3 Exploring the Cave that ends up being a Dungeon

His eyes slowly open as he regains his consciousness. The screen of the Full Dive goggles reveals to him the ceiling of his room instead of the interface from the game.

He gently removes the specs from his head, he remains lying on his bed in exhaustion from the previous activities he did inside the game.

'Full Dive really immerse you to virtual reality, I feel like my body made a few laps around a football field without stopping.'

He then turned his gaze from the ceiling to the window of his room and noticed that it is already getting dark.

His body is tired but he still has important things to do than just lying around in his room and the grumbling of his stomach is getting worse each passing moment.

'What will I have for dinner then?' He asked himself because he knows that there is no other human being inside his house other than him.

He forced himself to stand up from his bed and went straight to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

He then turned the TV on and switched it to a news channel and the current headline is about the game company that created Grand Nexus.

He then grabs the kettle and fills it halfway with water from the faucet. He then sets it on top of the stove after filling the kettle to bring it to a boil.

'They probably earn billions by now.' Kyle thought while staring at the TV screen.

On the screen, the CEO of the game company gave a speech about how she plans to improve the game features in the near future.

"…As the game enters a new stage in the upcoming update, I hope that every player worldwide supports the event we will introduce in the next update as a commemoration for the third anniversary of the game." She said, ending her speech followed by a loud clap from the crowd.

'That's one pretty CEO.'

But before Kyle could fantasize more about the pretty CEO, the kettle started on whistling informing him that the water is already boiling.

He turns the stove off and immediately went to the cupboard just right above the stove and grab a cup of instant noodles.

He opens its lid and pours an ample amount of water in it then closed it right away to cook it.

After a few minutes, he opens the lid again and begins chowing the warm noodles.

He changed the channel again to one of his favorite channels, an anime channel, and the show is all about players that are trapped in the game and are unable to log out, what makes it scarier is that if they die in the game, they also die in real life.

'I hope Grand Nexus won't reach that point on trapping the players just for the GM to achieve his fetish.' He thought as he gulps down the remaining of the instant noodles he has in hand.

'Good thing it's a holiday tomorrow.' He thought for he won't have to worry about his work while exploring the cave he saw.

He then went to bed after his quick meal.

The next day, after having breakfast, Kyle immediately log in to Grand Nexus to start exploring that cave he saw.

At the same time, while Kyle login into the game, an email from someone unknown pops the notification bar on his computer but Kyle didn't notice it because he is already unconscious and his senses are already immersed in the game.

Inside the game, he spawned on the same place he last logout near the bench where he sat last night.

Since Kyle already learned the danger when it comes to roaming around an unknown territory in a game, he didn't rush himself to go immediately to the cave, hence, he went back to the market and stock up some necessary items.

"Oh, it's you again. What can I get you?" The potion merchant said upon seeing Kyle stopping in front of his stall.

"Yeah, I'm here to buy some pots." Kyle answered the potion merchant.

"Stocking up I see, where are you going then?" The merchant inquired as if he is not an NPC at all.

"Just roaming around. Are you really this talkative?" Kyle wonders why it seems to be able to answer questions and ask one. Because if the developer created this NPC to be able to talk and analyze like a real person, then they did a great job that deserves a noble prize.

The merchant gave Kyle a curious look and answered him.

"Maybe because it's just the way I am." The merchant answered and caught Kyle off-guard.

'What exactly does he mean by "it's just the way I am."?' Kyle thought, but the merchant itself diverted their conversation back to the original topic.

"How much potions do you need?" the merchant said, probing Kyle back to his original intention of coming to his stall.

"I need forty potions, twenty HP pots, and ten MP and SP pots." Kyle said.

The merchant immediately went to his stall behind him and then grabs a boxlike item the size of his palm from the shelf under his stall and gave it to Kyle.

Kyle wonders what the box meant to be because what he remembers is that he asked for potions, not a glowing blue box that looks like the Tesseract from the movie Thor.

"And… what would that be?" Kyle asked the merchant.

