One week later.
The nightmares returned.
Every time he fell into a deep sleep, he dreamed about the things in the village. Remembering the treatment, he received from most of them, and how everyone hid the truth from him. Even the memory of Hiruzen now filled him with rage.
Naruto trusted him, but he was one of the masterminds on everything he had gone through. Naruto didn't understand but since that day, his body felt strange. It was his body, but he felt that something new was added but he couldn't identify it.
Ego seemed to know the truth and he could answer his question, but he wasn't here. He understood that Ego had his own rules to help him and that bringing him to this place might not have been in his plans.
The rage he felt that day in Ego's voice was real, he didn't remember much, only that Ego appeared and helped him.
Days continued to pass and Naruto kept waiting for Ego to appear in front of him as he always did, but nothing happened. He knew that Ego wouldn't leave him alone in this place if he had an option, this might be a rule, but that didn't mean that he didn't feel bad about it.
His only friend in an unknown place just disappeared and he was now alone in a place where everything wanted to kill him. The nightmares that had stopped since he got friends in the last year returned, and now he hadn't found anyone who could help with it.
Even with that, Naruto kept on living. He needed to live through any circumstances, as he always did.
The only thing he couldn't doubt was his will to live.
In the last days he had encountered two bedrooms, but as always, the moment he left the room it disappeared.
The second time he tried to stay in the room, but after being in it for two hours since he awoke, the walls began to move by themselves. He knew it, the dungeon wanted him to fight, not for him to hide in a safe zone.
The cloth armor now was dirty, and the boots had small marks of bites from the rats. The only good thing was that sometimes he could find a room with a bigger pool than usual, and he could clean his body in it.
He tried to submerge his clothes to clean the dirt, and it worked, after a few seconds the clothes were clean, and it only took less than five minutes to dry up. He discovered that yesterday, fighting the rats was a thing, but sleeping with his body full of dirt? It was uncomfortable.
Naruto continued killing rats but not as much as the first day. Doing that without getting used to it would be suicide.
He needed to understand a little how this place worked, and he urgently needed new pieces of equipment. But nothing appeared, it seemed that the things might be in the place the rats were protecting, but right now he couldn't go to that place.
Instead of that, Naruto was killing rats, only a few per day trying to get used to it. The most important thing was the food, he was eating just enough to keep him moving, but he couldn't continue like that. He needed to eat more, even a whole body if he wanted to recover his energy.
The problem was... the poison. Every time he ate even a small piece after a while he got the abnormal status and he could only recover from it by drinking from the pool.
That was okay, but it could only keep him alive; he needed more
For that, from now on, he will try to endure it and gain resistance. As everyone says, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? It's time to put it to the test.
He will begin with the fluorescent mushrooms, the only problem he got from eating those and the rat ones was vomiting, but that didn't matter.
"Let's do this, I don't think this will be the only time I will have those effects while I'm in this place." As he said that, with the water bottle in hand, Naruto started to eat.
He also had a rat body in the room for later after he vomited this time.
The first three minutes nothing happened. He was looking everywhere trying to notice something wrong, but for now it was safe.
Another two minutes passed, and he started to see things in a distorted way. It was a bit, but as he was focused on it, he could notice more easily. This time the nausea didn't come, but his head felt heavy, and he felt much more tired than usual.
"So, does this affect the mind? No one taught me how to deal with this, huh."
Complaining to himself, Naruto resisted the urge to take a sip of water. He needed to resist this.
Ten minutes passed and the rat's body became three. The room felt bigger, but he didn't move. With his back against the wall, Naruto continued looking at everything.
[Acquired abnormal status: Confusion] [Lose 0.5 mind/min] [10min]
"Finally, I was thinking this would never appear. Now I need to wait, right?"
Naruto let out a sigh of relief the moment he saw the system window. This was more manageable than the poison, but he wouldn't be neglected for that.
"Can I put my stats on my view?" The system responded to it and small and transparent numbers appeared on his lateral view.
[Spiritual energy(mind):10]
[Stamina: 18]
He didn't understand what his stats meant, he had 50% in Mind but only had 10 points in it?
Well, that didn't matter, he only needed to endure this and tried to get used to this sensation.
Time continued to pass and when he only had 2 mind points, his head felt like it was almost exploding. Noticing that it was bad, he took a sip of the bottle. Today he didn't have energy to do more, at least he found a good place to sleep today.
Without waiting any longer, he climbed his trash tower and went to sleep.
He will continue tomorrow.
Next day, he awoke and noticed that the rat body he left in the entrance had disappeared. Feeling clear-headed, he checked his status.
[Spiritual energy(mind):10]
[Stamina: 18]
Naruto didn't know how much he slept but his mind was fully recovered, the problem was that he felt hungry.
Grabbing his hammer, he left the room and looked for a rat. After these days he accepted that he needed to eat those things if he wanted to survive here.
It didn't take long to find one, after walking for five minutes he entered a small room where there were only 3 rats.
Being more skilled, he used less than 2 minutes to kill them without any injury.
