Panting* Panting*
I woke up. I looked around my room in darkness as I could hear nothing but my panting breath. I was still sitting on my chair without my pants and my computer was on sleep mode. In the stillness of the dark morning I thought of what happened in the dungeon.
The dungeon, the goblin, my arm….my ARM!
I quickly raised both my arms as I saw the blurry outline of my complete right arm.
“Hehehe...HaHA”
My laughter was heard in the silence as I inwardly cheered. In fact I was so relieved that I spent the next 30 minutes just looking at my right arm.
Was everything real? Was it all just a bad dream or did I really experience something out of a web novel?
I could clearly recall everything that happened. I felt the pain and the exhaustion. I felt the fear and anger. I still vividly remembered the goblin’s ugly face and the terrifying figure who flew in the darkness.
In deep thought I stood up from my chair as I stretched my body and neck. Due to falling asleep in a bad position my neck was quite sore.
I turned on the lights as I looked around my room. Everything was the same. I still had on my white shirt and my bed was still a mess. My bag was on the floor next to my desk and the homework I completed the day before were scattered behind my computer.
I left my room in silence as I headed to the washroom. In front of the mirror I once again looked at my complete and intact right arm, like it was never severed in the first place. I looked at the face that I had for the past 15 years. The face with the average sized eyes, a bit chubby cheeks, and an oval like head. There were no tears or mucus running down my eyes or nose. The itching on my left cheek woke me up from my daze as I opened the window to look outside.
The cool winter breeze greeted my face as I was once again reminded that this was reality. Everything from the dungeon felt like it just a dream and even now my mind was telling me so. However, despite the horrible experience I had in this dream a small, tiny part of me felt excited. Excited on the concept that it wasn’t a dream. That my life could finally be changed like those main characters in web novels. That I could become stronger, smarter, and ultimately gain everything I want.
It was then when my mouth subconsciously whispered those two words.
“Show Status.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………....
I was still thinking of what happened in the morning. After I said ‘show status’, a blue status screen really appeared. It showed me the traits, the skills, and the stats that I’ve earned from the dungeon. This basically confirmed that the dungeon was real and the experience that I had was in fact reality.
However beside each of my stat and skills was a sign saying ‘locked’. I easily deduced that this means that I wouldn’t be able to use anything I gain in the dungeon in real life.
To tell you the truth, I was pretty disappointed. I mean, what’s the point of going through life and death situations if you aren’t gaining anything. I also started questioning what the dungeon was really meant for. It doesn’t affect reality and doesn’t let dungeon explorers use the abilities they gained in their everyday life.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Dungeon explorer is a term I came up with to refer to people who are summoned to dungeons like me. From the announcements I saw, I know I’m not the only one summoned to the dungeons. But why hasn’t anyone spoken up about it? I searched the internet after I woke up but I got no results. Could it be that I’m one of the first people to experience the dungeon?
“Ed, if you ain’t eating that hamburger I’ll gladly take it away from ya.”
“Fuck off Jones. You already ate two hamburgers, if you eat anymore you’re gonna end up like Dean.”
Jones Kalas was one of my best friends since the start of middle school. We were in the same homeroom for all 3 years and ended up going to the same highschool as well. He, unlike me, was one of the more popular guys in the class. He was 180cm tall and had a pretty fit body. His face was on the good-looking side so he had a couple of girls like him.The only bad thing about him was that he ate way too much. If I had to choose between paying for Jones or a professional sumo wrestler, I would choose the sumo wrestler. Luckily he had rich, white parents otherwise they would have gone broke.
“Ah c’mon man. No need to be so harsh. Besides, Dean ain’t that fat.”
“Yea I’m not that fat! I’m just more on the plump side.”
Dean Axel was another one of my friends I hung out with. I met him with Jones in my freshman years and we hit it off pretty quickly. He was what you call an otaku and we had a lot of fun talking about light novels and anime.Unlike Jones though, he was pretty fat, which is funny because he ate the least out of all three of us. Dean took things a lot slower than regular people. He was also the most innocent out of all three of us, probably out of the whole school. He somehow didn’t know what a blowjob meant until Jones had to tell him while bragging about his ‘sex’ life. Despite making us embarrassed, he would occasionally make dumb comments which made him look quite cute with his chubby face.
“By the way Ed, I heard that Drake is out to get you ever since you talked with Leslie.”
Ugh, Drake and Leslie. It’s funny how real situations in anime or light novels appear in reality. Drake is one of the biggest jerks in the grade, the one who bullies the less popular kids. Leslie, on the other hand, is one of the prettiest girls in tenth grade. She’s smart, beautiful, and has a great personality. It just happened to be so that Drake has a crush on Leslie and I ended up being her partner for our business project. We discovered that we both like the ‘L*rd *f the* R*ngs’ trilogy so we had some fun discussions. Of course, Drake didn’t like it.
“Yea, I heard that too. I wonder why though. I mean Ed was just put in the same group as her and made her laugh and stuff.”
“That’s because Drake is jealous of Ed you dumbass. Man Dean, sometimes I wonder how you were raised as a child.”
“But what’s there to be jealous of? It’s Ed we’re talking about. It’s not like he’s gonna get a girlfriend anytime soon with his looks and personality.”
“Woah, woah woah. What’s wrong with my personality? Dean, you’re not one to talk about looks.”
“Oh look. Here he comes now.”
I turned my head and saw a tall, buff figure coming my way. He had blonde hair, looked to be over 180cm tall, and had a group of possies around him. The guy was quite handsome with a perfect v-line for his chin. Did I tell you that Drake was also the captain of the football team? Anyways he reached the table I was sitting at and glared down at me like I was some kind of trash he found on the ground.
For a couple of seconds we just started at each other while Drake’s minions snickered in the background. I could tell that Dean was getting scared because he started hiccuping.
“...”
“...”
“Hic...Hic.Hic.”
“...”
“Sigh. What do you want Drake. Can’t you see that some of us are eating?”
“I saw you talking with Leslie the other day.”
“Yea, we both like to read books. So what?”
“Listen here. Leslie is my girlfriend so back off before you get to close.”
‘My girlfriend my ass. The whole school knows that you’ve been chasing her since grade 9 and she already rejected you 2 times,’ I thought in my head.
“Alright man. Whatever. Besides I only talked to her because we’re partners for business. It’s not like I have a thing for her.”
“You better not. If I see you and Leslie together again….”
He didn’t finish his sentence and just left. His possies also left with him, making it impossible to see his back. I really don’t get why there’s so many fools out there following a jerk. If it was me, I’d rather be the one on top, not the one who does all the bidding.
After Drake left, lunch period ended and I wasn’t able to finish my hamburger. Instead, it was given to Jones who gobbled it down in under 10 seconds. A shame it was, the burger was really good.
School passed by quickly and I didn’t meet Drake again. Since it was a day 2, I didn’t have business and wasn’t able to meet Leslie either. I was planning on hanging out with Jones and Dean but it turned out that Jones had soccer practice while Dean had to watch this anime that just aired today. Luckily the bus ride was faster than usual and I was able to reach home by 4.
Just like yesterday, my dad had to work overtime and I finished my homework after eating dinner with mom. Of course, my day didn’t end after finishing homework. I was still contemplating on the dungeon. Would I be sent there again? Would I be able to live through the next floor? What will happen if I die?
Such thoughts ended up being useless however. Right when it turned 10:30, my vision was swarmed with darkness as I lost conscious.
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[Floor 2 of the dungeon. +1 explorer]