The sepulchral silence, similar to that of a tomb, reigned in the cave. Adriel was squatting, playing with a stick, and drawing on the ground. They made no sense; it was just something to pass the time.
'I haven't explored the holes yet, but I'm sure I'll find something bad.' He sat in the lotus position, dismissed his gloves, and touched his chin with his fingers.
'I have no idea what the range of Liora's ability is, though I doubt it reaches all the way here. Besides, it will be almost impossible to find me with normal methods.'
Adriel stood up and turned to look at a hole near him. That hole had no height; it was like a passage created by humans. He approached and entered. He began to walk, but after a few steps, he found a strange area.
A ramp reaching 4 meters in height, separated by 3 meters from a wall that measured 7. 'How strange. Do I have to calculate the hypotenuse of this to get out?' He thought, then laughed lightly at his own comment.
He approached the wall. It was almost completely flat, with barely two or three cracks and protrusions. 'It's impossible to climb this...' He summoned his gloves and began to stroke the wall.
'Could it be?' Adriel raised his hands, then jumped and thought about using the dash ability at the same time, but he just fell flat on his rear.
His hands began to tremble, as did his legs. Adriel's expression turned to pure panic. Although his brain felt 100%, his body barely felt capable of staying lying down.
'Why?' He asked himself. His right hand tried to stop the left from trembling.
Horror and desperation took over the now pathetic face of the hunter. He tried to sit up, but his body wouldn't let him move; the strength in his arms and legs disappeared, leaving only a constant vibration.
'This is bad...' He thought; stress consumed him; his ability didn't work; in fact, it seemed to be a self-debuff rather than a useful dash.
'Why can't I use my ability? This... Could it be that?' The young man remembered what happened the day he achieved a bit of resonance with his class. 'My arm broke; it was shattered. Does my body remember it to the point that it won't let me use it?'
His blood ran cold as he realized how precarious his situation actually was. The only active ability that could give him a fraction of a second of advantage when used became useless due to trauma.
The previously physical trembling became more psychological. Now not only his body, but his mind was trembling as well. 'I have no way to survive. At least not a stable one.'
He lay on the ground for a while, patiently waiting for the trembling to disappear, even though his head was in a similar state, spinning the situation over and over. Like a snake trying to devour itself.
'I have plenty of food, but it will probably rot before I finish it; I don't have water nearby, and all the other holes were accessible only if I used the dash...' He sighed slightly. His eyes saw the rocks on the ceiling, the irregular stone that could be climbed.
'Not all paths are safe. Here, all of them seem murky, and the fact that the most impossible one is the most regular makes me nervous.' Adriel dismissed his gloves; with difficulty, he moved his arms to cover his eyes. 'I must continue...'
Adriel fell silent. He waited a few minutes, probably hours, just to feel that his arms and legs were capable of moving. When he managed to stand up, he kept one hand over his mouth and the other on his stomach.
'I feel nauseous, and my stomach hurts... I don't think it's a good idea to eat. Or could it be that I'm just very hungry?' The young man looked at the werewolf's body. Without hesitation, he cut more meat and cooked it, getting more food.
He yawned a bit after finishing.
His gaze remained fixed on the hole he had explored before. 'I think that jump is physically impossible...'
Adriel imagined a frame with the image of someone who seemed to move quickly in front of him. 'Imagining it, it's as if chains were restricting this ability.' Chains wrapped around that image as the young man 'touched' it.
'Hm...'
The young man stood up. He took a step to the right and thought about activating the dash, then bit his lower lip and gripped his left chest intensely.
His legs began to falter again; his hand slowly lost its strength, and his teeth chattered, but he didn't stop. The intensity forced him to make a small wound on his lip.
His hand, now with the strength of an ogre, managed to remove a bit of skin, causing himself a lot of pain.
'Every time I can't use this ability, I will suffer, but if I manage to use it even a little, I will reward myself by lowering the intensity of my wounds.' He thought as he began his conditioning.
...
Time passed quickly. What for a person could be described as 2 hours, for the world was 12. Adriel was on the ground; his chest, hands, lips, and stomach were covered in blood.
He was looking at the fissure he had entered through. He didn't need his ability; it was clear that the hours had passed like the blink of an eye.
'It's late... I'm tired and I feel like I can't go on. And even with all this... I... want... to do it.'
He stood up; his step was more secure, more stable despite the wounds, and above all, full of determination.
His eyes shone as he looked at the hole. He entered cautiously; he knew there was nothing there, but still, there was no reason to let his guard down.
He walked to a certain point. Upon seeing the ramp and the wall, he got excited. He began to run toward them. When the ramp path ended, he jumped, then thought about propelling himself diagonally forward, and he did it, falling near the edge of the wall.
'It feels like one of those platformer games.' He thought as he breathed heavily. The efforts paid off.
A small smile appeared on his face. He felt free, but after that, he began to feel tingling all over his body. The self-inflicted wounds didn't heal instantly.
Blood began to gush wildly due to the extreme movement, which opened them further.
He was about to bite his lips from the pain, but before doing so, he realized that would make things worse, so he pushed his lips away with his tongue so his teeth wouldn't close.
After enduring the pain for a few seconds, he looked around. The ramp was there, but now he wanted to know what was behind him.
Another wall.
'Eh? Really?' He thought. He summoned his gloves and touched the wall.
At first, he just stroked it, but then he pushed it. The latter gave a result; the wall opened to the other side.
The young man's brow furrowed as he realized he couldn't see what was on the other side of the wall. He felt called by curiosity. Without thinking, he entered.
A white reflection dyed half of Adriel's face as his legs entered the other area. That brightness was ignored with 100% effectiveness by the young man.
After a few steps, a beautiful landscape was revealed before him. A giant cave. It looked like something out of a fantasy; the bioluminescent mushrooms from the surface were also there.
"Wow." Adriel couldn't resist speaking aloud upon seeing the landscape. Moss, plants, and mushrooms coexisted in the same place. And most importantly: there's a small lake inside!
'Jackpot!' Thought the young man.
He turned around with a small smile on his face. 'I'll go back and rest at the entrance for now.' He thought, satisfied.
He walked with a light step toward the wall he had entered through; he closed his eyes for a moment to imagine Azucena as he adjusted his gloves. 'Since I won't go back to that fissure tomorrow, there won't be a problem if I 'mark' it, right? Although that's not my main goal...'
Before he could leave, he felt a strange pain in his body. He had run into something, but when he opened his eyes, he didn't see the wall; in fact, he could still see the ramp, but... Why couldn't he leave?
His hands pressed against something invisible, then the system appeared on the wall.
"You have started a category A dungeon. Exiting this place is forbidden until you defeat the boss."
"Eh?" Adriel was surprised by the message. His eyes opened wide.
'What do you mean, dungeon?'