Chapter 3: 3: Grinding levels, farming mob drops, looting the dungeon, and near-death experience

=== Ending Game World 1 → Loading Instance Dungeon 1 → Entering Instance Dungeon 1 ===

=== Instance Dungeon Start! ===

◊ ◊ ◊

Estelle exited the purple portal and entered the instance dungeon.

The dungeon was created underground as its name suggests and was dimly lit but the torches burning on the walls spaced every several meters.

Cobwebs hung from the ceiling of the decrepit corridor. Mold grew from the crevices and wiggled like worms in the ominous breeze. Water leaked through the cracks along the walls and ceiling. Three words best describe this place; cold, lifeless, and eerie.

A normal person would've been freaked out by the atmosphere of this place and the uncomfortable feeling it gave as if hundreds of eyes were staring at you in the shadows.

Actually, there were hundreds of eyes staring at Estelle at this exact moment.

Squinting her eyes and straining her senses, Estelle could hear the faint cacophony coming from the distance.

tak. tak. tak. tak. tak. tak...

The sounds became louder and louder until finally the source of this sound was revealed by the lit torches further down the corridor.

Hairy black spiders the size of a dog crawled along the four surfaces of the corridor, creeping toward her at a rapid pace. Their scarlet eyes reflected the light giving off an ominous glint to it.

More and more spiders were revealed. The torches were trampled on and blown out by the horde of spiders like a horror scene where the lights switched off one by one down the corridor, slowly approaching the horrified victim until they were surrounded by darkness and swallowed whole.

Estelle estimated there to be over 20 spiders.

Soon, the quiet dungeon was filled with the loud sound of gunfire accompanied by the shrieks of the unlucky victim hit by a bullet.

Estelle had 12 bullets in total. Not a single bullet missed its target, and a few even took out multiple targets, dwindling the spiders' numbers down to 4.

Throwing the guns away, Estelle equipped the Stone Sword in her 1st Hotbar and held the Steel Dagger in her off-hand.

Two spiders leaped from the ceiling toward Estelle with their fangs bared and their forelegs raised, ready to grapple her.

Estelle slashed the sword down in a vertical line, slicing a large wound down its abdomen and knocking it back.

The dagger in her arm thrust forward, stabbing the second spider in its jaw, slamming its mouth shut then throwing it to the side.

The initial spider shook its head in a daze then leaped toward her once again, accompanied by the other two spiders, also jumping in to attack her.

Estelle dodged the first spider's attack and swung her sword toward the second spider, but unfortunately was bitten in the forearm by the third spider as she was defenseless and couldn't evade its attack.

A status debuff entered her vision with the words "Poison I" and a timer of "0:29 seconds." Half a heart was depleted every second thanks to the poison debuff. This would undoubtedly drop her hit points to half a heart, but thankfully she had the player's physique that would keep her from dying unless attacked again.

As long as she dealt with the spiders before that time, she could recover her lost health and get back to full hp in a few minutes.

Estelle kept a cool face throughout the battle, even as the poison attacked her immune system, causing a painful sensation to run up her arm.

Falling back, Estelle swung her arm around, twisting her body while pivoting on her left heel, and used centrifugal force to enhance the strength of her next attack.

People who saw her would think she had eyes on the back of her head. To some degree, she did since her perception was enhanced thanks to the "3rd person pov."

It didn't actually allow her to leave her body viewing it from outside, but instead increased her senses so that she could "feel" things behind her.

The first spider she had attacked with her sword had turned around at this time and was halfway through its leaping motion, ready to sink its fangs into her back, but the steel dagger in her left hand ruthlessly struck the side of its head, stabbing its brain, and instantly killing it.

After several intense moments, Estelle managed to take down the remaining 4 spiders just as her health was left at half a heart.

If there was another good thing about a player's physique, it would be that no matter how much or what kind of raw meat you ate, you wouldn't get sick.

Estelle opened her inventory and took out some Human Flesh. When the Poison I debuff finished its duration, she tore a piece of meat from the chunk of flesh and thoroughly chewed it before swallowing it.

A chunk of flesh could recover a full heart, and thankfully she had 13 chunks, easily recovering her health back to full with leftovers.

"Now for the looting", She said with a smile, wiping the crimson blood dripping down the side of her mouth.

Her mood quickly dropped and a disdainful expression appeared on her face.

"Why did I expect something from a spider? Of course, all I'm gonna get is Spider Eyes and String."

Estelle collected a total of 11 String and 4 Spider Eyes.

However, she wasn't without gain.

Killing the 20 spiders provided her with abundant experience points, bringing her level up to 52.

Estelle pondered for a moment and then chose to upgrade one of her Passive Skills, Iron Skin, to level 10 bringing its Damage Reduction ability to 50%!

