The sound of claws scratching against stone was the only warning that I had before the walls next to me crashed open, and a pack of small hounds came pouring through. They screamed and howled and whipped towards me, baring slavering fangs, but I was faster than them and had already leapt forward, slashing the head off of the nearest one.

  Blood filled the air, along with the sound of my laughter as I crouched low, bringing my short sword in front of me, “Oh… so it's hounds this time, eh dungeon? Nice choice… especially this many! But you know, I think it’s about time to level up, hmm?”

  The hounds howled and charged forward, leaping over the body of their comrade as they went straight for me. I sharpened my senses, finding the nearest ones and the perfect opening before spinning and reaching into the coiled void within me, activating sword slash. I could feel the power course through my muscles, and then along the blade itself as it arced around and carved through the first hounds neck, and then on through the second hounds neck, and then across the thirds muzzle.

  The nearest hounds howled and leapt back as the first two dropped and lashed about in their death throes, but the four on my left came charging nonetheless. They closed the distance in a flash and leapt forward, snapping on closing their maws full of teeth and fangs on my side and legs.

  I could sense the victorious satisfaction that coursed through them, but I couldn’t help but laugh as I felt their teeth barely even pierce my hardened skin. They growled in surprise and tried to bite down even harder, but it was far too late for them. They had gotten too close after all.

  I reached inside for the void and activated bite, snaking my head around and snapping my teeth shut on the throat of the hound that had latched onto my arm and ripping it off. The others howled and released their maws, flashing backwards as their comrades' blood rained down on them along with their lifeless corpse, but I wasn’t done with them.

  I roared and activated leap, pushing off of the ground and flashing towards them. My fist came down, powered by blow, and cracked into the skull of the nearest hound. Then I spun and lashed out with the short sword, stabbing it into the back of the next one and then releasing as the hound fell down and writhed in pain as its lifeblood poured out. The other hounds that had leapt back, and even the other one that had been running away, had grouped up and were now charging me as one.

  They were more careful this time, making sure they circled around me in order to find a weakness, but they were still enraged by the deaths of their comrades and it wasn’t long before they were charging forward again, coming at me from five different directions.

  They leapt on me, using their combined weight in order to bring me down to the ground as they chewed and tore at my flesh and skin. It resisted them thanks to my hardened body, but they were still able to tear and slash into it with enough effort, and I could feel my lifeblood pouring out as well. Unending Vitality flashed into the forefront, drawing power from my energy stores in order to begin rapidly healing me, but I forced it to pause, if only for a moment. It gracefully listened, and took a step back, allowing my energy to be solely focused on attacking.

  I roared and reached into the void, asking it for its help. It was slightly annoyed at the request, but it was more curious than anything and offered up the power willingly, allowing me to cast Claw, Bite, and Blow over and over again as I wildly lashed out at the five remaining hounds that were attacking me. Blood and gore flew through the air, and the sound of the hounds dying howls and my roaring laughter filled the dark dungeon tunnel, making the very walls shiver.

  It went like that for what felt like forever, but was really only a few minutes, and only when the tunnel was silent, save for my exhausted breathing, did I finally stop attacking. I fell to my knees, feeling a thankful and familiar explosion of euphoria and pleasantness crash through me, and let out a long laugh as the dozens of cuts, tears, and bite wounds were healed in a flash. What wasn’t healed immediately, Unending Vitality happily began to work on, and I took a much needed moment to look over my status window as I retrieved my sword from the corpse of the hound.

  Level Up!

  Name: Will

  Race: Chimera

  Level: Twenty(New!)

  Title: Einha Slayer

  Abilities:

  Enduring Heart

  Unending Vitality (Incomplete)

  Death's Favoured (Incomplete)

  Skills:

  Sprint (Veteran)

  Berserker’s Rage (Rare)

  Claw (Apprentice)

  Bite (Apprentice)(New!)

