Starting from Zero

Book 3, Chapter 6

Quest of the Cave (Part 2)

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The time is getting late so I logged off. Wayne came back too. I told him about what I got myself into, he just said "oh you found a secret quest? Nice!"

Nice???

I entered the game early the next morning and started trying through the doors.

First, the leftmost door with the mark. When I opened the door I froze. Is this path even meant for humans??

A few meters from the door, there are crowds of monsters snuggled up close to each other, without a visible end. Did they just spawn monsters without having to worry about breaking the system?

I gulped, and closed the door. This is too much! But, I didn't know how powerful those monsters are. Suppose they are really weak, then the number won't be a problem. I pushed open the door again. All of the monsters stared at me. I cast a fireball over, and received the monster's data.

Demonized Rat, level 130, HP 300, fast and stay in crowds. Weakpoint is their low Defense and HP. Upon seeing me, all of them stood up. The countless pairs of red eyes are really creepy!

I'm level 137 now, these things are even lower than me. Shouldn't be a problem. As I comfort myself, the monsters suddenly rushed at me as a whole.

"Awwwww!! My ears! Ah my nose!! Ouuch! No not that part!! Oof--get out of my mouth!!"

I rolled and crawled back to the hall. The rats didn't pursue, seems they can't get through the door. Shit that was close. Their attack would only cause less than 10 damage to me, but every one bit me a dozen times back there. If not for my high HP I would have been torn to pieces!

What the hell should I do??

Right, put something to draw their attention. I summoned one of my Steel Beast and ordered it to go ahead. The beast is level 230 and high HP and Def are its talent. Moreover, this guy is just the same size as the tunnel, he can squeeze through the place while blocking it. Even if several rats slip by I can easily kill them.

We marched forward. The rats still swarmed up on us, but due to the level gap they can only nip down the beast's HP slowly, and only those rats at the front can actually attack. If my beast is low on HP I can just recall it and summon another. I have ten of them anyway. I just have to follow behind and pick out any leftovers. This would have been a good place to train if I can still chat with other people. They don't yield much EXP but the number is huge, so the income is still decent.

We walked and slaughtered until 10 pm, by which all the rats just disappeared. A little bit ahead I reached the first fork. Three caves line up before me. I compared using the crystals I got early. And damn it, they're all fake! Which means this door is wrong. That's a whole day for no good! It's not a complete waste though. I've reached level 142.

For the next few days I spent all my time on these doors, in the end my leveling just nearly stopped. I'm 188 now and killing rats has become meaningless. In [Zero], level 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 are "gaps". People will notice that going from 200 to 201 is way easier than from 199 to 200. Sometimes even leveling from 600 to 601 is faster than from 199 to 200! I've asked mother before. She refused to tell me anything at first, but eventually hinted me that they did set these gaps on purpose. She said if the game is too hard it will scare off players, and being too easy wouldn't give them the sense of achievement. It would be best to let them feel "up and down". So the time you need to go from 199 to 200, is about the same time you will need for a level around 640 or so.

And that's what I'm feeling right now. Level 188, I'm already having a hard time to get it up! The military training in our college has begun and of course I skipped it. My family provided several millions of funds to the place anyway, so the management just gave me all the green lights without any trouble. (*) The training session is meant to last a month. I utilized the valuable time to "find my way" plus leveling up.

September 17th, a memorable day! I came out! Now I'm level 199 plus a 13% EXP bar. I crawled and dug through the damn tunnel for 13 days and finally made it! I almost cried when I saw Domergor's face! All this time the only thing I would see are rats. RATS! I don't know how many millions of them I've killed.

"Brother! Finally! You took so long. I thought you'd never come out!"

Then he passed me a glass of red liquid. "To celebrate! Now this is something in my drink collection. I guarantee you'd love it!"

I took the glass and swigged it in one go, which caused Domergor's face to twitch a little. (**) The foul smelling liquor went down my throat like a stinking fish. It tasted awful, even traditional medicine feels like sugar compared to this! (***) But still, the drink left me invigorated!

System: "Player Ziri has consumed [Thousandth Blood Wine], level increased by 1."

My level became 200 (empty bar)! The stuff tasted terrible but turned out to be quite useful. So that's why they say good meds are bitter to the mouth.

"Um, can I have some more, brother?" It would be great if I can get several more glasses to use in the future.

Domergor reached back and took out a small bottle. I raised it to my mouth but he quickly pinned my hands.

"There's only the amount of six serves left in here. You need to drink one serve if you want to level up, any less and it will be wasted. I suggest you keep it for now and drink it at level 399, 599 and 799. Use the rest after you've reached level 900 and feel too hard to keep going."

"Alright. Thank you brother!" I put the wine into my bracelet.

Then Domergor began to explain my following missions. "You cleared the first stage so you could get one part of the Dark Dragon Lord set. You don't have weapon so I gave you that gauntlet in advance, which would help you most. And now I can't give you anything, or I would piss off the system! Your next task is that hallway over there. Get past it and you will receive another two parts."

I looked at the hallway. "It's just a straight walkway a bit more than a kilo."

"That's no ordinary walkway, it's full of traps 'n' tricks. Don't let your guard down. If you get killed by the traps you will respawn at this end."

"Any hints?"

"The only hint is be careful!"

Then he ran off.

...He must be unfamiliar with the traps too. Looks like I'll have to deal with it step by step.

I carefully stood at the entrance. The way is straight to an extent that I can directly see the other end. There's one thing for sure, it looks really safe on the surface, at least.

Nah forget it. Standing here won't help me with anything. I should just move.