Grabbing a rat and breaking down the others, he left the room and looked for another pool. This time it was near, only 3 rooms away.
Using the torch, he heated up a stone, this was different. He found it days ago and it had the shape of a knife. The sharpness wasn't the best, but it worked for his type of work.
It didn't take long to do it. He has become more skillful these days.
Sitting beside the pool and with his bottle of water in hand, Naruto started to eat.
He wanted to do the same as yesterday.
Naruto didn't need to wait long, less than two minutes later, the status appeared again.
[Acquired abnormal status: Poisoned] [Lose 1hp/s]
"Mm if I lose 1hp/s, I could see the amount I gain?"
The HP bar changed again and small numbers appeared above it.
[HP Regenerated: 0.5/s]
"0.5? So at least for this I could endure it twice? Fine." Nodding satisfied, Naruto continued waiting.
As the poison took effect, he noticed that he felt weird inside. His stomach hurt, and breathing produced a small pain, so he regulated his breathing pattern.
Time continued to pass and the state continued the same, he didn't feel more pain or something like that, only tiredness.
When his HP was below 150 his body felt weaker, but he didn't stop, he felt that something was about to happen.
100 HP and the situation was the same.
90 HP nothing changed.
75 HP he felt sleepy.
Feeling that the situation got worse, Naruto was about to take a sip of the bottle. But he continued waiting for the miracle.
And it happened.
[Poison resistance acquired: 1%]
"Yosha! I knew it! It's exactly as the shopkeeper told me! The tower rewarded those who tried hard." Naruto wanted to get up and celebrate his discovery, but the weakness in his body reminded him that he was in a bad situation. "Ah, right, the water."
Taking a sip of water, he felt how his HP continued recovering faster and faster.
10 seconds later he felt again in his best condition.
"That's better, I think now I can eat those things? Mm no, just continue increasing. At least I only needed to be poisoned." Naruto said with a bitter smile, he could only take things with optimism in this place, or he wouldn't last here.
With a new discovery, Naruto felt more motivated than ever. Now he knew how to get stronger, at least on his resistance.
"Now... that only left the rat mushroom, right? Ugh... fine."
But he didn't start immediately. Naruto didn't want to vomit his meal before he recovered enough, so, the only thing he could do was meditate.
Since he noticed that this could improve his senses, he was doing it every time he could. Only in the last days he started to do it again, when he learned how to find places relatively safe.
In this place he couldn't have enough food, and he didn't have the ingredients to make the secret recipe.
So, he was training his chakra control. He only spent his time on it, refining chakra in this situation would be a suicide, he would lose his energy faster and chakra couldn't become food.
When he was meditating, his presence started to slowly merge with the environment, he couldn't do it at all, but that helped to go unnoticed most of the time. Only a few rats entered the room, but they noticed the corpse of their comrade first, not him.
Naruto waited to see if the vermin would attack him. If they didn't, he would spare their lives.
4 hours later there were 7 more rat corpses in the room.
Finishing his meditation, Naruto got up and started to break down the bodies.
After these days he had 11 pieces and 3 fragments.
Ready for the next step, he took out a mushroom from his inventory.
Cleaning it in the pool, he supported his back against the wall. To avoid vomiting.
Taking a deep breath, he ate the whole mushroom in a few bites. He needed it to take effect quickly, so he got another and did the same.
He didn't eat more because he thought that the effect would be much stronger.
Positioning himself and making sure to not succumb, he waited and three minutes later, the effect came.
[Acquired abnormal status: Nausea] [Causes vomiting and dizziness] [15min]
"15 minutes? Ugh..."
Naruto already felt the effect. It wasn't strong as before, but the discomfort continued.
He wanted to vomit all his meal, but he endured the sensation. He needed to resist this.
Time continued to pass and 7 minutes later he couldn't resist more. Naruto started to vomit again. It felt horrible, nothing came out of his mouth after one minute, but the sensation persisted.
The only thing that made him endure it, was the timer. He threw the water bottle away from him.
He didn't think that he could resist taking a sip if he had that thing on hand. After 10 minutes, his mouth felt dry, and his chest burned with the sensation.
I need to resist this...no one will help me...
He wanted to surrender, but that option wasn't for him.
Min 14.
[Nausea resistance acquired: 1%]
Seeing that system window, Naruto ran to the pool and submerged his head. Swallowing the water.
He continued like that until he felt that he couldn't take more.
Laying on the ground, Naruto just continued looking at the roof. He didn't know what he was doing.
All this, just to survive? Is it worth it?
Asking himself those questions, he only had one answer.
Of course, that's how I've lived all this time... Ego helped me, but he couldn't stand forever...
"I just need to endure this, and I will grow stronger, right, Lady?" He asked her, but he knew that the answer was with him.
"I will do everything, everything..." His voice was drowned and his view blurred.
He was crying.
Naruto was resisting the whole week, but this was enough.
"Ahaha---Why do I have to go through this?..."
He didn't have the energy to laugh more.
...
"I need to sleep, let's go."
Naruto got up and left the room.
After walking for more than an hour he found another bedroom.
