Nightmare Fantasy Online - Chapter 10

There’s a cave here for real. Inside the Dungeon…

“Okay, you can enter…”

The guards (who I had to wake up) checked the amulet that the magic shop owner had given me and let me pass…, but couldn’t I’ve just snuck between them and entered the cave while they were sleeping? They were keeping the door open and all. Eh, whatever.

The cave is unrealistically realistic…, as in, it looks just like a natural cave. Despite it being inside the walls of a castle-type Dungeon. There’s moss and stalactites and stalagmites, water drops from the roof, and no lights. Wait, how am I seeing stuff then?

Taking out my system menu, I started to look for the culprit for my inexplainable impressive sight. And there they are! Located in the one list I’ve yet to take a better look at. The Trait List!

Demon:

Traits are special characteristics that each race has. It normally comes with strengths/weaknesses to some attributes, but in my case, I’m better out when the moon’s out and worse in the sun. Zombies and other undead supposedly have it worse, or so I read in one of the chats. They take continuous damage in the sun, and the alteration of stats is higher than my [Small] numbers. Plus I’m better with Dark-aligned elements than those related to Light.

Now, this isn’t the time to be standing around! I got some cave to explore, and since I know there’s nothing wrong with my eyes (quite the opposite, actually), let’s rock!

But man, this cave’s damn gloomy. Not as bad as that chamber, but people without night vision would have to travel through here with just a torch…, brr, that would be scary. I’m glad to be a demon~.

And just as I walked through the cave wondering if I should take up the Earth Element as my primary element in the hope of recreating such scary caves on the opponent, [Detect Treasure] noticed something! Is it the catalyst? Wait, didn’t I see a [Detect Magic Item] skill when deciding whether to take Treasure or not? Then why am I able to notice it?

Suspicion filled my head as I silently moved toward the reaction…, or, as silent as this clumsy body can be. I so wanna evolve soon. Even if I can’t do like “Red Rage” and evolve into an element-based evolution. She went from a Red Demon into a Lesser Fire Fiend thanks to owning [Lesser Fire Talent], was it?

Showing the unnecessary thoughts out of my mind as I got closer, I started to look around for potential traps or ambushes. In such a dark place, there’s bound to be something. Especially when you have a…, huh?

This thing over here…, isn’t it…?

The catalyst!! Why’s it here!? And what about the treasure?

…the book about magic and the AP is making me wanna take the wand and rush back to the magic shop, but…, what if that locks me out of entering this cave again? But going for the treasure again may be a trap that could destroy the catalyst…

A painful decision…, which to choose…

Mmmmnrgh…, argh! FINE! I’ll go for the wand! Better with a reward I know I’ll get than a shot into the dark! And it’s not a joke even! It’s damn dark over there, even for me!

I ignored the reading from [Detect Treasure] and went for the wand-

*CRASH!!*

Wha-!? A large explosion-, no, did something heavy fall down? Anyway, a huge dust cloud was now in the place just a few steps away if I had continued on my previous course. Not planning on standing around to wait and see what the culprit was, I hurried and grabbed the wand before taking a u-turn out of the cave.

From my back, I could hear the scuffling sound of lots of legs hurrying up after me. A few rocks were in my way, forcing me to run zigzag, which seems to have saved me from an unexplainable attack.

Some of the boulders in front of me were suddenly broken due to a “black flare”. Can’t call it anything else. A black-colored flash appeared on the rocks, and they broke.

The “something” that’s chasing me must be using some sorta attack against me, but the messy surface that forces me to do a trickier escape than normal is throwing its aim off.

I kept on with the evasive run even when we reached better grounds and kept on running until I reached the exit and even after that. I could hear the guards hurriedly closing the door behind me. I’m leaving the rest to you guys!!

—

“Oh, you found it…, thanks.” – Magic store owner

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

You have cleared the Quest: “The Dark Cave”.

You have acquired 0.5 AP from the Quest reward.

The completion rate of the Quest: “Serve the Nest” has reached 53%.

After returning to the magic shop, luckily without any accidents, I handed over the shop owner’s wand and cleared the Quest.

Phew. Only after handing over the item, I could relax. That whatever-it-was was too scary. Too close for comfort! Too freakish! What the heck was that!?

“Extra payment!!!” – Garami

“What are…, ah. The rumors were true?” – Magic shop owner

Guess she had an idea, this cheating quest giver!!

The shop owner started to explain to me that the caves often had people (meaning spiders) gone missing in that place. That’s why they’re keeping people (spiders) from entering the place, except for strangers (meaning me!) that are tasked with retrieving missing objects or such, even if it’s almost certain that they’ll get killed…

“Grrrrrr…” – Garami

“…fine, fine. I’ll give an extra reward. Just warning you, there is not much I have here that a Scout such as you can use…, oh, I did want to get rid of that thing…” – Magic shop owner

Now she’s offering trash for reward!? This lousy spider! And while ignoring my raging outburst of justice, the shop owner took out two books. One must be the original reward, that beginner-book for magic. And the other one is…!? “Skill Book of [Magic]”!?Wait, what are those about?

