Alex steadily progressed through the dungeon halls. The path ahead was barely lit up by the light sconces that lined the dungeon walls on both sides. With every step he took, the light sconces on both sides lit up revealing the path ahead directly ahead of him, yet providing no knowledge of what lay ahead. I wish I had a skill such as night vision.
His footsteps echoed along the corridor that was filled with deadly silence. The silence was like a cold illusion, keeping his mind veiled with the thoughts of safety. But he knew he couldn’t be careless, especially if what he saw sketched in the dungeon walls were to be true.
The drawings of humanoid figures fighting what could be described as monsters littered the walls. He could comprehend a few monsters such as what he conceived to be large crabs, frogs, and lion-like beasts. Others looked far more threatening. Griffins, dragons, basilisks? Oh boy. I hope I didn’t get transported into an end-game dungeon.
A skittering sound snapped him out of his reverie. He stopped in his tracks becoming more alert. The darkness ahead was mocking him, he couldn’t see anything beyond a foot from him. Suddenly, a small creature penetrated the darkness and raced towards him. He yelped and involuntarily took a step back before releasing a sigh.
Fucking Lizard! For a moment, he felt embarrassed for allowing his emotions to get the better of him. The small, green, and orange thing was not more than the size of his foot. And, it just stood there staring blankly at him, occasionally waving its tiny tail.
What could a fucking lizard do to me? He let out a chuckle and immediately regretted it. The lizard jumped and climbed onto his leg. He jerked his legs in an attempt to get rid of the creature but the critter held on to it for his dear life. Or perhaps it wanted to snack on his leg. With a swift motion, it climbed around his legs and up towards the spine, finally resting on top of his head.
Just as Alex was about to grab the thing from the top of its head the lizard stuck out a long tongue towards the ceiling and pulled it back into its mouth. Wait! Is it munching on something? No way this fucker is using me as a dinner table!
Alex looked upwards and felt his heartbeat speed up. There in the ceiling were numerous purple spiders with red dots all over their body. The ceiling was still not visible properly but he noticed something unusual. The red dots on the body of the spiders were faintly glowing and together, the collection of spiders provided enough light to reveal the net of spider webs that covered the ceiling just a few steps ahead. And, in the webs were caught a series of silhouettes, both resembling small animals and….humans! Holy shit!
It seemed the spiders noticed him and let out a series of….hisses! WTF. Are these spider-snakes? Turns out, he was right. Black silhouettes wavered behind the bodies of the spiders, hidden due to the pitch-black darkness. Snake tails! A group of spiders rushed at him, too fast to process visually. I am dead…
Suddenly, a tongue of flame washed over the ceiling consuming a group of spiders, incinerating them to ashes. He felt the top of his head burning hot, where the lizard now stood up on his hind legs, puffing his chest, smoke escaping from his mouth, its eyes glowing crimson.
“Huh, silly human! Afraid of little crawlers.” A smirk etched onto its tiny face.
Alex couldn’t believe what just happened. A talking lizard that could spit fire from its mouth just saved his life?
***
Alex couldn’t figure out how he ended up in this predicament. He now had a talking lizard up on his head who instructed him and kept him safe from monsters. It was funny and relaxing at the same time. He couldn’t be sure he would survive this dungeon if it wasn’t for this talking, fire-spitting lizard.
As he went deeper into the dungeon, his sense of dread started to dissipate. For a while now, he was acutely aware that he didn’t feel any fear anymore when encountering monsters.
The lights' sconces suddenly changed colors from an orange glow to red and the visibility diminished further. Hmm. Does this change anything? Red means danger and I suppose the danger level of the dungeon will increase now. Shit.
He tried to glance up towards the lizard to see his reaction. But of course, he couldn’t do so since his companion was literally lounging upon his head.
“Do you know anything about the change in lights?” He couldn’t believe himself, he was asking a small critter for advice.
“Of course, I do! Who do you think I am? I’ve been living in this pathetic dungeon for over 4 years now.”
That was news to Alex. The lizard was a strong monster. It already defeated monsters multiple times its size with the flame breath attack. For a creature as small as it was, it was surprisingly powerful. He was grateful to the lizard for not incinerating him on the spot. But if such a powerful monster was stuck in the dungeon for 4 years, it didn’t signal any good news for him.
