I was standing in front of a massive French door made of gray stone. Strangely enough, the door fit in seamlessly with the cave, as if it were a natural continuation.

Having just awoken and checked the system, I realized I had 13 days and 22 hours left before the end of the trial. Not knowing if I was making good progress or not, I decided to immediately continue.

But first, I quenched my thirst by drinking from one of the small puddles that were everywhere around this cave. I grimaced at the thought of it probably being stale.

'Am I going to get diarrhea now?'

As that thought resurfaced into my mind I was scrutinizing the door. The double door was completely devoid of carvings or any other form of art, except for a circular indentation no larger then that of pool ball in its middle.

Thinking it was just some strange sort of door knob I started pushing against the door, but after using all my strength and it not so much as budging I was forced to reconsider.

"Do I need to put something inside it? Its circular like a slime core, however slime cores aren't as big".

Deciding to give it a try I placed one of the cores I still had in my pocket inside. As the core entered the hole…..nothing happened.

Instead of getting annoyed I began to think and eventually thought back to the king slime, 'After defeating it I never really checked its core'.

Making my way over, I saw it was laying on the ground like junk, it was split in halve, so thinking it was useless wasn't really wrong.

Grabbing the two pieces and putting them together, it was indeed larger than the others.

Although unlike regular ones from where I could feel some energy inside this one was cold and dead.

Placing both halves inside the hole I removed my hand, as soon as I did the hole closed and blue energy pulsated across the door.

Soon a grating sound followed as the door began slowly opening by itself.

Dust fell to the ground as I was blinded by the ray's of light traveling through the thin gap, only getting worse as it widened.

Like a true gamer (although I wasn't one) the sun became my worst enemy and I longed for the comfortable cold solitude of darkness again.

With the door now fully opened I squinted my eyes, and using a hand to block the sun I strode forward, placing my feet on a soft vibrant green under cushion.

My eyes finally adjusting looked around, and what I saw astounded me as all I saw was… grass.

Endless rolling plains of green entered my vision. There were some small mounds here and there adding to the picturesque scene even though it was mostly flat.

Far of in the distance I could make out the visage of a lonely mountain.

Looking behind me I was shocked again, as the exit I just came out of was gone, and only more infinite stretches of grass greeted me.

I heaved a sigh of relieve realizing I hadn't forgotten anything important, with my only important possessions the two whips, safely tucked into my pants.

Having my weapons secured, I scanned the surroundings once again, this time not for its breathtaking scenery but for monsters.

As much as I looked around I couldn't spot any, and except for the wind softly rustling the grass I heard no sound, It was almost like the place was desolate.

Realizing I had only one direction to really go in, I began my trek towards the mountain.

.....

"Huff, Huff, well fuck me".

I had being walking for an entire day, sometimes even sprinting however no matter how far I went I encountered nothing except an endless sea of grass, the mountain in the distance although seemingly closer still looked an incomparably far distance away.

Seeing the sun go down, as the last rays of sunlight fell it created a beautiful image of a golden shower across the grass, whilst I didn't care much I couldn't help but appreciate it, as I decided to rest for the day and made myself comfortable on top one of the mounds.

I had come across plenty of these hills and funnily enough they all looked to be the same height going up about a meter above the ground.

As I laid down, I felt my stomach rumble, having not eaten for over 3 day's it was beginning to take its toll.

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In the cave I had even considered slurping up a slime, however not wanting to burn a pit through my stomach I decided not too, similarly here other than grass there was nothing to eat and unluckily for me I wasn't a cow.

So instead I had suppressed the feeling knowing nothing good would come from complaining, besides humans could survive without food for about 50 day's, 70 if they were lucky and with my stats being enhanced I was sure I could even surpass that.

The only thing I should be worried about was finding a water source, with the body only being able to handle three or so day's without it.

If I hadn't found water in three day's my blood volume would slowly start to decrease, meaning my blood circulation would lessen, causing an improper amount of oxygen to be supplied to my organs, eventually leading to organ failure and death.

While this maybe a trial I was under no impression that death here wasn't permanent. I could be mistaken but it would be foolish to assume so.

But for now I wasn't worried thinking I would eventually find water or reach the mountain within two day's.

.....

2nd day of field trial.

After walking an entire day again I was feeling parched, my right leg was also strangely hurting, I might have taken a wrong step while walking today.

As I took in the beautiful sunset I slept on a mound once more that looked similar to all the rest.

Although I couldn't help but fall asleep with an uneasy feeling inside my chest.

