《A Fool's Way to the Top [A Dungeon Crawling LitRPG]》 Chapter 1: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait (1) Chapter 1: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait Silver struggles to open his eyes, his eyelids feeling like they weigh a ton. He scans the room around him with a hazed look and doesn¡¯t recognize it. The place is dimply lit, with two candles with purple flames standing on top of a table, the other of which stands a silhouette, vaguely humanoid. ¡®This dream again?¡¯ wonders Silver. ¡®Wait, again? Did I already have this dream? I can¡¯t remember.¡¯ He tries to move, but his body refuses to act, as if he wasn''t in control of it. His mind still dazed, he tries to focus on the table once again: apart from the two candles, there is a black and white, small tablecloth on top of which rests a deck of cards. Silver¡¯s eyes linger on the cards, as if they were calling to him. He tries to move his hands to grab them but he is still paralyzed. ¡°No, not yet,¡± says the figure with a vaguely feminine voice. ¡°But soon enough.¡± ¡®What¡­what¡¯s happening¡­¡¯ BEEP BEEP BEEP Silver jolts awake, his alarm taking him by surprise. ¡°Damn, just as I was dreaming about¡­ Wait, what was I dreaming about again?¡± He rubs his face, trying to get himself awake as much as possible before grabbing his phone and opening his calendar. Only one booking today: cleaning for a level 20 Dungeon, not the most interesting thing in the world but the best an unawakened can have in the Dungeon business. Silver sighs: yes, the best for an unawakened like him. Every awakened obtained access to the System at 15 to 2 years old max and, at 25, Silver¡¯s chance was absolute zero. But who knows, maybe a miracle can happen? Yeah, no chance. He stumbles out of bed and turns on his coffee machine before hoping in the shower. He takes a quick look at himself in the mirror, checking out his muscular build¡ªnot overly large but ripped just enough to see the demarcation of the muscles. He passes a hand in his long, naturally gray hair before deciding that the self-hype session was over. After a few minutes, the old machine lets out a terrible noise, notifying him that his coffee is ready. Still a bit wet, he grabs his last clean cup and pours himself some gold old cheap coffee. He walks towards his bed and grabs his phone before sitting heavily on the only chair in his ridiculously small apartment. He shifts through the news: the 61st anniversary of the Meteor Shower is approaching, some popstar released a new hot album, and- ¡°No shot!¡± he exclaims as he clicks on the article. ¡°Lutia lost his record of the fastest clearing of the Mellow Tomb? For real? Another record he lost? Is he washed now?¡± Lutia Nowen, the greatest Dungeonaut of all time, was slowly losing his records of fastest clearing. It makes sense that nobody could stay at the top forever but still. ¡°Didn¡¯t think I¡¯d get to live to see the fall of one of the GOATs.¡± Silver empties his cup and puts it with it¡¯s brethren in the sink, puts some clothes on and goes out, ready for a hard day of work. A short bus ride gets him to the Dungeon site, already bustling with life. On one side of the site were standing around 10 people surrounded by big backpacks and pickaxes¡ªthe group of cleaners for this raid. He joins them, announcing his arrival with a simple hello. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± asks an older man holding a tablet. ¡°Silver Crown, sir.¡± "Silver... ok, good. Well, we seem to have everyone. The group of Hunters went in around 15 minutes ago. They may not be really high level but they should be done in something like 5 minutes. So, I propose we go in already; this Dungeon as a 30 minutes cooldown before it regens.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. The whole group looks at each other before nodding in agreement; a bit more time wouldn¡¯t hurt anyone, especially in a job where the more you bring back, the better the pay. ¡°Ok, great,¡± continues the older man. ¡°Grab your bags and tools and let¡¯s get going.