*Pant* *Pant* *Pant*

Why am I panting? Because I was running.

What am I running away from? The horde of lizardmen behind me.

Why they are chasing me? That is a long story. Backtrack to four days ago.

Four days ago.

I set off for the lake after spending two days going around the city with Adria. I spent a few gold buying her new dresses, some cheap accessories, and a new pair of shoes. At lunch, Minalan joined us. We hung around the porch where the fat cook Sella worked. She provided good meals for cheap. The innkeeper, (who was also her husband) was helpless to interfere. He was not really against the idea, but could not resist to try making profit.

I spent a little time doing my own shopping. My armor was set. But I need a fresh stock of bandages, since the gift from Adria was about to run out. I also bought a new traveling bag. More capacity with less weight. Some bits of potions that were surprisingly expensive,too. I had no idea that potions were that expensive in Royal Road. Each cost 5g. I bought three of them (healing pots) for no other reason than that I had spare cash. Some stalls sold Mage spell books, but they were ridiculously expensive since they taught tier 3 magic and above. Okay. Maybe not ridiculously expensive. I was just stingy.

Unfortunately, I found no comrades for this trip to leech *ahem* accompany me. Daniel and his group were already inside a dungeon, and did not expect to be back in at least a week. I was not planning to wait that long. Julianne was not in. She probably had class and some social activity people her age should be doing.

I was loathe to try my luck with the newbie square again. I had no idea whether any would still remember me. But after my last attempt, I needed time to forget the embarrassment myself. Luckily, I was not the only one looking for the Rainbow Fish.

Apparently the theme for this year’s competition would be fish. And Rainbow Fish was the best they could get a hold of around here. So there were several groups that had already set out. And I planned to trail one of the larger groups.

It was decidedly odd since there should be groups already coming back to sell their extra fishes. But there were none. It was clear later, that all of them were dead. The group I trailed was dead too. Ambushed, when they neared the top of the rise.

Since I was trailing behind, I had more time to escape. And thus was my predicament.

Now

“This sucks!” I screamed to nobody in particular while running.

I was ahead of the pursuing pack of lizards, not by much, since I used Reflex when they drew close. But I had run out of mana to cast another one. It was currently building up at 20/150. Not enough to cast another one while I was cursed.

My stamina was running out, too. I had to find a defensible spot at least (option 1: going out with a bang) or somewhere to huddle (option 2: hide and pray) until the horde passed me. Anything (option 3: still thinking!).

Dungeon: Lakeside Swamp

I was running blindly, when I entered the dungeon. I should have figured there was a reason why the mobs stopped chasing me all of a sudden.

*Shuck* *Smack*

You landed on a pool of quicksand

You are unable to move

You are slowly sinking

I fell flat on my face. The humanoid lizards were brandishing their weapons. Banging on their shields. Could they not see that I would be dead pretty soon?

Well, it took me a little longer to die. I was not struggling too hard to get myself out. I was well and truly stuck. What I did was easing myself onto a vertical position.

“Mana Bolt!” I shouted.

My right hand cut an arc on the air. I was putting the Macro system I recently discovered in practice. Every time the spell was ready, it fired the spell automatically. It totaled only six times before my Mana petered out. But let nobody say Roland Hanover went quietly.

“Ha! Suck on that! Lizards!”

I was usually not this sort of excitable person. It ran contrary to the image I have. I figured I could do silly stuff like this since nobody was watching. Raising my right fist in declaration of triumph, my head slowly sank into the quicksand, amidst a localized shower of any objects the hurt lizards could hurl at me.

“Oomph!”

Critical Fall Damage. HP -80%

My landing was not gentle. At least I was not dead. I landed on my face again, however. This time over a hard surface of rough rock.

I had no idea what happened. After my whole body sunk fully, I was expecting to die pretty quickly and come back out somewhere. Probably at the edge of the deadly pool. I was instead, on a slow descent down and down, until I fell off a slide somewhere and got myself dumped with a faceplant.

‘This really reminds me of this old movie. A network of underground cave system accessible only by sinking yourself into the quicksand.’ I thought to myself.

’I guess anything is better than being dead.’

Brushing myself, I got up. There was no illumination at all, yet I could vaguely see shapes.

“Fire,” I muttered.

I was holding a fireball still stuck to my hand. Since I never finished the spell properly, It was stuck at the in-between state until I canceled it or finished it. It was something Tolan showed me, that I never got the chance to put to use up till now. It worked pretty well as a torch. If I was any judge on how long it took me to fall, I could not climb out. The fall was long enough to regenerate a quarter of my mana.

Having better illumination, I could see that the spot where I landed had no visible exit for me. I fell to some sort of slightly uneven circular room made of rocks. The sound of dripping water accompanied my short exploration of my immediate surroundings. I discovered six exits from where I was. With no idea which way was the exit.

’Okay. Eat first, then think.’

xXx

Winter brought out some smoked rabbit meat he made a while ago. It was not delicious, but filled up his satiety bar just fine. Still better than Rye Bread.

