CHAPTER 3: THE DUNGEON

As I entered the dungeon, I saw monsters big and small. Also, the door-like dungeon entrance closed behind me, and I thought to myself, "So, you aren't going to let me out that easily."

As I turned back, there were dozens of monsters facing me, and the system appeared before me and it said," You have entered the dungeon, the only way to get out is to conquer the dungeon and defeat the boss or make him surrender. The boss is in the castle.", I remembered seeing a castle like building when I was exploring the forest, it was in the center if I'm correct.

I looked up and saw a dragon encircling the castle and it was looking at me, I realized there was no way I could beat it now but maybe if I leveled up till then I could. The dragon looked away from me as if I was an ant it could kill anytime and that made me furious "That little.......I will surely kill it."

I killed the monsters in front of me in mere minutes and I was even surprised they didn't give me a challenge and that was the case for most monsters except some few.

I continued advancing like this for about 2 weeks and finally arrived at the castle. In my two weeks journey, I got a lot of drops including a full metal armor which was heavy, It said that it increases my defense by 20 and when I tried it on it changed into a modern sports wear and it gave me agility stats as well and I thought that this system adjusts things to go my way. I also got a dagger but it seemed to be very old and would get destroyed after some attacks with it.

I faced the entrance of the castle andI sensed strong presences in the castle, maybe because all my stats increased. But I didn't feel only one presence but three, and they were all strong. I knew about the dragon, but the others? I was also wondering why the dragon wasn't encircling the castle.

I entered the castle and headed for the throne room where I felt the presences.

As I approached the throne room, I felt something and stopped immediately, and I survived thanks to that.

"Oh, you dodged that. Maybe you're worth my time, 'HUMAN'."

The sound struck fear in me, and I turned around to see someone sitting on the throne with his index finger pointed at me. I felt the same pressure that I felt when the dragon saw me when I entered the dungeon. There were two others standing to his left and right, and they were also strong.

"Are you really the same human that entered here 2 weeks ago? You seem different," he said again.

I looked at myself confused by what he said because I haven't changed at all.

"I'm not talking about your body, human. I'm talking about your strength," he added.

I knew I had leveled up, but it wasn't that different; I only leveled up by 2 to level 7.

"It seems even though you have gotten stronger, you can't beat me. But if you keep getting stronger, you might, and that will be fun. So, I, the great dragon Drakonos, will give you a chance. If you can defeat one of my guards, I will let you live. But if you fail to do so, then... I WILL KILL YOU HERE."

I looked at Drakonos, and with determination, I agreed to the chance he gave me.

He said that I would be fighting his strongest guard, and he signaled the guards in front of him. They got closer to each other, and there was a blinding light. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, the two guards were nowhere to be found. In their place stood a man with armor and pointy ears, and Drakonos said, "This is my strongest guard, Citrak. If you defeat him, you are good to go."

'Citrak? He seems strong, very strong, and a little scary. But why do I think I can win?'

Drakonos signaled to start, and as he said that, Citrak was in front of me. He landed a clean hit on my stomach, and I crashed into the wall. I would have lost if I hadn't activated my armor. I thought, I have to use everything I have if I want to win.

I stood back up, ready to fight again. As soon as Citrak saw me stand up, he rushed towards me. This time I was ready. As he threw himself at me, I dodged to the left and materialized my dagger. I stabbed him on his right side and jumped up and got back down in a diving pose and using all my strength to hit him on his back and the dagger I used got destroyed entirely. But I knew that wasn't enough as he stood up once again, but I saw an opportunity he was weakened from my attack and he was trying to clear his mind so, I rushed in front of him before he regained his strength and hit him as powerful as I could and he crashed to the wall. I didn't give him a chance to get up and rushed towards him again and hit him with my right hand and he crashed back into the wall and he went to the ground but, I didn't think I defeated him yet so I hit him again and again as he was down, gaining experience with each hit. Eventually, I reached level 9 with about 200 fast hits.

This was the first time I had ever gained experience by hitting someone. I hit him until I stopped getting experience, and when I did, I was on the verge of reaching level 10.

I stood up and got away from the body thinking I beat him and faced Drakonos. I said, "I defeated him, Drakonos. Now keep your word."

Drakonos smiled and said, "You really are strong for a human, but who said Citrak was defeated?" Then, I felt a very huge murderous intent from behind me. I looked back, and there he was standing, looking at me with those murderous eyes—Citrak.

"I was holding back because of my master's orders, but not now, especially when the opponent is a very strong person," said Citrak.

Citrak looked at Drakonos, who nodded. Then he turned back to me with a big smile on his face. I knew I was in danger. Citrak lunged at me with demonic speed and hit me cleanly on the face. I crashed into the wall and was in pain. I tried to stand up, but only to get hit again by Citrak. He hit me again and again into the wall, and I coughed out blood.

Even though I was wearing the suit, I was damaged this much, and I concluded I had to block him and get away. I tried everything to get away from him, concentrating power into my right hand as I got away. As I was getting away, Citrak followed me, and based on instinct, before accumulating enough power, I threw a punch at Citrak.

That punch threw him away and gave me the last of the exp to be level 10. As I became level 10 the system appeared before me and it said, "You have reached level 10, you have acquired 5 skills". I was a little surprised but also happy but then, I felt uneasiness came over me----Citrak got up again. As soon as he got up and saw me, he ran towards me in incredible speed like non I had seen before and unintentionally I got down on my knee's with fear and closed my eyes thinking that I would die, but when I opened my eyes again what I saw was that Citrak had fallen behind me, and the hand that threw the punch was... glitching? I didn't quite understand, but I was lucky and the system said, "The legendary skill "decode" had been activated because it was sensed that the player was in danger" and I understood how I survived.

As Citrak stood up to fight me again, a very loud voice was heard, "Stop, Citrak, you have already lost. We're going back," it was Drakonos.

"You are truly a strong human. I wish to meet you again when you have gotten much stronger mas- err- human," added Drakonos. "Wait, was he about to say master?"

"Farewell, human," saying that, Drakonos grew wings from his back and went away.

As I saw Drakonos fly away, Citrak was nowhere to be found. Moments later, the system appeared and said, "You have cleared the dungeon. You can claim your reward once you go back to your world." 'My world *sigh* how much time has it been since I entered this dungeon? About 3 weeks. Yeah, it sounds great to go back to my world,' I thought. I uttered the word <Return> and returned back to my world.

CHAPTER END