After listening to the system start the game, the woman, now called Candy, felt her surroundings change. A coolness ran across her skin, and she could feel the air growing heavy with moisture. An earthy scent filled her nose as she finally opened her eyes.

  Candy looked around at the dimly lit cave where she now stood. Aside from the glowing green liquid flowing between the cracks in the ground and the walls, nothing else illuminated the space. The cavern’s ceiling melted into the darkness above her.

  “Hmm. This is an interesting start. I’m definitely not in the city.”

  “The first thing to do is look around and see if I can figure out what’s going on.”

  At that moment, a small chime rang in her head and a transparent interface appeared in front of her.

  [Introductory Quest: Complete Dungeon Raid

  Reward: Novice Adventurer’s License]

  “So, I’m in a dungeon. Doesn’t this seem pretty tough for someone who just started the game? How am I supposed to defeat the dungeon guardian by myself?”

  ‘Maybe I’m actually part of a party and just got separated.’

  With this, she set out to see if she could find any sign of other people.

  After walking for a while, she came to one conclusion. She was alone. She hadn’t even seen a trace of any monsters, let alone any allies or other people. With a sigh, she pulled up the system and opened her inventory.

  Nothing!

  There was nothing there!

  “WTF?! Why is it empty? Shouldn’t I at least get a starting weapon or something? Plus, food and water are necessities when exploring dungeons.”

  She checked and she had no money either.

  In the original, you got a starting weapon based on your class and 500g at the beginning of the game.

  “No way…”

  ‘It couldn’t be that since I chose [Magical Girl] as my starting class that I was supposed to be given a wand or staff or something, but because I couldn’t use magic due to the stupid constitution the system glitched and then didn’t give me anything at all right? There wouldn’t be such a broken system, right?!’

  “Ha, seriously, what am I supposed to do? I can’t even leave because once you enter a dungeon, the only way back is by killing its guardian.’

  ‘Should I just start over? But I spent so much time making my character, and I can’t afford to waste too much time with the creation stage anyway.’

  Surely there had to be a way out. The game wouldn’t lock her in a dungeon with no means of escape. There had to be something that she could use.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Candy began systematically walking through the cavern’s many tunnels while looking for any sign or life or a useable weapon.

  Eventually she came across a human…skeleton.

  ‘Wait, someone actually died in here? Isn’t this way too difficult for new players?’

  “Hm?”

  She narrowed her eyes and walked towards the skeleton. Tucked under its worn clothes, she spotted a glint of metal.

  ‘Jackpot!’

  She crouched down and tugged at the place where the metal was. Unfortunately, it seemed like the weapon had gotten stuck inside the skeleton’s rib cage.

  “You will be mine!”

  With a grunt, she yanked the weapon, a dagger, from the skeleton, breaking quite a few bones along the way.

  “Oops. Um, Mr., Ms. Skeleton, you no longer have any use for a weapon, so I’ll be borrowing this for now. After all, the living should keep living right? I hope you’re having a pleasant afterlife.

  ‘Although there is no afterlife in this game, at least not in the original Achievements of Heroes.’

  …

  After paying thanks to the deceased, Candy looked at the dagger she was holding. A system window opened up and displayed the weapon’s stats.

  [Worn Dagger: A worn dagger previously used by some adventurer. Having been ripped from its original owner, it now serves as slight protection against weak targets like…rabbits…or bees.]

  What was with this description? Wasn’t it making her seem like a petty thief? And protection from rabbits or bees? That was just saying the dagger was useless. Who programmed such a sarcastic and unhelpful system?

  “Well, at least I have a weapon.”

  After swinging it around a few times, another system notification appeared

  [Detecting current weapon…

  Current Weapon: Worn Dagger

  Skill: Weapon Mastery (intermediate) activated]

  Oh, she had this skill. Just now remembering the skills she had chosen before, her lips rose into a smile. She swung the dagger again and this time felt much more comfortable. She could feel the system taking some control of her body, allowing her to move how she wanted, and even naturally perform combos and tricks.

  “So, this is what intermediate weapon mastery is. It’s simply a godsend for someone who chose a bullshit class like me.”

  She could now use any weapon with ease and although she couldn’t master any one, her versatility outweighed the benefits leveling would give.

  “I really want to find some monsters to test my new weapon. Seeing as there’s a skeleton here, there must have been enemies nearby.”

  How long it had been since they had left, she didn’t know. However, continuing down this path was her only choice since she would be losing progress backtracking.

  “Okay, next monster I see will be skewered on my swor- no, dagger.”

  …

  ‘Rustle rustle.’

  Hiding behind a large rock, Candy peered out at the first monsters she had seen. They were strange, doll-like figures with thick legs and bandages completely covering them. Being about the height of a 3-year-old child, they didn’t look particularly threatening, especially when they were just wandering about aimlessly. Although the green lighting in the cave did give them a sickly hue.

  ‘These are new. I have no idea what kind of creature they are, but they don’t look that bad. There’s only 2 of them so I can probably take them down without issue. It’s an introductory dungeon. How hard can it really be?’

  Sneaking from her hiding place behind the large rock, she swiftly stood up and rushed to the doll-thing nearest to her. Feeling the system’s help kick in, she smiled as she gracefully landed crouched right beside it. She quickly slashed it through the neck and leaped back to see what happened.

  The doll-thing that had been attacked had its neck cut by the dagger. Since the dagger was worn, it didn’t cut cleanly and left a jagged edge. Cotton and bone fragments fell out of the cut area.

  ‘They really are dolls?’

  Candy furrowed her brows, her eyes lighting up with curiosity. The guardian of this dungeon must be quite interesting if it was able to create these.

  Suddenly, the other doll turned to look at her. Although it didn’t have a face, she could tell that it could definitely see her. The injured doll also turned to look.

  ‘Whoosh’

  In an instant, Candy almost lost sight of it as the uninjured doll leaped into the air and aimed straight at her head. She was immediately grateful for the system’s aid. If it hadn’t moved her body the moment she thought ‘Dodge left!’ she would have been hit straight on.

  ‘BOOM’

  A vicious sound echoed from behind her, along with the sound of falling rocks. She turned around to see the doll standing near the cavern wall. Behind it was a large crater and numerous cracks that weren’t there before.

  ‘Gulp.’

  This might not be as simple as she thought.