Chapter 2 - Chapter 2

Escape attempt number ten. I may have failed before, but I know this time I will escape. I have a proper weapon now, and my hiding skills have gotten better, so I know I will make it out of this cave this time. Walking through the stone tunnels, I find myself feel more calmer now that I have my sword. But I still find myself hiding when a pair of goblins walk past me. I may not be afraid, but that does not mean I am stupid. I just got this sword and do not know how to use it, so I will hide from it unless a goblin is by itself.

Continuing down the tunnel, I avoid three more goblin patrols and take out alone goblin by sneaking up on it. It did not have anything worth taking this time, so I left the body untouched and moved on. After walking for three hours and avoiding more goblins, I finally decided to stop and rest. My stamina has reached zero and is flashing red. My thirst and hunger have dropped to fifty percent, but I have nothing to eat. Maybe should have cut up that goblin and eaten it. Do you think goblins are edible? I find a small room and settle down to sleep, hoping nothing will attack me will I rest.

When I wake up, I feel relieved to be unharmed, but I feel hungry for the first time, and my throat is dry. Twenty-five percent. That is how low my hunger and thirst has dropped. I need food and water quickly, or I will die… again. Getting up, I force myself to move forward, promising I will be treated to some goblin stake when I next defeat one of those monsters. Moving forward, I can only hope for water to appear as well.

I walk for another hour before I finally stumble across another goblin. I wanted to sneak up on it, but my stomach grumbled, giving me away at the last minute. I managed to slash its throat before it could fight back, but the look of fear in the goblin's eyes was hard to see. It makes the next part harder, but I need to eat. I cut off part of its arm, doing my best to avoid the bone and put the meat in storage. All I need is something to start a fire with, and I can cook this meat and eat.

Walking forward becomes harder as my hunger and thirst continue to drop. I stumble into another cavern, but that was a mistake as it did not take long for a goblin's arrow to piece my eye. Killed and reborn again. At least this time, I woke up in that small room I stopped to rest in instead of going right back to the beginning. There is more good news, too, as my hunger and thirst are back up to one hundred percent. At least I do not have to worry as much about food and water now.

I set off once again on my eleventh attempt to escape this cave. This time I will escape. I know I am repeating myself, but I will keep saying it until I am finally free from this cave. I keep moving for one hour, then two hiding from groups of goblins and taking out four goblins I find by themselves. It is becoming easy to kill them now that I have the confidence and experience to get through this cave, and I even levelled up after my last kill. My HP, MP, and stamina increased by ten, but that was all I got from levelling up. I had hoped for some skill or magic that would help me escape, but it was still better than nothing.

Moving onward, it takes me another hour to reach a cavern where I sneak past a group of goblins eating a giant snake. It looks like they had a tough fight as several more goblins lay motionless in pools as black blood all over the cavern. I will not pick a fight with them, and I sneak through the cavern, only stopping to pick up a small dagger from one of the goblin corpses. Luckily, I make it through the cavern unseen and enter another tunnel.

I move for a few more hours hidden from goblins and occasionally take out the odd lone goblin I come across. I keep moving until my stamina drops too low to continue, and I find the safest place I can find to hide and rest for a few hours. Once I do find a small hiding spot, it does not take me long to fall asleep. Only this time, something is different, as a menu appears before my eyes.

I decided to spend three points on leaving up my hiding skill to level two, looking at my options. It seems the system for level-up skills costs one point to reach level one, two to reach level two, etc. Thinking more about it, I also level up my one-handed sword and surprise attack skills up to level two and spend my final point on dissection just in case I need to cut up another goblin. I confirm that selection, and before I wake up, I also learn I am about halfway to level three. So, this is how I grow stronger.

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I wake up and do what I have been done for what seems like a lifetime. I pick a tunnel and walk down it until something happens. It does not take long before I am forced to hide from a group of seven goblins, but I still make good progress. I managed to walk for a full hour before being killed by a giant snake this time. Then I wake up where I last slept and start over.

Attempt twelve. I set off again on my journey and sneak past several groups of goblins before taking out a lone goblin I find relieving himself in the corner of the tunnel. It was not a pleasant sight or smell, so I was quick to leave after that. I managed to walk for another five hours, kill six more goblins, and hide from countless more before I was forced to stop and rest again. At least I finally reached level three before I was forced to stop. I ended up levelling up my hiding, one-handed sword, and surprise attack skill to level three, and I kept the extra point for later.

When I wake up, I get moving once again, but the stomach pains of hunger and the dry throat of thirst greets me this morning. They have both dropped back down to fifty percent, but if the worse should happen, I could always die again to solve this problem. I do my best to ignore the problem and grit my teeth as I start to walk forward, but it is not long before I must hide from a group of three goblins. I let them pass before moving on.

Another hour passes before I must hide again, but this time from that giant snake. My hiding skill must be working wonders as the snake had no idea I was even here. Two hours of walking later, and I kill three more goblins before I am forced to rest again, but I must have died in my sleep because well I woke up in the same place, I went to sleep, my hunger and thirst have been restored. At least whatever killed me moved on because no goblins or giant snakes are in sight when I wake up.

Moving forward, I make the best progress I have made so far manage to walk for nearly fourteen hours. During that time, I managed to kill ten goblins, and when I rest, I see I am just below the requirements for level four. When I wake up, I make more progress, manage to travel for eight hours, kill seven goblins, and reach level four before I rest. Unfortunately, my hunger and thirst have both dropped below forty percent during that time. While I sleep, I increase my hiding level to level five and leave everything else the way it is.