  Pierce (Beginner)

  Leap (Beginner)

  Blow (Beginner)(New!)

  Sword Slash (Beginner)(New!)

  Axe Smash (Initiate)

  Hammer Bash (Initiate)

  Passive Skills:

  Spatial Awareness (Passive)(Apprentice)(New!)

  Hardened Body (Passive)(Apprentice)(New!)

  Acid Resistance (Passive)(Trainee)

  I had been traveling through the dungeon for what felt like several weeks now, and had been doing very well for myself if I did say so myself. Food wasn’t really as much of a problem, since the beast monsters would sometimes drop food as their loot! The traps were everywhere, and some of them were even unnoticeable even with my spatial awareness, but I had yet to fall victim to one so far!

  The monsters had increased their presence the more I had traveled deeper into the dungeon, but I had also been able to deal with them… mostly at least. I had gotten in over my head and tried to take on two different groups at once yesterday, and had ended up dying for the first time since entering the dungeon… though I was able to revive after a long time of waiting, which had been a massive relief. I had been worried about the dungeon resetting with my death, but I had just popped back into existence next to my torn apart body, and had gone about slaughtering the rest of the goblins and their hyena’s.

  I’d managed to level up thanks to that, though it had been cancelled out by the revival cost, so I had been stuck at level nineteen for a while. I had really hoped to get to level twenty today, so seeing that level up screen had been immensely satisfying.

  I knew that getting through the dungeon was going to take longer than a few days, but honestly with how fast I was making my way through the dungeon, I had high hopes of getting through it quickly. Hell, I had even managed to increase my proficiencies enough that hardened body made me feel like I was wearing leather armor, and spatial awareness was good enough now that I could sense whenever there was a trap or when monsters would spawn out of the walls or try to surprise me! Which had ended up getting me killed once or twice on the second ‘day’ of making my way through the dungeon… haha…

  I sighed and shook my head, “Alright Will, you can’t let that get to you, okay? You’re making good progress, right? There’s no way to tell of course, but… ah fuck it, lets just go make some more progress today! Maybe I’ll get to see a new trap or monster? You hear that dungeon? I’m ready for some new things!”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The dungeon didn’t exactly respond, and I still felt that raging disdain pulsing from the walls, but I could also feel something else. Something that undercut through all of that disdain, and gave me the distinct feeling that the dungeon understood exactly what I had just said.

  I laughed and activated sprint, feeling the energy flow through my legs like usual. The void was thankfully not too annoyed with me using its power over and over, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I could almost feel the excitement pouring through it at the thought of exploring the dungeon even more. How cute… hahaha! Well I couldn’t just let it down, now could I?

  I flexed my claws and shot forward, activating leap to get over the massive pitfall that had formed in front of me. I came down lightly and then dug in, darting forward as I felt the walls rumble and procure dozens of small round fluffy balls. I didn’t know what they were called, but the last time I tried fighting them, they had swarmed me and devoured me in moments, leaving only my bones behind. I had discovered that just running from them was the best action to take.

  The walls rumbled, and then with a creak, suddenly a door swung out and shut off the tunnel in front of me. I yelped and dug in my heels, grinding to a stop as I felt the walls swing out behind me as well, locking me in a newly formed room. Suddenly the ground shook in front of me, and a large clawed hand burst out of it. It reached around and slapped into the nearby ground, digging in its claws and dragging the rest of itself up and out into the newly formed room.

  It was a large creature, with an almost humanoid shape. It had a large kite shield, and a shortsword of its own, though the ‘shortsword’ was easily longer than my entire torso. It was unarmored, but as I took in its body, I had the sneaking suspicion it had a skill similar to my hardened body. Its two stubby legs stumbled forward as its overly long arms, which seemed to be longer than it was tall, pushed out its shield towards me and wildly slashed the sword.

