Trapped in a Dungeon with a System

Without even having the chance to greet the guards who restlessly protect the portals that operate between domains, a figure emerges from the blinding light caused by the teleportation, wobbling around in confusion until the mysterious person drops to the ground.

As both players and residents gasped and wondered about the figure, hooded with a black cloak that contained the symbol of a wolf's head, only those that were born in this world of battle seemed to have a proper reaction of fear.

As they saw the hood come down due to gravity and glanced upon a young woman with beautiful long white hair hyperventilating on the spot, some became at ease, while others changed to concern.

As one player holding a sword approaches and extends his hand, noticing the hairpin adorning her white strands, the lady merely opens her green eyes with fear, letting tears stream down her face.

Upon noticing the commotion around her, she bolts upwards to cover her head once again and in an instant, a flash of white light runs east in such speed that barely anyone can notice.

"It has returned. T—The Howling Den has returned! Assassin! Assassin!"

One old lady that seemed ready to hit the grave at any second falls to the ground, shouting for everyone to hear, as if she had regained her jovial energy.

Those around either trembled in fear or wondered who she was referring to, since they seemed dangerous from the way it was worded. Those that knew or heard about them and blindly believed it ran after, although they easily stopped their movements against the crazy speed they were against.

Amidst the trouble happening, the fugitive girl was obviously able to listen, moving towards the inns with her eyes closed, gritting her teeth in frustration as dark thoughts overflowed her mind.

It is not me! I did nothing wrong! I'm not a killer! It is not me!

The young woman reached a point of exhaustion, something unusual for such little exercise. After walking some more as her speed was progressively reducing, her right foot encounters a stone brick disheveled on the middle of the road, making her trip and fall face first.

Instead of getting up and keep on moving, she remained in place as her forehead held her face away from the gray bricked road.

Cho Jae-Hwa was incapable of moving, her own willpower blocked the movements or actions she could perform. Instead, she chose to remain on the ground, letting her depression overtake as the hyperventilation and a strong headache invaded her.

"Why do I even try? It's not like anyone will remember me if I do return..."

At this moment, the battles and multiple enemies she went against surged in her mind, provoking a scoff of defeat to be sounded in her mouth.

"I swore to become stronger... I guess I made too many promises than I could handle, but everytime I improve there is always a damn wall in front of me... Blocking me from going any further..!"

After some moments on the ground, she slowly gets up clumsily, storing away the cloak and hairpin in her inventory, only remaining her armor and eyes that barely open.

With slow steps, she enters The Clear Resting Inn, making the newly placed bell on top of the entrance door's frame jingle as she opens and closes it, alerting the receptionist.

Even with aimless eyes that no longer saw the world, the receptionist was able to understand something was wrong from the steps that hit the floor without any will to continue. Naturally, since there was no one talking, she was not able to perceive who the client was but a hunch made her try her luck.

"Is it you, Jae-Hwa dear?" Her gentle voice was but a whisper to the halberdier in pain, holding her head to stop the headaches from becoming even stronger.

"Yes, sorry for not saying anything." Despite that, she still didn't want to bother the nice lady that accommodated her at a price so low.

"... I'm not sure if you'd like, I heard Forgotten Ones do not need to eat, but I got some cookies and cake from the Warm Shine Bakery... It's apparently a new recipe, would you like some?"

Despite the appearances of a refined lady with dark short hair and fair skin, the receptionist had a secret sweet tooth, but despite wishing to eat all of them alone, her bigger heart won in the end and she tried to share to lighten the mood.

"I'm sorry, ms. Marianne. I'm not hungry now."

As if I could even feel that.

"Is there a bathroom anywhere, though?"

Jae-Hwa walks to the stairs, stopping just before the first step to look at the receptionist Marianne, or rather, to look below her since her eyes didn't seem to want to open any further than just enough for some light to enter.

Lifting her hand up as if to grab the shoulder that she could not see, Marianne moved it down to her waist, holding her other hand instead and just replied as a worker should, still uncertain of what to do.

"On the end of the corridor you have one, you won't miss it."

Taking one step up the stairs, the halberdier tightens her grip to the handrail, almost crushing it due to the pain she was feeling, if she had such strength.

"Then, I will use it for a while... Sorry about the problems."

Not at all. Please become well! — The words the blind receptionist wanted to express were too many and even then, she did not know what to say.

