The Shapeshifter - Chapter 32 Experience 3

I should have known.

I thought I was finally gonna be back in the real world. That time when I passed out at the desert, I really thought that I would be back. But no, I’m still here. I don’t even know what my purpose is.

Now the old man, upon knowing what my real intention was, brought me towards a forest.

He said that real battle will help me make my own style or what he liked to call – a Sword Art!

Then he said that most humans are dumb. I was offended because I am human. However, I wanted to keep my mouth shut. Yet I still asked why, I was hoping that I would learn something from him.

“Ah. Humans are dumb because they keep on learning techniques that was already learned by others. They’re not trying to discover or learn things by themselves. One shouldn’t learn the path of their ancestors, they should make their own!”

“I am not saying that learning from others is bad,but techniques are tailor-made for the creator, not for others. It differs from person to person. Everything a technique has, are from the creators’ body, mind and soul.”

My mind was too young for that, though I understood some of it. Even though I transmigrated, I am still inexperienced. I guess I really am a human.

(A/N: Hehe)

…

The forest was very quiet. Everything was lush and verdant, however, I am not seeing any other animals other than the small ones like the squirrels and rabbits.

Yeah, this is life. Walking inside a peaceful forest. Savoring the fresh air, enjoying the sceneries and hearing the sound of birds chirping on the trees.

Haha, I’m only thinking like this because I finally got out of the desert. The scorching heat of the desert, the grainy sands in my soles and there were even humongous desert animals. But all of them were prolly scared by the old man.

Now that I think about it, I haven’t known what rank the old man’s at.

“Hey old man!What rank are you at?” it might’ve sounded disrespectful for a bit, but the old man wanted me to call him ‘old man’. He said he didn’t want to get too attached.

“What rank I am? Hmmm. I’m probably the strongest in Terra right now.” and that’s what the old man said. I asked for his rank, yet he told me he was the strongest; great!

Wait! The strongest on Terra? I’m still on Terra? What the hell? I hurriedly hid the shock in my face but the old man has sharp eyes; yeah I know, he’s the strongest. I rolled my eyes thinking about this.

“Hmmm? Are you not convinced that I’m the strongest? There aren’t any worthy opponents nearby so I can’t show you anything right now.” the old man raised his eyebrows and looked at me. And I’m like ‘oh thank God he got it wrong!’

The small chat ended there. However I really didn’t want to be silent during this trip, so I kept on talking. “Old man! Why aren’t there any beast nearby?”

“Hmmm. Because all of them are in the same place.” the way the old man talks, was like his mind was always occupied by something. His answers are always puzzling, like if I asked him ‘what is 2+2?’ then his answer would be ‘Hmmm. It should be higher than 2’.

However, he doesn’t seem to mind that I’m always talking. Though his answers are a bit cryptic. At least I’m learning something; only sometimes though.

Then we have arrived!

There was this tall gloomy structure right in front of me. It was black and is seemingly out of place with this happy forest. The eerie vibe that I got was only a passing feeling.

“What is this?” I asked. Such a tall structure and looked to be constructed with pure concrete, I don’t know if it’s concrete but it looks like it.

“What, you say? Hmmm. It’s a dungeon. A low level one at that. It’s where all the beasts are.”

“So I just go in and kill them all?”

“Yes and No. See those kids there at the entrance? You’ll be teaming up with them and try your best not to die.” it doesn’t sound like a low level dungeon to me. If it was low leveled then this should be a bit easy.

“Okay. Now go and meet your team. Ask them if you could join them. I will wait here until you finished the dungeon.”

“Got it!”

I ran up to ‘kids’ near the dungeon’s entrance. And asked them if I could join their group. I was accepted instantly like they have been waiting for me the whole day and then we walked inside the dungeon.

Of course I tried looking back to tell the old man everything was good, however I didn’t see him.

Before proceeding deeper the group introduced themselves to me.

First it was a cheerful looking guy with glasses. He was our team’s archer and the mind of the group or what he calls himself as the team’s captain.

Then there was a girl holding a pair of daggers. She’s probably the scout; the nimblest and fastest.

Next was a long-haired man with a spear. He can be considered handsome, but not as handsome as me. Hehe.

Lastly, the guy with the shield. Nothing remarkable, really. He looks really mediocre, like me. Haha. Though his face looks familiar. I can’t seem to recall where I saw him.

We slowly made our way in the tunnel, looking out for dangers that might suddenly pop out.

When I asked the team if they have gone into dungeons before, they said no; this was their first time!

After walking for a bit, we heard a sound of metal clanking at the end of the tunnel. First it was very faint, then it became loud like there were tens of metal clanking.

We were quite a distance away from the end of the tunnel when a silhouette of a ‘kid’ blocked it. It wasn’t just a ‘kid’, there were lots of them.

