7th day of the 6th month of 492 of 88M

Mental Log

My escape from prison today went extremely well. I had to improvise a little bit, but compared to some of the hairy situations in my past it was nothing much. I might not ever be able to know what everyone’s reactions to my escape were like, but I can just imagine them reading the letter I left behind and what their reactions would be. It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

I was injured multiple times today while I was escaping, it sure makes me happy that I can cast healing magic otherwise I'd be in a world of hurt. The first time I was attacked by a Raijū, which I defeated easily (Note: make sure to make something out of the materials when I have time.), and the second time I jumped down a cliff and broke some bones before I entered into the Dungeon of Tribulation. I fixed these injuries, obviously, but man did they hurt, it felt like my bones had been doused in oil and set on fire.

In the Dungeon of Tribulation I didn’t face any danger when I entered. I was able to recover from my escape and obtain my [Magical Physique]. There were no changes from the past, and it makes sense since it’s based on the magic core. With this I’ve probably reached at least 70% of my optimal strength, and this will hopefully carry me through the Dungeon of Tribulation.

I used my new strength to start my exploration of the volcanic caves I had come across. They were very hot, especially around some of the magma pools scattered around the tunnels, but I could handle it with a bit of magic.

As I was walking by one of these pools a salamander monster attacked me and sent a spray of liquid magma in my direction when it came out of the magma pool it was in. I augmented my body in time and didn’t receive any damage, but I can’t say the same for my prison clothes, they look like a moon full of craters now. I look less like a prisoner and more like a hobo, not much of an improvement to be honest.

The salamander wasn’t hard to kill, though I did get to practice my dodging, I didn’t want to get hit by its glowing red claws that looked extremely sharp and hot. An earth spike to the head was enough to kill it, I didn’t want to get near it so I had to use an external spell. I could probably use its claws for something later, and its meat was definitely edible. For now I just stored it in my Internal World for later. For now I just stored it in my Internal World for later and ate the perishable fruits and things I had stored while running through Lonevista.

I spent most of the rest of the day going around the volcano tunnels and collecting salamanders. I could’ve stayed awake and continued my exploration, but I found a nice spliced room to rest in, it was 1 volcano mixed with 3 mossy caves, so it wasn’t as hot and uncomfortable as the first room I found which was an equal split. Tomorrow I’ll continue my exploration where I left off.

9th day of the 6th month of 492 of 88M

Mental Log

Yesterday wasn’t that exciting, I just went around and mapped out the rest of the volcano region of the maze, while doing this I came across a new area of the maze, a dark and cold region. I didn’t explore it yet, instead I decided to fully map out the volcano region before I moved on.

So after fully mapping out the volcano region yesterday, I decided to begin exploring the dark region today. This region is like the exact opposite of the volcano region, there are extremely cold liquid pools in the tunnels made out of some kind of liquid that looked like shadows even with my light shining into it.

I went up to the liquid shadows and tried to store some of it, but it was very resistant to being stored almost like it was alive. I almost gave up on storing some of it, but I’m glad I didn’t.

I got a little bit of the stuff into my Internal World after a while, and after I did I noticed tiny little things living inside of the liquid I had stored. It took me a while to recognize what they were because they were so small, but I did eventually recognize them, they were shadow leeches.

I freaked out a little bit as I scrambled away from the pool of liquid and vehemently purged my shadow of the many little things that had been latched onto it. I’m glad nobody was there to see me because it would’ve been embarrassing. Needless to say I was much more leery about where I let my shadow go as I explored the dark and cold tunnels the rest of the day.

Right now I’m in a spliced room getting ready to take a rest. I haven’t fully mapped out the dark area yet, so I’ll continue where I left off tomorrow. I haven’t found the altar I’m supposed to use for a ritual yet, but I’ve collected most of the materials I need for it. The last materials I need are probably in the mossy area, so no matter what I’ll have to explore there even if I find the altar in the dark region.

