William laid his head back onto the floor. Waiting was harder than anything he had dealt with so far, worse than even fighting the Death Knight before he discovered he was strong enough to actually land a hit on it. It didn’t help that he rarely left the confines of the second dilapidated house either. Stuck in a small building by a decision he made not too long ago. All in the hopes of protecting his identity and making his new one more believable.

  Or so he hoped.

  Not feeling hungry didn’t help either. At the very least he could have wasted some time munching on the amazing food he had convinced Zefor to give him.

  William focused on whether he was hungry or not again.

  Not even a twinge from his stomach in the form of potential desire to eat. He had considered just eating for the sake of it. Lots of runes to be found with every meal, but it felt wrong. Sacrilegious even. If he wasn’t satisfying that pit of emptiness that was hunger, then was he truly enjoying the food? William decided to hold off until he either learned better or figured out how to enjoy said food without the necessary prerequisites he had always had.

  Hence, the food and water became resources saved for future purposes.

  For the rare days he grew hungry in a world that he had yet to figure out if it would provide him cooked meals considering he had no idea what he was doing in that department. He had to reason that the dungeon had nothing edible either. The thought of trying to cook the Minotaur made him queasy, much less the large leopards, or anything else that was a monster.

  Plus, he didn’t want to end up screwed without anything to sustain him.

  In the meantime, he would go out of the dilapidated house to the clearing around it just to practice his [Heavy Strike] skill as much as possible. Stray giant felines would occasionally find their way toward him. Perfect practice to not only raise his skill, but it had given him an entire level. Though, he kept the three unallocated stat points untouched for some time.

  William felt disgusted whenever he looked at his status page when an attribute had a number that wasn’t rounded to zero or five.

  Not having anything that could truly threaten him did help with the decision though.

  Had he been back in Zefor’s world, he would have allocated them instantly and would worry about his feelings sometime later. He would need every possible advantage to fight any of the more advanced Corrupted Dead or the upward momentum he needed to finally kill the Death Knight.

  After having lived there for dozens upon dozens of lives, it felt strange to be in a dungeon that was so peaceful.

  William had gotten used to the blistering pace and urgency that came with being in the fort.

  Novice Heavy Strike [17/99] -> [29/99]

  He smiled as he pulled up the latest message in his feed. Ignoring them all had allowed him to save up and see massive jumps rather than individual changes like usual.

  This was far more satisfying.

  At level 29, [Heavy Strike] felt far more intuitive. Vertigo was less of a problem and he rarely lost balance. It likely had to do with how stable and flat the ground around him was, not that he was going to complain. All of which he would need to continue to advance if he planned for it to become an important tool in his arsenal.

  William was limited to it unless he unlocked another more mundane attack skill applicable to his [Novice Knight Adept].

  All his other classes were unfortunately forced to the background for the foreseeable future.

  It had its large weaknesses that he was struggling with. Mostly its ineffectiveness at dealing with multiple enemies at once. Slicing at the large felines tended to be limited to a single attack instead of the ability to summon four venom bullets or the chain lightning from his other classes. That weakness would have been his death had the general mob of monsters been strong enough to cause him any danger.

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  Which led to his next problem.

  William was too strong for a level 10 [Novice Knight Guardian].

  He had far more stats than any person his level should rightfully have and it would cause uncomfortable questions popping up. Questions he couldn’t really answer.

  A normal person would likely have around thirty five to forty something total attributes added to their base. William, on the other hand, had used a total of one hundred and fifty that he had gained so far. Not counting the three he just unlocked. He was confident that no one here would come close to his sheer attribute count unless they far outleveled him.

  That didn’t put into account the differences in experience, technique, skills unlocked, and other small stuff that could sway the scale more evenly though.

  William cringed at the thought of being stuck with only his Novice Knight Guardian class. Thirty nine points in total instead of the generous amount he had gained overall already. He was confident that there were others that were equally unlucky, but did not have his system breaks to give them a greater advantage than their massive weakness.

