A Black Market LitRPG

Chapter 97: Grinding

The barrage of system messages was the first thing to greet Kyle as he stirred awake, apart from the grimy, sticky feeling he could sense all over his skin and ground, along with a putrid stench composed of his own sweat, blood and pee from the race evolution.

The last message was of the most importance to Kyle, causing him to jolt upright and re-read it. Finally, I have a clearer path on what this weird System has in mind for my progression. At least I have a clear motivation to obtain levels as much as I want now.

It was clear to Kyle that he was sorely lacking in individual strength – unable to fend off Nest entirely nor able to defeat a snotty brat and his servant in the form of Soren and Rayner. Soren was definitely of a higher level than him and far more advanced in terms of System upgrades and fighting skills.

Kyle was only able to fight on par with the two of them thanks to the Negation Field, but he knew that by letting Soren and Rayner go, news of his ability would begin to leak, and the enemies coming for him would be more than prepared to overcome it.

Angered with himself, the upgrades now served as his next main goal to improving himself.

But this is not the only way. Kyle was not about to simply limit himself to just what the System gave him. With the three slovesa cores he had earned and the war looming on the horizon, there were plenty of opportunities to obtain far better arctech equipment or Galactic Era Tech to boost himself in strength significantly. I have yet to develop my own exosuit – this will be a much higher priority as of now.

That being said, Kyle was cognizant that they were still in the dungeon, with still no clear way out. He recalled the System’s holographic arrow that seemed to have pointed him to the nearest terminal, so perhaps it could tell him where the exit of the dungeon was. How do I get out of here?

Despite his consistent mental attempts, the holographic arrow never appeared.

Kyle tried to get up, but his limbs felt slightly shaky, the effects of the race evolution still lingering on his body like a numb feeling that sent tingles down his skin and bones. Already Kyle could sense something different about his entire body, though without a mirror, it was hard to tell the full extent of the change.

Wait, where’s Feldon?

Kyle quickly checked the corner where he put Feldon down, only to see a slightly cowering human with a few empty tins and half-empty water bottles in front of him, with one bottle being filled with a clear yellow substance. The human aimed an arctech handgun at Kyle shakily, his hands obviously tensed. “By Yual, are you still Kyle? Or has the dungeon taken over you?”

“I am Kyle.”

“Really? Who’s the president of the Golden Snake Construction Company?”

“Guang Hwa.”

“Who was the first person to act as Enforcer Man and the greatest theatre celebrity ever to live?”

“That’s you, but you’re not the greate-“

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Six on your right hand, two on your left… wait, why do you have six?”

“Male or Female?”

“I don’t even understand what that question is supposed to be.”

Feldon let out a large sigh of relief, letting the arctech handgun sink to the floor as he leaned back against the cold metallic wall. “What the hell happened to you?”

“How long have we been here?”

“I don’t know; I don’t have a way of tracking time here. But it felt like a few days to me, maybe more, maybe less. Wait, don’t try to deflect the question. I deserve the right to know what the hell you have transformed into. Are you a shapeshifter or something?”

“What? Why, what do I look like now?”

“You look like shit, that’s for sure,” Feldon noted down the blood and grime still clinging to the back half of Kyle’s clothes and skin.

Right, got to find a place to wash it off. Kyle glanced downwards at his body, hardly noticing any difference. He did not feel any stronger with the new race – the new title earned from the passive skill had yet to give any clear benefits. As for the cooldown reduction, he would feel it in the next fight.

He checked through all his skills again.

The cooldowns had all been drastically reduced. Penchant of Violence now had a 28% uptime during fights, but Kyle would be happier if it became 100%. Good enough.

“Let’s get out of here. Rations?”

“Sorry, I only have these three cans left. We can backtrack to the storage room to grab more?”

“Hmm… let’s take a few hours to explore where we are first before backtracking.”

Kyle shoved the chamber away from the metallic door before gingerly opening it and peeking outside, checking the passageway. There were no signs of any movements, footsteps or any skittering sound, with him and Feldon beginning to move further into the dungeon, the latter keeping a wide berth from the foul stench of Kyle’s back.