This meant attacks from all sources were now reduced by half!

Satisfied, Estelle finally entered the corridor, walking further into the dungeon without fear.

The first room she entered was through a wooden door barely hanging on its hinges.

Inside the room was a wooden chest with a few books scattered here and there and a skeleton chained by its wrist to the wall beside the chest.

When Estelle opened the chest, she found an Enchantment Book, Pumpkin Pie (1), Coal (4), and Cobweb (2).

◊ ◊ ◊

Advancement Made — You're a Wizard!

• Permanently enhance all magic spells and magic-related items or actions by 5%.
• Increases Magic Affinity by 5% per level.

Enchantment Book — Lesser Bane of Arthropods I:

• Increases damage against mobs of the Arthropod family such as spiders, crabs, silverfish, endermites, and bees.
• Merging a book of the same level can increase its rank to the next level.
• Max level: V (5)

Speaking of magic, Estelle remembered the Passive Skills category in the Attributes panel she had ignored until now.

Passive skills had seven subcategories:

• Farming - Influences farming-related items and actions.
• Agility - Influences dextrous actions and items like bows.
• Defense - Influences defensive actions and items like armor and shields.
• Building - Influences placement of blocks such as wood, stone, and dirt.
• Attack - Influences actions and items related to melee weapons or close combat.
• Magic - Influences performance of magic spells or usage of magical items, like heart containers or various healing items.
• Mining - Influences transmuting/absorption of items like pickaxes, axes, or shovels and mining high-tier ores like silver and gold.

Magic (Lvl 0):

• Allows the player to use, wield, or perform the Arcane Arts and magic-related items.
• No level limit. 
• Determines the player's talent for magic.
• +5% affinity per level.
• Max Affinity Level: 20

Spectral Osmosis (Requires level 8 Magic):

• Converts the players' experience points into durability for an equipped item, tool, or weapon.
• Current exchange rate 6:1 (levels → durability)
• The exchange rate reduces by 2 points every 8 levels in Magic until it reaches a ratio of 1:1.
• Certain Unique items cannot be repaired through Spectral Osmosis.

Warp Tonic (Requires Level 16 Magic):

• No longer take damage from warping.

Arkana (Requires level 24 Magic):

• Protects the player from unavoidable attacks, reducing the damage by 10-100% based on the difference in Magic levels between the player and the attacker.
• 24% Resistance to all elements.
• +1% Elemental resistance per level in Magic.
• Max level: 100.

Arkana Prime (Requires level 32 Magic):

• Protects the player from undetectable or unblockable attacks such as curses, true damage, or any other similar ability, reducing the damage by 10-100% based on the difference in Magic levels between the player and the attacker.
• Circulate Arcane Energy throughout the body enhancing the physique and imbuing Arcane Energy into all attacks dealing True Damage.

◊ ◊ ◊

When she finished reading the list of abilities from the various skills, Estelle's heartbeat rose sharply and she began to daydream of the time when she would one-shot legendary mobs with a wave of her hand.

But now, she was just a newbie who had just entered the server, so no matter how much she yearned for it, it wouldn't come to her and only waited for her to take the initiative to chase after it.

You are reading story Gamer in the Fictional World at novel35.com

And that she did.

Estelle left the first room and turned a corner.

This corridor looked like a replica of the first, with almost all the cracks and cobwebs in the same positions.

"Probably something to do with limited RAM and CPU." Estelle off-handedly commented.

She entered another room and like the first, there was a chest with tattered books scattered on the ground. This time however there wasn't a skeleton, but a rotting corpse.

Estelle glared at the corpse and stabbed her Stone Sword into the soft skull of the Zombie pretending to be 'dead'.

It growled and attempted to resist, but its remaining 4 hearts dropped to zero.

Just like the thugs and spider corpses, its flesh, clothes, and blood turned to smoke leaving behind its skeleton.

Experience points in the form of specks of light entered her body giving her half a level.

Estelle opened the chest and discovered a faintly glowing silver pendant beside a silver ring.

◊ ◊ ◊

Sin Pendant:

• Crafting material used to craft Pendants of the Seven Deadly Sins; Wrath, Pride, Gluttony, Envy, Lust, Sloth, and Greed.
• Gives no additional abilities or effects.
• +0.5 Locational Armor (Bountiful Baubles & Trinkets necklace slot only).

Miners Ring:

• Increases mining speed.
• +0.5 Locational Armor (Bountiful Baubles & Trinkets ring slot only).

◊ ◊ ◊

These two accessories reminded Estelle of her previously obtained equipment, namely the Leather Jacket and Safety Boots.

Leather Jacket provided her with 3 defense and 1.5 locational armor.

