I had a dream. In that dream I was laying on a soft grass carpet. Talking merrily with someone. I couldn't make out who it was but one thing that I am sure about is that it was comfortable.

When I woke up, I found myself collapsed in a puddle of blood. Strong stench gripped my nose and pain from my whole body reminded me of what had passed. 'That was truly stupid. I could have died, now that will be the worst case scenario.'

"Let's not make the same mistake again."

After gaining my fortitude back I got up looking at the scene. Red painted the land. Countless bodies scattered all over the place. Feeling nauseous I started vomiting. I vomited my guts out.

What a gruelling scene, and to think I am the one who created it. The same person who could not talk back to his father in fear of not getting allowances. The same person who was scared shitless by even a lesser tiger. Extreme isolation changes people all right. Some in more ways than others. Look at me. I have become a violent murderer. It pains my heart to even think about myself.

'That reminds me, I need to get a full healing.' I have eaten most of the tiger's heart during the fight to get some extra juice but it will be painful now to check for an intact heart now. The biggest one it is then.

Checking the big guy next to me I noticed that it was a male. 'Great, I am less concerned now.' I had not killed the broodmother ending their entire race. Now that I looked closely, this place seemed to be their spawning point. There were bulges all over the walls. Some broken, presumably by me. But there were no babies.

It seems they spawn fully grown ready to fight at any moment.

After eating the big guy's heart I sat down to cultivate. Instead of collecting juice from heaven and earth I kill some mana remnants rampaging inside me. It's fun to imagine as cultivation though.

Soon, heat invaded my brain and magic started pulsing through my body. 'That's not right. It came too fast.' Before I could think anything else my body started contorting. The similar pain ravaged me. I could see my body changing. Fur covered my boy, chest bulged out, nail turned into sharp claws.

I could see everything happening right in front of my eye but I couldn't do anything about it. Neither could I think anything clearly. The pain was too much. It went on for a long time but I did not faint. Instead of growing noises I was making what came out were roars. literal tiger roars.

At this point I am not even surprised anymore.

That did not mean I was not worried. This time my body changed much like an actual tiger unlike the first time.

Anyone seeing me now will think of me as a tiger version of werewolf. A weretiger maybe?

"Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh"

I set out a long sigh. I have to go through the pain again. 'Thank you god for letting me know that this can be reversed or I will be crying right now.' but pain is still pain. Even after getting accustomed to it does not get less painful. 'Well, no pain no gain i guess.'

I sat down somehow and started meditating again. Going inside my mana body I noticed that there were no tigers in there, just a blob of shiny liquide. 'Huh? Where are the tigers? What is this thing?' I feared the unknown like everyone else but somehow this blob of light did not feel bad. In fact my mana body was attracted to it.

Moving my hand forward I tried to touch it. As I got near it, the blob shot inside my chest. My vain started thumping loudly and my consciousness was pushed out of the mana body. Returning back to reality I was flabbergasted.

I had too many questions. As you can expect at this point questions were not of any importance. Pain, yes, once again pain took the front stage as usual. 'Why don't you just throw me into a lava pit and be done with me? Ahh… no one is listening to me as usual.' Go away, nothing to see here. Just a naked guy rolling around in dirt.

__________

I was lying there, looking at the ceiling. Thinking about life.

Why can't it be as simple as just killing beasts and leveling up. Why do I have to eat heart in specific to do what millions of protagonists do just like that? Didn't the demons generally have this kind of hobbies like eating hearts and turning into monsters? I can do that too. In fact I do it even more regularly than them. Maybe I am going to become the demon lord of this dungen and kill all the humans that come in. Or not. No one comes here anyway. So, I will just wait at the end of the dungeon sitting in my chair. Get old then die and become a skeleton demon or something. I should stop thinking. Even my thoughts are depressing.

Today's gain is, strength boost. Yeeeee, all that pain and shit for just a strength boost. No fancy moves, no magic spells nothing, just hit things harder. The dungeon is forcing me into a strength build isn't it?

No, lying around here thinking won't do me any good. I need to go out of here. At least I look like a human. I even managed to keep my hair this time.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Lets see if this door actually opens or not."

Walking slowly I made my way toward the door.

I am naked by the way if you didn't know. Who cares about clothes, not like anyone is gonna see me. I will run through this place swinging my dong, maybe even rub it on the wall to mark my territory. It's a naked run.

I pulled the door, It did not budge. 'Don't you dare "the door does not open from this side" me.' Using strength boost I kicked the door as hard as I could. With a bang it didn't break down. It just opened a bit and the resulting shockwave threw me off balance.

I got up, patted my bare ass and looked at the door. It opened a bit, one person can squeeze through it. That was enough. I looked inside for the enemy. A wendigo-like creature was sleeping there. Ful clad body, crystal horns, and no meat on the skull. Not gonna lie, those horns got me excited.

If he has the horne he can probably use Ice magic. It's a boss too, so there is a probability that I will grow horn after eating him.

