Deep breathing. Hard coughs echo in the distance. A scream envelops the air.
My chest!
It's killing me!
A terrible mist reveals a large pointed spear with barbed edges sticking through the torso of a human body, which is half eaten. Paul Randall, writhing in pain, squirming on the ground, dying from blood loss, is now recollecting on his life up to this point.
I am useless! I ruined my only chance at redeeming myself!
Paul begins to shed a tear, realizing that his life is over, he begs God for one more chance at life.
God please, I beg of you, let me start over, let me be a better man.
Consciousness begins to fade, he wakes up in a bar. Sitting at a bar stool already he's confused as to what has happened. The last thing he remembers is him being impaled by a spear through the chest as well as his legs being bitten off. He can't speak, all around the bar are people without faces. He can't hear any noise, the only thing he can hear is music. Classical music that is not enveloping his ears but instead playing it straight into his consciousness. Only one man in front of them has a face, the man is speaking to him as well as writing something down on a napkin. On the napkin it says three words.
One. Last. Chance.
What was that? Who was that man?
Paul looks around and sees that he is back in the cave that he was before he went to the strange looking bar. He notices that his legs are back and that the hole in his chest as well as the spear are gone.
I don't know what happened but I have a feeling that I might have met God.
One last chance? What could that mean? Like I have only one chance to live my life again?
Paul gets up off the ground and looks at his surrounding and sees that he is in a very dark and gloomy cave, he wonders if he is still in the dungeon or if you got transported somewhere. He sees some glowing mushrooms and he grabs them to use as small lights to light his way.
There's no sense of just standing here and doing nothing I need to find a way out, it doesn't look like this place is inhabited by animals or Monsters.
After spending a couple hours walking around trying to find any signs of life Paul realizes that this Rift leads to nowhere. There's no way in and no way out, all he's found are some hard mushrooms glowing mushrooms and then some soft fluffy mushrooms.
If I have to I can eat these mushrooms to survive but don't riffs usually go somewhere where there's a lot of monsters? I don't know how these mushrooms grow so I better not depend on eating them unless I really have to.
Paul recalls a Time in college in which he had to write multiple reports on dungeon crawling, he remembers Rifts or what happens when a portion of a dungeon remains dormant in which the dungeon creates a small Subspace that usually leads to a different portion of the dungeon. He also recalls that whenever a dungeon isn't closed and the dungeon core is not destroyed that the inhabitants of the dungeons go on a rampage.
It seems like it's only been about 6 hours since I was trapped in this cave, dungeons usually close after 24 hours of being opened. That means I have about 18 hours left, I don't know what will happen to me after the dungeon closes.
Paul still had his backpack which had about one day of rations as well as five Magic stones.
Information dump: Magic stones are incredibly rare gems which can be used to expediate an Awakening, as well as to create health potions and Magic potions. By crushing a Blue Magic stone a person could have a 1 and 50 chance of an experiencing an Awakening. Magic stones can also be used to create weapons and armor as well as accessories, not all weapons armor and accessories have special functions.
There are five grades of Magic stones, blue grade which is what Paul has. The other four grades are as follows, yellow which is about worth 10 blue Magic stones, red which is about worth 20 yellow Magic stones, green which is worth about a hundred Red Magic stones, lastly is purple which is worth about a thousand green Magic stones.
I know these aren't mine, but they are the only chance I have to getting out of here. I remember and my paper that the awakening you experience is dependent on what grade of Magic Stones you have. I have four blue magic stones and one red Magic stone. That means I have a 1 in 10 chance of experiencing an Awakening.
Paul decided to go ahead and use before Blue Magic stones that he has, he only got one Awakening skill from those four. His first Awakening skill is called "VacuumGrasp" , which allows him to blow a gust of wind like a vacuum towards his hands. Also note each Magic stone has a different form of Awakening. Blue Magic Stones can give you any kind of skill, yellow can give you a general passive buff skill, red will give you a fighting passive skill, green can give you a healing passive skill, purple will give you any kind of skill but you get to pick from three skills instead of just one.
Blue Grade Skill-Vacuum Grasp: allows the user to generate a light Breeze towards the palm of their hands.
This skill can be leveled up 20 times. Leveling up skills can only be done through repetitive actions as well as further understanding of the skill. Levels 1 through 10 will be through repetitive actions while 11 through 20 is done through further understanding of the skill.