  Normally I would just try to avoid a monster or situation like this, but the dungeon had made that rather impossible to do… Which meant that I was going to have to figure out a way to kill this thing! Haha! This was new! Exactly like what I had asked of the dungeon! And it had actually listened!

  I laughed and dropped into a fighting stance, eyeing the slowly approaching monster. I didn’t have much time to act since I couldn’t back up from it, so I had to think fast. Attacking from the front was suicide with that shield and sword combo, but I wasn’t going to be able to run around them before it adjusted the angle. Honestly, even using leap to get around them would be far too slow… I needed something new.

  I nodded and quickly reached inside myself for the void. I had expected to have to throw my situation at it and hope that it knew what to do like before, but as I came into contact with it, I realized that it was already uncoiled and ready to help. I showed it a flash of my situation, and with an amused and happy swirl, it shot forward and filled me with power, making a new status window appear before me.

  New Skill Learned!

  Dash (Novice)

  Allows the user to travel a short distance in a flash

  I laughed as I realized that this was the perfect skill to know, and allowed the void to control my entire body and throw me forward. It was an odd sensation to be fair, though not exactly one that I hated. It wasn’t exactly like how leap worked, or even the power and strength that sprint would fill me with. Instead, it was almost as if my whole body had been supercharged. I didn’t move forward by taking a step, rather, it was like I saw where I wanted to go, and willed my body to be in that location. My body and the void thrummed, and then with a pop I was there, almost as if I had teleported.

  I could feel my heart and body reeling from the explosive amounts of energy and power that had just poured through it, but I set that aside for later and turned my attention back to the massive creature. I could see that it hadn’t even realized that I wasn’t there anymore, and knew that I didn’t have long until it did realize, and then I would be fucked.. But there was still far too large of a gap between us, and when it did notice me, all it would have to do was swing its arms around to stop me… unless!

  I crouched and reached into the void, searching for that feeling that I had just experienced. The void swirled and curled around my outreached self, and then suddenly my entire body was overcharged again. I smirked at the feeling, and directed my sight to right behind the large humanoid, and then with a flash I found myself standing there.

  It didn’t even notice me at first, since it was so focused on swirling and attacking in front of itself. In fact, it looked like the creature hadn’t even noticed that I had moved from that location… the poor thing. Unfortunately for it, I wasn’t losing against the first new challenge that the dungeon had placed in my path!

  I gripped my shortsword tightly and eyed its thick neck. There was no way I was going to be able to slice through it using a normal sword strike, besides the fact that I couldn’t reach it. But… yes… that would work!

  I bared my teeth and reached inside the void for leap, pushing off the ground so that I was slightly above the creature's head. I could see the drops of sweat beading on its head, and the concentrated hunch of its shoulder, and then I began to fall. My heart felt like it was going to rip out of my chest, but I forced it to calm itself and laser focused on its thick neck.

  I reached out to the void, and without even asking I could feel that sword slash had activated. Power surged through my arms, and with a roar I slashed towards its neck with a vicious attack. The creature didn’t have the chance to turn its head and scream before my blade slashed into and through. There was just a wet squelching sound and then its head toppled towards the ground, smacking into it right after I lightly touched down. The body flopped down shortly after, and then with a rumble, the tunnel opened up again on both sides.

  I sighed and fell to my knees, before looking up at the shivering walls, “Damn… nice try dungeon! That was hard, hahaha! I can’t wait to see what else you have in store!”

  Again, there was no immediate reaction from the dungeon, but I could have sworn that there was a pleased undercurrent that passed through it. I chuckled and got up, making my way over to the odd humanoid corpse. I could sense that it was already dissolving, along with its massive kite shield and ‘shortsword’, but next to it I could also sense that there was a pile of loot, much like all the other monsters.

  I crouched down next to it, and with a grin I realized that the dungeon really had been looking out for me. There was the normal bag of col and gems of course, but that wasn’t what intrigued me most. I could sense an oddly kite shaped object, and with a laugh I realized that it was the kite shaped shield that the humanoid had wielded! Except, now it was in human form!

