Random Skills: Exploring Dungeons - Chapter 4
Chapter 4: First Time in the Dungeon
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In the starry night sky, the sparkling galaxy surged like a ribbon against the curtain of night. Scattered around the galaxy were beautiful stars that were not part of the galaxy.
One of the scattered stars was a glowing round stone platform.
A man was sprawled on the stone platform.
As the dizziness wore off, Kane gagged.
After getting up and relaxing for a while, he suddenly felt uncomfortable again. A piece of information popped into his mind.
Kane shook his head, trying to decipher the information in his head.
From the information that he suddenly had, he knew that it was a dungeon that had just appeared, and he had become the first explorer of this dungeon.
In the early days of his transmigration, Kane had learned from the memories of his host that this world was alive and had a will of its own.
This world would draw fragments of information from other worlds. The fragments of information might be a building, a region, a piece of history, even a continent.
These places were called dungeons by the people of this world, and the entrances to these places would randomly appear all over the world. Those who explored these dungeons were known as Explorers.
The area where Kane lived was so remote that it took five or six days by carriage to reach even the nearest dungeon. Hence, Kane had never really understood the dungeons or the Explorers. He had only a general idea from his memories and the conversations of those around him.
He observed the stone platform beneath his feet. It was floating in the starry sky. It didn’t look like there was a way out at all.
The only thing on the stone platform was a door made of dense white fog.
That was the entrance to the dungeon.
It never occurred to Kane that he’d end up in a dungeon, surrounded by nothing but the dazzling, elegant stars, and with only two days’ worth of food and water on him.
Looking at the misty door in front of him, he realized there was no way out. If he wanted to live, he had to enter.
Taking a deep breath, he walked in with his arm shielding his head.
Moving forward, his body seemed to pass through a cool membrane. When he could again detect light with his eyes, Kane couldn’t help being fascinated by the view.
This was something he had never seen or imagined in his two lives.
It was not the sun that gave off light and heat in the air, but a transparent golden bridge that stretched across the sky for tens of thousands of miles.
It stretched across the sky, quietly glowing with its own light. It was either blocking out the sun or replacing it.
As one looked up at the golden bridge in the sky, the light it emitted was not blinding. Instead, one could see its full splendor through the light.
Kane was bathed in a golden glow. He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he felt his entire body relax. His mental strength and magical power were restored.
Looks like a glow with a buffing effect, he thought.
Under the golden sky was a sparse forest with trees so huge that it would take more than a dozen people to wrap around the trunk and that rose to more than a hundred meters.
Standing outside the forest, he felt very puny.
He activated his eagle eyes and discovered magic in the shape of humans roaming the woods.
With a flick of his wrist, he swung spider silk toward the forest.
The moment he entered the forest, a cold and damp wind blew away the physical improvement he had just gained from the light.
Sensing the disappearance of his gain, Kane shook himself and used his spider silk to creep closer to a humanoid magic beneath a tree.
He walked around the branches and leaves that obstructed his vision and looked at the magic’s true form.
The hunched human form seemed to sense Kane’s gaze. It turned instantly. It was a shape made of yellowed, rotting foliage. Eyeless holes stared at Kane.
As soon as he was spotted, Kane swung toward the canopy at the rear to hide. But he felt the cold stares clinging to him. No amount of dodging seemed to make a difference.
So he swung to a relatively safe spot and crouched there.
He slowed his breathing. Upon closer inspection, he realized that the rotten humanoid plant was just staring. There was no action.
No intelligence? Or is this just a mobile surveillance device?
Kane thought for a moment, then lowered the spider silk and slid to the ground.
As soon as he was 2.3 meters off the ground, the humanoid plant’s dark eye sockets lit up with a red glow and charged at him like a hound. Kane didn’t panic. He shot three bales of spider silk.
The humanoid plant’s head and legs were instantly encased in spider silk, and it flopped forward onto the ground. But that didn’t affect its behavior.
The red glow in its upturned eyes intensified. Gripping the ground with both hands, it dragged itself frantically toward Kane.
No consciousness, just behavior that seems instinctive?
