Once Kaiden got his bearings, he scanned the shadowed expanse around him as the others did the same. They stood in a vast cavern, where the faint glow of torches barely illuminated the floor, leaving the walls and ceiling swallowed in darkness. There was nothing but the stone beneath their feet, the torchlight, and endless shadows. Their only guide was the line of torches stretching forward, marking the path they needed to follow.

Davick’s voice cut through the uneasy silence. “I guess we just… proceed then, right?”

“Obviously,” Tybalt snorted. “Now let’s go. Formation one. Take the lead,” he commanded, his tone sharp and impatient.

Davick rolled his eyes but took his place at the head of their diamond formation. Weapons drawn, the team moved forward with cautious steps, their eyes darting to every shadow. After several tense minutes, Davick broke the silence with a laugh.

“I guess the monsters are too scared of us!” he chuckled.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tybalt snapped.

“Me? Ridiculous? Never!” Davick retorted, feigning innocence with a grin.

“Just concentrate on your job and shut up!” Tybalt snapped, his voice sharp.

Davick’s smile faded as he turned serious. “You might be our leader, and I’ll follow your orders in combat, but you don’t get to tell me to shut up,” he shot back, his voice rising in challenge.

Kaiden exhaled heavily. He’d expected tension, but they hadn’t even encountered a single enemy yet. “Alright, guys, let’s just keep calm, yeah?”

“I didn’t ask for your feedback, commoner,” Tybalt barked.

Davick’s voice grew even louder. “We’re all commoners here, except you, moron!”

“Uh…guys?” Kaiden interrupted, glancing nervously around. A faint sound echoed from the depths of the cavern, building slowly in intensity. “You hear that?”

“What? Hear what?” Tybalt and Davick demanded at the same time, still caught up in their argument.

“Quiet, all of you,” Coren interjected, his voice low. Surprisingly, everyone fell silent as the faint noises grew sharper—piercing, like distant screeching mingled with howling wind.

“It sounds like…screeching? And wind?” Davick murmured, sounding unsettled.

The noise grew louder, but the dimness made it impossible to see more than a few dozen feet ahead. Suddenly, Tybalt’s eyes widened in realization. “We have incoming” he shouted.

“From where? Behind? Above?” Davick cried, raising his shield instinctively. The answer came almost immediately as dozens of bats burst out of the darkness diving at them with frenzied speed.

“Defensive formation two!” Tybalt barked.

Davick quickly lifted his shield, bracing himself as Coren shifted to his right shoulder, raising his large sword beside Davick’s shield to create an extended barrier. Kaiden moved to Davick’s left, his smaller shield covering their exposed flank, while Tybalt positioned himself behind them. Davick casted Gust to somewhat cover their rear. The creatures’ shrieks filled the cavern as they prepared to dive.

The bats swooped down, their talons flashing as they struck in a relentless assault. Metal clinked and scraped as countless creatures clashed against armor, weapons, and shields, but the sheer numbers were overwhelming. The talons slashed through any exposed skin they could reach, leaving fresh cuts and stinging scrapes across Kaiden’s arms and face. His heart pounded hard enough to feel in his throat—this wasn’t just his first encounter with monsters, it was his first real fight. A rush of adrenaline surged through him, sharpening his focus as his training kicked in, blocking out the pain.

We can handle this, Kaiden thought, steeling himself.

“They’re coming again!” Tybalt shouted, voice steady despite the chaos. “Attack!”

As the next wave surged toward them, they countered with a coordinated attack. Davick cast another gust of wind, which didn’t stop the bats but scattered and disoriented them. As they flailed toward the group, Tybalt fired Ice Shards that shot cleanly through their frail bodies, each blast felling another. Coren swung his massive sword in a sweeping arc, slicing through several bats at once, while Kaiden slashed and stabbed at any bat that came too close. These creatures were fragile, and Kaiden found he could decapitate or maim them with ease.

