Rise of the System Slayer

After defeating the Dread Ghoul, a transparent screen appeared with his reward for defeating it.

[You have successfully killed the level 35 Cerberus.][You have received a reward.][You obtained the Stone Abyssal Bone.][You have gained experience.]

[You have received the key to the 2nd floor of the castle]

While Ares's eyes gazed mindlessly at the screen, he suddenly realized that he had forgotten something.

"Ah, wait… didn't you just speak!?" Ares shouted, his eyes widening in surprise. He hadn't noticed it until now because he was too focused on his enemies.

The system was also surprised by her actions.

[I'm busted!]

a monotonous female voice echoed in Ares's mind.

Her tone, usually robotic, now carried a hint of worry. Ares realized that she had slipped up, accidentally revealing herself due to her talkative big mouth.

Then, Ares quickly turned his attention to the system, demanding, "Who are you? Why are you speaking?" But no one answered.

Instead, the only response he got was the transparent screen flickering with glitches, as if the system itself was trying to hide.

[Error: Response Blocked]

[Error: Response Blocked]

[Error: Response Blocked]

Then, as he tried asking the same question again, a different text appeared on the screen. As he continued pressing for answers, the screen suddenly turned red with a new message.

[Unauthorized Access]

[System Failure: Response Unavailable]

[Glitch Detected – Response Restricted]

[Glitch Detected]

And as minutes passed, the only response he got on the screen was an error message.

He sighed, giving up on it. "What's wrong with my system?" he muttered. Instead, he focused on his rewards, his fingers idly playing with the transparent screen.

The system screen started working again, and the rewards appeared once more. He opened it.

[You received 10 PTS.]

Without wasting any time, he immediately allocated all ten points to his intelligence.

For now, he wanted to focus on his mind and maximize its potential.

- Strength: 35

- Agility: 15

- Sense: 16 

- Intelligence: 15 [+10]

- Fatigue: 50

And his body glowed as he received the effects of his newly allocated stats. After gazing at the screen for a while, he noticed that his fatigue had increased—most likely due to the potion he had purchased and the strain of dodging the Dread Ghoul's attacks.

Without hesitation, he immediately drank an Elixir Potion, and his exhaustion quickly decreased. His body felt light once again.

Right after that, the screen reappeared, displaying an instruction—asking if he wanted the Dread Ghoul to become his shadow.

[Would you like to extract the shadow of the Dread Ghoul?]

[Yes/No]

Without a second's hesitation, he immediately tapped "Yes" on the screen."Why would I decline such a strong summon? That monster's skill will be useful for me," Ares thought.

The body of the Dread Ghoul started to be encircled by shadows until they coated its body, sinking deep into its flesh. Slowly, its form darkened, shrinking into a hollow silhouette before merging completely into Ares' control.

Then, a notification appeared, confirming the successful extraction of the Dread Ghoul into his summon. A prompt followed, asking if he wanted to give it a name.

[Extraction Complete.]

[Dread Ghoul has been successfully added to your summons.]

[A name is required for your new shadow. Please enter a name.]

Placing his hand on his chin while thinking about his new shadow, Ares muttered, "Hmm… let's see, what name would be good for this monster?"After a minute of thought, he finally decided on a name.

"Your name now is Fiddle… Fiddlesticks!" Ares declared.

[Name Confirmed: "Fiddlesticks"]

[Your shadow has been successfully named.]

Then, after a while, his shadow leveled up to Level 3. He used the Abyssal Bone to fuse with them, increasing their defense by another 10%.

Before continuing to Level 3, Ares decided not to proceed just yet. Instead, he chose to return home, as weeks had passed since he entered the dungeon, and he was also worried about his little sister.

"I need to go back first. I don't want to waste any more time. I've only fought two monsters, yet weeks have already passed… I should focus on grinding my stats first," Ares thought, clenching his fist.

Since they were the only two left in their family, his father had passed away when the dungeon break started, defending his family from an orc, and in the following years, his mother was the next to die, protecting his little sister.

Since then, Ares has started grinding in life. When he turned 17, he decided to quit school and focus on becoming a hunter. However, due to his lack of strength, he joined a mining team instead, supporting his little sister's education. Half of his salary went to Lily.

He used the Artifact Stone to teleport himself outside the Demon Castle, but he couldn't help but think about the system that had spoken to him earlier. A second later, his body flashed, and he reappeared outside.

The sky above was a swirling mass of deep purples and blacks, resembling a midnight, starless sky. There was no one in sight—only the wind howling through the empty streets outside the city, making it feel like a ghost town.

swish

.

.

.

After that, he immediately went home to take a nap. The next morning, a loud and noisy commotion echoed outside, along with the crowing of a rooster, signaling the start of a new day. His eyes still felt heavy with sleep, but he quickly used a countdown method—a mental technique similar to Mel Robbins' 5-second rule—to force himself to get up.

5

4

3

2

1

...

With a deep breath, he pushed himself out of bed and quickly organized his pillow, putting it aside. Then, he went to the kitchen to cook breakfast for Lily. And After Lily went away, he sat in front of his computer and swiped the screen, opening a website called the Hunter Society—a forum used by hunters to exchange information about dungeons and find partners for raids. He planned to use this site to search for a partner.