A roar shook the subway tunnel, deep, echoing from the left side.
KiRA's ears pricked in an instant, he could recognize this sound even in his sleep.
It was the kind of bellow that'd haunted his initial runs through the Tower of Beginning. The Elite monster of this dungeon was coming, and it wasn't messing around.
"Uni, get ready," he said, his voice low. He'd hoped to just chill and let his traps do the work, but this thing wasn't some dumb rat.
It was a Goblin Champion, a lazy brute by nature, but the fact it was charging straight for his trap? That screamed trouble.
"Uni, get into position."
This one wasn't an easy opponent, but more than the difficulty of handing the being, he knew if left alone, the creature would destroy the trap he had worked so hard to create.
"Vivi!" (I will help master!)
[Companion: Unity has used a skill: Blessing of Flames (Lv.1) on ID: KiRA.]
[Skill effect: (+Fire attribute) will be applied to the target.]
The air around KiRA warmed, a faint red glow wrapping his Gloves of Jasper. Attributes weren't just fancy magic: they were raw power, boosting everything from his attacking strength to the impact of his golden threads. With Unity's fire buff, those strings weren't just sharp; they were scorching.
As long as he was handling these, they were more lethal than any sword or magic in this tutorial.
So…
"Ghaaaaaaa!" The Goblin Champion barreled into view, a two-meter-tall mountain of green muscle, its arms like chiseled boulders. Its dirty rags barely covered its scarred body, and its red eyes burned with rage, locked on the Meat of a Pristine Rabbit's scent.
"Haaa…" KiRA stepped lightly onto the left platform, dodging puddles of toxic rat blood and globs of Black Hound acid.
Normal people would have been poisoned or their bodies would have been affected greatly by the residue of the dead monsters, however, KiRA wasn't worried about this.
[Due to the effect of Unique Stat: Purity, the player will be immune to poison and contamination.]
The stats were unique powers themselves. While they were usually numerical representations of what one already had, their presence also influenced one's overall being.
"This is still not enough…" He might have obtained the stat very early, but the stat value was still in single digits.
He needed to increase that later on, but for now…
"Unity."
"Viv!"
The Goblin Champion was an elite, it's level way above his measly 9. KiRA didn't need {Wise Eyes} to see the gap—- this thing was a tank, built to crush. But its stomping gait and wild swings were familiar to this expert, just like in the game.
Except… something was off. These creatures usually stuck to their turf, not chase bait like a starving dog. The meat's scent must've driven it nuts, but this was still weird.
-Thump! Thump! Thump!
'The structure and style seem the same.'
But the behavior pattern was a little different. They maintained their certain territory, but this one was here.
"Ghaaaaaa!"
There was a wooden mace in its hand.
It was strong, however in the presence of a Veteran, the giant creature was nothing.
-Qrrrr…
The platform quaked as the goblin closed in, its mace raised, eyes blazing like it'd been personally insulted. However, KiRA simply smirked. Big, strong, and dumb: the champion was exactly his type of target.
Srrrr…
He flicked his wrists, letting all ten Strings of Arcana unspool from his gloved fingers, their golden glow now tinged with fiery red from Unity's buff.
-Swash! Swash! Swash! Swash!
Right as the goblin lunged for the trap, KiRA yanked his hands. The threads snapped forward like a dozen blazing razors, slashing across the champion's chest, arms, and legs.
-Purrrr…
Deep gashes bloomed, green blood spraying in arcs, sizzling where it hit the tracks.
"Ghaaaaaa!" The beast roared in agony, shaking the station itself, its mace swinging blindly to hit whatever had hit its poor ass.
But KiRA was already gone, ducking behind a pillar faster than the gob's bloodshot eyes could track.
"Little tougher than I thought," he muttered, peeking out. The goblin's wounds were deep, but it was still standing, sniffing the air with a predator's focus. It could smell him, even through the rabbit meat's stench, however it couldn't see him— or the threads.
The strings had vanished, retracting into the shadows of his trap. The champion walked warily, growling, its mace scraping the ground as it searched the empty platform, however, he stopped in the very next moment.
"Grrrr?" the creature froze, head tilting. Something was wrong. Its rough hands pawed at its body, feeling… something crawling over its skin.
"Still slow as ever, big guy," KiRA ridiculed, stepping into view, his grin sharp. The threads hadn't vanished… no. They'd wrapped around the goblin's body during his attack, coiling like invisible snakes.
"Bi-bye~."
KiRA clenched his fists without giving the monster any moment to think and pulled.
-Strwat!
-Putchik!
The fire-charged Strings tightened, biting deep. In a heartbeat, the goblin champion was carved into chunks– arms, legs, torso, even eyes cut in three– all hitting the ground in a wet, steaming pile. Its mace clattered uselessly, its red eyes dimming as green blood pooled beneath.
[Ding!]
[Monsters defeated: 36/201.]
[Ding!]
[Level-up!]
[(Level-9)>> (Level-11).]
KiRA dusted off his gloves, unfazed by the outcome. Outside of this dungeon, at this very moment, these champs were nightmares that tore through dozens of new Players. But here? In his dungeon, with his traps and Unity's buffs, it was just another Pappy.
"Vivi, nice assist."
"Viv~!" (We're the best, Master~!)
The tunnel was quiet now, but KiRA's gut told him this wasn't over. That roar, the goblin's weird behavior, the "special dungeon" vibe: it all pointed to something bigger. He glanced at the Boost potion and Mana crystals in his inventory.
They'd come in handy soon it seemed, especially if this place contained a real threat.
"Alright, Uni," he said looking up at his partner, cracking his neck. "Shall we continue?"
It was the nature of special dungeons to have uneven monsters. It wasn't a logical distribution. Sometimes, these dungeons were filled with only the smallest of the low-level monsters despite the high level of the dungeon. Sometimes even the lowest level of the dungeons possessed monsters that one doesn't usually see in a proper dungeon.
These dungeons were called 'special' because of their anomalous nature, and if KiRA had gotten lucky enough to end up in one of them during his tutorial itself, there was no way he was going to waste this opportunity.
He was going to strike it rich this time.