"Yep, it's a dungeon, alright."
Loki found an opening wedged under a root shelf and went in without ceremony. What greeted him were monsters upon monsters… just not the kind he wanted.
[ Goblin — Common — Lv. 2 ]
[ Hobling — Uncommon — Lv. 3 ]
[ Goblin Mage — Common — Lv. 2 ]
"Sigh… just Common and Uncommon," he muttered, disappointed.
Loki examined the goblins as he walked towards them. Stringy bodies wrapped in mismatched leather, rusty knives flashing over bottle-cap shields, grime crusted on faces and knuckles white around grips.
'Not even good for a warmup,' he thought.
When they finally noticed him, they squealed and charged.
He leaned left so the first slash skimmed past his hip, letting the backswing open that goblin's throat while his toe tapped the next one's knee hard enough to break it. He walked past both as one dropped silent and the other shrieked on the floor.
[Acquired 10 EXP]
[Aquired 15 TLE]
[Acquired 15 NTLE]
The small ones bunched up and lost their nerve when they saw what happened, so the bigger cousins shouldered forward with nail-studded clubs and door-cut shields, coming side by side to push him straight back down the corridor.
He stepped inside a wild swing to slice the back of a thigh and let the body fold; when two lined up, he drew a straight lane through them before either could react
[Riftstep Cut]
With one short glide he was already past them, the blade tracing a clean diagonal, and two bodies hit stone before the rest even realized he had moved.
[Acquired 20 EXP]
[Aquired 25 TLE]
[Acquired 25 NTLE]
Mages lingered at the rear, their eyes wide with confusion and fear. When they saw the enemy turn towards them, they started to chant. Bone charms clacking as they tossed weak sparks and pebble shots that smoked more than they hurt.
He dipped under the first flash, used [Shadow Blink] to cross the fizzing gap, and opened the wrist that held the focus so the casting died with a wet gasp.
One turned to run, and [Poisoned Dagger] took the back of its head; the toxin popped the skull on impact, and the body crumpled like a sack.
Loki kept walking while the waves kept coming. He didn't slow down to loot or chase strays, just stepping over what fell and cutting what stood in his way.
He rolled his shoulders and kept his route simple: map the halls, count the turns, clear the room, move on. He would [Shadow Blink] for tight corridors, [Riftstep Cut] when he wanted the path clean, and the daggers did the rest.
As the corridor fell into that weird, heavy silence that always comes before a boss room, he was bored.
A big door waited, the hinges streaked with black oil, the draft thick with wet fur and old metal. He pushed through it and saw the boss.
A big goblin in a king's stolen bones turned toward him, skull crown sliding over one eye, boar-tusk necklace clacking against a pitted breastplate.
[ Goblin Lord — Rare — Lv. 6 ]
"Good, it's rare," he said, voice flat, and then he ran. Not a frantic sprint but that clean, balanced drive that closed distance without wasting motion.
[Shadow Blink]
Dark folded around him and opened behind the Goblin Lord, and before it even knew what was happening, Loki's dagger had already plunged through a seam in its back plates.
[Backstab Triggered]
[Passive 5 — First strike after breaking stealth deals double damage.]
The Lord gagged, swung wide, and hit nothing as Loki was already gone.
[Vanish]
Sound thinned. He slipped one step sideways in the dark hush, blade already set.
[Weakspot Triggered]
[Passive 5 — First strike after breaking stealth deals double damage.]
[You have landed a Critical Hit!]
The second cut took the throat before the first spurts hit the floor. The king of goblins gurgled and folded.
[Acquired 200 EXP]
[Acquired 4 Evolution Points]
[Aquired 200 TLE]
[Acquired 350 NTLE]
The usual window popped, then he lifted his hand and reached into nothing.
"Let's see what you can do."
[Activating Greed's Touch...]
He dragged his fingers through the Goblin Lord's lingering echo, like pulling a seam in fabric. The air went cold, then bright.
[...Success!]
As the skill triggered, a demonic hand materialized—black-taloned, banded in gold with ruby rings and chains—and seized the monster's remnant. The echo crumpled like hot foil and sank into its palm.
[ Acquired 480 EXP ]
[ Acquired 10 Evolution Points ]
[ Acquired 480 TLE ]
[ Acquired 840 NTLE ]
[ Advanced Drop Triggered (Rare → Epic): Trash-King's Nightveil (Epic) ]
[ Trash-King's Nightveil — Epic ]
+36 Physical Defense, +5 All Elemental Resistances, +5 AGI
Required Level 5.
Assassin Class Only.
An actual purple loot ball came into being over the remnant light left by the boss and settled in his palm. It was a hood, made of dark leather and ratskin, with wired seams, a fringe of bottlecaps, and bones. The smeared crown mark turned it cruel.
He stared at it for a beat, then laughed once, disbelieving.
"…No way."
His eyes ran the numbers again in the corner of his vision, not believing what he was seeing. The base payouts had jumped hard, and a Rare boss even coughed up an Epic piece.
"Okay. That's broken," he said, grinning now.
"How does this skill even work? Where did the extra stuff come from?"
The skill had given him increased TLE, NTLE, and even an advanced-tier loot. Which, normally, should not have been possible according to what Seojin Knew about this world.
"With this, I can double my growth. Maybe more if I push it," Loki said, hands shaking with clean excitement.
His growth was already fast. But with this skill, it wasn't just faster—it stacked.
He rolled the purple orb once in his hands, weighed it, then put the equipment on.
...Hood (Rare) → Trash-King's Nightveil (Epic)
"Alright. From now on, EP goes into Greed's Touch," he decided.
All his kit was epic, more than enough to carry him through anything the newbie area could throw at him. But Greed's Touch was a gold vein that kept paying.
[Evolution Points: 51(37+14)]
[Would you like to use 50 EP to evolve "Greed's Touch" from Epic → Heroic?]
Yes.
[ Greed's Touch — Epic → Heroic ] (−50 EP)
Reach into a monster's Remnant (Common–Epic), Corpse (Heroic+), or lingering Echo Scar to manifest extra loot. Also grants a chance to upgrade the loot's tier.
Extra Yield Multiplier: +140% → +200%
Advanced-Tier Drop Chance: 20% → 80%
"Hahahaha… this is getting fun." He laughed as he headed out to find more bosses.