¡± Everyone grabs their designated bag and starts to walk towards the entrance of the Dungeon; it looks like the entrance of an old mineshaft on the side of a hill. ¡®Mining duties today, huh,¡¯ remarks Silver to himself as he grabs his bag, a pickaxe attached to its side. The interior of the Dungeon is exactly what you¡¯d think it is from the exterior: tight corridors, a lot of stone, some wood pillars, and some torches here and there. It¡¯s dimly lit, moist, and the air is extremely stale and filled with dust. Really somewhere you¡¯d go only because you are forced to. After a bit of walking, they arrive at a larger room filled with corpses of monsters, the work of the group of Hunters. The half in charge of the carving takes out their knives while the miners start hitting on the nodes sticking out of the walls. ¡°Damn, do none of the monsters have any cores?¡± asks one of the carvers after a few moments, frustration in his voice. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s really weird,¡± says another one. ¡±Not much more chance on the mining front either,¡± adds one of the miners as his pickaxe breaks the rock to reveal only more rocks. ¡°Damn,¡± shouts the older man as he gets up. ¡°Ok, let¡¯s move on.¡± As the whole group starts to mo, Silver lags behind, lost in thoughts. ¡®Something¡¯s weird, but I can¡¯t put my finger on it¡¯ ¡°Yo man, you ok?¡± asks another man as he lightly taps SIlver back. ¡°Oh, no, yeah, I¡¯m good. Let¡¯s go.¡± The second room didn¡¯t yield much better results, and as they approach the third one, the whole group starts to become a bit restless: no loot equals no pay. Also, it¡¯s been over 10 minutes since they entered the Dungeon; why didn¡¯t they run into the Hunters yet? Anyway, they still have a job to do. Silver prepares to hit a node on the wall before completely freezing. Since the first room, he felt something was amiss, and he finally put his finger on it. In a hurry, he turns around and rushes towards the monsters remains and grabs one of the corpses. ¡°Hey man, what¡¯s going on?¡± asks one of the cleaners. ¡°This-this Dungeon, it¡¯s supposed to be a level 20 right ?¡± he asks with a horrified expression. At this point, the whole group stops their tasks and regroups around Silver. ¡°Yes, why?¡± says the older man. At this moment, one of the women in the group gasps loudly while looking shocked. An air of panic starts to fall on all of them. ¡°Then,¡± continues Silver, ¡°why are you all carving monsters that only appear in level 30 Dungeons minimum?¡± The cadaver Silver is holding looks like a humanoid dog, around a meter tall: a Kobold. At this point they all realize that, yes, there is something really wrong going on right now. ¡°Then does that mean that¡ª¡± The woman speaking couldn¡¯t finish her thought before a blood-curling scream is heard from deeper in the Dungeon¡ªwell, not that much deeper. Soon the noise of fighting can be heard approaching, and approaching fast. ¡°Fuck!¡± screams one of the men as he starts to run. SCLATCH Sadly for him, he couldn¡¯t run very far before a short, rusty sword was launched straight into his neck. He stumbles a bit before falling heavily on the ground. Taking a look at the direction the sword was launched from revealed something absolutely terrible: a group of five Hunters were fighting with everything they have to try and hold back what can only be described as a flood of monsters. At this point, one of the cleaners starts to scream for mercy. This makes the one that seems like the leader of the Hunters, a huge armorclad man wielding a tower shield, look back. ¡°WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?¡± he yells, seeing a group of unawakened people wandering into an active Dungeon, breaking the first rule of conduct. This moment of inatention doesn¡¯t go unnoticed by the Kobolds as they finally manage to verpower him and flood the whole room, engulfing the whole place with their insane numbers. The cleaners try, as best as they can, to stay alive amidst the torrent of angry flesh sweeping them. ¡°Firebolt!¡± screams one of the Hunters as red lightning surges from her fingertips, causing a flame explosion as soon as it connects with some monsters. ¡°RAAAAH!¡± yells the leader as he finally manages to get back up, sending Kobolds flying all around. ¡°COME OVER HERE!¡± he adds as he bashes beast after beast with his shield. In the midst of all of this, SIlver was trying his best to survive. Years of martial arts training certainly were helpful, but he simply couldn¡¯t contend with the sheer number, his legs starting to give under numerous scratches and bites. Finally, a Kobold hits his knee in the wrong place and he falls to the ground, rapidly being covered in monsters. The world grows dark.