Nathan leaped to his feet, his refilled health and curiosity aiding him in getting up in record time. He took a moment to admire the Alpha's corpse before pulling his sword out of its brain.

He shifted his vision to the star of the show right now—the chest. The wooden chest, to be precise. If this was to be a game, Nathan would bet his life that this was the lowest grade

available.

He started walking towards the chest, his mind whirring with the different possibilities of what could be inside. He had a couple of things that he'd have loved to possess like yesterday.

Like a magic shirt or sneakers.

His old shirt and hoodie he'd thrown away as they'd failed to hold up in the new world. His sneakers, on the other hand, were something that was on its last legs, literally. They'd been soaked with blood from different monsters and now felt a little weird whenever he walked. Right about now, Nathan was considering going barefoot.

Okay, time to see what's in this chest.

As Nathan got to the chest, he pushed his expectations to the back of his mind as wariness came to the fore. He didn't know how dungeons worked here, but it'd be pretty comical if he finished off a pack of shadow wolves just to lose his life or hands to a booby-trapped reward chest.

He raised his sword to where the slit was on the chest and thrust forward, leveraging his strength to pry it open. It came open without a fuss. Nothing untoward happened, which relieved Nathan as he settled his nerves and took a look at the contents.

"Whoa."

There were three items nestled in the chest: a crystal, a vial, and a flask—a water flask. Nathan had assumed that he'd get a single item for completing the dungeon like he'd gotten a single item for each quest completed, but it turned out the reward system was different for dungeons.

With his curiosity dominating his mind, Nathan focused on the items as he used his analyze skill to bring up descriptions.

Stat Crystal (Grade: Minor (+1 free point))

Stat Crystals appear randomly in reward chests across all dungeons. They are an alternative source of free points.

You don't say.

Something like this would definitely come in handy, especially when he needed all the advantages he could get. If he could clear all five dungeons he'd spotted at the summit, he'd get five free points easily. Nathan's excitement died down as he re-read the description in hopes that he wasn't wrong about his assumptions. He was.

The description had said that stat Crystals appeared randomly in dungeon reward chests, meaning that he might not even find another crystal in the other dungeons.

Bummer.

Nathan shrugged in defeat as he moved his gaze to the next item beside the Crystal, the vial of glowing red liquid.

Health Potions (Minor)

Health potions help to regain lost health. The lowest tier is minor grade, which grants +25% health per vial consumed.

Cool, a way to regain his health when in a pinch. Not everything needed him to get injured to the point of blood rebellion triggering. He'd avoid having his health drop that low if he could. Better to get used to fighting with full health than always relying on a boost that only activated when his health was at a critical point.

Nathan glanced at the last item in the chest. He already knew what it was at a glance—a water flask. However, he was a little curious to find out how the system would describe it, so he analyzed it.

Flask:

Store item for later use.

Huh.

Everything was pretty bare. The system hadn't even bothered to call it a water flask or even mention the word water in its description. Nathan had to begrudgingly accept that the system wasn't going to coddle him. It had given him items that would help; it necessarily wasn't by force to show him how to use it. Maybe the system wouldn't mind him storing piss in there.

Nathan pulled out his sack from his pocket. The storage bag had survived the fight without a single tear, which Nathan was very grateful for. He scooped up the items, tossing them inside the bag, and watched in fascination as they disappeared into nothingness. He then folded the bag and put it in his pocket.

I'll never get used to that.

Loot claimed. Dungeon destabilizing in 2 minutes. All entities should exit the dungeon before the dungeon collapses into Ra'hal.

Nathan didn't even get the chance to question anything as the cavern had already started to rumble. Loose stones were already dropping from the ceiling as the chest disintegrated.

"Race you," Nathan said to the Alpha's corpse as he high-tailed it out of the dungeon, running as fast as his legs could take him, with his sword at his side. For him, it wasn't a matter of if he'd make it on time, but if he'd make it to the other side without a car-sized rock dropping on his head. Heck, he didn't even know if he'd be conscious enough to make it out of the dungeon if that did happen, assuming he survived the rock in the first place.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Luckily for Nathan, he didn't have to find out how strong his skull was as he got to the cavern mouth. A few errant rocks had dropped on him, but they weren't anything he couldn't shrug off. He spared a glance at the threshold and confirmed the transparentish blue barrier wasn't there before crossing over to the other side.

Timer.

Time till the dungeon destabilizes: 0:23

Nathan stepped away from the cavern, trying to put enough distance between him and the collapsing structure but still be able to see it. While he wondered what would happen when the timer got to zero, Nathan was pretty much busy trying to draw in breath as he hit the hands-on-knees pose. The dash out of the cavern had left him almost breathless.

A new overlay popped up after a couple of breaths.

