The First Dragon of Marble

Chapter 9

I woke up feeling like I how I felt when I was overseas, and our HMMWV was hit by an IED. “Fuck me my head is killing me.” I muttered as I sit up. The light from the glowing moss in the cave though dim to begin with felt like daggers stabbing me in the eyes. I could hardly think with how much pain my body was in at the moment. I noticed the bodies around the opening felt like it was getting hard to breathe. I touched my chest to see if I had any broken ribs stabbing lungs and found none. Trying to think past the pain and lack of oxygen going to my brain I looked towards the opening noticed it was still blocked by my spell. “Ah shit air must not be circulating properly. Fucking stupid, Ladon.” I made the hole in my Earth Wall spell a little bigger by shaping the mana that still resided in the spell. I put my nose to the hole and finally started to feel better though it still felt like a hammer was striking my head every few seconds. I moved to the far side of the room away from the bodies and opening. I sat down against the wall trying to get comfortable. Soon, I was asleep while my body went to work again repairing the damage that had occurred.

When I woke up again the headache was gone but my body still ached. The smell of rotting corpses was overwhelming, but I did not have the courage or strength to leave the small cavern room right now. I looked down at my body and found that my clothes were ripped in varies places. “Haa…I just bought these. At least my chainmail held up. I’m sure it saved me from a worse wound on my back from Noah and the monsters’ claws.” I take off my clothes and chainmail to further inspect my wounds. I used the fountain spell, which is a water element daily life spell for drinking water, to wash off the dried blood from myself and the monsters. I find that all the wounds caused by the monsters’ claws and Noah’s sword have turned into scars. “Fucking Christ that is amazing. I’m sure I would be dead if I was my past self.” Looking at my rags for clothes now I use the Cleanse spell, a water and wind element daily life spell, to clean them of dried blood and just for good measure I did the same to my body. “Mmm. That feels better.” I sigh as I feel my body being soothed over.

I put the clothes and chainmail back on. I look at the corpses and finally think back to what has happened to me in this dungeon. I furrow by brow and let the anger come to my mind, “Those treacherous conniving bastards! They used me as bait…” “They used me…” I said out loud feeling my rage boiling in my chest. I punch the wall not noticing the indent I made. “Have I learned nothing? The orphanage used me for money! Amy used me for money! Cowe used me for his sick mind games! Noah used me as bait! HAVE I LEARNED NOTHING!?” I shouted in the room consumed by my anger ignoring how the room shakes from my outburst. My breath was rapid as my chest rose up and down rapidly. Minutes go by before I can reign my anger back in. “I will get out of here. I swear to you Noah, Loka, Musir, Abel, I will get out of here and you will see me again. No one will ever play me again. No one will ever use me again!” With my goal set I invoke my personal scroll.

[Defeated Kobold X127. Kobold soul essence absorbed. X127]

{Feat claimed. Unkillable. Raises all attributes by 5 permanently.}

{Level Up} {Level Up} {Level Up} {Level Up}

“HOLY SHIT!”

I open my eyes in shock from seeing the notifications and my scroll. I got four levels and a feat from killing so many kobolds. My attributes shot up and thinking about it now my body does feel lighter and stronger aside from the aching. My mana capacity rose the most it seems maybe due to the use of magic so much to stay alive after my axe broke. I kept using spells well after I felt the effects of mana overheat.

I shake myself from the shock of my growth and get my mind back on track to getting out of this dungeon. “I wasn’t in charge of the mapping, so it is going to be slow getting out. Plus, I’m alone and my weapons are destroyed. All I have is my knife and shield now. Fuck.” Thinking about my situation I realized that it is going to be difficult to get out. I need better weapons besides my knife and shield. I look around and see the broken axe on the floor. The axe head is still in decent shape. I look at the corpses of the kobolds and get an idea, a very disgusting idea. I get to work and hours later I have a couple of bone axes made from the leg and jaw bones and used a leg bone to make a new handle for my old axe.

