Alexander yanked the axe free, collapsing onto his back. The sheer exaction threatening to overwhelm all his senses.

The cave was drenched in blood, its walls slick with crimson streaks. Massive chunks of flesh clung to the stone, some large enough to be mistaken for entire limbs, smeared across the vast expanse in a grotesque display of carnage.

..............................

Fifteen minutes? An hour? Maybe two? Alexander couldn’t recall. Finishing off the panther, his eyes darted in a frantic sweep, hyper-focused. They finally locked onto something—a lump of fat, shifting, writhing or something along those line.

Without a second thought, Alexander hurled himself toward it, his body screaming in protest. But pain didn’t matter now. He needed to get rid of the demons in his mind.

Reaching the lump, Alexander didn’t hesitate. He aligned himself and brought the axe down in a powerful overhead swing, pouring all his strength into the strike. To his shock, the fatty mass split apart in a single, decisive motion, cleaving in two as warm blood sprayed outward in a vivid arc.

The ease of it all left Alexander dumfounded, further compounded by the modest experience gained.

[you have killed a worker Mournworm, 750 exp gained]

Though he didn’t see what he’d killed, he couldn’t miss the spike in EXP. It was far from modest—especially considering the effort he’d poured into taking it down.

It didn’t take him long to spot another one lurking nearby. The moment it saw, smelled, heard—something! Alexander wasn’t sure. But the second it felt his presence, it reacted. . But instead of attacking, it turned and bolted, contradicting all of Alexander’s expectations. Panic drove its movements, but it didn’t get far. Alexander wasn’t about to let it escape.

This time too it did not take long just in 4 swings, it died,

[you have killed a a worker Mournworm, 724 exp]

A smile spread across Alexander’s face. Looking up, he spotted his next target—or rather, the next two targets. More of those larva-like, ten-foot creatures called Mournworms.

From there the numbers kept growing as he ventured deeper, and at some point he found himself inside a cave. Not that it mattered much.

So he did what he did best, endlessly mowing down numbers upon numbers of beasts, creatures, insects or whatever they were.

And along the way he somehow found himself facing two, the thing were the same but of a different color and somehow way harder to hit. And of course way hard heating.

.....................

It took a lot of time, but he managed it. To be honest, this was the kind of fight he needed; it was exhilarat.......

his world started to spin as it went dark.

Drip

Drip

In the darkness, Alexander heard only one sound: a persistent drip. It continued incessantly, maybe for a second or a century. As if parting two curtains, the darkness barely lifted as Alexander opened his eyes. To his surprise, a stony wall loomed in front of him.

Against his body's will, he shifted to face upward. What greeted him was not the familiar ceiling of his room but the rugged roof of a cave, adorned with patches of moss and tree roots snaking through the stone. Confusion washed over him. Where was he? Why was he here? What had happened? And why was every part of his body aching like hell?

And all at once, it hit him.

Sigh

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Alexander let out a long sigh.

Then laughed aloud—or at least he thought he did—before erupting into a fit of coughing. He lay there, staring at the moss and root-covered ceiling. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to move; he just couldn’t.

The thought of murdering three people flickered through his mind, but this time it didn’t hit him as hard. And even if it did, so what? There was nothing he could do about it.

“How long was I out?” Alexander asked looking up.

“Well a better question would be how long were you fighting?” The voice replied in his mind.

“Well, then how long wa.....”

“16 hours, approximately your were fighting for 16 hours, it was a miracle that your body held up to that long.” before Alexander could as his ancestor replied.

“And as for as long as u were out exactly 25 hours 3 minutes.”

“Ha ha, I was sure you were even going to add the seconds.” Alexander joked.

“I am not that bored.”

With a mental nudge, Alexander opened his system menu and notifications. Though he remembered what he had been doing , the details were still more then a bit hazy.

[you have killed a Velkron, 486exp]

[you have killed a Thornex, 248 exp]

[you have killed a Frostclade, 567 exp]

[you have killed a Emberite, 328 exp]

{you have killed, Murkwyld, 312 exp]

...........................................

