That Time I Played A VRMMORPG.

Gram was conquering a dungeon alone in the second level. Earlier, they already conquered a different dungeon and now, he wanted to test out something with regards to the item he had gotten after getting to the stage.

The second event will be held tomorrow, they have already prepared but he really wanted to try soloing a dungeon again.

Currently, he was facing several monsters in front of him. They had wolf face and a rat tail with stubby feet.

Noticing him quickly, they attack without any reason. They lunge at him like a cheetah that looked so feral and it made him think if their dripping saliva was just as toxic as the three headed hydra.

[ Were Rat Lv: 29 ]

[ Were Rat Lv: 29 ]

[ Were Rat Lv: 29 ]

"[ Multi-Fire Lance ] !" Several floating fire lances shoot out towards the monster in front.

*Puchi*

Three fire lance pierces through their front, making a barbecue while thankfully, it isn't that smelly or graphic thanks to the changes, after some moments they quickly disappeared.

"Ha~.. Using three single target type spells at once already consume 60% of my MP and isn't really efficient in the grand scheme of things.." Gram lightly breath, the damage was superb and fantastic but it does only damage to one target.

To deal with a large group of enemies, he would [ Multi-Fire Flare ] that releases mass of fire arrows while dealing enough damage to a crowd. If they weren't killed, he would use his newly gained [ Combustion ] to ignite them in fire, literally dealing just enoughs damage to defeat stragglers. Of course that's universally applicable to any other dungeons alike. But while he didn't have a hard time, he just felt it would be better if he could always defeat enemies in one sitting.

Gram's currently adventuring is called [ Abandoned Creepy Facility ]. The dungeon floor is made of smooth stone and it's walls are made of superior look-alike concrete. Lamps and corridor's that give small visibility but enough to venture into the creepy cellar/prison themed dungeon. As every now and then, there would be prison cell rows on the walls. At first, he walked in the dungeon where there was a locked metal wall but there was a swirling hue of a blue portal. Most monsters here had a rather big resistance towards magical attacks.

The deeper he walked in the dungeon, the more careful he was. Although he was really strong, he couldn't help but become more cautious in this case, since he had noticed something.

Right now, he just entered the dungeon ten minutes ago, the monsters were average but it's definitely challenging. Without using all of his skills/spells of course.

He could only relate it to be something that's natural to the dungeon or he had triggered given that he still had that mysterious key. Since with his party, he already did a dungeon before. And while he knew information of the place he was conquering, it didn't mean all of the information was true or clear.

As of now, monsters sometimes don't get one hit, especially warrior type monsters that had a very good magical resistance, monsters that can nullify magic like grimlocks, ragged-blindfolded humanoid monstrosity that had arm chains capable of extending and that the chains is able to nullify spells over long range. Walking around their range of detection isn't really a possible thing since they use a different sense.

[ Grim Lock Lv: 30 ]

[ Grim Lock Lv: 30 ]

The two grim locks approached with momentum, and after reaching a certain distance, they swung the chains that had replaced their arms. He used [ Bizarre Eater ] on one of the swings, removing the existence of the chains of the monster.

The chains up to it's pole on the monster had been devoured. It had the ability to nullify magic damage but [ Bizarre Eater ] was an anomalous thing that can't be cancelled.

[ -111 LBP ]

[ -82 LBP ]

Two hits had come by him, one grim lock swiped it's chains that attacked two times. His barrier was plentiful but it seems his VIT might have only halved it's actual damage.

"I can't rely on using [ Bizarre Eater ] on just attacks, it would lower my chances if something unexpected happens." He really wanted to take the easy route but given that he still had more than 70% to explore, he could willy-nilly use one of his trump cards.

The grim locks attacked again, the other one had used it's remaining chains, the second one seems to use two chains this time. He already used [ Transcendental Meditation ].

[ -109 LBP ]

[ -101 LBP ]

Gram didn't give them more chances, after he raised his hand and used a spell. He invoked the casting [ Explosion Force ] which only took a second and the area exploded, the grim locks had been knocked back towards the back of the cell.

The cell itself got destroyed in it's gutters. [ Explosion Force ] is a spell activated under the enemy he was targeting, he was able to bypass the nullification of the chains of the grim locks.