Dungeon destabilizing in

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

Dungeon destabilized

As soon as the count hit zero, a loud thud echoed around the forest. Nathan watched in fascination as the cavern collapsed inwardly, dust and debris shooting up into the air and clouding his vision. He shut his eyes to avoid getting particles in them, content to wait a little to find out what had happened to the dungeon.

After a couple of heartbeats went by, Nathan cracked open his eyes a little. The scene before him caused him to open them fully as he wasn't sure what he was seeing. His jaw went slack, and his mind struggled to comprehend what was happening.

Where Nathan had expected there to be chunks of rocks and debris from the collapsed dungeon, there was nothing. No rock, no debris, no nothing. It was just a clear expanse of land surrounded by trees. If Nathan hadn't seen and heard the dungeon fall, he would've assumed that nothing had ever been there.

Small grass had started to grow, and the beginnings of trees were popping up in the empty land. Nathan estimated that in about five to seven hours, the place would be identical to other parts of the forest, covered with towering trees.

Cool.

Nathan had to accept that what the system had just done was actually kind of cool in a sense. It was almost as though the dungeon hadn't ever existed. The only proof he currently had were the rewards from completing the dungeon and the claw marks that decorated his pants—claw marks that would probably disappear whenever the pants' 24-hour reknit kicked in.

With a shake of his head, Nathan climbed back to the summit. The walk was somewhat easier as he knew what to expect when going uphill or, in his case, up a mountain. As always, the view was splendid, but that wasn't what Nathan was here for.

He was at the summit searching for his patch of burnt ground, the site that would become his stronghold—Blood Rock.

Nathan spotted it, the blackened clearing standing out amongst all the green. He'd have to do something to rectify that. Probably get himself dirty cleaning up all that ash.

With a sigh, Nathan began his descent back into the forest, the trees covering him as he began navigating his way to Blood Rock. His location skills—or if there was even something like that—could use a lot of work. What better way to get better than by doing?

The walk back to his stronghold took a couple of minutes. It wasn't as calm as one would've expected. A couple of noises erupted around him as he walked, and Nathan, trusting his judgment, decided not to investigate. Instead, he kept his sword at the ready as he continued to make his way back to Blood Rock.

More noises echoed around the clearing, but Nathan stayed steadfast in his resolve. He wasn't going to branch off into some kind of side quest that would leave him badly injured and on the precipice of death. It was really hard to stay steadfast, though. With some of the noises sounding a little alien to him, the explorer in him wanted to find and analyze them. But the rational part of him just wanted to get home.

Home.

Nathan chuckled at the thought as he continued walking. His home was supposed to be a crappy-ass apartment downtown, but now he'd thrown the word loosely around a barren piece of land that didn't even have a single structure built on it yet. It kind of summarized his terrible living conditions back in the old world.

The trees had started to become sparser the longer he walked, and soon enough Nathan was left standing at his clearing. Black ash dominated the camp that had formerly belonged to the imps. Now, it was Nathan's to do as he wished, and he made a solemn vow to himself that he'd make it a hundred-fold better than his apartment downtown.

A hundred-fold.

Nathan took in a deep breath and let it out. He'd have to get to work and get to work fast. The crimson sky seemed to have hints of purple seeping in, which probably meant nighttime was around the corner. With the amount of visitors the camp had gotten last night, he'd have to build something that could withstand an attack if any did return.

What to do, what to do...

He glanced around the camp, wondering how exactly he was going to clean up the entire camp. It wasn't as if he had a vacuum cleaner on him.

Overcome and adapt.

Or in this case, improvise. Nathan made his way into the camp, heading for the logs that had survived the fire. Those that did were at the extreme end of the camp, just before the wall. As he walked, an idea with much potential sprang up in his mind, one that he was eager to put to the test.

Getting to the stack of felled logs, Nathan put his sword into his bag of holding and stared at the logs with so much determination he was sure he'd have looked like he was constipated to any other person.

Let's see.

The logs were about the length of a yellow school bus and about the width of a tire. That didn't deter Nathan, though. Trusting in his new strength, he picked up the topmost log, barely sweating as he laid it on the floor. A grin split his face at the ease with which he'd picked up the log.

Now it was time to test his theory. Nathan pushed the log against the floor littered with ashes and the like. The other side of the log pushed back the dirt, ashes, and whatnot. Within an hour or two, Nathan had completely cleared out the ashes and debris, using it to form a kind of fourth wall at the previously wallless entrance.

Nathan had just finished pushing the last of it when he stood straight, sweat dripping from his jaw to his already sweaty torso. His gaze locked on the new makeshift wall. With a grunt, he appreciated his work. He reached for his bag of holding to take out a fruit when a notification popped up.

Clean up completed

Blood Rock is now eligible for complete system integration.

Does the lord of Blood Rock wish to integrate the stronghold fully with the system?