This cave is a death trap. If I'm really in a fantasy world, this must be a high level dungeon and the dragon was the final boss. There's also the possibility that dungeons don't exist, but I prefer to think that normal caves around here don't have mushrooms with teeth that try to bite you if you go near them. Yeah. They are not friendly.

I make use of the light produced by the bow and manage to move forward without stabbing my foot with the stalagmites that are scattered on the ground. It's not like I can run, so moving slowly and carefully isn't exactly a sacrifice.

It didn't take long to find my first natural barrier. The cavern ends in a wall with a fairly narrow vertical crack. I think I can get in, although I won't have much room for movement and I don't think rubbing my burned back against the hard stone will be the most pleasant thing in the world. Still I do it. The alternative is to go back to where the dragon was and I don't want to turn into a human kebab even if I have the perfect shape for it.

I enter through the crack and move forward. Although the pain is bearable, I can't avoid to shed some tears. As I move forward I realize that the wall is wet and it doesn't take me long to see some gaps with water. I'm thirsty but after thinking about it a little I decide not to drink. If there are mushrooms with teeth, I don't see why there couldn't be deadly viruses or something worse in the water.

I advance quite slowly. Both walls are irregular. Sometimes I have to climb a little to get over a blockage and the wall gets narrower and narrower. I feel my pulse and breathing accelerate and I can't help but think that if I get stuck here no one will hear my cries for help. Everything gets worse when I see the remains of what appears to be a bipedal creature with a twisted horn on its forehead. I'm going to call him Oni. I move the bones a little with the bow and determine that the only useful thing he have is the clothes. Luckily, clothes are a treasure for me right now. It takes a while but I take off his coat and boots. They both smell like well... a death person but something tells me that Amazon doesn't deliver here. The boot is too big for my foot so I have cut some of the clothes and fill out the boot with them.

Before I can pass over the corpse of the creature I hear it. Something is moving ahead. I stay completely still and hold my breath so I can hear better. It moves slowly and erratically. His breathing is hollow and hoarse. Honestly, he sounds like a fucking zombie. The glow of the bow finally illuminates the creature's face. His jaw has several segments sewn together. When he sees me he opens his mouth in four different parts, stretching the stitches. His face is rotten and he has the distinctive horn that I saw on the other corpse. The rest of his body appears to have parts of various creatures attached to it. Legs, arms, paws and other mouths protrude from its body.

The body of the creature has the consistency of a rubber, as if it were made of gelatin, and manages to move quite well through the crack. I start to go back but I can't move faster than him so I have to start climbing. At the top the crack widens a little and perhaps I will be able to shoot with the bow. I begin to climb diagonally, trying to get away from the creature that is now screaming and writhing as it approaches me. The wall is quite slippery and I have to resort to using the stump of my left leg to climb faster.

I can't stop looking at the creature to see how far away it is. I try to focus on climbing, but his screams, his movements, everything that makes up this crazy monstrosity gets on my nerves. It's like having a mosquito flying near your ear, but the mosquito is giant and horribly scary. I continue climbing until I feel a sting on my leg. I look down and see a scorpion tail emerging from the monstrosity. To my horror, now that I see it completely, its body is shaped like a worm and at the end of it it has a large scorpion tail whose stinger is now in my calf. I can't help but scream in pain and I only manage to get rid of the sting with a few violents shakes

"Son of a bitch! It's the ONLY leg I have left! AGH!!!". I try to continue but I notice how the pain spreads up my leg. I can barely move it and I understand that if I don't act now I'm going to die.I turn towards the creature and fix myself to the wall, tensing my body and pressing it against both sides of the crack. I aim with the bow and I have to pull the string and force to retract scratching my arm against the hard stone.The blue arrow appears but I need time to aim.The monstrosity is now just a couple of meters away from me and it's prepares its sting again. Still, I wait. The poison now reaches my hip burning and making me dizzy. My leg burns. One meter and a half. My vision begins to blur and I feel my body go numb. One meter. The creature screams, opening its mouth into four different parts again, savoring the imminent bite. At that moment I shoot the arrow which hits the inside of his mouth and explodes. His head burst into a thousand different pieces of flesh and bone and I ended up completely covered in his remains.

I try to go down quickly, before losing consciousness, but I end up slipping and falling down until the walls of the crack stop me between them. My body burns, I can barely breathe and I feel like I'm losing the control over my body. I drop the bow and focus on the notifications that appeared when I killed the creature.

You have been Poisoned! Congratulations! You have reach level 4!

Life 22/50 Active title Mana 33/45 Plane shifter Energy 16/50 Level 4 Experience 50/2800

Attributes [1] Physical attributes Mental attributes Soul attributes Strength 10 Intelligence 19 Luck -15 Constitution 11 Creativity 23 Will 16 Dexterity 15 Wisdom 9 Charisma 14

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I start to build up my constitution until I feel like I'm not on the verge of never waking up again. Even so, I am not fully recovered. I still feel the poison running through my veins. I look closely at my life and see that it decreases by one point for approximately every minute. It means I have 28 minutes left to live unless I invest more points in constitution. Damn it, I'm not going to kill gods by uploading the constitution. It took me almost five minutes to unstuck myself from the walls. 23 points left. I continue my way through the crack, moving as fast as I can. After another ten minutes I manage to get out of it, but I have lost another ten life points. 13 points left. I start to feel weak and have trouble breathing.

When I come out of the crevice I get dizzy as I contemplate the wide cavern in which I find myself. The ceiling, floor and walls are illuminated by a series of crystals of various colors: red, blue, purple.... Its light is enough to allow me to see most things. There is a series of... Onis mining the crystal veins in the cavern. They all dress in very basic rags and seem to be quite battered. Scattered around the area, there are about three or four... Frankensteins. Their bodies are made up of parts of other creatures and it seems that they are forcing the oni to work. They seem smarter than the one I've faced before.

I move away from the edge of the ledge since I am in one of the highest areas of the cavern. Going down is going to be difficult, but I don't know if I would like those creatures to find me. My life continues to go down. 12 points left. I decide to invest another two points in constitution and I instantly feel better. I have only eight points left to spend. I would like to gain strength, dexterity or wisdom, but I don't think it is possible while I remain poisoned. I decide to take it easy and wait to see what happens. After ten minutes, my life has plummeted again to 12 points so I decide to invest seven more points in constitution, to raise it directly to twenty-five.

Life 22/80 Active title Mana 33/45 Plane shifter Energy 16/50 Level 4 Experience 50/2800

Attributes [1] Physical attributes Mental attributes Soul attributes Strength 10 Intelligence 19 Luck -15 Constitution 25 Creativity 23 Will 16 Dexterity 15 Wisdom 9 Charisma 14

When I reach the twenty five mark a new notification open up in front of my:

Your constitution have increased to 25! Congratulations, you have obtained "Passive regeneration"

Passives Passive regeneration You life will be healed 4,16% of your total life each hour until is completely heal.

Well, it's better than nothing. I lay down on the rock, looking to the roof, thinking about my life. Looks like these Frankensteins looking monster are slaving the onis. I really don't like slavery. I think I should try to help them get their freedom back or maybe use them to get out of this place... but I don't even know where I could start. If I survive the effect of the rest of the poison I will try to find out if there is a way to help them but my priority is to find food and water. I will wait until the slaves have to go to get some rest to go down and explore this new place.