I guess if there is only one monster, there is no need for us to work together to defeat it,¡± said Jonathan and he realized that Cade did not listen to him. He saw Cade was staring at something in the air.

    Cade was staring at his system because after he killed the toad, a notification appeared. Cade was surprised by that notification because it asked Cade to choose his drop.

    [Choose drop. 1. Materials. 2. Magic Crystals. 3. Equipment. 4. Skill Book. 5. Puzzle Piece]

    When Cade chose one of them, another notification appeared with the list of drops that he can choose. When Cade chose the material drop, the list of the big blue tongue toad¡¯s body parts appeared.

    Cade went back and chose magic crystals and a list of magic crystals appeared. There was only one magic crystal that Cade can recognize, the endurance crystal.

    However, there were a few other magic crystals on the list that Cade had never once heard before. They were the toad crystal and tongue crystal. Other than the two crystals, another one that Cade had heard was the ice crystal.

    However, the ice crystal was not something that can be gained from the big blue tongue toad. There were two of that unknown magic crystal too.

    Cade moved on to check on the equipment drop. Once he chose the equipment drop, he can choose between many different types of weapons like swords, bow, arrow and so on.

    However, when he chose one of them, he would get a random of what he chose. He did not want that and he went back and checked the skill book.

    Disappointingly, there was nothing new on the skill book that he can get. He can choose between three skill books that he had previously collected lots of them. The big tongue skill, toad skin skill, and bluetongue skill.

    Cade then chose the puzzle piece. To his surprise, other than the toad figure puzzle, there were a few more he could get. Cade can recognize some of them but the others were completely new to him.

    The one that he can recognize was the puzzle for the bloodline skill ¨C the blue tongue of the big blue tongue toad. He needed 10 puzzle pieces to complete one of the skill books.

    Bloodline skills were one of the most sought-after skill books. When one of them appeared in the market, it would be for an astronomically high price.

    There was a reason for that. Since it was the bloodline skill, the children of the possessors of the skill could inherit part of the bloodline skill and it will go on to their grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on.

    Not only that, but their descendants will also have a 90% increased chance of awakening and when they awakened, they will have a 95% chance of getting a bloodline skill.

    The bloodline skill was also the base foundation of most of the powerful and prestigious families that could be found throughout the universe.

    For example, the blue phoenix family where Cade was part of, the golden dragon family where Cynthia came from and the armored bear family where Jonathan came from.

    The name of the family was all taken from the bloodline of the skill their founder had. The Blue Phoenix family¡¯s founder had the full bloodline skill of the blue phoenix monster.

    The same went to the founder of the Golden Dragon family. The founder of the family also possessed the full bloodline skill of the golden dragon monster.

    The Armored Bear family unfortunately only in possession of two armored bear bloodline skills. One of them was the skill Jonathan used earlier, the armored bear soul.

    Cade felt bitter when Jonathan used the skill because he was part of the blue phoenix family but he did not inherit any blue phoenix skill when he awakened.

    Other than the blue tongue bloodline skill, there were also the toad skin and big tongue skill and they were all bloodline skills. All of them needed 10 puzzle pieces to complete the skill book.

    The puzzle pieces of the skill consisted of the cover page for the front and back for one puzzle piece and the other nine were the content pages of the bloodline skill.

    Unfortunately, there was no full bloodline skill puzzle piece that Cade can get from the list of the puzzle piece.

    Cade did not know why there was no full bloodline skill he can get from the big blue tongue toad but he thought that maybe the one he killed was too weak.

    Jonathan was looking at Cade who was staring at something. Looking at him concentrate on that, he assumed that he was looking at his system and something must have happened.

    There was a reason he can think of that because the corpses of the big blue tongue toad that they killed were still there. It did not evaporate. It must be related to Cade looking at his system.

    Jonathan decided to not disturb Cade but he kept his eyes around to make sure that no one saw what happened to Cade and the corpse of the big blue tongue toad.

 Chapter 35

    Other than the three bloodline skills, there were another two bloodline skills that he had never once heard before.

    One was the Big Blue Tongue Toad Leader bloodline skill. Since there was no description of the skill available, it was impossible to know what it can do.

