I woke up instantly at the entrance to Floor 4, [HP: 50/50].
[DEFEAT PENALTY: None. This is a tutorial. Do not be pathetic.]
"Rude!" I snapped at the empty air, but I was secretly relieved. There was no real penalty. Just the pain and the humiliation.
So I ground.
I spent what felt like days in that white, sterile hell. I "died" six more times. I learned to use the columns as cover. I learned to feel the shift in an enemy's weight before they lunged.
After clearing Floor 5, a new window popped up.
[Skill Acquired: [Novice Footwork (E-Rank)]]
> Effect: Passively increases AGI by +2.
Active: 'Quickstep' - A short, 1-meter dash with a 5-second cooldown. Costs 1 Stamina.
It wasn't magic, but it was everything. My clumsy dodges became crisp, deliberate side-steps. I was no longer just reacting—I was fencing.
I cleared Floor 9 after a grueling battle with a [Hobgoblin Leader (Level 9)]. I was covered in cuts, my HP was in the red, but I didn't die.
[FLOOR 9 CLEAR!]
[+500 BONUS EXP!]
[LEVEL UP! You are now Level 10!]
The golden light was a euphoric rush. I felt the power settle into my small body. My aches vanished.
I pulled up my status.
> Name: Silvie Briar
Level: 10
HP: 100/100
MP: 0/0
Stats: STR: 8, DEX: 15, VIT: 10, INT: 4, AGI: 15 (+2)
Trait: [Loyalty of the Knight]
Skills: [Nod], [Agree], [Cower], [Novice Footwork (E-Rank)]
My DEX and AGI had skyrocketed. I felt light, fast, and dangerous.
The portal to Floor 10 appeared. It was different from the others. The light inside wasn't blue; it was a deep, ominous red.
[WARNING: Floor 10 is a 'Milestone Floor.']
[You will face a Boss Monster.]
[Clear this floor to unlock your Milestone Rewards.]
I looked at my [Trainee's Practice Rapier]. The F-Rank weapon was chipped, and the hilt was slick with my own (very real) sweat.
"A boss, huh?" I said, gripping the hilt. "Right on schedule."
I stepped into the red light.
The red light of the portal was blinding. When it faded, the sterile white tiles were gone.
I was standing on dark, compacted sand. The air was dry and smelled of dust and iron. I looked up. There was no vaulted ceiling, just an artificial, churning sky of the deepest crimson. I was in a massive, circular arena, ringed by crumbling stone walls and empty, shadowed archways. It was a classic boss room.
The arena was silent, save for the sound of my own breathing. My [HP: 100/100] was full. My [Level 10] stats felt... good. My AGI: 15 made me feel like I was light as a feather.
"Okay, boss," I muttered, holding my flimsy practice rapier at the ready. "Where are you?"
A low, grating shhhhh-scraaaape echoed from the far side of the arena. A massive, rusted-shut portcullis began to rise, its ancient mechanism groaning in protest.
A shadow emerged from the darkness behind it. Then another.
No... it was one thing.
It was a skeleton, but it was easily seven feet tall. Its bones were not the clean, white of a lab specimen; they were thick, ancient, and stained a deep, oily black. It was clad in pieces of rusted, heavy plate armor that covered its chest and shins. In one hand, it held a massive tower shield that looked like it was torn from a castle wall. In the other, it held a long, bladed spear, its tip still gleaming.
Two points of red, malevolent light ignited deep within its empty eye sockets.
The System's ping was slow, almost... funereal.
[MILESTONE BOSS DETECTED]
> Name: The Warden (Level 12)
HP: 250/250
Traits: [Armored Bones], [Shield Bearer]
My blood ran cold. I didn't need a description for those traits. [Armored Bones] meant my tiny rapier would have trouble. [Shield Bearer] meant it would block any frontal attack.
This wasn't a slime. This wasn't a goblin. This was a test.
The Warden took one heavy step onto the sand and scraped its spear tip across the ground, sending up a shower of sparks. It was a challenge. It wasn't even charging me. It was waiting.
'You're slow,' I thought, my gamer instincts taking over. 'You're all defense and power. But I'm fast.'
I couldn't just run up and stab it. That shield was a wall. But my [Quickstep]... that was the key.
"Let's see you block this," I whispered.
I didn't run. I burst into motion.
[Skill: Quickstep]
I activated my new skill, dashing not at the boss, but in a sharp curve, aiming to flank its shield side. To my Level 10 senses, the world seemed to lurch as I moved in a near-instant blur, ending up on the Warden's exposed right side, its spear-arm.
It was a perfect flank. It hadn't even started to turn.
Its ribcage was exposed, just a small gap between its pauldron and its tattered plate armor.
I put all my STR: 8 into a single, perfect thrust, aiming right for that gap.
CLAAAAAANG!
The sound was not the clink of hitting a vital point. It was the sound of cheap metal shattering against something impossibly hard.
My rapier didn't just bounce. The tip shattered, sending a shard of the F-rank metal flying.
[-0 HP!]
I froze, my arm still vibrating from the impact. I stared, dumbfounded, at the broken, useless hilt still clutched in my hand.
The Warden's head turned, agonizingly slow. Its glowing red eyes swiveled in their sockets until they were looking directly down at me.
It raised its spear.
The spear tip, a foot of sharpened, gleaming steel, thrust downward.
It was fast...far faster than the Warden's slow turn had suggested. This wasn't a clumsy swing; it was a practiced, precise, killing blow.
But I was faster.
[Skill: Quickstep]
I didn't just dodge. I dashed, the 1-meter burst of speed throwing me backward onto the sand. The spear tip slammed into the ground where I'd been a millisecond before, punching a small, dark hole in the arena floor.
