In the center of it all was an enormous pile of debris. There, dust wafted through the air. No movement came from the pile except unstable rocks falling to the ground. To the sky a massive hole stretched high above. No light reached the bottom, showing just how massive the gaping hole in the ceiling was.
No normal human could have survived a drop like that, neither an elephant or whale. Nothing but a miracle could have saved any sort of life that would have found itself in the falling pile of debris.And today a miracle must have occurred, because in the huge pile of stones and earth, slight movement could be seen if you looked closely.
Something was alive and moving, something that shouldn’t be. That tiny movement slowly grew and eventually a hand reached out from the side. Soon that hand turned into an entire human body. In the same tattered clothing as before the ground came undone was Grayson.
Alive? Yes, but healthy no. “I shouldn’t have survived that.” he thought curiously to himself. In no uncertain terms, he himself knew that he shouldn’t be alive. That pile of rubble should have crushed him, but he survived.
I’m unsure as hell how I survived, but I’m not gonna question it. The last thing I remember before I blacked out was a bright light.
He was unsure of where the light had come from. When he fell into the collapsing ground, he remembered praying for someone to save him. That was when a huge piece of the ground had knocked him in the head, causing him to black out. Before he did though, he swore he saw he body starting to glow of gold.
If there’s anything I’m aware of, it's that this situation doesn’t seem good in the slightest.
He eyed the ceiling above him, “Yah, there’s no way I’m getting out of here that way.” He sighed. That was when he remembered how dark it was.
Well now’s as good as time as any to try out what I wanted earlier. There’s never been a good time, where I could spare any of mana for actual practice.
The entire room, cavern, or whatever hole he was in, was extremely hard to see. He couldn’t actually tell how high the hole above him because it was so damn dark.
Right now, he realized how important seeing would be right now. If he knew anything about the world he was in now, it was that there was always danger lurking. Now wasn’t the time to save the mana he’d recovered.
He lifted his hand up. Every time I’ve used my firefly skill, I’ve only ever focused on shooting the ball of mana into the faces of my enemies. I never really tried just using it as a light source, or something that wasn’t meant to be an attack. If I can already slightly control the firefly spell, it shouldn’t be that hard to control it like a light.
He concentrated on his hand, thinking of his skill. Little specks of light started gathering at his fingertips. “Light, light, light.” In his mind, he was thinking of a torch, and trying to reduce the mana cost as much as possible, by lessening the power. A singular firefly formed and danced around the tips of his fingers. The heat coming from it was less than what he normally felt.
“It worked.” Grayson jumped up in excitement at seeing his hypothesis work. That was until he got a little too excited, and the little firefly fizzled out in his hands. “I need to work on my concentration a bit more,” he told himself cheekily.
After a few more attempts at the spell which resulted in the firefly fizzling out, he finally got a sort of rhythm. As long as nothing destroyed his concentration, he could maintain the firefly for a few minutes before it fizzled out.
From what I’ve gathered it seems that time, concentration and mana are huge factors here. With time, it seems my spell becomes more unstable with each passing second, which in turn means that I need to concentrate harder on keeping it from self destructing. In this case if I fuel it with more mana, the amount of concentration I need goes down.
The problem is that it isn’t equal. After a certain point the amount of mana and concentration needed to keep the spell active grows immensely, just making it not worth keeping it on for more than a few minutes at a time. I’m better off just wasting a few extra mana points to restart the spell than trying to keep it running after a certain point.
The only downside to this all is that I don’t have a lot of mana to begin with. I started out full but I’m already down to less than half my entire mana supply after just 10 minutes. This probably has to do with the fact that, the spell isn’t a lighting spell, but an attack spell, which naturally take up more mana, I’m guessing.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
This is all so tiring to keep track of.
He eyed the surrounding room. He examined the ceiling, not expecting it to be as he witnessed it. “Yup, I’m screwed, there’s no way I’ll be able to get out that way.”
His surroundings were that of a dark cavern. He suspected that it wasn’t any normal one though. He wasn’t familiar with the structures of caves, he was sure that the smooth pathway in front of him couldn’t he natural.
