#10 The dungeon

When Daniel felt ready, he said his goodbyes to Doran, who disappeared back into his realm, and marched onwards in search of the next room.

However, instead of another room, at the end of the next passage he found a giant door.

It was big enough to fit four people wide and three people high. The whole thing had been made out of silver and countless horrifying demonic creatures were decorating its front, being carved into the metal. They were piling up from all sides, trying to reach a giant wooden bar at the centre of the door, that was blocking it from opening. Through the gap between the doors, orange light flooded the room, leaving the impression that behind it hell itself was awaiting the person that tried to open it.

But there was no other way. Twenty minutes Daniel went around, searching for other exits.

There were none.

Standing in front of the silver door once more, he tried to lift the bar. It was heavy and he struggled for quite some time before even shifting it into a better position.

It took Daniel one hour before he freed the door, sweating and panting heavily.

He pushed the giant gate open and the orange light, which had been hidden, greeted him with astounding force. It was like staring directly into the burning light of a sun. Daniel ripped his arms up to protect his eyes, tumbling backwards. "Aaaah… What in the?!"

However, the light was gone as fast as it came.

After a few seconds, the load had lightened on Daniel's eyes and he tried to blink.

Darkness engulfed him.

He blinked again.

In confusion he stared into the nothingness that was surrounding him.

"Am I blind?" It would make sense. After all he had literally just glanced into A SUN!

'This game really likes to flash people…' Daniel mumbled, recalling his arrival.

Against his beliefs, after a few minutes his eyes returned to normal and had adjusted to the darkness. Finally, Daniel was able to make out features.

He stood in what looked like a cellar.

The ground was wet and a musty smell lay in the air. Everywhere he looked, he saw moss grow out of gaps in the walls and a few small rats screeched and ran away, as soon as they noticed Daniel.

'Did I take the right path? How come that the atmosphere changed so dramatically?'

Daniel was bewildered. What had happened? Was he still in the church?

Most likely not. A dirty cellar in a church?' Daniel thought back to what he had just witnessed.

A demonic gate hiding a sun.

'Let's focus on the gate first' Daniel thought. The figures carved into the door had been really angry, seemingly trying to open it. So had the door been installed to block the demons from entering?' Most likely. It would make sense. After all, a templar and his companions had been in the church. Maybe they had tried to stop them, to protect the temple'.

Daniel turned around to see if he could see the door from the inside, but it wasn't there.

A green stone wall greeted him.

Had he been teleported? That would explain the flashing light! If yes, where to?

Most likely somewhere, where demonic creatures resided, Daniel guessed. A dungeon?

'What if this is the starter dungeon and the parts I saw before were only the untouched areas of the remaining church!'

Tense Daniel wandered through the room and soon found a passage connected to another one. Luckily, he had pried ahead before following it, as a figure, round and big, about 1,5 metres, made its way towards him. Daniel couldn't make out any details in this damn dark.

'Shit, shit, shit! What is that?'

He pressed himself onto the next wall and froze, summoning a few air bolts on command, ready to shoot if needed. He heard the footsteps getting closer. Four, in short succession.

*Tap, tap, tap, tap*

With each step the noise got louder and sent cold shivers down Daniel's body.

It couldn't be a person, that was for sure and whatever it was that roamed the dark, it was highly likely not to be friendly either. Closer and closer it came. Daniel sucked in his breath, now one with the wall and stopped moving.

Slowly, very slowly, a fleshy long nose shoved itself past the edge Daniel was hiding at.

He hadn't been noticed yet.

*Sniff* *Sniff*

'It's searching the room!' Daniel thought. He bit his lip, trying to think of the next steps as fast as possible. His heart had started to beat so vividly, he could hear it.

'Damn it!' He started to sweat.

The nose started to turn in his direction.

Out of options and time, Daniel quickly turned into the passage, summoning his sword into a backhand grip, instantly ramming it into the nose of the target and meanwhile firing the air bolts in the approximate direction of where Daniel guessed the head to be.

*SCREEEEEEEECH*

Daniel had never heard anything like it. The painful squeak ran through his body and Daniel had to cover his ears so as not to go deaf. His defences wide open, Daniel suddenly felt something hot run along his back. "Aaaah!"

He stumbled back and turned, bringing his sword back up to his head. That had been a stupid thing to do. His back was burning like hell and he could feel blood dripping.

Concentrating on the things ahead, Daniel finally could see what he had hit. A giant red-eyed rat with plate armour running along its back to its snout stood on its hind legs in front of him. In this position, it easily reached the two-metre mark, almost fully filling out the whole passageway. Its sharp front claws, almost as big as knives, were dripping with blood. His blood.