    Cade can only assume that it was a superior skill because it needed 20 puzzle pieces to complete the skill book.

    The other one was the big blue tongue toad language bloodline skill. The skill also needed 20 puzzle pieces to complete the skill book.

    From the name of the skill, Cade can assume that it was the language skill to communicate with the big blue tongue toad monsters. Cade did not know what was good about being able to talk to an aggressive monster like the toad and he thought that the skill was not that good.

    Moving on from the bloodline skill, there were few more new kinds of puzzle pieces that Cade had never once heard before.

    One of them was a puzzle piece for the big blue tongue toad essence. Looking at the amount of puzzle needed to complete them, Cade blankly staring at it.

    ¡°Hu-Hundred of them?¡± said Cade surprised at the number of puzzle pieces needed to complete the big blue tongue toad essence puzzle pieces. There were too many of them and Cade frowned at that amount.

    With that amount, Cade can only assume that the essence must be something really good. Collecting even one puzzle piece was a total pain but the essence had 100 of them.

    Cade sighed and looked at the other puzzle piece and the system only said it was the big blue tongue toad key and just like the essence, it had 100 puzzle pieces.

    ¡°If it was a key, that means it can be used to open something,¡± thought Cade. There was nothing that came to mind and Cade moved on to the next puzzle.

    Lastly, it was the big blue tongue toad core. This one, however, had a whopping 1000 puzzle pieces to be collected to complete. Cade scratched his head looking at the amount needed to complete the puzzle.

    ¡°This must be something really really big,¡± thought Cade. With all the choices in front of him, Cade did not know what to choose.

    Thinking deeply about that, Cade remembered that he had quite a few incomplete big blue tongue toad figures in his storage. He decided to complete them and got himself a few more stat points.

    With his choice, Cade got another puzzle piece for the big blue tongue toad figure. Jonathan who saw that was no surprise anymore.

    ¡°Cade, are you done? You took quite a while to get that,¡± said Jonathan.

    ¡°Oh, sorry. Thanks for guarding around,¡± Cade thanked Jonathan for keeping guard when he was choosing his drop.

    ¡°Should we continue?¡± asked Jonathan. He wanted to continue hunting for more but since he was with Cade and Cade was older than him, he asked for Cade¡¯s opinion.

    ¡°Yeah. I think it is not yet time for our turn,¡± said Cade and they both decided to find another toad nearby to hunt.

    Cade was not sure how he was able to choose his drop but he figured that maybe it was due to his max luck. This happened after he maxed his luck stat.

    Cade and Jonathan continued their hunt and every time Cade killed a toad; he can choose his drop. Cade can confirm that it was due to his luck. He cannot think of another reason.

    His latest kill net him the last piece of the puzzle to complete another big blue tongue toad figure. He completed another one and he can get another 35 stat points. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    However, to Cade''s surprise¡­

    [Unable to absorb. Host already absorb one E grade Big Blue Tongue Toad figure]

    Looking at the notification, Cade stared at it blankly. He cannot use the complete puzzle because he already used one before.

    ¡°I never heard of this¡­¡± said Cade. He was still unable to believe that he cannot absorb the complete puzzle.

    ¡°Cade, why are you not absorbing it? Hurry up! If people saw this light, it would be extremely bad,¡± said Jonathan. He was again keeping guard when Cade was busy with his business.

    ¡°I cannot absorb this because I already absorb one. You should take this,¡± said Cade while he handed the complete puzzle to Jonathan to absorb.

    Jonathan looked at Cade blankly. He cannot believe that Cade easily gave him the complete puzzle. ¡°Is it okay for you to give me this?¡± asked Jonathan as he hesitated to take it.

    ¡°I told you I cannot use this. You better absorb this fast before someone comes here,¡± said Cade. He knew it would be chaos if the explorers found out about the complete puzzle.

    He can simply put the complete puzzle inside his storage but keeping the complete puzzle was too dangerous.

    Since Jonathan was a good kid and they decided to work together in the dungeon, why not give the complete puzzle to him? The puzzle could help Jonathan become stronger and at the same time increase their party chance to survive inside the dungeon.

