An Illogical Scene

[Target killed. Acquired skill: Whimpering. Whimpering LV3 proficiency increased.]

[Target killed. Acquired skill: Whimpering. Whimpering LV3 proficiency increased to LV4.]

[Target killed. Acquired skill: Burrow. Burrow LV1 increased to LV2.]

[Acquired 220 EXP.]

[Acquired 22 bonus EXP.]

[Level increased to LV17.]

As a succession of system notifications flashed across the corner of his vision, Greg stopped in his tracks and let out a soft breath.

Flicking the bloodstains off his dagger, he scanned his surroundings.

The remains of a few low-tier magical beasts were slowly dissipating into points of light.

For him now, dealing with these creatures in the shallow layers was no longer much of a struggle.

Having picked his way from the camp all the way to the entrance leading to the middle layers, clearing out these roaming, mindless weak monsters felt less like combat and more like a warm-up.

Still, there were benefits—the gains in EXP and skill proficiency put him in a pretty good mood.

In this world, increasing one's skill proficiency was originally quite difficult.

It not only demanded exceptionally high innate comprehension, but was usually tightly linked to a person's character level as well.

Simply put, if someone around level ten or so could grind a basic skill to LV1 proficiency, they were already doing well.

To reach LV2 or higher, one usually had to wait until past level twenty—when their mana, physical stats, and perception of the world reached a new threshold—before further mastery became possible.

A talent like Greg's—【Digestive Bacteria】—which ignored bottlenecks in comprehension and level to grant skill fragments and proficiency boosts directly through slaying monsters, was practically absurd.

It bypassed the hurdles that countless others needed years of grueling cultivation, deep insight, or sheer luck to cross.

The only drawback was... most of the skills he had acquired so far were practically useless.

With a thought, Greg called up his skill panel and fixed his gaze on the skill with the highest proficiency level:

【Whimpering LV4】 Effect: As long as you do not resist, prevents your enemies from having the heart to attack you for four seconds. (Can only affect the same target once per day.)

Greg: “...”

Looking at the description, the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.

“What is this? A survival skill powered by acting cute?”

He couldn't help but rant to the open air:

“‘Prevents enemies from having the heart to attack’? Does that mean I have to strike a pleading pose with wide, puppy-dog eyes for maximum effect? And what kind of ridiculous setting is 'once per day per target'? Does that mean acting cute works the first time, but by the second time they become immune because they realize what a thick-skinned shameless bastard I am?!”

Massaging his temples, he felt that raising this skill to LV4 brought zero meaningful boost to his combat power, except perhaps extending that damned duration by a trivial fraction.

Facing truly fierce magical beasts or mortal enemies, what good were four seconds of hesitation?

Was it just to give them enough time to charge up a deadlier ultimate attack?

In comparison, another skill that looked somewhat useful—【Burrow LV2】—was currently little more than a decoration as well.

【Burrow LV2】 Effect: Allows the user to submerge a portion of their body into the ground to move rapidly. (Duration and depth depend on skill proficiency and environment. Forcing the skill may lead to suffocation, getting stuck, or losing orientation.)

Greg recalled his earlier experiment with it: aside from getting a mouthful of dirt after diving into the ground, he had gotten stuck immediately, unable to move at all.

If he hadn't been lucky enough to dig himself out, he probably would have buried himself alive by now.

Unless he found some specialized magic gems in the future to pair with it for infiltration or traversal, this skill was useless for anything other than eating dirt on the spot.

Still, he knew this situation was fairly normal.

After all, low-tier monsters roaming the shallow layers were unlikely to drop any powerful combat or utility skills to begin with.

The fact that he had gathered a motley collection of resistance and survival skills had already made his dungeon survival experience considerably more comfortable.

At the very least, falling into an underground river wouldn't leave him so disheveled now, and taking a couple of basic attacks didn't hurt as much.

Regrettably, the drop rate for those resistance and survival skills was far lower than that of the useless ones, and raising their proficiency was agonizingly slow.

If he wanted to build a decisive advantage relying solely on them, he would probably have to grind in the shallow layers until the end of time.

Shaking his head, Greg closed the system panel and focused his attention back on what lay ahead.

He had reached the vicinity of the official entrance leading from the shallow layers into the middle layers.

This was a relatively open cave junction with complex terrain, scattered with boulders of various sizes.

Hiding behind a rock large enough to conceal him, Greg cautiously poked half his head out to observe ahead.

In the dim light, several short yet lean figures could be seen moving around nearby. Their green skin gleamed oily beneath the luminescent moss, and the occasional raspy chatter and clink of weapons against stone drifted over.

“They really are still here...” Greg furrowed his brow tightly.

If this were a game, he would definitely suspect a software bug—either a messed-up monster spawn point or a glitched quest flag—causing elite monsters that belonged deeper down to block the exit of the starter village.

But this wasn't a game; it was reality.

“So what's really going on here?”

His mind was filled with doubt.

“Did this pack of Goblins get smart and learn to spawn-camp to keep adventurers from leveling up easily? Or did... something happen down below that forced them to flee up here?”