10th day of the 6th month of 492 of 88M

Mental Log

I came across the Champion as I was roaming the dark caves today. It didn’t make any noise as it came around the corner in front of me and nearly scared me half to death. There were shadowy tentacles coming out of it as it moved towards my light almost like it could smell the shadows I was creating. I don’t know if I can describe it as looking slimy, but that’s what its shadowy body looked like to me.

I could’ve killed it right then if I wanted to, but I decided to run away instead. I wasn’t scared or anything, it was just giving me icky disgusting vibes as I looked at its writhing tentacle-y form. I probably could’ve gotten valuable materials from its corpse, but no, just no. I didn't look back as I ran.

The closest other area I could get to was the mossy caves. I don’t know if the Champion shadow parasite is following me or not, so I just decided that I would skip resting for tonight and start my exploration of the mossy caves right away. Hopefully the Champion wouldn’t roam out of the dark area.

12th day of the 6th month of 492 of 88M

Mental Log

There was nothing like magma pools or freezing pools filled with shadow parasites in the mossy region, it was just rock and moss; this sped up my exploration of the area immensely as I only had to fight the occasional monster along the way.

The monsters in this area were moss golems in the shapes of a variety of different animals. There were tigers, snakes, a few dinosaur-like monsters, and even a bear. These mossy monsters were easy to deal with though, I just used some fire and they burned up super quickly, leaving only their cores behind. This left the cores still alive which made it a pain to store them all, but I was able to hold them in my hands, and I stored them as I walked through the tunnels.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It’s getting close to the end of my 5 day timer now, and I finished mapping out the rest of the mossy caves, but I still haven't found the altar I’m supposed to perform a ritual on. I have all the materials for the ritual now, but the only place I haven’t looked for the altar at this point is the area where the Champion was roaming.

I really don’t want to have to deal with that thing, but I need to find that altar if I want to finish this level. With how the Dungeon of Tribulation gets harder the longer you’re in it, I don’t want to spend any more time than necessary on the floor. I’m feeling a bit tired right now, probably because I didn’t sleep last night, but I’ll have to stop my mental log here and put my full focus on this. I hope the Champion decides to go to a different part of the dark area, otherwise… I don’t want to think about the otherwise.

-Break-

I felt the virtual mind, that had been doing the mental log, return from the Cloud as I made my way into the dark and cold tunnels. I conjured a very bright light that hovered above and a little behind my head, so that I wouldn’t be blinded by the light but I would still be able to see, and also so that my shadow would be very small and wouldn’t touch any of the pools filled with parasites.

With all of the spatial warping going on I was able to make it to the area where I had seen the Champion very quickly. I very, very, cautiously peeked around the corner it had appeared from, but there were no shadow tentacles to be seen.

With no Champion in sight I breathed a sigh of relief and continued my exploration where I had left off. It didn’t take me long to find the altar in a dead end room with pools of the parasite liquid scattered around the edges. The altar was made out of black stone and engraved with arcane symbols from an unknown language.

With the spatial warping in the rest of the maze, I was cautious about just casually approaching the altar. I wasn’t going to take any chances of falling down a hundred foot hole I couldn’t see, so I fully focused on my (Space-Time Sense) and felt the area around me. The room didn’t seem to have any tricks hidden in it as far as I could tell.

I was just about to stop focusing on the space around me when one of the ‘programs’ I had stored in my cloud sent me warning signals. It was very subtle so I had missed it myself, but my Skill had detected a slight fluctuation within my shadow.

Focusing the full power of my Skill on my shadow I was able to sense the spatial shadow of something large right beside me. This spatial shadow was only ‘visible’ within my shadow, but just that shadow was enough to connect several things in my head, and I took action immediately.

I made my body shine with light and heat as soon as I saw the shadow and connected the dots. A burst of light came out of every surface of my body, and I heard an alien screech as I was smacked away by the lashing of a tentacle to my right side.

The Champion had been right beside me all along, feeding off of my shadows ever since I had met it. I must’ve let my shadow touch it while I was running away, and it had managed to latch onto me and follow me around for days. It made sense, this was most likely just a much stronger version of the shadow parasites in the pools.

