New Earth: The Dungeon Of Madness

"Here. Wear that!"

As soon as he opened his eyes, Five saw Harriet handing him a set of clothes. Sending a questioning look to Harriet, he asked: "What are those?"

"Although you look like a human, your clothes clearly do not reflect that you are an adventurer. Even though those clothes are not the best, they are very suitable for low-level adventurers. There! Go into this room. I also need to change."

Not waiting for his answer, she turned and entered another side room with a set of black clothes.

Five looked around him. Behind him was the teleportation platform he just used. He was now standing in the middle of a huge corridor, larger than the one connected to his room.

With an expressionless face, Five entered the empty side room and changed himself. He was recalling his first lesson. Why was Kroff so evasive with his answers? Was it because he was against joining his alliance? Or was it just his competitive nature?

In any case, it was clear that Kroff was not going to help him much. He needed to learn by himself and make the most of his stay here. But should he prepare himself in case Kroff turned out to be planning something against him?

It was better to be safe than sorry.

Five put on the clothes. He now looked like a completely different person. Instead of the plain white shirt and pants he was wearing earlier, the light grey armor and the brown pants gave him a valiant air. He looked at himself in the mirror and could not help but reminisce the past.

He recalled how he used to stand on top of the town's highest skyscr.a.p.er to watch the sunset. He remembered the time he spent with his teammates and his harsh training. It was really tough, and he constantly wanted to drop out, but he persevered and succeeded in the end.

But then, he clenched his fists as he remembered that in the end, his training and everything he went through during the last year was already set up by his enemy. He was just playing in the hands of this family, unaware that he was just being a pawn.

The door of the small room was suddenly opened, and Harriet entered.

"Why are you taking so long? I have already changed myself."

Five took a deep breath to calm himself. He then turned to look at Harriet and froze for a moment. The Harriet in front of him was now wearing a tight body suit that was meant for rogues. It was sticking to her smooth white skin, highlighting her perfect curves and slim figure. She tied her long purple hair in a ponytail revealing her womanly charms. On her slim waist hung a pair of shiny curved daggers that further highlighted her body.

Quickly getting himself together, Five pinched himself and said, "Sorry, I was just thinking about something. I am ready, let's go."

Harriet chuckled and quickly turned around. She brought Five to the end of the corridor. It looked like a dead end but when Harriet placed her hand on the wall, the wall trembled and started to move. The different pieces of the strange material repositioned themselves to make a hole just large enough to allow one person to go through.

Harriet immediately went through that gap and from the other side, made a hand sign, signaling Five to step forward.

The latter followed her instructions and went to the other side, "What was that? An employee's entry door?"

"Huh? What's an employee? It is just another secret passage. You noticed when looking at the map earlier that there are some secret rooms on the different floors. There are also secret tunnels that we can use to move more easily in the dungeon. It is impossible for adventurers to know about their existence. There is absolutely no difference between that particular wall and the others when viewed from outside. It is a very safe route for us."

Five nodded and looked around him. They stepped in a deserted room. There were no adventurers in sight. Usually, no adventurers would come here to farm slimes on the first floor. The item they dropped was completely useless. The first floor was just a waste of time for the adventurers but for Five, it was a good starting point to observe the monsters' behavior.

"You can go anywhere. I will just act as your bodyguard and stay nearby," said Harriet

"Alright. Let's go find some slimes. Can I kill them too?"

"Sure, but don't kill too much. Each one of them cost DP. It would be rude to completely leech off Kroff," answered Harriet with a light laugh.

"Ok. Can you lend me a dagger? I have no weapons right now."

Harriet hesitated for a moment but then took out a dagger from her back and handed it to Five, "There. Don't lose it"

Five took the dagger and had a quick look at its stats.

[Harpy's Blood(+2)(Grade 3)]

Damage: 31-34

Effect 1: [Wind Blessing]: +10% damage from wind attribute spells

Effect 2: [Harpy Affinity]: +10% damage when used by a Harpy

Five stared at the dagger. Even though he could not compare the dagger with any other weapons, he clearly knew it was a very powerful one. Grade 3 naturally meant that there were worse grades than this.

He tossed the dagger in his hand and spun it. In the past, he learned how to use a dagger but rarely used one. He was recalling the basic movements as he was juggling the dagger in his hands.

"Thanks. I will give it back soon."

Five walked out of the room through the nearest corridor; Harriet naturally followed him like a shadow.

After walking for a few seconds, he finally met his first monster: a level 3 slime. The slime looked like a huge pile of moving blue jelly. It did not have any eyes but when Five approached it, the slime noticed his presence and crept towards him.

Five wordlessly observed the monster. He already knew the stats of a slime. They were all very low, but slimes had a special membrane covering them which reduced physical damage.

Suddenly, the slime's body curved in and spat a blue substance at Five. The latter was already prepared and stepped on the side. At the same time, he stabbed the dagger toward the slime. "-26".

That movement once again reminded him of his past. Although he used to make this type of movements with a gun rather than a dagger, the movements still felt rather familiar to his legs.

Five then quickly spun the dagger in his hand and swung it back at the slime. "-28". The slime stopped moving and slowly disintegrated into nothing. Slimes typically had between 40 to 60 HP. Two hits were more than enough to finish this one since it was just level 3.

[System Prompt: You have killed a slime. You are awarded 5 DP]

"I can also get DP from killing monsters myself? I do not entirely have to rely on monsters. Well, let's farm as much as possible here. They are just slimes; Kroff would not complain too much," said Five to himself

He quickly resumed walking through the corridor and killed all the slimes he encountered. Their levels ranged from level 1 to 6 but with such a strong dagger in hand, Five could easily kill almost all slimes with just two hits.

Meanwhile, Harriet silently followed Five. She did not say a word and only observed him for a while. After a few minutes of hunting, she eventually asked him if he wanted to check out the higher floors and he immediately agreed. The slimes were very easy to defeat; he had already collected 200 DP in less than 30 minutes.

They returned to the first room and once again went into the corridor they came from. From Five's point of view, all rooms looked the same, but Harriet could distinguish them.

When they got back in the inside corridor, Five did not rush to the second floor. Instead, he asked the harpy: "Harriet. Do you have something to write like pens and papers?"

"Yes. Of course. Those can be bought with DP. Since they are not living things and not combat-related, they are very cheap but what do you need to write?"

"I would just like to take some notes about the things I noticed on the first floor. It would be very useful for when I build my own dungeon."

"Sure. Take this," said Harriet while a small stack of paper and a pen magically appeared in her hand.

Five quickly took them and started scribbling down his observations. He wrote down some notes about the slimes and the terrain and about how to improve them. For example, he noticed how the slimes were always wandering alone in the rooms. If they attacked together, it would definitely be harder for him to kill them. He also noted down the absence of resources on this floor. There were only slimes and nothing for these slimes to feed on. Some DP had to be spent daily for their consumption. Five believed it would be much better if a self-sustaining ecosystem was created on the floor. That way, he would not have to spend much DP, but naturally, he would not share this idea with Kroff.

As he was writing his thoughts, Harriet peeped on his notes with a strange look. "What are you writing? Is that the human language?"

"Huh? Human language? This is English. Do you not understand it?"

"English? The only language I know is the Demon language. I did not need to know how to read and write before coming to the dungeon. Kroff had to teach me those."

"Demon Language? Well. At least we can still understand each other when we talk..." said Five.

'Then that means that for now, only players would understand Earth's Languages...'