I leaned against the cold stone wall and sighed as I tore a bite out of the haunch of meat that had dropped from the last beast I had fought, “Tunnel after tunnel after tunnel… how many fucking dead ends are there!?”

  The dungeon didn’t respond this time, but I didn’t care too much. I had been traveling through the series of tunnels and options for what felt like another week, and then I ran into my first dead end. I’d been confused, but had backtracked and tried each of the other tunnels, discovering that they too led to more options and then dead ends. Which led to more back tracking, more exploring, and more fighting monsters and crazy as hell traps. I’d almost been crushed, skewered, melted by acid and set aflame, and there had even been a trap that had set loose a rain of wires that had sliced off my hand before the other wires coalesced around it and turned it into a pile of bloody sausage.

  The monster’s had been difficult as well, and in the course of exploring I had run into several more of those damned fire breathing lizards, a pair of human sized goblins that wielded a pair of wicked flails, several more packs of those shit balls of death, and so many more of those mage goblins along with their entourages. Not only that, but there were these weird, squat, furry gremlins with a thing for candles, a massive snake that had three heads and just appeared out of nowhere and struck, a piranha like creature with a huge head and squat little legs with a trident, a freaking boar, like literally, just a fucking boar, and the weirdest of all was a many limbed creature that would detach those limbs and lob them at me! Not only was that weird, but the limbs exploded on contact! Like, what the fuck!?

  I had actually ‘died’ several times to them, and that explosive fuck in particular, but I had ended up coming out on the bright side in the end. I had even managed to get to level twenty three, even with the many deaths. I’d collected a pretty solid gear set as well, but that explosive fuck had managed to blow most of it to pieces so I had been reduced back to ground zero. I guess I couldn’t complain too much since my scale mail was covered in blood and dents, my greaves had bite marks in them, and my leather armor was singed or falling apart, but still! I had given a lot of blood and time in order to win those pieces! Argh! It pissed me off just thinking about it!

  I grumbled to myself and ripped off the last piece of the meaty haunch. I had been making marks on each of the tunnels that I had gone through, and had been able to make it through about seventy-five percent of the options by now. Well, that’s what I assumed of course. There was always the possibility that one of these last options led to another tree of possibilities, but I had the sneaking suspicion that wasn’t the case. See, each long line of options had lasted at most nine tunnels in a straight row from the first tunnel I went through. There were so many dead ends that I went down, and a lot ended at just the one tunnel, but at max there were only nine tunnels in a row before it dead ended.

  Currently, I was sitting at eight as far as this last tunnel had gone, which meant after backtracking and trying the other options I should be able to get three or more until the end of these tunnel options, along with their numerable branches of course.

  I sighed and got up, cracking my back and neck as I reached towards the void and activated sprint. Good things come to those who are patient I guess… I just wish that I had some more luck on my side!

  I raced back up the tunnel, noting the dissolving lizard that I had just killed, and made it back to the crossroads. I took the knife I had gotten off of a goblin archer and made another line on the side of this tunnel, making an X, before walking over to the middle tunnel. I stretched out my senses, hoping for an easy fight, or maybe even just a set of traps, but nothing showed up and I sighed. That probably meant it was a camouflage monster, or a complex trap… what a pain. Though I guess it was better than the far left tunnel, which reeked of wet fur and slobber.

  I considered it for a moment before slashing a line into the side of the tunnel and beginning down it. I had lost my shield and sword, but had taken a wooden shield and a war hammer from another goblin and had been doing some real damage with it. I had gone through several of the wooden shields because of those fire breathing lizards, but I had thankfully been able to throw it aside before the flames could eat it up in this last fight.

  My ears caught the slightest disturbance in the air, and then the barest rasp of scales slithering on stone, and with a grunt I activated dodge. I was just barely able to dodge the three headed snake as its heads shot forward and snapped shut on where I was. It blinked in surprise as it realized its prey wasn’t there anymore, and then it hissed in intense pain as I sent the spiked part of the warhammer straight through its left head. It reeled back and shot a spray of acid out of its center head, which I caught on my shield using block. It blinked in surprise again, but then the acid covered shield slammed into its head, followed up by a war hammer powered by a leap and hammer bash.

  The snakes heads exploded on impact, sending blood and acid flying through the air, and I jumped back just in time to avoid getting soaked in it with a laugh, “Hahaha! Not this time you overgrown pair of boots! I remember how ridiculous that acid was! Fucking shit melted the skin and flesh off my chest last time! Aren’t you a snake? Isn’t venom your whole thing?”

