Woosh* Slash* Splat* Thud* Bam*

Within a cryptic corridor, a group of four youths hacked and slashed their way through a group of weak mob monsters, two giant bats, and two spiderlings, killing them all within a minute.

After they were done, the woman behind them approvingly nodded.

"Good, your teamwork is improving. Collect the loot and let's get a move on."

"Yes." The four kids replied, collecting four crystals and a bat wing leather piece, an alchemical ingredient worth 5 copper coins.

By this point, the crystals they picked up were essentially worth 7-9 MCP, close to G-rank crystals, which was understandable since they were on the 5th floor.

Run-ins with monsters also became more common... Although there was competition.

As they finished picking up everything, the group suddenly raised their heads, looking forward. There, they saw another group of five children, led by a young man. However, his badge was of a lower rank than Olivia's, being made from iron instead of bronze, indicating that he was merely F-rank.

The group of children was also not among the Gifted. Otherwise, they would have been assigned a stronger charge.

"Miss Olivia, hello!" The young man respectfully nodded.

"Hello, Ishaan. Everything well on your side?" Olivia nodded back and casually asked.

"Thankfully, yes. Nothing out of the ordinary. You?" Ishaan asked back.

"Same. We are now heading to the boss's room. Did you see it?" Olivia asked.

"Yes. At the T-section, go left all the way, then right, and right again." Ishaan pointed.

"Thanks." Olivia nodded and looked to the four youths she was assigned to. "Come on, kids. Let's go."

She and her four youths made way for the other group, keeping a respectful distance, a courtesy to fellow dungeon explorers to avoid misunderstandings, and continued on their separate ways.

In the dungeon, one of the greatest dangers wasn't the dungeon, but rather other humans. After all, there are only unsaid rules and no laws within the dungeon, as none could prove anything. At most, if someone survived a robbery, they could report it to the guild, and those who committed it would come under public scrutiny. If one had a sufficiently bad reputation, other adventurers might take the law into their own hands and hunt them down within the dungeon, which served as a deterrent to such acts. Of course, being careful was never wrong.

Following the path provided, the group quickly reached the boss's room, which blocked the stairs to the 6th floor.

However, they didn't immediately enter, as there was a special waiting area outside the door to the boss's room, a large and safe resting area where monsters cannot spawn or enter. This was another rule of the dungeon.

At this waiting area, several groups stayed, keeping a respectable distance from one another. Some of them were young groups, with or without an adult, while others belonged to more experienced adventurers, likely taking a short rest before tackling the boss.

Olivia briefly scanned the surroundings before selecting an empty area, allowing the group to sit down, rest, and recover.

Taking out a canteen, Olivia sipped a bit of water before speaking to the four youths.

"We will now rest up and wait for our turn to come. A boss respawns every 20 minutes, but due to being repeatedly cleared, the rewards for beating the 5th-floor boss are basically crystals and some garbage, so we will symbolically beat it once before proceeding to the next floor."

"Do bosses give better loot depending on how often they are cleared?" Darnell curiously asked.

"Not just bosses, but all monsters have a better drop rate, and the item quality is often higher. It is even said that certain unique items can drop, including those that can awaken a Gifted or improve one's Gift. That is why wild, virgin dungeons are priceless. It wouldn't be an exaggeration that long-time comrades might kill one another once such a place is discovered, just to prevent the news from spreading." Olivia said and shrugged.

When Maximo heard it, he nodded before checking his own gift.

During the last month, he unlocked a class called Dungeon Explorer and unlocked two abilities: Perception and Mental Mapping.

This actually stemmed from when he greatly desired to improve in a certain aspect.

As a dungeon explorer, he naturally wanted to be better at it. When he heard stories about traps and ambushes from monsters and humans, he desired better senses, so perception emerged. When he tried hard to remember the way back but failed, Mental Mapping popped up.

Also, three more abilities popped up: Dark Vision, Danger Sense, and Treasure Sense.

All three of them also emerged for one reason or another. However-

 

 

They were locked, being reliant on Perception.

In short, his Gift, the Progress Bar System, was reactionary to his situation, desires, and emotions, something that other gift-holders didn't have. Where they were specialized in one field or another, he could grow in whichever direction he wanted.

Of course, this came at the cost of neglecting other aspects, like personal strength.

