Chapter 2: Going insane?

It took a long time for Alexander to calm down. He felt like hours had passed, but there was no actual way of knowing since there was nothing indicating the passage of time. The injury on his leg was poorly treated, with him stopping the bleeding by using a torn part of his shirt. Now he was trying to comprehend what was happening around him.

Firstly, Alexander noticed that his previous worries about attracting something with his shots were pointless. After all this time nothing had come, and he didn't bother trying to understand why. He was sure there were still three other beings, that now he identified as goblins, on one more room. And something that sounded like a goblin, but a little different, was on the last one.

He had tried to look at the goblin's corpses, to make sure they were the infamous fantasy creature and not some small people making cosplay.

'I am not sure which possibility is more disturbing… Am I going insane?'

However, for his growing terror, a few seconds after their deaths, they turned into dust, leaving two small stones and two small sacks behind. The scene of the goblin's corpses disappearing made Alexader's questions about his sanity grow by a threshold.

Suddenly showing up in a mysterious room with weapons, enhanced senses and monsters that were out of fiction. Alexander felt his grasp of reality was slipping.

"Either I am already so crazy that all of this looks so realistic or it is the reality. I might prefer the second, but I would bet more money on the first."

After wondering and thinking for a lot of time, he got tired of doing so. He was not getting anywhere, and questioning his own sanity was not improving his situation, so he might as well just get going.

He had more than enough time to take a good look around the room, and besides the stones and sacks left by the goblins, he also noticed an old wooden chest. Though he was curious about the chest, he firstly decided to look inside the small sacks.

"Is this for real?" Alexander whispered for himself.

Each sack carried only one item, but at least it was two different items. One was a small tube of the size of a middle finger, with a blue liquid inside. In the moment Alexander put his eyes on it, even if the item was currently in his hands, he recognized it was basically a real-life version of the lowest level healing potion of Eternal Dungeon Conqueror. It wasn't an original design or anything, and if it wasn't for his current situation, he would never have associated the tube in his hands to possibly have the same function as in the game.

"I lose nothing trying… unless this is poison, or something."

He gulped. For a second he was about to hesitate, however, he had the instinct that not only the liquid on the tube wasn't dangerous, it would actually help him. Alexander couldn't understand why he thought so. At that point he was numb to the feeling of not understanding something. Deciding to no longer think twice, he drunk what was on the tube.

The effect happened in the same instant. The pain on his leg disappeared;He took the piece of fabric away and looked at where the injury was, only to see nothing, not even the faintest scar. Not only that, but Alexander felt his muscles relax, every part of him seemed to have gone back to its peak condition. He felt refreshed.

"I might start to accept this whole dungeon thing." He couldn't avoid the grin that formed in his face, the potion made him feel great after all. His previous worries faded a little and he felt some excitement.

Throwing the tube on the ground, Alexander opened the second sack. It was the same tube, but this time the liquid was yellow instead of blue.

"Stamina potion…"

His first thought was to wonder if that potion would taste like an energetic drink. His second thought was to get curious about how he would feel after taking it, since the effect of the healing potion was above anything he could have expected. His last thought was to put the tube back on the sack and keep it with him for later, if he might need it. He was already working with the assumption everything worked close enough to what he knew about the game.

He put the sack on his pocket and finally took a look at the chest. A part of him feared that it could be a mimic, because at this point everything was free game, but once more he had the weird feeling that there was no danger.

"The game's crystals?" He said to himself with amusement.

Inside the chest there were a few small shiny crystals. They were of the size of small coins, but were quite pretty and had the format of marbles. Alexander didn't have to look twice to be sure that this was the currency of his favorite game.

"Of fucking course, it is. How can I even use this?"

-{System still in the process of loading and charging. Store not available.}-

Suddenly, Alexander heard a mechanic voice saying those words in his head. He stared at nothing for a few minutes, unsure if the voice had truly existed or was something his mind made up. He looked at the crystals in his hand again and thought of the same thing, how to use them. He wanted to see if the same "notification" would appear. And it did.

