I woke with a start, dazed and confused. I slowly opened my eyes to complete darkness and panicked, memories coming back to me slowly. I checked the timer in the corner of my vision.

Time remaining : 01:15

The countdown was down to an hour and fifteen minutes. I had been unconscious for almost 20 hours. I laid there for a few minutes just reveling in the feeling of being alive. I should be dead ten times over, if anything was left on this dungeon level I would be. I checked my health bar and it was half full, meaning I had done damage that couldn’t be normally regenerated. I could feel the wooden fragment still stuck in my leg, the bleeding around it had stopped. I would have to remove it for my health to go any higher, this knowledge just came instinctively as framework leaked through to my mind. I moved all of my limbs to just make sure that I could and grimaced as a lance of pain shot through my injured leg. I decided I would wait until I made it back up the ramp and to safety before removing the large splinter.

I stood up bracing myself against the wall, I still couldn’t see anything in front of me. I only had an hour so I quickly limped over to the ramp using my good leg and the wall for balance, my new strength stat was the only reason I was able to hold my weight on one leg, my stamina giving me the endurance to continue. I made it to the ramp and found the three torches along the wall all replaced and lit. I grabbed one and shuffled back to the large room, surveying the damage to the ghouls.

There were body parts everywhere, legs and arms haphazardly scattered across the room. I triggered Identify as often as I could, it only worked on the mostly intact corpses. I was going to have to make it to the middle of the room to find the body of the overseer. I hopped on my good leg over to where I had last seen him and found his torso mostly intact, missing both legs and one arm. I triggered Identify and jumped back with a shout.

Advanced Ghoul - Beast - Level 11 - Health 8/90 - Old Mining Camp Overseer repurposed by framework. Strong and sturdy, slow but definitely not stupid.

The damn thing was still alive. I had lost my bow after the explosion, not that I could shoot it properly with one leg. I still had my throwing knives tucked in my uniform, I grabbed one and circled around to the head of the ghoul. It made a feeble attempt to grab me with its one remaining arm and I avoided it easily if not painfully. I stabbed down through the forehead of the ghoul until it stopped squirming.

Triggering Identify to confirm its death, I had a slew of notifications blinking in my vision. I needed to focus on clearing this level. I wasn’t sure how I would officially clear this level if the death of the overseer wasn’t enough. I checked the timer and it had already taken me 30 minutes to get this far, leaving only a few minutes left. I hobbled through the room to the other side and found a town interface like the above one. I placed my hand on it and felt the familiar sensation of using it.

Congratulations! You have cleared Old Mining Camp Dungeon level 1! Level 2 unlocked!

Congratulations! You have survived your first survival event!

.....

I stopped checking the notifications, deciding to wait until I was back upstairs. The timer in my vision was gone. There was a new option on the interface, allowing me to teleport back to level 1. I checked the guide to see what teleporting was and it was a way of traveling fast. I wasn’t sure what that meant but given the state of my leg I decided to risk it. I selected the option to teleport to level 1 and found myself back at the end of the common room at the main town interface.

Hobbling to the kitchen and ordering some food, I sat down on a bench and prepared myself to remove the large wooden fragment from my leg. I didn’t have any health potions, that would be my next priority. I bared my teeth and took a deep breath, grabbed the fragment and ripped it out in one smooth motion. I nearly lost consciousness again from the pain but managed to hang on until it eased a bit. I could see new blood pooling up from the hole in my uniform.

My health bar began to tick downwards slowly. I still had a large chunk of health left so I didn’t focus on it too much. I ate my meal as it arrived, still mystery meat and vegetables with a loaf of ethel bread. I drank as much water as my stomach would allow and limped back towards the foreman quarters. I stripped out of my uniform, regretting how disgusting I was, and laid down. I barely had time to think about my priorities for tomorrow before I was fast asleep.

I awoke the next morning, so I assumed, based on the light coming down from the skylight I had never noticed above the bed. My health bar was completely full and I felt refreshed. I started the exciting and overwhelming process of checking my notifications.

Congratulations! You have reached level 13!

Congratulations! You have reached level 14!

Congratulations! You have earned a new title!

New Title! Survivor II! Survive two encounters that leave you with less than 5 health! Grants +2 to stamina, Silver potion box x5!

New Title! Dungeon Explorer! First in Eter to complete a dungeon level!

Enhanced explosion has reached level 7!

Identify has reached level 8!

Congratulations! You have unlocked Old Mining Camp Dungeon Level 2!

I had reached level 14, my stats were all increased by my new levels and titles, I had some nice new boxes to open and a new level of the dungeon to explore. I was worried about nearly dying again but it couldn’t compare to the excitement I felt about getting stronger. The framework was changing my mentality, for better or worse was yet to be determined. I crawled out of bed and found the blankets and bedding clean. I checked the guide for information on beds or resting.