"Your potions." The merchant answered while reaching it to Kyle.

"No, that's a box, a glowing blue box." Kyle answered the merchant with doubt about it being the potion.

"No my friend, this is not a box but what we call a bundle. A potion bundle to be exact." The merchant insisted.

"Kindly check its content by tapping it." The merchant added.

Kyle tapped the box and a small floating screen appears on it stating the contents of it having forty HP, ten MP, and SP potions.

"It really does contains the potions!" Kyle said in surprise upon seeing the contents of the box and took it from the merchant's hand.

"That would be ten gran." The merchant said, stating the price of the potion bundle.

"Hey… isn't this like extortion?"

"No, actually it's already discounted. You see, one HP potion has a price of three hundred coins, so then, twenty of them are already peaking six thousand then add the MP and SP potions with a price range of two hundred fifty." The merchant explained.

This also makes sense to Kyle because if he adds the individual prices then it will definitely skyrocket to eleven thousand rather than ten.

"Okay fine, I'll take it." He said as he pays the price of the potion bundle.

"Thank you for your patronage." The merchant said with a smile.

Then another floating screen pops out from the box stating if he wants it to be added to his inventory. Kyle adds the bundle to his inventory and a notification appears on his screen.

[You received 1x "Potion Bundle" (Small)]

"Hey, why is the potion bundle says it's a small one?" Kyle asked the merchant.

"Because inside are small-sized potions?" The merchant stated the obvious.

"No, what I mean is, why do I get small-sized potions?"

"Well, your HP bar will definitely tell you why. Kindly take a look and I'll explain it to you." The merchant said with a smile.

Kyle stares at his red HP gauge on his screen.

"What number does it have?" the merchant asked.

"It's saying 1100 HP." Kyle answered, telling the merchant the numbers on his HP gauge and the merchant starts explaining to him the reason.

"So, as you can see, a potion has three categories namely, small, medium, and large…" The merchant explained.

"…And each of them recovers ones HP differently, for example, a Small HP potion recovers 600 points of HP, a Medium potion recovers 1500 points of HP and is much more expensive than the small one, while the Large HP potion recovers 2500 points HP and is twice more expensive than the medium one…" The merchant added.

"…Same goes for the other potions, so for your current max HP, a small HP potion is recommended…" But before the merchant finishes his explanation, Kyle interrupted him.

"Alright, alright, I get it." He said, interrupting the long talk of the merchant

Kyle then checks his inventory and found the potion bundle's icon in there. He tapped the icon and a notification appears on his screen.

[20 HP potions added to inventory]

[10 MP potions added to inventory]

[10 SP potions added to inventory]

He is about to leave when the merchant then again speaks to him, informing Kyle about something that he might want to know.

"By the way, there is another way to obtain potions other than buying it directly in shops." The merchant said.

Hearing it, Kyle sways back to the merchant because this might cut his expenses intended for the potions.

"I'm listening." Kyle said, propping his chin on his right hand while resting it on top of the counter of the merchant's stall, while the merchant on the other side of the stall gave off a happy grin because he will have a longer chance to chitchat on customers.

"Very well then, aside from possible drops from monsters, potions can also be obtained by means of crafting." He said as he explains everything to Kyle.

After he listens to the explanation of the merchant, Kyle now went straight to the field where lots of slimes bouncing around could be seen.

'Crafting huh? All I need to do is find these herbs.' Kyle thought as he checks his quest log where a quest from the merchant entitled "Search for Herbs" is currently active.

But as he goes further in the forest, he noticed that the slimes seem to be moving away from him as he walks pass them, as if they are scared of him for some point.

'Oh, I think it's because of last time.' He thought as he remembers his quest yesterday on eliminating slimes.

'But I don't think that's the point, they are an unaggressive type of monsters so they won't naturally attack players but hiding because of fear? No no, that would be absurd even for a game.'

And Kyle noticed something on the names of the slime; because the nametag on top of their head is in an almost transparent white color that is close to gray.