I guess it isn't the worst skill to have in the world, it's good in case you drop your weapon. I guess I've got to use the red Magic stone. Blue Magic stones are the only one that have a small chance, all of the other color magic stones for sure give you a skill. So let's hope I get something good from this red Magic stone.
Paul uses the red Magic stone and a system window pops up claiming he had learned "Molers Claw" skill. The information of the skill reads as follows.
Red Grade Skill-Molers claw: with a sharp precision you can use a claw attack against enemies, although very weak against organic monsters, it proves incredibly useful against metallic or stone golems.
This skill can be leveled up 50 times. Level 1 through 25 can be done through repetitive actions while 26 through 50 is done through further understanding of the skill.
Okay so I've got a skill that helps me fight Golems and a skill that lets me pull objects towards the palm of my hand. I don't know how that can help me but if I run into any monsters I guess I can at least defend myself.
Paul began to think to himself that maybe help may come, but he realizes that Rifts usually close after being used for the first time. And considering this cave has no way to reach the actual portion of the dungeon, he may not be able to depend on anyone else to come save him. As time goes on he begins to get more and more desperate, he ate all the mushrooms he had found, he also ate all of his rations. He has a small pocket knife in which he's been etching on the side of the cave wall how many days it's been. He's never been this desperate before and he remarks how it's already been 9 days.
Out of desperation he decided he can at least train his vacuum grasp ability, he cut off a small portion of his shirt and began to use his skill to gently pull the small piece of cloth towards himself. Each pool only gives him one experience point while he needs a minimum of 200 just to reach level two. Over the course of several hours as he's marching on to day 10 he's gotten the skill up to level 6. Now he can fully bring the Peace of cloth to his hand from 20 ft away. He started to lose his mind and began to become much more aggravated.
I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know! Why why why why why why why to me why to me why don't we me why why why why why why why...
You continue to ask why is this happening to him as well as that he doesn't know how to get out. The small cave is about 20 by 30 ft and is more akin to an insane asylum padded room, except it's completely dark he hasn't had food and he has nothing to sleep on but the hard Stony ground.
He's starving, he's skin and bones can barely even breathe. Out of desperation he began to use his claw ability to strike the walls.
I need to get out! I need to get out! I need to get out! why ?why? who? who? Paul? Paul
RAHHHH!!!
Next thing he knows is that his skill is going higher and higher he's doing more damage to the wall and then it clicks to him. If he's in this room how is he getting oxygen, he remembers that he has a magnesium lighter in his backpack he takes all of his clothes off and then began to make a torch which he held in his bare hand. He lit it on a fire and then walked around the room aimlessly trying to find if there was some kind of ventilation or small crevice which air was seeking into. After about an hour and coming up to day 11, he found the ventilation, he found where there was oxygen coming through.
Finally I can get out! Out. Out. Out! Out! Out! Out!
He became more and more ferocious as he began to strike the little hole in the wall, it began to get bigger and bigger and bigger until he was able to crawl out. At this point his claw ability was at level 3. As he got out he saw that there were small snails all over the place and he was in a much larger Cavern he grabbed his backpack which weighed him down quite a bit since he was very malnourished. He rushed at the snails to catch them which wasn't too hard considering their snails and began sucking the snails out of their shells mouth full of snails he began muttering:
One last chance! one last chance! one last chance! one last chance!
His mental state had began to deteriorate into something of a rabid animal, that night he ate over 3,000 snails. He also collected all of their shells using his vacuum skill. Which level it up all the way to level 10. The cavern that he found had a small pond as well as other Wildlife like insects frogs as well as plenty of plants. Much more mushrooms which he had also eaten.
I'm out I'm out I'm out I'm out I'm out I'm out I'm out I'm out I'm.. Out?
Paul couldn't believe that he was out of that tiny space and that he was actually able to have some portion of livelihood and the sense of hope. He didn't know it but since he was in that small space... Since he went through that Rift... He had already lost his Humanity.
One last chance?
After that day he didn't speak a word until he was finally out of the dungeon, for the longest time all he was able to hear was his own voice. That voice had driven him insane, Paul Randall was no more, all that was left was the embodiment of insanity.