-{System still in the process of loading and charging. Store not available.}-

He sat on the floor. He put the crystals in the sack he had gotten the healing potion from and guarded it on his pocket. For several moments he stayed staring at nothing thoughtfully.

"A system… a real fucking system? Oh, wait… I might have really gone insane if I am hearing voices in my head… but a system? Really?"

Alexander wasn't sure in what he should feel. The concept of game like systems were not a weird concept for him, it was a common trope in several games and stories he saw. A few years ago, it was his dream to have one, but now that it happened, he was just as excited as he was worried about his sanity.

His only wish was that everything happening was real and he wasn't going insane.

Still severely confused, though much more optimistic, he was ready to face the other three goblins.

"Damn, I almost forgot."

With all that he had seen in this short period of time, he almost left behind the two stones left by the goblins when they turned into dust. Grabbing one of the stones made a new notification appear in his mind.

-{System still in the process of loading and charging. Assimilation is not available.}-

It looked similar to the last one, but it referred to another mechanic of Endless Dungeon Conqueror. Every time a mob was killed, they had a certain percentage chance of dropping an object that would represent a skill. In the game it was a card, but here it seemed it was adapted to a bright stone. Once the player got that card, or stone for Alexander, they could randomly get one of the monster's skills. The monsters that showed up on the first floor, in this case goblins, always had high chances of dropping their skills for players.

A huge grin had formed in Alexander's face.

"All my teenager dreams are coming true… I am only missing a harem now…"

He had accepted that, if he was going insane, he would truly embrace his inner craziness.

"I don't know when the system will be ready, but I should get going."

In a much better mood than he was when first entering the room, he moved to the next one.

The short experience of having fought with goblins previously, and the knowledge that there were prizes he once could only dream about waiting for him, made Alexander less nervous for the second fight. He still wasn't sure why the goblins didn't move because of the gunshots, but he assumed they were simply territorial and didn't care about what happened in rooms that were not theirs.

He firmly holds his axe and pistol, to reassure himself. Took a deep breath, and kicked the door.

The loud noise got the three goblin's attention. There was no visual difference between them and the ones Alexander had previously, even their weapons were the same.

This time he had no hesitation. Having previously tested, Alexander knew that, just like the game when the player chooses the pistol, his weapon had infinity ammunition. It was one of the things that made him more certain that he was in some type of weird alternative reality. Or he had just went batshit crazy. The first option was more attractive for him though, and he wasn't willing to bet on the second anymore.

When he attacked, it was the goblins that couldn't react now. He repeatedly pulled the trigger of his pistol, not really aiming, just trying to hit the general direction where he could see the three ugly and small green things. And it was ridiculously effective.

Three shots hit a goblin, one bullet on the chest, one on the right arm and one on the head. The monster died before he could react.

Another one did not die instantaneously, it first got shot in the leg and in the chest, making it impossible to breath. It couldn't move and died agonizing after a few moments, only enough time for Alexander to deal with the last goblin.

The third one was the only one that manage to get close to Alexander. The monster was already close to the door, so when Alexander kicked and got in shooting, the goblin only had to jump to reach him. He was still shoot on the waist and shoulder though, what hindered its move enough so that Alexander had time to counter attack.

Alexander felt like his heart could explode at any moment, he was weirdly enjoying the feeling though. He moved by instinct, his hand holding the axe made an arc, the blade connected with the neck of the goblin, and when Alexander came fully back to his senses, he saw the goblins bodies turning to dust, leaving the loot behind.

He stopped and took a deep breath. He felt the adrenaline rushing through him like it never did before. He felt alive like he never did before.

"Heh… fuck it! I might be insane but this is so much better than being sane!"

He felt like he could do anything and face anyone. He felt in the top of the world. And with such feelings, he was more than ready to head towards the boss.