Chapter 4: The Secret of Falling Stones.

Daniel kept running. He ran and ran, not stopping for a second. Suddenly, he heard a loud and deafening sound behind him. Daniel quickly looked back. Everything inside him tightened. A furious and tumultuous wave of lava started chasing him. Daniel sped up even more.

The lava almost touched his heels, and Daniel had forgotten about everything: the monsters, the fact that he was in a damn game, and the lava that wanted to kill him. Right now, all Daniel could think about was running. Run. Run. Run. Faster. Run. Just run. Don't stop.

However, at one moment, Daniel couldn't hold on any longer and fell to the ground out of exhaustion. He turned around and saw that the lava had long stopped chasing him. It had stopped somewhere ten meters behind him. And slowly, it began to disappear.

"Hmm?" Daniel didn't really understand how it worked. As far as he knew, lava doesn't evaporate that quickly. And then he realized that it wasn't the lava disappearing, but the floor absorbing it. But Daniel didn't have time to think about it. He needed to catch his breath first and foremost.

Daniel took a deep breath and exhaled. Inhale... Exhale... Inhale. Exhale. With a cold and impassive face, the boy looked back. No one was chasing him. The ground beneath his feet and the walls were no longer trembling. The lava had vanished. He was safe... for now.

Though the immediate danger had passed, Daniel's main problems hadn't disappeared; they had only intensified. His sense of coldness reached 70%. His energy dropped to 8 due to the running. The percentage of bleeding hadn't increased but also hadn't decreased; it remained at 8%, causing his health to drop to 83. The feeling of desire had increased only slightly, but it was one step away from reaching 20%.

Daniel was on the brink of despair. However, he didn't care about that right now; he was just trying to catch his breath. His lungs felt like they were on fire. He had never run so fast in his life, as he did a few minutes ago. If someone had told him that he had just broken the world record for running, he wouldn't have been surprised.

Daniel stopped looking back and finally turned his head forward to acquaint himself with the new tunnel he had entered. He had entered the very same tunnel in the middle on the right that he had planned to go into after checking the large tunnel opposite. However, he had come here not because he had planned to, but rather because of instincts and intuition that screamed at him to come here.

One thing that could be noted about this tunnel was that, unlike the tunnel he had initially walked through, this one was much wider. Moreover, the main advantage of this tunnel was that it wasn't as dark as its two other siblings. A small blue glow emanated from the walls and floor of this tunnel. Daniel presumed that the walls and floor were made of some material other than stone, unknown to him. Perhaps that was why this floor calmly absorbed the lava. However, on the other hand, the ceiling and upper walls of the tunnel were engulfed in darkness. No matter how hard Daniel tried, he couldn't see what was above. And honestly, it bothered Daniel slightly, but not as much as the fact that his energy was almost depleted.

Regarding his energy, Daniel realized that if he didn't exert himself too much, such as running or doing any exhausting physical exercises like rock climbing, his energy wouldn't be spent; moreover, it would slowly but surely recover. On that stone ledge, when Daniel lay on his tongue for about two minutes, his energy sharply increased from 13 to 15. He didn't have time to sit even for a minute now because all his senses were gradually increased, especially the feeling of cold. However, the good news was that if Daniel walked instead of running, his energy wouldn't be spent much. So that's what he did.

Finally calming his lungs, Daniel took one last deep breath and moved forward. He didn't know how far he had to go, but he didn't see any branches or exits ahead, which meant that his path was going to be quite lengthy.

After some time, a small stone fell on Daniel. It fell right on his head. The stone weighed around a kilogram, but it hurt. Daniel rubbed the back of his head. He picked up the stone that was lying on the ground and held it in his hand. The stone was the size of a small ball, and Daniel held it between his fingers. But the most interesting thing about this stone was that it was smooth and round, like a snowball.

Daniel looked up at the ceiling. It was still dark, and he couldn't understand how or where this stone had fallen from, but now he needed to be even more vigilant than before.

Suddenly, the stone in his hand disappeared. It dissolved as if it were not a stone, but a hologram. Daniel had a very bad feeling about this. A perfectly smooth stone of that shape falling on him from the ceiling and then disappearing didn't bode well. He quickly opened his status window and saw that his health had dropped by one point from the impact. With a cold expression on his face, Daniel continued forward, slightly picking up his pace.

After a minute, another stone fell on him, but this time Daniel was prepared. He slightly moved his head, and the stone hit his shoulder, without affecting his health. However, this news didn't comfort Daniel. After all, now he knew that this stone had fallen on him not by accident... The stone on the ground disappeared again.