“Uhm..lizard sama..can you let me know what the red light means then?”. There was no shame in asking somebody who had more experience than him in the dungeon.
“No need for theatrics. Just call me Komodo.” The lizard climbed back to his right shoulder and pointed a tiny limb towards the front. “The light scones signal areas of difficulty. Red means stronger monsters but now you will also find treasure areas.”
The lizard didn’t seem worried too much so he supposed it could handle the monsters. He felt a bubble of heat rise up in his chest. Treasures, magical treasures? It is just like I read in the stories as a kid. Perhaps I could find something that could level me up.
Suddenly, the ground in front of him cracked, and out came a brown tree root coiling around, groping for some ground. Alex tried to step back but the root snapped around his leg restraining him in the palace. Oh shit!
The tree root felt like an iron vice and didn’t budge an inch when he tried to get free. Multiple spots in the ground started cracking and out came more tree roots.
“What are you doing standing there? Dodge the roots. These are enough to break your bones.”
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Alex felt a chill crawl up his spine. He grabbed hold of the root and tugged at it with all his might. It was futile. These magical creatures were much more powerful than his human strength. If only I had a knife.
A tremendous pain shot through his leg as he felt the tree root break his leg. He let out a scream and felt his mind losing focus. The pain was incredible; it was unlike anything he experienced.
Warning, you have been poisoned by a Vulpur tree sapient. Temporarily paralyzed for 2 minutes.
It was the first time he saw a system message. He wondered, why now? Why didn’t the stupid system provide him with any skills or abilities when he was transported to the dungeon in the beginning? Is this how he was going to die?
Before more tree roots could grab hold of his body the lizard climbed down his body and spit tongues of orange flame, filled with more heat than before. The flames washed over the tree roots burning some of them but a few of the tree roots withdrew to the ground, protecting itself in the process.
Congratulations! You have experienced true fear and pain in the Dungeon {Cave of Doom}. For surviving more than…calculating……5 hours in an S-rank dungeon, you have been granted the skill….calculating….(fire wave) based on how the monsters in the dungeon were defeated.
It took a moment for Alex to understand what just happened. The dungeon was merciless. It didn’t even give him a skill until he was injured. What ruthlessness was this? Regardless, at least he had a skill now. Hopefully, it would be good enough to keep him alive.
Wait..fire wave? Is it like the same skill the lizard has?
“Did you get a skill? You should probably get a skill by now.” said the lizard. It continued to shoot balls of flames from its mouth which were faster than its usual attack. The balls of flame hit every target and left a large burning hole in the tree roots. Nice strategy!
“Well, yes. I got the skill, ‘fire wave.” said Alex, a little embarrassed.
The lizard turned to look at him, a smirk appeared on his face. He showed a thumbs up with his tiny limbs. “That’s the same skill I have, only mine is leveled up to the max and I shoot it from my mouth.”
Alex felt a little excited. If he leveled up this skill, it could grow as strong as the lizard’s skill one day. He couldn’t wait to try it. But, how do I activate the skill?
As soon as he thought about activating the skill, a system screen appeared.
Skills:
Fire Wave (Basic) - Release a wave of fire engulfing an area of 10 meters in sheer fire. The power of the fire wave depends on the magic stat and charging time. Consumes 10 mana on activation. Charging costs 1 mana per second.
As soon as he read the text, a stream of information entered his mind and he instinctively understood how to activate and use the skill. But he still needed to know another thing. He had no idea about his stats. Of course, he didn’t. He didn’t know how to pull up the system screen in his mind.
He tried shouting in his mind, system screen, status screen, show character stats, information, and a multitude of other variants but none of them worked.
“Mr. Komodo, do you know how to pull up the stat screen?” He rubbed the back of his head. He felt incredibly dumb.
The lizard released a cackling sound which he interpreted to be laughing. “Didn’t you learn anything from the tutorial?” Alex simply gave him a blank look. “Wait…you did go through the tutorial, right? Unless you go through the tutorial, the stat screen will not activate.”
What? Was it that easy? But, how should he enter the tutorial? Hmm..let me see…tutorial.