In that window of time he used [ Multi-Fire Lance ] enough to remove the last of the grim lock HP ending their miserable lives. The grim locks were powerful with their chains but once you disabled them, they won't be able to do anything.

[ Grim Lock had been defeated. ]

[ Grim Lock had been defeated. ]

He moved on deviating paths, while the player had to move forward following a distinct path normal when soloing a dungeon, but when in a party, it would be much more diverse. That was something that he wanted more often. He fought two more waves of enemies that had humanoid looks but had vicious bodies.

"This place seemed more like a research facility… Hmmm? Given the markings on the walls, how cruel..." Assuming that this place could be a prison of some sort, he started getting a theory out of this. There weren't many graphic constructs, it's more like he just wanted to see what happened in this place.

At a corner, a moderately sized prison, he saw a bear monster taller and rather hulkier at the corner of one cell.

Other than being more vicious than a normal one, it had redder demonic eyes and it's mouth was much feral even compared to a rabid dog.

[ Bear Hybrid Lv: 30 ]

When he took one more step, he immediately got it's attention as it turned around, it approached the iron bars and tried to rip it. It looked at him with red-eyes, creepy and disturbing.

It's like the prison cells were designed to give the players the chance to attack them before they could leave.

"[ Fire Rune ]! [ Fire Lance ]!" After applying the rune on himself, a fire lance shot out and instantly pierce the fiendish bear, but it seemed to hold out, the fire lance had disappeared leaving a gash but it still lived with more than 40% HP left.

Gram felt a little shocked, "It didn't die? It had a triple or maybe quadruple the HP of a similar level monster?"

At that moment, the human-bear had already wrecked the prison bars but he quickly got over his shock. He used another [ Fire Lance ] before using [ Combustion ].

*Puchi* *Boom*! Another fire lance pierced it's abdomen before a fire lit up on its body, trying to consume it.

[ Bear Hybrid had been defeated. ]

Before it noticed itself defeated, it already disintegrated, he quickly got over it and looked at the cell if there's anything, "Pew~ a normal type monster and not even a boss or a rare one."

Truly, higher leveled monsters even those normal had an inflated stats so it isn't a wonder how it could even take on his two of his [ Fire Lance ] even with his overpowered INT stat.

In terms of using his other early spells like [ Gravity Downforce ], it turned more inefficient if he used an unpowered one, since every monster right now had a greater resistance and STR stats.

At least, all of his debuff still works with or without great resistance. He could use [ Spell Creation ] to create better aoe spells but he didn't know if it would work out largely to his specification given that he could just honestly create offensive spells that had a better degree of usage.

Currently, he still had to wait to wait for the cooldown of his [ Spell Creation ] and it didn't disheartened him.

He also gained some benefit in the current patch version of the game. While the GM's mostly hit those overpowered skills from the players and lessened it so that they would be a little balanced.

He's invested manipulation usage to barriers for now, and otherwise, he would use it when great danger comes.

"Let's continue.." The second he reached another row of prison cells, two still being occupied.

First, he initiated [ Fire Pillar ], over long range, Gram chained multiple skills to use afterwards.

Variation [ Wyvern ]! [ Explosion Force ]! [ Explosion Force ]!

The three skill were enough to remove all his MP but this made the two humanoid bears get stunned and knocked towards the back, ultimately, the cellar bars was destroyed by the explosion but the debuff of [ Wyvern ] gave it a large slow and enc.u.mbrance making it slow to let him move back and wait for the [ Fire Pillar ] to cast for the 15 seconds.

'Whoosh' sound erupted as a lit red magic circle appeared in the ground of the cells before it pushed a big ray of fire underneath the whole area, then a consecutive damage appeared in the health of the beard.

They vanished without being able to approach him.

[ Bear Hybrid had been defeated. ]

[ Bear Hybrid had been defeated. ]

He continued to explore the dungeon, he fought more than 5 types of monsters. Reaching a large open area, he saw a similarly looking gold c.h.e.s.t in the center.