But still, more bats came, their talons tearing into gaps in their defenses, drawing fresh cuts. Kaiden barely registered the sting of each new wound, keeping his attention on the fight. Then, in the midst of it, a notification flashed in his vision—he dismissed it instinctively, unwilling to lose focus for even a second.

The air was thick with screeches and flapping wings, the bats’ numbers slowly thinning as the team pressed on. Kaiden’s breaths came quick and shallow, his muscles tense with the effort of fending off the endless swarm. With each bat that fell, he felt his confidence building, his movements growing faster, more precise.

And then, almost as quickly as it had begun, the swarm began to scatter. The few remaining bats veered away, retreating into the shadows, their screeches echoing as they vanished.

Breathless and bleeding, the group held their positions for a moment, scanning the darkness for any sign of more attackers. The only sounds left were their heavy breathing and the distant drip of water in the cavern.

“Well,” Davick said, grinning through his exhaustion. “Guess the monsters aren’t too scared of us after all.”

Kaiden let out a shaky laugh, his grip on his sword loosening slightly as the reality sank in. They had survived their first fight together—and he had survived his first fight, period.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Viper-bats,” Coren muttered, studying the shadows where the last of the bats had disappeared.

“Aren’t those the ones with…” Davick started, trailing off.

“…venom,” Kaiden finished, his frown deepening as he glanced at the notification he’d dismissed earlier:

Noxious - you've been hit with a venomous stinger. Minor health drain.

Davick chuckled, shrugging it off. “Ha! It’s pretty weak, though. My health bar’s barely ticking down—and actually, it looks like it’s slowing now.”

What’s he talking about? Kaiden thought, puzzled.

Coren nodded. “Yes, same here. Luckily, nothing to worry about.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Tybalt scoffed. “They don’t give out antidotes for this duneon, so naturally, there’d be no serious danger.” The others nodded in agreement.

But Kaiden could barely contain his frustration. We have health bars!? How come he couldn’t see his? It was just another one of those “common knowledge” things Oros had never bothered to explain. How was he supposed to figure it out without looking like an idiot?

Davick seemed to catch Kaiden’s uneasy expression. “You’re pretty quiet over there. Everything okay?”

Kaiden forced a weak smile as a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. “I’m…fine,” he said, in the least convincing way possible.

Davick’s face paled slightly. “What’s your condition say? You’re not…dying, are you?”

Condition? Kaiden thought, focusing on the word. Immediately, a screen popped into his vision:

Condition:

* Health: 200/200 (100%)

* Stamina: 300/300 (100%)

* Mind: Confused

* Buffs: Regeneration

* Debuffs: Noxious - 2 health drain per minute.

* Other: Stasis Veil

Confused? Kaiden thought, annoyed. I’m not confused! Instantly, the word changed to “Angry.”

“Gah!” he muttered aloud, startled.

Davick rushed over. “Hey, are you okay?”

Both Coren and Tybalt looked over as well—Tybalt with detached interest and Coren with a flicker of concern.

“I’m fine,” Kaiden said quickly. “Just…my first time seeing that debuff. Surprised me, is all.”

Tybalt’s mouth twisted into a slight smirk. “Two minutes left for the noxious effect, then we move. Anyone got a longer timer?”

Everyone shook their heads, and as Tybalt ordered a short reprieve, the group knelt down to catch their breath.

Davick gave Kaiden a light elbow nudge. “You had me worried there for a second,” he said, chuckling.

“Sorry,” Kaiden replied, his smile more genuine now. “But you already know something this weak couldn’t hurt me.”

“True enough.”

When the two minutes had passed, they rose to their feet. With weapons drawn and minds focused, they set off in formation once more, pressing deeper into the shadows.

Kaiden’s mind kept drifting back to the conditions page. He supposed it made sense for “health” to show up there, but he was puzzled that nobody had mentioned it before. Maybe it’s just not something people talk about, he thought. In a way, it reminded him of medical records back home—not something your employer or friends needed to know about. Still, the strangeness of it all unsettled him. He chuckled when he thought about all the hints that it made sense to have a health bar. There were health potions and healing abilities in this world for crying out loud.

