Finally!

  The next morning, I left the counts’ countryside estate, claiming I was going for a walk. I covered myself with a cloak so it wouldn’t be obvious that I’d grabbed some pants and a shirt from my older brother’s room.

  My goal? To find the novice dungeon. But getting there wasn’t nearly as easy as I’d imagined. I spent over an hour stumbling through tall underbrush, getting smacked in the face by branches and tripping over roots I couldn’t see… and then, there it is. Right in front of me.

  Dungeons aren’t exactly living beings, but if this world follows the game’s rules, they’re born. A small core forms upon absorbing mana. Following a massacre, a skeleton dungeon might pop up pretty quickly. In other cases, like this one, they form after centuries of slow absorption. I’m right on the mountainside, in a rugged, rocky area that cuts through the forest. No clue how long this dungeon’s been here, but they discover it in a couple of years in the game, so I was hoping it’d already formed. When I finally find the entrance and confirm it has, the relief hits me hard.

  Because I need to level up. Not just to pass that exam anymore, but to stop being some useless yes-woman to the villainess’s sister. I’ve already decided I’m not going to act like Bianca. I’m going to be me. Got some excuses ready—like hitting my head yesterday. Whatever. The dark hole in the rock opens before me, and the longer I stare at it, the more nervous I get. Because I don’t know what happens if I die here. Will I actually die, or return to my body? I definitely don’t want to find out, but my gamer side refuses to sit around in a magic world just to sew like some bored noble lady.

  Magic. Power.

  I can’t deny my excitement just thinking about becoming a spellcaster. So here we go.

  I’ve got a backpack with food and water. Plus several torches, a rope, and a short sword I snagged from the country house guards’ storage. No idea how to use it; honestly hope I won’t need to. This dungeon’s full of slimes, and slimes are weak to fire. I light a torch and I’m about to head in when something catches my eye. I look right, at the rock wall I’ve partly cleared of brush. There’s another hole, just as dark as the one in front of me.

  I frown. There weren’t any other caves here. I’d reached this event in the game and cleared the dungeon with two of the school’s eligible guys.

  I clear away the rest of the brush and bring the torch closer. It’s a dungeon. If it were just a cave, the light would illuminate part of it. I edge closer and yelp in surprise when text appears before me, like a video game popup window.

  Congratulations, you have found the entrance to a dungeon accessible only to travelers from other worlds. Would you like to enter?

  “No,” slips out before I realize this might lock me out forever.

  But no way am I going in at level who-knows-what (seriously doubt bookworm Bianca’s been grinding) with zero combat or magic skills.

  My heart’s racing. I just saw a message from the system that governs this world. In the game you could see them, but none of the NPCs could. Which means maybe—just maybe—I can access my stats without touching one of those status slabs. Or better yet, I might be able to level up more efficiently than the locals.

  I can’t wait any longer. I turn toward the slime dungeon and enter. I don’t see any messages or popup windows, but when I cross the threshold of darkness, I know I’m inside because my torch starts lighting up rough stone walls. It’s a tunnel that starts narrow and quickly widens, enough for a party of five dungeon crawlers to walk side by side. Water trickles down the walls onto the floor. Green moss, non-luminous, partly covers the stone. Nothing to hear but my quick breathing, the torch’s crackling, and occasional drips.

  Just like the game.

  I look ahead, knowing that when I reach the tunnel’s bend, two slimes will drop from the ceiling where they’re lurking. I’m ready. I throw the copper cup I brought for drinking water ahead of me. Two wet 'plops' follow, and the creatures, two jelly-like masses about the size of my head, fall onto the cup. I bring my torch closer and burn them. They try to jump away, but the fire has spread through their bodies and moves with them. I eye the cup without touching it. They were only on it for a couple seconds, but their corrosive goo’s already half-melted it. As for the creatures, they burn completely.

  A message appears before my eyes.

  My heart stops for a moment.

  Yes!

  Thank the gods of this world and mine.

  I have notifications, I have a system!

  Congratulations, you have killed two Level 1 Earth Slimes. You have leveled up. You are now Level 2. Would you like to assign your free stat point?

  “Yes!” I say, thrilled.

  My status sheet appears before me. I don’t even care that useless Bianca was still Level 1. Maybe it’s even better because this way I can build my stats however I want. I’m beyond excited. My life is now a game, and even if it’s an otome, I’m going to ignore that part and focus on becoming the most powerful mage.

  Why?

  Because in games I only care about two things: winning if it’s like LoL, or maxing out if it’s an MMORPG.