Alex saw the edges of his vision darken as everything slowed around him to a stop. The next moment he was flung into complete darkness which morphed into a vast expanse of blinding white. He blinked his eyes a few times to get adjusted to the glare which dimmed down and allowed his eyes to get adjusted.
What the fuck…there is nothing here.
He was stranded on a beach of white light with no sign of water in the distance. After a few seconds, golden motes of lights gathered in front of him and took the form of a humanoid which completed the transformation into a cloaked figure. Alex felt chills crawl up his spine. The figure was shrouded in a black cloak, hiding its face. He could only see the glowing red feline eyes and white jagged teeth sparkling from inside the cloak. Standing at around 7 feet, it completely dwarfed Alex.
Is this a demon? Did l enter the wrong place by accident?
“You did well entering the tutorial”. The demon let out a rasp that was laced with amusement. “Most people die before they even enter the tutorial.”
Alex released a breath that he didn’t realize he was holding. Phew. If it wasn’t for the lizard, I don’t believe I could’ve known about the tutorial.
The creature tilted its head as it stared blankly at Alex. He felt the creature could read his thoughts. But that can’t be true, can it?
Now, I will commence the tutorial. The demon snapped his fingers and the surrounding expanse of white flickered into colorful smoke which eventually settled into a forest. He was literally transported into a new area.
“You are one of the lucky participants who has been transported into Eleria before the induction of the system into your planet, locally known as Earth.”
That didn’t feel right to Alex. He was sure he read a notification of the system apocalypse on Earth and he was transported into a dungeon, just like his friends.
The demon cleared his throat. “Wait…it seems there was a mistake with your….transportation. The administrators screwed up the schedule and planted your mind with false memories so that you don’t notice anything”. A wave of killing intent escaped from the demon and subsided just as quickly.
“Not your fault and there is no need to be afraid...”. The demon leaned closer and waved his hand around the trees.
[Welcome to the Tutorial Section]
[System screens and menu can now be activated with thought. Think status to bring up the status screen and menu to access the menu options when unlocked.]
“That’s it, my job is done.” said the demon.
“Wait..that’s it?” Alex couldn’t believe the creature, was it joking? Why did you bring me here then?
The creature let out a series of short hisses, almost crouching and slapping his lap repeatedly. He adjusted his throat and said, “Joke…it’s a joke. I will guide you, puny human, don’t worry…I will guide you to the underworld.” the demon started laughing again.
Alex felt a vein pop in his head, his fists clenching and jaw tightening. Suddenly, he felt an immense desire to slap the shit out of the demon. He released a deep sigh to calm himself down. I cannot lose my focus here, my life depends on it.
“Relax human, there is no mortal danger here in the tutorial. Now bring up the Status menu.”
Alex did as instructed and thought of the status screen in his mind. Immediately, a status screen materialized in front of his face. It looked like a translucent blue screen that followed his vision as he rotated his head. He noticed that he could focus on the screen pretty easily with no strain in his eyes. And, when he shifted his focus to an external object in his field of vision, the screen became completely transparent. That’s a neat feature!
Status Screen:
Name: Alex Straza
Race - Human (F) - Earth 714-G
Level - 0
Class - Locked
Strength - 10
Vitality - 9
Agility - 11
Endurance - 8
Magic - 13
Will - 12
Unassigned stat point - 0
Mana - 130
Stamina - 80
HP - 90
Titles - None
Bonded Weapon - None
Skills:
Basic - Fire Breath (Novice - level 1)
Abilities - Locked
Techniques - locked
Hmm..It is similar to the games I played. The mana, stamina, and hp stats correspond to magic, endurance, and vitality stats multiplied by 10. Unless I’m missing something.
“The status screen was emulated based on the information gathered about the human culture on your planet. It should be fairly easy to comprehend. Still…if you don’t understand anything, you should kill yourself right now..there is no hope for your survival here if you cannot grasp such mundane things “ The demon let out another series of hisses.
Alex ignored the demon. He decided not to dance to his whims. “Can you tell me about the race section? How does it affect my abilities, skills, class, and techniques?” Alex put a hand on his chin. He felt the gears of his mind shift and settle in a state of daydreaming. “Wait..how do I activate my abilities and get new skills?”