  I laughed and snatched it up from the ground, sticking my arm through the leather straps and gripping the metal handle that was there. It shouldn’t have felt so, well… perfect, but for whatever reason it did fit amazingly well, almost like it had been made for me. Especially with this sword… this was the perfect find!

  I laughed, but suddenly my spatial awareness screamed out at me, telling me danger was incoming. I stiffened and stretched out my senses, wrapping them around the source of the danger and analyzing it as quickly as I could. At the same time, I dropped into a crouch and prepared to activate leap, sprint, or even dash, but I was forced to freeze as I realized that all those wouldn’t be able to escape it. Not because it was moving too fast, but because it was taking up the entire tunnel, almost as if it was a fire that was burning and eating away at everything in its path.

  I cursed as I realized that I was absolutely fucked, and prepared myself to see that damned sandy island. I guess it was about time I died again, but damn… I must have gained so much experience from killing that huge thing! It was all going to go to waste… ugh… if only I had a way to block the incoming damage… just like that huge kite shield that the thing had! If only I… wait a fucking second!

  I groaned and smacked myself in the forehead as I dropped behind the kite shield and held it up towards the danger. It wouldn’t be able to block all of the damage of course, but it was better than nothing! I can’t believe I had forgotten about the damn shield that was still on my arm… ugh… but maybe this would be enough… No, it definitely wouldn’t be enough. I needed something more… Something that I had a sneaking suspicion that the void may be able to offer up. And I needed to find it quickly, because for the first time since coming into this dungeon, I could actually see light beginning to fill the tunnel, and I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t daylight.

  I took a deep breath and then reached into myself towards the void, offering up that same flash of my emotions and images of the situation that I was in at the moment. It swirled and swished playfully as it looked at each image, and then it suddenly paused at the image of the kite shield. It turned first one way, then the other, and then with a crunch the void snapped forward and devoured the image.

  I watched in confusion, but then with a pop, a new status window appeared in front of me, and I sighed in relief as I felt resolute strength flow through me. I still was behind the same old kite shield, but in front of it I could sense that there was another shield, almost as if I had a two layered shield. Huh, how nice.

  New Skill Learned!

  Block (Novice)

  Increases the defensive capabilities of the user and denies physical damage in one direction

  It didn’t seem like much, but honestly it was all that I could ask for against the all encompassing danger that was roaring towards me even now. It was bright, so bright in fact that I actually had to close my eyes so that I didn’t go blind. I had thought of it as a fire at first, but it moved far too slowly to be a fire. In fact, it moved far too slowly to be any form of energy, and yet… I still couldn’t help but feel like it was absolute danger and death. That if I touched it, I would die instantly, and in an extremely gruesome manner. Which was a good enough reason to just hide behind my shield and block as any!

  I was slightly worried that it wouldn’t be enough, even with my void offering up the block skill, but thankfully my worries were unfounded. Whatever the thing that emanated such absolute and total danger was, it was at least some kind of physical beast or attack. It was slow to crash into the invisible shield, and I felt like I was waiting forever, but as it did, the thing broke and split around the shield, harmlessly passing on either side of me.

  I was relieved that it had worked of course, but I still kept my eyes forced shut and block active until my spatial awareness had stopped screaming at me. Even then I waited for another long moment, but after that I thankfully released the block and lowered my shield. I had been too quick to think that the dungeon had so quickly rewarded me. It was always like this with the dungeon, giving me something just to test my quick thinking and what I would do with it.

  It was a lot to handle, of course, but… I couldn’t help but admit that I enjoyed it. My focus was still on getting stronger, and getting past the first floor boss, but something deep inside me was ecstatic. Ecstatic at fighting with my life on the line, excited at the thought of gaining new loot and items, curious about the new skills and strengths that I could gain, and heavily invested on what the dungeon would offer up next. This… was fucking perfect!