10 The stone of the jungle
[You have entered a dungeon.]
‘Thank you, Helpy, I wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for you... The real question is, what dungeon is this?’
[Unknown dungeon.]
‘Perfect… However, it was to be expected, the entrance is at the bottom of the river, so I don’t expect anyone to have been diving around here looking for a dungeon.’
After a while rolling on the streambed, I spotted a good place to climb the riverbank and got out of the river. Dense tropical-looking vegetation blocked my vision as soon as I got out. The height of the plants was impressive, and I’m not saying that because I was small. The lowest tree that I could see was over twenty meters. I had just entered a dense jungle.
The sky was clear. Not a single cloud was covering it. However, the sun was nowhere to be seen, which indicated that I wasn’t actually staring at the sky, but rather at a fake ceiling. Still, it looked so real that it was easy to forget that I actually was inside of a hole in the bottom of a river right now.
‘It doesn’t look like I will be able to leave this dungeon so easily… Why does everything have to go wrong every single time?!’
The sound of the waterfall overlapped with the distant noises of the animals, probably monsters. Said waterfall was the way out of the dungeon… and it stood at almost a hundred meters high… It would be impossible to get out unless I knew how to fly and, even so, the strength of the stream would probably prevent me from escaping anyway.
‘And curiosity killed the cat. Or in this case, sank the stone…’
But, despite the distant noises, I couldn’t sense any danger nearby.
‘Standing still won’t help.’
I very carefully went deeper into the jungle. It did not take long for the lush trees to completely hide the sky. The thick undergrowth blocked my vision so much that I ended up moving forward without even knowing where I was going.
Tree, bush, tuft of grass… everything around me looked exactly the same, and I was starting to get sick of so much greenery. However, after having wandered aimlessly for a while, I ended up in a completely different place. Green was no more, and a snowy white became the predominant colour.
‘Shit…’
It was obvious at first glance that the predominant white colour of this zone was due to the silky threads of spider web covering everything in sight. And of course, the owner of said webs could not be far.
‘Please, not another fucking bug! And least of all a nasty spider!’
I turned around and prepared to rush out of that place, but I had already been caught in the spider’s web.
‘If luck is a stat, then surely mine must be a negative number…’
I could hear the sound of something approaching the very moment I got trapped. As I turned to face the spider, instead of feeling scared, all I felt was resignation.
‘Just when I think I have already seen everything, this world surprises me again. Well, it’s the first floor, so it should be a fairly weak enemy.’
[Pigantula: A kind of giant spider. It can generate extremely resistant threads and camouflage among them. Despite its large size, it does not possess poison.]
Status:
Name: -
Kind: Spider | Race: Pigantula
Level: 20
HP: 457/457 | MP: 134/134
————————————————
Well, of course it didn’t have poison… The thing in front of me was a fucking spider the size of an adult human being, but its biggest feature was… that it had the face of a damn pig! And to top it off, its level was 20!
‘Is this thing considered to be a bug or an animal?’
Oiiiiiiink!
No, that’s irrelevant right now. That thing was already charging at me with its ugly angry pig face. Pigs' jaws are stronger than they look. It would break me into little pieces before long.
I fired a desperate 5 MP Mana Cannon that hit it square in the face causing it to lose a massive… 1 HP… Even if I poured all of my mana on a projectile, I wouldn’t be able to kill that monster. Facing it head on didn’t seem like an option.
‘I can’t face a level 20 monster… I’m screwed.’
My only chance of survival was escaping. Easier said than done however, due to the sticky threads scattered all over the floor.
I didn’t have much time to think either, as the Pigantula was already getting dangerously close to me. I needed to come up with something fast if I was to avoid meeting a tragic end… No, I didn’t have to think, I needed to act right now.
‘This is my last resort!’
Praying for a miracle, I turned to the skill that had already saved my life once, the mana bomb. I quickly readied it, using 150 MP from my mana well, and made it explode the moment that the pig’s mouth was starting to close on me.
Oiiiiiiink!
It only worked halfway. I was able to push the monster away from me, and as a bonus, leaving it slightly dazed, but its HP only dropped by 7. Luckily, I got something even better out of it: breaking the threads that had me tangled and opening a way to retreat from the white area.
‘Bie bie ugly pig, I fare thee well!’
Oiiiiiiink! Oiiiiiiink! Oiiiiiiink!
But that monster seemed to have been enraged by my attack, and even though it was pretty much unscathed, it ran after me without hesitation.
‘What the fuck? What kind of monster would chase after a stone?!’