I slammed against the side of the tunnel and felt the air get knocked out of my lungs. I let my Mental Operator Skill filter out the pain as I looked towards the spot where I had been standing. I almost wished I hadn’t looked, as I saw a writhing mass of shadowy tentacles that looked like they were leaking the shadow equivalent of blood right where I had stood.

I almost recoiled at the sight, but I didn’t let my disgust control my actions as I reinforced my body with as much magic as I dared, and lunged towards the monster. I didn’t particularly like up close physical combat, but it was currently my strongest offensive option so I didn’t have much of a choice. I flooded my body with light mana as I neared the disgusting tentacle monstrosity, I squeezed my eyes shut and let the light burst out of me all at once as soon as I got near. The light was so bright I could see it through my eyelids, but the mana part of the light and heat was blocked by my [Magical Physique] so I was spared from the worst of it. I couldn’t say the same for the tentacle monster though.

I felt some wind brush past me, and some cold liquid stain my clothes from the tentacles that the creature was about to slap me away with, but with my burst of light they melted before they reached me leaving only a light breeze and some shadowy blood instead. The creature screamed even louder for a second before it went completely quiet, silenced by the light.

Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I opened my eyes needing to make sure the thing was truly dead. I almost threw up as I saw the twitching tentacles, the few that remained, and the unmoving mass of the Champion’s body laying on the uneven floor, black blood pooling beneath it.

The shadows the body was made out of started to lose their substance and quickly faded away leaving the blood of the creature to splash down all at once onto the floor. Apparently it was no longer able to maintain its outer form after it died.

It was no longer hard to look at with its gross tentacle form no longer there, so I breathed a sigh of relief as I started to collect the blood and store it in my Internal World. The blood of a shadow parasite this large was sure to be a valuable ingredient, I just had to make sure I didn’t think about what the blood had come from as I went about storing it inside of me.

As I went about collecting the blood I took some time to think about it. I had been feeling a little bit tired earlier, but I had thought that was natural fatigue. On second thought it was probably the Champion leeching off of my shadow and draining me of energy. If I didn’t have my [Magical Physique] I probably wouldn’t have even lasted through the day before I fainted from exhaustion. It made me shiver in disgust that that thing had been following me around for so long feeding off of me and I hadn’t noticed it. At least I had noticed it before I took it along with me to the next level, that would have been bad.

In the center of the pool of blood there was a small black core the size of a bead. It was the monster core of the shadow parasite, and I happily stored it alongside the blood. I could make use of it later, but for now I just wanted to finish up this level.

I finished storing everything and made my way over to the altar. Spread across the otherwise flat surface of the altar were a few impressions with pictures representing the different materials I needed for the ritual. The materials were various parts from the creatures I had killed in each of the areas of the maze. Some claws from the salamanders, a few cores from the moss golems, and some of the liquid holding the parasites. I had no idea how others would transport the liquid, but I was just glad that I could.

It was nearing the 5 day deadline as I started to pour my mana into the altar. This magical ritual was extremely simple, and functioned more like the opening of a lock than actually having a magical effect.

The materials I had placed on the altar disappeared and the altar split down the middle with an audible crack. The two halves of the altar spread apart with a grinding noise against the ground, revealing a tiny metal vial the size of the tip of my thumb. There was some tiny alien script written on the vial that I couldn’t read, but I didn’t care as I stored the vial within my Internal World. Now that it was inside I tried to get a look at what was inside of the vial, but the strange metal the vial was made out of was shielding it from my view even within my Internal World.

Oh well, I would have to try and see if I could find out what the script on the vial said once I could access The Archives again. The Solo challenge prevented me from accessing The Archives, understandable really, but it meant that my reward would remain unknown until I left the Dungeon of Tribulation.

Speaking of the Dungeon, not too long after I completed the ritual and stored the vial, a prompt appeared in front of me.

[Level 1 complete. All challenges have been met.]

[Would you like to enter the second level of the Dungeon of Tribulation, or leave the dungeon?]

There’s no reason to stay here any longer. “Enter the second level please.”

[Affirmative. Now entering the second level.]

And with that I was whisked away to the second level. Who knew what kind of place it would be.