After leaving the room, Jack let out a shaky sigh of relief. Being around Everon was like being in a room full of venomous snakes—a bright, sunny room, but still, every one of them could kill you. He couldn’t shake the feeling that beneath her cheerful exterior lay something far more sinister. Sure, her words seemed trustworthy enough, but the way she carried herself, the darkness that seemed to seep through the cracks, made his skin crawl.
He tried to shake off the unease and focus on the task at hand. Moving slowly through the halls, Jack kept to the shadows, making what he thought was decent progress. Time felt off here, though—slippery, like trying to hold onto sand. He had no idea how long he’d been moving, and the disorientation gnawed at him. Still, he forced himself to focus on the present, on just putting one foot in front of the other.
This part of the dungeon had a bit more flair to it, though it was clear the grandeur had long since faded. Columns were missing in places, and the stonework showed signs of serious decay, like time had finally caught up to it. The torches flickered weakly, some of them blown out, casting a dim, eerie light that only made the place feel more oppressive.
He traveled for over an hour before he ran into a skeleton. This one was different from the others—worn down, fragile. Its bones were chipped, with deep cracks running through the brittle surface, and its sword was dull, rusted, barely held together. It slumped against the wall, struggling to stay upright. The only thing that caught his attention was its eyes. Unlike the others’ steady, eerie glow, this one had a faint, flickering blue flame, barely alive. It seemed more like a relic, holding on to just enough strength to stand.
Jack tightened his grip on his spear, his heart pounding in his chest. He took a deep breath, trying to recall some of the bayonet training he’d received in the army. Bracing his legs, he launched himself forward, the distance between him and the skeleton disappearing in a heartbeat.
As he thrust the spear toward its head, the skeleton suddenly lurched to the left, dodging the attack. It retaliated instantly, its rusted sword slicing down toward Jack’s head. With no time to dodge, Jack released his left hand from the spear and summoned his shield just in time. The blade slammed against it, sending a jolt of pain up his arm and forcing him to one knee.
Gritting his teeth, Jack pushed the sword away with his shield and quickly thrust his spear again. The skeleton stepped back, moving unnaturally fast to evade the strike. Jack stumbled, trying to regain his balance, but the skeleton pressed forward, its attacks relentless and far more powerful than they had any right to be.
Jack barely managed to block each strike, the force behind them rattling his bones. He couldn’t understand how a creature with no muscles could hit so hard, but there was no time to think about it. Desperate, he swung his spear in a wide arc, trying to create some space. The skeleton stepped back briefly, but then lunged again, aiming a slash at his exposed side.
Jack twisted his body just in time, raising his shield to block the blow. The impact shook him, but he held firm, adrenaline fueling his movements. In the chaos, he remembered his skills. Without hesitation, he shouted, “Precision Strike!”
Time seemed to slow as he focused on the skeleton’s next move. It was raising its sword for another downward slash, aimed straight at his head. Jack locked his gaze on a vertebra between the skeleton’s jaw and chest. Everything else faded away as he zeroed in on that spot. When time snapped back to normal, Jack thrust his spear forward with all his strength. The spear shattered the vertebra into pieces, causing the skeleton to collapse instantly, its head rolling off to the side as the flickering flame in its eyes was snuffed out.
Jack stumbled back, slamming into the wall and sliding to the ground, breathless and heart racing. It took him several minutes to calm down. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! he cursed himself, slamming his fist against the ground. He couldn’t believe how reckless he’d been. Just because the skeleton looked weak didn’t mean he should’ve taken it lightly. It was only luck that had kept him alive.
After a few more minutes, Jack finally wrestled his breathing under control, though his limbs still trembled with lingering fear. He forced himself to stand, swaying slightly as he brushed off the dust and dirt clinging to his clothes. This world isn’t a game, he reminded himself, the thought ringing hollow in his exhausted mind. Every encounter could be his last if he didn’t stay sharp—if he didn’t take each moment seriously. The memory of the fight replayed in his head, and he cursed himself. If only he’d used Precision Strike at the start, it might have been over before it began. He hadn’t expected a low-level skill like that to freeze time—or maybe it had just sharpened his thoughts and reaction time to the point where everything else slowed down.
Just as he began to steady himself, a sharp, searing pain lanced through his skull, forcing him to clutch his head in agony. He gritted his teeth, recognizing the telltale signs of adrenaline crashing out of his system, leaving him weak and trembling. The pain throbbed like a persistent migraine, not debilitating, but a constant reminder of how close he’d come to losing it. Feedback from the skill, he realized, a bitter thought surfacing. Nothing comes free in this world.
