The Regressed Dungeon Master

Puich!

-50

Adder pulled out his sword, slashing it at a pair of brown foxes.

The blade glided through the first beast.

The second, though, managed to jump past him.

Ignoring it, he slashed off the pinned fox’s neck.

-30

A loud bang came from behind.

With one glance, he saw that Arik had already smashed the fox beast to pulp.

Adder gave him a thumbs-up and jumped on the small wolf.

Grrr!

It barely growled as his sword stabbed through its chest, killing it on the spot.

Ding!

[You have leveled up!]

’Here’s the second one, two more to go.’ Adder thought to himself as two baby rabbits ran past him.

Bang!

One hit from Arik’s long hammer, and both beasts became meat paste.

Using the moment, he took a sip of water and glanced at the ritual.

The witch was still busy mumbling her spell as green fire burned before her. He saw her placing a couple of things into the fire.

Tak tak!

Another horde of footsteps rushed through the corridor. It was a pack of wolves, a bit bigger than usual, about 8 in size.

He clicked his tongue and rushed in to block. Those at the front growled at him, to which he just sidestepped, letting two in the front move past him.

The red-eyed beasts rushed ahead as Adder focused on blocking the rest.

But just then, another herd of rabbits jumped in.

Adder shouted to Arik, "3 more!"

Bang!

The familiar blast sound came from behind as Arik shouted, "No worries!"

Another wolf jumped at him. Adder swung in a wide arc.

Slash!

-20

Grrr grrr.

The injured wolf landed just a hand away from him.

Still, he jumped back. The next moment, two wolf claws slashed past where he stood.

Unbothered, he swung wide to stop the other three wolves from sneaking past him.

This gave the injured wolf time, but at least the pack was still before him.

Grrr grrr

Pissed, the pack growled at him.

Adder just twirled the blade in his hand, smirking at them.

That led to another round between them. This time, Adder managed to slash a foot and land another big swing.

He was about to rush in to finish the job when Arik’s loud scream came from behind.

"What! Adder, back!"

Already alert, Adder twisted to the side, barely missing the incoming rabbit horn.

[82 HP!]

But he still failed to dodge the second rabbit horn. The big horn poked through his side.

Confused, he stared at the two rabbits before him. Using the moment, one wolf jumped at him.

Not taking any risk, he rolled to the side, leaving room for them.

But strangely, all the beasts rushed at him.

Cursing, Adder swung wide.

-20 -43 -32 -10

He stared wide-eyed. None of the creatures dodged his strike.

The metal blade slashed through three necks, lodging into the ribs of the fourth beast.

Though two reached him unscathed.

Crunch!

One of them bit hard on his left shoulder, almost crushing his shoulder blade.

The second jumped at his face. Out of nowhere, a massive hammer slammed it just inches away from his face.

Bam!

The beast got crushed into paste as Adder stabbed his sword into the beast on his collar.

-84

[54 health]

Arik helped him pull its jaw from his shoulder.

[-2, -3, -1, +5,-1...]

Blood trickled down his shoulder. He just clenched his teeth and stuffed hard bread into his mouth. Thankfully, the bleeding stopped in a second.

[48 health]

Adder clicked his tongue. "Fuck, I am below 50 percent."

He turned to Arik as the guy just shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry, man. Those guys suddenly rushed back to you."

He was about to say something when both of them heard a scream.

AAAAAAh no!!

"Shit, don’t tell me...?" Shouting, Arik rushed back to the main room.

Adder just poured water to cool himself and followed after Arik.

As he reached the mouth of the corridor, the awaited notification popped before him.

Ding!

[You have leveled up.]

He clenched his sword. ’Good, just one more time.’

He was interrupted by Arik shouting, "What is that?"

He looked up and saw a massive group of young witches guarding the ritual circle.

Other players had also come back to the main room, some of them as bloodied as he was. This eased him a bit. At least that was not targeted at him.

Suddenly, Arik shouted, "Wait, what is she doing?"

He turned to the old witch only to see her tossing human parts into the pit.

"Is that my finger?" Someone screamed from the other side.

Adder took a step back and glanced at the other players. ’Is it starting? Come on, tell me who is offering.’

He frantically looked for any clue, only to see with wide eyes as the witch dropped all the stuff into the pit, including the silver box.

’Shit!’

The very moment a weird sensation formed around him.

Ding!

[Congratulations! Red Devil has accepted your sacrifice, offering you corrupt energy in return.]

The air surrounding him became dense. His entire body started prickling as if hundreds of ants were crawling all over him.

A cold energy seeped into his body.

Ding!

[Foreign energy detected. Corruption of power started. Do you want to accept the power transformation? (Yes/ No)]

Just as he read, a player screamed to his right.

AAAAAA!

Adder turned side to side. There, a female player stabbed her twin swords into her partner’s back.

Adder sucked in a deep breath, as she did not have black energy around her.

The player surrounded in black energy tried to turn around when another unaffected player slashed at the man’s arm.

Aahhhh

Plop!

With a scream, the guy dropped to his knees. "Why?"

Adder saw black lines appear all over the guy’s face. But just then, the woman’s blade started shining in bright white light as she shouted, "Disappear, devil!"

The holy light increased as her clothes transformed into a bright white dress.

The half-transformed guy just managed to utter a cry as the golden fire engulfed him.

’A saint.’ Clenching his teeth, he just rushed toward the ritual.

The distracted young witch stared wide-eyed as he slashed her neck.

Plop!