"Host, I don't think it is wise to face that ten-foot monster using only your fists. You should at least equip a few items to power up yourself."
"You think so, too? I also thought the same, but let me give it a chance. You wait here."
"No, Host, I don't t-"
"BLACK SLIME, I HAVE COME TO KILL YOU."
Soon enough, I returned with two of my arms gone and half of my body burnt.
As it started healing, I spoke to the Penguin.
"Yeah, I don't think my fists are going to be enough. What kind of loot do I have? Let's see."
Penguin began emptying all the loot collected across the entire map. Yes, the Boss was the only thing remaining. I cleared all other monsters and had gained the maximum possible experience from them.
Looking at the heap of loot in front of me, I sighed. Clearly, more than half of it was ordinary looking. They wouldn't be of much use. I spent a good minute separating all of them based on the grades Penguin explained.
The order was: Common - Uncommon - Rare - Epic - Mythical
I scoffed, "Heh. Nothing like those fictional novels, you said. And the system is literally graded like a game, bruh."
Out of all the loot, only one was of the Rare grade. And it was a passive effect.
'Ring - Luck of the Red Beavers'
Effect: *1.025 of your inherent luck, when equipped.
Two other things were of the Uncommon grade. The rest Common grade. More duds than I expected.
I equipped the ring and both of the Uncommon ones, along with whatever Commons made sense. I began walking up to face the slime again.
"BLACK SLIME, I HAVE COME TO KILL YOU. AGAIN."
Soon after noticing me, the Black slime started moving towards me.
And the weapon I had? Unfortunately or fortunately, only my fists. And so began my four-hour long battle with the Black Slime.
At the start, I went the brute way of just punching it at different points. I thought it would be wise to find the weak spot in it just like the normal slimes. That was a dumb idea. The sheer size and regeneration of this thing was in a different league. If I made ten blows, by my next blow, seven of them would have regenerated back. My punches were neither powerful nor quick for any meaning in the tactic. I took a break and went through my options. It's not like I have many strategies that I can manage alone with only two fists.
After a break, I went back in with a simple plan. It was to build up mana in my fists and detonate them inside the body of the slime. This looked like a promising plan. A part of the slime's body was chipped away and the slime wasn't able to regenerate it this time. The part I detonated had vaporized completely, leaving nothing behind. The only problem was that my mana capacity was below average. So, I had to continuously get away, regenerate and do it again. It had suddenly become a battle of attrition. Hence, it took me three continuous hours of following the pattern to kill it.
It was hell. I didn't even like doing it unlike before. It was like getting hit by mindless pain, each time I detonated in it and repeated it. Each time, my hand melted enough to show bare bones, unlike when only my knuckles were melted.
___________________________________________
"It's only been two days since you brought those three girls over and now you're roaming outside curfew hours. You have gotten some nerve, Cole."
I was being grilled in the living room by my mom. I was treated like a criminal, made to kneel.
"I didn't bring them over."
"Now you have started talking back, huh?"
I shut my mouth at that. Mother wasn't going to let me off this time. But, in my defense, it was only half past nine right now.
The Penguin key-chain in my pocket spoke, "Hey, dude, is she always like that?"
"Not really, only when she is angry."
"What are you mumbling there?"
After ten more minutes of the grueling lecture on being disciplined and to inform ahead, I was finally allowed to sit down and eat dinner.
After dinner, I put the Penguin in charge and fell into bed. The whole ordeal was very tiring. As soon as I killed the Boss, I was kicked out of the Dungeon, onto the station along with Boss clear rewards.
Soon, I drifted to my sleep from all the mental exhaustion of the battles. The body forgets the pain, but the mind remembers it still.
____________________________________
The next morning, on the way to school,
"Hey, Penguin. What happened with my request of having a status screen for tracking my current stats? Hey, stop sleeping and answer me bastard."
I shook the key-chain attached to my bag violently.
"Hey, hey, HEY! Stop it you monster. What do you want?"
"About the stats screen I had asked earlier."
"Still processing. Hey, HEY, I answered your question. Why are you still shaking me? Stop it at once. I can't do anything about it. I also have to wait like you for their decision. HEY, SERIOUSLY STOP IT."
"Okay then open the shop screen now."
"WAIT, wait. It is loading, don't start to shake me at every minor inconvenience fucker."
In front of me, a translucent screen appeared ahead of me. On the top right corner, it showed the shop points I had. Shop points are a form of currency I could use to buy stuff in the Shop.
Shop points - 127
This was all I received after exchanging all of the duds. It was embarrassing little. Penguin and I had fought over this, which ended with, surprisingly Penguin winning. Fucker, out-argued me for once. Too much logical reasoning, I had to back down at that point.
Looking at the home page, most of the basic stuff was valued starting at 500. Economy was shit even in the inter-dimensional Shop. Depressing, ain't it?