"Good, this will work."
Closing the door, he threw himself onto the bed.
Another day passed.
With a new determination, Naruto began his journey to kill some rats.
He was getting used to it, now he could channel a small amount of chakra on his fingers to throw the stones with more force. He didn't hit their heads every time, but he got better every day.
Today he did the same as yesterday, killed some rats and used the rest of the day to increase his resistance. It took much time, but he slowly got better at it.
Since he acquired the resistances the pain he felt was less, even if it only was a small amount, he felt it.
Time continued and one month had passed in a blink of an eye.
Naruto noticed that something was wrong.
Opening his status window, he started to look at it carefully.
[Vitality: 60% (Yellow)]
[Strength: 20%]
[Dexterity: 20%]
[Agility: 20%]
[Adaptability: 85%(Yellow)]
[Mind: 65% (Yellow)]
[Intelligence: 17(Colourless)]
[HP: 810]
[Spiritual energy(mind):12.8]
[Stamina: 18]
Looking at the basic stats, he was confused. "Why have these stopped rising? Since it reached 20% no matter how much I collect, the numbers continued the same..." Naruto felt stronger, but he didn't understand what happened in this situation.
He didn't think that the fragments were something temporary, maybe it's because he killed so many rats? Or 20% is the cap with them?
The intelligence, adaptability and mind also increased. It looked better but he didn't felt any change.
"Well, as long as they continue growing it's fine." Naruto shrugged his shoulders.
He changed his gaze to the other side.
[Nausea resistance: 17%]
[Poison resistance: 20%]
[Confusion resistance: 14%]
"And these are the same, I only can upgrade until 20%, huh... Well, I think it's time to go deeper." Naruto said calmly, he was getting used to this situation.
Even more because of the equipment he acquired in the last month.
[Leather greaves] [1+ Defense] [They belonged to an unfortunate adventurer]
[Rusted sword] [1+ Attack]
He acquired these near the zone where the rats were every day. He lured a pack like the first day and ran all day, luckily the bedroom saved him.
Saving the important things in his inventory, he left the bedroom. Most of the dungeon changed every day, but the path to the deeper zone was clear, the torches pointed at that place and the sticks with signals too.
There were zones where rats stayed together and others where they remained separated most of the day, only when they wanted to eat, they gathered.
The second one was his objective.
Naruto continued walking until he saw the entrance. He could see that they were hiding something behind.
Watching the scene, he looked for a spot where the fewest rats could be seen.
Gotcha. The same as always, heh.
Using rocks to destroy the torches near them, he was ready.
Unequipping his boots, Naruto started to slowly walk to them. Without light, even if the rats had good vision, Naruto had the entire scene in his mind.
Remembering the path and with his eyes accustomed to the darkness, he reached the first checkpoint. The rats didn't notice him, and using his sword, he quickly approached and cut its head off.
The others were far, but they heard the sound of the sword crashing to the ground. He threw some sharp stones, and they died in a second.
As long as the others notice me, this will be easy...
Naruto continued walking.
Some rats appeared occasionally but he killed them before they could make any noise.
After walking for more than 20 minutes and killing almost 60 rats, he reached the end.
This place looked different. It was way more illuminated and the mushrooms and other plants he could see were bigger.
Even the furniture remains were more frequent.
[Change of location: second district-inner circle]
"Inner circle? Then the rats were concentrated here?" With a thoughtful look, Naruto continued walking through it.
As he was calmly walking without any enemy, he started to notice some bones a way bigger than the previous location.
"Are there other animals here?"
Without looking the way, he stepped into a trap.
Click
"What?"
Dozens of darts shot out of the wall, they were small, but he didn't notice them, and several hit his legs and arm.
Naruto started to run as the whole wall was activated, and the darts didn't stop.
[Acquired abnormal status: Poisoned] [Lose 1hp/S]
"What the heck is that?! This place can't give me a break?!" Loudly complaining, Naruto continued running.
But he wasn't the only one in this place.
As he rounded a corner a corner, he could see a rat some meters from him.
[Big rat appeared] [50HP]
The rat was tall enough to almost reach his waist, and Naruto, at only 1.39m tall, was small enough to be its meal.
Oh no...
Without thinking about the consequences, Naruto used a big amount of chakra on his legs.
This rat was faster even if it was several times bigger than the others in the previous location.
He felt his body weaker from the excessive use of chakra and the poison didn't help him in this situation.
He tried to hide in a room but the rat followed him no matter what. The only thing he gained doing that was another rat pursuing him.
"AHHHH these stupid beasts!" Only frustration could be heard in Naruto's voice.
18 minutes later Naruto had less than half of his HP and he got weaker with every minute.
When another rat wanted to join the team, he saw a room far away, a bedroom.
"That's it! I hope this will be the same." Running straight to the room, Naruto arrived in a few seconds and without losing time, he entered and closed the door.
Doing that, his body collapsed from exhaustion. He couldn't faint in that situation.
Taking the bottle from his inventory, he drank all the water and feeling immediate relief, he fainted.
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