I scrambled to my feet, my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest. My [Quickstep] was now on its 5-second cooldown. I was ten feet away from the boss, and I was completely, utterly unarmed.
The Warden pulled its spear from the sand with a heavy shhhk. It turned its body, that same agonizingly slow pivot, to face me.
My eyes darted around the arena. Crumbling walls. Sand. And the broken, useless hilt of my rapier still clutched in my hand.
'This is a puzzle,' I thought, my mind racing. 'Not a fight.'
The System had called it a "Milestone." Miki had always said "Milestone" bosses were just stat checks or puzzle checks. My F-Rank weapon did zero damage. My stats weren't high enough to hurt it.
Therefore, the boss was unbeatable... unless I changed the rules.
The Warden raised its spear and charged. It wasn't a run; it was a heavy, thundering, shield-first bash, its spear leveled at my tiny chest.
I didn't have time to think. I just ran, sprinting not away, but toward the nearest crumbling archway at the edge of the arena.
[HINT: The 'Warden's' charge cannot be easily stopped. Use your AGI to your advantage. The environment is 80% of any battle.]
The System's pop-up confirmed it. This was a bullfight. I was the matador.
I reached the crumbling stone pillar and pressed my back against it. The Warden was only a few yards away, a seven-foot-tall, two-hundred-and-fifty-HP freight train of bone and rust.
My [Quickstep] cooldown was up.
"Come on, you oversized lawn ornament!" I yelled, my voice squeaking with a mix of terror and adrenaline.
It didn't need the taunt. It was already locked on.
One final, powerful step, and it lunged, pouring all its Level 12 momentum into a single, devastating spear thrust aimed directly at my head.
Now!
[Quickstep]
I dashed sideways.
The Warden, with no intelligence and all-in on its attack, couldn't stop.
There was a sound like a thunderclap. KRA-KOOM!
The Warden's spear plunged deep into the ancient stone pillar, punching through a foot of solid rock and getting lodged deep inside.
The boss stopped, its arm still extended. It was stuck.
It pulled. The spear didn't budge. It planted its feet and heaved. The spear groaned, but the crumbling pillar held it fast.
It was my chance.
But how to damage it? My rapier was gone.
I looked at the stuck spear. I looked at the boss's back as it strained, its entire attention focused on retrieving its weapon.
'A-ha.'
I ran at it, not at its back, but at the spear. I leaped, grabbing the thick, wooden shaft. Using my DEX: 15, I scrambled up the spear like a gymnast on a balance beam, my small, light body making it easy.
In two seconds, I was standing on the Warden's broad, armored shoulder.
It felt me. It roared and tried to reach for me with its free shield arm, but it was too awkward, too slow.
I was on its back. And just as I'd suspected, its front was covered in plate armor, but its back... its spine was just exposed, ancient black bone.
I still had the broken hilt of my rapier. The end, where the blade had snapped off, was a jagged, ugly shard of F-rank metal.
It was a shiv. And that was all I needed.
I raised the broken hilt high over my head and drove it down with all my strength, plunging the jagged metal into the gap between two of its massive vertebrae.
[CRITICAL HIT! VITAL POINT STRUCK!]
[ARMOR PIERCED!]
[-150 HP!]
The Warden screamed. It thrashed, a violent, bone-rattling spasm that nearly threw me off. It let go of the spear and flailed, its shield arm slamming against the pillar.
I held on, clinging to its pauldron with one hand, and stabbed it again in the same spot.
[-100 HP!]
[HP: 0/250]
The Warden froze.
The thrashing stopped. The red lights in its eye sockets flickered, dimmed, and went out.
For a long second, it stood there, impaled on its own spear, with me on its back like a tiny, crimson-haired jockey.
Then, with a sound like a thousand bricks tumbling, it dissolved. The bones, the armor, the shield—it all fell apart into a pile of black dust, rusted metal, and shimmering blue particles.
I landed lightly on the sand, breathing hard, still clutching the broken hilt.
The arena was silent.
Then, the pings began.
[MILESTONE BOSS 'THE WARDEN' DEFEATED!]
[+1000 BONUS EXP!]
[LEVEL UP! You are now Level 11!]
[LEVEL UP! You are now Level 12!]
[CAMPAIGN MILESTONE 1: COMPLETE!]
[Calculating Rewards...]
[REWARD GRANTED: 'Mana Core (Magic)' has been unlocked!]
[REWARD GRANTED: Skill: [Rapier Arts (E-Rank)] has been acquired!]
[REWARD GRANTED: Item: 'Warden's Spear Tip' (C-Rank Material)]
[REWARD GRANTED: Title: 'Dungeon Novice']
A torrent of warm, golden light—stronger than any before—surged through me. I felt a new, strange, second pool of energy ignite deep in my stomach, a warm, tingling sensation I'd never felt before.
I frantically pulled up my status.
> Name: Silvie Briar
Level: 12
HP:120/120
MP: 50/50
Stats: STR: 10, DEX: 18, VIT: 12, INT: 8, AGI: 18 (+2)
Trait: [Loyalty of the Knight]
Skills: [Nod], [Agree], [Cower], [Novice Footwork (E-Rank)], [Rapier Arts (E-Rank)]
Title: The Useless Sidekick, [Dungeon Novice]
I had mana. I had an actual sword skill. My INT stat had even jumped.
I was so busy staring at my new MP: 50/50 bar that I almost missed the final notification.
[TUTORIAL COMPLETE. EXITING 'THE ETERNAL DUNGEON'.]
"Wait, already? But I haven't even tried to..."
The world dissolved to white.