Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

It was six in the morning, Kuzu was already sitting on his chair, in front of his monitor screen. He was going through a guide book which seemed to have a lot of dungeons and lairs on it.

He scrolled down, looking for the best dungeon or a lair that would not be too hard to defeat. These were not his territory, it was Ongoi's territory that Kuzu frantically looked at.

There were tens of dungeons and lairs on the map, they were in different designs and decorations. Simply a beautiful yet, dangerous collection of properties.

Click.

Kuzu quickly turned his head to the room's door that had opened slowly. A familiar figure with red hair, brown eyes, and scars on his forearms appeared from the door.

"Morning, Onogi-san." the next moment, there he Kuzu was, out of his chair, bowing his head to Onogi.

"Ah- yes. Morning," he bowed in respect too.

"What brought you here? So early in the morning?" Kuzu lifted his eyes at Onogi.

"I told you yesterday, right?" Onogi explained, "that I have to leave to clear a dungeon in Hiroshima."

"Yes, you did."

"That is where I and my team are headed… only if you were a graduate, Erabu," he paused, "we would have gone together to clear the dungeons, things would have been easier. Just as we do in the game."

"Only three months, Onogi-san," Kuzu replied, "only three months and I will be a graduate too, then maybe we two can go on dungeon expeditions together,"

Onogi chuckled. He nodded his head continuously, "yes, yes." he walked up to Kuzu with small steps, "see you soon," he pattered Kuzu's shoulder.

"Hm." Kuzu bowed his head.

Onogi turned around, dug his hands back into his pockets, and started walking towards the door when Kuzu stopped him.

"Uhm, Onogi-san…" his voice was shaky, "would you, would you mind if… if I take care of your gaming card while, while you are gone, you know."

Onogi turned around, he stared at Kuzu with no expression on his face. Kuzu could feel the side of his elbow shaking with the fear of the unpredictable- the future.

Onogi broke the stare, he shrugged, and replied, "fine. That would be awesome!" he walked up to Kuzu once again, "I would not be able to log in till we clear the dungeon and god knows what might happen during that time…" he grabbed Kuzu's shoulder, "thanks for suggesting it, it is better if I leave the card with you."

Kuzu let out a sigh of relief, "thank you, Onogi-san, I will make sure you do not get raided,"

Onogi turned around once again, "Nah, just make sure… we do not get raided." He walked up to the door, "and my card is in my room."

The door slid open and Onogi walked out to the elevator. Kuzu stood where he was. A smile had started to spread on his face that soon turned into a grin.

'Good. I have done.' he was about to let out a loud laugh but controlled it somehow, 'amazing.' he adjusted his eyes, 'now this is where it begins.'

After one hour, it was seven-thirty and Kuzu still sat in front of his monitor screen. But this time, he had already looked for a dungeon, right now, he was spectating no other than Ryu and Leonine.

"What way is it?" Reon asked as she took the lead.

"Just a few meters on the right from here." Hitori looked up and then dropped back into the map, "man, Kamiya is way better at this than us,"

Hitori had sent Kamiya a message about this dungeon's location. He had approved them to take down the dungeon as it seemed to not belong to any player yet.

Hitori and Reon were only a few meters away from the clone dungeon Noob had recommended. Although the entrance was not visible, the dungeon was clearly visible on the map as a yellow dot.

"Wait." Hitori stared at the map closely, he saw some red marks were coming closer to them, "uh. We have trouble, Reon-san." Hitori turned around and pulled out his gun.

"Monsters?" she turned and took her stance.

"Have made their way to use finally." Hitori waited for the monsters to show themselves out of the dark, but when they came out, Hitori wished he had never waited for them to show themselves.

Shot, shot, shot, shot, shot.

Both of them started shooting at the four feet tall, thick muscular humanoid creature that had a hammer cum ax in its hands, their grey skin did not shine brightly under the dark night [yes, it was night].

They wore tight, thick armor that did not let either Hitori or Reon's bullets pass through it.

Hitori unequipped his gun, grabbed the handle of his katana, and pulled the dark level twenty-five katana out from its scabbard.