His heart still raced, and he could feel the fear gnawing at the edges of his thoughts, threatening to overwhelm him again. Jack shook his head, trying to dispel the heavy fog of exhaustion clouding his mind. He couldn’t afford to let fear take root—not now, not ever. Before moving on, he knew he had to take time to practice, to push his body and mind until every skill became second nature. There was no room for mistakes—not anymore. The stakes were too high, and the cost of failure too terrifying to contemplate.
----
ack spent the day moving through the area, running into more skeletons—some normal, others cracked—and using them as target practice. He felt like he was making significant progress, honing his skills and technique, trying to engrain good habits through the constant battles. Jack never faced them one-on-one; it was always groups. Each skirmish was a nerve-wracking mix of terror and exhilaration, with every victory adding to his momentum and sharpening his edge.
But as he moved, Jack began to notice something strange. Sure, survival was the priority, but it dawned on him that he hadn’t thought about home or how bizarre this whole situation was. Not once. Even after acquiring the skill [Iron Will], which he knew acted like a mental barricade, forcing calm when emotions or outside forces tried to overwhelm him, this felt different.
It was like certain thoughts just slipped away, no matter how hard he tried to hold onto them. They slid off his mind and faded into the background, leaving him with an uneasy feeling. It wasn’t something [Iron Will] could block; it was more insidious, like his own mind was betraying him, letting important thoughts vanish before he could grasp them. He tried to focus, to figure out what was happening, but the more he struggled, the more those thoughts seemed to drift away.
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ack thought the creation of this dungeon was a bit monotonous—just fight after fight. He hadn’t encountered a single trap or dead end since he started. Shaking his head, he moved on to his next challenge. Ahead of him were four skeletal hounds, each about the size of a German Shepherd. Bits of decayed muscle hung off their bones, which were strung together by some black energy. Their eyes held a dim gray glow, similar to the other skeletons he had faced. The hounds were spread out in front of a kneeling skeleton.
This one had cracked bones and the same blue flames in its eye sockets as the first one he had fought in this section. The skeleton wore a tattered hood and had bits of gore clinging to its bones. In its hand, it held a leathery, cracked whip.
Jack took a slow breath, allowing a plan to form in his mind. He shifted his spear to his left hand and drew his dagger with his right. Taking a final calming breath, he launched himself forward. He heard the rattling of bones as the hounds locked onto him, but he ignored it, focusing entirely on the task ahead. Gripping the dagger by the blade's tip, he reached the ten-foot mark and activated [Precision Strike]. A sharp pain stabbed into his mind as the world slowed, his focus narrowing to the skeleton's temple. Jack flung the dagger with all the momentum of his charge. The blade spun faster than he could track, embedding itself halfway into the skeleton's skull with a crunch. The blue flames in its eyes flickered out, and it collapsed in a heap of bones.
Jack quickly switched his spear back to his right hand and activated his shield just as one of the hounds lunged at him. The skeletal dog's body slammed into the shield, bouncing off effortlessly. The dog's biggest asset in an attack would have been its weight and momentum, but being just bones, it had neither. Jack kept his panic locked behind his [Iron Will]; he needed to focus on the next part of this fight.
Jack crouched slightly, positioning his shield in front of him to cover his torso, and held the spear in an underhand grip, backing up against the wall. He had learned the hard way that if a fast enemy got behind him, it was game over. Jack knew that dogs liked to hunt in packs and had strategies designed to take down bigger prey than themselves. He had hoped these ones wouldn’t carry over much of their natural instinct, but as he watched their movement, he knew he was wrong. The hounds spaced out around him, moving in a semicircle pattern, crossing each other’s paths as they eyed him.
Instead of staying on the defensive, Jack decided to take the initiative. He lunged forward, thrusting his spear at the nearest hound on his right. The hound leaped back just in time, while the other two rushed him from the left—one trying to sneak behind him and the other coming straight at his shield, attempting to distract him. Jack grinned, seeing that they were beginning to fall for his plan.
As both made their moves, Jack activated [Multi-Strike], feeling his speed surge. He pulled his left foot back while swinging his shield out of the way of the incoming hound. The second hound leaped with its mouth open wide, only to meet the sharp tip of Jack's spear, which he thrust straight through its skull, piercing out the back. A small vibration rang up Jack’s spear arm as he yanked the spear free without missing a beat and shifted his attention to the hound now lunging at him. As it moved within striking distance, Jack slammed the edge of his shield into its neck, shattering several vertebrae. The hound crumpled lifelessly to the ground.