  Bianca L’Crom

  Race: Human

  Age: 18

  Level: 2

  Constitution: 6

  Strength: 2

  Intelligence: 3

  Agility: 2

  Wisdom: 6

  HP: 6

  MP: 6

  Magic Affinity: Earth (low affinity)

  Skills: None

  Spells: Minor Earth Control

  Since I’m not sure where to put the free point, I save it for now. At least I have one spell, even if it’s just the most basic earth magic. In the game, you cast spells from the number keys you assigned them to. Then your character said the name out loud, so I try.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Earth Control,” I whisper, since I don’t want to shout in the middle of a dungeon.

  A screen appears asking me to select where I’m taking earth from, what shape to give it, and where to move it. After burning through half my mana in attempts, I discover that while I do have to speak the spell’s name, I can do everything else silently if I concentrate—if that’s my intention when I cast it.

  If it weren’t for my good memory and remembering where the creatures are in this dungeon, I could use it to roll an earth ball in front of me. My range is only one meter, but if I move along with the ball, it’ll stay in range. It’s a basic technique any earth mage uses in the otome.

  As for the dungeon, I walk down another long corridor with one lurking slime and reach a fork with three paths. One ends in a pit trap. I avoid it. Another leads to a small chest guarded by four slimes. Thanks to the torch and knowing where they are, they’re not too hard to take down. I come out mostly unscathed, though when two jump at me at once, I can’t dodge one and it lands on my stomach. I quickly burn it and the creature leaps left while consumed in flames. The few moments it was on me were enough to hole my linen shirt and burn my skin. After beating the other three, I pull the water flask from my backpack and pour a generous amount on my belly. If their acid is like Earth’s, it keeps corroding until you neutralize it. I improvise a bandage with the simple white undershirt I brought exactly for this, then approach the chest and open it. Like in the video game, it’s not locked or trapped. Inside, there a few copper coins. I pocket them and return to the fork.

  That’s five slimes since hitting Level 2, and my level progress hasn’t even reached a quarter of the required experience. Looking at it that way, no wonder a sheltered noble hadn’t managed to level up in almost 18 years of life.

  The last path is the most dangerous. I stop for a while before heading down it, taking the chance to eat some of the bread and meat I brought. There’s a boss—a small one since this is a newbie dungeon, but a boss nonetheless. It’s with three more slimes in a chamber behind a boss door, meaning once you enter, you can’t leave until you’ve killed it. That’s why I can’t use the earth ball to lure its minions into the corridor and kill them one by one. No matter how much I think about it, I can’t figure out a way to make this easier and minimize the risk, so I finally steel myself, light a second torch, and go for it.

  The boss chamber is wider than the corridors, almost circular. The ceiling arches high enough that my torchlight barely reaches it. Water drips somewhere in the darkness, echoing. I scan the space quickly, torch held high. Three dark shapes cling to the ceiling where I remember them from the game: the minion slimes. And there, in the center of the room, a mass of translucent green jelly the size of a large dog pulses slowly. The boss.

  The moment I cross the threshold, I hear it, a grinding sound of stone on stone. I spin around in time to see a slab of rock sliding down to seal the entrance. No going back now.

  The boss slime ripples, and even though it doesn’t have eyes, I can feel its attention lock onto me. It moves faster than its smaller cousins, surging forward in a wave of acidic gel. I dodge right, boots skidding on the wet stone, and thrust both torches toward it. The flames make contact and the creature recoils with a wet hiss, but it doesn’t ignite. Shit. Just like in the game, the boss isn't as vulnerable to fire as its minions.

  I keep moving, circling toward the wall. Need to get my back covered before those three on the ceiling drop. The boss lunges again and I barely avoid it, feeling the heat as one torch passes dangerously close to my hip. The slime splatters against the ground where I was standing a second ago, leaving a sizzling puddle that eats into the stone.

  A wet plop behind me. Then another.

  They’re dropping.

  I sprint the last few steps to the wall and whirl around, pressing my back against the cold stone. Two of the minions have fallen and are already bouncing toward me, their movements quicker than the ones in the corridor. The third is still on the ceiling, directly above the boss.

  The boss surges forward at the same moment the two smaller slimes launch themselves at me. I swing the left torch in a wide arc, catching one mid-air. It shrieks—an awful wet sound—and bursts into flames, falling uselessly to the ground. But I’m not fast enough for the second one. It slams into my right shoulder and I scream, feeling the acid sear through fabric and into my skin. Instinct takes over. I drop the torch in my left hand and grab the slime with my bare hand, hurling it as far as I can. Flames roar up as I fling the torch in my right hand onto it. The creature writhes, engulfed in fire, and I crouch to grab the torch from the ground. It’s still burning, stubborn and alive in my grasp. My heart pounds as the acrid stench of slime and scorched fabric, along with the sharp, chemical sting of acid, floods my nostrils. I can’t stop now.