“God that was bad. I never want to do that again, but I get the feeling this won’t be the last time.” I say to myself. I put the knife and two bone axes in my belt leaving out my bone handle axe. I rummage for some rations and see that I have about two weeks’ worth still left. “I don’t know how long it is going to take to get out of here by myself. I’ll have to ration them.” I thought to myself as I tear off a piece of dried meat before pushing everything back inside leaving out a granite stick and parchment to map my progress. I put the bag on my back and pick up my axe and shield. If anyone were to see me now, they would think I was a barbarian looking to raid villages. I wiped the mana away from the Earth Wall spell at the opening watching it crumple to pieces of rock and sand. 

I make my way through the claustrophobic passageway and arrive back at the tunnel I ran through. I looked left and right making sure no monsters were around. Seeing nothing but the claw marks from the ones fighting to get through to where I was, I retrace my steps back to the room where we ambushed by the kobolds. Once there I see the bodies of more kobolds some through the tunnel we first came in from. I follow the bodies and eventually come to a wall where a kobold was cut in half stuck to the wall. “Huh?” This was a dead-end it seemed, but I don’t see any trace of Noah’s team. I look at the floor and see their tracks in the dust moving quickly straight through the door. “Wait don’t tell me…” I retrace my steps to make sure there are no side passages in the tunnel leading to the ambush room. I am soon faced with the reality that the dungeon has closed off my route to escape from this level.

I lean against the wall and slide down panic gripping my mind. “No, no, no, no. Please mother, father, no. Is there no escape from this dungeon? Am I trapped here?” I begin to grip my hands together trying to control the panic and the shaking of my body as I dive into despair. Then I feel something…something like a pull towards deeper into the dungeon. I manually slow my breathing and get a hold of myself taking deep breathes. “Think Ladon. Think back to what you learned of dungeons. Dungeons are made by gods to control the mana in an area aside from rouge dungeon. After reaching the end of trials of a god made dungeon the person or persons are transported back to the first-floor entrance and continue to test the mettle of other challengers. Rouge dungeons on the other hand, disappear after destroying the condensed mana that has gathered to form it. The monsters and traps dissipate so that the person or persons has a chance to get out before disappearing.” After reviewing my knowledge of dungeons, I calm down and rest my head backwards. “I have to continue to conquer the dungeon if I want to get out of here…” I close my eyes and try to motivate myself before opening my eyes and say out loud, “Do what you gotta do.”

I stand up and dust myself off and make my way in the direction that I came from. I map out the floor of the dungeon for what seemed like hours. I never encountered a kobold again which was a relief to me because I was not in much of mood to fight again so soon. Eventually I found a tunnel the sloped downward. I stood at the entrance to the next level to steel myself. “I have to reach the end of this dungeon to survive and along the way will be beings that will try to kill me nonstop…God the world really has turned into a strange place.” With that last thought I make my down further into the dungeon’s maws.

When I reached the end, I find myself in the same scenery as the eleventh level. “Haa…I could use a change of scenery. Seeing the same cavern walls is getting old for my eyes.” I follow the tunnel and come to a similar room where Noah’s team and I were ambushed. “Oh shit…” I start to hear broken growls and snarls coming from the multiple tunnels on the other side of the tunnel. I don’t know if I tripped a trap for the ambushes or if the mana that made the dungeon grew this way. I started hearing running footsteps coming my way. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I say as I look around for something to get me out of this situation. “If this area is like the one above would the way back up be closed again? If so, I can’t go back when it’ll just be a dead end. There is too much space in the tunnel to bottleneck their attack like I did last time.”

I notice that the sound of running footsteps coming towards me are not coming from the tunnel to the left of me. Without much debate a I run across the room and into the tunnel. As I get further away from the ambush room the noises start to become fainter. I slow down and look over my shoulder to see nothing coming after me. Confused I stop and listen closely. It seemed the monsters had reached the room but were staying there. I decide not to dwell on it nor look a gift horse in the mouth and continue quietly down the tunnel. Soon I reach a dead end and curse to myself. “Fuck now what do I do?” I sit against the wall and think. “I must go back to that room but what am I supposed to do if those things are still there. I have never been good at stealth. My body feels stronger than it ever has but quantity almost always wins over quality. Its only tactics that win against quantity so what tactics can I use here?” Without coming to an answer, I decide to use the same tactic that worked on the above floor. I head back in the direction of the room while looking for any crevasses like the one I was trapped in before.