And to make matters worse, that monster was faster than me. Luckily, its maneuverability couldn’t be compared to mine. Before it caught me, I made a quick turn and dodged under it. We went on like that for a while. It charged at me from different directions and each time I dodged. However, this thing was relentless and never stopped chasing me.
‘This reminds me of the time when I was chasing after that centipede… only that now I’m the one being chased… Is this karma?’
I checked my status just in case…
Status:
Name: Peter Gravel
Kind: Magic stone | Race: -
Level: 5 | Experience: 71/1518
HP: 28/35 | MP: 9/70 | Mana well: 50/200
_________________________
Good thing I did that… I was in deep shit. I had barely 9 MP left and 50 points in the well.
‘Isn’t Roll going to level up this time? I need it real bad!’
I tried to give the monster the slip within the lush jungle, but it just wouldn’t give up. Just as I was about to give up hope and accept my fate, something caught my attention. I had just come across a plant with reddish and purple leaves. I had no idea what plant that was, but if I had learned something in my thirty years of life, it was that those colors usually mean poison… usually...
‘But I can’t be sure if it’s poisonous or not… Whatever, I have no other choice!’
I decided to trust my hunch and backtracked to where the plan was, hoping that I could reach it before the monster caught me. I barely managed to, and immediately jumped on it.
‘Now, you pig, come at me!’
I placed myself in the middle of the leaves, ready to lure the monster straight to them. I checked my status again, just in case. I had only 12 mana points left in the well and my MP was depleted. I had not enough mana left for a plan B… If the plant turned out to be harmless or the monster immune to it… that would be the end for me.
Oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink!
Its red eyes full of fury stared directly at me. Drool dripped from its open mouth. It was a rather unpleasant sight which made me want to flee, but I had to stand my ground!
‘Not yet, not yet, not yet!’
Anxiety made it difficult for me to think straight. I was worried that fear would get the better of me at the last moment and spoil everything.
‘Not yet, not yet, not yet...’
Time was advancing painstakingly slow as I waited for its mouth to get close to me. Finally, its attack came.
‘Now!’
I got out of its way as fast as I could. It was barely enough to not die crushed by its jaws.
Status:
Name: Peter Gravel
Kind: Magic stone | Race: -
Level: 5 | Experience: 71/1518
HP: 12/35 | MP: 0/70 | Mana well: 10/200
_________________________
I had been bitten, but somehow I managed to survive, and my plan worked. Along with a small piece of me, the monster also ate a good chunk of the plant. But I couldn’t lower my guard just yet. The effect of the poison may not be instantaneous, that is, if the plant was actually poisonous in the first place… I needed to stall for at least a few more minutes. And this time, I couldn’t run anymore.
The monster growled and attacked again. I continued to dodge it as I had done up until now. Each time I did, it seemed to get angrier.
Oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink! Oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink! Oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink! Oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink!
It wouldn’t give me a moment to catch my breath. I was consuming mana faster than it was regenerating, so my reserves were steadily shrinking… I was at the breaking point, and soon I would have no mana left.
‘Please poison, now would be a good time to start doing your thing…’
It did not look like the monster was being affected by the poison at all… or so I thought until I noticed that one of its legs started giving out.
‘It is actually working!’
A couple of seconds later, another one of its legs gave out, then another, and finally its whole body seemed to be on the brink of collapse.
Oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink!
In that last growl I could feel his pain, it had even stopped chasing after me. Not that I was in much better shape myself, since I had just one single mana point left.
‘Just in time… Finally a stroke of luck.’
The monster was convulsing, but it did not seem to be dying. I was not going to waste the opportunity. I took advantage of the fact that it was completely defenseless and approached it with nefarious intent, and immediately activated the Parasitize ability.
‘This will take years… but it’s the only skill I can use to finish it off.’
It took me so long to kill the monster with the parasitize ability that it even went up to level 2. The draining speed increased, which helped me a lot to drain the remaining HP of the monster.
[You have gained 5625 experience points.]
[Your level has risen to 6. Due to your kind, your stats can’t go up.]
[Your level has risen to 7. Due to your kind, your stats can’t go up.]
Status:
Name: Peter Gravel
Kind: Magic stone | Race: -
Level: 7 | Experience: 1901/3415
HP: 45/45 | MP: 90/90 | Mana well: 200/200
_________________________
That spider pig gave me enough experience to level up twice on one go. But I had to admit, killing it had been a fluke.
‘And this is only the first floor of the dungeon… Was this supposed to be a harmless monster?’
The only way to leave the dungeon seemed to be by finishing it… and I was already having a hard time clearing the first floor. How was I supposed to get through the more difficult ones? I realized that I would be stuck inside the dungeon for a while...
