The Last Pathway

Ellis continued to journey forward cautiously stopping at every split in the hall to check for monsters and map out where he was going. He also carved a small 'x' at every turn to indicate which way he'd gone. After a while of mapping out halls and turns he finally arrived at the area where he had fought the imp before.

Ellis peered around the corner and saw a small group of five large rodents scavenging through the corpses of the monsters. The rodents looked to be of the same species as the dead rodent that the imp had been eating when he first found it. After watching the creatures for a few seconds Ellis decided to try and use one of the new skills he'd obtained recently.

"Identify."

Ellis whispered to himself as he looked at the monsters. A box appeared above the creatures' heads. The boxes above the monsters said 'Scarver' followed by what their level was. Their levels ranged from 2 to 4.

As he gazed at the scarvers his vision seemed to magnify, and he could examine as if he was standing right in front of them. They were about the size of a small dog with an immense amount of large, sharp teeth and because of their teeth they were unable to fully close their mouths.

As Ellis watched, it seemed as though they were finished with the corpses and started searching the hall for more food. They were facing the opposite direction of Ellis giving him the perfect opportunity to sneak attack them.

This is the best chance I have to practice a full lightning bolt. Let's see what happens if I pour most of my anima into the shot.

Ellis leaned around the corner and extended his hand out aiming at the pack of monsters. He gathered 90% of his anima to his palm and after it was charged, he willed it toward the center of the monsters.

ZWOOH! KABOOM!

The recoil from the shot knocked Ellis onto his butt. He scrambled up from the floor and looked at the where the scarvers were or at least had been.

The three in the center of the pack of beasts had exploded, leaving nothing but ash and blue gems where they had been. The two farthest away were sent flying, charred and roasted.

"That was overkill."

Ellis whispered to himself as he dusted himself off and looked at the crater in the ground where his lightning bolt had hit.

Whoosh!

Rainbow-colored smoke rushed into Ellis's chest and he felt himself grow stronger once again.

With this much power, I won't have to worry if I run into another imp. It smells like roast meat in here now.

Ellis walked up to the burnt scarvers on the ground and inspected them.

This smell is making me hungry. I wonder if their meat tastes better than the imps?

Ellis squatted down above the roasted monsters and brought his dagger down. He carefully cut off a leg of meat from the beast and used Identify on it.

[Cooked Scarver Meat]

After confirming with Identify that it was cooked, Ellis brought the leg to his mouth and took a bite.

The meat was dry and a little crispy, but it didn't taste terrible. Ellis ate his fill of the meat before packing up a few chunks of it in his satchel. The majority of the scarvers were destroyed from his lightning bolt so there wasn't much to scavenge but he took everything he could. He also picked up the three anima gems in the ashes of the scarvers he'd incinerated.

Wow. These things are indestructible.

Ellis held one of the gems in his hand squeezed it hard.

CRACK!

Oh. Oops.

The gem exploded in his fingers and a wisp of blue energy seeped into Ellis's hand.

What was that?

Name: Ellis Ryne

Level: 4

Age: 17

Race: Human

Class: None

HP:193/193

AP:8/68

(5) unused stat points!

STR:8 AGL:9

DEF:11(+10) CON:6

INT:11 LUC:7

Skills:

Language Comprehension LV. 2

Spark LV. 2

Shock LV. 1

Crafting LV. 1

Ellis checked his TowerCard and discovered he had leveled up again. After checking his stats he decided to break another anima gem and see if anything changed.

Name: Ellis Ryne

Level: 4

Age: 17

Race: Human

Class: None

HP:193/193

AP:10/68

My anima increased by two after breaking one of the scarver anima gems. What happens if I break the bigger one from the imp?

Ellis broke the slightly larger gem and discovered that it restored his anima by five.

This is awesome! If I can keep killing these creatures and getting their gems, I can restore my anima without using the Anima Potion, which would mean I could use magic more often.

Ellis broke the rest of the anima gems he had before evenly distributing his stat points and leaving to explore more of the labyrinth.

Ellis kept on exploring the halls, mapping everything out. He came across a few more packs of scarvers, which were completely annihilated by his lightning. His stats slowly rose as he fought monsters. He even gained four more levels but leveling up seemed to be slowing down the more he fought.

After exploring for hours and hours, Ellis decided to head back to the safe room and rest.

