I was sitting by the embankment. Still as a statue. Watching as the jellyfish's gargantuan tentacles drifted further and further from the water's surface.

It's spherical core was a translucent purple, with stringy hints of bright blue puffs and bright red lines running down the length of its nigh-invisible tendrils. Frustratingly, it also made no noise as it hovered through the air. To the point where any sensible passerby would mistake the vibrant lifeform for a balloon or a hologram if they didn't know any better.

The aquatic monsters inhabiting the underground lake bolted in other directions at its passing.

Those that could breathe underwater dove in as deep as they could. Settling on the bottom of the lakebed. Those who were unable to breathe underwater, or otherwise too weak to chance a trip down there for fear of scarier predators, made for the shoreline. Pushing against the others so that they could grab the safest spots at the edges of the pool.

A couple of fights had broken out by that point. Isolated skirmishes where tooth and claw found squishy flesh or scaled hide. The losers often found themselves eaten. Not by the winner, but by lurking spectators who'd had the foresight to remain out of the conflict so that they could remain in top form. If the winners were smart, they would leave it at that and relish their newly formed territory. If they weren't, they often found themselves joining the loser as a side dish.

The sea gargoyles were especially susceptible to such follies. Their mossy, stony flesh making them far too overconfident in battle. It was impressive enough, when you were fighting a group of them and any glancing blow did little to no damage. Less so when they were up against Purple Launchers. The venom-infused vomit the frogs spat seeped into the outer layer of skin and into the bloodstream with alarming alacrity. Causing sepsis and necrosis faster than one could blink. Limbs turning grey and purple and black with popping bulbous zits that led to excessive blood loss.

The fact that even those filthy frogs were scared out of their minds said something about the giant jellyfish.

"Do. Not. Attack." Ramji whispered. His voice even and stable, despite the face he was making.

"Gee. Thanks for the warning. Here I was about to ride my pony."

Ramji twitched, but said nothing.

"I feel like we could take it." Marco offered. His tone curiously devoid of tension.

"Okay, first of all, no. That's stupid." Ramji countered. "That, is a boss monster and we are on the fourth floor. I like my legs attached to my hips, thank you very much."

"I don't know." Drew commented form the side. "It doesn't look THAT scary."

"It's bigger than a whale!"

"How do you know? Have you ever seen a whale?"

Ramji sputtered.

"I've seen pictures!"

"Small pictures. What if those were all tiny little fish that someone photographed from up close?"

Ramji sputtered harder.

"That's.... That's not.....No! That's stupid and you're stupid. Look at that thing!"

"I am looking at it Ramji. I have eyes. All I'm saying is that we could possibly take it. If we play our cards right."

Ramji blinked several times in quick succession. His eyes somehow bulging out more and more with every blink until he resembled a crazy toons character.

"You. Are. Crazy. Cecil, tell her she's crazy."

I said nothing. Thinking about our possibilities.

I had no magic yet, but I did have pretty good stats for a level 0. Indeed, my numbers were getting close to some of my peers at level 1.

Furthermore, Marco, Ramji and Drew were all close to reaching level 2. They had enough magic skills to make short work of anything on the top 3 floors. Short of boss monsters of course.

Their resources were more or less topped off as we'd had a long break and a picnic. We'd hadn't suffered any major wounds either. Only some scratches here and there.

Given what skills our team had to work with, one physical damage dealer / buffer, and two crowd controllers, it would be a struggle from the get go. Someone like Emma or Yuann might have had a better time of it. What with their blast-attacks and long-range sniping magic.

For us...

"Yeah, no. I'm going to have to bail."

"Aw man. You guys are no fun." Marco complained.

"Hey! I'm plenty of fun." Ramji snapped. "It's just that living people are more fun than corpses. You ever seen a fun corpse? No? Yeah, I didn't think so. We weren't even supposed to be here without coach Russell or coach Homer. I only came here because you guys wanted to go fishing. I am not up for swimming with the fishes. No thank you. Lets get out of here. We can go fishing another day. After someone else raids this place."

"Yes mom." Drew sighed.

Regardless, we shuffled backwards and began moving away. Staying on our bellies as we crawled through wet bushes and muddy marshes. Slimy branches clung on to our bodies and faces as we kept moving. Out gear getting stuck on thorny plants that poked holes in our padded armor.