In cases like this, she would grab a sweet from her secret stash under the counter and eat it to ease her mind, but for some reason she couldn't. The need to eat it also disappeared for some strange reason that bothered her more than it should.

Meanwhile, Jae-Hwa went up the stairs, passing through her room and finally reached the bathroom.

It was decorated with blue stone tiles both in the walls and floor, a marble-like toilet, bidet, sink and a shower cabin.

With a loud sigh using all of her breath, her hands slowly locked the bathroom door and she fell to the floor, letting her hands drag down the door and forehead loudly hit against it.

"I was almost killed."

Until now, although she was gambling her life in battle, there was always an option to escape and live to see another day or she was able to survive with just enough health to return somewhere she could rest.

But today was different. Not only she was used as bait without her knowledge and nearly killed by a rare monster, she then lost control of her own body and almost killed by her own foolishness.

"They would not hesitate to do it. I could see it in their eyes. If it wasn't for Phantasmagoria listening to me, right now I would be...!"

Her hands turn into fists, placing pressure into the rugged texture of the wooden door as her forehead burned with pain as if thousands of tiny nails were being hammered on it.

Her breath becomes shallow and a faint pink light invades the surface of her eyes, to which it also affects her vision.

"Agh! What is... This!?"

The pain only grows stronger and her stomach revolves around. As she held on to it with all the strength she could muster, getting up as fast as possible, a flavor similar to rotten bread and vegetables overcomes her throat.

In a minute, the halberdier places both hands on the sink and vomits. In the middle of the mess were several tiny red leaves scattered, something that could only remind her of the tea Rosina had offered her.

"Poison!? From the start... They didn't trust me."

She turns her gaze upwards, frowning in anger with difficulty breathing.

When I thought I was becoming stronger, able to handle everything by myself, Lila appeared and made me understand that there's always someone above me.

When I thought I could at least trust them as people even though they were killers, it turned out that I was wrong and no one really trusted me...

"From the very start, I have been useless. I have always been choosing the worst outcomes and now it came to bite me back."

Her body did not move a millimeter, not even her feet that had started to become numb. Instead, she just looked at herself, at how she currently is.

Jae-Hwa was too naive for this world's standard. Sure, maybe on earth she was good enough for others to not take her lightly, but in the dungeon, it was kill or be killed, there wasn't a middle ground where enemies could be friends after just a conversation.

"Maybe it was because of my hair... Since no one bothered me anymore because of it or because they didn't have time to allocate a problem with it in their heads — so I became softer. I thought that the people in this world were all nicer since we are all trying to survive, but I was wrong. How laughable."

The pink light fades away from her vision, clearing her head from the pain and fear of death.

This just now must've been Lila's curse still acting. Phantasmagoria gave me five minutes to escape, but it must not have erased it completely.

However, be whatever it is, I can't ignore this feeling. I felt incomprehensible fear, so much that even I want to run somewhere far away after the performance I did—

"—No, I can't just brush it away. I have to remember it. The system made me forget things like this way too often, but this is also a valuable lesson."

Jae-Hwa turns the faucet open to cold water and cleans the sink until there is no more of her vomit, then cleaning herself. Just as she is finishing cleaning her mouth, her hands gather a fair amount of the cold liquid and splash it on her face.

Breathe, Cho Jae-Hwa. Calm down, heart. Stop beating so fast.

Her eyes had become rugged, devoid of life and darkened by the tears and pain.

As water dripped from the bottom of her chin, droplet after droplet, she created a new rule for her.

Not a promise this time, but a rule that she had to follow. There could be some exceptions and just like the rest she swore to do, perhaps she will not go through with it most of the time, but making it a mandatory rule would at least make it easier to follow.

She would be able to rest and have fun while in cities, but once on the battlefield, unless the enemy was somewhat weaker than her, playtime was over and even then she should be careful.

"Even when I could have died, I joked around too much... Damn system, changing my reason and priorities... That is over now."

After splashing her face with cold water once more, Jae-Hwa changes to her casual clothes, dries her hands and face, unlocks the door and gets out of the bathroom with a new expression. More serious, more focused, like there was no time to waste on her pale green eyes.

As she walked across the corridor, a white box with a note on top was placed in front of her room's door. Curious, she read the note.

[I don't know whether I should meddle in your problems or not, but I can't keep hearing you suffer like that. Just like the first night you came here, I was so worried that I couldn't eat anything for some reason... So if it helps, please eat these cookies and I hope you feel better.