"This doesn't seem to look right? Even if that's the gold c.h.e.s.t… This is a deliberate trap isn't it? A full blown one?!" Gram though scratched his head a little, but he prepared himself before moving forward.

After two steps ahead, he triggered the area to change, the walls behind suddenly got closed by a metal wall.

Several magical runes appeared around the c.h.e.s.t, what appeared below was the monster he fought before. Each one of them were a different type of monster.

[ -108 LBP ]

[ -302 LBP ]

[ -137 LBP ]

[ -105 LBP ]

[ Status, [ Poison ] debuff, losing 20 HP for 8 seconds. ]

...

[ -20 MP ]

[ -20 MP ]

...

"Wow!" Gram cried out of surprise. He couldn't use any large spell or he would immediately lose all his MP, while he could effectively dodge, but there were 8 of them and will attack.

Additionally three monsters were ranged ones, like the grim lock. They all had their unique abilities, all of them didn't give him any time as soon as they spawned, they immediately detected him at their fullest. The second one uses poison to attack range while the third uses daggers to throw indefinitely.

[ -238 LBP ]

[ -167 LBP ]

[ -219 LBP ]

[ -210 LBP ]

...

"The difficulty just shoots up?"

Manipulation Boost! "[ Sonic Fissure ]!" With his frontal gauntlet flickering of light, a sound wave erupted to the front, every monster felt something pushed them like a jet as they all suddenly got lifted off to the back. Then a big 6 second stun debuff appeared that crippled all their counterattack chances.

"That MP reduction on my boosting is really handy! [ Multi-Fire Flare ]" With his regenerating mana due to his skills and passive, he then supplemented a [ Combustion ].

Homing fire arrows bombarded, and as soon as all arrows had stuck their bodies, they ultimately got caught in more fire. Majority of them got defeated while the several others were finished off by the fire debuffs.

"Are there still more? Let's take caution first." Gram waited for some moments to recover all his MP. He used another three uses of [ Elemental Manipulator ] to [ Light Barrier ].

As he approached, he started using [ Perception ] while he snapped his finger concurrently making a sound.

*Snap**Snap**Snap**Snap**Click*

The soon he heard a click sound he immediately used [ Sonic Flash Step ] moving towards where he came from.

Like what happened to the first golden c.h.e.s.t, several arrows appeared around it. It shooted towards all directions while the majority focused towards the direction of the metal door that had appeared when he started the room event.

[ Status, [ Poison ] debuff, losing 15 HP for 32 seconds. ]

[ Status, [ Slowed ] debuff, immune.. ]

[ -15 MP ]

[ -15 MP ]

[ -15 MP ]... x16

Debuff damage from the poison arrows was easily nullified by his mana regeneration skill. Soon, the two more traps hit, magic circles around that tried to snipe him using magical attacks which were in vain and lastly, segments of the floor of the area depressed, he was immune to knockback and he easily did the last part as he could boost his AGI and DEX to an average extent.

Opening up the c.h.e.s.t reveals a pile of gold and another key, titled [ Golden Key Piece ⅔ ].

[ Golden Key Piece ⅔ ]

????

"Still no descriptions huh.. The third one should be in the third stage or something.." Gram rubbed his chin. As while doing the dungeon had been hectic, his MP consumption was getting high and he hadn't even fought the boss yet.

It would seem he needed to use his trumps card since he already used the last boosting of manipulation to his barrier. Gram collected all the goods and headed towards the opened pathway in front.

A large iron door that had been battered and rusted. He walked and touched it making the grinding sound. As it opened enough, he walked forwards while checking all his stats.

He saw an open area again, this time it seemed to be a large cell area at the sides. A large bloodied magic circle dried blood splattered at the floor like blood had been spilled out.

"Let me finish this quickly." As soon as he entered, the door closed behind and a red-light erupted, the magic circle seemed to be spinning while a crimson aura sparkled around it.

[ Hell Spawn Lv: 35 ]

What appeared was a muscly demonic looking humanoid without eyes, streaking red-lines across its body and long sharp claws. Lastly a wicked red wing at it's back. In short it's a demonic being that looked ominous and vicious.

