[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.]
Several system prompts flashed in the corner of his vision. Greg stopped and let out a soft sigh.
He flicked the blood from his short sword and scanned his surroundings.
The remains of several low-level monsters were slowly dissolving into motes of light.
For him, dealing with these creatures in the shallow layers was no longer much of a struggle.
Navigating from the camp to the entrance of the middle layers and clearing out these wandering, mindless weaklings felt more like a warm-up than an actual battle.
Still, there were benefits; both his experience points and skill proficiency were ticking up, which put him in a good mood.
In this world, raising skill proficiency was normally an incredibly difficult task.
It not only required a high level of personal comprehension but was also usually tied closely to a character's level.
Simply put, if someone around level ten could train a basic skill to LV1, they were considered decent.
To reach LV2 or higher, they usually had to wait until after level twenty, when their mana, physical stats, and perception of the world reached a new tier, making further mastery possible.
A talent like Greg's [Digestive Bacteria], which could ignore the bottlenecks of comprehension and level to directly acquire skill fragments and increase proficiency just by killing monsters, was nothing short of broken.
It essentially allowed him to skip the thresholds that others needed years of bitter cultivation, insight, or even sheer luck to cross.
The only downside was... most of the skills he had obtained so far were completely useless.
With a thought, Greg pulled up his skill panel, his gaze landing on the skill with the highest current proficiency:
【Whimpering LV4】 Effect: While you are not resisting, makes your enemy unable to bear attacking you for four seconds. (Can only take effect once per day per target.)
Greg: "..."
The corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably as he read the description.
"What is this? A 'selling cuteness to survive' skill?"
He couldn't help but complain to the empty air:
"'Unable to bear attacking'? Does that mean I have to strike a 'pretty please' pose and widen my eyes for maximum effect? And what's with the 'once per day per target' setting? Does it mean it works the first time I act cute, but by the second time they're immune because they realize how thick-skinned I am?!"
He rubbed his temples, feeling that reaching LV4 in this skill had provided no substantial increase in combat power, other than perhaps extending that damn duration by a negligible amount.
Against a truly vicious monster or a mortal enemy, what good was four seconds of hesitation?
Was it just to give the opponent time to charge up a more powerful ultimate move?
In comparison, the other somewhat useful-looking skill, 【Burrow LV2】, was also currently just for show.
【Burrow LV2】 Effect: Can merge part of the body into the ground to move quickly. (Duration and depth are related to skill proficiency and environment. Forcing the skill may result in suffocation, getting stuck, or losing one's sense of direction.)
Greg recalled his previous experiment where, aside from getting a mouthful of dirt, he had gotten stuck and couldn't 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 could find a specific gem to assist with infiltration or phasing effects later on, this skill was useless for anything other than a performance of eating dirt on the spot.
However, he also understood that this was normal for his current situation.
After all, the low-level monsters wandering the shallow layers were unlikely to drop any powerful combat or utility skills.
Being able to harvest a variety of resistance and survival skills had already made his dungeon experience much more comfortable.
At least now he wouldn't look so pathetic if he fell into an underground river, and taking a couple of normal hits didn't hurt as much.
Unfortunately, the drop rate for these resistance and survival skills was far lower than the useless ones, and increasing their proficiency was even slower.
To gain a significant advantage through them, he'd likely have to grind in the shallow layers until the end of time.
Shaking his head, Greg closed the system panel and refocused on what lay ahead.
He had reached the formal junction connecting the shallow layers to the middle layers.
This was a relatively open cavern junction with complex terrain, scattered with rocks of various sizes.
Greg hid behind a sufficiently large boulder, cautiously peeking out to observe the area ahead.
In the dim light, he could see several short but lean figures moving not far away. Their green skin gleamed oily under the luminescent moss, and he could occasionally hear their harsh chatter and the clatter of weapons hitting stone.
"They really are still here..." Greg's brow furrowed.
If this were a game, he would definitely suspect a bug in the code, a monster spawn error, or an abnormal quest trigger that caused elite mobs intended for deeper areas to block the exit of the starting zone.
But this wasn't a game; it was reality.
"So what exactly is going on?"
His heart was full of doubt.
"Did these Goblins get smart and realize they could block the door to stop adventurers from leveling up? Or did... something happen below that forced them to flee up here?"
Rate on N.U.