  The three headed snake, of course, didn’t respond. Seeing as how it was a pile of gore that was being rapidly dissolved by its own acid, I guess I shouldn’t have expected it to, but… I guess the solitude over the last month or so may have caused me to become a little… crazy… haha…

  I sighed as I shook off the remnants of blood and acid off of the metal part of the warhammer. Thankfully the acid didn’t corrode it, but fuck… I guess I had lost yet another shield. I had been hoping to find another one of those long armed creatures, but I guess that might have been the only one around. Hell, it might have even been an uncommon or rare drop and I had used up all my luck getting it. Well, I hope not at least. That would be a pain if it was true.

  I set the warhammer on my shoulder and hummed to myself as I came to another triple tunnel opening. That was a good sign, though each of these could also end up leading to dead ends as well. I considered each one before shrugging and slashing a line in the far left tunnel and starting down it. Each one hadn’t smelled or felt like monsters, which probably meant that this one was a trap series. Which was a nice break series for me, so I didn’t mind.

  My spatial awareness stretched out and searched for even the slightest bit of irregularities, but oddly enough there was nothing. There were some holes, but they were naturally made, a loose few rocks that weren’t connected to anything, a boulder that was far too rough to actually roll anywhere, and even a few spears that had rotted away and were rusted to utter hell. It was suspiciously quiet, but then I heard a deep rumble from above and I cursed as I heard the sloshing of boiling water and activated dash, leap, and then sprint in order to make as much distance as I could as I heard the rushing roar of gallons upon gallons of searing hot water crashing down behind me. I used dash and leap as much as I could, but honestly the distance I could cover with sprint was pretty much the same, so I just raced forward as quickly as I could, cursing my luck with how long this damned tunnel was.

  Then I sensed the widening of the tunnel and reached towards the void, activating dash one final time and clearing the final distance in one explosive burst. I noted the three tunnels blearily as I collapsed to my hands and knees and panted for air, struggling to keep myself conscious as I felt the screaming agony from calling upon sprint, leap, and dash so much and so quickly. It hurt like hell, but I could feel Unending Vitality doing its best to aid in my recovery and rolled over with a groan as I waited for it to do its work.

  I hadn’t been really aware of how strong of an ability either of them had been when I gained them, but as I had gone through this dungeon over the last few weeks it had become impossible to ignore. I was already so incredibly thankful to both of them, but at this point… I don’t know how I was ever going to be able to make it up to them. They both said that they weren’t expecting anything from me, or wait… that wasn’t necessarily right. No, hadn’t they said something about giving them an interesting show to watch? Did that mean that they were watching me? And that they wanted me to do something interesting? I guess going into the dungeon would be along those lines, but… is this really all?

  I sighed and sat up, “You two confuse the hell out of me… I mean honestly! Like am I really the best thing for you two to watch? But you know… If I can repay you this way, why not?”

  I chuckled and raced down the middle tunnel, slashing the side of it as I ran by. I could sense the troop of goblin archers that were standing right in the middle, and as a hail of arrows shot towards me, I reached towards the void and activated dash. Power flowed throughout my entire body, but right before I flashed forward, I reached towards the curling void and activated dodge as well. The void happily complied, realizing exactly what I wanted and flashing me forward while also dodging the hail of arrows, almost as if each one was frozen in time. It was an ecstatic feeling, a powerful one, and as I ground to a stop in front of the fifteen goblins, I couldn’t help but laugh.

  All fifteen sets of eyes flashed to me, with reactions ranging from confusion and surprise to fear and horror, and I just kept on laughing as I spun around and slammed the warhammer into the side of the first goblins head, caving it in. Their body thumped to the ground with a wet thud, and then everything turned into chaos. The nearest archers screeched and fell backwards, while the rest of them drew daggers and knives and charged towards me.

  As they all descended, I reached towards the void and asked for its help, and then hammer bash activated, sending a wave of power through my arm and the hammer itself. The first strike crashed into the nearest goblin, sending them into their nearest comrades. My other arm filled with power as blow activated, and then flashed forward, crashing into the goblins on the other side and caving their chest in with a wet series of cracks. Then the rest descended, and it turned into a pool of gore, blood, flashing metal, and screams and screeches.