I began to walk forward. I had to keep cautious so I can only shift my steps slowly. I haven't moved for more than ten steps before a loud BANG scared me back. Then a giant axe swung in front of my face, cutting my front hair clean. I stumbled and sat on the ground. My heart stopped for a moment! If I made one more step or didn't back away I'd be dead!

I sat and took a moment to calm down, then began to check the axe. It moves back and forth like a traditional clock pendulum. The blade is wide so it reaches a wide area. Fortunately it's not fast. I tried to calculate for a while. The interval between each two times the "pendulum" would go through the center is about 1.5 second. If I keep to one side of the wall, it will take about 3 seconds for the axe to leave the wall and come back. That should be enough time for me to pass.

As planned, I leaned on the wall. When the axe left the wall towards the other side I immediately dashed forward. When I'm over it's still on the other side. Ha, nailed it.

The joy didn't last, two more identical axes came down at me at the same time. I instantly jumped back to where the first axe can't hit me. But there is about a meter's free space between each two axes. Now the three deadly blades just swung there, causing the air to buzz.

I'm trying to calculate their speed again when another three axes dropped down. This time though, they swung in a vertical direction with the first three. Ok, now six axes are flying in front of me in a perfect pattern, without touching each other at all, and I totally cannot figure out a way to get past them. Just looking at them would make me feel dazed!

I came out with an easy but cruel idea: Summon a Steel Beast and let it block those axes, that will definitely make it easier for me to get by. But...my moral tells me not to do that. I fought with my inner devil for a while and finally gave up the idea.

The three longitudinal axes will always hit when the horizontal ones can't, there's no safe point! But...since the axes don't hit each other, that means the axe itself is safe! I prepared myself. I waited for the nearest longitudinal axe to get near, then jumped and clung myself onto its arm. Then I waited for it to get to the other side and jumped down.

I turned and looked at the axes behind me. Now they don't look that hard! I continued forward.

This time I'm even more careful, the place is no joke. After several steps the floor below my foot suddenly sunk. Countless small holes appeared on the nearby walls and bolts began to come out of them. I quickly ran back.

I reacted fast but still came out like a hedgehog. My Collar of Protection kept me alive again. That caused about 2k HP damage to me. Some of the damage got transferred to Lucky and my Ring of Stars can convert 20% damage to my MP too. That's why I didn't die.

I began to check the trap while using my bracelet to pick up those bolts from faraway. I still haven't bought any ammunition for my [Revenger] crossbow, I can't just rely on those two Soul Chaser bolts. Now there are bolts all over the ground. I can't just leave them wasted can I?

I tried several more times and realized the trap got nothing to do with that floor part. As long as I reach the spot, bolts will come out, no matter how I get there. And I never understood how the trap was made too. There are almost 10k bolts in my bracelet now and the trap is still shooting!

I decided to see how many bolts it can hold. So I just throw a bolt over, trigger the trap, recover the drops, repeat. I did this until I logged off in the evening, by which I gathered above 500k bolts in my bracelet, and they're still coming out.

Conclusion: it is infinite.

After a day's work I'm afraid I'd never need to buy any bolts in the future. The amount I got now is enough to support a freaking city siege war.

The next morning I tried to get past using the most boring method--rush. I put three Wraith Pills in my mouth and dashed forward. I have 1k+ HP, Lucky has 3k+ and Phantom 800, that makes it almost 6k in total. I think I can make it.

I jumped from the starting point and avoided the hardest area. But I was still shot all over when I landed on the ground, causing my HP to hit the bottom. I swallowed the pills and ran.

I flipped through the 200-meter long tunnel, when I stopped the whole world is spinning. Then I fell down, but hey I survived!

I looked at the status. Me and Phantom are empty HP'd, while Lucky still got 500 left. That was...close.

God knows what else awaits ahead. I replenished our HP, and cast a [Lava Impact] into the tunnel to clear the way. The name sounds cool but it's just a giant, rolling burning rock which explodes when hitting anything. It's big so I can use it to trigger any potential traps. If the rock can get through without a problem, it's definitely safe for me.

Still, an even bigger rock fell from the roof and smashed my lava stone into pieces. Thank god that wasn't me. The stone blocked the way so I had to squeeze through the gap on the side.

Then I used the spell again. It got worse this time. A wooden spike shot out of the wall and pinned the rock onto the other side. Man that looks scary.

Then it's mess. Bouncing planks, flying spikes, rolling stones, fire walls, lasso, killer puppet...anything you can consider a trap, I've seen it here. The worst part is where two walls dropped down and trapped me inside, then it began to flood. Before I was drowned I summoned Lucky and all ten Steel Beasts to bust the place open in order to save myself!

When I got out of the tunnel I'm almost naked. The outfit Clark gave me already lost their Durability and broke. Accessories and cape don't have Durability so they're fine, my dragon gauntlets lost a good amount of dura as well but won't be a problem for now. So...From a third-person perspective, I'm wearing a cape, a pair of gauntlets, some jewel. That's it, nothing else. Naked.

I'm Blacksmith too but I have neither the tools nor the materials to repair anything!

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(*) Most Chinese universities have a "military training" for new join-ins, which usually lasts one or two months, to "get students back into shape". The name may look serious but it's actually no big deal, just stand, march, shout, listen to simple orders. (Under a 30+ Celsius weather in some cities) Most students hated it, of course.

And no, we don't learn how to fight, apart from some showy minor techniques. Bigger places sometimes let the students shoot a real rifle (which is quite luxurious experience for Chinese resident), but that won't actually teach us anything either.

(**) Um, traditional Chinese liquor is meant to sip slowly. If someone without experience "gulp" something with 60%+ alcohol, they will faint, or go into shock if unlucky. Don't try that.

(***) Ever tried decocted Chinese-style herb? Ugh. I don't want to experience that again.