How To Survive A Calamity

Chapter 137 Dark Castle [4]

And so...

I plundered.

-Shiing!

A silvery blade cleaved through the air and severed a monster in two even half.

"Nice aim!" I laughed heartily as i heard the system notification chime but ignored it.

-Jiggle!

Hamlet bounced against the ground, unleashing two silvery blades that tore through the air at visious speeds at a target, cleaving it in halves.

The system rang in my head, whispering to only me the success of my kill, and a felt a tinge of essence rush through my body.

But it was syill too little.

Regardless, i couldn't restrain my dark excitement.

How long had it been now?

A few hours?

Ah, yes.

A few hours had already passed since i woke up in this place, and after exploring Dark Castle a bit, there were a couple of things i was forced to notice and acknowledge about this bizarre place.

The whole places was built like a maze.

A labyrinth was more like it.

Like an ancient, haunted structure with incredibly tall and high ceilings, and spread walls. Each step i took forward threatened to throw my sense of direction into disarray often. It was a serious pain trying to move around.

The labyrinthine structure of Dark Castle was twisting and complex, rife with danger and confusion.

The ancient shadows which were continuously always surrounding me werr pressuring, it felt like being the center of a multitude of gazes.

There was no telling what could suddenly jump out of it and attack me.

The unsettling experience constantly left me on edge and pro-active

But it was just as expected, and as Meta said. I wasn't the only one here, and the labyrinthine walls of Dark Castle was also infested with roaming monsters filled with hunger and savagery.

Each corners turned were crawling with Monsters of all kinds.

Beasts and creatures i had struggle against outside in the Blood desert had also been forcefully drawn into this Dungeon, and the Sand Walkers weren't the only ones.

It was a whole festival of experience points!

As if all that already wasn't even enough, the archaic hallways of Dark Castle were lined with sinister and devious traps.

Booby traps that could send my head flying at one mis-step was always a single step away.

Literally.

Each step i took — every corner i turned, i had to be constantly wary of a poisonous arrow, or a cursed dart stabbing me in the neck.

Sentient vines with prickly thorns that excreted poisonous saps clinged to the walls and edges, writhing around silently for the right instant to properly lunge at my ankles.

And if those examples weren't bad enough, they even had pit traps!

How original, i thought.

But for better or for worse, whoever that made this place had a kinky obsession for poison.

Even the Dark Castle monsters are poisonous.

Those were just some amongst the many diabolical settings this place had in stall for its challengers.

'It's beginning to feel more and more like a dungeon form Dungeons and Dragons.'

But despite all of the sinister plots in play, i couldn't restrained a dark burning excitement in the depths of my gut.

That was because, the share thoughts of the amount of experience i could farm in this place almost made my mouth water uncontrollably.

"Come, come!" I side stepped, and flicked my spear skillfully with my wrist, tearing a monster apart in a fluent motion while smiling from ear to ear.

Once again, the system sung its praises and chants of my heroic kills and achievements, but they had already become sonorous melodies in my head at this point.

I no longer paid attention to the words, and simply just enjoyed hearing that oh so family chime that resounded at the back of my head, each time i ruthlessly reaped the life of a monster.

Yet still, i wasn't ranking up.

I wasn't leveling up, but it was an addictive feeling regardless.

Indefinitely, i knew i eas growing stronger.

Slowly, but surely.

Yet, it was still an unsaid truth that a small part of me was increasingly growing impatient and uneasy.

Was it supposed to take this long?

Was it supposed to be this hard? Ranking up?

I knew i couldn't keep this up for too long, i didn't have the luxury of doing so like i did in the Inheritance Dungeon of Laplace a year ago.

'Deandra and the kids should be fine right...?' i kept trying to console myself at the back of my mind.

I restrained a sigh and lowered my spear after my last kill.

Hamlet assumed the form of a large dark silver wolf with four fluffy tails blooming behind its back like enchanting dark flowers and finished off the last of the surviving monster of the horde we just finished decimating.

Again, the system whispered silently into my ears, a blue notification interface flashing before my eyes.

I stared at the illusionary screen silently for two seconds before dismissing it with a blink.

How many monsters had i killed since regaining consciousness?

I had no clue.

At some point, i lost count.

I sullenly looked around me.

Various corpses of different sizes littered across my vicinity, forming a morbid graveyard around me.

I took a step forward then paused as i felt a strange sensation under my feet.

Looking down, i realised i had stepped in a pool of thick blood.

I ignored the liquid, and the sickly mentalic smell it gave off and stretched my body with my arms over my head.

"There's no point getting sullen over anything right now. I'm not messing around here or goofing off while the others are trying desperately to survive. And besides, the stronger i can get while I'm away from them, the better it is for all of us as a team." I tried consoling myself with those words.

Yes, truly! I was doing this for the greater good in the end.

'Don, Trise, Deandra and Chelsea should be happy! They have such a devoted guy like me as a team member!'

Tearing myself another savage grin, i twirled my spear and prepared to hunt down the next monster i could find in my path.

But then, i took a step forward and froze once again.

Danger Sense alerted me at the back of my mind.

Just then, all of a sudden, a rabid monster which had been playing dead among the scattered corpses, used the chance to lunge ruthlessly at me.

It was a sudden and unexpected attack, but one i had plenty leisure and room for managing easily.

"Oohh!" I laughed and pivoted on my left heel, turning around sharply.

A wide grin twisted on my lips at that moment. Then i simply thrust my free let arm forward at the monster lunging at me and activated a little skill of mine.

•[Extra Skill <Partial Silver Body> is activated]

Liquid silver flowed out of the pores of my skin, encasing the entirety of my left arm all the way to the tips of my fingers in a reflective silver armour, forming a sharp silver spear with an elongated tip.

"Say ahh!"

I thrust the spear forward, piercing it through the spread open mouth of the monster, and stabbed through its head in a sickening sound, killing it instantly.

•[Ding! You have slain a....]

•[You have grown stronger...]

"Fuuu... That suprised me." I laughed darkly and withdrew my left arm from the monster as it returned back to normal.

The large monster corpse, with its head pierced, fell to the ground with a thump, lifeless and bleeding.

I stared as red blood quickly pooled into a puddle at my feet and twirled my spear casually.

I received three main Extra Skills from Hamlet.

Partial Mimic Skill.

Link Skill, and Partial Silver Body.

[Partial Silver Body] or Partial Slime Body was one of the automatic skills i received, like [Link], from forming a contract with Hamlet.

It was an Extra Skill, as the system classified it, which allowed me to generate a fluid liquid silver substance partially from my body.

And just like the Silver Sentinel from the Inheritance Dungeon, A.K.A, Hamlet, i could mold the liquid silver to form whatever o wanted, and even harden it.

It was a tricky Skill that required tricky Aura or Ether control to create the desired effect. But it was certainly very useful and powerful if you knew how to use it.

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But there was a limit to how much Silver body i could use on my owm, so no, i could not encase my entire body in a whole full suit of defensive armour.

...i tried already.

Neither could i also suddenly deconstruct my body and turn into a puddle of gooey silver to evade physical attacks like the Silver Sentinel could.

The extent of what i could achieve was simple to reinforce parts my body at a time for defence or create external weapons like i just did.

-Vrrrm -Vrrmm.

As soon as the monster was killed, my bracelet vibrated and the number of points reflected on it, increased immediately.

'Not bad.'

I stared at the screen with a hum and nodded.

The points...

•[188 --> 193]•

They had gone up quite a lot in the last few hours.