In this new Cavern he found out that many Magic Stones were at the bottom of the pond, many with notes attached to them. written in a language he could not understand nor did he even recognize the form of writing that it was written in. Obtaining the stones was pretty easy, he used his vacuum skill to pull each stone out from under the water. Like a madman who is obsessed with organization he began to separate the stones and count them. He counted that he had over 700 Blue Magic stones, about 50 yellow magic Stones, about 10 red magic stones and about five green magic stones, and only one purple Magic stone.
He decided that he would be very frugal with the amount of skills he would get, because in this world if you use too many Magic stones you have the chance of becoming a revenant.
Revenant: someone who has used too many magic stones in a short amount of time they cannot control their skills nor their consciousness. Many adventurers become revenants due to becoming too greedy and wanting to have as many skills as possible.
Paul decided to use only 1 purple, as well as 3 green magic stones, which granted the following skills.
Purple Grade Skill-Horrific Knowledge: The user is cursed with seeing the stats, size, weight as well as a brief description of all and any object he sees, but he also is forced into schizophrenic episodes in which he imagines things that are not there. This skill can level up to 100 times, level 1-50 by repetition while level 51-100 through understanding.
Green Grade Skill-Angel Eyes: You are able to see objects through the lens of an angel. This skill can level up to 10 times, level 1-5 by repetition while level 6-10 through understanding.
Green Grade Skill-Green Thumb: you can extract seeds from plants even when the plant isn't producing seeds, these seeds can be sown for better growth or be eaten which cleans the organs of whoever eats them. This skill can level up to 10 times, level 1-5 by repetition while level 6-10 through understanding.
Green Grade Skill- Healthy Hair: allows the user to grow a healthy head of hair that can stand the test of time, said hair also self conditions and self cleans when exposed to water. This skill can level up to 10 times, level 1-5 by repetition while level 6-10 through understanding.
Paul had thought it was weird that he had gotten those skills, he never did any planting back on earth nor did he have any hair problems. The Angel Eyes skill was quite useful though, being able to see which plants had healing properties would help him get back into good shape.
A couple days had gone by, Paul's resolve to make this cavern home had shown signs of success, he had extracted seeds from the mushrooms and with his claw skill he dug a small circle that went down about 3 feet in depth. In this circular pit he plant hardy mushrooms which he identified These hardy mushrooms were filled with protein and helped strengthen his bones.
Hardy "Golem" Mushrooms- these mushrooms have a hardy exterior but can be cracked open to show a soft and gooey interior.
Paul also made 2 more circular pits that held the other two forms of mushrooms that he had encountered.
Glowshrooms- these mushrooms have a bouncy exterior, almost rubber like. They draw in mana from the air to grow which also causes them to glow in the dark.
SquishShroom- these mushrooms are fluffy and offer little nutrition but have been used to make bread in ancient civilizations.
Paul had begun to wonder how much time had passed in the real world, one day in a dungeon is 7 Days in real life. Going by this time dilation, Paul had realized it's been 16 days in the dungeon, which means it's been about three and a half months in the real world. The dungeon that he had entered was a specific dungeon that had the opposite time dilation then it should have had. In fact , unbeknownst to Paul , one day in this dungeon was about a minute in the real world. The dungeon that Paul had entered was presumably what people considered a tutorial dungeon. Supposedly an easy dungeon in which no one can get trapped in and people can leave willingly. The dungeon does not close and it was supposed to be filled with low rank slimes that could be killed even if you just kicked them.
In reality Paul had entered one of the most dangerous dungeons, a multi-layer dungeon. These kinds of dungeons don't just have one cave; sometimes they can have up to thousands or even hundreds of thousands of layers of caves. they are also known as multi dungeons, Paul was rifted away into an offset corridor of this multi-layer dungeon. Soon Paul will realize the dire situation that he is in. He had traveled from the first floor the very top of the dungeon all the way to the bottom to floor 127,000. Which had never been recorded in history.
After Paul had planted all of the mushrooms he had found, he began exploring the dungeon much more. He noticed that it is another cut off Cavern which seems to be disconnected from the main dungeon . Paul measured the cavern and it seemed to be in an octagonal shape spanning roughly about 175 ft In diameter. After looking at the stones which he had placed in the small crevice he had originated from, he noticed that there was a percentage chance of corruption. Which he had linked to becoming a revenant, the percentage chance is stated as such. He was able to see these stats thanks to his Horrific Knowledge skill.
