02

02

He ascended the stairs and found himself back in another cave. This one was slightly different than the previous, the stone being a bit darker and the whole place damper. There was water dripping from the ceiling in several places, bringing with it the promise of quenching his thirst.

The stairs were nowhere to be seen, the hope of them being next to the ramp he had just taken nothing more than wishful thinking. He really wasn't feeling up to exploring a whole new floor like he just did with the previous, but it looked like he had no choice.

He put his head between the two sharp rocks he saw, trying to catch any errant droplets of water that were flowing down the top one. In a couple millennia those two rocks would join, the dissolved stone in the water bringing the two edges slowly but surely closer to each other. A process which would take a couple hours more, since Charles intercepted that time's worth of water drops going down the stone.

The LAI assured him there was no toxic compounds in the water, and he was too thirsty to worry about that. The time seemed to never pass, as he watched drop after drop slip into his mouth. That was, until he remembered that he could activate his LAI hyperfocus mode. Something that wasn't actually made for the purpose, but rather to bring a consciousness into Eve's cyberspace. The connection with the omniscient AI was not available, to his dismay, but at least he could use the feature to his advantage.

He had already used it back when he had analyzed the first cave with machine like efficiency. Since the imperial cybersphere was absent here, activating the connection only brought his mind to meld with the LAI, warping his perception of self, of time, and of emotions. It was like being high on Adderall, or on ADHD medications.

It was the perfect way to escape these damned caves. He willed the mode into action, and the world changed.

Analyze the best path, initiate data gathering. Three hours passed; hunger levels manageable. Five more hours until meal is required. Cave system mapped; no exit found. Sixteen likely enemy spawn areas found, zero enemy encounters. Scanning for hidden pathways like floor below. Three possible locations found.

Approaching closest location. Checking via knocking. Sound compatible with normal rock, moving on. Second location, negative. Third location, sound has echo. Punching the wall is advised against, unholstering gun. Three steps back, aim, gun at three quarters power.

Firing shot. Wall is breaking, suspicion confirmed. Stairway going up found, marking in floor plan. Three hours until meal is required. Thirst levels rising again, sweat functions too high. Recalibrating follicles.

New floor, label in map. Floor is not cave, registering sky above. Sky is fake, crystal structures provide light from high ceiling hidden in fog. Trees are present. Humidity is high, temperature is high. Warning for possible dehydration.

Possible food and water sources amidst trees, suggesting LAI function termination. Action confirmed.

Charles returned into his body after what felt like a possession. He was still him, as he was the one who had possessed his own body, and yet it had felt utterly alienating. And fascinating. Terrifyingly efficient as well, something he should do more often.

He walked towards the trees, doing his best to ignore the annoying bugs that assaulted his face. His body was covered by his suit, fortunately, but his face was not. He resisted the urge to slap his own face, as he knew it would be pointless and endlessly frustrating. He made his way through the tall grass and finally reached the grove of trees.

There were animals grazing near a small lake, but he was quite sure that those were no normal animals. They would be dungeon monsters like all the other things he saw in the floor below. He had to decide what to do now, then. Engage in combat, using the few rounds he had left in his gun, or leave the body of water behind?

He decided to engage for two reasons. One, he was very thirsty once again. The inclement heat and humidity made him sweat like crazy even in the controlled environment of his suit. And secondly, if he managed to kill an animal and scare away the rest then he would have something to eat for lunch. He had no idea how much time he had gone without eating, and did his best to keep himself from asking the LAI. It was not an information he wanted to have right now.

He was approaching the point where his brain performance was suffering from the lack of energy and food, and therefore had to act quickly. He took out his gun, set it to max power and aimed at one of the largest animals.

If he could one-shot the strongest animal, the others would run away for sure. The LAI indicated the best possible shot from his position, and he took it. The gun was usually silent when it fired, but this time the bullet broke the sound barrier. The sonic boom from the projectile shook the entire grove, the trees losing their loosest leaves and all the animals freezing in place.

A large deer, easily the size of a large truck, suddenly found itself with a large round gaping hole in the side. It slumped to the ground, dead.

[Level up! New level: 7]

Well this was odd. Since he was going upwards, he assumed the monsters would get weaker and therefore give him less experience and levels than before. Maybe he was already on the cusp of leveling up after killing the vampire, and this kill gave him the little boost he needed to make the jump and then gain the other three levels.

At least, he hoped so, because otherwhile he would have to go back down. There was just no way to be sure right now, and he was already growing restless. Not scared, no, and not panicked either. Just angry, very angry. His temper had taken a turn for the worse ever since being disconnected from Eve, leaving him to experience all the irritating things of the world on his own.

He considered activating the LAI connection again to calm down, but decided not to. It would do him no good to be this reliant on it, especially considering how much he was going to use it in navigating this dungeon.

He went to the pond and drank, the cold water chilling down his anger. The refreshing feeling was nice, and his calm mind assessed the situation with a more pragmatic approach. He would have to go up another level in the dungeon and kill a creature there, to be sure. If the gains were even higher still, then he would have to go back down.