  Then the void reached towards berserker’s rage, and all the chaos froze still for a moment. My mind truly awakened in a sea of bloody red, and I flowed into a perfect state, not even thinking. All that was left was instinct and will, and I just let them and the void to truly take over for me, entirely. I threw a punch into the first goblin, knocking it off guard as I activated blow and kicked the next one in the chest, shattering its bones. I whipped around and kicked another goblin in the face, then activated hammer bash, stabbing the spike into the next one's head.

  A rush of power flowed through me as I activated leap to get above all of the bloody bodies and to get a good look at the situation that was happening around me. It was nothing of note, so I returned my attention back to the fight at hand. On the way down, I activated blow and crashed through the next goblin's head and chest, and as I touched down, I activated hammer bash and killed the next goblin. I punched the goblin that suddenly stabbed me in the side, and then kicked their nearby friend and caused them to stumble back. While they both recovered, the others rushed forward and I activated claw, catching the first two goblins off guard and ripping through both their throats. Then I whipped around and activated bite, tearing out the throat of the goblin that had jumped on my back. Then I clenched my left fist and activated blow, sending it straight through the goblin that raced off and hoped to catch me off guard. I gripped the hammer in my right hand and activated hammer bash, sending it through the goblin that raced up on the other side.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Then I was swarmed again, and so I leaned back and kicked aside the first knife, kicked another goblin in the throat to cause it to choke, and then kicked another in the chest. The remaining goblins were surprised and dazed as well, so I activated hammer bash and killed the first one. The one that got kicked in the chest ran up, so I activated hammer bash again and killed it too. The last one was still struggling to breathe, so I just activated the claw and sliced its head off, listening to it thunk around the ground until it finally came to a stop. Then, except for my panting, silence descended upon the tunnel, and I came to.

  My senses returned to me, and I gasped for air as I fell to my hands and knees, soaked in the blood of not only the goblins, but my own. My arms were torn to shreds, my body was filled with stab wounds, the flesh on my side was hanging off, my left eye was gone, I had bitten off my tongue, a large section of my face was missing, and everything I knew was pain. Not only that, but everything I ever knew was just pain and agony. It was so much agony that I didn’t even remember why I was in so much pain. So much agony that I didn’t have the time to remember why I was in pain. It was the worst I’d felt in a long time, even including being melted alive, or torn apart by the dire wolves over and over again. At least those ends came with blacking out from the pain. This one didn’t seem like it was ever going to go away, and when it did, it left so slowly that I couldn’t even divert enough energy to remember why I was in so much agony that at least a day had passed.

  It was probably another four days until I was able to shakily get to my feet, and another two until I finally decided that I was in good enough shape to continue forward in the dungeon. Only then did I stop to consider why I had been in so much pain for so long. Only then did I realize that it was all because of Unending Vitaliy and Enduring Heart. The damage wasn’t enough to insta kill me, but it was enough that I was losing blood, but not fast enough that Unending Vitality could repair. So while it was slowly working on healing me, it had to devote 99% of its energies towards making enough blood to keep myself alive. Death’s Favoured didn’t even have the chance to activate, because I was kept alive, but ever so close to death for so long.

  I sighed as another flash of pain pinged from my torn shoulder. Damn had that fucking sucked… maybe in the future I would make sure to conserve just enough energy to just straight up fucking kill myself. Good news is, this was the ninth tunnel. This should be the last option until the–

  Then my heart stopped cold in its tracks as the tunnel opened up. It was as if everything was perfect! Well, until it wasn’t… And I watched as the glorious room that should have had several doorways was empty instead. Just straight cold stone walls…

  I groaned and slammed my head into the wall, “Ah fuck! ANOTHER GODS DAMNED DEADEND! FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!! I AM SO SICK OF THIS SHIT!!!”

  My annoyance echoed off of the silent stone walls almost as if they were mocking me. It was infuriating, but at the same time it was incredibly embarrassing and I sat down with a heavy sigh. Oh who was I kidding… I had chosen to do this. To go into the dungeon. To get stronger at any cost. I had known that I would die over and over again. I had known that I wasn’t going to be able to eat for a long time, and hell, hadn’t even been expecting to eat anything for an entire year! There were a few dead ends, so what? Especially as I was this close to the end?

  I sighed and leapt to my feet with a grunt. Yup, no benefits to thinking about it too much and just whining. Might as well just backtrack and check out the tunnel!

