The grayish stone ground rushes at me quickly. I estimate I'm around 100 meters away, so I start chanting the fireball spell.
I approach around 7 meters from the ground and fire the spell. It sends a jolt through my body and slightly lessens my velocity, not as much as I would have liked though, I would have to bear the pain for the next part.
My body hits the ground knees first, I can feel my kneecaps instantly dislocate and my femur sounds out a loud snap, next my elbows hit, both the front and back bones in both my arms instantly shatter from the speed of the fall.
A bitter pain filled scream rips out of my throat but then abruptly cuts off.
Next hits my chest which cracks presumably all of my ribs and knocks the wind out of me, trying to keep my head as far from the ground as I can, I also pull my neck and the shock from my chest hitting the floor reverberates through my back and shatters my spine, while in turn bone fragments from all over my body shoot through my flesh like bullets, I finnaly gasp in air again only to have it feel like someone stabbed a thousand daggers through every inch of my body.
I let out another shrill scream laced with pain, All memories of my plan having instantly been replaced by the white-hot spikes of pain raking endlessly through my body.
It had been 0.3 seconds, and the worst of the pain had not yet come.
I can't even describe it. The pain isn't just daggers anymore, It's like my entire body has been dumped in a vat of acid mixed with molten rock. The pain is too much, and my mind retreats inside my brain, momentarily clearing my head, suddenly the thoughts of my plan rushes back into the forefront of my consciousness and I prepare myself to dive back inside the pain.
The daggers, the acid, the lava, the pain all rushes back in and with the last breath left in my collapsed lungs I manage to whisper out.
"Timekeeper's Last Resort"
Vitality rushes through my body like a tidal wave in a harsh storm. The pain is still there but it's quickly fading away. From my feet up I can hear the sound of my bones snapping back into their original shape, my lungs filling back up with air and blood crawling back into my wounds.
I'm healed.
I let out a gasping breath. I'm completely healed by now but the shock from all that pain still has me heaving out breaths, slowly recovering from the shock, I look around where I am.
...It looks eerily similar to the start room in the Labyrinth I completed with those traitorous bastards.
"Tier 9 Labyrinth... This is gonna be terrible" To the corner of the room and lay my eyes upon the pool filled with Health Potion. Luckily the guards didn't have the foresight to take away my equipment before tossing me in the hole, they likely assumed I would immediately die upon reaching the ground, or even before. I pull out my canteen and walk over to fill it up.
I spot my reflection again. "Hello, old friend" I notice wisps of white hair in contrast to the stark black of my usual hair, but I decide to ignore it for now.
I quickly fill up my canteen and clip it back onto my belt "Not much I can do to prepare but this, I guess I'll head to the Labyrinth portion".
Walking over to the archway to the Labyrinth, I walk through, expecting the sight of stone walls and a maze-like layout, I am surprised. Unlike what I expected, the layout of the second part of the Labyrinth seems to be more along the lines of a large system of caves and caverns, although the occasional maze-like portions of the Labyrinth still do appear.
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It looks... kind of beautiful actually.
...And then I hear a roar "GRAAAAAAGH".
Just my luck.
Looking closer, I can spot what looks to be a hybrid of an earth elemental and a.... bull? Running towards me. when I use the 'Identify' skill on it, I immediately start sprinting in the opposite direction.
[Name: Earthen Bull
Level: 93
???]
...Yeah it's really bad, usually the identify skill shows me what the stats of the enemy are as well as their skills, but I guess a monster nearly 70 levels above me can keep its secrets.
I quickly find my way to a small crack that I can barely fit through on the wall of the cavern, I crawl through and look around. For now, I can use this as my base of operations, for all that's worth. I set down my meager belongings, basically just the rusted sword that I somehow kept on me during the fall, and my canteen.
Well, If I dont starve to death, I should be fine?
I make a mental checklist of the things I need to do, first off I have to find a source of food, but I don't have to worry about the water, as I can just drink the health potion from the pool. I also need to find a way out of this godforsaken place and last but not least, I need to get stronger.
---
I spend the next 2 days carefully sneaking my way further down the cave system, luckily, It looked like this Labyrinth was designed with long term stay in mind, Intermittently between some caverns there were little lush oasis' filled with all different kinds of animals, most common of them though, was a boar. Thanking whoever designed these Labyrinths with all my heart, It seemed though for some reason, that even the boar's were high leveled, and even after firing dozens of fireballs at it, I could only knock it out.
Carrying it back to my little alcove, I use my flame snake spell to burn it alive. "Squeea" I pay no attention to it's squeals and cook it to (what I think is) perfection.
Naturally my 'expert' cooking skills resulted in the finished product to be little more than a slab of blackened soot. I still ate it anyway, despite the horrid taste. It wasn't too bad after a couple of bites, but that was probably because my taste buds were more charred than the meat.
I wash it down with some Health Potion and feel the refreshing effects pour down my throat.
I check my watch, it also shows the month and the day, which I find amazing.
"September 9th. Huh, It's my birthday...".
Time had passed and from today onwards I was now officially 18.
I drew a little banner on the wall with my rusted sword, "Happy 18th". I give myself a sad smile.
---
Today is my first time trying to hunt one of the actual monsters here, I decide to spend some of my time making spike traps near where some of the weaker monsters are, which are around level 70-80, the particular one's I've chosen are a hybrid between a fire elemental and a fox. while making the spike traps though, I cut myself a ridiculous amount of times and gained a skill.
[Name: Infection Resistance
Description: Immunity to bacterial effects on open wounds,
also provides immunity to weaker poisons.]
Quite a useful quality of life skill, getting sick or getting a disease of some sort would probably spell my doom, I wouldn't be able to hunt, and would probably starve to death. I should stockpile some charred boar just in case, speaking of which, I had kept charring the boar's so as not to get any bacteria in my food and get sick, but with this new skill I suppose I can try my hand at professionally cooking it. Eh, It would probably turn out charred anyways.
---
I spend the next few days venturing even further into the caverns, by now I've noticed that there are some ruins, I suppose someone from long ago tried their hand at living in here, Which doesn't really make sense, didn't the king say that the Meteor Labyrinth's started falling only just recently? Anyways it doesn't really concern me.
What does concern me though are the ruins. Inside these I can probably find some sort of loot, or at the very least, some clues on how to get out of here. I'm really hoping to find some sort of sword that would help me level my class, this rusted sword looks like it would snap at even the slightest hit. Although I do feel a certain companionship with it even though I only got it because that guard was making light of my situation...
---
One day after coming back from trying to get the fox-fire-elementals to fall in my spike pits, I hear a sounds from the direction of my makeshift home and I rush over, It's eerily quiet, but it must have been my imagination playing tricks on me, so I head inside anyways.
"Shlink"