Spoils of the 10th Floor

I steeled myself and closed my eyes.

But the first thing that touched my back wasn't hard ground.

KWAANG!

"Ugh...!"

The sensation that met my back was...

Cold water.

My body sank deep. Bubbles of oxygen fled from my lungs. The impact of hitting the surface nearly knocked me out, but I forced myself to hold on. I thrashed my arms and legs toward the light above, and my body rose.

"Pwah!!"

I broke the surface and gulped the air I'd been holding. Then I looked around.

"I'm alive... It's a lake...."

Relieved, I swam hard and hauled myself out.

"Ugh... soaked."

I stripped off my gear for a moment and wrung the water from my shirt and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pants. That was when I saw my skin — patches of it had turned to stone.

I lay flat right there and checked my condition.

Huh? The percentage went down.

So it wasn't permanent?

Normally you'd need a solvent to break petrification, right?

Well... does it matter? If it clears on its own, that's lucky.

I got up, pulled my clothes back on piece by piece, and started walking the way I'd come. That was easy enough to find — the place where the giant trees still smoldered, pouring out thick smoke.

"I wonder how it turned out."

That chain of explosions had been enormous. If I'd taken a direct hit, there wouldn't have been bones left. I swallowed hard, picturing myself reduced to a handful of ash.

"....That's a terrifying skill."

A little farther on, the burning, fallen giants came into view — and then I saw it.

A massive snake, blackened and charred. The blast had burst the scales all over its body. Evenly roasted flesh showed through the gaps....

With firepower like that, it would have been stranger if the thing still looked fine.

I touched its trunk. Those scales I'd thrown everything into cutting — and failed. The ones still clinging here and there were warm to the touch.

I walked toward the head. The closed eye twitched.

And the system warning rang.

Oh, for fuck's sake!!

I sprinted in and drove my dagger straight into that narrow yellow eye.

"Kya....ah...."

It writhed with a thin scream, but it no longer had the strength for another round. Thin tears welled as it closed its eyes.

"You little bastard. Nearly gave me a heart attack."

No wonder there hadn't been a level-up message.

It was still alive....

What a monster. Then again, given its reputation, maybe that wasn't so strange.

I looked at the throat beneath its snout. The scales had been stripped away, the flesh blackened underneath. Even the few remaining scales no longer looked fit for their job.

"I'll send you off easy."

I gripped the dagger and drove it into the neck.

"Hang on just a little."

Then I cut the soft flesh clean through in one stroke.

Shwaak!

Clear blood poured out, and the system alarm sounded.

And the alerts kept coming.

Just like that, I jumped six levels in one go.

You little shit. You'd still be alive if you hadn't run into big brother here.

Then again, as a boss, it would probably respawn even if it died, right?

I wiped the creature's fluids off my hands on my pants and got ready to assign the stats.

"Yoo-hoo! Time to distribute, then?"

At this point, there wasn't a single stat I could afford to throw away. Strength raised my attack power. Agility my speed. Magic my MP and spell power. Stamina the duration of my Acceleration and my endurance.

"Still, what I need right now are these two, right?"

I put six points each into Strength and Magic.

What this fight had driven home was how weak my attack power still was — and how important magic skills were.

By the time I'd finished assigning the points, the Basilisk had already dissolved into smoke, leaving only its loot behind.

Three items in total: a fairly large green magic stone, armor made from its scales, and a strange little pouch.

I appraised the armor first.

Appraise.

The scale armor was thin and lighter than I'd expected, but the defense was relatively enormous — and all-status-ailment resistance was pure honey. It would help a lot on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠future adventures.

Was this the power of the engraving?! Boss reward increase.

When I'd first seen the Basilisk I'd been speechless, but for loot like this....

With that thought, I turned to the last prize: a pouch that looked as if it had been made from the hide under the creature's jaw. I appraised that too.

What? Drink the poison?

Had the system lost its mind?

That was the first thought that hit me — but when had the system ever given me bad information?

I trusted it and opened the pouch. Green venom spilled out.

"I'm not going to drink this and die, right?!"

I hesitated a moment. But I already had Poison Resistance. I was curious what would happen if it went higher.

"Ah, screw it."

If I couldn't trust the system, what could I trust?

I opened my mouth and poured the liquid from the pouch down my throat.

Gulp.

The poison spread from my throat to my stomach and through my whole body. A languid heaviness settled over me — and a new notification window appeared.

"What? Skill evolution?!"

I scrambled to open the skill window. What ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I saw, framed in violet light:

A skill newly evolved from Poison Resistance.

"Immunity?! Not just reinforced resistance — immunity?"

Resistance and immunity were abilities of entirely different dimensions. I was already invincible against one entire category of status ailments. No matter how strong my powers became, the chance of taking damage myself would drop sharply — gas explosions like today's aside.

What a haul!!

Even if a Basilisk had been an absurdly unfair boss, what I'd gained today was more than worth it.

In high spirits, I picked up the armor and thought, It's brand-new armor. I can't put it on for the first time looking this filthy.

The next floor would be a safe floor anyway. I'd wash up and put it on then.

I opened my inventory to stow the armor — and froze.

"What the hell?! Why is this doing that?"

One of the items I'd stashed away was glittering. It was something I'd taken from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the goblin settlement after clearing them out — a square necklace, brown like a brick, with an eye pattern carved into it.

"The Necklace of Opening..."

That was it. I'd meant to ask Simon about it and kept forgetting every time.

I summoned the glittering thing into my hand. A hologram formed as it settled into my palm.

I'd taken it for the word "ancient." Honestly, the eye had seemed to move back then, and the whole thing had creeped me out so much I might have buried it in my inventory on purpose just to forget it.

"But why has it been glowing this whole time? And before, it was definitely..."

Before, the eye had been carved flat into the surface. Now it stuck out like a button. The pupil flashed every second.

When I hit "more" on the description, two new lines had appeared that weren't there before:

"Well, that's just begging for curiosity."

With it written out that blatantly, who wouldn't use it?

I looked at the necklace's eye again. The pupil was still flashing at a steady interval.

"Don't tell me... it's not going to move again, is it?"

I brought my finger toward it slowly.

Don't move! Don't move! It's gross!

I pressed it hard, chanting that in my head.

Click.

"I—I pressed it!!"

With a grinding clack, the necklace opened. The eye rotated vertically, and the brick-shaped piece came apart along its seams. Golden dust poured out, and a single key emerged.

I picked it up. The system alarm rang.

"What? A skill?"

I checked the skill window again. Nothing had changed on any of the skills I'd recently acquired. So I dragged down — and there it was, blinking and glowing just like the Necklace of Opening.

Not Acceleration. Not Dagger Arts. Something that had been with me since my first day in this world, something I'd completely forgotten — a skill locked behind chains and a padlock.