Damn, he was shocked, to say the least. He had killed—he had killed a lot for some damn things: Velkron, Thornex, Emberite, Murkwyld. What were they, especially Emberite? The name felt familiar, like he had heard it somewhere before, but now it eluded him. Maybe it was all the pain; it was hard to focus on memories when he felt like this.

On the other hand, fuck he got a lot of exp.

[you have leveled up]

[you have leveled up]

[you have leveled up]

He had leveled up three times in a row. What the hell! Not to mention, each time the leveling process became more difficult as u go farther.

Unable to move, Alexander decided to circulate all the nine, wait a minute, thirteen lumps? it seems he also get another level at some point most likely when he killed all the seniors. but even then he should get 12 points not 13? He immediately asked.

“Oh, that… I’m not quite sure how it all works, but if I had to guess, you’ve crossed some kind of threshold. I think… ah, I’m not sure. I mean, he did say something... well, that’s not important.”

“What the hell, you old fart? You left me with more questions than answers!” Alexander snapped, his irritation bubbling over. He was truly not in the mood for cryptic nonsense, but he immediately regretted his outburst as pain radiated through his aching body.

“Fuck.”

He stood, bracing himself to lessen the pain, knowing there was no point in asking his ancestors any more questions.

As he sifted through the memories of everything he’d killed, one creature finally stood out: the Thornex. It was a carnivorous, plant-like being that relied mostly on traps to catch its prey, and somehow he had taken down quite a few of them. How he managed it, he had no idea.

It didn’t take him nearly as long to recover as he expected, mostly thanks to his constitution, if he had to guess. But that didn’t mean he was ready to move. He could, but each step sent sharp waves of pain coursing through his body.

So he did what any sane person would, well, kind of. He lay there, motionless, but started moving the lambs.

It took almost another eight hours for him to finish moving the lumps. Normally, it shouldn’t have taken so long, but there were two important differences this time. First, it got harder as Alexander leveled up, and second, it hurt like hell as he dragged the lumps through his pathways.

It felt like molten iron balls were burning through his veins. He wanted to scream, but he knew that would only bring more pain. Fortunately, by the end of it, the agony subsided almost instantly

After channeling all his points into Strength, he forced himself to stand. His body still ached, but the pain was manageable. He took a tentative step, and as for where he was headed, of course, it was deeper. This relentless spree had earned him three back-to-back levels, and with progress like that, he didn’t mind pushing himself to the brink again.

As he limped forward, deeper into the unknown, he opened his status screen—like any sensible adventurer would. Well sensible to him at least.

Name: Alexander

Race: Human

Level: 17

Exp: 10/4275

Strength: 55

*Perception: ___

*Dexterity: ___

*Agility: ___

*Constitution: 4

*Intelligence: ___

*Vitality: ___

a sight of the status screen put a smile on his face, though most of it was empty the number beside the strength state put a smile on his face.

And not just that, even in this broken state of his body he could actually feel the raw power coursing and pluming through him. This time distributing all the accumulated point at once fee could felt the, almost tangible difference.

It didn’t take as long as he expected to reach an impasse. The path wasn’t smooth sailing either; along the way, he encountered two more Mournworms. Thankfully, they were just worker variants, and it didn’t take him long to dispatch them.

As for which direction to take, he resorted to the most time-tested and reliable method of all: the legendary technique of “eeny, meeny, miny, moe.”

Which led him to the left passage, a dead fucking end. Paddling back he went with the right. The phenomenon repeated it self multiple times. And each time he applied the mighty method of eeny, meeny, miny, moe. And thankfully like the fist time it did not led to dead ends, well mostly did not lead to dead ends.

Of course, he encountered many Mournworms during this time. Fortunately, all of them were of the worker variant, allowing Alexander to dispatch them quickly. While this yielded some experience points, it paled in comparison to the massive amount he needed for his next level.

Another thing he noticed was that not all the paths were the same; some had just two, while others branched out into more than two dozen. Yet, the legendary method of "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" always proved effective. Alexander was increasingly convinced that this wasn’t merely a cave but a full-blown colony of these things.

But given the abundance of weak variants he encountered, it seemed these creatures weren't powerful or fully grown yet.

Rumble...

Rumble...

Rumble...

He rerated it as soon as he thought of it. He was just rising red flags for himself.

[[ rate the chapter if u will.]