As we drew near, I could finally see their appearances. They have green skin, big eyes and long nails. They were like green little trolls – no, they are goblins!

“Oh sh*t! Goblins! Be careful not to get surrounded. They attack in groups!” Glasses told us what we should be doing and told us their strengths and weaknesses like a real captain of the group.

This was my first time engaging a fight against a goblin. It was definitely a weird experience fighting someone who’s way smaller than me.

I focused on using the sword to kill the goblins. I never liked to be on the defensive, so I continuously swung my sword towards these goblins.

They have shorter reach than me so each time I swung my sword, I took a step back. Whenever I did that was the time I could take glimpse of my team’s prowess.

Glasses, who was the team captain was helping the team with his arrows. Everytime a goblin was to take an action on a blindspot of someone, an arrow quickly follows.

The girl with the daggers was killing a bit slowly as she can only fight a single goblin everytime. She was fast and careful not to get surrounded.

The handsome spear guy was at the frontline proving that he was the best in the group. He have been killing the goblins with every swing of his spear. It didn’t matter if they hit the shaft or the tip, they still ended up dead.

The man of shield who was also at the frontline was holding down a lot of goblins. Fortunately, he was getting help from Glasses, which lessens the pressure. He also has a short sword to help reduce the enemies’ numbers.

As for me. I was still doing the ‘hit-and-run’. I was conserving my energy for the boss battle, because the old man said that there was a floor guardian here.

The next thing I knew was we killed every single goblin in the tunnel. It was finally the time to enter the room beyond this tunnel. Only after we take a rest, that is.

As the team captain, Glasses initiated the conversation. He talked about the team’s shortcomings during the fight with the mobs.

Then he talked about the plan against the floor’s guardian. If it was taller than 7 feet, then we quickly run, if it wasn’t, then we fight.

He assigned us tasks that we should follow later on. After that, we all stood up and walked towards the room.

The room was quite spacious like a hall. It didn’t have anything aside from the four big columns that supports the ceiling.

On the other end of the room was a huge throne. And sitting on it was a humanoid pig with bloody tusks beside its snout. It was as tall as the spear guy, which was the tallest, so it’s still feasible.

Upon seeing us, the pig-man emitted an angry roar. Then it stood on four legs and started charging at us at full speed.

Man of shield quickly moved to the front and decided to block the pig-man’s charge with his wooden shield.

When it was about three meters away from the shield bearer, it suddenly leaped and took something from its back.

It unsheathed a huge blade!

Everything happened too fast, I was about to warn the shield bearer, however the pig-man swung its blade towards the man.

The man raised his wooden shield in an attempt to block the unstoppable momentum of the blade.

I already imagined the pitiful scene of the shield bearer flying across the room and being stuck on the wall with his shield shattering into pieces.

The scene that I imagined was different than what was currently happening. The shield bearer that took the all-out attack of the pig-man only slid for five meters before stopping.

Although he was hit, he wasn’t injured. Maybe his arm was numbed by the impact, but that was it.

As the captain, Glasses took the opportunity and shot an arrow aiming at the eye of the pig-man. Then he bellowed “Attack!”

“Roar!” the pig-man roared in anger, as its right eye was pierced by an arrow.

The first to attack was the spear guy, he tried to attack the pig-man’s neck but it was blocked by its blade. Even though its other eye was blinded its reflexes were still a bit fast.

But not fast enough! I was already on its back and cut the back of its knees.

I actually wanted to kill it by targeting its nape, but its sheathe was blocking its neck. Even if I swung my sword aiming at the side of it, my sword would only be met by the sheathe. That’s how long its blade was.

As I cut through the back of its knees, I felt no resistance at all.

It fell down and was on a kneeling position, yet it still wanted to attack.

The girl with the daggers was supposed to attack it in its blind spot, but she ran straight towards the pig-man intending to take the kill!

It was such a foolish move, underestimating the floor’s guardian. The pig-man grinned when it saw its prey running towards it. It lured the girl by pretending that its hand lost its grip on its blade.

The girl’s eyes lit up, she was still inexperienced so she didn’t know the danger that she was in.

When she arrived at the range of the blade the pig-man immediately moved and swung the blade towards the girl.

The girl was rooted in fear and watched as the blade about to slice her body.

At this moment, a silhouette of man appeared beside her and blocked the blade. Though the attack was powerful, it wasn’t strong enough to send them flying.

Glasses, was unable to fire an arrow as the two was blocking his view of the pig-man. Before he could even look at me and the spear guy, I already arrived at the side of the pig-man.

The pig-man was about to attack the girl with its left hand, but I was fast enough to cut its arm off. As for the spear guy, he saw the opening and drilled a hole on the pig-man’s temple.