'If I remembered it correctly, the name of these slimes is in red color yesterday.' He thought while he spots a slime on the field. He throws one of his daggers to it and eliminates it with just one hit.

A notification appears on his screen stating his recent activity.

[Slime defeated.]

'No EXP gained from eliminating it huh?' He thought, noticing the absence of the notification for receiving EXP is nowhere to be found on his screen..

'This must be a difficulty indicator, telling me that slimes are now an easy target to eliminate and I won't get EXPs from it anymore.' He concluded as he now arrives at the entrance of the cave he saw yesterday.

In front of the cave, a red exclamation point blocks the opening.

Kyle taps the exclamation point to see if it has a menu or something just like most of the things in this game. Because as far as he noticed, most tangible things in the game have a menu or info window when a player taps it.

And he was right on his thought. A floating window appears stating the requirement to explore the cave that turns out to be a dungeon of some sort.

[Imp dungeon: Level Requirements 10 and above.]

'Okay, seems like I just barely hit the minimum.' He thought as he walked pass thru the exclamation point and enters the dungeon.

There is no available lighting inside the dungeon and the only bright part of it is the opening of the cave's entrance where daylight passes thru to illuminate a portion of the path into the dark dungeon. But looking further inside, there is only darkness and not a single thing can be seen by the naked eye.

As Kyle reaches the dark curtain that separates the illuminated part of the dungeon, a sensation of pure malice hits Kyle like a strong current of wind on a shoreline.

Although he can't see it due to the pitch-black darkness beyond the cave, Kyle knows this kind of sensation, it's the same feeling as that of someone who doesn't want you to be on their turf, a kind of warning telling you to go out or deal with the consequences.

A strong sense of killing intent.

'Now, now, this is exciting.' Kyle thought as he feels again the same excitement he felt when he faced a swarm of training dummies back in the tutorial.

He took a step forward and noticed that there is a black colored membrane of some kind that is blocking the way further inside the cave that expands from the ceiling to the floor and from the left side to the right.

He took a feel on it and noticed that it seems to be as soft as a jelly. Yet it is permeable enough for someone to pass thru and will still be able to maintain its form even after a hundred times of reentering it.

'Time to start exploring.' He said as he passes thru the black membrane without second-guessing.

As he enters, Kyle noticed some dim, bluish lighting coming from multiple glowing stones scattered on every corner illuminates the whole interior of the cave, in front of him, are multiple tunnels leading to different rooms and locations of the dungeon.

He wonders why he didn't notice the lighting of the inside of the cave while he is still outside it.

He turns around and saw behind him the black membrane which he uses to enter the interior of the cave and noticed that he could no longer see the entrance he used to went in.

'Must be because of the membrane.'

A notification then appears on his screen stating about an active quest that just triggered.

[Active quest "Collecting Imp wings" ongoing.]

[Imp wings Collected: 0/30]

[Active quest "Eliminate Imps" on going]

[Imps Eliminated 0/30]

'Oh, a dungeon quest.' He thought, but before Kyle knew it, a notification alerts him.

[Requirements met "Counter Attack" activated.]

His body immediately dodged the attack that is coming towards him and successfully landed a counter-attack using his dagger stabbing it somewhere on the assailant's body followed by a roundhouse kick, throwing his assailant to the corner as it hits the wall of the cave.

Because of the dim lighting and the sudden activation of his passive skill "Counter Attack", which he learned upon reaching level 10, Kyle didn't grasp the full picture of his attacker, all he knows is that it moves really fast.

'What was that?' he thought, wondering what it could be

He walked closer to where the body was tossed and saw a human-like figure in a medium-size, but as he comes closer, it turns out to be a reddish skin-toned monster having a pair of bat-like wings with a single horn on its forehead, it has sharp claws on both hands and feet as it lies on the ground and seems to be unconscious because of the previous attack he dealt to it.

'This must be the thing they called as Imp.' While reaching for it out of curiosity.

But before he could grab it, the "Imp" suddenly pounced to him with its mouth wide open as it tries to bite Kyle with its pointy sharp teeth.