As much as I would like to leave the dungeon now, it would be best if I could obtain all the rewards here before leaving.

Moving down the passageway, they soon came across a similar storage room, something Kyle had missed while he was busy fighting Soren. He did not have the time to glance at each and every room then, so he performed the same checks as he did for the first storage room.

The layout was exactly the same, but this time there was a clear piece of paper covering a few of the tins, with two clear arrows being drawn on it with the big, bold words “ME” and “YOURS”.

This is Soren’s stash? Kyle recalled Soren complaining that he had booked the dungeon in advance for three years. It became clear that Soren had been farming this dungeon, though not continuously.

Kyle also remembered Soren mentioning that he had rushed over the moment he heard about a transcendent wrecking things in Tenar through his Nest underlings. This means there are more dungeons beyond, and fairly close as well – a week’s distance at maximum, assuming he travelled on foot.

“Can we take this?”

“Take everything – eat and drink as much as you want now. We’ll camp here for a break before moving on.”

Restored to full after a hearty meal at the expense of Soren’s stash, Kyle and Feldon continued moving, eventually reaching a T-junction, in which Kyle recalled he went left instead of right when running from Soren. The burn marks of the lightning arc slashed through the entire junction towards the left, while the right was clean.

Kyle led Feldon to the right, moving carefully and watching out for any traps in the passageway. Soon, a similar white light could be seen in the distance, prompting them to stop.

“Another cavern? Are we going to get swarmed by rock spiders again?”

“Let’s hope not.” Kyle actually wanted more rock spiders to appear so he could test out his new cooldowns and earn some EXP. Maybe he could even hit Level 40 before leaving the dungeon.

Come to think of it, wasn’t the recommended level of the Dungeon 45? The first trial might have been manageable, but Kyle was afraid that it was only going to get harder. “This time, you stay behind in the passageway,” Kyle explained to Feldon. “There’s no guarantee there is going to be a rest area this time.”

“Fuck no, I’m going with you. What if a giant rock spider blocks up the passageway again, and I’m left alone?”

“Fine. You still got projectiles left?”

Feldon grinned. “I got something even better.” He brandished the Thunder Blade that Soren had impaled him with.

“I’ve never seen you fight with a sword before.”

“Hey, I trained under Sasha and for many light capturer films, okay. I consider myself a connoisseur of fine martial arts.”

“Okay then.”

They triple-checked their equipment. Kyle still had his interior armour plates on, along with his Aero Shoes and Pulverizer. The warhammer had proven quite effective so far, allowing Kyle to take most rock spiders head-on thanks to the follow-up shock.

The two of them marched confidently out of the passageway. Instead of there being a large expansive area like the first cavern, there was a singular rocky outcrop in the middle. It was covered completely in a myriad of beautiful gemstones, sparkling like a kaleidoscope as the bright colours illuminated the entire cavern.

Kyle noticed the rocky outcrop was shaped specifically like an egg of sorts, albeit slightly jagged. Furthermore, he noticed the same type of holes in the cavern walls. He tried to consider what kind of trial this would be at all. Kyle also noticed that there was a gap in the ceiling right above the rocky outcrop, with a gush of cool air drifting through. That might be an exit, but it’s going to take some effort to leap out of the dungeon.

“What’s the trial this time? Fighting against waves again?”

“Looks like it’s another round of rock spiders, but there’s something definitely to do with this outcrop.” Suspicious.

“Again?!” Feldon yelped.

“Let’s take the centre this time – we can use the rocky outcrop to get the high ground.”

As they approached the outcrop, Feldon could barely crane his neck far back to see the top of the outcrop, being immensely high. Kyle placed his hands on the rocky outcrop, intending to climb up to the top before the trial began.

However, when he placed his hands on the surface, a loud screeching sound suddenly burst forth from the outcrop, with the rainbow assortment of colours beginning to pulsate wildly, beating rapidly like a heartbeat under stress. The surface was hot to the touch, forcing Kyle to let go.

The same skittering sound began to emerge from the walls, with a hundred rock spiders all crawling out and aiming right at them once more. Instead of being surprised, Kyle had a wide grin on his face, prompting Feldon to think that he was a masochist.