Chapter 3. Boy Becomes a Dungeon Explorer (3)

“You can exchange it at the Floor Shop.”

“Exchange? You mean you can exchange gold for won? Is there a bank?”

“At the Floor Shop, stupid.”

Even if my intelligence stat was 10, I had lived too long as a fool. Even though I increased my intelligence stat, it was still difficult to breach the level I was born with.

I talked back to my father, not fully understanding what he meant by going to the Floor Shop. In the end, I had to pay with my body. It was true that the body suffered if the mind was stupid.

A week later, when I could re-enter the dungeon, I did not shout ‘commence exploration,’ but rather turned back and went to the 2nd Floor Shop.

Because I was told what I wanted was at the 10th Floor Shop, I had not visited the 1st and 2nd Floor Shops. It was because I felt I would waste my gold if I saw what was on display.

“Yes, customer, you can exchange 2,400 won for 1 gold.”

“2,400 won!?”

“Yes, customer. The exchange rate changes at 6 A.M. every morning, so I suggest you exchange it now when the rate is high.”

I gasped in front of the Floor Shop owner, who was a pretty noona.

2,400 won!

The first floor’s slimes usually dropped 1 gold for every three killed and the 2nd floor’s honey bees dropped 2 gold at the same rate. Although I had not killed many goblins, they dropped 4 to 5 gold.

This number was likely to increase exponentially as I went higher into the dungeon. Currently, I possessed 655 gold. Although my mental math wasn’t perfect, I knew I would have well more than 1,000,000 won if I exchanged all that I had.

1,000,000 won! It was an unimaginable amount for the fifteen-year-old me. Even a single Sin Saimdang[1. Sin Saimdang is the woman on the Korean 50,000 won bill.] would make me tremble, but 1,000,000 won meant twenty Sin Saimdangs!

I was certain 1,000,000 won would be a large amount for any fifteen year old. It was then that I realized what my father meant by dungeon explorer being the highest-paying job.

“Wow.”

I stood in awe. Soon, I opened my mouth to ask the shop noona to exchange all the gold I had. Suddenly, I remembered. To obtain Qi, I had to buy a mana cultivation method. To do that, I had to go to the 10th Floor Shop, and I had to buy it... with gold.

“Ah.”

My shoulders dropped. Then, the shop noona looked at me with worrying eyes. “What’s wrong, customer?”

“N-No, it’s nothing. Thank you.”

Although I was conflicted, I swallowed my tears and turned back. Qi! I gave up 1,000,000 won for this thing called qi! However, I remembered my father always talking about the importance of having qi. Thus, I chose to prioritize qi rather than 1,000,000 won.

Once I obtained qi, I vowed to exchange all the gold I had and eat all the delicious things in the world! With that, I jumped into the 3rd floor.

Of course, I became paralyzed by the goblins’ darts and was beaten to death again.

“What am I supposed to do, father!? I got kicked out because of you!”

“For my son, you really are stupid. You could have just left the dungeon.”

“Kuk, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“Haa. When you level up, increase your intelligence stat first, got it? I’ll tell you how to deal with the poisonous darts first...”

What my father said was simple. I just had to buy and consume the paralyses recovery potion from the 2nd Floor Shop. With just one, I would become immune to paralysis for a whole hour. Why didn’t I buy it when I went there before!? I regretted not checking what was being sold.

That day, I made two vows. One was that I would visit the Floor Shop every time I cleared a floor and check what was being sold. The second was that I would increase my intelligence stat when I leveled up.

As a result, I was able to safely reach the 5th floor. It had only taken me half a year.

“Chwiik! Human!”

“Human, bigger than us!”

What appeared on the 5th floor were pig-headed humans speaking human language. According to the message noona that spoke to me from time to time, they were monsters called orcs. Although I felt a sense of closeness to them because of our similarity in size, I was annoyed by their tendency to treat me as food and attack.

However, I was at a disadvantage when I faced them directly. I had put 15 points into intelligence, and my intelligence was now at 20. Although I had gotten smarter, my other stats were low. Because I did not yet know any other method of raising my status points, I was forced to fight the orcs when my overall spec was below them.