Kyle, on the other hand, draws out his dagger and immediately stabs the incoming head of the Imp, at the same time, pushing it backward until they hit the wall of the cave.

The Imp began to pixelate and a notification pops on Kyle's screen.

"What an ugly creature you are."

[Imps Eliminated 1/30]

[You received 450 EXP]

'Okay, now I defeated an Imp, but where're the wings?' He thought as he wonders why he didn't receive the quest item.

Kyle then noticed a box-like item similar to that of the potion bundle he bought from the potion merchant floating on the ground. He squats down to check what it is and taps the hovering blue box, and a floating window pops out from it with a description.

[Quest Item: Imp Wings]

'Bingo.'

Kyle then adds the item to his inventory and then a notification appears at the same time.

[Imp wings Collected: 2/30]

'So I can get two Imp wings when I eliminate one Imp' He thought as he works on the math in his mind, calculating the needed number of Imps to finish the quest.

'…Then that would mean, I'd be able to finish the Imp wings quest before I could accomplish the Elimination quest.'

"No choice then." He said and started walking deeper into the cave.

As he walks further inside, Kyle starts to smell a stench coming out from one of the tunnels in the cave, he follows that stench and found himself inside an empty room with nothing but some bluish glowing stones scattered around the room.

Because he didn't find anything and also to save time because he still has an active quest to do, Kyle turns around so that he can explore other tunnels when suddenly, a screeching sound resonates in the room along with multiple flapping sounds of wings.

The noise came from the ceiling, forcing Kyle to look up and saw around a hundred Imps hanging on the ceiling. They seem to be sleeping a while ago but are now awaken because of Kyle intruding on the place.

"Hey, Hey… That's a lot of Imps…" He said, but inside his mind, he is worried.

'…And they are all having a red name, along with some orange ones.'

Kyle draws both his daggers and prepares himself for an unexpected attack.

The swarm of Imps began on flapping their wings wildly after seeing Kyle preparing himself.

Then a huge swarm of Imps came on flying towards him in an intense and quick manner, as they tackle Kyle sending him flying a few meters away from his standing point.

'Didn't see that coming.' He thought

'I can't defeat them if they swarm like that while attacking.'

Kyle worries about the opponent he is facing because as for the moment, only his passive skills can deal damage to his foes, making things worst, the passive's skills he relies on to could only damage one enemy at a time.

Kyle checks his HP and the attack took an ample amount from it.

'I'm at a disadvantage here if this thing keeps on going.' He thought, worried about the possibility of him being eliminated instead of him eliminating them.

The swarm of Imps then again strikes an attack on him with the same velocity and all he could do is to block it as much as he could.

The attack continues until it took more than half of Kyle's HP, on the same time, Kyle noticed something interesting popping on his screen.

[Requirements met "Counter Attack" activated.]

[Imp Eliminated 2/30]

[Requirements met "Counter Attack" activated.]

[Imp Eliminated 3/30]

[Requirements met "Counter Attack" activated.]

[Imp Eliminated 4/30]

[Requirements met "Counter Attack" activated.]

[Imp Eliminated 5/30]

He also noticed a few numbers of glowing blue boxes on the ground.

'I see, even if they are swarming the way they did, they are still considered as a single enemy by my "Counter Attack" passive, taking down one each attack they do.'

Upon the realization, Kyle shows a big grin knowing that if he could just sustain his health bar from dropping to zero, he has a chance to take down the swarm of Imps.

But there's another problem with it.

His avatar's edge is its quick attacks and instant counter while as much as possible, being able to dodge the incoming attacks.

Unlike Warriors and Shielders that obtains a high damage tolerance and damage sustaining, his avatar is more on the Burst damage dealing and damage evasion side and doesn't rely on damage receiving while dealing at the same time.

Meaning, his plan on accepting the Imps' attack while relying on his "Counter Attack" passive has a high chance of failing.

[Requirements met "Counter Attack" activated.]

[Imp Eliminated 6/30]

[Requirements met "Counter Attack" activated.]