Before he could catch his breath, Jack felt a sharp yank on his arm. A dull pain ran up it, causing Jack to grunt. The first hound, the one that had dodged his initial strike, had taken advantage of the distraction to launch a quick attack. Its sharp teeth had clamped onto his gauntlet, but they didn’t manage to pierce the metal. However, it did get a firm grip on him. Jack, releasing his spear, grunted in pain as he swung his arm forward. The skeletal hound's body, light as it was, became a blunt weapon as Jack smashed it into the final hound rushing at him. The two skeletal creatures collided in mid-air, crashing to the floor in a tangle of interlocked bones.
With neither hound fully dead but both incapacitated, Jack didn’t waste any time. He released his shield, grabbed his spear from the ground with both hands, and unceremoniously whacked the pile of bones repeatedly, shattering them until they were nothing but fragments. It wasn’t the most graceful use of a spear, but it got the job done. Smirking to himself, Jack moved over to the cracked skeleton and stomped its skull in completely. He had already been fooled once by a skeleton playing dead—he wasn’t about to let that happen again.
Breathing out a steadying breath, Jack continued forward. It wasn’t long before Jack came to what he thought was the end of the dungeon. Two massive rusted steel doors, etched with arcane inscriptions, stood in front of him, filling the space ahead with an uneasy sense of dread. Jack felt that what lay beyond would be the hardest thing he had fought since coming to this land and shuddered with fear and anticipation. Jack was realizing he was a bit battle-crazed—the same thing used to happen to him back in the army. Even though he never got into any truly disastrous missions, every time they encountered fighting, Jack would be eager and ready for more. He didn’t know if it was a good trait or bad.
Taking a moment to rest, Jack grabbed a piece of paper and started the ritual, reciting the incantations. As the blood flowed to reveal his status, Jack wondered if his intensive combat-filled day would be enough to level him up or not. Everon didn’t really say how quickly he might level in the beginning, but if it was anything like D&D, then he should progress quickly at first and then hit a stopgap where leveling became harder.
{Level up Acquired Warrior level 4!}
{Skill Acquired [Quick Block]}
Name: Jack Roger Age: 24
Gender: Male Race: Human
Titles: None Class: Warrior Lv 4, Pactbinder Lv 1
Skills: Iron Will, Precision Strike, Multi-Strike, Eldritch Echo, Quick Block
Jack smiled at the new skill he had acquired, wishing he had some time to test it out, along with Eldritch Echo. All he really knew about that skill was that it granted him a distinctive blood aura and a mysterious presence, but without a clear idea of how to harness it.
Jack pushed it to the back burner. On the other hand, Quick Block was straightforward, and Jack hoped it would be more effective than he anticipated. Standing up, Jack folded the paper away and approached the massive doors. They opened more quickly than he had expected, revealing a black void beyond, not a single glimmer of light visible. He took a few cautious steps forward, his senses on high alert. Just as he passed the threshold, the doors slammed shut behind him with a resounding echo that seemed to linger far longer than it should have.
Jack felt his heart rate spike, fear starting to press in on him. The oppressive darkness was suffocating, and the thought of having to fight in such conditions made dread creep into his mind. If he had to fight blind, he knew he’d be at a severe disadvantage—possibly dead.
Before the dread could fully consume him, faint lights flickered to life around the room. The walls, stretching upwards into an unseen ceiling, were lined with grand pillars that seemed to disappear into the darkness above. Jack hadn’t noticed them before, but now he saw small droplets of flames slowly descending from the ceiling, like embers falling from a dying fire, spreading out around him and casting a dim, eerie glow across the vast chamber.
The room was immense, easily 50 feet in radius, with the shadows dancing across the cold stone floor, making the space feel even larger and more foreboding.
At the opposite end of the room, Jack finally saw it—a creature emerging from the shadows, its presence filling the space with a palpable menace. As the creature and Jack locked eyes, a wave of fear crashed over him, far more intense than anything he had felt before. The creature was massive, its form barely discernible in the flickering light, but there was no mistaking the raw power and malice it exuded. Jack realized with a sinking feeling that he might have bitten off more than he could chew. The room, vast and ominous, now felt like a tomb, and the creature before him, its guardian.