I open my eyes.
I'm lying down on the ground staring at a rocky ceiling.
The cold breeze brings the smell of mold to my nose.
I'm back, huh?
After blankly staring for a few seconds, I get up.
I'm in a dome shaped rocky room about four meters in diameter.
The room has only one entrance, a hole big enough for me to fit through.
The ground is very uneven and there are mushrooms, which radiate a faint green light, growing all over it.
Other than the hole and the mushrooms, there is also a table near the wall.
The table is slightly slanted because of the floor.
There are several books and a rusty dagger on top of it.
The blade of the dagger has a blue tint to it and is very rough.
I walk up to the table and grab the dagger.
Then I use my dagger to cut the robe I'm wearing near my thighs.
I proceed to grab one of the books on the table and tear off a random page out of it.
These books contain useful info, but I have already read all of them thoroughly many times.
I hold the torn page in front of me and point the palm of my other hand at it.
[Cleanse impurities]
The text and the dirt on the page gradually disappear and I am left with a completely white piece of paper.
Using my dagger, I carefully stab my finger and it starts to bleed.
With the blood, I start drawing a magic circle on the blank paper.
After few minutes, it's done.
I hold both of my hands over the magic circle and start gathering mana.
Fire element in my left hand.
Dark element in my right hand.
[Enchant: Armageddon]
The paper absorbs my mana and starts to shine.
I feel power leaving my body as a drop of sweat slides down my cheek.
After a while, smokes starts rising from it and the paper is dyed dark red, while the magic circle turns black.
[Heal]
I heal my bleeding finger.
The big one is done.
Afterwards, I tear three more pages and erase the text again.
Following that I enchant those three with a different spell.
[Enchant: Heal]
[Enchant: Heal]
[Enchant: Heal]
Then, I cut the pieces of fabric left from cutting my robe and cut them into cords.
With those, I tie up the enchanted scrolls to my thighs.
Preparations are done.
Time to try again.
I crawl out of the hole and the intense stench of blood welcomes me yet again.
This dome shaped room, was something like a house in the middle of a gigantic cave.
Giant spiders crawling around the walls and the ceiling.
Two meter long lizards with two horns on their head.
Small mice, who can spit acid and corrode metal equipment.
There are all sorts of monsters.
[Phantom presence]
With this, the creatures here should avoid me for the most part.
But having nothing to eat would be bad, so after spotting a nearby lizard, I dash at it.
Realizing it can't escape, it decides to lunge at me with its claws.
I evade its arm while cutting it with my dagger and sneak right beside it.
Because the dagger is not very long, it should only leave a big scratch on its arm, but...
[Phantom cut]
As I say that, the monster's arm flies off.
The lizard raises a scream and tries quickly lock onto me as I take a little bit of distance.
Not losing any time, I start gathering mana in my left palm.
Come on...
Hurry up...
It finally finds me, the skin between its eyes starts to tear apart.
Or more accurately, it's trying to open its middle eye.
That eye is very dangerous, it can paralyze me just by having me in its line of sight.
[Fire lance]
I release the mana I have been gathering and it turns into a flaming lance aiming right at the monster's middle eye.
My attack hits its mark and pierces right through its head.
The monster doesn't even let out a shriek as it falls onto the ground.
After letting out a sigh of relief, I come approach the monster and take out my dagger again.
I cut at the neck of the monster.
[Phantom cut]
The head is cut off.
[Fire bubble]
The decapitated head is enveloped in a hot red bubble and starts grilling.
After some time I cancel my magic, bite into the grilled meat and start chewing.
I have to hurry up before they come.
Quickly chewing and swallowing, almost choking myself.
Stuffing myself with the stinky and terrible tasting monster meat.
It's not like I love doing this.
But if I don't eat anything, I will die of starvation.
The mice have acid in them and the spiders are too much of a bother to defeat since they crawl around the walls and the ceiling.
I tried all the other monsters as well, but concluded that these lizards are the best source of food.
And then, I hear it.
The sound of a hundreds of tiny rocks hitting each other.
They are coming.
With no delay, I throw the meat aside and grab my dagger again.
I cut my finger.
With the blood flowing out of my finger, I slowly paint a line on my dagger while infusing it with mana.
The sounds coming from the unseen parts of the cave around the corner echo everywhere.
I ready my stance while still pouring mana into the dagger.
The sounds get louder.
I am not tense.
I have done this too many times by now.
I can't be tense.
If I get tense over something like this, I don't even stand a chance against what comes later.
And then they finally came.
Out of the other side of the huge cave, they emerge.
Bodies made out of stone with the visage of a winged demon.
Gargoyles.
As soon as I saw the first one, without hesitation I swung my dagger horizontally.
[Hell serenade]
Out of the dagger gushed dark red flames in great quantity and completely engulfed the swarm of gargoyles.
Hundreds of those monsters were instantly destroyed.
Crushed by the impact...
Melted by the heat...
It doesn't matter how they died.
The important fact was, that after the dust and smoke has settled, not a single one of those gargoyles was remaining.
Everyone was annihilated.
Excessive?
No.
I tried various ways to deal with them.