  I took a deep breath and then activated sprint, feeling a pleasant pulse of power flow through me. With that, I raced back, crossed off the X, and then checked the other two tunnels. The first was just a spike floor that dropped down from above, which I used dash in order to get out of range of. It was of course a dead end, so I raced back towards the options, made my X, and tried the far right tunnel. That one was just a long hallway, which I sprinted down for an unbelievably ridiculous amount of time. I was honestly starting to get bored, and then, BOOM! The walls slammed shut behind me and I had to run away from a massive rolling boulder. It felt a little unoriginal if I’m being honest, but I guess I was bound to run into one within a maze. And so I made the last X and raced back towards the other tunnel options, marking an X as I walked into the room with the other two tunnels.

  I sighed as I considered the left and right tunnels. The one on the far left was dead silent, but the right tunnel… I could hear the snuffles of a larger beast down there. It reeked of an interesting mix of scales and fur, but at the same time the sounds of its feet smacking on the ground oddly enough sounded like paws smacking on stone. Though, I wasn’t too surprised by the sound of the noise, it wasn’t something that I recognized, which meant that it was probably a creature that I had never fought before. How interesting!

  I grinned and raced down the tunnel, my spatial awareness stretching out until it wrapped around the beast. I hadn’t really been far off with my initial estimations. It was almost as if the creature had a parallel line drawn through the middle of it, dividing it into two different beasts. The head and top half of the beast was covered in scales, and looked remarkably like a bearded dragon, and its bottom half was covered in fur with the legs of a massive dire wolf.

  It turned its head towards me and its odd eyes locked on me. Then it popped its mouth open and shot out a long pink tongue towards me. I yelped and ducked the strike, then had to roll aside as another shot from the tongue pierced through the space I had been in. Then I had to leap high in order to dodge another strike, activate dodge to contort my body out of the way of another tongue strike, and then dodge yet again in order to twist out of the way of another. I was in the perfect position to get attacked, but then for some unknown reason it paused for a moment in its unrelenting strikes. It wasn’t for long, but honestly that was all I needed.

  I roared and activated dash, flashing forward to a stop next to the beast. Its eyes spun towards me, and it began to turn itself. It had fast reflexes, but unfortunately for it, it was still too slow and I cracked its skull open with a hammer bash, sending blood and gore everywhere as its body collapsed to the ground, spasming weakly until it went still.

  I let out a long slow breath and shook my head, glancing at the dungeon wall and patting it, “That was a weird one, and I thought bearded dragons couldn’t shoot out their tongues anyways? You’re a wild one dungeon… but… that was quite the amusing fight, wasn’t it? Haha… I doubt this is the end, I’m excited for what else you have in store for me, eh?”

  The dungeon thrummed, and oddly enough, I could have sworn that I felt a sense of satisfaction from it. I checked the corpse of the iguana wolf creature for any loot, but other than a nice fur cloak I didn’t see anything else. I put it on, noting the fact that one side was covered in little scales, and smiled as I flipped it so that side was on the outside of me. I made sure to continue down the tunnel, but when it dead ended I wasn’t surprised. I just shrugged and made my way back with a laugh, marking an X on the right tunnel.

  I turned my attention back to the left tunnel, and with another chuckle, I cracked my knuckles and began to walk towards it. It was silent, much like the snake tunnel and most trap tunnels were, but as I made my way forward, I suddenly heard the sound of plapping on the ground. It was worryingly familiar, and I felt myself shiver as I remembered an unbelievably problematic creature from a week ago.

  I felt myself pale and cursed as the plapping got louder. I considered running away, looked around for anything to hide behind, and then it was too late for me. The freaky creature that was literally just a ball of limbs of all shapes, colors, and sizes rounded the corner, and with a high pitched scream one of its arms ripped off a leg and yeeted it at me. It spun through the air, almost hilariously slowly, but intense fear pulsed through me and I instinctively activated dash, flashing to the other side of the tunnel.

  I watched with a pale face as the leg smacked into the ground and exploded with enough force to leave a small crater. Then another scream shook the tunnel and another row of various arms and legs came flying towards me, and I had to activate dash again to get away in time. Booms shook the tunnel behind me, but I didn't care about those. I had already activated sprint and was racing around the room, feeling the waves of force from the tossed explosive limps chasing behind me.

