Panting with adrenaline and fear and shuddering from a fresh wave of pain, I fell back to the grass, groaning.

“I’m alive,” I wheezed, raising one hand in a weak salute.

Had I just crippled myself? I couldn’t lie there and wait for the next monster to eat me.

“Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated a Mammoth Lion. Bonus experience earned for defeating an enemy more than 10 levels higher than your own.”

“More than 28,” I muttered. “Why don’t you count my level for kills the same way you count it for the quest to escape the first stage?”

“Don’t complain, Lucas. You just survived a terrifying ordeal,” Cyrus said, as enthusiastic as always.

“Congratulations, Lucas. You have unlocked the ability Knife Throwing, level 1.”

“Knife Throwing. Ability. Common. When throwing short, bladed weapons, this ability improves accuracy by 10% per level and damage by 15% per level.”

Huh. That was unexpected, but welcome. I would have preferred getting a level. I lacked the energy to feel annoyed by that, but triggered Soul Feed. White light poured off of the dead lion and whirled around me before the entire cloud of energy plunged into my leg.

It twitched, and I felt phantom ghosts of sensation trickling out of it. Was it working? Could I heal from spiritual damage?

The white light dimmed as every last scrap of energy was consumed by my injury. Soulrend was even deadlier than I’d realized if spiritual damage took this much power to heal.

It wasn’t enough, though. My other injuries felt a little better, although not fully healed. It was like the stolen energy automatically targeted the most severe injuries first.

I lay back on the cool, soft grass for a moment, breathing, and just enjoying the lack of pain. My leg would heal. It had to. I had enough potions to make it work. Soul Feed had reconnected something deep inside, and that gave me hope.

A high-pitched growl caught my attention and I glance to my left, new fear spiking through my heart. If there was another lion, I was toast.

There was another lion, but not one I needed to fear. Hopefully. For the first time, I really looked around. I was lying in an idyllic little glade, surrounded by forest, complete with a rocky hill and a waterfall tumbling down to a small pool.

The black hole of a cave plunged into the hill near the pool, and a pair of baby lions were standing there, staring out at me. The Mammoth Lion had been their mother, and she’d no doubt planned to feed me to her babies.

Thankfully, the adorable little murder cubs didn’t scamper out to eat my eyeballs. I ignored them and triggered a full regeneration potion. Warm healing energy washed through me, healing my lesser injuries before consuming itself in my leg.

The connection to my leg felt stronger, but was far from restored. I tried moving it, but could barely make it twitch. Still, that was better than nothing.

“Never stab yourself again, idiot.”

I hadn’t had a choice, but ow, that had been a desperate call. I decided to try using Harvest on the lion. I really liked Thunder Punch, but a teleport spell would be even better.

“You have failed to Harvest a spell from the Mammoth Lion.”

“Really? This stupid spell isn’t supposed to keep failing.”

“You have a very good chance of success, but it’s not 100%,” Cyrus reminded me.

Grumbling, I accepted the prompt to loot the lion. It seemed I’d used up too much of my luck with the cows, and probably more than I’d ever know surviving the lion long enough to stab it through my own leg.

Getting loot always helped cheer me up, at least for a moment. I barely noticed the mana crystals, did appreciate the new health and mana potions, but focused on the rare sabre-toothed dagger. It had a bonus for piercing damage and looked pretty boss. It was a bone dagger with a leather-wrapped handle, wickedly-sharp edge, and deadly point.

I also received a rare Mammoth Lion hide. The description said it could be crafted into clothing with a chance to gain a movement bonus. I really needed to figure out how crafting worked. Once I learned to walk again.

I got a couple of loot boxes I hadn’t expected and checked the messages I’d ignored to find out why, starting with the most recent one.

“Welcome to The Watery Grave!”

“Watery Grave?”

Cyrus chortled nearby. “Keep reading.”

With a growing sense of apprehension, I did.

“Congratulations, Lucas! For being the first Human to defeat a monster at level 30 or above, you receive a gold Explorer’s loot box.”

I could appreciate that. It contained two items.

“Scroll of Explorer’s Sight. Grants the ability: Sight of the Explorer. Zoom your vision in on distant objects for greater clarity and to trigger Identify.”

“Nice.” I read the scroll, and a warm glow suffused my eyes for several seconds. When I blinked it away, the world looked a bit sharper. Stuck in the forest, I couldn’t try it out yet, but couldn’t wait to do so.

“Rare Pants of the Cat Lady. These stylish slacks add 10% to your overall defensive stats and add 15% improved defense against bladed or clawed attacks.”

“Even nicer.” I willed the pants to change places with my trousers. The pants I was wearing disappeared, but my new pants just fell to the ground.

“How did Ruby do it on her first try?” I grumbled as I shoved the new pants back into my inventory.

I couldn’t stand yet, and could barely twitch my injured leg. No way I was going to put on pants. So I concentrated on willing the pants to reappear already on.

