Chapter 112 On The Way

"A Dungeon Lobby. So this is the real Dungeon World experience."

Erend muttered as he looked again at the still-open door. He was revived in this place with his Stats all reset to the beginning.

But the Exp, stats, and skill points are still intact. If he went in again and faced the bat, he would most likely just face the same ending.

Even when he activated [Fire Dragon Transformation] he still couldn't beat that bat.

"Maybe I should choose the door on the left. Hopefully, it's not the Boss room anymore."

Erend didn't know how long time had passed outside The Dungeon World.

But he hopes he doesn't spend too much time here.

Erend was still not satisfied exploring the Dungeon. So he will go in again and take the door on the left.

But if the door on the left is also the Boss room and he dies again, Erend will decide to end it for now.

He stepped into the double doors. After going through the corridors and halls and arriving in front of the two doors, Erend saw that the door on the right was still open.

After taking a deep breath, Erend walked towards the door on the left. He pushed the door and arrived at a corridor not much different from the previous corridors.

Erend kept walking until he arrived at the next hall.

[ The monsters in this place have realized your presence! ]

Erend immediately activated [Dragon Scale].

[ Skill activated: Dragon Scale (Lv.1) ]

Still nothing. None of the attacks hit him against the wall. There wasn't even a sound for a few minutes.

Erend had thought that this room was empty. But that's impossible.

[ Skill activated: Dragon Eyes (Lv.1) ]

After activating [Dragon Eyes] Erend could finally see them. The monsters that inhabit this hall.

They stared at Erend from behind the shadow of the corner untouched by the light from the torch.

Erend couldn't tell if they were looking at him or not because their eyes were invisible.

But Erend could feel the chill that enveloped him along with gazes that meant that they wanted to kill him.

They are centipede monsters. Disgusting multi-legged creature. Like spiders, Erend hates to see their tiny, fast-moving legs.

It made Erend reluctant to come forward and attack them first. He grimaced in disgust and discomfort.

"Ughhh..."

Erend seemed to want to return to the Dungeon Lobby. However, these disgusting centipede monsters would give him a lot of experience.

So, even though he was disgusted with them, Erend had to kill them. And that's also a way for him to move on to the next place.

"Hhh... Well, let's exterminate these bugs."

Erend rushed forward towards the group of centipedes while trying to shake off all feelings of disgust.

~~~

Elsewhere, while Erend was fighting with the centipedes, the human adventurers were enjoying a bonfire in the middle of the forest.

The sky is clear tonight and the stars are beautiful. The Quiet Spruce Forest tonight was cold and quiet with only the sounds of small animals looking for food.

Jan, Annette, Esther, and Hund sat around a bonfire which gave them warmth. After being full of dinner with rabbit soup and deer steak cooked by Annette, they are now enjoying a relaxing time.

"So tell me again, why did you accept the quest to investigate the northern mountains?" Esther asked in a sarcastic tone as she looked at Jan.

Yes, they just accepted this quest. So now, they were on their way to go to a village closest to the northern mountains.

Although the village was still around eighty kilometers from the northern mountainous region, it was the village closest to that place.

The cold and dangerous northern mountainous region made the place not very popular. Only a few adventurers and suicidal idiots often went there. Even the top-ranked adventurers were reluctant to go to that place.

But suddenly Jan said that they were going to the northern mountains.

Not only Esther but all of the party members were annoyed at Jan's decision.

Moreover, Jan has already signed his contract. When they have signed a contract, they cannot immediately cancel it unless they want to pay a canceled fine.

"We're not going there alone," Jan explained. "We'll be joining Brightrop and Ashtridge's party."

"Gardan Brighthrop and Frun Ashtridge?" Esther frowned.

"Yes." Jan nodded. "They're short on people. And we'll just be the party that supports them. Besides, the pay we'll receive is pretty decent."

"I don't know about this, Jan. I know that Gardan Brightrop and Frun Ashtridge are strong and they lead a big party," Hund said then looked at Jan. "But these are the northern mountains."

"See? Nobody agrees with you. And you suddenly took this quest," Esther said with a judgmental look at Jan.

"I agree with him." Suddenly, Annette stepped into the conversation. "The matter in the northern mountains seems to need to be investigated as soon as possible."

They all turned their eyes to Annette who stretched her arms towards the bonfire.

"I agree on that," Esther said. "But why should we? You know we're just a small party. We should take on quests that match our abilities."

"Like Jan said, we'll just be an extra party. We can leave most of the quests to those two big parties, right?" Annette said.

"Yeah, don't worry!" Jan said with a smile.

Esther sighed. If it's like this, she should give up and just follow.