  Two down.

  Through the pain, I see the boss preparing another charge. I raise my remaining torch like a spear and brace myself.

  It comes at me fast, a gelatinous wave of death. At the last second, I sidestep and jam the torch directly into its mass. The creature envelops the flame, and for a horrible moment I think it’s going to smother it, but then I see the fire crawling through its translucent body like molten threads. It’s working. Slowly, but working.

  The third minion finally drops from the ceiling.

  “Oh, come on!” I gasp, lunging and sprinting toward the torch I’d hurled, dodging bits of burning slime as I grab it while it’s still alight. My corrosive-burned shoulder screams in protest as I bend down, fingers closing around the wooden handle. Meanwhile, the slime has landed where my head had been moments ago and is coming straight for me.

  I wait a few moments for it to come closer, then intercept it mid-leap with my torch. Not only does it catch fire, but the wooden handle propels it backward as if it were a bat striking a gelatinous ball. But the distraction cost me. The boss, still burning but not dead, slams into my legs. I crash to the ground, my hip cracking against the stone. Pain shoots through me, but I plant one hand firmly on the floor and hang onto the torch with the other, despite my battered shoulder. The boss is on top of me, and even though it’s burning, even though it’s dying, its acidic body is eating through my pants, my skin. My leg. The pain is blinding. I shove my remaining torch directly into its center mass and hold it there, screaming through clenched teeth. The slime writhes, trying to escape, but I don’t let up. Can’t let up.

  The fire spreads faster now, consuming more and more of its gelatinous body. The weight on my legs lessens as it loses cohesion. Come on, come on, die already!

  Finally, the boss collapses into a puddle of burning goo that slides off me. I kick frantically to get the remnants away, ignoring the agony in my leg, and scramble backward until my spine hits the wall again.

  For a long moment, I just sit there, gasping for air, watching the last flames sputter out across the chamber floor. My whole body is shaking. The burns are worse this time, much worse. My shoulder throbs with each heartbeat, and when I look down at my leg, I have to swallow back bile. The acid ate through my rugged pants completely in that spot, and the skin underneath is angry red and blistered, worst around my calf.

  But I’m alive.

  The boss is dead.

  I slide down the wall until I’m fully sitting on the floor. My clothes are a mess, full of holes. I pull out my water flask with trembling hands and pour what’s left over my leg first, then my shoulder. The relief is immediate but temporary. I need healing potions.

  I force myself to stand, limping toward the chest that appeared in the center of the chamber. Same spot as in the game. I’m hoping it stays like in the game and there aren’t any traps. With shaking hands, I open it. Identical. Contains two minor healing potions and a minor corrosion resistance bracelet.

  I frown through the pain. This is only the typical loot. Where’s the bonus?

  Congratulations, you have conquered the Hosca dungeon for the first time. You receive an iron treasure chest.

  Congratulations. You have leveled up. You are now Level 3. You have one free stat point to use.

  “Yes!” I smile with relief despite everything, as another chest appears before me, small and made of the metal it’s named after. I rush to open it—well, rush is generous given my limp—excited for what I hope is inside. So excited that I get a bit clumsy and drop the loot from the other chest. The bracelet is fine, but the two valuable potions shatter before my eyes.

  “Nooo!” I shout in frustration. But it’s too late.

  Thankfully, I’m able to drop to my knees and drink the drops left on the largest shards of glass. It’s not much, but I feel the magic working immediately: the burns on my belly, shoulder and leg start to close, the angry red fading to pink, then to slightly tender new skin. Not perfect, but enough that I can walk without wanting to cry.

  Oh well, might as well go all in. I open the iron chest and carefully pick up the necklace inside. It’s beautiful: a silver-colored metal chain with a red gem pendant that catches the torchlight.

  Major Protection Necklace. When damage would reduce your HP to zero, it protects you and maintains you at 5 HP while the damage source continues. Cooldown: 1 week.

  I lift my hair and put it on, feeling the cool metal settle against my collarbone. With this, leveling up will be less risky. I grab my backpack, which I’d left on the ground near the now-open entrance, and start heading back.

  My legs are shaky. My shoulder still aches. But I’m grinning like an idiot the entire walk back through the dungeon corridors.

  Level 3, a protection necklace, and I know where another dungeon is.

  This world doesn’t know what’s coming.