9 A dungeon appear
‘Ahhh, here we go again…’
I escaped from that dangerous-looking thing and managed to avoid being eaten by it… just to end up being eaten by a stupid looking fish! It must have mistaken me for food or something, and swallowed me just before I sank to the bottom of the river.
I wish I could cry hard enough to make the river overflow with my tears and flood the entire forest. And I hope that would kill every living being that inhabited it. That probably would have made me happy…
‘I’m starting to get tired of being eaten. First I was swallowed by a slime. Next, I almost died crushed by the jaws of a centipede. Then, a monster that seemed to have come straight out of a bad joke appears and tries to eat me… and finally I am eaten by a stupid fish! This is not funny at all, animals don’t fucking eat rocks! Why is everything in this world trying to eat me?’
It was impossible to see anything from inside a fish, but at least I was sure no harm would come to me. If a slime could not digest me, then surely a fish wouldn’t either. I just needed to wait to get out from the other side, which I wasn’t particularly looking forward to either. Meanwhile, I kept thinking about how I could solve my bigger problem.
My body was still damaged, very badly damaged. My HP had not recovered even after raising my level again. Every time my level increased, my maximum HP did too, but I did not recover even a sliver of health. This confirmed something I was pondering about: HP was simply a numerical representation of the state of the body. That meant anyone could easily die if hit at a vital point, no matter how much HP one has.
My other concern was being at the bottom of the food chain. That was some bullshit. Even plants were higher up than me on the chain… Plants won’t eat stones, right?
‘Ahhhhhhhhhh! Shit, can’t stand this!’
I would have slapped me hard in the face if I could. I would need conviction and determination to survive in this meaningless world, especially now that I was stuck being a stupid piece of rock.
‘I’m a stone, so fucking what! No… I am not just a stone… now I am a living thing, an object turned into a living thing… or something like that.’
That's what the notification I got when hitting level 1 said. It read “You have been recognized as a living organism” so yeah, I was definitely “alive”. And no matter what, I had no intention of dying again.
‘There must be something I can do to repair myself.’
After thoroughly checking my status, I realized the answer had been pretty obvious all along.
‘Of course, what the hell was I thinking… I have plenty of ways to escape from inside an animal or a monster, but there is an even better option. Sometimes my brain seems to be malfunctioning… Even though I don’t really have one… Anyway, “Inner aggressor”, the title gives me a pretty good hint of what I need to do. Every living being is vulnerable from the inside. No matter how strong, they are all the same on the inside. I just have to shoot the living crap out of it or blow up its stomach.. but before that, thanks for the food!’
I activated the parasitize ability at full power. Previously, I had used it to control and steal mana from the slime, but it also had another purpose: stealing HP. At that very moment, the fish began to shake in pain.
‘Unpleasant, right? Well, this is what it feels like to be eaten alive!’
After a few seconds, the animal stopped moving completely.
‘Was that all? Helpy, your turn.’
[A dead river fish.]
‘Ah? Is it dead already? Why didn’t it give me any experience?’
After all, it was a mere animal, not a monster. Maybe it was just the same as me right after reincarnating, probably didn’t even have a level. However, killing it wasn’t a complete waste.
Status:
Name: Peter Gravel
Kind: Magic stone | Race: -
Level: 5 | Experience: 71/1518
HP: 28/35 | MP: 70/70 | Mana well: 0/200
————————————————
My HP had recovered quite a bit. I had finally found a way to heal myself. Furthermore, my body seemed to have almost completely been repaired. There were some small cracks left, but that didn’t seem to hinder my ability to move.
‘Wow, that's very interesting. The HP represents the state of the body and at the same time the body depends on the current HP. If the HP recovers, the body recovers too. Yes, that is so game-like… as the clothes in… No, nevermind that...’
This was valuable information. Unlike an organic way of life, my body did not heal by itself. This meant that the HP would not recover on their own since my “wounds” don't heal by themselves. On the other hand, if the HP recovers by using skills such as parasitize, the “wounds” will disappear. I needed to keep this in mind in order to survive from now on.
I used a Mana Bomb to make the fish explode from within. It blew up into a thousand pieces and I immediately sank towards the bottom of the river like the stone I was.
Unlike the rivers I remembered, this one had crystal clear water, almost as transparent as glass. I could perfectly see the sandy bottom, with some round stones scattered here and there. Among them grew a multitude of aquatic plants where small fishes swam, and sometimes even larger ones did as well… like the asshole that had swallowed me earlier.
For a couple of minutes I couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty of such a setting. I was witnessing something that not many people would have the chance to see in their lifetime... At least not in my contaminated world. After coming back to my senses, I started analyzing all the different kinds of fishes that I found along the way. All of them were the usual kind of well known species of fish. Apparently, other than the monsters, the animals in this world were pretty much the same as in minee.
[Special ability “Help” is now at level 3: Intermediate general information can now be obtained.]
‘Oh! Helpy, you leveled up again! But… What does intermediate general information mean?’
Well, it sounds like it would probably give more information about the things that were common knowledge to the inhabitants of this world from now on.
Once my curiosity was satisfied, I started looking for a way out of the river. With any luck I may be able to climb the river banks and get out… otherwise I would have to roll to the sea… With that in mind, I set out to look for the best place to climb out, but I found something strange instead. I stopped on my tracks when I spotted a strange hole in the middle of the river, one that was certainly not natural.
The walls were made of strange grayish bricks that emitted a faint light. There was a short ramp that made it easy to go down the hole. Although the strangest part was a light barrier of sorts that could be found right at the end of it.
‘What the fuck is this?’
[Dungeon entrance.]
‘Uhm? What did you just say?’
[Dungeon entrance.]
I thought I had heard wrong, but no. Apparently, that hole at the bottom of the river was the entrance to a dungeon… Even such things existed in this world!
‘Why is there a dungeon in a river? Whatever… Now what do I do with this? Anyway, is a dungeon what I think it is?’
[A dungeon is a warped space where monsters are generated artificially. Dungeons usually have somewhere between 1 and 50 floors, and their size varies greatly between each dungeon and / or floor.]
Yes, it was exactly what I thought. Probably, like it happened in games and tales, it would start with easy floors and the difficulty would increase floor after floor.
‘I don’t know what to do. I’m itching to take a look at a real dungeon for myself, but at the same time I’m a little worried about what I might find.’
I rolled down the ramp, until I was right in front of the gleaming entrance to the dungeon. That thin wall of light separated the inside of the dungeon from the outside world. I was hesitant, since crossing that threshold meant that I would find myself inside a real dungeon.
‘What the hell, let’s get inside. I’ll take a look at the first floor and if it’s too dangerous I’ll just run away. Come on, Helpy!’
And I crossed the threshold… yet I noticed nothing strange when I passed through the light.
‘That was it? How underwhelming, I was expecting something more exciting.’
Disappointed, I kept traversing the tunnel. However, I suddenly halted when I noticed that something was wrong… but I didn’t completely stop moving.
‘Don’t tell me… The stream is dragging me away!’
I tried to roll against the current, but it was impossible to overcome the force of the water, which was getting stronger every second.
‘I have a very bad feeling about this! Very bad! Waaaaaaaaaaaa!’
The current was dragging me with such force that before I knew it I wasn’t even touching the floor. Not even 10 seconds had passed when I was sent flying.. out of a waterfall.
Splash!
And I landed on water once again. Lucky… I guess...