[Imp Eliminated 7/30]

[Warning HP level critical]

'Shoot, I need to replenish it, and fast!' he thought, as he looks at his blinking HP bar that is almost nearing zero.

The Imps continue on attacking Kyle, while Kyle on the other hand tries to dodge it.

He managed to dodge the incoming attack and began running.

[Active Skill, "Wind Walk" activated. Movement speed increased 5x]

[Active Skill, "Stealth" activated. Entering camouflage state.]

The two active skills he has instantly activated at the same time, forcing the Imps to halt their attack due to them unable to see the enemy.

'Good thing this pair of skills is meant for escaping.' Kyle thought and is glad that the skills work that way.

After finding a safe corner to hide, Kyle immediately opens his inventory and uses a couple of HP potions that he stored in it.

While watching his HP replenish to a maximum, Kyle took a quick look at the Imps that are still hovering above the ground.

'There are still a lot of them. Maybe I should really start on running away from here.' He thought, but he also considers the possibility of him encountering the same thing when exploring different tunnels in the cave.

'Hmmm? My Character menu is glowing.'

He opens his Character menu and found out that he already leveled up twice.

'Just by taking damage and eliminating a few of them leveled me up twice?' he thought and remembered the time he took the "Exploring the Town" quest that took him hours to accomplish and only made him raise his level to ten.

And a realization came into his mind.

'This is a perfect spot for boosting!' he thought, realizing that there are only a few item drops but extremely high EXP gains.

And a hint of greed enters Kyle's mind, that if he could level up fast in this manner, then he would take even the slightest chance of succeeding.

'Life is a gamble anyway, and in this world, I won't even have to gamble my "real" life.'

So at that very moment, he made a decision, that he will eliminate all of those Imps because as a gamer, facing a challenge with this kind of caliber and overcoming it is a big accomplishment.

'I think I'll make a blog about this cave informing newbies to try it to level up fast.

Kyle removes the camouflage by attacking one of the Imps, then distances himself from them, assuring that his back is facing a wall and there is no other way for the Imps to attack but to come to him head-on.

He opens his inventory and let it stay there floating on his screen so that he could easily use the potions in his inventory.

"Bring it on you Imps!" He shouted, provoking the Imps to attack him.

As soon as the Imps noticed his location, they began swarming again to attack him.

On every successful attack of the Imps, a notification same as before pops on Kyle's screen. The same process continued for minutes until it reaches a point where there are only a few numbers of Imps seen hovering.

"One, two, three, four…" Kyle counts the remaining Imps hovering.

"…Eight, nine, and ten." He finished and dashes forward to the remaining Imps. After knocking the remaining Imps, a system notification pops on Kyle's screen.

[Imp Eliminated 136/30]

[Quest Complete!]

[Received 4000 coins]

[Received 1000 EXP]

'Looks like I overdid the quota.' He thought

'I even reached level 25 halfway thru. But didn't gain any EXP after reaching the level.

[Received "Imp's tooth necklace"]

'An item?'

He then checks his inventory and scans the Item.

[Accessory Item: Imp's tooth necklace] [Rarity: uncommon] [Level Requirement: 20] [+ 1000 HP]

[Special Effect: Immunity to venom]

'Hmmm, an accessory.'

"Right, might as well get outta here." Kyle said to himself as he walks out back to the black membrane that serves as an entrance to the interior of the cave.

He walks straight to it as usual but an unexpected thing happened. The membrane seems to become as hard as a concrete wall and he is unable to pass it.

"What the heck?!" He yelled, considering the fact that he is trapped inside.

He tries punching it yet the membrane didn't even budge.

'Maybe if I log out… no, I will still end up in here.' He thought, considering that he spawned to the last area where he logged out earlier.

"Damn, what's happening here?"

Due to his mind too occupied with the idea that he is currently trapped inside the cave, Kyle didn't notice the notification on his screen.

[Active quest "Defeat dungeon boss" on going]

[Imp Queen Defeated 0/1.]

When he realized it, the formidable foe is already behind him.