The blue magic stones had a 0% chance of corruption, the yellow stones had a 15% chance of corruption, the red had a 25% chance of corruption and the green had a 10% chance of corruption. Paul had no purple but he was assuming that it had a higher percentage of corruption than the red ones. Also in the text it had read:
To lower corruption chances, further your understanding of your current skills.
Paul had never heard of increasing your understanding of skills, he had only ever heard of leveling skills. Paul understood that he needed to study his skills and how they function, not just use them, his first skill that he wanted to study was his Vacuum grasp skill.
After some time and practice using his skill he realized he's not just creating a breeze to pull an object towards him, he's actually changing the breeze that already exists to his favor. With this new discovery he realized he didn't just have the ability to pull objects towards him but also to push them away using wind Magic. With this new discovery he got a system notification leveling up his vacuum grasp skill up to level 15.
Now figuring that out he realized that he could use his vacuum grasp to trap the frogs by both pulling and pushing them in the air, causing them to be stuck in the air as long as he is using his skill. Before hunting frogs was horrible because they were so slippery and slimy as well as pretty agile. They also were not small frogs like a lot of frogs from earth. One single dungeon frog weighed about 25 lb.
These dungeon frogs at closer inspection were called Abyssal frogs. They were black with purple spots all over them and presumably their stomachs had these special fragments called Abyssal fragments. Unbeknownst to Paul these Abyssal fragments act the same way as magic stones, the only difference is that they Grant experience to already existing skills. These Abyssal fragments have never been discovered because Abyssal frogs only reside at the very bottom of dungeons.
After looking at the Abyssal frogs and Abyssal fragments Paul had realized that his skill and horrific knowledge provided him with the information he needed to have an idea. with one hand he would hold the Abyssal frog in place and with the other hand he would pull the Abyssal fragment out of the Frog's mouth. without even touching the Abyssal frogs he had found a way to get the Abyssal fragments reliably without killing the frogs. The Abyssal fragments varied in sizes, and they all gave different amounts of experience.
He caught about 30 Abyssal frogs and extracted 30 Abyssal fragments from them. He had an incredible idea; he spent five abyssal fragments on the skill, horrific knowledge, which allowed him to see the true nature of his other skill, Angel Eyes.
The information on the system window updated to say,
Reduces the chance of experiencing hallucinations as well as healing eyesight and any eye injury.
This made Paul realize that maybe that is why he hasn't had a schizophrenic episode in a long time. He recalls while he was digging the pit for the mushrooms he started seeing mushrooms come to life and start trying to cool his body apart. He had known how long that episode had lasted. But maybe if I get Angel Eyes to level 10 then maybe I won't have schizophrenic episodes, he thought to himself.
He had used 15 Abyssal fragments On his green grade skills, leveling them all up to level five. He needed to focus on garnering understanding on other skills to lower his corruption rate. He decided to start with a green thumb, as it seems like the most survival-orientated skill.
Another 10 days had passed.
The number of seeds that he could extract from mushrooms and other plants increased by threefold. analyzing and thinking about how the skill could be more useful or could be better utilized led him to believe that he could also use the seeds by " extracting" them in reverse.
The system window prompted that he had gotten the green-grade skill Green Thumb up to level 10. This caused the skill to evolve into the new skill Planters Delight.
Green Grade Skill - Planters Delight - allows the user to expedite the growth of plants by converting the Mana in the air into a form of fertilizer. also allows crops to be planted at extreme speeds. also allows the user to crossbreed crops to allow for more utilization.
Paul celebrated by doing a silly little dance as well as running around eventually tackling one of the Abyssal frogs which had grown accustomed to Paul being there. over the course of the last 10 days Paul had also been slowly domesticating the Abyssal frogs by feeding them their favorite food, which were the Hardy mushrooms. He would even crack open the mushrooms for them and scoop out the yummy insides for them to eat.
Paul had looked at the new percentages for the magic stones, which seemed to have decreased drastically. Paul had decided to use more magic stones to further his skills. He used 500 magic stones which garnered him six blue grade skills. out of the six only one stood out, the skill read
Blue Grade Skill - Unforgettable - this skill allows the user to actively memorize five basic memorizations. whether it's a place, a process, Or anything else.
The one thing Paul never wanted to forget was the face of his loving girlfriend. Janessa...