'Man, aunt Cheryl is going to kill me.' I thought sourly.

I was honestly in awe of how much I had changed over the past month.

The old me would have scoffed at mere idea of going anywhere in the dungeon without adult supervision. Now, I felt those kinds of risks were justified if it meant getting a few more stats to rise a little bit faster.

Heck, I hadn't even come for training. All I'd wanted was to make good use of the break coach Russell had sprung up on me. Playing super Dario was no fun anymore, was my senses and dexterity were so heightened that all the stages were incredibly trivial. None of the other shooters or hack and slash actions did much for me either.

Video-games were supposed to be an escape. They didn't work if I kept thinking about how useless and wimpy the protagonists were and contemplating how I could be doing so much better.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Marco had come over as I languished. Offering to bring me along to one of their fishing trips, and that had been that.

And here I was. Crawling through the mud and the rapidly disintegrating corpses of the monsters we'd killed along the way. Those too would have unnerved the old me. Even the me from a couple of weeks ago. Now, the smell of the bright orange fog dissipating through the air wasn't anything more than an annoyance. Another fact of life that made living just that little bit more inconvenient.

The path here wasn't even particularly exciting. My spear could find the monster's throats or eyes with casual ease and the others could dispatch the creatures with the slightest flex of their skills.

In fact, I'd bet anything I could put on a good show on the fifth floor by now. If only there weren't so many other factors to consider.

"Hey, I forgot to ask, is your uncle okay?"

I grunted.

"He's been okay for three weeks now. The hit gave him a lot of extra vitality. He's fine. Physically."

"Physically." Ramji repeated.

"Yes."

"Not mentally?"

I didn't answer that.

"Hey, it'll be okay man. People get over wounds faster than you'd think. He'll be back to normal in no time."

That was exactly the problem. Uncle Uter and aunt Cheryl were back to normal. Their normal. They were doing the barest minimum in order to get a core. A pattern of behavior that would come back to haunt them.

"I...I don't know what to do." I admitted. "I don't want either of them to put themselves at risk, but they're not taking this seriously. None of their stats are at two yet."

Drew and Marco winced.

"Yeah. That's gonne be a little difficult to deal with. Sorry about that man."

"Its not so bad. Plenty of people out there have bad cores. Its not the end of the world."

Only it was. The end of the world was literally coming. That was why I was constantly pushing myself to keep up with these three.

"I...I don't know. Its complicated."

"Yeah, we know. You're good man. You can always talk to us if anything comes up."

I nodded. Momentarily forgetting where I was and dipping my chin on a puddle with roughly three dozen leeches swimming through it.

I shuddered and began to pull them off. All while Drew snickered.

"Were you not looking at what was in front of you?"

I didn't respond. Choosing instead to maneuver around the wet patch.

I kept going and going. Ignoring any sounds the soft mud made as I trudged through it. Stopping only when Marco swore.

I looked back. So did Ramji and Drew.

All of us took in his bulk. The way his club was strapped to his torso. His arm. More specifically, the way it was wrapped around a near-invisible layer of...

My eyes bulged out.

So did Ramji's and Drew's. The whole floor rumbled.

"RUN!" Drew screeched.

I didn't need to be told twice. I was on my feet and sprinting towards the stairs before the others could blink.

It would have been an easy task. A simple series of lunges that would deliver me safely to the third floor. If it weren't for Marco.

His arm had been snagged by a tendril and I heard as he wailed in agony. His rapidly growing body being dragged through the mud and sludge and debris. Closer and closer to the gelatinous blob that made up the boss' main body. The membranes it used to digest its prey.

I felt Drew's magic activating at the same time as Ramji's.

The former's skills shook the boss's frame in mid-air. Its bulk swaying from side to side as its coordination took a massive hit. The latter sent eight monsters into a mad dash towards their own deaths.

The jellyfish was assaulted by gargoyles and Purple Launchers and Diamond Snappers. All of them chewing on the deadly limbs trailing across the water without any regards for their own lives.

The boss reacted swiftly. Pulling its tentacles back into its body until all the attacking monsters were absorbed into it. I saw their shells as the process of digestion began. Noting how their skins and scales and hides gave way to exposed muscles and then to pale white bones over the course of seconds.