    They suddenly heard footsteps coming towards them. Jonathan stopped hesitating and took the complete puzzle from Cade¡¯s hand.

    He got the same notification as Cade from the system and absorbed the complete puzzle. The absorption was an easy process and it only takes a second.

    Both Cade and Jonathan immediately evacuated the area and hid nearby. Just like they thought, a few explorers arrived. They did not look strong but there were quite a few of them.

    Fighting humans was different than fighting the monster. The monster had a set of skills humans could anticipate but humans mixed their skills and it was impossible to predict what skill they will use unless they had seen it once.

    ¡°The light is gone?¡± said one of the explorers.

    ¡°Is it some kind of treasure?¡± said another one of them.

    ¡°What if it was a strong monster?¡± said another one. They all looked at each other and they decided to retreat from the area immediately.

    If it was a strong monster, it will be hard for them to survive. It was better to run than encountering it. All the explorers left the area.

    Cade and Jonathan who saw everything sighed in relief. Luckily, they were a bunch of normal explorers. Their thought process was that of normal people too.

    If they were from a powerful family, they will try to search every nook and cranny for that light because they were usually greedy and they usually had enough power to counter whatever danger they found.

    ¡°Have you heard about something like this, Jonathan?¡± asked Cade about the limit of only absorbing one complete puzzle of the same kind.

    Jonathan shook his head lightly as he had never heard or read it once about that. ¡°Maybe no one knew about this because the puzzle is super rare after all,¡± said Jonathan.

    Cade agreed with Jonathan. He was a bit abnormal because of the max luck that allowed him to choose whatever drop he wanted and got himself two of the same complete puzzles.

    ¡°Well, I guess your high luck kind of rubs on me a bit because I got myself free stat points without doing much. Thanks, Cade,¡± said Jonathan, smiling while he was distributing his stat points.

    ¡°I would not give it to you if you are a bad guy and having the complete puzzle is too dangerous when I am too weak to protect myself,¡± said Cade with a disappointed face.

    He thought that he will be able to spam himself with many complete puzzles to increase his stat but it won¡¯t be happening soon.

    If he wanted to get more stat points, he needed to get himself another complete puzzle. Maybe a D grade big blue tongue toad since he got himself the E grade one.

    He can also get himself the complete puzzle of the E grade and D grade big tongue toad but he might need to travel back to the beginning of the third floor to find some of them.

    However, he did not want to waste time going back and dismissed the idea. Maybe if he can find the D grade big blue tongue toad, he will be able to get one more complete puzzle.

    ¡°With the appearance of the light from the complete puzzle, I don¡¯t think it is a good idea to continue hunting for more puzzle,¡± said Cade.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go back to brother Shihoon,¡± said Jonathan and Cade agreed. Both of them came out of their hiding and walked back towards the area outside the floor boss room.

    While going to their destination, they met a few big blue tongue toad and Cade and Jonathan killed them. However, Cade did not choose the puzzle pieces as drop, he chose the magic crystal drop.

    He can easily choose not to get anything but he wanted to get himself the new magic crystal. If he sold those, he would get quite a lot of money because researchers will want to know what it can do.

 Chapter 36

    ¡°Hmm~ These two magic crystals are something new. I don¡¯t think I ever saw my family or anyone else having these crystals. I wonder what it can do?¡± said Jonathan while his hand was holding two different magic crystals.

    One of the magic crystals was colorless and had the shape of a toad. That was the toad magic crystal that Cade can choose from the list of magic crystal drops.

    The other magic crystal was red but it had the shape of a tongue. That was the tongue magic crystal. He got two tongue magic crystals and two toad crystals.

    Cade thought that Jonathan would be able to recognize them but it looked like it was his first time seeing the two crystals too.

    Since none of them knew what it could do, it was better to sell them and let the professionals do their job.

    Assuming that the two magic crystals were a completely new type of magic crystals, it might have been due to the new changes happening to the dungeon.

    Maybe the two magic crystals were like a new feature in a game that had not yet been revealed but their data can be found inside the game with hacking and data-mining.