  I cursed and panted as I leapt over craters, darted back and forth, used leap and dash to suddenly change course, and raced around and around the creature. I had only fought it once so far, but when I had it had managed to blow apart my body, armor and all, apart with just one of those damn limbs. The fact that they were explosive wasn’t what made the creature inherently difficult though. It was the fact that it learned, adapted, and threw out the limbs in increasingly complex and predictive patterns. I couldn’t just run faster, I had to change up my path, back track, leap into the air, activate dash, and all at completely random moments or else the creature would lead me into a trap and twenty of those damned limbs would be spinning from the air in every direction right as I came out of using dash.

  Not only that, but the creature had so many limbs that I couldn’t even just race towards it and try to fight it; because doing so meant that I was in point blank range of its exploding limbs, which seemed to not even effect it, but also were able to rip any weapon out of my limbs and block or cushion any attack. It was horrifying, infuriating, and one of the hardest beasts I had fought so far. That being said, it wasn’t invincible or immortal. If I just continued to dodge the limbs, it would eventually run out, and then it was my turn to strike.

  It was honestly just a matter of getting to that point, which was not an easy thing to do. Honestly the thing was so annoyingly good at predicting where I would go, that it made me wonder if the dungeon specifically created this little freak specifically for melee fighters, tanks, and assassin types. A decent mage or archer could probably just shoot a few well aimed and timed spells, and the thing would die instantly, but for a melee fighter like myself? If it wasn’t for my Death’s Favoured, I would have probably just chosen another path.

  I bared my teeth and activated leap, and then used dash to flash along the side of the tunnel wall, throwing the damned creature off guard yet again. It was a pain in the ass, and the sound of its feet plapping on the ground was terrifying, but… Well you see… The thing is… I could see that path of victory. I could see that it could be defeated, and I knew the way to get around its destructive power. Just knowing that? It was enough for me, even if I had to push my body to the point that my lungs and legs burned, the void was annoyed by me asking for its power over and over again, and I was forced to use skills and strengths and newer ways than I ever had.

  It was a lot, but as I slammed to the ground next to the creature, which had finally been reduced to nothing but an arm and a leg, I couldn’t help but feel exhilaration and excitement pouring through me. I felt complete, happy, and ready for more. I didn’t remember my past prior to those wolves, and Verdant and Grim had neglected to tell me anything about it either, but something told me that I would have wanted this. That exploring this dungeon and getting stronger was like a dream coming true for me.

  The creature screamed and scrambled backwards, limping awkwardly because of its mismatched limbs that were attached to an amorphous skin ball of flesh. I could feel its fear at me, its desperation, and with a sigh I cracked my neck. I guess it wasn’t nice to bully the dungeon creatures. I should make its end quick, it would have done the same for me after all.

  I raced forward and with a roar, activated hammer bash. Power flowed through my arm, and then the warhammer was flying down. It crashed straight into the center of it, crashing into it with so much force that it was slammed it into the ground along with the sound of dozens of bones shattering. It weakly squirmed and spasmed, but I had meant what I said about killing it quickly, so I sent another two hammer bashes into it, only stopping because it finally went limp, and a familiar status appeared before me.

  Level Up!

  Name: Will

  Race: Chimera

  Level: Twenty- Three(New!)

  Title: Einha Slayer

  Abilities:

  Enduring Heart

  Unending Vitality (Incomplete)

  Death's Favoured (Incomplete)

  Skills:

  Sprint (Master)

  Berserker’s Rage (Rare)

  Claw (Average)(New!)

  Bite (Apprentice)

  Sword Slash (Apprentice)

  Pierce (Apprentice)

  Blow (Apprentice)

  Leap (Apprentice)(New!)

  Hammer Bash (Beginner)(New!)

  Dodge (Beginner)(New!)

  Block (Beginner)(New!)

  Dash (Trainee)(New!)

  Axe Smash (Initiate)

  Passive Skills:

  Spatial Awareness (Passive)(Practicer)(New!)

  Hardened Body (Passive)(Average)(New!)

  Acid Resistance (Passive)(Beginner)(New!)

  I laughed as euphoria coursed through me, and the many cuts, scrapes, and internal wounds and bleeding finally came to a stop, “Perfect, perfect… Now, I guess it’s about time that I got through this part of the dungeon, right?”

  The dungeon thrummed beneath my feet, and as I made my way forward towards the end of the dungeon tunnel, I couldn’t help but smile. I had been sick of seeing dead ends, but honestly, who was I kidding? I loved this. I loved every part of this! Come Dungeon! Make this even more exciting for me!