Safety Boots gave her 1 defense and 0.5 locational armor.

She now had 6 points in defense.

...

The lack of light in this dimly lit environment distorted Estelle's perception of time, so she had no idea how long she had been in the dungeon for.

"Maybe a few hours?" She said to herself.

Her location was now on the third floor of the Subterranean dungeon. These floors were relatively empty, save for the occasional hordes of Spiders or Zombies.

Unfortunately, the loot was subpar, only giving her some apples, wheat, bread, coal, cobwebs, and sticks.

At least now she won't have to resort to human flesh. Not that she was opposed to it, but it really wasn't efficient. A single Bread can give her 7 points of hunger, replenishing 5 hearts in 3 seconds. Why would she waste that time eating human flesh?

Following that line of thought, she used the remaining flesh and blood to bait zombies, distracting them as she snuck up from behind and assassinated them.

Just as she was about to enter the fourth level, she felt a terrifying pressure weigh on her from behind.

Chills crawled up her spine as she felt the invasive stare of whatever stood behind her.

Purple light flickered in the dimly lit stairway carrying with it a screeching sound like static.

Slowly turning her head around, the first thing she saw was a long slender arm pitch black and shrouded in a thin layer of black mist covering the faint purple hue surrounding its body.

In her peripheral vision, she could see the intense purple eyes on its featureless face, staring unblinkingly at her from above.

She could already be considered tall, but compared to this creature, she was no different from a child. It was 3.5 meters, an entire meter and a half taller than her, towering over her from above emitting this intimidating and overwhelming pressure.

Enderman.

Estelle had no thoughts of attacking this creature since in her current state, doing so would be akin to committing suicide. Even with her various stats and damage reduction, she would most likely die by a single hit to the dome. There was no way for her to survive more than three of its attacks.

Thankfully, it was harmless unless provoked by staring into its eyes, which Estelle avoided with her powerful gamer's will.

Unlike in the game, real life was completely different as it could influence the person's senses and thinking, and the purple light and black mist whispered into her ears, trying to convince her to look at it, to stare into those abyss-like eyes.

Estelle turned away with difficulty and continued on her way down to the fourth level with rigid steps.

Despite knowing she was safe from danger and that it wouldn't attack, she couldn't entirely get rid of the pressure and influence it had on her.

Especially since she had the "Ender System."

It was the pinnacle creation and last artifact of the Enderman before they were corrupted and enslaved by the Ender Dragon. The knowledge she obtained from the gift package.

In actuality, she was half Enderman, thanks to the merging of that Ender God Crystal, the essence and knowledge of the Enderman Civilization; master builders, explorers, and craftsmen.

That was enough of a history lesson for today.

Estelle finally reached the fourth level, but before she could sigh in relief, her senses screamed danger but were too late to react.

An arrow tore through the air and arrived before her face in an instant, piercing her eyeball and knocking her head back.

5 hearts were drained leaving her with 15 hit points, but the locational damage left her head at half a heart. Another attack and she would die, losing all her progress in this world.

This was probably one of the most terrifying aspects of RLCraft. All mobs that attacked with projectiles had aimbot hacks and will almost always hit their target head no matter the distance or position.

Estelle's version was dyed red and a throbbing pain pulsed rhythmically.

'No more bullets so I can't shoot back. I can't peak for more than a second otherwise I'm as good as dead. The distance is too far so it's unlikely for me to close the distance... oh, wait, there's a better solution to this.'

Estelle sneered and ignored the pain in her head.

The Runic Band on her wrist lit up in orange and she began to extract the stone behind her.

The 4 units of Stone that were placed inside the Runic Bands storage were summoned and placed in front of the staircase, creating a wall between the Skeleton and Estelle.

Sighing in relief, Estelle opened her crafting table and crafted a Block of Wool with 9 String. The block of wool was placed in the center and on both sides were string.

Using the bandages on her head crafted from the supplied materials regenerated her lost health in an instant, magically recovering her lost eyeball and healing all wounds.

Estelle then extracted the stone beneath her and the dirt further down by 4 blocks. She then dug straight ahead estimating the distance between her and the skeleton, then dug above her.

Suddenly, the skeleton who had attacked her fell through the floor landing in front of Estelle, except its face and body were blocked by dirt leaving its legs exposed to the grinning Estelle.

Whack! Whack! Whack!

The skeleton turned into a pile of bones and Estelle received 3 levels and 2 Bones.

You can find story with these keywords: Gamer in the Fictional World, Read Gamer in the Fictional World, Gamer in the Fictional World novel, Gamer in the Fictional World book, Gamer in the Fictional World story, Gamer in the Fictional World full, Gamer in the Fictional World Latest Chapter