    With Cade''s newfound ability to choose his drop, he gained access to the new drops earlier than other people.

    Maybe the new bloodline skills, the essence, key, and core were something new added to the monsters and had yet to be released by the maker of the dungeon.

    Cade kept the magic crystals back into his storage and continued walking with Jonathan towards the waiting area for the floor boss.

    While walking, other than talking about the magic crystals, Jonathan told Cade a bit about himself, his family and everything else related to him.

    There was nothing abnormal about Jonathan. His life was the same as normal people that were not part of the powerful family.

    He also said that his family doted on him a lot because he was the youngest in his family and the most well-behaved child.

    When he was found to have the potential growth of C grade, he was treated coldly by his family but not as bad as Cade. His parents and siblings still love him, only his uncles, aunties and cousins were looking down on him.

    However, that soon changed because Jonathan was a good child and well-behaved. Everyone started liking him bit by bit and they all ended up doting him a lot.

    Jonathan did not try to gain his family¡¯s attention or anything by behaving well but that was part of his nature. It was not a fake act and that was what gained him the love of his family.

    Hearing Jonathan¡¯s story about himself, Cade did not hate or felt jealous of him or anything because his life was not the same as him but he was happy to hear that.

    Cade always thought that everyone from the powerful family would treat their child with low talent badly just like his family but apparently, that was not the case.

    There was some good family like the Armored Bear family around. He also thought that maybe Jonathan would be in the same situation as him if he was not a good boy but Jonathan said that even before they started to like him, he was not treated badly.

    There was no bullying, hitting or sneering came from his family. They did talk behind him but it was nothing extreme.

    They were just like villagers talking and whispering bad about each other.

    Jonathan also wanted to know a bit about Cade but Cade just said that he was an orphan and he did not know who his parents were. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    Jonathan also did not want to pry further and their conversation moved on to where they were studying, girlfriend and anything common like that.

    After that, they arrived and Shihoon looked seriously bored waiting by himself. There were three to four more parties in front of them but it will not be a long wait.

    Shihoon complained a bit about them leaving him alone there for too long but Cade ignored him. However, the good boy Jonathan patiently listened and tried to console him.

    More and more explorers reached the area and looking at the long line, they all sighed. They all needed to wait a long time before they could enter the boss room.

    After half an hour of waiting, it was finally time for Cade, Shihoon and Jonathan¡¯s turn to enter the boss room.

    Just like the two boss rooms on the first and second floors, the third-floor room was the same as them. Nothing special in it. It was just a huge empty room.

    The boss appeared and it was the same huge big tongue toad boss they fought on the first and second floor. Maybe it will be stronger than the first and second-floor boss and that was it.

    The toad boss opened its mouth and they saw a blue tongue, ¡°Big blue tongue toad, no wonder there are so many of them on this floor,¡± said Shihoon.

    ¡°I¡¯ll attract the boss''s attention and hold him while Cade and brother Shihoon should focus on dealing damage to the boss,¡± said Jonathan. He has been increasing his endurance a lot and will be able to hold the boss well.

    Even the 35 stat points he got from the complete puzzle Cade gave him were put on his endurance. He felt like he needed good defense if he wanted to survive inside the dungeon.

    Endurance affected defense and stamina. Increasing endurance meant increased defense and stamina. With his full set equipment that focused on defense, he decided to go that route.

    Cade already knew what role Jonathan wanted to take and he nodded. Shihoon just agreed without thinking much because he knew that Jonathan will be good at that.

    With that all set, Jonathan moved forward and called the boss to attract its attention. The boss was not that much different from the normal toad in their aggressiveness and thus, Jonathan easily got its attention.

    ¡°Mute,¡± said Shihoon and the sound around him and Cade disappeared. Cade was surprised to see that Shihoon learned a sound-based skill.

    ¡°I wonder what his first skill is,¡± Cade wondered. The first skill Shihoon showed him before was picture come to life and now mute. Both of these skills were unrelated to each other.

    Explorers usually focused on getting skills related to the first skill they got. For example, if the first skill they got when someone awakened was a fireball, they will usually get a skill that was related or complimented to the fireball.