Hitori took a step forward but before he could clash with the monster, two more joined him from behind, "crap." Hitori took a step back.

Although he was stronger than them, the bullets did not pierce through, and there was no guarantee his katana would cut through it. God knows how durable their armor is and what it is made of.

After Hitori pushed his katana back into the scabbard, he raised both of his arms in front of him, "flame burst!" a wave of fire erupted from his hands.

The monsters were not able to dodge the flame but the flame did not damage them either. Only their grey beard and mustache hair was set on fire which caused damage no more than five points.

'A-are they immune to spells?' Hitori used water and ice element magic first before declaring that they had an advantage against spells.

"No!" He turned to Reon, "do not use your limit breaker right now, we need it for later." he stopped her just before she could pull the trigger.

She dropped her gun, moved her eyes from the monsters coming her way, and turned to Hitori, "then what? What are we supposed to do?" she asked annoyingly.

Hitori calmly looked at the monsters, then muttered, "we run."

"Huh?"

"Run!" he turned around and boosted towards the dungeon on the map but soon after a few meters, he lost the track of where he was headed and continued to run away.

This was the worst decision Hitori had ever made. To run away in an open leveling field meant catching the attention of many more monsters.

Kuzu, from his room, had watched everything happen in front of his eyes. He was cool about it till… till Hitori and Reon changed paths.

Instead of running in the direction of the clone dungeon level twenty-six, they both were headed in a different direction. That panicked Kuzu.

He quickly leaned back in his chair, pushed his head against the wide headrest. The headrest behind him started transforming, the sides of the headrest started covering his side, then slowly it took over Kuzu's whole head.

A headset had.

He transmigrated and appeared near Hitori's territory. He looked down and saw a key lying on the ground, 'Tch. He has not even picked it yet!' he ignored the key he had dropped in his previous meeting with Hitori and Reon.

He quickly rushed towards Hitori's position, when he was close enough, he opened his menu screen and went to the 'Spawn Monsters' tab.

"Spawn eight average intellect Devourer!" he had chosen a spot where he wanted his monsters to spawn, right in front of the dwarf-like monsters chasing Hitori and Reon.

[To spawn eight average intellect devourer would cost three thousand and six hundred Yen]

From the ground, brains came out. A walking brain protected by a crusty covering and set on bestial-clawed legs. It hurried up to the dwarf monsters.

'And now…' to bring Hitori back on track, Kuzu had to spawn another set of monsters.

"Spawn five average Duergar!" the same monsters that were chasing Hitori- or were chasing Hitori. The intellect devourer had started feeding over the three Duergar's intelligence, mind, and memories. They had taken over their victim's bodies as mind flayers. The Duergar were slowly being turned into mind flayers by the intellect devourer.

[to spawn five average Duergar will cost you one-thousand yen]

On each side, two Duergars appeared. Hitori and Reon had to stop right where they were. They both exchanged glances.

"Now what?" she asked. Hitori looked behind. There was a dark entrance covered with black mist between him and the Duergar.

"We run… to the dungeon," he realized that he had gone off-path with Reon.

Hitori opened the map once again, the Duergars started marching in Hitori's direction on Kuzu's orders. Not everyone could summon monsters at their will. It was only possible by the use of specific skills and the Necromancer class.

The reason Kuzu was able to do it… because Onogi had handed him a special conjuration skill that enabled him to spawn monsters. But since his class is an Assassin and not a necromancer or a dancer, he had to pay every time he summoned monsters.

But finally, he was able to lead both of them towards the dungeon he wanted them to enter.

Hitori and Reon rushed towards the only entrance. The Duergar from ahead and behind increased their pace, Kuzu concentrated in order to command the Duergar.

"Is this the?"

"Yes! This is the dungeon," Hitori had to shout for Reon to hear him.

They were only a few feet away from entering the black mist, "do not stop," Hitori told her.

They both encountered the black mist, ran past through the mist. But did not stop running. Reon ran past Hitori and entered a stone mouth followed by Hitori.