I pulled out one of my older spears. The second one I'd received to replace my original weapon.

I balanced it over my shoulder, straining my muscles as my fingers balanced the object in just the right way as to maximize the distance it would travel.

Then I let the spear fly. Throwing it with all my supernatural strength. It found the tendril trapping Marco. Pinning it to the ground at the half-way point and causing the rest of the limb to slacken. Marco freed himself, scrambling to the ground on all fours as he kept growing and growing and growing. Until his own mass was equal, if not greater than the boss monster's own. He grabbed his club with both hands. Fingers thick as fully grown adults curling around the handle as he wheezed.

"Take this you bastard!" He bellowed. Throwing the titanic hunk of metal at the center of the thing.

It flew true and hit its mark. Splattering incandescent globules of blood in all directions. The splattered bits catching fire when exposed to the oxygen in the atmosphere.

Drew took the chance to pounce. Blasting the whole lake with magic. Sending hundreds of weaker monsters into a mad frenzy where they tore and ripped and scratched at each other's eyes and throats. Lost in a self-perpetuating cycle of bloodlust and ecstasy. Their loosened inhibitions hade it easier for Ramji to take hold, focusing their wanton slaughter on the recovering boss monster.

It merely whirled its tendrils about. Snatching new hapless victims with every swipe, even as they roiled and bit and slashed at it with their claws. I drew my second spear. Throwing it towards the center of the gelatinous mass. Then I threw a third and a fourth. Dabbing the tips in the black mud beneath me for good measure.

My last weapon went to Marco, and he wasted no time in enlarging it. Fueling it further and further until it resembled a telephone pole, or a particularly straight tree. He huffed, and puffed and threw it with all the rage he had left in him.

The projectile sank deep into the boss. Releasing shockwaves within it that shook all the half-digested monsters it was currently feeding upon.

I thought that was the end of things and began preparing myself for a hasty retreat, when I noticed that its previous color was giving way. The thing's main body, was turning dark purple and dark. Almost as if it was... poisoned.

I chuckled. The laughed. As Ramji's new minions kept barfing on and inside of it. They would have been easy pickings by themselves. Mere snacks for an uncaring overlord. Together though....

Well. Death by a thousand cuts was still very much a thing down here in the Dungeon.

We all huddled together. Waiting for it to end. When it finally did, I felt a surge of power entering me. Larger and more pronounced than ever before.

We made our way over to the epicenter. The spot where both sides had so thoroughly exterminated the other.

"Damn. That's a lot of monster cores." Ramji observed.

"Yeah." Drew agreed. Her face glittering with greed. "It has to be, what, four or five grand? And those are just the cores... I see diamonds, gold ores, some rubies.... We hit the jackpot."

"And all it cost me was an arm." Marco muttered.

"You didn't lose and arm." Drew chided him. Until she turned her head to see him and realized that those line running through his limb weren't mere bloodstains.

"Right. Never mind. Let's get you to the hospital."

We turned around and fled. Running as if we hadn't just fought for our lives.

I had only been able to retrieve one of my spears and I used it time and time again whenever other monsters saw an easy meal in us. The tip finding their eyes with a lot more, grace, than before. In fact, all of my movements felt more centered. More controlled. As if I'd been fresh off a nap instead of tired from a recent battle.

Even more curiously, I kept feeling that transfer of energy from whatever I killed. A slight tingle that travelled up my arm and through my veins until it reached my heart. Once the tingles found the organ, I would savor a far more potent beating. The very sounds echoing throughout my bones.

'This is so weird.' I thought. Its a good kind of weird, but still...

I looked at my Analyzer and gulped as I saw the new numbers.

Name:

Cecil Fowler

Core:

None

Level:

0

Vitality:

4.8

Endurance:

5.7

Potency:

3.6

Precision:

3.5

Fortitude:

5.5

Skills:

None

"The fuck!?"

"What!? What is it!?"

"My Analyzer's broken! All the numbers jumped up by a whole point."

"Like, a whole number?"

"Yes!"

"Do you feel stronger?" Ramji interposed.

I stuttered. Not really knowing how to respond.

"Yes?" I finally managed. "I... I don't know what's going on."

"I do." Drew smiled. "Someone's getting his core."