~~~

Back to Erend who was having a hard time.

"ARRRGHH!" YOU DISGUSTING FUCKING BUGS!"

Erend swung his claws to catch one of the centipedes crawling on his body. Then he slammed the centipede to the ground while clenching his claws.

The centipede the size of a python died and spat out a brownish liquid that Erend thought was their blood.

[ 10 Exp has been received! ]

One centipede had climbed up to his back. Another one just arrived at his feet. These centipedes move quickly with their many legs.

"Argh!"

The disgusted Erend immediately turned around and slammed the centipede on its back against the wall.

The centipede's body split apart instantly as Erend released more power than it should have. All because of disgust when the centipede swarmed his body.

Then Erend plunged his claws into the other centipede before it reached its back.

"CRAAAT!*

Erend then slammed the centipede into the ground.

[ 10 Exp has been received! ]

So far Erend has killed seven centipedes. But this centipede seems never-ending.

[ Skill activated: Fire Breath (Lv.1) ]

*BWOOOSSSHHH!*

A burst of fire enveloped some of the centipedes that happened to be in front of Erend.

[ 10 Exp has been received! ]

[ 10 Exp has been received! ]

But Erend only killed two. It was all because of the speed with which the centipedes could dodge even the flames.

The centipede seemed to keep spawning from an unseen place. Erend never seemed to see their numbers dwindle.

Their attacks had little effect on Erend. When they stuck their fangs into Erend's skin which was already covered with [Dragon Scale], Erend just felt like he was being bitten by a small ant.

The levels of these centipede monsters were definitely higher than the monster rats and dogs in the previous hall. But still not high enough to make Erend feel the pain the bat monster gave him.

'There must be a place where they keep appearing.'

Erend looked around and activated [Dragon Eyes]. Amidst the relentless rush of the centipedes, Erend was finally able to see something in the lower corner stuck to the wall.

It looks like a mound of earth. Then Erend saw from the mound that centipedes kept appearing.

It didn't take long for Erend to activate [Dragon Wings].

[ Skill activated: Dragon Wings (Lv.1) ]

After a pair of wings grew behind Erend's back, he flew straight toward the mound.

Getting past a fairly dense swarm of centipedes is just a waste of time.

Erend flew towards the mound and then shot a fireball.

[ Skill activated: All Fire-based power (Lv.1) ]

*ZWOOOSSHHH!*

*BOOM!*

The mound caught fire and exploded into pieces after being hit by the fireball. One centipede that just wanted to come out was burned.

[ 10 Exp has been received! ]

Actually, Erend could have left the mound to keep the centipede spawning. That way he could kill them and gain Exp continuously.

But not for now. Erend wanted to explore this Dungeon as much as possible first.

After all, he can come back later to harvest experience. While flying, Erend issued fire attacks toward all the centipedes below him.

*ZWOOOSHHH!*

*BOOM!*

*BOOM!*

Explosions and flames soared to the ceiling. But no matter how big an attack he put out, the floor and walls of this hall didn't appear to have been scratched once.

A few minutes later Erend was finally able to kill all the centipedes in this hall.

He disabled all his skills and landed in the center of the centipede's corpse which was mostly charred to black ashes.

[ MP: 30/70 ]

Seeing his MP state after fighting the centipedes, Erend thought that continuing would be a little difficult.

However, he continued to advance towards the next door because he wanted to see what awaited behind it.

~~~