Lingering in the light outside the kitchen and the start of the Dungeon of Endless Alleys sat a kobold; its eyes were glazed over, its raggedy fur coated in a brownish-red. Blood, if Colt had to guess. Old, dried blood. The thing was staring at their door as they left it—unmoving. In one hand was a decrypt old sword, which fit the nature of the kobold wielding it. In the other hand was the severed arm of a kobold.

The very same kobold that Colt first killed in this world, if he had to guess, by the mangled corpse next to it.

The thing shivered as Colt stared at it, its oval eyes taking all three of them in. It dropped the arm.

“…That thing has a sword,” Sarah said in disbelief, holding her knife steadily between her and the monster ahead of them. There was a shake to her arm, not that there was any fault in that. The sword was dripping blood.

The kobold opened its mouth wide to reveal yellow teeth with holes in them.

Colt inspected it.

———

Cannibal Kobold - Level 10

Description: A solitary Kobold which has abandoned its pack. Food is scarce in the Endless Alleys, so instead of sharing what meager scraps can be found, it has taken a much more practical approach to the problem.

Noteworthy Skills:

Consume [Uncommon] - Level 3

Inspect (Basic) has gained a level!

———

Interesting. Somewhat useful—but there wasn’t time to consider this more advanced description. No. This was level 10. Colt was at level 5; the other two were below that.

Danger.

The kobold lurched forward, its eyes suddenly catching a glint as its wide mouth formed into a mishappen smile; it moved quick—too quick—like a mouse darting for cover. It was on them in a second, sword lashing out as it cut a steel line of death.

CLANG.

Colt caught the sword and turned it aside with his knife, pushing upward a split second before it cleaved into Sarah’s side. A dangerous move that almost lost him a finger.

It wasn’t enough; the Kobold brought the sword around again, this time for a stab. Right at her stomach.

Nate tackled her, getting them out of the way as the sword punched right through where she’d been.

The kobold overextended, and Sarah punished, some of her training coming to bear as her foot snapped into the Kobold’s unsteady one, sending the monster to the ground.

Colt pounced, Knife raised in the air, then sunk it into the Kobold’s chest.

It struggled beneath him, the power of its little coiled muscles almost like a bull. Way too much for something this size. He stabbed it again, bringing the dagger into its guts and cutting a line, but it didn’t stop. If anything, it was only struggling harder.

He saw the whirl of a metal blade on his left. The sword headed right for his neck, and Colt tumbled off the kobold.

The metal flashed by, cutting yet another close line of death.

Colt retreated—he’d noticed that Sarah and Nate had done the same. The Kobold got to its feet, body shaking as it cupped the spilling guts from its abdomen… Then it yanked some of it free—then stuffed its own intestines down its throat.

Involuntarily, Colt gagged, stunned by the display… And even more stunned afterward as the hole in its stomach began to knit itself up.

The kobold sat there, its grin wide as it chewed, pleased with the display—up until Nate smacked it in the side of the face from behind with his pipe. It bounced on the ground once, which was enough to snap Colt out of his disgust and back into action.

Colt was there in a flash, knife working in and out of the monster. Sarah took a little longer, but soon she was there too, stabbing; while it chewed, the wounds healed, so Colt decided to pick his targets while Sarah stabbed for all she was worth.

Every muscle worked off ligaments, little rubber bands that let the body move. As he went to work, his eyes honed, watching the kobold struggle. He remembered watching an old-school video showing off how the human body worked without skin, doing various tasks, and honing in on all the different parts of the muscular puzzle that let you move.

Now, he could almost see the muscles beneath the skin. The connections as he severed them. One by one, cutting with as much precision as he could manage on his flailing target. It was sloppy work, but the knife worked easier than ever in his hand.

Eventually, the healing slowed. The kobold stopped chewing—thanks to a lucky hit from Nate that broke its jaw as he smashed it from the left with his pipe.

About fifteen seconds after that, the kobold died.

———

You have defeated Cannibal Kobold - Level 10

You have leveled up!

You have 2 Stat points to spend!

Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Basic) has gained a level!

———

Colt sat down, sweat wet on his back and even more blood drenching the rest of him. The three looked like they’d been in a horror film; their kitchen attire was ruined. Level 10… And for that, none of them looked all the worse for wear. Colt had a few bruises from where the Kobold flailed and hit him—Sarah a minor cut. Nate was unscathed. It hadn’t died easy, but they’d taken it out without any serious injuries as a team.

Exactly what he’d hoped for.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“W-what? Level up?” Sarah asked, dumbfounded.

Ah.

He had meant to give her a heads-up before they dived into the dungeon. This kobold lurking outside had stolen that chance. Back when they fought the group of Kobolds, Nate hadn’t killed any of them personally. But this confirmed it. There must be a split experience when you get a kill working together.

“You remember those messages mentioning a class earlier—those boxes? Well, I think this place works like some kind of videogame. There are levels and stats, and I’ve seen in the descriptions of these kobolds that we’re in a dungeon.” Colt began to explain, standing up and bringing them further from the door. He didn’t see any curious heads popping out, which meant they must not have been able to hear the scuffle outside.

Still, there was a reason he didn’t fill Sarah in on the situation inside the kitchen.

Now, though, he and Nate took a few minutes to explain what was happening to her; they stayed close to the door and back to their haven, but far enough out into this new world that it was undeniable.

The mist, the smell of blood and dead kobold—the way the lights flickered at the ends of the alleys, looming in the distance as they broke into their first turn in a place that promised an endless maze of danger. In this new world, Sarah had no choice but to confront what life had become.

She handled it… Remarkably well.