    Some learn something else entirely and they regret it later. They can delete the skill they learned but the skill was expensive and they would waste a lot of money.

    The toad boss started attacking Jonathan and he easily blocked the attack. Cade and Shihoon spread and went to the side of the toad.

    With mute masking the sound they made; the toad boss was unaware of them arriving on its side.

    Shihoon took out a picture of a mole monster with a huge claw and used pictures to come to life to summon the mole. Shihoon ordered the mole to start digging the toad boss¡¯ body.

    The mole followed the order and immediately started digging into the toad boss with its huge claw. At the same time the mole digging into the toad, Cade was slashing the toad boss with his sword.

    The toad boss was screaming in pain with the two attacks coming from its side. Its attention towards Jonathan moved to Cade.

    Jonathan tried to attract the attention of the toad boss by screaming at it but he was unable to do that. Since Cade was dealing much more damage than the mole, he got the attention of the toad boss.

    However, when Cade got the attention of the toad boss, Jonathan did not waste the chance and started using his greatsword to attack the toad boss too.

    The toad boss ended up getting confused on who it should attack first and died before it can make any decision.

    Cade did not get the notification of choosing the drop and that meant he was not the one that killed the toad boss. The toad boss evaporated and a skill book was left on the ground.

    It was the toad skin skill of the boss version. That meant it was much more powerful compared to the normal one. Since Cade was not the one killing the toad boss, he decided to give the skill book to Shihoon and Jonathan.

    Jonathan flatly refused the skill because he got a lot of them already thanks to Cade and Shihoon decided to take it.

    Cade had a feeling that Shihoon was the one dealing the most damage to the toad boss because he was attacking inside the toad with his mole.

    When Cade asked why he learned two contradicting skills, Shihoon said it was easier to take a picture without anyone noticing¡­

 Chapter 37

    As the toad boss was killed, a magic circle to the fourth floor appeared. Without wasting more time, Cade, Shihoon, and Jonathan entered the magic circle to the fourth floor.

    It only took a second before they arrived on the fourth floor. When they started seeing the fourth floor, suddenly something fast was coming at them.

    Instinctively, all three of them dodged the incoming things. That thing smashed into the wall behind them and they saw what was that.

    They were shocked to see that it was an explorer. His body was soaked with blood and he looked lifeless. He died.

    Cade, Shihoon, and Jonathan looked in front and there were many explorers around fighting something.

    Many explosions were happening and it was chaos. Everyone wore a desperate face. Feared, sadness, anger, desperation and many more were shown on their face.

    ¡°HEAL!!!¡± someone screaming asking for healers to heal him. The guy that was screaming lost a hand and he held an axe with his other arm.

    A healer girl immediately cast heal to heal the guy asking for her healing. She looked worn out. It looked like she had been using heals too much. Tears were flowing down on her face too. She was crying.

    Around them, Cade, Shihoon, and Jonathan could see many corpses. Many dead explorers were lying lifelessly on the ground.

    Most of them had their body smashed by something and their inside were splattered everywhere. The ground was soaked with their blood.

    Many could not move anymore either they were dead tired or they lost their limbs or they lost their will to fight.

    The trio did not know what was happening and they were shocked at the gruesome scene in front of them.

    The fight against something was still happening and the trio cannot determine what they were fighting. They were also confused and shocked and they did not know what to think.

    Suddenly, something appeared in front of the healer girl and the guy that was in the process of healing. It was a humanoid figure but looking at the appearance of that thing, the trio knew it was not human.

    The humanoid monster had toad¡¯s head, arm, and leg. It wore tattered clothes but it looked like clothes that humans normally wore. From the expression of the toad, the trio knew it was pissed, extremely pissed.

    Its toad¡¯s eyes were red and they could see it clenching its teeth. The toad¡¯s arm was raised high like it wanted to slap the healer girl.

    Both the guy in healing and the healer girl were stunned by the appearance of the toad. The healing girl''s face went white but the guy with one arm moved its arm holding the axe and slashed at the toad.

    The toad slapped the axe and the guy¡¯s arm holding the axe were instantly broken. ¡°Argh!!!¡± the guy screamed in pain but his scream was cut short when the toad stomped the guy.