He brought up the page again to check. His “Mind” condition had now shifted to “Steady.” Steady? He definitely didn’t feel steady. If anything, he was starting to think Oros had changed it “Confused” and “Angry” to mess with him. He made a mental note to ask someone about it later. Maybe it‘s supposed to show things like “Bewitched,” “Berserked,” or “Possessed.” He shuddered slightly. He wasn’t looking forward to testing those theories. But how could you check that if you’re possessed or bewitched?

Then there was Stasis Veil. It was a dungeon condition that paused bodily functions including hunger and thirst until they reached a recess floor. Of course, they heard about this during training, but he didn’t realize it would actually show up on his conditions page.

Pushing the thought aside, he refocused on the task in front of him. They’d barely been moving forward for a few minutes when they heard the now-familiar screeching sound echoing from the darkness ahead.

Another swarm of viper-bats, this one even larger, came swooping down like a living shadow. It was as if the previous swarm had joined forces with another, doubling in size.

“Brace yourselves!” Tybalt shouted, already conjuring shards of ice to prepare for their defense.

Kaiden’s hands tightened around his sword. As the bats neared, their talons glinting in the dim torchlight, Davick cast another gust, scattering a few, but the swarm pushed through. The team’s weapons glinted and swung as they fought the screeching mass with all they had.

Not long after, the shrieks finally died down as the last of the bats fell to the cavern floor.

“Easy,” Davick muttered, wiping blood and sweat from his forehead. “They’re practically lining up to die.”

Tybalt’s gaze was steely as he surveyed the shadows ahead. “For now, but don’t let your guards down.”

They encountered a few more swarms as they continued along the torch-lit path. Each one proved manageable, a gradual warm-up, until finally, after what felt like hours, they ran into the largest swarm yet—easily three times the size of any previous one. The battle was intense, but they fought as a unit, cutting down the viper-bats efficiently. When it was over, everyone stood a little worse for wear, yet no one had taken any critical damage.

“Everyone’s health?” Kaiden asked, scanning their exhausted but determined faces.

They called out their percentages which were around 50-70% between the three of them.

Kaiden checked his own stats. He was at 95% percent and recovering, thanks to his regeneration ability, which kept his wounds slowly knitting back together. Soon, he’d be back to full health. Everyone had some level of natural regeneration tied to their constitution, but it worked at a crawl compared to his. He glanced over at Tybalt, who looked the most drained.

“You need a potion?” he asked.

Tybalt nodded, barely looking up. “At fifty percent. Healing on my own would take hours. And we need to finish the dungeon ASAP.”

“Sure”, Kaiden said as he passed Tybalt a vial. He wasn’t sure why Tybalt was in a rush, but he’d happily finish this sooner than later. He could also now see why the completion times varied so much. If you ran out of potions and had no healer, you had use up precious time to heal.

On the topic of healers, Kaiden could’ve used his own healing abilities from his Health Weaver class, but he’d decided to save them for emergencies. The class abilities were very helpful, and though he was grateful for them, he felt they gave him an advantage he hadn’t earned. If he was going to finish this dungeon, he wanted to prove he could do it like everyone else. Some might call it foolish, he knew, but it mattered to him. Then there was also the fact that if he could avoid questions he’d prefer that too.

“We’ve got five health potions left,” Kaiden called out as Tybalt downed his potion and slammed the vial on the ground, collecting the mana into his reserves. Coren and Davick were content to keep moving without dipping into their limited supply of potions. So, they formed up again, marching further down the open cavern, when they came upon something unexpected—a swirling portal.

“Whoa,” Davick breathed as they approached it. The portal hung in the air, about the size of a doorway, its surface a shifting blend of dark blues and purples. It cast an eerie glow, rippling above the stone floor, yet there was something oddly entrancing about it.

But just to the side of the portal sat something even more enticing—a large treasure chest, its polished wood glinting faintly in the torchlight. Iron bands reinforced its frame, and an old-fashioned lock hung loosely, already broken.

“Loot!” Kaiden exclaimed, eyes lighting up.