Chapter 1

The boy did not know how he got here. Here it was dark, and the floors, walls, and ceiling were hewn from rough reddish gray stone glistening like mysterious eyes, in the slight light. The blood-red mists wrapped around him were slightly irritating to the skin, but at least it provided the light if only slightly. The boy was ten years old with curly raven black hair, a more solid build than thin while not being muscular, his eyes looked like a blue crystal that had several darker lines running through them like a seam in the otherwise perfect blue, the boy wore slim fitting jeans and a snug fitting gray t-shirt. A hoodie was wrapped around his waist and tied it off, groaning he struggled to his feet, his back-pack was, somehow, still slung over his shoulders, looking around the alien environment he quickly undid the hoodie--stuffing it inside the bag then sat on top of it. 

Looking around at the cavern again he noticed the incredibly high ceiling around five hundred feet up, the cavern wasn’t nearly as wide as it was tall going about two hundred in each direction, it had an almost oval shape surrounding him with a forest of strange trees bark as black as if it had been thoroughly charged, leaves the color of magma streaked with black veins, the rocks were red and glossy with liquid and in the places with dirt, what little there was, was completely mud, most likely from the stifling humidity, the only slightly familiar thing among the bizarre surroundings was a green bioluminescent moss that grew in the mud patches it seemed to move ever so slightly. 

With another sigh, he focused on the only entrance to the secluded cavern and by that logic the only exit. Getting up he quickly gathered some of the sickly-looking branches that lay around the “small” cavern taking out a light front of his mini 72-hour kit that he had stashed away he lit the pile of void-like branches, after a few minutes he had a small fire that crackled and popped in the dark almost pitch-black shadows, turning back to the fire, he notice an oddity, strangely the small branches seemed to burn longer and hotter then they should have but he didn’t really care as long as the heat from the small pitiful thing gave him warmth in the cold nights or what he assumed to be nights the mist was so dim that he could only think of it as such.

Standing back up he picked up the backpack, quickly taking inventory of the items inside his most valuable one being the small Swiss army knife he had stowed secretly away in his bag against his mother’s better judgment, but nonetheless, he had indeed made a reasonably good judgment because he had it now though he still had no idea where he was. He quickly brushed it off like so many other things, one might ask what else the boy had brushed off, well where to begin. Firstly, how was he alive? He was certain that his mom, dad, and he had all been driving home and gotten into a car accident with a semi-truck, after a brief moment of clarity where he could have sworn that his parents and himself had been lying on the hot pavement, the second was the reason he was glad he had the knife he had pulled it out to hopefully fend off whatever made the sounds that filled the boy's ears constantly, growls, screams, yelling, pleas, groans, and savage barking. Nothing so far had shown itself, which just made the boy worry slowly wrapping itself all, the tighter around him. 

Many had called the boy smart, and he had figured out that no help was on the way so he decided that he would not stay in the terrifying cavern. Getting off his bag he collected the few items he possessed, a lighter, a plastic drawstring bag, a water bottle with an advanced filter, a few precious photos of his family, and finally his little knife. Inside his bag were a few notebooks, his remaining bag of Cheetos, left over from lunch, a ruler, a few markers, two pens, and three pencils, otherwise it was devoid of anything else. 

Pushing other thoughts out of his mind he continued to the entrance it was less an entrance than a small rift that lead to another large cavern much like the last one but the floor of this cavern was all mud and the sounds of terror were louder. Crouching at the entrance the boy held the knife up as threatening as possible but it quickly fell as a small red creature no bigger than a two-year-old child, with the proportions of a man, claws had taken the place of nails, the bald head shown despite the lacking light, and his skin was shrunken around him like a tightly wrapped sheet, his claw’s dug into the boy’s shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain, even though the surprise attack had had a serious effect, thankfully the boy’s quick wit would save him yet again. He pulled out the pocket knife sliding it into the thing's stomach and yanking upward with a savageness he did not know he had, the thing screeched and growled all the while ripping into the boy until he felt the little thing stop moving completely. Sliding the thing off he snarled in pain from the lacerations the little red man had given him quickly washing his shoulder with some of the water from his thirty-two oz bottle he then tore a strip off the bottom of his hoodie and wrapped it snugly around the cuts it had inflicted, he then turned to the little creature but when he turned back to it the thing had disappeared, he immediately jumped back from where it had been and looked around warily. Looking at where the thing had fallen he found a small white stone, a roll of twine, a bit of leather, and some bones. Picking up each he was startled by a floating screen that appeared in front of his face dropping the items.