    The stomp made a small explosion and the guy¡¯s body explode in pieces. His inside splattered around and some of them hit the healer girl.

    The healer girl was paralyzed by the scene that was happening in front of her. Her mind blanked. She did not know what she should do. She was a healer and she did not have anything she could do to protect herself.

    The toad raised its arm again and this time it wanted to kill the healer girl. The healer girl blankly staring at the toad.

    The toad swung its arm. However, before its arm reached the healer girl, a dark-skinned man suddenly appeared fast and punched the toad with his glowing fist. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    At the same time, the dark-skinned man appeared, ¡°Picture come to life,¡± Shihoon held a picture of a pitch-black raven and summoned it.

    A black raven appeared and it flew fast towards the healer girl. The toad blocked the punch from the dark-skinned man with its arm and was sent flying. The raven appeared by the healer girl''s side and pulled it away from the toad.

    The dark-skinned man ran toward the toad to continue fighting it. The raven with the healer girl in towed arrived at Cade and his party side.

    The raven disappeared and Shihoon had already left Cade and Jonathan by themselves and joined the dark-skinned man to fight the toad.

    Shihoon was acting fast as he knew something bad was happening and he instinctively acted on his own. Cade and Jonathan, on the other hand, were still dazed by what was happening.

    However, they came to their senses when the raven left the healer girl with them. Jonathan took out a potion from his storage and fed the healer girl.

    ¡°Th-thank you,¡± said the healer girl. She healed some of her energy but fatigue and shock made her unable to move.

    ¡°What happens here?¡± asked Cade, wanting to know the situation. Jonathan had already erected his huge shield to protect them from unwanted attacks from the humanoid toad.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what happens but when I arrive on this floor, it already likes this. There were three of those humanoid toads and they were all strong. However, with our combined efforts, we managed to kill one of them,¡± said the healer girl and tears started flowing down her face.

    ¡°After the death of one of the humanoid toads, the other two suddenly got angry and they became much stronger and this massacre happened,¡± said the healer girl.

    ¡°And, what is this corpse?¡± asked Jonathan at all the corpses around them. To his knowledge, the new rules made it that anyone who died inside the dungeon will be revived outside the dungeon.

    Before they are revived, their body will evaporate much like the monsters and they will appear outside the dungeon. However, the corpses there did not evaporate.

    ¡°Mister Raja said that if they were killed by the humanoid toad, they permanently died. He did not know why but it happened to his party,¡± said the healer girl. Cade and Jonathan were shocked to hear that.

    ¡°Then, why weren¡¯t you all running away with the emergency badge?¡± asked Cade. It was obvious that the humanoid toad was strong and they should have run away from them with the badge.

    ¡°It is not working¡­ We don¡¯t know why but it is not working,¡± said the healer girl with a helpless face. Cade immediately took out his badge and tried using it and just like the healer girl said, it was not working.

    While they were talking, suddenly a huge explosion happened in the direction where the many explorers fought one of the toads. Dust covered that area and Cade and Jonathan were unable to see what was happening inside that dust.

    Suddenly, a figure came out of the dust and it was the humanoid toad. Jonathan and Cade¡¯s face tensed while the healer girl started shivering. It looked like the explorers fighting that toad was defeated or killed.

    Cade looked at the healer girl and said, ¡°You should-¡± his speech stopped when he saw the teleporter to the third floor was gone. He wanted the healer girl to retreat to the third floor but that was not an option now.

    ¡°It looks like the humanoid toad is an anomaly in this dungeon,¡± said Cade as he prepared to fight the toad. ¡®Can I survive this fight?¡¯ thought Cade.

    Escape was not an option. Even if he tried to escape deeper into the dungeon, with the speed of the humanoid toad he saw fighting Raja and Shihoon, it was impossible.

    ¡°It is coming!¡± shouted Jonathan. The toad bent its body and launched forward at high speed. Jonathan gritted his teeth and blocked the humanoid toad.