Walking becomes nearly impossible with the pain I feel, but I keep moving forward despite the pain. Gritting my teeth, I take it one step at a time for the next hour, but then my journey comes to an end when a goblin stabs me in the back. For the first time, I am grateful for the goblin as it put an end to my suffering. Picking myself up, I keep moving forward.

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I kept walking, dying, and killing goblins repeatedly for two more days. I lost track of the number of times I died so far and the number of goblins whose blood I now have on my hands, but I kept moving forward. There must be a way out. I tell myself that repeated as I continue to move forward. I will escape from this cave of death even if it is the last thing I do.

I take a deep breath as I move forward, willing myself to keep moving. I hide from goblins and giant snakes. I kill those I can, and I keep moving forward. I smile after my latest kill, finally reaching level five after a long two days of grinding away. This time though, something is different as my strength and dexterity have increased by two while my intelligence has been boosted by five. All that fighting is starting to pay off.

I keep walking until I am forced to stop and rest, taking out another three goblins along the way. While I sleep, I boost my hiding skill to level six and learn I have two more skills I can learn. Hunger resistance and thirst resistance. After suffering from hunger pain too often, I do not hesitate to level up those skills to level two.

I continue my journey when I wake up and travel a full day before I rest in front of a pair of large doors. I am not sure if this is the way out, but the small room off to the side I find is the perfect base for now. When I wake up, the first thing I do is check on those doors. I am still not sure where they lead, but I hope it will be a way to finally escape from this place. Pushing on the door, they open easily and silently without any resistance at all.

The room on the other side of the door is made of marble, and blue torches light themselves along the walls. It is a long narrow room with a chest at the far end, and I feel uneasy but still step inside. It is too clean in here without a single speck of dust in sight, and when looking up, I see writing on the ceiling, but it is in a strange langue I cannot even begin to read. Looking around, I am expecting something to jump out at me, but when I reach the chest, nothing has happened. Nervously I look around one last time before kneeling to open the chest. Surprisingly, it opens easily, just like the large double door.

I am rich. The first items I find are four bags, each containing five hundred coins. One is filled with copper coins, another with larger copper coins, a third with silver coins and the last with gold coins. I have no idea how money works in this world, but having this number of coins cannot hurt. There is still more stuff in here, including a bag of small red gems and another short sword, but I have a sheath with it this time, so I quickly switch swords. But something feels different about this sword, and I find myself pouring MP into it, making the blade glow a light blue. When I used my appraisal skill, I learned this is a magical sword. The final item in the chest is a blue robe that, when appraised it I find out it gives me a weak MP recovery effect, so I quickly change into the robe. It is soft and comfortable, but it is weird how it is strangely my size, as if someone put it here just for me.

Unfortunately, just when I was about to leave, I found out just what had given me that uneasy feeling. A giant skeleton about twice my size appears out of a black mist. Its eyes glow red, and the monster wears thick looking metal armour. In one arm, a large axe appears and in the other, a shield. I would take a step back, but I am already up against the wall. The skeleton glares at me and lets out a mighty roar before rushing forward.

I dive under the axe letting it soar overhead, and I hear the wall shatter as I roll back to my feet. The door is shut. My eyes widen as I see the door is sealed shut, and I do not think I will be able to open it even if I try. Turning back around to face the skeleton, I see a huge gash cut into the wall as the monster pulls its axe free. If this is like a game, then the only way I am getting out of this room is either by dying or beating this skeleton.

The skeleton charges me again, and I narrowly avoid the axe as it slams into the ground where I was standing. However, I still take damage from the pieces of marble sent flying. Seeing the skeleton must pull its axe out of the ground, I know it is now or never and counterattack. I slash the skeleton's side, but it does not even flinch, so I try again, this time pouring my magic into my blade and managing to knock the skeleton off its feet. Unfortunately, the monster is quick to get back on its feet. Even worse is that I just drained all my MP with that attack, so I will not be able to do that for a while.

I charge again, sliding on the floor under the skeletons axe, which swings towards me, and I slash at the monster's ankles. It does not flinch again, but I attack again before I must avoid the axe. Then I land two blows cutting off the skeleton's arm attached to the shield. I must be doing some damage even if the skeleton does not react at all.

I am forced to dodge again before I can attack, aiming my slashes at gaps between the skeletons metal armour. I must be doing something as the monster starts to slow down, but the skeleton looks like it is far from done with me. Again, the skeleton tries to hit me with its axe, and again I dive out of the way before counterattacking. This thing must go down soon. I am starting to feel tied myself, so I do not know how much longer I can keep this up.

The skeleton slashes at me again, and I can barely dodge the blow this time. I hit back repeatedly, but this monster still will not go down. I attack again before I am forced to back away narrowly, avoiding being cut in half. I need to end this. I cannot go on. Staring at the skeleton, I look at my sword and my MP. It is still not half full, but hopefully, it will be enough. The skeleton rushes me, and I charge towards it.

"Ahh!" I scream as I rush forward, dodging the skeletons axe before striking it with my glowing sword.

I got you. My sword sends the skeleton flying back, and I am happy to see it shatter into pieces before I collapse. I smile as I blackout, happy that I won and even more so when I see I reached level ten.

As I sleep, I level up my skill. I have some new ones available after that fight. Evasion, Magic Manipulation and Sprint. They all seem helpful, so I level them up, raising them all to level five. I do not spend the rest of my points, so I rest, for now, feeling happy with my victory. When I wake up, I will definitely get out of this cave.