Screeching once more, to prepare for its next attack, Daniel inspected the damage he had dealt. A rapid stream of blood was flowing down its nose and a few dents had been made in its armour, where the air bolts had hit, but other than that the rat seemed fine. 'Shit!'

The rat stormed towards Daniel and he rolled sideways, summoning two air bolts in the motion. When the rat turned around, he would fire them right at its eyes. 'It would be so great to be able to see its health points! Isn't there something like a game interface?'

[ Would you like to active the gaming interface? ]

'Yes, a thousand times yes!'

[ Gaming interface activated ]

In the meantime, the rat, unable to stop its charge, had hammered head-first into the wall, leaving serious damage and opening a few cracks. Sun rays fell into the room. Panicking, it paddled backwards, trying to get away from the unknown piercing swords of light that were hurting its eyes.

[ 150 / 300 ]

Daniel had dealt some serious damage to the beast already and he could see its health plummet even further, as he noticed the bleeding debuff below its health bar.

But his health didn't look so good either. Even with his armour protecting his back, it had dropped by almost half after one rat-claw treatment session. 'At least I don't have the bleeding debuff…' Daniel thought, when he noticed the backwards movement of the rat, approaching him at a rapid pace.

He hadn't been prepared for that, but took his chance. He sprang to the side and held his sword into the line the rat was following. It ran past him, leaving a giant cut along its body before it stopped. [ 40 / 300 ]

Daniel didn't have time to celebrate. The moment he had hit the rat, a green icon had popped up next to the bleeding debuff.

The rat screamed and its eyes blinked for a second.

Daniel read the description.

[ Berserker

+30% damage for the next 30 seconds]

Enraged, the rat focused back on him, ignoring the light unknown to its eyes! It reared up, the long claws tinted in red, reflecting the sun rays and approached Daniel.

This situation had become really troublesome. 'Damn… 30%? That's a lot!

I won't stand a chance in melee combat! Will this be my first death?'

The rat had almost reached him. The clock was ticking.

Daniel knew, if his remaining air blasts didn't connect and hit critically, this fight could take a bad turn. His only chance were the eyes of the demonic creature.

'Wait… WAIT…' Daniel tried to calm himself. If he panicked now, it would all be over.

The rat had reached him and stroked out for its attack. "Noooow!" Daniel screamed, releasing the air blasts. The next few seconds felt like minutes to Daniel. In slow-motion he could see the claws approaching his defenseless body.

Closer and closer. Closer and closer. Visions flashed across Daniel's eyes. Then it was over.

When the air blasts hit the rat's eyes, it stumbled backwards, halting its attack and covering its eyes instead. Red numbers had popped up in Daniel's view, showing red twenties. A critical strike!

*SCREEEEECH*

The giant rat fell backwards onto the ground, squirming until its last breath had left its lungs.

[ 0 / 300 ]

Silence followed after.

Daniel leaned onto the next best wall and sank to the ground. He didn't feel the pain in his back until he had calmed down. 'Another rough fight right at the very beginning. Maybe adventuring isn't as easy as I thought it would be'. He looked at the rat. It really was ugly, even more so swimming in its blood. 'I need to close my eyes for a second…'

Exhausted Daniel lay down, snoring a few seconds later.

When he awoke, the sun rays had disappeared. 'It must be night by now'. Daniel was shivering. The cold had penetrated his clothes that were now soaked in rat blood. Disgusted Daniel stood up.

He looked towards the rat he had slain and noticed a blue shine surrounding it. Had that been there before? Nothing had changed though? Wasn't a blue light always a signal for loot? Daniel circled the creature but saw nothing. 'Loot!'

Nothing happened.

'What am I supposed to do here? Do I need to cut it up?'

'Guide!' Doran appeared, this time heavily armed.

"Oh, hey little one. Kind of bad timing to ask for my help, not gonna lie. I was just about to squash some pesky flies!" A dark smile flickered over his face.

"Hey, Doran! Sorry about that? I just need your advice regarding a small issue" and Daniel pointed to the giant rat. "What does the blue shine mean?"

"Hahaha, I see that you've been quite busy as well. Congratulations on your first kill! The blue light, eh? That stems from a mana stone inside of the rat kins skull you should extract. It is worth some coins. I would also advise you to take the claws as well. You might be able to use them later on for some crafting… You don't have a profession yet, do you?" Doran asked.

"Thank you and no, I didn't even know professions exist. How do I get one? What professions are there? Can you teach me?" Daniel would have liked to get one immediately, but Doran put a quick end to his questions.

"Try to get outside of the labyrinth first. In the best case unharmed. I can still see the scratches on your back. We'll talk about it then. First, I have some killing to do myself. Speak to you soon!"

He vanished and only the cadaver and Daniel remained.

"Alright, that was unexpected…

Let's get to looting I guess".