Using his satchel as a pillow, Ellis laid down on the stone floor to sleep while staying vigilant of his surroundings just in case any monsters decided to enter the room. He slept on and off unaware of how much time was passing by. Eventually, Ellis woke up and felt rested enough that he could continue on with his search for an exit.

He sat up and his stomach grumbled loudly. After drinking some water and eating some leftover meat to fill his belly he got up before he gathered his gear to begin mapping out the dungeon once more.

...

Four months later.

Name: Ellis Ryne

Level: 14

Age: 17

Race: Human

Class: None

HP:545/545

AP:109/109

STR:8->20 AGL:9->20

DEF:11->20(+25) CON:6->20

INT:11->15 LUC:7

Skills:

Language Comprehension LV. 2

Spark LV. 3

Shock LV. 2

Identify LV. 2

Crafting LV. 2

Lightning Bolt LV. 4

Magic Mastery LV. 3

Dagger Mastery LV. 2

MONSTERS DISCOVERED:

Imp - Imps have greyish-red, extremely tough skin. The skin is rough and scaly to the touch. Imp's stand about four feet tall. They have long rounded ears and an oversized head. It has a scorpion-like tail with a stinger at the end. They have two large talons on each of their feet that they use to rip their prey open. At the end of their short arms are long, razor-sharp claws. They rarely travel in groups.

Killed: 12

Winged Imp - Winged imps have the same features as normal imps apart from a pair of large wings on their backs making them more agile.

Killed: 3

Scarver - Scarvers are large furry carnivorous rodents with a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.

Killed: 122

Scarver Wolf - Scarver wolves are massive scarvers with a huge mouth full of long razor-sharp teeth and extremely powerful legs that help them attack unrelentingly.

Killed: 2

TITLES:

Tower-Walker

Ellis would occasionally run into monsters as he explored, but they would always be obliterated by his lightning or stabbed to death by his dagger. After using his lightning Ellis would take a sip of the blue liquid and if he got hurt, he would take a sip of the red liquid. Ellis kept this up for days without end. Whenever he felt too tired to go on, he would make his way back to the safe room and sleep before continuing mapping everything.

During this time Ellis mostly encountered packs of scarvers and the occasional imp. A couple of times he encountered variants of Scarvers and Imps, such as scarver wolves and winged imps. Those battles were hard-fought ones since the variants were much stronger than the normal ones and required him to be on his toes. Especially the winged imps as they moved so fast that he had a hard time hitting them with his lightning bolts. After fighting so many battles Ellis had hardened himself and become fairly adept at using his magic while leaping around.

I've leveled up a lot and gotten a few new skills, but I still haven't found an exit. This labyrinth feels never-ending.

Over the course of the few months, Ellis had created over twenty maps of various parts of the dungeon but was still nowhere near close to getting out of the labyrinth. Most of the paths just lead to dead ends.

Ellis looked down at all the maps he'd made so far organized on the ground in front of him. As he traced the recorded pathways on the maps, he found an unfinished path that he hadn't gone down yet and decided to choose that path today.

He put on his newly upgraded armor that used the various hides from the monsters he'd killed. He then equipped himself with two daggers, both made from the iron-like bone from imps' tail spikes. After getting ready Ellis left his base to investigate this new pathway he had yet to explore.

Ellis walked down the hall. He cleaned up monsters as he went and eventually discovered a large doorway at the end of a long narrow corridor.

This must be the way out! I've finally found it!

Ellis yelled out as he shoved the doors open and ran into the brightly lit room on the other side of the door. He shielded his eyes as he entered the room allowing his eyes to adjust to the room.

When his eyes adjusted, he saw he was in a huge room full of hundreds of Imps all gathered around together in groups standing near burning piles of other monsters' corpses. Ellis's optimism shattered as fear enveloped his face.

All at once, the Imps turned their heads toward Ellis.

SHREEK!

Hundreds of Imps all howled at once and started charging toward Ellis.

Shit.

Ellis turned around and sprinted through the doorway he had come through. He ran at full speed down the halls toward his base.

There's no way in hell I can face all those things at the same time! I'll die for sure!

Ellis ran all the way back to his base before turning around to make sure nothing had followed him and started to catch his breath.

I'm going to need a plan to do this.