He was right. Grayson cautiously advanced, keeping an eye out for any monsters, while his [Firefly] did the work of illuminating his surroundings. After a few minutes of walking down the path he discovered a huge carved door at the end of the path.
“Dungeon.” He said the world reflexively, without thinking that’s when it hit him. That rock that hit him must have down a lot of damage to him cause there’s no reason why he should have forgotten the place he landed in.
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Congratulations! You are the first of humanity to enter a dungeon.
You have entered the dungeon Twilight Grove - Rank Gold
A domain caught between realms, where shadows and whispers dwell. Tread carefully, as this land observes you...
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Those words flooded into his mind. He remembered right when he fell, got a hole host of messages about entering the dungeon.
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Caution! Dungeon Level Recommendation: 25 (Average)
Minimum recommended entry level for survival is 20. Suggested party size: 5 members.
Warning: Solo entry is strongly discouraged. Survival chances are significantly diminished.
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I’m double screwed for sure. I’m nowhere near the required level to be taking on this dungeon alone, especially not when the system itself is recommending that 5 people take this dungeon on. If that’s the case, I would probably need to be around level 40 to take this on myself and last time I checked I was only level 9. That’s 4x less than the amount of levels I need to take this head on.
His hands hesitated. The door in front of him was huge and ominous.
It’s not like I have a choice anyways.
Before he left, he checked for his belongings only to find the Squelch dagger he always carried on him. His backpack had been missing with the bulk majority of his supplies. It was likely buried underneath all the rubble. He’d tried sifting through the wreckage, but had to give up, once it became impossible to check any lower.
The situation was looking grim. He was stuck in a dungeon well below his level, with only a few days worth of food and water. He had luckily transferred some of his supplies directly onto him after the Krivel incident.
If whatever lurked behind these doors didn’t kill him, starvation would, he couldn’t last here for long.
Like many other situations he was forced into, this one wasn’t any different, all he had to do was defeat what was behind these doors and survive.
“Well here goes nothing.” Grayson pushed into the heavy door, using his entire body weight. Light began creeping through the door. Once it was forced open enough he squeezed his body through, before he heard a huge slam behind him.
There’s no going back now is there?
He found himself in a much more dungeon-like room. There were actual floors and walls, lined with glowing torches.
That probably wasn’t an intended part of the dungeon. He thought back to how he had gotten here through the collapsing ground. That being said, he let the little firefly of light fizzle out, no longer needing it, seeing as there were torches lighting the path.
It was still dark and the firefly would have helped, but having his mana as a last resort seemed like a better idea.
Grayson walked down the hallway, eyeing the ground and walls.
At one point down this long hallway he accidentally stepped on an out of place stone that caused arrows to shoot out of the wall. If it wasn’t for his fast reflexes he would have found himself dead, because the arrows that hit the walls leaked a liquid, which he assumed to be poison.
“I should have guessed there would be traps. It is a dungeon after all.” He quickly learned his lesson and walked much more cautiously. Better say than sorry he told himself.
I know I’ve only just entered this dungeon but I was kinda expecting it to be a bit harder, considering it is a gold ranked dungeon, one that I have no right in being in.
“Goddamnit, I knew I shouldn’t have jinxed it.” It looked like he’d reached the end of the path hallway because blocking the path out, was an armored skeleton sprawled on the ground like a dead body.
It’s armor had holes and was rusted, but Grayson wasn’t fooled for a second. That sword, it’s clutching it.
He pretended he wasn’t aware that the likely animated skeleton wasn’t gripping its sword like a maniac. His eyes were partially focused on the skeleton as he walked to the door that would have left the room. Right as he was about to reach for the door, he jumped back, as he sensed the skeleton moving slightly.
To his unsuprise, it tried stabbing him but was caught off guard when it saw Grayson jump backwards. He didn’t waste this chance as he quickly drew his dagger and rushed in to cut off its head, but before he could do anything, he saw a blur.
The skeletons arms moved so quickly, that he didn’t know what happened. All he knew was that a huge force, knocked his dagger backwards causing him to create a huge opening. Before he knew it a large slash appeared on his chest.
“What the fuck, did that skeleton just use a skill!?”