— Sincerely, Marianne.]

The gift was so nonchalant and funny that she could not hold the giggles in. Inside of the box were several chocolate chip cookies, nicely ordered and even numbered till ten.

Although chocolate was not her favorite, taking a bite out of it still made her smile and feel the generosity of the receptionist.

"I guess I have to thank her in some way."

As she went down the stairs with the box still in her hand, nibbling on the same cookie, Marianne was still waiting for her, reluctantly holding a box of candy below the counter.

"I presume the cookies helped?"

"The perfect helper! Thanks to you, I was able to brighten up!" Even if a lie, there was some truth to it as her mood had improved due to the woman's efforts.

"I see... That is good to hear."

The receptionist grabbed one of her candy made of caramel and swiftly tasted it with delight. In a flash, she also became cured of her passing illness.

"You do seem to like it, what is your favorite? That you can buy here in Carsenia, of course."

"Hmm... Probably the salted caramel bombs. They are bonbons where the filling explodes in your mouth if you bite into it... It's just the best thing!"

Salted caramel bombs... Noted. I don't know how she can eat it since it sounds quite cloying, but it's what she likes, now I just have to find it.

"Alright, if I ever get some, I'll give it to you."

As the halberdier left the inn leaving the receptionist expectant, she had to decide what to do next.

Even if she had to take it serious from now on, she had also needed to take some risk and level up as there could be the case of clashing against anyone from the Howling Den from now on, although after the incident, it doesn't seem likely.

Her first step to become stronger was something that let her bitter twice already: defeat a rare enemy by herself.

The ones she fought have either ran away or she needed help killing them and from the werewolf's case, it was obvious that they need some kind of condition to appear.

The most likely appears at random due to it being the first domain, but the appeared after killing a certain number of enemies.

With this thought process, it gave her an idea. Considering that most monsters in the Herbal Graveyard until now worked in groups and that the conditions for a rare monster to appear depended on something related to that, then all that she needed to do was to fight groups of enemies.

But then the question arised, what kind of monster?

The only ones she saw were too tricky to fight against while adding the rare enemy. It was possible, but unnecessarily hard. However, there was one where if done right, it could become easier than the rest.

The birds made of fire in the sky seemed to be somewhat passive, but also relatively weak. For them to fly so high up in the sky and not attack meant that they would be at a disadvantage on ground and wouldn't like to try their luck against something that could bring them down.

So if she could cut their wings or something similar that could bring them down, it would be her victory easily.

"Alright, Regg' Dob it is."

During her walk, those that passed by her looked at the figure with the side of their eyes, some emanating fear and others disgust. Natural, considering they saw her come from the portal with the items that belong to an assassin clan. Items that she could not bother herself to throw away... Even then, she was now strong and stable enough to keep going forward with her face up.

After some time, she reached the weapon's store that conveniently gave her some discounts.

Opening the door slowly to not hit any of the many customers inside, the bell on top of it jingled and with it she also shouted.

"Hey, Reggie! You here?"

"Don't call me Reggie, ya pipsqueak!"

Coming from the back, cleaning his hands filled with coal and the smell of steel against each other, the dwarf approaches the counter with his favorite hammer in hand.

"What can I help you with, lass? Need new equipment?"

"Not exactly." Jae-Hwa moved her gaze to the inventory panel now in front of her and materialized several chunks of metal and nanite ore onto the hard wooden surface. "I was wondering if you could make me some throwing knives with these."

The dwarf wondered as he held them in his small, but strong hand.

"I sure can, but what are you going to use them on?"

"Those fire-like birds on the second domain. I don't know if you've seen them..."

"Oh, a . Sure I've seen them, if you hit the wings, you can stop the fire from forming into wings and make them fall... It's like nerves: you cut them, you have a whole lotta trouble fixing them... But it's not exactly easy to do it."

As the dwarf grabbed the items with no effort, he motions his head sideways with a grunt, as if to say to follow him. Having the privilege of possibly being one of the first players to enter his smithy, she eagerly follows by jumping over the countertop.

Inside were several different weapons of various categories, ranging from one-handed swords to great axes and so on. In some boxes were failed works, commissioned gear and several chunks and ingots of metal and nanite neatly organized.

Near an already lit stone furnace to the room was the anvil and the other utensils.