He didn't look that powerful but he was a bit more powerful than the big tiger. Maybe I can't sense it because he is sleeping. Taking a deep breath and mentally preparing myself for the fight I entered the arena. The door closed with a 'dhung' sound. The wendigo opened its eyes. Stood up in his two legs and howled. It had a wolf-like howl but much horrendous sounding. It looked at me, lifted its hands up, removed its skull and placed it on the side.

"You are fucking with me arn't you?"

I used speed boost to get closer to him then strength boosted my hands and slapped him. It was no wendigo. It was just a werewolf and by being a werewolf it had no ice magic. Motherfucker had the audacity to give me hope then take it away. So, I slapped him.

After recovering from my slap he slapped me back. I answered back with another slap, he slapped me back again. After a few slappy slaps we went down to punching and kicking each other. After 10-15 minutes he died.

"That's what you get for fucking with me."

"Man, this one was piss weak."

'Huh? It was weak! No, I am stronger! That doesn't matter, if he was this weak that means the previous floore bosses will be weaker than him! So, if I do a speedrun of this place I can go out from the entrance.' Nice thinking me. Good job. What is that? How did I know it was a he or she? Stupid question, it did not have and boobs ofcourse. No time for chit chat. I need to run towards the entrance.

I ran right past all the beasts and entered the next boss room. Made quick work of it and started running again. I didn't even look at them properly. Strength boost and a few slices is all it took. I collected their hearts though. No need wasting perfectly good powerup material however small it is. I did not look for new creatures, did not check for mini bosses, did not eat the hearts, did not stop for rest, did not even count how many flores I was going up. I just kept going. And at last I found it. A huge tunnel. And at the end of it was a door. It was so big that I looked like an ant in front of it. It had no door handles on too. It was a huge single slab door with ruins marked on it.

"This is it. This must be the door out."

I shouted, taking in huge puffs of air. After taking a few deep breaths I pushed on the door. Nothing happened. I pushed it again and again and again, still nothing happened. So, I ran toward the door and rammed into it. I did this for a solid hour without rest but the door did not even budge an inch. 'Ahh, it must open from the outside.' Realising this I slapped my forehead. 'Of course it does, people come from outside you know. I got too excited.'

After a little rest I tried to find a place to hold on. I couldn't find any. 'No worries, if there isn't any I will make one.' Extending my claw I tried to dig into the door but it was too hard. My heart sank. 'What am I supposed to do?' I tried shouting at the door. Tried to find the crack between the door frame.

"Nothing, nothing works."

"I will break it if I have to."

Breaking a pillar I found a sizable chunk that I can lift and threw it next to the door. 'If I can't break the door I will just break the hinges one by one.' As the piece of rock hit the frame, a chunk of rock broke out of the frame. I saw it. The true nature of this place. Rocks intertwined with metal forming a muscle like structure that was holding this big chunk of metal at its place.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….."

" ha, ha, this is no door, it's fucking seal. Haha hahaha.."

"Too funny"

"Too funny"

"This is so funny… hahahahahaha…."

This dungeon never had any intention to let me go. I am a prisoner, and this is my cell. 'So, Dev was someone like me. Sealed in this hell, dying a miserable death.'

Feeling dejected, helpless I sat there, looking at the door. I don't know how long I sat there. Maybe an hour, maybe days, may be months. Beards covered my face. Blood on my body hardened and fell off.I was just sitting there staring. I had nowhere to go, nothing to do. No matter how I try to imagine it, nothing good came from this place. I didn't even feel alive anymore. I should have died that day. Everything would have been over. I at least had the dignity left to die properly. Now I was stuck here.

My emotions are all jumbled up. I feel nothing. Why was I trying so hard? What's the point? I don't even know why I should live! I feel like a living corps, only pain makes me feel alive. It's proof that I have not died just yet.

Pain, yes pain, I want to feel it. Any amount won't do. I have to forget everything. If I forget everything I won't be sad.

I found the rag drenched in blood. Counting it, there were 19 hearts. I have come running the entire 19 floors just to confirm that it is my grave. 'I hope I can reincarnate.' With that I ate all 19 hearts one after another. The violent pain started to ravage me.

"Aliveeeeeeeeeee……….."

__________

I had a dream, in that dream I was sleeping on someone's lap. It was warm and cozy. I thought of my mother. I tried to ask her who she was, what I am doing here but no sound came from my mouth. She smiled at me then said "live".

I was lying there. Inside a dingy dungeon. Tears stained my face. After suffering in the 9th pit of hell and crying a river my mind became a lot clearer. How did I become so mentally unstable? I was never like that. After all I had promised to my closest friend that I will never go hollow.

It's decided then. I will not lose hope. Even if it's as small as a neutrino. If I am stuck here I will be the king of this place. If someone is trying to keep something sealed, I will find it and destroy it. By the time I am done with this place I will be the only thing left here.