“I’ll give this one… as a bonus…, is that fine?” she asked while tilting her head. Kuh, a mature woman shouldn’t do such cute gestures…

I secretly took a snapshot of the scene and accepted the deal. I mean, it’s a skill book! The same thing I got [Mystical Threads] from! It seems to be related to magic, so I’m a little afraid of whether I’m allowed to use it or not, but hey, it’s bound to be worth something!

I left the magic shop in a good mood despite the horror chase just a few minutes ago. However, my future seems to be far from a happy walk. If this Quest could lead to such an encounter, what about the others? And, most likely, the difficulty of the remaining Quests will also increase…

Am I in over my head? Yeah, I feel like that. I need an upgrade. The two skills may/may not help me, so in any case, I should try to find another source of strength.

Though, that’s pretty much impossible for a weak little Grey Demon, no? I mean, I’m a G-rank, and there are no more free skills. Therefore…

—

“[Mystical Thread]! [Mystical Thread]! And how about some [MYSTICAL THREAD]!!” – Garami

*Splatt*, *squash*, *crack*!

The blue spider trio got bombarded with as many magical threads as I could produce and got turned into pulp. Okay, next!

I’m in the kitchen within the dust area that I’d exterminated Hungry Spiders before as part of a Quest. It seems that these guys spawn in big groups here even after the Quest, but luckily not as many as before. It’s a perfect place to farm EXP! I’ve killed all the other spiders in this branch already, so with this last guy…

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Your level has increased by 1. You have reached Lv.10.

For reaching your race’s level-cap, you have obtained 1.0 Aether Points.

Congratulations. Evolution is now possible.

You have 1 evolution option available.

Jackpot! Ah, there was one left. [Mystical Thread]!

*Splatt!*

Another good day of work with spider extermination~.  Wonder if I’ll get a title if I continue with doing this? “Garami, the spider slayer!”…, meh. Sounds stupid.

In any case, I did it! Lv.10! And I got more AP than normal for it as well! Ya-hoo!

Hmm? You thought I would go after the patrolling spiders? No way, idiot! I would have to do so if these guys didn’t give me enough EXP, but why would I charge at a horde of scary and strong spiders? Those guys are damn trauma-bringers, I tell you.

Okay, let’s check my stats on my trip back to my Player Room.

Kukukuku. Things are going smoothly…, except for [Scout]. I need to find some way to improve its class level. Not that easy when all the skills I have are as follows:

Mhm, [Magic] turned out to be a bust. No magic stuff here. Not directly, anyway. But it did help me in a manner that caught me completely off guard.

An increase in MAG is equal to an increase for [Mystical Threads]~. And following this rule of naming, I bet that the skill improving the SPD stat will be called “Speed”. I looked up the skills I could take with my current points, and it seems that I was right.

However, the only skills I could take were: [Mana], [Resistance], [Speed], [Dexterity], [Intelligence], and [Luck].

It’s probably related to my class, and that I’m a demon. We may be naturally gifted with magical stuff. Not that my species directly has that kinda abilities. Wonder if the human players get these skills. They do have the AP for it, but I doubt a few points added to their way-higher-than-mine stats would help them.

And then we have the titles:

Yeah, nothing new there. Still salty for not getting any spider-slaying title, no matter how stupid it sounds like.

And while sorting out my current list of abilities, I reached my Room. Ah, it’s so nice with automatic doors~. Kukuku. Former-last boss, soon more weaklings will follow in your footsteps after this~.

Now, what can I evolve into? Pushing the blinking evolution-text and…

“Djinn”? Like a genie? And they’re related to sloth? Ah, thinking about it, them being inside lamps for who knows how many years could be linked to people who don’t wanna leave their beds.

And looking at this description, I doubt I’ll have a boost to my STR. Tch. But my already strong stats seems to get an improvement, and the “use of tricks and traps” part is catching my attention. Evolution is said to give at most two free skills related to the race, so this may improve my range of abilities.

It’s also within my ability to pay AP-wise as well. And if the element-variant of the Unstable Djinn is matching the price of the element-variants of the Lesser Fiend, then according to “Red Rage” on the demon thread, that evolution would cost 4 AP. Not much of an increase, but too much for me. Talent skills cost 3 AP after all…

Okay, Unstable Djinn it is! Not that I have any other options…

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

“Unstable Djinn” has been selected. This will consume 3 Aether Points.

During evolution, you will turn unable to move your body for a while.

Do you wish to start the evolution?

Ah, on to my bed. And click!

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Commencing evolution to the race: Unstable Djinn.

Yay! But can you stop including the “unstable” part all the time?

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

You can log out while the evolution takes place.

Time before evolution is finished: 00:59:57

Ah, then I’ll take a break and return in an hour. Let’s hope it’ll turn into something cool.