Consciousness returned to Adam in a relentless, pounding wave of agony. Every breath was a sharp stab in his ribs. His head throbbed with a rhythmic, nauseating pain that made his Hunter's Sense flicker uncontrollably.
The wing on his left side was bent at an awkward angle, sending jolts of fire down his spine with the slightest twitch.
[ Health: 11/65 ]
[ Status Effects: Major Concussion (Fading), Fractured Ribs, Severe Wing Sprain ]
"Move... I have to move," the thought was a feeble whisper in the storm of pain. The memory of the Cave Roc's screech and the cracking of the scorpion's carapace was seared into his mind.
He was a wounded animal in the territory of titans. Staying here was a death sentence.
With a groan that was more mental than physical, he dragged his broken body, inch by excruciating inch, away from the site of the collapse. He used his Deep Camouflage, not for a perfect blend, but to simply darken his scales into the gloom, making him a less obvious smear on the stone.
Every shift of his coils sent fresh lightning through his ribs. His left wing dragged uselessly behind him, a mocking reminder of his stolen victory and newfound freedom.
"Stupid... so stupid!" he berated himself, his inner voice a mix of self-recrimination and sheer, stubborn will. "I got cocky. I had the wings, I had the plan... and I forgot the first rule of this damn dungeon: my luck is a cosmic joke. Always expect the worst possible interruption."
He found a fissure in the wall, a narrow, deep crack that smelled of old dust and dry stone. It was a tight squeeze, but it was shelter. He wedged himself inside, his body screaming in protest.
For a long time, he did nothing but breathe, focusing on the slow, painful rhythm, letting his enhanced Vitality and the passive trickle of healing that came with it do its work.
Hours, or maybe days, passed in a haze of pain and fitful sleep. His Hunter's Sense, once a panoramic radar, was now a blurry, short-range mess, useful only for detecting immediate, large vibrations.
The sheer, oppressive aura of the deep dark was a constant weight on his senses. He could feel the presence of things moving in the vastness beyond his crack—things that made the Rime-Tail Scorpion feel like a playground bully.
When his health had inched up to a less critical 25/65 and the blinding headache had subsided to a dull throb, he ventured out. He moved with a slowness that was foreign to him, his body a tightly coiled spring of pain and hyper-vigilance.
His Echolocation was a lifesaver; he could map the tunnels without exposing himself, pinging the environment and listening intently for anything that pinged back with a size or shape that screamed "danger."
He wasn't hunting for EP.
He was scavenging for survival. He found a patch of the same Viper's Moss he'd encountered before, consuming it greedily for the minor venom boost and, more importantly, the moisture.
He used his Crystal Shard Shot to dig out grubs and slow, blind insects from the rock, their meager EP barely registering.
[ Defeated: Deep-Dweller Grub (Lvl 0) ]
[ EP Gained: 1 ]
[ EP to Next Level: 55/60 ]
It was humbling. After battling a Wyrm and a Mini-Boss, he was back to hunting bugs. But there was no frustration now, only a grim acceptance. This was the grind, stripped bare.
This was the price of survival.
His caution paid off. His echolocation picked up a heat signature ahead—small, warm, and blissfully alone. It was a Pallid Cavehopper, a rabbit-sized, blind amphibian that moved in slow, grazing hops. It was Level 5.
A creature he would have considered trivial weeks ago. Now, it was a king's feast.
The hunt was methodical. He didn't use a single skill that would make noise. He didn't sprint. He became a shadow, using the terrain, flowing from one patch of darkness to the next until he was within striking distance. A single, precise bite, a dose of venom, and a quick, efficient constriction.
The fight was over before it began.
Consuming the Cavehopper was the first real nourishment he'd had since the fall. The energy that flooded his system was a tangible relief.
[ You have consumed a Pallid Cavehopper (Lvl 5). ]
[ Health +10 ]
[ Vitality +0.2 ]
[ EP Gained: 8 ]
[ EP to Next Level: 63/60 ]
[ Ding! Level Up! ]
[ You are now Level 12! ]
[ EP to Next Level: 3/65 ]
[ Skill Point: +1 ]
[ Total Evolution Points: 171/1000 ]
The level-up energy was a balm, washing away the last vestiges of his concussion and accelerating the healing of his fractures. The pain in his ribs faded to a dull ache. His wing still hung limp, but the fiery sprain was gone.
