Marcus stepped through the obsidian gate and immediately found himself thousands of meters above ground, rapidly falling to his demise.
Luckily for him, his fall was suspended just a few centimeters before his impact, and he was put down quite gently. His adrenaline now had him wide awake. He quickly rose to his feet and took in his surroundings.
What he found was a large entrance into the mountain, chiseled out of stone and a square area in front of it. It was a roughly 100x100 meter square, the terrain mostly flat but at the edges falling off or rising sharply against the mountain. It looked like someone had cut a piece out of the world and removed everything else.
Marcus walked all the way up to the edge, where the only tree had its branches reach into the void. They had been cut off. It looked like the world was a video game that refused to render in properly. What would happen if he just jumped down where the world stopped?
“Death awaits down there Marcus Sinclair.” The Valkyrie had appeared behind him. “Raise your hand towards the empty space. If you wish to walk this way, you can.”
Marcus raised his hand and a blue box appeared before him.
Unlock Plot of Land [9x9]: 0/2 DP
“At a price that is”, she winked at him out of her clear white eyes. “Sacrifice at the Altar or explore the Dungeon to gain points.” She pointed towards the chiseled stone entrance and the stone altar that had appeared next to it.
Marcus was taken aback. “You are here? I thought you were just sending me here?”
The edges of her lips curled upwards. “I am [The Dungeon Keeper]. I will always be here.”
Before Marcus could even react, she was already gone. Her presence made him feel a little better. Almost like a guardian angel of sorts.
Aside from the tree and the spare grass that grew on exposed soil, the area was mostly rough slate and granite. The weather was nice and warm, a few clouds overhead and Marcus felt a deep sadness for the loss of his past life as well as a deep sense of motivation to build something new here.
He walked past the altar and the chiseled entrance and stepped into the dungeon within.
His surroundings immediately changed drastically. The expected rough granite cave was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the walls were made of large sheets of crystal that glowed from within. Even though the cave was underground it was as well-lit as daylight. Aside from a slight light blue hue it felt like it as lighted by electricity.
A blue box appeared in front of him.
You have reached Floor 1! You gained 1 DP.
Principle: [No Principle available]
Marcus waved it away and took in his surroundings.
The cave entrance was a large spherical area that had several corridors leading away from it in all directions. One arm of the cave was leading backwards from the entrance and should have clearly led towards the outside area. That was not the case. It continued straight ahead for at least twenty meters before there was a bend to the right, which implied that the dungeon space existed entirely separate from the outside world.
Another difference was the temperature inside. The air was humid and warm, and water dripped from the ceiling at regular intervals. Marcus shrugged and progressed from the starting area through one of the cave arms.
It did not take long for the cave to get broader as well as taller. There was enough room for six people to walk comfortably next to each other and it would be hard to reach the ceiling even if two people stood in top of each other. An expansive cave network stretched out before him.
Little pools of water had formed on the crystalline floor, which was, aside from a few areas, flat. The floor consisted of a black crystal variant, that did not let any light through. Aside from the shallow pools of water there were several pools of water alongside the cave walls.
These pools weren’t shallow at all. Through the clear water Marcus was able to spot a sand floor as well as a variety of different fishes and sea critters. The opening was large enough to comfortably fit through, but the underwater area stretched well below the dark crystal floors. When Marcus bent down to taste the water, he was quickly relieved. It was not saltwater. Drinking water was secured.
Then a wet blob dropped down onto his head. Its weight easily dragged Marcus to his knees, and he barely managed to stop himself from falling into the watery hole.
As he found his footing, he tried to open his eyes, but whatever was on his face burned in his eyes. He tried to shovel what was on his head away with big scoops, but somehow the liquid ran right through his fingers and stuck to his head persistently. Just a moment later it was sliding above his mouth and blocking his access to air.
Worse still, the liquid stuck to him tighter and tighter as he was fighting it and even penetrated his nose and ran up his nostrils. The unnatural feeling made him sneeze and waste precious air. Trying to cover his mouth and nose from the wet blob quickly felt impossible. The liquid seemed to reform again and again.
Marcus felt another wet blob slither up his right foot and covered his nostrils while ripping small chunks away from his face, which he threw across the cave, as far away from himself as possible.
As the second blob reached his chest area he panicked and tried to walk down the way he came from. Two steps in, he stepped into another wet blob and hit his head on the cave wall and collapsed to the floor. He had been completely disoriented now. Flight seemed impossible.
Frantically throwing chunks of wet goo from himself, he laid on the floor the lack of air burning in his lungs and head. Then his hands finally grasped a small metal orb, flowing in the liquid on his head. He ripped it away from his face and the liquid followed, sticking to the orb in his hand.
It felt impossible to throw the ball from his body but at least his face was briefly clear of the assault. He inhaled the warm, humid air of the cave and opened his eyes to observe.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Slimes. Three slimes stuck to his body, steadily climbing up towards his face. Their liquid was of a light blue color and the round orb seemed to be made of metal. Quickly he grabbed the other two slime cores with his left hand to keep them from assaulting his face again.
A quick glance around the cave revealed that there were quite a few of these creatures around. Some stuck to the ceiling and were hard to spot, while others were hardly visible in the shallow puddles.