“Chwiik! Human, weak! Weak!”

“Who’s weak!? Agh, I shouldn’t have put everything into intelligence. Agh!”

I could finally think of it once my intelligence had reached 20. Of course, I was forced out, unable to defeat any of them.

At this time, I began to learn with my smarter brain and I could finally communicate with others my age. I had stopped talking about dungeons at school after the ‘Kang Shin’s Dungeon Explorer Incident,’ and after my intelligence reached 20, I came to understand that it wasn’t normal that I could enter dungeons. I also learned it was abnormal to have family spear techniques to learn.

Realizing that I might end up a loner for the rest of my life, I started to furiously study common sense, and after the 10th time I was kicked out of the 5th floor, I was able to act like a normal human being. There wasn’t much I could do about my huge frame, but I had finally managed to make some friends.

It was also the first time I learned of the existence of online RPG games.

“Uh....”

“What’s wrong, Shin?”

“No, this dun...”

The word dungeon almost came out my mouth before I swallowed it back down. The RPG game character’s ‘status’ was too similar to the status I had. That said, I couldn’t show my status to my friends. I could open my inventory and bring out my wooden spear, but I didn’t, as I was afraid the government would come to take me away.

However, I was now certain. Although the interface was different, there were many things in common, like the inventory, status, and monsters. Thus, I began to learn games with the hope that it would help me in my future dungeon exploration.

Unlike in RPGs, I couldn’t gain experience and level up no matter how many monsters I killed. All I could get from them were their body parts, gold, skill experience, and the extremely rare equipment. From this, I found my answer.

If my stats were too low, I had to make do with skills. My attack power got stronger with increased skill levels. It was what I learned from playing games.

“Uraaaaaaaah!”

“Chwiik, mere human!”

“Mere orc!”

I quarreled with the orcs as I stabbed them with my spear. When I told my father about it, he treated me like a weirdo.

The mid-rank spear technique that had started out at level 3 had slowly grown as I fought the orcs on the 5th floor. Half a year after I entered the 5th floor, when I had entered my first year of high school, I had finally reached level 10, the master level.

[You have mastered the Mid-rank Spear Technique! You can strike even more fiercely and sharply with your spear. You can intimidate others whose skill level is lower than yours.]

[You must possess mana to learn High-rank Spear Technique. You cannot learn the High-rank Spear Technique.]

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Here, mana once again held me down. However, I did not give up. I knew I could gain mana once I reached the 10th floor.

In truth, I had already realized it. My father was unable to gain mana even after 20 years of being a dungeon explorer. Not long after my intelligence increased, I finally understood what it suggested. However, I did my best to ignore it. I didn’t want to accept the fact that I... could not obtain mana. Afraid of knowing the truth, I didn’t ask my father.

The 5th floor was different than the other floors. Unlike the 1st through 4th floors where my level had gone up automatically once I reached the end of the hallway, there was a large door at the end of the 5th floor hallway. When I stood in front of it, the calm voice once again entered my ears.

[The Floor Master, Orc Lord, is beyond this door. Would you like to enter alone? Or would you like to request a party with players from other dimensions?]

What was beyond the door was undoubtedly the ‘boss monster.’ As this was the first time I had faced it, I was extremely excited. I didn’t know what the voice meant by other dimensions, but I found requesting for help without even giving it a try to not be in the spirit of a man’s pride. As such, I slammed the door open.

“Orc Lord! Fight me!”

“...”

“... Chwiik.”

Inside the room were about fifteen orcs, all of whom were glaring at me. Deeper inside was a larger pig-human sitting on a large chair and biting down on a piece of meat. He raised his head and I realized just how big he was.

He was wearing a thick steel armor and had a glaive leaning next to him. Without mistake, he was the Orc Lord. I let out a light smile.

“Oh, I came to the wrong place.”

Although I quickly stepped back, the door had closed behind me automatically. The orcs slowly got up one by one as they picked up their weapons.

‘Fudge, those things hurt like hell,’ I whispered as I dropped my head.

It had been a while since I was kicked out.

I was beaten to oblivion.