DREUS

A persistent ache pounded in my head as I slowly opened my eyes, seeing the same gray stone ceiling of the tunnel.

"...damn"

So it wasn't a dream, I'm stuck here.

Gradually sitting up, I discovered that the paralysis from those spiders seemed to have left my system as I could move freely again. I looked down at my hand, yet the intricate spider ring wasn't there.

Glancing around, I remembered I was still stuck in the small stone tunnel I made collapse.

After some thought, I realized I have two options, and neither seems very pleasant. The first is that I can stay in this tunnel, away from the enormous monsters outside, but with no way to get more food or water.

The other choice is to leave the tunnel and hope I find a way to get food and water, and possibly locate an exit, but have a high chance of getting slaughtered.

As I counted my very limited options, my stomach growled, so I searched through the satchel I found when I first awoke here, only to learn there was merely enough food to last me for a few days at most.

So, I can either die from starvation or have an actual monster kill me…

Well if I'm going to die, at least with the monsters it'll be quick. And with that decision, I grabbed the bag I found when I woke up and crawled out of the tunnel.

As I peered out into the larger cavern I was in before, I couldn't catch anything moving, so I clambered out as quickly and quietly as possible, hoping not to alert any nearby monsters.

I slowly tiptoed down the tunnel, keeping my hand on one of the walls to keep my bearing, while being incredibly vigilant, hoping to notice any creature before it noticed me. I kept the small dagger from the leather bag in my hand, giving me a little consolation.

The echoes of my footsteps sounded like thunder in my ears as I kept making myself believe there was something in the dark expanse in front of me. My heart beat in my chest as fear kept threatening to overtake me. My hand slid over the stone walls as I was covered in a nervous sweat.

One mistake, one noise, and a monster can find me and kill me with a single swipe. I clenched the dagger in my hand with an iron-tight grip, turning my fingers white.

It felt like hours passed as I kept walking through the tunnel, keeping my footsteps slow and steady so I didn't trip over the uneven floor.

The dark seemed to seep into my heart as my mind started to hallucinate, making me start to see things twisting and convulsing in the dark, always out of reach. Continuously tormenting me.

I did my best to keep my breathing steady, but every drip of water and distant rumble caused me to catch my breath in my throat, making me afraid to breathe.

Yet nothing seemed to happen this time as I kept creeping forward. I expected something to happen at this point. Keeping my nerves tense and ready at every moment was slowly making me fatigued, but I didn't dare to relax even a little. I already learned that any second of carelessness could lead to my demise.

As I persisted forward, I could see a flickering golden-red light glistening against the rock far ahead in the tunnel. I could barely contain myself from rushing forward and taking pleasure in light for the first time in what seemed like days.

'That, that may be the way out!'

'No, don't get ahead of yourself, that's how you get killed, you idiot.'

'Oh god, I'm already starting to go insane, I've started talking to myself.'

Slowly, I kept creeping forward, making sure to keep my lights steady and my breathing even, yet I couldn't help but quicken my steps. The slim promise that I could escape this hell hole grew.

The sliver of hope I had grew larger the closer I drew toward the light. I couldn't help but trick myself into believing that my suffering was over.

I saw the light shining over the stone walls, and I turned the corner quickly, ready to escape once and for all. As I turned, my eyes slowly adjusted, but the sight I saw wasn't the one I hoped for.

No bright light from the sky shined on my face. All I could see was the same torchlight I first opened my eyes to. The carcasses of the nightmarish monsters were gone, only leaving blood stains on the rocky floor. The smell of blood seemed to permeate through the entire cavern.

'No… No… Come on… Fuck!'

I'm still trapped here. I'm done for. I let the belief that I found the exit push me along, giving my tired body the energy to continue with this fruitless endeavor. But it was all for nothing…

'DAMN IT!!'

I sink to the floor as it feels like all of my stamina has left me. There's no way out of here. I'm stuck here until something finds me and I finally die.

My hope which grew too fast was squashed at the same pace. My eyes grew hazy as I slowly started to accept my fate once again. That stupid torch tricked me. I'm stuck here alone, for the rest of my life.

Wait, what am I thinking? Someone else was here, the torch proves that. The other person gave me the satchel, helped my wounds, and killed those monsters while I rested.

If the person who helped me can get out of here, so can I! If there's a way out of here, I will find it.

And just like that my hope and drive were rekindled once again. Man, my determination and drive flip way too easily, I should fix that.

As I was finding the determination to keep going, I heard a horribly familiar sound echo down the cave.

*Squeak*

"...don't you dare"

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Against my wishes, just like before, a huge rat strolls into the dim light from the dying torch. This time, the Dweller Rat didn't lunge forward as it just stood there, sniffing the air.

My legs almost give out as I death grip the dagger, getting ready to defend myself again. As it stands there, sniffing the air, I peer at its milky white eyes.

'So it is blind.'

I know it's blind, and that it has pretty good hearing since it heard me before and all I did was kick a pebble, but I don't know how strong its smell is. I can do my best from being loud, but if it has a really powerful nose then there's not much I can do right now.

Still, it's not attacking me right now, so it doesn't seem like its smelling power is too great.

It continued sniffing the air as if it was looking for something but couldn't find it.

Wait, what if it can smell me, but the overwhelming smell of blood is throwing it off so it can't pinpoint where I am?

If that's the case, then I have a chance to run away!

As I turned around to get ready to leave, I felt an ominous premonition, like something deep inside me was slowly awakening. If felt like my entire body was warning me about what was behind me. As I turned around, I saw something occurring to the Dweller Rat.

It kept sniffing the air, yet this time it was different. I started to see a very hazy muddy brown color slowly start to surround the nose of the rat. The more time that passed, the stronger the color got until it looked like there was brown fog around its nose.