"So, seven nanite and five metal throwing knifes, right?"

"Yeah, use them all."

Reggie placed the ores in a metal box meant to store such things and placed one of the nanite into the furnace.

After it was heated for an enough amount of time, he grabbed it with the metallic tongs and placed it on top of the anvil after handing a pair of dark goggles to his client.

With each strike he did with his hammer, he shaped the molten ore until it had a fitting form for a knife. Although the quantity was not enough for something grand individually, it was enough for what she had requested.

Eventually, as the discardable weapon took a complete form, Regg' Dob added an oak handle just below the heated blade and after a mighty strike with his hammer, a nearly blinding light overpowers the smithy and the weapon was ready as if made through magic.

"You know, smithing of this level is really mundane and easy. Shape how you want it to be, add the extra parts and the passive skill does the rest of the job... With my level, something like this is everyday work, but with things over level ten, well, they become like those."

He points to the box filled to the brim with failed swords and chestplates that either had dents or some other kind of deformation or defect.

I guess it is obvious, he is probably meant to be like this by the system, since he is a resident of the city that we encounter.

Amidst her thoughts and assumptions, Reggie keeps hammering the other ores until after some time all of them were complete.

The metal knives had a simple blade with also a fairly basic oak handle that was perfect for her to hold but small enough to only be useful as throwable. Those that were made of nanite were slightly more ornate on their blades, having strokes of silver that created random patterns whilst having the same handles.

As they both move to the reception, the dwarf smith places her comissioned weapons on the counter and another wooden box with more metal knives on the side.

"I have these spares that nobody wants. They're old so it's really a one-time use, but it's for what you want, right? So how about five credits for fifteen of them?"

"Sure, it'll be useful. How much are the others?"

The dwarfed scratched his beard pensative, sighing after some time of pondering what to do.

"Just take them. You need them right? Even though you entered all funny like last time, something is different, so just accept it. It's least I can do after everything you've done for me."

Something changed... Yeah, I guess so.

"Jae-Hwa! Where are you!?"

As the halberdier finished paying, a voluptuous older woman with dark golden hair shouts across the store with concern in her voice.

When they finally met, Hyeong Hae pants with fatigue. From the looks of it, she had been running in her search for a long time.

"Where have you been!? I was worried!"

"Well, you could have contacted me through the friend system... But what happened?"

As if finally remembering her true purpose, Hyeong pats the white haired girl's body top to bottom, checking for something that did not seem to be uncovered.

"Have you not heard of the rumors?"

"... What rumors?"

I suppose word must've spread already...

"That group that I told you before are apparently an old assassin clan and they have returned— Not only that, but a member was seen in this city!"

"And what of it?" The more Cho Jae-Hwa retreated, the more Hyeong Hae pushed further, inspecting from a closer perspective.

"That member was a woman in her twenties! With white hair!"

There wasn't much to do but admit, however, the thought of gettin someone like Hae into this whole mess that she had created was too much for her heart to accept. Instead, she chose to lie until she could never again.

"That must've been someone with dyed hair... Don't you know how how rare natural white hair is? And why would I be part of a bunch of criminals!?"

Lying was not her forte, for sure, but it seemed to suffice at least the bare minimum for her.

Even then, Hyeong placed both of her hands with a lot of strength in her shoulders and secured her intentions.

"Then, promise me this... You will stay far away from them! No matter what happens!"

"Alright, alright...!"

I think that ship has sailed, honestly. But at least meeting them made one thing certain. Even if I have to lose my self preservation and change to someone completely different, I will do it.

I will never kill someone intentionally, but if the danger ever arises and I really need to do it to survive, I will become a killer.

Even if it was in self defense, the weight of a death didn't spare her from blaming and call herself something that she shouldn't.

Tomorrow... Tomorrow I will progress and become stronger, so I can survive.

—CURRENT STATS——————————

PLAYER NAME: CHO JAE-HWA // LEVEL: 6 <0/210 EXP>

BLESSING: Phantasmagoria

TITLE: Giant Slayer

HEALTH: 137/160

DAMAGE: 45 (+28) // DEFENSE: 37 (+15) // ENERGY: 11/45

WEAPON: Ceremonial Nanite Halberd

ARMOR: Reinforced Hunter's Garb

ACTIVE SKILLS: , , ,

PASSIVE SKILLS: ,

CREDITS: 51