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If I fight them normaly, I will be exhausted and even spend more mana in the end.
If I try to escape or avoid combat, they will follow me and eventually do a surprise attack when I'm fighting another monster.
Therefore, the best solution is to get rid of all of them with a large scale attack.
[Heal]
After healing my finger, I turn my back to where the swarm of monsters emerged from.
I went back to the lizard and started to skin it.
Can't use phantom cut for this, it would damage the skin.
While cutting, I put some more meat into my mouth.
I can take my time now.
There is plenty of time before the next wave of gargoyles.
As I skin the lizard and eat its meat, I think about the enemy, who defeated me last time.
It was a green ogre with eight long arms.
I thought it was just a regular ogre.
But it was clearly abnormal.
Its speed far exceeded any other ogre I have seen and it seemed to be immune to dark magic.
But I noticed it diligently dodged any fire based attack I threw at it.
Is that its weakness?
Either way, I underestimated him too much and he got a hit on me.
I need to prepare better gear before I get to him.
Alright, this is done...
[Cleanse impurities]
I cleanse the scaly skin as I flap it in the air.
Then I start cutting it to shape it into something I can wear.
After that is done, I put my makeshift chest armor over the robe on myself and tie it up with more remnants of my robe I cut.
[Tri enchant:]
[Impact resistance]
[Shock resistance]
[Flame resistance]
This should do for now.
No need for more enchantments, I can get something better later anyway.
I grab my dagger and the rest of the scales I cut of.
[Fire bubble]
The bubble grabs all the scales and starts heating them up.
I put the dagger's blade inside it as well.
Unlike when I cooked the meat, this time I raise the temperature a lot more.
The scales start to melt and glow red while the dagger blade remains the same.
I wait till the scales shine white color and then continue.
[Compress]
The liquidated scales start to compress and start sticking to my dagger.
Carefully controlling it I transform my dagger into a short sword.
[Enchant: Phantom force]
It's done...
I'm prepared.
Let's go.
Once again, I turn my back on the part of the cave, from where the gargoyles came from and start running.
I cancel phantom presence, since its effect lessens if you move too quickly anyway.
The monsters, who feared me a while ago now once again show their hostility.
But all of them are just small fries.
If I have at least this much equipment, I don't even need to waste mana anymore.
Soon, I arrive at a small opening, which leads to a tunnel and walk in without any hesitation.
The tunnel isn't very long and soon I find myself in a huge cave yet again.
There lies a huge red slime and red ogre.
This is the first tough enemy.
The red slime can absorb fire attacks, while casting some of its own fire based attacks.
The red ogre is immune to fire based attacks and he attacks with his club and fire magic.
If I try to defeat the slime first, the ogre will use fire magic on it and heal it.
So I have to go for the ogre first.
But that is easier said than done.
While the ogre goes to fight at close combat with me, the slime supports it with magic.
You could say, that fire magic being one of my specialties plays against me here.
But I wouldn't use magic on them anyway.
I can't waste mana here.
It would take too long to recover.
They are merely the first enemy.
If I waste my resources now, I stand no chance later.
When they spot me, the ogre takes his stance and the slime starts to gather mana.
I respond by leaping to the side so that the ogre is between me and the slime.
The slime tries to move a bit to the side so he has a clear line of sight with me again while the ogre dashes at me.
I continue sidestepping to keep the slime from having a straight shot at me and prepare my shortsword to defend against the ogre.
I don't consider myself weak, but this ogre is definitely many times stronger than I am.
Therefore, when his club is about to clash with my shortsword, I tilt my sword and brush his club aside.
Using this opening, I punch him in his stomach with my free hand.
He stumbles backwards, but still keeps tight grip on his weapon.
I swing my sword aiming for his neck, but his reaction is too fast and my strike is defended with his club.
The ogre is pushed further back as the clash of our weapons resounds.
Looks like my strike made a dent on his club.
Right after this exchange, I notice mana gathering under my feet.
I try to get away by jumping backwards.
On the spot where I was a second ago erupts a pillar of flames.
It was the slime's doing.
I can't forget about him.
Without giving me a second to breathe, the ogre emerges from the pillar of flames, grasping his club with both hands over head.
I try to jump to the side again to avoid his overhead strike, but...
It was actually a feint.
Instead of smashing the ground, the ogre made a swipe with his club in the direction I tried to dodge.
I tried to position my sword to defend at the last second.
But it was no use.
The impact shook my entire body and I crashed in the wall.
"Guha..!"
After coughing up some blood, I try to immediately get my bearings, but it's too late.
A giant flaming lance pierces through my chest like a needle through cloth.
Hitting the wall behind me, it explodes and launches me some distance away.
While landing on my back, the grip on my weapon loosens and I drop it.
...
It's over.
This round...
Is over.
As I think about how useless fire resistance and impact resistance enchantments were, the ogre approaches me with his club over head again.
His club swings down and my vision blacks out...
...
...
...
...
...
I open my eyes.
I'm lying down on the ground staring at a rocky ceiling.
The cold breeze brings the smell of mold to my nose.
Damnit...
Such a stupid mistake too...
After blankly staring for a few seconds, I get up and head to the table near the wall.