.....

3rd day of field trial.

Looking at the indistinguishable scenery around me I couldn't help but question if I was actually getting any closer to the mountain, although it felt like I was making progress, I couldn't quiet remember if the mountain actually looked bigger than it was before.

Thinking it was just my mind playing tricks on me, I ignored it.

I really had to find a water source though, as I was already starting to feel weak.

.....

4th day of field trial.

I was still far away from the mountain and had found no water, but I continued my journey.

.....

5th day of field trial.

I ate Grass.

I hoped there would be some water residue inside it.

Eating them I spat it out, it wasn't because they were disgusting but because it felt like I was chewing upon nothing so much so that I couldn't even register that it was inside my mouth.

Due to a lack of water I was beginning to feel light headed and weak, with my right leg still in pain I continued.

.....

6th…

.....

7th…

.....

8th…

.....

9th day of field trial.

I sat on the ground in silence looking ahead with sunken in eyes.

I had blisters on my skin and my lips were cracked.

Along with that my throat hurt with every shallow breath I took, and my tongue was basically a brick.

I even had the hollow looking eyes that came with dehydration albeit I already had those.

Even though I was in terrible pain, and I had no doubt that my next action would cause me even more, I couldn't help but let out a laugh that didn't reach my eye's.

"Ha HAHA HAHAHAHAHA"

"AGH, AUW Dammit".

The reason I was laughing was simple, I had become Insane.

Well maybe not, but I wasn't far off, in truth the real reason was because I had cracked the code to what was happening to me.

I was in an illusion!

Although that might sound insane after pondering about it for a long time, I was pretty confident about my guess as it explained a lot.

For example the mountain that seemed to never get any closer even though I felt like it did.

The same scenery that was playing over and over again, and checking the mounds which I first thought just looked similar to each other, after really scrutinizing them I figured out that they didn't just look identical they fucking were identical!

But the real proof had been when I ate grass on fifth day in this fiendish field, it took me a while to realise, but me being unable to register that I ate grass was very strange, even if I was dehydrated it could only mean one thing, it was fake.

Or at least I was pretty sure of it, like…. 60%, if my guess was wrong I would probably die today or tomorrow, and even if I knew it was an illusion I would probably still die having no idea how to escape it.

Resigned to at least find out the truth I had developed a plan to know for sure, it was quite simple really and that was by drinking my own blood.

And I know what you are thinking, Why would this prove anything? but hear me out.

I was aware that most of my senses were being fooled, except apparently for my sense of taste, and even though I could shove grass and dirt or even lick myself to find out if this reality was actually real, you had to realise that my tongue right now was a literal shrivelled up stick so I doubted that without some sort of hydration to revitalize it, I could taste anything.

So my blood was the only option.

Taking out one of my whips with the last bit of strength I had, I slashed it across my arm.

Maybe because I was so weak right now or because it was a surprisingly strong weapon it immediately created a deep laceration from which my last bit of precious blood flowed out.

Ignoring the stinging pain I brought my arm up to my mouth and began sucking.

As I sucked the blood a wicked smile slowly appeared on my face as I tasted nothing, in fact like the grass I couldn't even register that it was in my mouth.

It didn't give my mouth any moisture again or revitilize my tongue.

Before I could hysterically laugh out loud again, like a mirror that shattered I saw the environment around me crumble, my body also changed and I soon realised that I wasn't dehydrated or had a laceration on my arm.

As I looked around I still saw rolling plains of grass and the mountain looked to be the same distance away, however the mounds were all different sizes and I could even see a small creek a distance away from me.

Just as I was beginning to feel relieved I felt a stinging pain in my right leg, thinking that pain should also have passed as I had somehow broken out of the illusion, I looked down….

That's when I caught sight of a massive green leech like bug sucking on my leg.

It was about halve a meter long, having 6 legs like an insect but a body and mouth that resembled a leach.

Having never seen such a rancid and disgusting sight I shuddered intensely, grabbing the middle of its body, it felt slimy to the touch.

As I janked it of, a wet disgusting sound was produced, the leech now beginning to struggle in my grip was moving around its sickening legs, as it made a little screeching sound.

Already regretting what I was about to do I squeezed the bug in my hand with all my power, and like a balloon it exploded, except that instead of air over two liters of my blood and green yellow pus which I could only assume was its blood flew in all directions.

Feeling the most disgusted I had ever been I didn't know how to react when I heard the message from the system.

[You have slain Lvl 10 {Mirage Leech}]