Daniel looked up and saw another stone flying towards him at a high speed. If he hadn't moved his head, the stone would have hit him directly in the eye. However, even taking such a hit on his forehead was damn painful.

Daniel touched his forehead and saw blood on his fingers. The bleeding had increased from 8 to 10%, and his health had dropped from 82 to 80. This was bad. Very bad. These stones were not just falling; they were falling specifically on him.

Another stone from the ceiling flew towards him, but this time Daniel jumped forward, quickly stood up, and started running. He didn't plan on using up the rest of his energy, but he didn't have much choice. He ran. He decided to run not as fast as when he was fleeing from the gorillas or lava, but at a moderate pace.

The stones continued to fall on him. Now, two stones were flying towards him from behind. Daniel barely dodged them. When he couldn't avoid them, he punched them with his fists, and his health only decreased after the third or fourth hit.

Daniel ran and couldn't understand what the hell was happening. Why were the stones from the ceiling flying specifically at him? Could it be some kind of trap that activates when a player enters? Or is it something else entirely...

His energy dropped from 8 to 6. This was not good. Not good at all. He couldn't see an exit, but he needed to do something. He couldn't keep running forever. Suddenly, Daniel stopped. He decided to try something unexpected. Two stones fell on him again, but instead of dodging them, Daniel decided to try catching both stones. He failed to catch one stone, which hit him in the chest, but he managed to catch the second one in his hand. He knew the stone would soon disappear, so before that happened, Daniel decided to throw the stone with all his strength at the ceiling.

The next thing Daniel heard was not the sound of the stone bouncing off a hard surface, but a piercing and annoying screech.

"I knew it. It's definitely not a trap." Daniel turned sharply with a cold expression on his face and rushed forward. Now he was sure that stones were not just falling on him from above. Some creature was throwing stones at him from the ceiling, which was consumed by darkness and prevented him from seeing it. He didn't know how many of these creatures were there, one or more. He didn't know if he had enough strength to fight them. Maybe he had enough strength, but not enough energy... It was wiser to run while Daniel stunned this creature. It was better to use all his strength to try to escape from this tunnel rather than to fight the unknown and then collapse here, exhausted.

He ran as fast as he could, just like when he was running away from gorillas. He didn't look back. He just ran forward, hoping for luck. And this time luck was on his side. Finally, Daniel saw light at the end of the tunnel. He ran towards it. He ran. And finally, he emerged from the tunnel onto another long ledge that resembled a tongue in shape. He fell onto it and immediately turned around.

Now before his eyes were two tunnels. The right tunnel, from which he had just emerged, and the left tunnel, which he obviously had to enter. Both of these tunnels were separated by a fairly thick wall made of an unknown material that emitted a blue glow.

However, he didn't turn there because of that. He waited. He waited to see if that creature would come out of the right tunnel or stay there. There was no point in running further from the creature because if it did come out and follow him into the left tunnel, then his situation would be the same as before, or even worse, as his energy had dropped to 4% and he couldn't run anymore. If he were to fight, it would be here, in the light. Although Daniel hoped most of all that the creature would stay there and not follow him.

With an impassive expression on his face, Daniel sat on the stone ledge and stared intently at the right tunnel. About a minute passed. His energy increased from 4% to 5%. Daniel quickly closed the status window and swiftly dodged a stone that flew at him from the right tunnel. Daniel picked up the stone and immediately threw it back into the right tunnel, but unfortunately, this time he missed the creature and it dodged.

Daniel stood up abruptly and ran into the left tunnel. He took two loud steps forward, then slowly and quietly turned back, peering out of the darkness at the stone ledge illuminated by the bright sunlight.

A creature suddenly leaped out of the right tunnel onto the stone ledge. It was about forty centimetres tall. In its paws, it held two small stones. The creature had a long, sharp stone tail bent upwards, half the length of its body. The stone layer almost completely covered the creature's body, except for its face. The creature's face could even be called somewhat cute, except for its eyes, which were as terrifying as those of two huge gorillas. Like them, the creature's eyes also exuded darkness.

"What is this..." Daniel looked at the creature indifferently. The creature abruptly stopped when it heard and then saw the face of the boy peering out of the tunnel.

A notification immediately popped up in front of Daniel`s eyes.

[Monster: Mountain Macaque.]

[Rank: Filth.]

"I'm ready to die in any way, but definitely not from a damn macaque. This death will definitely be in the top 10 most shameful deaths in the history of the entire Empire," Daniel stared impassively into the dark fierce eyes of the macaque.

And so began Daniel's first battle in the game he had mistakenly entered.