The Rise Of A Tribal Deadbeat - Chapter 54

[You are the first person to enter this dungeon.]

[Exp gained for this dungeon trip increased by 1.5 times.]

A gust of cold wind greeted Zok as he entered the dungeon. In fact, if Zok didn’t have his index to guide him, he was sure he wouldn’t have noticed the dungeon. It was thanks to the Chiroterae that Zok was able to know about this dungeon.

From outside the barrier, the tree looked like any other tree. But as soon as Zok managed to get through the barrier, the tree almost grew twice in size and although it was dark outside, the area within the barrier was glowing as if it was noon, not midnight.

Zok looked behind t make sure he wasn’t hallucinating, but he wasn’t. It was still nighttime outside the barrier but daytime inside. But that wasn’t all as the next moment, a massive hole opened up in the tree trunk. It was big enough to have two Ceros walk side by side. The system informed him to enter the trunk so he did, while Cero followed him closely behind.

‘Is there no end to this place?’ Zok squinted his eyes to see farther but couldn’t see a thing, ‘Cero, can you smell anything?’

Cero nodded after letting out a short grunt.

‘You can even smell air now, huh? Looks like your sense of smell has increased as well.’ Zok mumbled while patting the gigantic creature’s back.

They kept walking for a while and just like Cero had mentioned, soon they were back again out in the open. However, Zok could immediately tell they weren’t in Occuna. The fields that were covered in luscious green grass and trees were nowhere to be seen. Instead, they were standing in a white field and it was abnormally cold.

Thanks to his thick skin, Cero was completely fine being there, unlike Zok who had nothing to cover himself with. Zok immediately wrapped his arms around himself as spine chilling winds started blowing.

“What is t-this place? And w-why is it s-so c-cold?” Zok managed to mumble while shivering.

[Welcome to the Snowlands.]

He was thinking he would end up in some kind of cave, but that didn’t seem to be the case. It almost felt like he was in a different world although but even with his pea-sized brain he knew that wasn’t possible.

[Due to the exposure to excessive cold, you have received a debuff: Frostbite.]

[Frostbite: A debuff that gets applied once someone is exposed to extreme cold weather. Alters your stats.

Agility is reduced by 10%

Strength is reduced by 12%

Defence is reduced by 5%

It is suggested that you warm yourself up to remove the Debuff.]

“W-What the h-heck? D-Damn it! I c-can’t even curse p-properly!” Zok sneezed as his body temperature dropped sharply, “How am I s-supposed to f-fight when I c-can’t even talk!? T-That’s it! I-I’m going b-back!”

Zok turned around only to see that the pathway he had come from was nowhere to be found now. Still, he tried to turn back, and then he was greeted by an unsightly notification.

[You can not leave an Instance dungeon without finding the Return Stone.]

“R-Return stone? W-What is t-that?”

[Return stone: A common boss monster drop. Can be used to open a rift in a dungeon to get back to the user’s world. In other words, one can not return to their world without obtaining this stone.]

“Why the h-heck no one told me about t-this before?”

Zok was taken aback by this news. Now he had no choice but to find this boss monster, whatever it was, and kill it. Only then would he be able to return back to his world. But how could he do that when he was on the verge of freezing?

It was the first time Zok had experienced such a thing, but even then his survival instincts were screaming at him to race to a cave and light a fire. Or else he wouldn’t last even an hour there. It was now that he began cursing himself for not bringing Kaira with him as well.

Her furry coat would have been able to provide him with more warmth than Cero’s armour-like hide. But now wasn’t the time to indulge in thinking about what-ifs. He had to get himself warmed up.

Thanks to his habit of collecting random things, he had a bit of wood and a bunch of dry leaves that he could use to light up a fire. The only thing he now needed was a place where he would be safe from these winds and they wouldn’t blow the fire out.

“Cero… look for a cave… fast…”

As soon as Cero heard those words he immediately went into action. In the meantime, Zok grabbed onto his tail in hopes of feeling a bit warm. However, for some reason, he was feeling sleepy all of a sudden. He tried to stay awake but it felt like something was dragging him away…. finally he couldn’t hold it in anymore and fell asleep while hugging Cero’s tail.