Alexia

I end up sleeping for about eight hours just to get a full night’s rest in case I don’t find another Safe Zone any time soon before I get up again and leave the Safe Zone to deal with the monsters that’ve been in the cavern right outside of the tunnel to it. But when I make it to the cavern in question, I don’t actually find any scorpions in it. Which is surprising.

Where did they all go?

Strange. I was sure I sensed at least one magical source in this cavern…

My eyes are drawn to one of the pools of poison when I notice bubbles going to the top of it. And not the same bubbles as the other pools. The bubbles in this one are coming faster, and the bubbles themselves are smaller.

I narrow my eyes for a moment before focusing my senses on the pool. But the poison itself seems to be magical, so I can’t sense for anything inside of it.

Despite that I’m absolutely sure there’s something hiding in the pool.

So I do what any reasonable person would do.

I walk up to the other side of the cavern from it before climbing up the wall a little bit and sending a Quantum Bolt straight into the pool, making a scorpion shoot up out of it while screeching in anger. Then I send several more Quantum Bolts at it to kill the thing.

[Level 67 Nightshade Scorpion Defeated. User’s earned EXP has been increased a large amount due to killing a being whose level is five levels or more higher than their own.]

Nice. Free EXP. Still have my points hidden for now though. I'll check those later.

I leave the cavern without so much as glancing at the dead corpse before passing through the tunnel and into another cavern where I deal with more scorpion monsters. Then I continue navigating my way through the caverns, marking the walls as I do so just to make sure I know which way brings me back to that Safe Zone. But after clearing out several more caverns, I end up finding something rather odd. A much larger tunnel branching off of the cavern I’m in than before.

Right as I begin walking up to the cavern though, I notice something odd with my Quantum Attunement senses. Something in the air.

A very faint rift in space.

This must be the boss area.

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I purse my lips before considering what to do. It’s obvious that I’m too low a level right now to deal with this boss considering how the regular monsters of this place are at higher levels than me, but at the same time, I kind of want to know what level the boss is…

After staring at the boss area for several seconds, a thought comes to me.

What if…

I summon my polearm before swiping straight at the rift to the boss area, cutting the thing open with the quantum energy inside of my polearm.

Oo, does this mean I can enter and leave a boss area without getting stuck in there?

Because that would be a very nice benefit to quantum energy if that were the case.

A roar echoes throughout the caves. One louder than anything I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

I grit my teeth before reaching my hand through the open rift I made with my polearm, just to see the System Message it gives me.

And the moment I see it, I yank my hand away out of fear.

[You have entered the Tier 1 Dungeon Crawling Cavern’s Final Boss Room. The Nest of Night.]

[You have left the Tier 1 Dungeon Crawling Cavern’s Final Boss Room. The Nest of Night.]

I feel abject terror run through my body at the thought of just how close I was to ending up stuck in the final boss room with a level 100 monster. Something at the peak of Tier 1.

If I hadn’t figured out how to rip open the rift and instead entered it without trying…

I clap my face once to snap myself out of it before taking a deep breath and heading back to find a different way through the tunnels.

I’m going to have to grind levels for a while just to be able to fight that thing, so this set of caves is probably gonna be my home for several days.

I continue walking through the tunnel I’m in for a while, half in a daze at the mere fact that I’m already at the boss of the entire dungeon. A fact that has me both terrified and excited at the same time.

Excited because it means I might just be able to finish this dungeon before the Tutorial ends. In fact, I probably will be able to.

Terrified because it could easily lead to my death if I’m not fully prepared when I get inside of there.

So I’m not going in there until I either run out of scorpions to kill, or I reach the max level of Tier 1. Although I’m not sure how I’m going to advance while inside of a Tier 1 dungeon. Normally to advance you need to complete an ascension quest. Something you get when you reach level 100 that is related entirely to your class.

And I get the feeling the ascension quest for a quantum being isn’t exactly going to be a walk in the park. Especially considering that I’m a Quantum Reaper, which, according to the dead asshole, is a purely offensive class for quantum beings. One meant for solo fighting as well.

So the quest is likely going to be very difficult.

Although at the very least quantum is the most versatile element I’ve ever seen in my life. It can heal, mess with time and space, has powerful attacks, and can even debuff and buff from what I understand. It’s really the most powerful element in the world.

Something that’s plainly shown just by the System itself, since the System uses the element, and so does its creator.

My thoughts come to a grinding halt when I reach the next cavern and immediately find level seventy-four scorpions inside of it.

Oh. Yeah, I guess it’d make sense that these things would continue climbing in levels as I move through the caverns… even if I’ve already found the boss area.

I slowly begin to back out of the tunnel before they notice me, only for them to notice me by the time I take my second step backwards.

So I start sending Quantum Bolts their way.

Well, at least they make for good EXP and points.