Rest - Resting in a designated resting space, such as a home or bed, gives a 20% bonus to regeneration speeds, personal beds will be cleaned automatically unless damaged. Every hour spent in a resting space results in a +1 to stamina for the same amount of hours.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I was glad I had decided to wait to remove the wooden fragment until I made it back up to the main level and slept in the bed. That 20% regeneration bonus must have been why I felt so good in such a quick amount of time. The +1 stamina likely didn’t add much at this stage with it being one of my highest stats but I would take it. I checked over my stat sheet and I walked to the mess hall.

Sylar Till

Age

17

Race

Human

Class

Wildcard

Level

14

Strength

19

Stamina

37(36)

Agility

25

Intelligence

23

Wisdom

39

Charisma

0

Luck

3

I wished the guide had a way to let me know how I compared to other people’s stats. I wouldn’t know until I met more people and asked around. I wondered how many other people were stuck out on their own like I was when the framework initialized, and how many survived. I ate a simple meal and drank as much as I could, relishing in the simple but good tasting water.

I decided to go ahead and open my boxes and see what I got for completing the dungeon level. I had 2 silver item boxes and 5 silver potion boxes. I opened the potion boxes first and got 5 standard health potions, standard health potions healed for 15 health points over 1 hour. A threefold increase over the minor health potion. These would have been useful yesterday in the dungeon but I was happy to have them now.

My first silver equipment box contained 9 bangers, bringing my total up to 10. The framework was clearly rewarding me for using the bangers as a combat item. I wondered what would have happened if I was a sword or spear specialist, would it keep giving me new swords? The second equipment box was much more interesting. It was a long oval shape of cloth with pouches along the frontside of it. I triggered Identify.

Stryker Bandoleer - Unique - Upgradeable - Holds 10 explosives, Explosives cannot be triggered while placed in bandoleer, self repairing if not completely destroyed.

It was amazing, it would hold all of my bangers and I wouldn’t have to worry about them exploding on me. That was one of the biggest risks of carrying them and using them, premature detonation. The self repairing was similar to my stryker uniform, which had already repaired the hole from the wooden piece that had stabbed me in the leg. Checking my equipment interface also showed that it gave me another 10 of armor rating, I wasn’t sure how that worked considering it was so thin and the guide wouldn’t help me until I visited a blacksmith.

Equipment - Armor - Condition

Head

None

Chest

Stryker uniform

10

Good

Arms

Stryker uniform

10

Good

Hands

None

Belt

Stryker Bandoleer

10

Good

Legs

Stryker uniform

10

Good

Boots

Stryker uniform

10

Good

Weapon

None

I had 4 skill points left from leveling that I could use. Looking at my two skills, I felt that remote detonation was fine for now, I was able to detonate two explosions from pretty far away. I decided to dump all 4 in natural explorer as it would expand my map and help me find more resources. I leveled it to 14 and brought up my map, mentally commanding it to expand to the area around the mine. I saw small markers indicating water, pyrus berries, grayson root etc adding themselves to the unexplored areas around me. I wanted to go hunting and find a different kind of meat to eat in the mess hall so I started walking down to level 2 to grab my bow, I had left it down there after the explosion.

I noticed that the door down to level two was missing and the ramp was now well lit by torches. I rounded the corner and saw torches lining the walls all the way through the level, now that it was complete it seemed the unending torches would remain. I checked the rooms off to the side and as expected they were dormitories for the miners. Quick mental math said I now had enough room to house roughly 10 people comfortably. The only problem was that I still had not encountered another person in weeks. I found the fragments of my bow littered against the wall. I must have broken it when I was thrown against the wall following the explosion. I sighed deeply, hunting for new meat would have to wait until I found or was able to craft a new bow, which was well outside of my current skill set.

I still wanted to explore outside of the cave and get some fresh air, I had spent the last three or so days inside. I unbarred the door and opened it, squinting in the bright light filtering down through the canopy. I carefully scanned the forest line for danger, remembering the trippers scattered around the bushes. I would need to check them to see if anything had been exploring the area. I grabbed my now restocked pack, I had brought extra ethel bread and water as well as my stocked bandoleer. I had decided to fill it half with bangers and added some smokers as well. I brought up my map and picked a random direction to head in and explore for the day. I moved across the clearing and stopped short when I noticed a small pile of dead rodents near the mine opening. I walked over to investigate, it was three or four partially decomposed rodents of a kind I didn’t know. I triggered Identify.

Eter Bushbear - Beast - Level 1 - Health 0/10 - Common food source for predators of Eter Forests and plains. Small and weak.

I stared at the pile of dead bushbears wondering what new threat this was when I heard a shriek and saw a gray shape diving down towards me.