He had already used up his Anima Potion over the last four months and only had a handful of gems left so firing off endless lightning bolts wasn't feasible. He had been conserving the Health Potion as best as he could but all that was left of it was a few swigs so he wouldn't be able to charge in there and fight them all by hand. He would have to take out as many as possible with his lightning, retreat, then come back when his anima was full and repeat until they were all dead.

After Ellis had formed his plan he headed back to the room of Imps with conviction. He was prepared this time and would escape this dungeon no matter what.

This time, when he got to the doorway three imps guarded it.

He didn't want to alert the giant room of imps so he would have to take these ones out by hand. Ellis breathed out slowly to calm himself. This was the first time he'd be fighting more than one imp at a time in close combat. Usually, if there was a big group of monsters he would just blast them with lightning before cleaning up the stragglers with his daggers. After calming himself, he stepped forward ready for the imps to attack.

As soon as the imps saw Ellis, they immediately barreled toward him with their razor-sharp claws out and spikey tails ready to impale him.

The first Imp leaped at Ellis, who instantly sidestepped and drove his dagger into the Imps stomach before ripping the blade upwards tearing the imp open.

THUD!

The Imp fell to the ground lifeless.

The other two Imps continued their assault unfazed by their comrade's death. They both attacked Ellis at the same time from different angles.

Ellis dodged to the left avoiding one of the imps, but the second Imp caught him with its talons ripping his armor and leaving a nasty gash gushing from his arm.

Ellis lunged forward and stabbed the imp in the neck, ignoring the pain from his gash. He had been hurt many times fighting monsters; this was nothing a little sip of potion couldn't fix.

Blood spurted from the imp's neck as it fell to the ground.

Ellis rushed forward at the last imp and dug his blade into its chest.

The imp clawed at him in a final struggle to take Ellis with it, but Ellis jumped back unscathed.

The imp fell to the floor dead before it could take another step toward Ellis.

"Haah..."

Ellis breathed out stressfully before he took the red potion out of his satchel and took a swig of it. Instantly his wound began healing and within seconds all that was left was a pale scar.

Alright. Now for the hard part.

Ellis slowly leaned into the doorway in front of him and peered inside.

There were still hundreds of Imps gathered around bonfires in groups eating the carcasses of other monsters. There were at least twenty winged imps as well. Luckily, none of them had noticed Ellis yet.

Ellis held out his hand aiming for one of the bigger crowds of imps and braced himself against the wall. He gathered about a third of his anima and let loose a massive bolt of lightning.

ZWOOH! KABOOM!

The fifty imps in the center of the explosion were reduced to ash and another twenty farther away from the center were burnt to a crisp.

The other imps turned to see where the lightning bolt had come from.

As soon as their eyes connected with Ellis, they began charging toward him. He turned and ran about thirty steps outside the door before stopping. Ellis turned and faced the door, waiting for the onslaught of Imps.

The imps all rushed through the door at once and funneled out into the hallway.

ZWOOH! KABOOM!

Ellis fired a lightning bolt at the crowd of Imps.

I can only use lightning bolt one more time. I have to make it count.

As the dust cleared, more Imps came rushing out of the hole in the wall Ellis had just created. They climbed over the corpses of their comrades, swarming toward Ellis once more. This time Ellis waited longer for more imps to fill the hall before he let another bolt of lightning.

ZWOOH! KABOOM!

Ellis turned and ran as more and more imps flooded into the hallway. He didn't stop running until he made it back to his home base. Ellis crushed his remaining gems and stood by the entrances to the room waiting for anything to come after him. Luckily, nothing came so he slowly restored his anima before he set out of the room of imps once again.

Just inside the large room, a crowd of imps was huddled around the door guarding it. Further in, the rest of the imps had moved most of their dead comrades to the giant piles of corpses and were feasting on them.

Ellis snuck up to the door and shot a lightning bolt at the group guarding it. Then before the others could react he shot another group before the rest started charging at him again. He used the same tactic as before and let them funnel into the hallway before he shot his last bolt of lightning.

Only twelve imps remained after the last blast and most of them were mutilated in some sort of way.

Ellis charged forward at the remaining wounded imps with his daggers clenched tightly in his hands. He slashed and stabbed furiously while dodging every attack he could.

"Haah... haah... haah..."

Ellis stood in the middle of the hallway, surrounded by mounds of imp corpses, gasping for breath loudly, drenched in sweat and blood.