He took a moment to look over his body. The injuries on his legs and palms, the burns, the bruises, even the broken bones—everything had vanished. Every wound had mended and closed, leaving not a single trace behind.
How?
It was beyond his comprehension. The contrast between the state he'd been in just moments ago and now was like night and day.
Still, this wasn't the strangest thing he had experienced—far from it. He'd already witnessed the impossible: monsters, and the power to gain abilities from them.
Then a thought crossed his mind.
Can you imagine if something like this existed on Earth? How many people's wounds and pain would have been healed?
'Of course, knowing humans, wars would continue on for much longer if such a thing were possible...'
He was again fascinated by the thought of such a thing existing, and how different this world must be because of it.
His fatigue had decreased by a large margin, as he had rested while unconscious.
His clothes' sleeves were burnt, his boots were battered, and his clothes were dirty.
But it was the perfect time to see how physically able he was.
He stepped back and looked at the closed room. The walls were plain and solid. He took a deep breath, as he jumped in place, his body feeling light.
He crouched low and then burst forward, a blur of motion across the floor. He leaped high, his head nearly touching the ceiling, and landed silently on his feet. He punched the air, the force of his movement creating a low whoosh.
"The ceiling was not that high to begin with, but damn."
Awed by his own strength, he wanted to test its limits. He focused, and a jolt of energy gathered in his palm. A brilliant light sparked around his hand, and he slammed it against the wall. A loud crack echoed through the room as a section of the wall crumbled, revealing a deep gash from his attack.
'With this, I have a fighting chance against the big wolf!''Granted, it has no abilities, that is.'
He grabbed his sword from the ground. It was quite beaten up, but by no means a weak blade.
'It can take another hit, can't it?' he thought, before heading into the second room.
Creak, creak.
The double doors opened, and through the gap, he met their gaze. Unlike before, a blast of fire double the intensity was spewed at him.
He ducked immediately and slipped to the left, without even having time to open the door fully. He started running, quickly understanding what he was dealing with.
There were two of them now, and they were a little bigger than before. If the previous ones were the size of a small dog like a Chihuahua, these were the size of a house cat—a fat one and big. Garfield, if you may.
But this didn't account for their tails as it made them much slender and longer.
The lizards kept a distance between each other. Whenever he dodged one and tried to change direction, the other would have already blocked his escape. Thankfully, there was a limit to how many paths they could close, so they couldn't land an attack on him either.
'How can I defeat them?' he wondered.
They had a cooldown of about three seconds. Their strategy was simple: when one fired, the other would wait and counter, giving the first one enough time to charge its attack.
He approached them as fast as he could while evading the first one's attack. Just before the waiting lizard could fire, he surprised it with a Shock to the ground.
The Shock was completely unexpected, giving him just enough time to throw himself at the lizard and cleave its head.
The remaining lizard blasted fire at him.
'Shit, I can't avoid this!'
He used his hands to block the attack that was targeting his face. Scales formed on his arms and saved him, but still caused burn marks. He then rolled, quickly approaching the now solitary creature.
Sliced.
The blade, stressed by so many previous attacks, let out a sharp ringing crack. It was broken. He stared at the two halves of his sword, a mix of relief and disbelief flooding his mind.
He picked up one of the potions and thought to himself, 'Should I use this now? Who knows when I will ever stumble upon a potion like this in this place?'
He decided to store it for later, despite his burn injuries.
There was another stone slab here similar to the one in the previous room.
But this one he opened it quite easily.
Slab falls on the ground with a sharp thud.
A short sword with a completely different aura than before lay inside. Its golden handle with a red gem gave it a sense of nobility.
"This is so sweet. I should test it."
As a test, he used the lizard's corpse. It sliced cleanly and effortlessly; it didn't even get dented by its scales.
'This is so awesome,' he muttered.
Ping!
'Fire Blast Level 1 acquired.''Scale Armor Level 1 acquired.'
"Just now it appears!" he muttered.
"I had already used the scale armor to protect myself, but the skill didn't register."
"Wonder why ?!"
"Regardless, this is so cool!"
He had also acquired a small amount of agility.
He began testing the fire in his left palm.
'Focus. I know I can just blast it by imagining it, but I need to experiment with control.'
He narrowed his eyes and concentrated on the air around his palm.
'Focus. Imagine them igniting the same way a gasoline engine works.'
He pictured the molecules of air being compressed and ignited. A low, hissing sound filled the room as a clean, controlled jet of flame erupted from his hand.
It wasn't as wild as the lizard's flame—it was much more controlled. He directed it down, heating the stone slab beneath his feet until the rock began to glow a faint orange.
'This was satisfying, as this meant small tweaks were possible!'
Onto the next room, and the next, and the next—all of which had an ever-increasing number of lizards.
'And onto the next,' he said, smiling as he opened yet another door.
The sizes and numbers of the lizards had been increasing, and now he was face to face with a lizard the size of a small fridge.
It blasted flames at him, but instead of dodging, he tried to match its firepower.
'Fire Blast Level 3!''Scale Armor Level 3!'
Their fires clashed. The air between them shimmered, distorting the light as a roar of heat erupted from the collision. The smell of ozone and burning rock filled the room.
Then, he said, 'Full output!'
His firepower almost doubled, completely incinerating the lizard.
He paced himself and cleaved the other one before it could fire. For the last one, he fired his attack with both hands, incinerating it as well.
'Both of my skills have massively upgraded. It is just so cool. The only disadvantage is that it has a cooldown, and the heat is suffocating.'
He had adapted well to using the sword in combination with his new attacks. He found a total of twelve potions he could use. The sword, despite having slaughtered ten more creatures, looked brand new.
'Onto the ne—'
Before he could finish his sentence, he took a good look at the door he was about to enter. It had a different aura from the past ones; it was different and chilling. Furthermore, a drawing of a huge lizard—like the past ones but so much more different—was carved into it.
He waited a moment to catch his breath. Until now, he had only rested and used one potion—two if he counted the half bottle.
'Wait, do I really need to go? I just don't have a very good feeling about this at all. Besides, do I really need to be even stronger than I am now? Shouldn't my priority be to escape from here?'
For all he knew, this might be the dungeon boss. If he wasn't capable enough, he could die.
Of course, defeating the boss could be his way out, but assuming every dungeon needs their boss killed is stupid, as that might not always be the case.
Besides, could he really take on a monster like this?
Just as he was thinking, the door opened on its own!
'What the heck, why?'
He hid behind a stone slab without entering. A minute passed, and still nothing happened.
From a distance, he looked to see a stone slab like the ones where he found potions—but this one was bigger. It could fit an entire person inside!
He calmed himself and sprinted to the slab. He opened it quickly.
'Holy moly, this is a new set of armor!'
It was a gleaming cuirass with articulated arm guards, clearly made for the upper body and arms alone. The metal wasn't steel, but it looked strong and well-crafted.
'This is a jackpot!' he said, examining the piece.
The rocky platform he stood on didn't resemble the previous rooms at all. It had various cracks. There were three doors. One was the one he had entered by. The other two were at a height that made them look more like windows than doors. The one to his northeast was bigger than the one to his southeast but was also higher up.
While adjusting his new armor and dusting himself off, something flickered in the corner of his eye—a small orange ball, darting in from the northeast door.For a split second, his instincts screamed at him. The thing was fast—coming straight toward him before he could even take a step.It entered his view fully, spinning with a faint hiss, and his body tensed on reflex.
A sharp click—then a deafening boom!The shockwave slammed into him, hurling him backward. Bones cracked. Air fled his lungs as he hit the wall hard.
Gak!
This was a foe beyond his skill level!