It took 8 tries before I managed it, although I still had zero confidence I could swap my next piece of clothing smoothly. The effort helped keep me distracted from my very serious plight for another full 3 minutes. The whole time, my leg ached with a phantom pain that terrified me at a level so deep, I couldn’t even name it.

The pants were a tan khaki, the same color as the shaggy lion, and they were super comfortable. Definitely an upgrade.

The last box was a larger platinum one.

“Congratulations, Lucas! You discovered a unique way to circumvent the limitations preventing you from entering the second stage by binding yourself to a powerful monster to carry you up. Even better, you managed to kill it before it ate you for lunch. Either you’re that brave, or you’re looking for a quick, glorious death. You receive a platinum Idiotic Bravery loot box!”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I blanched. “The Watery Grave is stage 2? How is that possible? I’m not level 10 yet.”

Cyrus answered. “The Mammoth Lion is native to this stage. By binding yourself to it, you allowed it to carry you across the line just like it would any other prey it had pounced on and planned to eat.”

That’s why it had such a high level and was so deadly. Suddenly feeling exposed, I glanced around at the forest. Monsters in the second stage could be even stronger than that lion, and I was just sitting out in the open playing with my loot boxes.

I needed cover, and the lion’s cave was close. I couldn’t move my right leg, but my agility stat was 5. Those tier-1 points would translate to a tier-0 agility of 50. Wow, that was insane.

With that much agility, I easily flipped up onto one foot. I’d done a bit of gymnastics as a kid, and honestly, I’d sucked. I could barely do a cringe-worthy imitation of a cartwheel. Now jumping up felt effortless.

With a grin, I threw myself into a forward tumble, kicking off with my one good leg. I’d never done anything like that before, but now it felt effortless and natural to somersault my way one-legged across the clearing. I would have laughed with absolute joy if my bad leg didn’t keep flopping around like I’d stapled a dead fish to my knee.

When I got to the cave, rolling from a final handstand to a kneeling position, I peered inside. It was dim, but not pitch dark. The cave was tall enough to stand in, but only near the opening. It extended deeper into the cliff, and the two cubs crouched at the back, growling.

I slipped inside and eased myself down to the sandy floor near the opening. The musky scent of the lion clung to the cave, but it wasn’t much worse than my aunt’s house. She had 16 cats and never opened her windows.

Feeling a bit more secure, I focused on the loot box. It flashed and disappeared, leaving behind more items than I expected. Maybe the multiverse rooted for brave idiots as much as Earth did. I’d take it.

“Stat boost scroll. Boost all basic tier-0 stats by 3 points each.”

I sighed as I read it, trying not to feel depressed by the 0.3 increase each of my main stats received. Still, it brought me closer to what I should have received with that last level.

“Feeling guilty for screwing me out of my normal stats?” I asked, glancing up.

“Nonsense. These rewards are well deserved.”

“Sure. Thanks.”

The next item made me chuckle.

“Catnip. This cube of condensed catnip will grant you a high percentage chance to make any feline you share it with see you as a friend instead of a snack.”

“I could have used this 10 minutes ago.” I set it aside to study later. If there were more lions around, I might need it.

“Ha!” I laughed when I saw the next item.

“Torch of the Mirrored Moon: This magical torch produces a beam of pure white light, powerful enough to drive back any shadow.”

It was a magical flashlight. A good one too. When I willed it on, the beam flooded the cave with bright light, consuming the deepest shadows, even though I only pointed it up. The cubs recoiled, growling in their super cute, murder cub way.

I always kept a good flashlight in my riding gear and preferred strong ones about 1000 lumens. This magical torch had to be twice as bright. Fiddling with it, I soon learned how to adjust the beam to make it brighter or dimmer. Despite all the cool magic gear I’d gotten so far, I felt more thrilled with the stupid flashlight than just about anything else.

I also got a random scroll that awarded 10 points to my fear defense. Did I even have a stat for fear defense? When I opened my stats menu, I found a new option titled “Supplemental Stats”.

I opened it and couldn’t believe it. The menu was like a never-ending scroll of stat options. It was like the game had tried quantifying everything I’d ever done into a stat. Some made sense from my pre-multiverse life, like Running (.6), Jumping (.2), and Swimming (.7), but a lot were just random weird things like Spitting (.4), Cyber Forensics (.8), Hula hooping (.2), and Driving in snowy conditions (.7).

Seeing them all translated to tier-1 numbers was depressing. “Do these change as our stats climb?”

Jumping still looked pathetic. 0.2 was right on the money from before I started leveling, but didn’t fit me now. I didn’t even have a tumbling stat, even though I’d just proved I could probably give an Olympic gymnast a run for their money with even a modicum of training.

“They will reflect your base stat changes over time, but have not been updated yet.”

All of a sudden, one of the lion cubs pounced right next to me. With a shout of surprise, I recoiled, managing to bang the back of my head on the stone wall.

The cub wasn’t attacking me, but had snuck up while I was distracted with my menus and pounced on the catnip. Now it rolled away, growling and gnawing at the little cube.