Ronald always thinks better after he fills his stomach. He used the time while eating to organize his mind. Let us not talk about what sort of thought resulted, shall we? Ronald sometimes came up with brilliant thoughts and plans. But most of the time, he was making it up as he went along. Several near-bankruptcy experiences spoke of how well-thought out his plans usually were.

This time, however, he drew a good solution.

’I will mark out the path I take at every fork, and also mark out the path back to this room.’What is this place anyway.’

The system was mute to his question. Shaking his head, Winter stood up. He took out the mage staff Minalan had gifted to him,and spoke the unfinished fire spell. An orb of fire stuck to the tip of the staff.

“Okay. Spelunking.”

The first path he took ended up at a dead end, with five forks also leading to dead ends. It was not a long exploration. He did not hesitate to step forward to dark turnings, whereas in real life he would be afraid of something that would jump out. He continuously nibbled on smoked rabbit meat while exploring, continuously refilling his satiety bar.

*Thrust*

Cave Dweller hissed at Winter. He created some distance between them and swung the staff down forcefully.

Cave Dweller is stunned

cave Dweller is unable to move for six seconds

“Gotcha!”

With glee, Winter drew his sword with his right hand and slashed the monster’s neck. He had spent two full days exploring the network of caves. He had already crossed two out of six paths, and moved to the third. He had begun encountering some mobs on the second path. Cave

Dweller, weak humanoid-type enemy, with its body covered in long, shaggy hairs were the majority of the encounters. He could handle one or two at the same time without much effort.

Most of his encounters began with him using the staff as a means of defense. Winter did not think of it too much. He thought it was pretty cool, being able to use the staff for illumination. He was grateful at the coincidence, when the first encounter with the Cave Dweller was when one leaped at him from the shadows. He had reflexively smacked the monster down and proceeded to use the staff as a bashing stick.

Winter was not used to fighting with one hand holding a sword, and the other holding a fireball, yet. The staff therefore offered the choice of illumination and defense at the same time, without compromising his natural order of universe. People walk using sticks all the time, right? Just too bad the fireball on the tip could not hurt the enemy.

*Smack* *Bash*

Winter bashed another one over the head, stunning it. The staff was not a suitable killing weapon, since it had weak damage. He took a wound whenever he encountered more than one mob, since he had to re-sheath his sword before using the staff again. The other mob always chose that moment to injure him. Tossing the staff away immediately disabled the spell, effectively blinding him.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“I got you now.”

Winter pinned the Cave Dweller on the neck with his staff. The ethereal fireball on the tip illuminated the face fully. It was still a mass of hair. It struggled immediately when the stun effect wore off. The long, knobby-looking nose sticking out of the face however, reminded him of a certain must-have equipment a man must not be without.

“Balls!”

Winter had no idea whether the designer realized it. But with the monster completely horizontal and the monster’s nose bulbous at the base, the hairy nostrils reminded him of…..

Well. That. And he blew off the monster’s head. The discharge echoed around the cave walls. He spoke the final word of the spell accidentally.

“Oops. Fire.”

Winter relit the staff again.

“Oh man. That is nasty.” he muttered to himself.

The monster’s head was not quite blown off. He glimpsed a severed head that rested with the same nose facing up. It now had curls on the surface hairs.

’Wish I can unsee that! Serves me right, making jokes! Shuddered Winter.

It was a guarantee he would not spend more time observing another Cave Dweller too closely. It was truly disappointing that the Cave Dweller dropped nothing!

The second type of monster he encountered was named Dirt Mole. Like its name, it was shaped like a mole. Just supersized. It was as large as Winter, and pretty hard to take down, since it had a lot of health. The monster was slow, and blind to boot. He discovered that the more noise he made, the better his chances to dodge the attacks. He hoped the world could forgive him for his terrible singing ability. Winter liked this particular monster, since it gave decent experience and dropped some ores. Silver and Iron.

He disliked the third and fourth type he encountered. Goblins and Cave Trolls. Goblins came in small swarms of at least four. He had a rather hard time with them, though individually, they were weak. Cave Trolls, looked spindly and emaciated. It was thin, and very angry-looking. Winter had the hardest time fighting this monster, since it was rather quick and had strong attacks. He was forced to use one-handed sword tactics, with another hand holding a fireball for illumination. He leveled up after beating his first troll, skinny as it was. It was awkward since he was unused to swinging a sword one-handed. Something he might need to fix soon.

Goblins dropped a few coppers, sometimes a silver or two, and bad quality shields and swords, that were put as junk and could be grouped together. It was not equippable by Winter anyway. The rag armor the Goblins wore was the most weight efficient out of the whole loot, aside from money. He dumped the bad quality arms when he was loaded with too much weight.

As for the Cave Trolls, this particular monster was probably a bad facsimile copy of its stronger cousins. It dropped Troll Tusks, a silver or two, random bits of miscellaneous items like Cheap Leather, Suspicious Meat, or Broken Items. Hell. They were damn poor for Trolls. They did not even use weapons to attack him. The Goblins might be richer in property, though not experience points, than the Trolls.