Naturally, Maximo didn't hesitate and immediately started investing in those three entries, his goal being to raise Dungeon Explorer and Mental Mapping to 50, while raising Perception to 100 to unlock those three abilities. It could take a while, slowing down his strength gain, but he was willing to invest in them! Especially Perception. Who knows? It might save his life one day.

Although it did raise a question-

"Why didn't I obtain something like Disease Resistance? Is it because Health fully covers it? No, Health made me adapt to the disease and recover quickly. I didn't resist it."

This also made him want to test whether he could wish for other things, like being resistant to fire. After all, with a fire sorceress at his back, who could guarantee that she wouldn't accidentally miss one day and hit him? So he intensely tried wishing for it, and...

Nothing.

He tried to do it on other things, but it was still nothing. It made him certain that, at the very least, he didn't meet certain hidden requirements.

As a last-ditch attempt, he wished to resist food poisoning. After all, dying from diarrhea sounds like a terrible death. As a result-

 

 

He really didn't know how to react to that.

Dropping this test, he couldn't help but wonder.

"If my Gift improves, how will it improve? More bars and higher exp gain? Probably. But maybe something else? And right now, I am still in Child Protection mode. I wonder how it would change once I hit 18? What was that thing about locked adult content? Will it affect the modifier?"

While stuck in his thoughts, idly resting while eating some rations, it was soon their team's turn to challenge the boss.

At least, no one fought over it, likely because it was not that lucrative.

"Okay, once we are inside, the boss will be summoned, and the doors will close behind us. Kill it, take the loot, and leave before it respawns." Olivia said as she entered the room, with the youths following her.

Maximo looked around and found that the boss's room was a large arena, well-lit by blue fire.

"Hoh..." Maximo uttered in awe.

As he was admiring the place, the doors behind him suddenly closed shut. At the same time, in the center of the arena, a magic circle appeared, and emerging out of it was a lightly-armored skeleton swordsman, holding a bone sword, and accompanied by six club-wielding skeletons.

"Okay, kids. They are all yours." Olivia said before stepping to the side and letting the four youths handle it themselves.

Maximo and the others got into position, and Lilly let loose a fireball, hitting the skeleton swordsman in the shoulder. With a single spell, she blew up the sword skeleton's left arm, but it still had its sword arm and was charging toward Lilly. Abigail dutifully stood before Lilly, raising her shield to block the enemies, while Maximo and Darnell went to the flanks, attacking the regular skeletons.

While slashing weapons were not very effective, the blunt side of the sword could be used as a bat, the buckler could be used to pummel, and kicks could also break brittle bones. Maximo and Darnell quickly cleared the regular skeletons. Meanwhile, Abigail met the swordsman, and after blocking a strike, she bashed it with her shield before swinging her mace at its head, beheading it on the spot.

Just like that, they beat the 5th-floor boss room.

And as a reward, they got-

"Just seven crystals and... five bone arrows? That's it? So petty..." Maximo's lips twitched in annoyance.

"At least you got something that you can use. We didn't get anything." Darnell pursed his lips.

"Come on! Let's go. I want to start tackling the 6th floor already!" Lilly impatiently said.

After they picked the loot, they exited the boss room and proceeded to the 6th floor.

"Starting from the 6th floor, the skeletons stop being brittle, and you will start seeing skeleton warriors. At the same time, rotten walkers will also appear, the ugly fuckers. But most importantly, traps will start appearing, so our exploration speed will inevitably be affected. Darnell, I heard you specialize in trap detection and disarmament, right?" Olivia asked.

"Yes." Darnell nodded.

"Good, then you are up. The traps on floors 6-10 are relatively few and obvious, but they are still deadly. A stone falling from the ceiling can smash your skull in. A spike piercing your foot can bleed you and incapacitate you. An arrow from the wall can injure and weaken you. A poisonous gas trap can paralyze and harm you, making you vulnerable. All of these can either kill you or take you out of commission, so be very careful. Luckily, those traps are also very easy to detect on these floors, so it shouldn't be difficult to find and avoid them." Olivia said.

The group soon arrived at the 6th floor and continued their exploration...

.

.

.

In the following days and months, Maximo and the others continued to grind the first 10 floors.

Before long, due to the higher crystal income, Maximo soon managed to afford spending more MCP on faster experience gain and the 4th bar, which greatly improved his exp gain rate.

The same went for the other youths, who had access to more and better crystals, and started growing stronger more quickly.

Just like that, two years flashed by, and Maximo turned 14...