“Don’t eat it all. I need that for any more big cats around here,” I told it as I rubbed my sore head.

It ignored me, as cats do, but I still couldn’t help smiling. It actually looked adorable rolling around, growling and shaking the little cube. Unlike its sibling, this one had a white patch in its otherwise tawny coat, splashed across its right shoulder. After a moment, it rolled back toward me and bumped against my thigh.

I watched it carefully, ready to scoop it up if it tried sinking those needlelike teeth into my leg. The cub froze and glanced up at me for a second. It growled as if considering whether or not to eat my face.

It licked the catnip again, then leaned its head against my injured thigh and rubbed, purring loudly.

Petting a wild magical mountain lion cub. Who would have imagined it? I guess this world isn’t all snarling monsters and violent death.

Of course, I’d just killed its mother. I pushed the negative thought aside and slowly reached down to scratch behind the cub’s ears.

It froze again for a second, then seemed to melt against me, purring even louder. Grinning, I sank my fingers in its thick, soft fur and rubbed its head and neck. I could feel its strength. Even as a purring little fluffball, I could sense its potential for violence.

That only made the chance to pet it even more amazing. The other cub growled from a distance, edging forward before scooting back again. It seemed to lack the first cub’s bravery.

As I sat there, enjoying the unexpected moment petting the fluffy cub, the ache in my injured leg lessened a bit.

“What’s going on? Do lion cubs have healing properties?”

Cyrus chuckled. “No, but positive things that help restore the soul are medicinal to those with spiritual injuries.”

“You’re kidding. Petting a wild lion cub is actually promoting healing?”

“Would you prefer it eat off your toes?”

“No, this is good.”

I smiled in wonder and kept petting the adorable little murder kitty. It stayed there for a full 5 minutes before it again seized the catnip and rolled away. This time it rolled all the way across the cave where its sibling pounced.

The cubs erupted into a startling display of raw fury as they slashed and bit at each other. They looked like tan blurs of death, gouging chunks of stone from the wall in their fight. I swallowed as I watched them scar solid stone.

They did not seem to actually harm each other, but I suddenly no longer felt as comfortable sitting so close. I’d actually let one of those furballs of death sit next to me?

“Unbelievable,” I whispered and pulled a few pounds of hamburger from my inventory. It had come wrapped in white paper, so I unwrapped it and placed it on the floor nearby. The cubs kept squabbling over the catnip, but they’d notice the meat eventually. That might keep them alive a bit longer.

Feeling more relaxed than I had been in a long time, I considered my next move. I’d needed that break, but my situation was dire. I was accidentally stuck on the second stage, surrounded by deadlier monsters, with a leg I still couldn’t move.

I had a few more potions, but what if they weren’t enough to restore my leg? Would my natural regeneration help, or was spiritual damage beyond what I could self-heal? I couldn’t sit there forever, petting the cub if it decided to return to my side. I needed to escape before some level 40 nightmare ripped out my kidneys for a snack.

Crawling off half-cocked would just as likely get me killed faster. So I pulled out the monster dictionary I’d gotten from Joseph’s body. I hadn’t even cracked it open, but if anyone needed information on monsters, I did.

As soon as I opened the book, blinding light shot out of it in twin golden beams that struck me right in the eyes.

“What the . . . ?” I shouted and recoiled, flailing at the lights, while the cubs scampered away, growling.

With the light came a torrent of information. I caught glimpses of dozens of monsters as information poured straight into my brain. The process only took a few seconds, but it felt like I was getting a waking lobotomy as my thoughts scattered under the onslaught.

When it finally ended, I found myself leaning against the cool stone wall of the cave, panting. My head pounded, but the headache faded quickly.

“Ow. Why does absorbing this book hurt so much more than other information I’ve gotten?”

Cyrus surprised me by answering. “That was a unique item prepared for Joseph. He hadn’t even opened it yet, or you would never have gotten it.”

If he had read it, would he have understood how to deal with the ogre? I closed my eyes and thought about monsters, but only got vague impressions.

“Why can’t I use it?”

“The information will appear as needed. It will feed directly into your Linguasight Identify spell.”

Probably better that way. I hated studying long lists of information. I rubbed my temples where a headache still throbbed, then rubbed my thigh. I could feel the touch a little.

Eventually, I closed my eyes and must have drifted off to sleep. The next thing I knew, I heard the crunching of footsteps drawing near. I snapped awake and looked up to see 3 humanoid figures standing over me. For a second, hope soared. Ruby and Steve had tracked me down.

Then I got a clearer view of my visitors, and my hope shattered like glass. They were not anyone I knew. In fact, they weren’t anyone still living.

Identify kicked in. “Undead sailor. Level 35. Zombie. These remnants of a once-mighty fleet are still searching for a way to set sail again. They hunt for slaves to man the oars of their rotting ships. Extremely resilient, the undead sailor is only weak against fire or massive brain trauma.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered as one of the zombies pointed a weapon at me that very much looked like a shotgun and squeezed the trigger.

A blast of white-hot energy engulfed me.