“Dammit. A dead end!”

He had already exhausted the third path. He was getting hungry in real life.

’Might already be dinner time. Time to stop for a bit.’

Winter was forced to logout at the dead end. It was a risk, since any monster that roamed to that spot would still find his avatar there. So far, he had not found a safe zone to log out. He would have liked to find one before logging out. But his stomach, more importantly, his bladder, were more important than the possibility of his avatar dying. Maybe he would respawn somewhere on the surface?

Dinner for the night was pizza. Double cheese topping with thick crusts, filled in with deep fried fish sticks. The center was a combination of smoked beef, mushrooms and thinly sliced chicken boiled to tenderness, but not too soft. Combined with sweet chili, it was heaven. Recently, Ronald had been ordering delivery from this one local pizzeria. He ordered it up on a whim, since it was close. Only a block away. But keep this up, and he might visit in person to enjoy serious dining there.

He spent a little time researching the dungeon he fell in. The place was already explored fully, like the previous Forest of Lasem. Supposedly. But nobody ever fell and got sucked into the quicksand, apparently. Even the monster types were different than the surface ones, which mainly comprised of Swamp monsters.

Winter was grumbling since he found the exit not long after exploring the fourth path. It was a singular path leading outside, without any encounter with monsters.

By the way, obviously no mobs devoured him while he devoured his own dinner.

The exit led a good distance away from the hill. From where Winter stood, he could envelop it with his hand. A faint sound of drumming could be heard. Winter did recall that the place, or at least the Rainbow Fish, was sacred to the walking reptiles.

Which it was, but he was not interested in remembering. Too much of a bother, opening the quest details.

Winter stepped back into the gloom, with his staff relit. He was probably the first one to explore the underground side of this particular dungeon. And so far, he had explored the majority of it already. He might as well go all the way and finish it up. Maybe he could find a treasure chest inside. The experience was not bad. He had leveled up twice so far.

What he worried about came true. The fifth path led Winter deeper underground. The walls were also wider, allowing more than one swarm of mobs to hit him. It did not feel like pockets of small rooms. It was as if the previous routes he took were a warm up. The goblins came together now, in a band no less than six. The trolls sometimes came up to three! Even the weak Cave Dwellers meant trouble, since they came in a band larger than the goblins’ sometimes. Winter had numerous close shaves. But he was undeterred now. In fact, he was looking forward to overcoming the challenge himself. He had to sleep after killing a Momma Dirt Mole (Author: I ran out of creative juice a little here!), an upgraded form of the previous monster with larger body, with more health. No kidding! That was the name! It brought a couple of Dirt Moles with it in tow, sometimes. It was pretty late. His mind was beginning to tire.

“This is really cool!”

Winter was weaving around, throwing old style boxing jabs. There was a little plus. His fists were on fire!

Flaming Fist (Fireball Subskill)

Mana Consumption: 10/hour

Unintended purpose of basic fire magic. Envelopes your fists in flames of your magic. The stronger your magic is, the stronger your attack.

+10% melee damage every level of Mana Manipulation mastered.

During his usual breakfast, and watching videos about Royal Road, a particular video attracted Ronald’s attention. It showed several ways a spell or ability could be used for something else entirely. Who had heard of using a sword skill for fishing? That was probably the most abused method of fishing, aside from dynamite, that Ronald had ever seen. The rest were pretty ordinary, though ingenious. Like cooking using mage fire, or making stairs beside a cliffside using earth magic.

Winter probably should have thought of it before. Adria’s serving him a finger up his backside was not a normal spell that would be listed anywhere. After trying a couple times, he managed a bad approximation of a hand using Earth Spike. He needed to put the spell on ‘customize’, then fit the image he had to a template. It was the best he could do, since his art had never been great, proven by the stickmen debacle with Daniel a while ago.

“Royal Road is truly flexible. You have to search on your own, the limit of what you can do with your given ability. Who knows. Maybe you will find something cool.” Were the parting words from the video.

“Okay. I got this.”

Winter gripped his non-iron sword two-handed. How would fireball react when your hands were not pointing anywhere when you cast it? With his fists closed, what yielded were the flaming fists he was waving around.

“Fireball,” spoke Winter softly.

The effect was really cool. Flames snaked up his hands to the hilt, then enveloped the whole blade! A freaking flaming sword! He waved it around excitedly. Now he could use swordsmanship without holding the staff! No. Forget about that! This is just.. cool!

A roaming Cave Troll passed at the edge of his vision. Winter did not hesitate to to test out his flaming sword.

<<<<< Previous ChapterNext Chapter >>>>>

==========================================================================================================================================================

Author's Note:

1. Credit to -The Slacker- for the diligent PR

2. Special Credit to Veresliosi and Vim1inc for bouncing stuff around

3. Do let me know of mistakes you find. Try as me and my PR to spot them, we might miss some.

4. Enjoy, folks.