This feeling, it's familiar. It's similar to the ring that appeared on my finger. It feels like something else but I can't remember what it was…

The energy in the alley! It's similar to the weird warm air I felt!

If I'm right and it is the same as those two things, then the stuff surrounding its nose might be Mana!

After the color seemed to stop growing, the rat sniffed the air again, yet this time it seemed different as its head suddenly snapped toward me.

Just like the other disgusting rodent I fought before, it suddenly lunged in my direction, closing the gap of 30 meters in seconds.

As it approached, I widened my stance and I gripped the dagger in my right hand. I watched as the rat sprinted toward me, a brown fog slowly forming on its front right paw. The same ominous feeling permeated through my body as I watched the haze of Mana on its arm grow more solid.

The brown Mana it used on its nose seemed to make its scent tracking stronger, so if it's coating its arm, that means I really don't want to get hit by that arm.

As I got prepared to fight this Dweller Rat, the gashes on my arms and legs from the fight with the previous rat protested, but I buried the pain as I did my best to clear my mind. There was no time for useless thoughts. If I got distracted I died.

The Dweller Rat appeared in front of me as it used its arm that was blanketed in Mana to swing at me. I jumped backward, barely dodging the swing as it swept towards me again.

I lunged towards its right side, trying to stay out of range from its enhanced claws. I kept sliding to its side as it kept turning trying to hit me.

It kept trying to twist towards me, so I plunged my knife into its back as I grabbed a handful of its greasy hair, trying to climb on its back.

It felt me climb on it as it swung its body side to side, attempting to hurl me off. I held onto its hair, but as the swinging got more violent, the hair ripped off and the dagger slid out, throwing me onto the cold damp floor.

I fell hard as I felt a rock hit the middle of my back, directly on my spine. The pain made my mind go blank for a moment, but as I opened them I saw the rodent's mouth lunging towards me.

Without thinking, I shot my foot forward and kicked the rat in the chin, yet it didn't seem to do much other than make it angrier.

I kept my foot forward doing my best to push it back, but all it did was just shove me along until my back hit one of the walls, causing me to involuntarily scream in pain as a sharp stone pierced my shoulder blade.

But now that my back was to the wall, I could push the rat away from me with my legs. It tried its best to continue forward, but my legs kept shoving it in the chin, keeping it inches away from chewing me.

Its arms were too short to claw my leg, so all it could do was try to move its head enough to get past and bite me. As it kept trying, It felt like my leg was going to give in. I used what felt like every muscle in my body to keep the monster at bay.

As this continued, I raised the dagger in my hand, and as the rat moved its head upward trying to push past, my arm shot out.

My arm moved forward as the dagger pierced the roof of the rat's mouth, sliding perfectly into its brain killing it almost instantly.

Its body collapsed as I finally relaxed my leg and sighed in exhaustion.

[lvl 2 Dweller Rat slain]

[No remnant Gained]

Oh, so this one was level two? No wonder it was such a pain to kill. Well, at least I'm making progress.

Wait, the other Dweller Rat I killed before was only level one, and it couldn't use that brown Mana. Did the level of the rat make it stronger by giving it Mana? Because it didn't seem much physically stronger than the other one I killed.

As I sat against the wall attempting to steady my breathing, I watched as the brown Mana from the rat seemed to go back inside its body. I observed closely, trying to see if I could learn anything about Mana.

I kept straining my eyes, and slowly I started to see thin strings of the brown Mana flowing through the rat's body. They kind of looked like veins with how they branched off like tree limbs through its entire body.

As the Mana moved through its body, the veins seemed to dry up and the Mana seemed to keep going deeper into its body.

As I looked deeper, I saw the Mana slowly converging towards the rat's front right arm, going towards an orb. The veins dried up as all of the Mana was now concentrated in an orb in the rat's arm.

Giving in to my curiosity, I gripped my dagger and made an incision in the rat's arm. Ignoring the squelching noises and disgusting squishy texture, I reached my hand inside and searched around where I saw the orb.

Forcing down the puke threatening to climb up my throat, I kept digging until my hand closed around something circular.

Yanking my hand which was covered in blood and muscle tissue out, I looked at my trophy.

In my hand was an orb the size of a pea, with a swirling pattern encircling it. It was partly a dirty white but mostly brown colored. Holding it in my hand, I felt a sort of warmth emanating from it, very similar to the warm energy that invaded my body when I was dying.

The veins in the rat seemed to be what moved the Mana through the rat's body, so if I want to be able to use Mana, I need to learn what those veins were and how to use them.

That is if I even have those veins in my body to begin with. It might be something exclusive to the monsters.

And this orb I have, it's very similar to the orb I saw in that orange and pink cloud place. Maybe I can use this orb to figure out how to use my own Mana.

I can experiment later, but first I have to find a way to stay safe and not get killed. The rats are my biggest problem right now, but I have no way of getting past their strong noses. I can deal with them being blind and their hearing, but the only thing that stopped their smell was the blood here.

The blood attracts them but is also overpowering enough to stop them from smelling me. So what if I use that to my advantage?

'Yeah, that could work…'

Following the plan in my head, I dragged the Dweller Rats' corpse to the center of the room to attract the other Rats that might show up. Then, even though I didn't want to, I got some of the rat's blood and wiped it over myself until all I could smell was Rat blood.

Now, if my theory works, the other Dweller Rats should be attracted to the dead rat in the middle. Since they would be focused on their meal, they wouldn't be vigilant, and they wouldn't smell me because of the blood, so I can sneak up and attack them before they realize I'm there.

I just hope my theory works, or else I covered myself in Rat blood for no reason. Now that's it's all set up, all I have to do is wait, and hope my plan works.