For now, though, he had a deer to cook.

The animal tasted like real meat. And he was glad to finally be able to taste real meat and not lab-grown stuff, since in space animals seemed not to thrive much and thus the price for real meat across the empire was exorbitant.

It lacked salt, he noted with a hint of sadness. He would have liked to enjoy his meal at its best, but apparently that was not something on the menu today.

He activated his LAI connection again to quickly sweep the level. Outward growing spiral pattern from grove, look for hidden doorways. Suspicious hill spotted, labeling position. Three rocks at even intervals, noting position. Large tree trunk.

Edge of floor reached, wall of impenetrable trees. No openings or doorways. Checking marked locations. Hill first, nothing of note. Thirsty again, making planned detour to pond. Animals are back, but they are afraid. Tactic worked.

Second point of interest, nothing. Third, success. Quick floor power check, kill first enemy seen. Enemy contact, shape is large feline with red fur. Shooting at optimal angle. Kill in one shot, estimated threat level is low. Levels gained are four, totaling 11. Confirmed floor progression suspicions, turning back.

Back to original floor, time elapsed three days. Enemies are increasing and have changed spawns, noted. Stairways seem to be fixed in place, noted.

And he was back to being himself, after the longest time ever spent in LAI mind-meld. There was something familiar about being back in this dark cave, something almost nostalgic. He decided he didn't care, as this was the place where his torments began. He would be nostalgic once his condition improved, but for now he would still be angry.

He walked around, wondering whether to reactivate the LAI mode or not, when he heard something. Voices, it seemed, in the distance. He stopped in place, trying to make as little sound as possible. Voices meant people, of course, or at least he hoped so.

If those people actually revealed themselves to be aliens, he would truly be fucked. He needed more information before acting, and so he requested a crash course in stealth tactics from the LAI. The information unpacked in his brain, making him quite the expert in less than thirty seconds. He lacked the muscle memory and the physical conditioning for the task, but at least the basics were all in his head now.

He creeped closer, making sure to stay in the shadows of the cave. His eyes could barely see anything in the darkness, but he didn't need to see much. He had already mapped this entire floor with a resolution of a few millimeters, and the LAI was overlaying a holographic map on top of his vision to compensate for his blindness.

As he got closer to the voices, he noticed that he could recognize some words. It was probably his mind tricking him by looking for patterns in an otherwise completely unknown language. At least those people were using verbal communication, and their speech was made of complex phonemes arranged in a sentence-like structure. Something he could decipher with his LAI, given enough time.

He got closer. His movements were now much slower and calculated, and he needed to keep to the shadows cast by the torches in the distance. The light was still faint, but it was getting stronger as he approached the party of aliens.

And it was when he got close enough, that he found out that they were not aliens. They were people, humans or humanoid at least, and they were speaking English. Impossible, his mind screamed at him. He ignored the fact for now, he had to, because there were more pressing issues than investigating the nature of their existence.

He had to decide what to do. Reveal himself, and risk a hostile engagement, or stalk them from the shadows in an attempt to gather more information about them? He decided for the latter option, quite confident in his ability to remain hidden.

The party was made of four people. Three were clad in armor, the thick metal plates noisy and clumsy. Of them, two were armed with a sword and a spear each, while the other was a giant of a man carrying a gigantic tower shield almost as big as himself. The other person of the party looked like a woman, although it was hard to tell from this far, and was not wearing heavy armor.

Not that that kind of medieval armor could be very helpful, Charles thought. Anyway, she was wearing a green robe with a hood, and had a bow in hand. There was no quiver of arrows, however, which was quite confusing. Was she just here for the ride? Then, what good was a bow with no arrows?

He got a bit closer still, trying to catch their conversations. It was getting quite hard to follow them from this close without being seen, but the cave offered plenty of hiding spots that he had quite fortunately all mapped already.

"This damn floor! Look, I'm drenched already!" Said the towering giant.

"That's because you're too fat, jackass." Replied the spearman. The one with the sword laughed at the comment, and was soon joined by the tall man.

The archer woman looked thoroughly fed up with the other guys' antics. "Keep your guard up. We're in a dungeon."

"Bah, it's a city dungeon. I could go till level fifty with my eyes closed." The swordsman said.

"I don't give a shit. You shut up or I skewer you." She answered angrily, making Charles wonder just what she was going to skewer him with. Perhaps, in a world of monsters and dungeons, there existed magic to make bows work without arrows as well.

Yeah, that would be quite the cliché thing from fantasy stories. And, thinking about it, the whole situation he found himself in seemed quite the standard fantasy setting. The vampire he met when he first got here should have tipped him off, and yet he had been so surprised to find out that there were humans and that they spoke English.

He was too used to the Empire, where every alien species was just odd and inexplicable. This was easy compared to those first encounters.

"Hey! Who goes there!" Came the yell of the woman, and she looked in his direction. Perhaps he had spoken too soon, as this was going to get a bit more complicated than he'd liked.