  Yet, he needed to act like it…

  William rubbed his face. He would get beaten black and blue every time he tried to limit himself to anything below seventy points total. Just to have a chance he needed seventy five. Sticking to under fifty was an outright death sentence. He had nearly lost limbs trying this stupid thing multiple times until he unleashed all his strength and speed to escape unharmed. Depending on who he finds and the type of people, it might be wise to just get a way out as soon as possible and then find himself in dungeons he could solo.

  Information could be gathered outside, he didn’t need to experience it first hand with an entire adventuring party, right?

  Yet, there had to be a proper reason Zefor sent him into this dungeon specifically.

  What about this world made him think it was better for William to do it this way than figuring it out himself?

  He would find out soon enough.

  William had already heard signs of the adventurers that had been following his previous trail when he was still using all his stats and [Class]es. THey were not a quiet bunch to say the least.

  He stood up and walked up to the doorway of the dilapidated house.

  Dozens of men and women broke through the giant grass stalks in broken formation and without focusing forward. That probably had to do with it being a safe zone and an area they could finally recover from considering all the fighting he heard from them every time he got close enough to hear the fireballs exploding, though not as large as the one he heard after killing the Minotaur.

  William pulled out his sword.

  The party was armed to the teeth.

  He wondered if he could take them all on by himself? The monsters in this dungeon were not strong to say the least, but at the same time, their tactics were very limited compared to what a band of intelligent and experienced adventurers could come up with to counter his overwhelming advantage. He could think of a few things himself. Though countering his ranged skills without knowing what they were might be too much for anyone to handle.

  Especially the venom.

  Nothing had survived his bullets or blobs. Well, nothing except the Death Knight.

  A man amongst the group began to shout orders as he walked in, low buzz cut, messy beard, and sharp eyes that shone a menacing silver light. Just like many of what might be the frontliners, he was armored head to toe with full plate, his head exposed because the full helm was strapped to the back of his hip, touching the shield that was strapped to his back.

  Beside him walked in everyone else that wasn’t encased in armor.

  William blinked.

  A blonde stepped into the clearing, long hair to her back, a sharp chin, button nose… well endowed in all the perfect spots. He didn’t even notice the white robes with golden lines on it, or the wagon that carried three maimed men behind her. Though he did notice the sharp ears that peeked out of her silk like hair. Her eyes drifted and found him. Icy blue eyes caught his own and widened in shock.

  Chaos erupted in the burgeoning camp as everyone came to arms as they noticed him as one.

  They surged into formation, a well oiled machine that was prepared for anything.

  “Introduce yourself, Stranger!” The low buzz cut haired man shouted as he raised a shield and pointed his sword at William.

  William stared for a few seconds, before he broke himself out and surveyed the gathering of sharp items and ranged explosive items with a smile. “Hey. I’m William. I’m kinda lost to be honest. You all by chance know how to return to the most northern Domed Alcove?”

  Silence descended upon the clearing as they stared hard at him for what felt like hours.

  He could feel intrusive sensations upon his person pinging from his lightning class that he guessed was this place version of [Analyze]. They would find exactly what he had put up.

  Verifying his story more considering the level of this dungeon.

  It should have been quite literally impossible for a level 10 [Knight Guardian Novice] to have made it this far in without being killed a dozen times over by any of the fauna in this place. Even the weakest creatures were double his level at least. Making them nigh impossible for his measly levels and attributes to keep up with unless something extraordinary happened.

  William felt more electricity pass through a few members.

  Mainly facilitated by a female mage with a ball of fire in her hand and pinging the most off of who he thought was the leader; the low buzz cut man.

  The group seemingly finished their deliberation.

  Everyone put their weapons down, but stayed on edge as the low buzz cut man approached him. “My name is Jorge. How the hell does a level 10 novice knight class end up in a level 26 dungeon? And more importantly, why aren’t you dead yet?”