Chapter 47: Solo Raid II

Feeling a bit bored, he tried to test his new stats, but found that wasn’t such a good idea.

Fighting monsters aside, once he decided to see how far his body could go, he realised that doing so inside a dungeon was a big mistake. After testing the collision mechanism of a few walls, he advised himself to leave the testing for another time, in another place with ample space.

For something he could however test, one could only wonder what his 199 Constitution brought to the table. It was such a strange stat to test, but it was necessary.

Thinking of it alone, he almost imagined himself in a strange outfit, tied up in a strange place, with a strange cat custume lady... ’never—never—never’ he immediately cast the thought out of his head and focused.

He deliberately let one monster hit him to begin the test.

He was skeptical at first, but when the creature’s blunt weapon smashed into his shoulder, he barely moved, neither did he feel any pain.

He looked at the weapon somewhat surprised, then at the monster.

’That didn’t hurt.’ He thought to himself. Now, he hadn’t actually expected it to hurt, but at the very least, he expected to feel something in that regard, but nothing. He only felt the sensation, and that was it.

Relieved that went as he imagined it would, he grabbed the monster’s arm and pulled, picking the stocky 4’9ft creature off the ground and throwing it into a wall like flinging a stick. His lifting strength was just as absurd as his striking one.

The monster crashed through a stone pillar, and Keane watched the dust settle.

’Okay.’ He thought to himself.

He was understanding something, perhaps the increase wasn’t just linear as he had imagined. His body had simply moved into another category.

He kept going.

At some point, the test stopped feeling like a test. The monsters were still appearing, Keane was still killing them, but he had somehow found a way to cure his boredom so that he was now enjoying himself.

He sprinted through the place, jumped over a group of monsters, landed behind them, and they fell dead on the ground. He had shot stone pebbles through their skulls mid-air.

He sprinted through the connections and moved into the next chamber before the last body had finished hitting the floor.

The dungeon became a blur of movement as he kept rushing through, finding new ways to finish the monsters in the quickest time possible.

Only after a while did he realize something. ’I’ve been going deeper this entire time.’

At that, he stopped.

The corridor ahead opened into a massive chamber, and at the center stood a creature unlike the others.

It was nearly twice his height, covered in thick dark armour-like skin. Two heavy horns curved from its head, and the pressure coming from its body was noticeably stronger than anything else he’d encountered within that dungeon so far. It had hooved legs but stood upright, and its animalistic look came off savage.

Looking at it, he knew exactly what it was, and his expression changed.

’Finally.’ He said in his mind, he had been waiting for this.

Noticing him, the monster roared.

The sound shook the chamber, and without any atom of hesitation, Keane leapt forward.

Seeing him approaching, the creature charged at him.

Balling its fist, each had an extension of the armour-like part of it pointing out enough to impale a man. Its fist came down at Keane.

He raised one arm, blocking the hit directly. The collision cracked the floor beneath his feet, but Keane didn’t move, he hadn’t even felt it.

The monster’s eyes widened at that, then Keane looked at its fist resting against his palm, then he smiled.

"How’s it possible that you’re stronger than the boss of the previous dungeon?" He said out loud.

He tightened his grip. "But still not enough."

He pulled the monster so it stumbled forward, lowering itself before him, then he drove his other fist into its stomach.

The creature folded around the impact, and before it could recover, Keane grabbed it by the horns and slammed its head into the ground.

With the first one the floor cracked, and with the second, the monster stopped moving.

Keane released it, and silence returned to the chamber. "Oh yeah, I don’t think I actually exchanged blows with the other boss."

He looked around the place, then he noticed something... The gate was unusually quiet. No more monsters were appearing, and there seemed to be no path leading elsewhere.

Keane frowned. ’Wait... that was the boss, wasn’t it?’

He wished he was wrong, so he waited for a while, but nothing happened.

He walked around the chamber and found the gate’s core to a side, it was already exposed.

Keane stared at it for a moment.

’Well... if I’m here anyway.’ He said to himself.

He destroyed the core and did just as Cush had done, gathering it into a sack to take with him.

The entire dungeon shook afterwards, and to his surprise, a system notification appeared before his eyes.

[Gate Core Destroyed.]

[Gate Closure Initiated.]

Keane blinked in surprise.

"Wait..."

The system continued.

[Gate Successfully Closed.]

Keane stared at the notification in bewilderment, ’this system is really bugged.’ After all, this wasn’t the first time he was in a gate that closed, yet this was the first time he was seeing this notification... or did it only trigger when he was the one who caused ti directly?

That aside, he couldn’t help but click his tongue at his current circumstance.

He had ended up clearing the entire gate.

’...I wasn’t supposed to do that.’ He thought to himself.

He had entered intending to test his strength and make some money, instead, he had accidentally completed the entire gate.

Keane sighed. "That’s probably going to cost me." After all, his contract didn’t include closing the gate. This was a gate that had been open for a while, and the guild was still profiting off it being open, and yet, he had now closed it up completely before it could be properly milked.

There was no need to regret his choices anymore, it was too late for that.

After a moment, the exit portal appeared and using it, he left the gate.