    The humanoid toad slammed the blue bear shield with a strong attack but Jonathan was only pushed back a bit. Shocks can be seen on the toad¡¯s face. ¡°I can do this!¡± thought Jonathan.

    He thought he would be unable to block much of the humanoid toad¡¯s attack but it looked like that would not be a problem.

    Cade did not want to waste the chance that Jonathan had created when he saw the shocked face of the humanoid toad, Cade moved his cardboard sword and slashed the humanoid toad.

    However, to his surprise, the humanoid toad easily dodged that slash. ¡°You damn monkey!¡± said the humanoid toad. Cade, Jonathan, and the healer girl were shocked to hear that.

    ¡°It can talk!!¡±

    The humanoid toad slapped Jonathan¡¯s shield and Jonathan¡¯s face changed when he was pushed a meter back from the force of the slap. The earlier attack from the humanoid toad¡¯s attack was not its full power.

    Cade was shocked to see Jonathan was pushed by that seemingly simple slap. The earlier attack looked much stronger. He can block the earlier attack but that simple attack pushed him back a lot.

    However, while his attention was on Jonathan, the humanoid toad launched another slap with its other arm towards Cade.

    Cade¡¯s immediately blocked the slap with his shield but to his horror, ¡®Crack!¡¯ and he was sent flying fast towards the wall of the dungeon.

 Chapter 39

    After he saw that the last humanoid toad was killed, Raja walked around to see if he could find any survivors among the explorers.

    Raja found a few that were still alive but without any treatment, they will die. He moved them one by one to the healer girl so that she could at least give them first aid treatment.

    Seeing Raja doing that, Jonathan also got up and searched for any other survivor. Shihoon focused himself in summoning another healer girl to help the real healer girl to heal the survivor.

    His ¡®picture come to life¡¯ skill might sound powerful but unfortunately, he can only summon one at a time. Until the previous summons were gone, he could not summon another one.

    His summon can only use a part of the original power. The higher the level of the skill, the more power it can use based on the original owner of the summon.

    Shihoon was busy printing lots of healer girl pictures so that he could summon without stopping. His skill level only allowed him to summon the picture for 10 seconds.

    Because the healer girl wanted to reserve as much of her energy as possible, she only gave Cade an emergency treatment so that he did not die.

    Once she was done with Cade, she moved on to the other explorers that needed immediate treatment.

    Jonathan and Raja went around to find more survivors and once they confirmed that there were no more survivors, they started collecting the dead explorers¡¯ bodies.

    The body that was in almost perfect condition was put together on one side. The ones that were crushed and ripped apart were collected and put on another side.

    It was gruesome work as collecting the organs, meats and bones were not a pleasant experience. Not one or two but many of them.

    There were only 20 explorers who survived including Cade, Shihoon, Jonathan, Raja, and the healer girl. Almost a hundred of them lost their lives fighting the three humanoid toads.

    Shihoon and the healer girl were busy healing the survivors while Jonathan and Raja were staring at the corpses lying in front of them.

    ¡°I am Jonathan. What should we do with all these dead bodies?¡± asked Jonathan. He did not have any experience in dealing with this many dead bodies. Heck, he never once met a dead body in his life.

    His exploration in a dungeon since he awakened had always been successful without any death happening to any member of his party.

    Even his new party members, Shihoon and Cade survived. Cade was in a near-death state earlier but he survived.

    ¡°Raja¡­ Maybe we should bury them,¡± said Raja, saying his name while he solemnly looked at all the explorers¡¯ bodies in front of him.

    ¡°Here? Isn¡¯t it better if we bring them out?¡± asked Jonathan. He wanted to pass the body to their family.

    ¡°There are too many of them and there are only a handful of us that can move around. We need to bring the injured out too,¡± said Raja calmly. He wanted to bring all of them out but he knew himself that it was impossible.

    ¡°How about we put them in our storage?¡± asked Jonathan. Humans cannot enter the storage but dead bodies could be put inside the storage.

    If they put the dead bodies in their storage, they can bring all of the dead bodies out of the dungeon.

    ¡°That does not look proper. They used to be alive. They used to be human. Putting them in storage like they are some kind of thing is not proper,¡± said Raja refused to do that. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Jonathan understands what Raja meant and he dismissed that idea. If he cannot come up with any other ideas, the only thing they can do is be buried inside the dungeon.