He was functional again.
He allocated the Skill Point without hesitation to Scale Fortification, bringing it to Level 4. In this place, defense was everything.
Weeks in the deep dark had honed Adam into a cautious snake. His wings had healed, but he used them sparingly, only for silent glides between high perches to avoid the myriad threats that prowled the floor.
He was meticulously, painstakingly gathering Skill Fragments from the local fauna, focusing on anything that could increase his survivability. His Heat Resistance had reached 0.8/1.0 from consuming strange, thermally-resistant worms.
His Hunter's Sense, now fully restored, suddenly pinged with a cluster of conflicting signals. Ahead, in a tunnel veiled with thick, phosphorescent webs, was a struggle.
A small, frantic heat signature was entangled, while several larger, cold, multi-limbed signatures skittered around it. A common enough scene in the dungeon—prey caught in a spider's web.
He was about to glide right over it. It was none of his business. Getting involved in other predators' hunts was a recipe for disaster. He had learned that lesson in blood and falling rock.
But something made him pause. His Acute Smell picked up the scent of the trapped creature. It wasn't the musky odor of a rodent or the earthy smell of an insect. It was... unique. And the trapped creature's form, outlined in his echolocation, was unusual. Small, quadrupedal, with a single, distinctive protrusion from its head.
Curiosity, a dangerous luxury he couldn't afford, tugged at him. He found a vantage point, camouflaged himself, and looked.
There, struggling pathetically against the sticky, glowing strands, was a creature that shouldn't exist here. It was the size of a small house cat, with fur as black as the void itself. Its body was sleek and feline, but it had a single, spiraled horn of polished jet growing from its forehead. Its eyes, wide with terror, were a brilliant, intelligent amber.
A memory, long buried under layers of survival and serpentine instinct, slammed into Adam's mind with the force of a physical blow.
Mittens.
His family's black cat, a lazy, purring ball of fluff who would curl up on his lap while he did his homework. She had one crooked whisker and would playfully bat at his pen.
The memory was so vivid, so achingly human, that it stole his breath. This creature, this horned kitten, was nothing like Mittens, and yet... the shape, the size, the sheer wrongness of it being in this deadly place, triggered a protective instinct he thought he had extinguished.
"No. Don't be an idiot, Adam," he immediately scolded himself. "It's a monster. It's probably venomous. This is a trap. Walk away. It's the only smart move."
He watched as one of the larger signatures resolved into a Skittering Terror, a spider-like monstrosity with too many legs and a lamprey-like mouth. It scuttled towards the trapped kitten, mandibles clicking.
The kitten let out a high-pitched, desperate sound that was neither a meow nor a hiss, but something in between. A sound of pure, helpless fear.
And Adam Smith, the cautious survivor, snapped.
"Damn it all."
With a thought, he unleashed a Crystal Shard Shot. The shard wasn't aimed at the spider, but at the main anchor line of the web holding the kitten. The strand snapped with a twang, causing the entire web to sag and throwing the approaching spider off balance.
He dropped from his perch, landing between the kitten and the spider. He hissed, a low, threatening sound that echoed in the confined space, his body coiled, his hood flared. The Skittering Terror, a Level 14 creature, recoiled in surprise.
He acted fast. A single, powerful Mantis Slash severed the remaining strands around the horned kitten. "Run!" he mentally screamed at it, though he knew it couldn't understand.
The little creature, instead of running, scrambled behind him, pressing its small, trembling body against his scales as if for protection.
That was the moment Adam knew he had made a catastrophic mistake.
His Hunter's Sense and Echolocation screamed a warning he had been too distracted to notice. The skittering vibrations weren't just coming from one or two spiders. They were coming from everywhere. The walls, the ceiling, the tunnels ahead and behind.
He wasn't facing a single hunter. He had stumbled into the heart of a Skittering Terror nest.
From every shadow, multi-limbed forms emerged. Dozens of them. Their compound eyes reflected the faint glow of the webs, a constellation of malevolent stars pinning him in place.
They clicked their mandibles in a horrifying, unified chorus, cutting off every possible escape route. The air grew thick with the smell of chitin and venom.
He was surrounded. The horned kitten let out a terrified whimper, pressing closer to him.
"Well, Smith," he thought, a grim, ironic calm settling over him as he faced the encircling horde. "You really outdid yourself this time."