“So I gain levels, then I can kick Bill’s ass. Until then we keep it a secret so he can’t level up quickly and kick our ass.” She concluded.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Colt confirmed.

“The goal isn’t to beat him up but to keep him in line while we figure out how to get out here. Especially if Kobold’s description is true, food being scarce is a big problem, and we’ll need to take stock of how much we have in the kitchen and ration appropriately.” Nate said, his brow furrowed as he took in the Cannibal Kobold’s corpse.

“I still don’t see that line at all.” Sarah contested. “How sure are we that this thing is even accurate?”

She’d picked up Inspect quickly once they’d told her how to get the Skill. Her description of it wasn’t too far from theirs; only it didn’t mention anything about food; rather, it stated the monster just ate the closest things it could get its hands on.

Nate had also examined it through the lens of an Inspect - Level 3. He'd been practicing the entire time they’d been in the kitchen and saw more progress than Colt. Maybe it was due to his background in the army. He said he trained to take careful stock of things since it might be the difference between life and death.

That just left the matter of loot. The grungy rusty sword. It was a real weapon. Colt supposed his knife was a real weapon, too—but it wasn’t meant for that. He couldn’t shake how close that blade came to taking off one of his fingers.

Nate said he’d take it if no one else wanted it. He preferred the pipe until they got a hold of a gun.

If there were any guns in here.

Sarah said she already felt useless with the knife and gained an Unarmed Specialist Skill at level three after the fight she was eager to dive into.

A quick inspection said it was a simple damaged sword. Nothing special. But as Colt looked between it and his knife, that sense of being deepened. There was a connection here between the two weapons and him. A thread that tied them together, the same way that flame tied to heat in the kitchen. Almost a purpose to it and a hint of more that swirled in the air. Colt picked up on it and couldn’t place it. And as fast as it appeared, that sense of connection vanished.

Once more, leaving him in this dungeon, staring at what looked to be a useless weapon on the ground.

He hadn’t used a sword before. His skill spoke about proficiency in knives—but…

In the end, he decided to take it. If nothing else, the extra reach would keep the next dangerous kobold all that much further away until he found an opening to stab it with.

With the first and most dangerous encounter they’ve come across, now dead on the ground… It came to the next part of the mission: exploration and more leveling. With an unsteady calm, Colt led the trio further away from the kitchen, down the left alleyway. Each step brought him further away from the familiar and closer to the unknown.

The mist began to gather as they approached the end of the alley, and the dank smell of earth and refuse intensified, along with that of stale puddles of water. As they passed each trash can, Colt kept his eyes sharp for any more kobolds, yet there were none.

When they hit the intersection, a new notification appeared.

———

Welcome To The Endless Alleys Dungeon.

Dungeon Rank: F

Clear Conditions:

Eliminate King Kobold

(Optional) Eliminate The Ripper

Discover Exit

Note: Exit cannot be discovered until all mandatory bosses have been eliminated.

———

“The Ripper, what, like Jack the Ripper?” Sarah asked, squinting into the darkness of either side of the alley. “How the heck does it even know about that? Creepy.”

Nate sighed deeply and said, “We don’t know how this place works or if that’s even what ‘The Ripper’ means, But at least that confirms there’s a way out. Colt was right. Defeat the bosses, then we can leave.”

The buildings lining this alley were different. The modern brickwork and concrete were replaced with what looked to be wood and stucco. It was still crowded, and the gaps between the buildings were not enough to fit a person through but enough to look down. All he saw, though, was an inky black darkness.

The three of them moved along, noting that it started with a left at the turn; Nate kept repeating it to himself under his breath. The man took on the navigator role while Sarah and Colt concentrated on being the eyes. The road here rapidly transformed from a concrete path to muddy dirt.

If Colt blinked and forgot where he was, he could almost pretend he’d wandered into the back of some Renaissance festival; the sword in his hand only enhanced the feeling. Last time, he’d been barely seven, and the sword had been a cheap wooden one.

Not that this rusty thing is much better.

He took a slow step forward—something catching in his vision.

Red eyes, looking at him through one of those narrow gaps. Taller than any kobold he’d seen. Something else then.

He felt a shiver run through him, wincing and pulling back from the blood-red gaze. His instinct was to withdraw, to slip the Knife out of sight behind his back, waiting for the owner of those blood-red eyes to come out. It felt like that gaze was taking slices out of him, peeling bits of skin away as it dissected what he was capable of. Evaluated how easy it would be to slice him to ribbons.

Colt didn’t move. He hunched himself and made himself smaller. Trying to hide from that gaze, but he didn’t turn away.

An instinct in him screamed that if he made a sound, if he turned his back, he’d find something attacking him.

The eyes vanished.

———

Skill Gained: Hide Status [Uncommon] (Basic)

Hide Status (Basic) - Level 1

This skill allows the user to modify and conceal their own meta-data from observers. It is a must for any individual wishing to maintain private information. This will not allow the user to hide their overall level. In its most basic form, this can hide Skills, Skill Levels, and Stats. At higher levels of this skill, you can detect when you’ve been Inspected.

Note: Higher levels of Inspect can overcome this Skill and may display concealed information.

———

Colt felt a sweat run down his brow, along with a certainty. That had been death staring at him through that dark, narrow gap. Those red eyes spoke of blood and death, and every bit of his body screamed at him in the same way it screamed when you looked down the edge of a cliff. One wrong step, and he’d be gone.

“Colt?” Nate asked.

He tried to speak, but his voice died in his throat.

“Trouble!” Nate warned, and that, the quick alert, got Colt to turn away from that dark gap—and turned to look straight at a pack of eight mangy kobolds, their hungry eyes bearing down as they stared at them, seconds away from a fight.