It's large HP bar appeared *Grahhhh!!* and with no time, it used its wings lifting it's massive body and flew towards him with so much speed. It swiped it's claws speedily against him, dealing so much damage to his barrier. He couldn't dodge as it had a larger AGI and DEX than him, and so he used [ Sonic Flash Step ] to reposition himself across the hellspawn in a considerable distance.

Light's flickered on his gauntlet, still during the time, the hell spawn was able to deal five huge damage.

[ -360 LBP ]

[ -211 LBP ]

[ -223 LBP ]

[ -258 LBP ]

[ -409 LBP ]

"Oh my!" Raising his hand again, combinational magic (Full Form) "[ Wyvern ]!" a yellowish cloud erupted and coalesced into a large formation of a wyvern. Then, it spat out thick yellowish-black fumes that consumed all space in front. The cloud had applied debuff to the hell spawn that had already reacted and was heading speedily at him but the spell was able to debuff him to the point of his flying, had tipped and it's feet was touching the ground making it like it's trying so hard to fly. The cloud around diminished making him able to look around and the wyvern kept spewing it gaseous breath to stop monsters from moving.

"What's the point of flying? Puff..." His buffed movement speed suddenly became much faster than the speedy large hellspawn, he used [ Fire Rune ] and [ Multi-Fire Lance ] that had a considerable MP usage but can deal a lot of damage in single target.

The fire lance shot out, piercing up to its middle parts, but it didn't shoot nor pass through signifying it's increased magical resistance. With that volley reduced 15% of its HP.

As the hellspawn couldn't approach him given it's super slow movement speed, it changed its attack pattern. Suddenly, a large magic circle appeared on its wings, black colored circle spins and before then, a large indicator beneath and on top of him appeared. He moved to dodge the large area spell that would come out in a moment.

[ Sonic Flash Step ]! [ Multi Fire-Lance ] !

A crimson wave bombarded the place, as the hellspawn didn't hit him, it kept on re-targeting his position but without success was not able to damage him and it couldn't keep up with his current speed.

It spreads its wings more like a bat and with a large cry, magic circles spread around it. He tested out by trying to cancel it's spell casting with, [ Sonic Fissure ] and [ Explosion Force ]. With a large boom, and a whizzing sound, the hellspawn ultimately got damaged but it didn't get thrown on it's position.

"Not stunnable? I should have used a larger skill then.." Before then, many types of monsters had already appeared. It turned back and used a magic spell against him again. He could still dodge the spells, barely, the spell used by the hellspawn luckily had indicators where it would attack before a two seconds it appeared.

[ Were Rat Lv: 28 ] [ Grim Lock Lv: 30 ] [ Bear Hybrid Lv: 29] [ Fiend Lv: 30 ]....

Although, they did instantly gain a slowness and enc.u.mbrance debuff that made them almost immovable. As he saw his MP fill up 90% again, he instantiated [ Meteor Desolate ] to try it's might. It had a 40 seconds casting time but he had enough time given that the wyvern could last for some time until it stopped spewing.

As a powerful glint of light springed at his hand, he targeted the front where the hell spawn and the most monsters were stuck. As the spell hit it's last phase, a large magic circle appeared on top of him, a large rock appeared. It moderately moved itself towards the front, and with a large crash, the monster got hit by massive amounts of damage. But he noticed that once the hellspawn summoned monsters got defeated, it would heal the hellspawn degrading life by 5%.

The large rolling meteor finished and disappeared with a large fire particles, it only damaged the hellspawn leaving 30% HP left. The hellspawn tried to approach him again but still it was slow.

"So I couldn't out-damage it's healing, well.. good enough damage for a boss." With a good amount of understanding of the boss attack pattern, he retreated and then spammed out spells again.

"[ Multi-Fire Lance ]!... [ Combustion ]!"

He cycled between drinking MP potions and using [ Transcendental Meditation. As using it for a consecutive time increased his MP cost for a duration.

After reaching 10% HP left, the hellspawn cried out again with it's large mouth. Several wisp of flickering bluish flame appeared around the room.

"This is supposed to be the soul calling technique it would use huh.. too bad~" The hellspawn opened its mouth, as the flickering floating souls got s.u.c.k.e.d in it's mouth and then, he saw notification about the boost in the boss attack damage.