    ¡°How about sending them using the emergency badge? If we group them up together and use the badge, it was possible to send them out of the dungeon,¡± suggested Jonathan.

    ¡°The limit of the emergency badge is 5 explorers per badge. We do not have that many emergency badges with us and besides, it does not work with dead explorers,¡± said Raja.

    Jonathan fell silent as he did not know what he should do. He had a lot of emergency badges but he did not know that it only worked on living explorers.

    ¡°Let¡¯s clean the face of the one that has their face alright and I will take their picture. Collect their belongings and group them up with their picture. After that, we can give their belongings to their family,¡± a voice came from nearby and it was Shihoon.

    ¡°For the one that unfortunately cannot be identified, just get their belongings. We will put all of their belongings outside the dungeon and let their family collect it. As for their bodies, let us bury them. There is no way for us to bring them outside.¡± said Shihoon.

    ¡°And besides, it will be cruel of us if we bring them outside with their conditions like that,¡± said Shihoon.

    ¡°How about one of us teleport outside and ask everyone outside to help us move the corpse?¡± suggested Jonathan again. It might be cruel but he wanted their family to be able to see them for the last time.

    ¡°We needed more than ten days to arrive here and are we going to let their body rot here while waiting for them to arrive?¡± said Shihoon as he thought that Jonathan was too hung up on bringing the intact body outside.

    ¡°Let¡¯s follow your idea and collect their belongings¡­ We will need to dig out a huge hole but how do we do that?¡± asked Raja. He agreed to follow Shihoon¡¯s idea as he thought that would be the best.

    ¡°No need to worry about that. I have a picture of a monster that is good at digging. Just leave that to me,¡± said Shihoon.

    As Jonathan cannot think of any more ideas, he silently followed Raja and started collecting the explorers belonging.

    They can only collect what was outside their body. Anything that was inside their storage was not accessible to Jonathan and Raja.

    Shihoon, on the other hand, moves from one person to another and cleans their face with clean water and takes their picture. He printed them and put them next to the dead¡¯s belongings.

    The Healer girl did not help them and she only looked from afar as she was really tired from healing all of the injured explorers. She needed to rest or she would collapse immediately.

    It took them around an hour to sort out everything. At that time, a few parties of explorers that came from the third floor got to the fourth floor and were shocked to see everything that happened there.

    After the explanation from the healer girl, they also helped Shihoon, Raja, and Jonathan in collecting the belongings of the dead explorers.

    After all of that was done, it was time to dig the hole to bury them. Luckily, there was an explorer that could use ground magic and there was no need for Shihoon to dig the hole by himself.

    That explorer made a huge hole and the other explorers helped move the dead bodies and properly put them in the hole. After they all finished moving the dead bodies in the hole, the ground mage explorer closed the hole.

    They did not know if the bodies or the dungeon will disappear in the future but they still put a sign that the fallen explorers were all buried there.

    Although there were explorers that came from the third floor, there were only about ten of them. Two of them were healers and thanks to them, the injured got more healing.

    Not many of the explorers from the third floor arrived on the fourth floor because they failed in defeating the third-floor boss.

    They all made some discussions and the newly arrived explorers decided to head out of the dungeon following Raja, Shihoon, Jonathan and healer girl.

    They needed to report about the humanoid toad and were afraid too that there might be more of them inside. They decided to stop their explorations inside the big tongue toad dungeon.

    They also decided to help carry the injured outside while they used their emergency badge. They choose the one they wanted to bring outside and after all of that was done, it was time to escape the dungeon.

    Weirdly, the humanoid toad bodies did not evaporate and they decided to bring the bodies outside. If they handed them to the authorities, they would be able to find out what they were.

    That humanoid monsters were really dangerous and the weirder thing was that none of the big tongue toads on the fourth floor came near them.

    The explorer did see a few toads on the fourth floor jumping around nearby. They wanted to come to them but weirdly enough, once they saw the bodies of the humanoid toad, they shivered in fear and ran away.