The behavior of this humanoid plant reminded Kane of the entertainment works in his previous life. The zombies in those works behaved in a similar way as this plant.
He shot an arrow straight at the head of the plant.
“Whoosh.”
The plant’s head jerked back from the blow. With the arrow embedded in its head, it continued to crawl toward Kane, completely unaffected.
No harm done, eh? Kane frowned, looking at the body of the humanoid plant. He fired another arrow, but this time it flashed with fire.
The flaming arrow instantly ignited the spider silk at the head of the plant. The flames, fueled by the spider silk, began to spread quickly to its body. It began to struggle, but no matter how much it struggled, it was futile.
Sure enough, a body made of dried plants made it highly flammable. Kane breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the weakness of this monster was relatively easy to target. If the fire didn’t work, he would have to trap it with spider silk and make his escape.
After the flames subsided, all that was left were the remains of a charred plant with an emerald glow in the residue. Kane went over to brush away the black ash and found a pair of bracers.
You can gain a treasure for defeating the villain?
Baffled, Kane reached down and picked up the bracers.
As soon as he picked up the wrist bands, the system voice popped up.
[Magic equipment detected. Do you want to activate equipment?]
[Yes] [No]
Pleasantly surprised, the corners of Kane’s lips curled up.
“Yes.”
[Valdry’s Entanglement]
[Leather wrist bands]
[Color: Copper]
[Attributes]
[Flexible Micro Improvement—Hands]
[Controlling Minor Improvements—Hands]
[Strength increment—Wrists]
[Description: When the humanoid plant race, Valdry, was born, the Mother Tree lowered its vines and wrapped them around it.]
So this humanoid plant is called Valdry, Kane mused.
He studied the pair of bracers. They were made of vines wrapped around tree bark, and the surface was dotted with small white flowers.
After putting on the bracers, he felt an improvement brought by the equipment. The attributes specified a small increase, but the improvement brought by the actual equipment was very obvious.
He nocked two arrows on his bow and shot them quickly. The two arrows flew in a straight line and hit a wooden stake in the distance.
Kane had used rapid-fire arrows in the past, and the second arrow never made the mark. These effective bracers are specially tailored for marksmen, he thought.
He could clearly feel the improvement in his strength, flexibility, and accuracy. Right now, Kane felt like it wasn’t impossible for him to make three consecutive attempts.
Would I gain treasures by killing monsters in the dungeon? Or are the bracers an exception and I’m just lucky this time?
With that in mind, Kane swung up to the tree top quickly and began searching for his next target.
Still, he was just searching.
There were too many humanoid plants in the forest. They were everywhere as far as the eye could see. Kane still didn’t dare get too close to them.
As most of the humanoid plants were not far away, approaching them recklessly would definitely attract the attention of many of them at once. It would be too dangerous if one of them knew long-range attacks.
These humanoid plants were clearly like zombies, but their senses were sensitive and their movements were very fast.
After searching for a long time, he finally found one who had strayed from the group. There was no one of his kind around. Kane stealthily swung toward it from the periphery.
As expected, as soon as he approached, the humanoid plant turned around. Kane raised his hand, lit an arrow, and shot it, followed by a bale of spider silk.
With the help of the spider silk, the plant was instantly set ablaze.
When the fire died down, Kane came down the tree eagerly.
Searching through the ashes, he found something else. It was a diamond-shaped emerald gem. He picked it up and held it in his hand.
Identification
[Valdry’s life core]
[Magic Materials]
[Color: Copper]
[Attribute: Minor increase in magic stone energy]
[Description: The magic core generated after Valdry’s desperate death]
As expected, the dungeon was a replica of the dungeon in games. The monsters inside would ‘drop equipment’ when they died.
They could also drop such gems to charge magic stones.
I declare the dungeon my home from now on.
He took a deep breath. He couldn’t be impatient. He needed to take more action to determine if he would really gain treasures.
He looked at the humanoid plants in the distance. This is practically a treasure trove.
Kane stood on the tree top, licking his lips, his eyes glowing red. The hunt was about to begin.