Marcus felt his hand slowly but surely going numb and there was a slight stinging sensation on his face, like a light sunburn.
His head still rang from his impact with the cave wall, which had luckily been a flat surface instead of one of the sharper crystal edges. No other slimes were in his immediate surroundings, so he knelt at one off the openings near the wall and submerged the single slime that refused to let go of the core he clutched between his fingers.
He had feared to put his own head underwater before, in fear of empowering the critter, but seeing some of them hide out in puddles made him doubt that they could just absorb water infinitely.
The water did not help to dissolve the slimes either though. There was some sort of membrane around their liquid that separated them from the water.
Marcus tried to throw the slime with its core away from his body, but the critter stuck to him persistently.
Marcus felt like he was out of options, so he repeatedly smashed the core against the hard crystal surface of the floor. The liquid softened the impact somewhat, but after five or six strikes the core bent inwards somewhat and the liquid shivered and dissolved. The only thing that remained was a hollow metal sphere.
As he destroyed the two remaining slimes the same way, he was assaulted by a fourth and a fifth. Armed with knowledge of how to deal with them, they swiftly met their demise.
His arms were heavy, his shirt was drenched in sweat, and he hat cut his left foot on the crystalline floor. The swollen forehead had resulted in a nasty headache as well. He pulled off his shirt, soaked it in one of the pools, drank as much water as he possibly could and left the dungeon with his loot.
Outside, he flung the wet shirt over one of the tree branches and made himself comfortable.
Access to fresh water, possibly even some sea food. Slimes that dropped metal once killed. A sizeable area without any other humans around to disturb his peace and quiet. Marcus wasn’t sure how he felt about having died and a part of him still felt like he would wake up back at home in his comfortable bed once he went to sleep, but there were worse places to be in.
The warm sunlight fell through the tree branches and made his rest even more comfortable. Even though the tree roots poked in his back somewhat uncomfortable Marcus fell asleep within minutes.
In his dream reality replayed again and again. The traffic accident happened, then another time. He tried to slide under the truck, only for it to explode. Fled inside the bar, only for the truck to come crashing through the walls. He dreamt of a dark angel asking for him to sell his soul and once he gave in to its pestering, he was devoured by a huge tentacle abomination.
Marcus woke in cold sweat, for the first time in his life glad that he woke up with an uncomfortable backpain. A beautiful sunset bathed the entire area in orange light. It stung somewhat that he did not wake up in his bed at home, but at least his bad dream was over.
As he rose to sit, he noticed a small glowing green orb in front of him. His heart beat faster as he instinctively knew what this was. A principle.
He raised his hand against it.
[ PEACE ]
No assault of emotions and experiences filled his vision. Instead, he felt his own interpretation of [PEACE] form in his mind. Yes, this felt right.
He wanted peace in his life. The avoidance of conflict with others to preserve his own peace and quiet.
His stomach growled. He had to find food.
Shrugging he rose to his feet and absorbed the principle by touching it.
A sensation that he had never felt before in his life pulsed through his veins. He had declared his intention to this world. Declared what kind of person he was. The path he would walk. And the world rewarded him for it. A wave of energy pulsed through his body and healed every little scratch and injury.
Notifications appeared before him.
Principle: [ PEACE ] 100/100 MP
New Skill unlocked.
Create Stone (ACTIVE) Lv. 1 EXP: 0.00% / MP: 25
A creation skill: Compressing Mana into a dense spherical shape of stone.
Magic! Marcus immediately tried to force mana into a sphere in his hand, as the skill described. However, all he did was a silly exercise in his mind. He had no idea how this was done, since he had never experienced it.
Finally, he raised his hand in front of him and spoke the skill name: “[Create Stone].”
He felt energy rush from his bodies center through his arm into his hand and form a solid rock there, roughly the size of a baseball. It was almost perfectly round, slightly uneven at the surface and would make for a perfect throwing weapon. He was literally able to create it from nothing!
He created another one and walked some distance between himself and the tree. Marcus had played baseball before, although never as a pitcher, so he did not have a lot of faith in his throwing abilities.
He wound up, stepped forward and let his body snap along his throwing motion. The stone released with quite some speed. And he missed the tree by a solid four meters.
Luckily no one was observing him. He repeated his throwing motion. This time he got closer and almost hit the tree trunk.
He did not mind the stones falling of the edge of the world, as he could just create new ones. He had created matter from literally nothing! The third time he messed up the throwing motion so bad the rock hit the ground long before he hit the tree trunk rolling narrowly by his collection of metal pieces from the defeated slimes.
His fourth ball hit the tree dead center.
New Skill unlocked.
Rock Throw (ACTIVE) Lv. 1 EXP: 0.00% / MP: 10 A variant of the common rock throw, enhancing both accuracy and power with mana.
Neat! Marcus checked for his mana, finding that he had zero mana left. When he tried to activate [Create Stone] again, he felt a deep sense of energy drain and was only able to generate a tiny stone, hardly even a pebble.
On the upside, his ability had progressed somewhat.
Create Stone (ACTIVE) Lv. 1 EXP: 17.48% / MP: 25
His growling stomach protested his excitement about magic.
Time to catch some fish.