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Congratulations!

You have slain an imp your

Very first monster!

Reward: emblem

His amazement changed to fear as a white bright light filled the air above him. Covering his eyes, and hissing from the intensity he squinted at the thing forming at the center of the circle of light. After a few moments that felt like hours the thing slowly descended until it rested in his trembling hands then it was back to the blood-red mists, making the darkness all the more oppressive, for the light had vanished.

The thing that had been at the center of the light was a light and blue pendant on a silver chain the blue crystal had a swirling pattern that the boy quickly realized had no end and no start just a continuation of the same swirling forever smoothly connected to the rest he held it tight squeezing it as hard as he could. This had left him in quite the squeeze; he had no idea what this thing was. An emblem that could be used to describe many things: was it an emblem of heaven, or an emblem of death, pain, suffering, jelly, water, soul? It could do anything to kill, maim, or it could help him figure out where he was…taking a deep breath he stilled his thoughts. He quickly slid it over his head letting the necklace fall against his chest. He screwed his eyes shut expecting his body to be wracked with pain… but it never came. When he opened his eyes another screen was floating in front of him, this one read.

Congratulations!

You are officially the 

 Youngest person to ever wear

An emblem and live you have the

Emblem of infinite possibilities 

Your emblem is one of a kind 

Bonus: first skill optioned using first 

monster core is the legendary grade

The boy was confused… What was a monster core? As soon as the thought had formed his attention was riveted on the small white bead and the monster core popped into his mind, quickly grabbing the object he pressed the bead to the front of the pendant, it had happened so quickly that he had no time to stop himself. Now the pendent had started to fuse together then it melted into the pendant lost among the endless swirls then a soft mental ding like ones from old elevators from motels sounded in the boy's head and yet another screen popped open

You got your first ability 

Limitless evolution 

Grade (legendary): by consuming

Item(s) and or materials you can upgrade

Abilities and or objects to a higher 

Grade

His mouth dropped open that just sounded like cheating. Of course, he might need it if those imps lived in communities or groups he quickly grabbed the rest of the items from the imp and ran back into the previous cavern, and scrambled all the way to the back of it unloading his bag he quickly assessed what he had. Five notebooks, four markers, two pencils, an eraser, a filter water bottle, a slightly torn hoodie, a backpack, knife, pants, torn shirt, and his new items the leather, twine, and bones after taking inventory of all the items he quickly packed them back into his backpack all except his club and knife. Swinging it up onto his shoulders he set off to one of the biggest trees. It took him around two minutes to find what he needed climbing up the tree he grabbed the largest limb he could find. It was around six feet long and two inches in diameter. Taking his Swiss Army knife he flipped the saw blade out and cut a line where it connected to the tree. After cutting in about an inch he folded his knife, grabbed the knife, and used it as a club, he aimed at the base of it and hit it down as hard as he could… nothing happened snorting he hit it again and was rewarded with a slight cracking sound. Smiling he hit it around five more times finally the thing broke loose with his new item he climbed down. He found another branch of similar proportions and repeated the process. After securing both branches he hurried back to the entrance setting the sticks in an x shape he used the club as a hammer and drove his improvised stakes into the ground. He gathered sticks of around four feet in length and started to lash them together into a wall shape then once it was about five feet tall he stood it up against the stakes then proceeded to collect rocks the size of his fist and larger. He heaped the ominous stones in front of the wall until the whole thing was covered and made a small slope of rocks and boulders. Finally, he was done! The day's exertion had finally caught up with the determinant boy; he walked slowly to the flattest stone he had found that day and lay down using his backpack as a pillow; quickly he fell into a deep and surprisingly restful sleep.