Chapter 5– Exploring the 2nd floor

Opening my eyes, I saw that the entrance to the second floor was the same as the first.

The only real difference was that instead of having to go down one corridor to get to a split, there was a 3-way split right in front of me. One tunnel leading straight on from the stairs and one on each side at about a 45-degree angle from the stairs.

Not only that but the air seemed to be denser somehow. I felt a strange pressure on my body. It wasn’t really anything that will impact anything but it was enough to notice since I was paying attention to it. I wonder if it would be like this every level.

[Reminder. You are not allowed to step on the stairs to return to reality. If your feet touch the stairs, you are out.]

…well that kind of sucks. I was hoping to be able to go back up and see if anything was in the chest. Looks like I need to be double sure of collecting everything before I leave a floor.

Patting my pocket, I start to frown. Before going to sleep I put my phone and a butterfly knife in my pocket before I went to sleep in a hope I could bring them with me into the dreamscape. Sadly, that hope was dashed. For some reason, I was in the clothes I was in when I first entered the night before.

So, it looked like for some reason not only can I not bring anything in with me when I sleep, even my clothes aren’t brought over. I guess the only way to change my clothes is to find something in this reality to replace them.

That is going to make this so much harder, especially now that I have to fight. At least my body is now stronger so hopefully I can take enough hits to survive. And with my pain resistance hopefully it won’t hurt too much.

Taking a step forward I almost fall straight on my ass as my foot is propelled out from under me. Luckily, I was able to regain my balance. Looking down I blanch.

On the ground were three spikes, each roughly a half inch in diameter and about 10 inches long….It was the spikes that lodged themselves in my chest on the floor above. Since they were still in my body when I went down the stairs I guess whoever runs this thing took it as if I was wanting to take them with me.

Looking at them instantly doused my eager attitude. With all the euphoria about learning that I really could change and that all the skills I got could be used anywhere I had forgotten one fact. No, it was more like I pushed it out of my mind.

I could die in here, and I had no idea what that would mean to me in real life.

Reaching down I collected the stakes and put two of them in my pockets while I held one in my right hand. At least I now had a weapon I could use.

After a quick round of eenie-meenie-minny-moe I ended going down the right most path. Going as quietly as I could and remembering to mental map where I’ve been. I remembered that the pop-ups gave me some kind of reward for fully mapping out the last level and I was going to try to do the same on this one.

I have to say I’m glad I got that boost in intelligence from reading all of those books. Or else exploring these caves would be really taxing on the brain. I simultaneously had to try to be quiet, and focus all of my senses to try to catch any hint of something coming for me.

Even with that point I felt my mind straining. It was just so much to do at once. Hopefully I won’t run into anything soon so I can get used to it.

After following the tunnel for maybe a couple hundred feet my Sneak went up to LV 3 and I even gained a nice surprise.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

[Skill has been acquired.]

[Heightened Senses: For focusing your senses to the environment while moving you have begun to train your mind to always be alert to warnings coming from your surroundings. You will be able to find certain objects easier as well as warnings from monster lurking around. ALERT: These warnings are only for reactions that your senses would naturally be able to pick up, such as sound or smells.]

[Currently it is LV 1. Benefits will open at LV 5.]

Suddenly I felt the burden of doing so many things at once lessen slightly. I guess now part of my subconscious was taking part of the burden and doing it automatically so it was less for my conscious mind to deal with.

With a grin, I began to explore the tunnel again. After a few more minutes I came around a bend and found myself at a complete dead end. Sighing I turned around and went back to the beginning.

On my way back to the entrance of the floor I heard scratching coming from up ahead. If it wasn’t for my new senses I would never have caught it. Gripping my spike, I started walking forward as quietly as possible.

It was finally time for my first fight.

After inching forward for what seemed like forever I finally saw what was making the noise.

It was a large Iguana black in color and about 2 feet long. It was standing over the body of another creature that looked like a large rat.

After looking at the creature in front of me for a moment a blue pop-up appeared in front of me.

[Black Iguana. Rank G]

[Long ago a family of iguanas wandered into the dungeon and were never able to leave. Over time the Iguana’s coloring became darker and darker to better blend in with the darkness of the dungeon.]

Well at least it wasn’t something outrageous like a spider that will turn me to stone or a rabbit that runs as fast as a cheetah with a horn. Though a bit big it was just a regular iguana.

Crouching I start to sneak closer to the creature and grip my spike harder out of nervousness. For the first time I am going to take a life. Sadly in reality I’m not as sneaky as I thought.

The iguana turned around and hissed as it flashed its sharp teeth in an attempt to intimidate me. Since I’ve avoided fights all my life I’m not ashamed to admit I froze for a second. During which the creature decided to jump at me.

Startled at the sudden lunge I swing my arm to try to stab the thing with my spike.

Bad news I missed with the spike. Good news is that I had swung and hit it against the cave wall with my arm.

Now the creature was twitching as it desperately tried to stand and attack me again but I didn’t give it a chance. While it was still stunned I ran over and stabbed my spike into its skull.

The feeling of the spike entering into its head and the resistance caused by the skull made me nauseous. As it lay there twitching I took a few steps back and spent the next several minutes emptying my stomach.

After settling both my stomach and my nerves I turned around to the creature I just killed.

Looking at it I can’t believe that I got so scared by it. Suddenly something I didn’t expect happened.

[Materials can be obtained if there are suitable instruments.]

…a pop-up saying I can get materials. It’s something I didn’t quite expect but should have. This world seems to run on game mechanics, even if they are a little off, so it would make sense that there would be crafting.

After catching my breath, I continued to travel back to the entrance of the dungeon. Once there I decided to take the middle path this time.

This time I ended up in another round cave that led down several more paths. Randomly picking one I started to properly explore the dungeon.

Strangely after I killed the Black Iguana, more strange animals started to appear while I explored.

[Cave Rat. Type: Animal. Rank G]

[Cave rats are rats that have inhabited caves for generations. They often blend in with the dirt walls of the cave and travel through cracks in the walls.]

[Brown Bat. Type: Animal. Rank G]

[Bats that live in cave systems. They are timid and the strength of their teeth is very weak. They mainly hunt insects and Cave rats.]

I knew the Cave Rats existed since I saw the body the Black Iguana was eating but the bats took me completely by surprise. I was going through my sixth or seventh cavern and one just flew out of nowhere and almost smacked me in the face.

Stupid thing almost gave me a heart attack.

During my exploration, I also found several strange plants. One was this mushroom that glowed with a strange greenish-yellow color and several patches of a strange blue moss that smelled strangely like roses.

I also found a strange red root that a Cave Rat was eating. Now that was a scary experience. A rat roughly twice the size of a guinea pig with a dripping red mouth suddenly jumping at you out of nowhere. I can safely say my enthusiasm for this dungeon has started to wane.

After exploring another six or seven paths, all while mapping out most of the beginning part of the dungeon I came across something I wasn’t expecting.

In the middle of another cave was a wooden chest.