With an enrage expression, the body of the hellspawn turned more bulkier and it's attack damage increased.

It tried to approach him but he again used [ Sonic Flash Step ] away and concurrently used spells around.

"[ Multi-Fire Lance ]! [ Fire Flare ]!"

Still without any way to approach nor damage him significantly, it didn't take a long time before the demonic hell spawn vanished with a loud hellish cry.

[ Hell Spawn had been defeated. ]

[ Your level had risen up to 32. ]

"I should use [ Wyvern ] a lot often and the [ Sonic Flash Step ] is my best partner in moments..."

While it did took half his MP and it's cooldown was a little long but given it's surprise factor and it's evasive capability, it wasn't to say it might be what help him. He didn't want to try to diminish his barrier until he doesn't have any, unless he's fully assured he could take all the damage.

"Though, it's like soloing a dungeon got so much harder because monsters hit like massive tanks! Or is it because of the added hidden penetration stat of all players and monsters?" Thinking about it, he should have gotten a lesser damage than having always three digits one, it might be because of the dungeon type and all the consideration of the percentage of the VIT he had.

While having 200 VIT assure lesser damage, it wasn't to say he had any blocking or defense scaling skills whatsoever. It might have given him HP and additional tankiness but it wasn't enough if all monsters started scaling more attack damage and penetration ability.

In comparison, having 200 AGI was much better since speed base monsters were rarer, and with the addition of player finesse and skills, they could really enjoy the benefit of having agility to dodge all skills and attacks targeted to them. Risa and other AGI based players was a great example of that.

Still having shielders in party's equally is important like Damage DPS builds since they would be the ones that would take on boss attacks, and with competent healers, one team could easily take dungeons like this one.

Gram scratched his head while he thought of many scenarios.

[ Giant Killer ] bonus cannot be relied on when monster levels were not that different than him so mostly the time he fought, he only had 200 VIT scale on his barriers. While even if it doubled, he didn't have any defense scaling that stacked with it. Mostly his INT had gained so much that it could halve bosses HP without any work.

Even now, his LBP had been hit lower than 6000 points remaining, he couldn't really use all usage of manipulation as four usage amounted to 1000 LBP only.

If he had no light barrier points, he had to use all twenty points of his manipulation that can be used for a better purpose for the day.

While mumbling that, he opened the golden c.h.e.s.t revealing another rare delectable equipment stuck on the gold pile.

Gram got stunned when he had gotten the equipment and saw its description.

[ Corrupted Soul's Will ]

STR +40

??

"...So it's a sword." Gram was still happy with the weapon but he couldn't fathom how he would suppose to use it. The question mark of course irked his mind, it should be a skill or something but without any clue he won't be able to unlock it.

"Should I give this to Sally?"

With a complicated sigh, he put everything in his inventory, a sudden notification ringed on his ears.

*Ding*

[ [ Ring of the Forgotten Knight ] is resonating with [ Corrupted Soul's Will ] ]

"Mnm!?"

"Is this a hidden feature?! Yeah!!!" Gram felt a little excited, he released both equipment and put it in his hands.

It floated in front of him and a blinding light consumed the area, before then, he saw a floating phantom of a person, it was the soul of a man wearing a glistening white armor.

With an easy calm face the man spoke in a deep humble voice. "I can never thank you enough for what you have done. I can finally be united with my eternal love one.. Thank you… Read my letter and you should be satisfied with my least offering…"

He answered abruptly, "I… Eh? Sure!" It wasn't even in his thought that he had a quest under his belt. If he knew in the beginning, he would have done it earlier.

"I don't have much time.. Again, thank you, kind adventurer. I'm finally united with my love again!" The knight floated up with tears on his face and in the air before he vanished. He saw a treasure c.h.e.s.t appearing in front of him.

*Ding*

[ Hidden Quest Forgotten's Knight Liberation had been completed. ]

Lightly scratching his head, he shook his shoulders, "... Uhmm, I unintentionally completed a quest, well… Let's just accept his rewards, even if it was so sudden." He put everything in his inventory, he didn't open the c.h.e.s.t for now and left the dungeon.