            I was not disappointed because I found one just like the one from the level. I squeezed through and came upon an identical cavern room. “Hmm…okay…whatever I’ll think about the significance of all this after I survive the upcoming fight. There is no way I am going to find the path down with all those monsters blocking the other tunnels. I can’t sneak past them with my led feet anyway.” I set my pack down and put my bone axes in a position to easily grab if my bone handle breaks again. Then I squeeze back out and head to the ambush room where I see goblins crowding into the room. They had spears and axes made from bone and stone. “Oh, come on, goblins!” I take a deep breath and the yell, “Hey you ugly donkey fuckers! Are you looking for me!?” The room goes quiet and in the creepiest way, every single goblin head turns towards me who is standing in the middle of the tunnel entrance.

            One of the goblins start to walk in my direction followed by another and another. Soon they are sprinting towards me. I turn around and sprint towards the entrance to the small cave. I look behind me and notice I had gained incredible distance from the goblins in a short amount of time. “Have I gotten faster?... Must be from the level ups and attributes.” I smile and slow down and keep myself in their field of view so they can see me squeezing through the crevasse. Once I’m inside the small cave I get into position and repeat what I did with the kobolds. This time around was a little more difficult since the goblins had weapons that reach as they tried to thrust at me as they squeezed through. I eventually learned that I was faster and stronger than them and just dodged and ripped their spears and axes out of their hands once they were close enough.

            By the end of the fight, I was the only one standing among a mountains of corpses. I was suffering from mana overheat and had a massive headache with only slight wounds from ripping their weapons from their hands but this time I did not pass out at the end. I would say that would be progress. Too tired to start mapping the area I decide to sleep and continue when I wake up. I block the entrance with Earth Wall making sure to leave a bigger hole to circulate air this time, just in case there are any goblins left. I sit against the opposite wall and close my eyes to sleep.

            When I woke up the first thing, I did was look at my personal scroll.

            [Defeated goblin X200. Goblin soul essence absorbed. X200]

            {Feat claimed. Goblins’ Bane. Raises the Strength attribute by 1 permanently.}

            {Level up}

“Goblins’ Bane? Did I get that from killing so many goblins? If so, then why didn’t I get something like Kobolds’ Bane? Hmm…Maybe it has to do with the number of kills? Then does that also mean over time or do the kills have to done withing a certain amount of time? Well, I’m sure as time goes by, I’ll figure this system out sooner or later. Maybe if I go to an actual library there will be more information. First though I must get of this dungeon.” Mana capacity went up quite a bit again because of overusing my mana organ which is good. Now I can use more spells before feeling the effects of mana overheat.

Not wanting to waste any more time here I clean myself up, repair my axe, and grab some of the goblins’ spears and axes for backup. I make my way to map out the floor and soon descend to the next level. Over the next few weeks, the same scenario plays out on the next ten floors only with different monsters. I have come to realize that these floors were meant for either a single person or a very capable group to take on the hordes of monsters. The only thing that changed was what tunnel the small cave was placed. I leveled up three more times seeming to prove my point that it gets harder to level up the higher my level is and the weaker the monsters are. The monsters that I have faced that I recognized from the books from the guild are all low-tier monsters. The monsters that I did not recognize, I assume, are in the same tier.

Now on the twenty-first floor I finally have a change of scenery. I was looking at an underground river with raised paths with the river on one side and the cavern wall on the other side. I am hoping that the end of the dungeon is in sight because my food rations are running out. I may have to start eating the monsters before long. I am now walking along the river’s path when I come upon the first monster on this level. It turns out to be a warg, a mid-tier monster. “Hopefully this will go better than last time. I don’t see any friends with him.” I get into a defensive stance with my shield and goblin spear. I watch it carefully as I move closer towards it. The warg watches me and gets ready to pounce. When I am about six feet away from the warg it jumps with its jaws open aimed at my throat. I cast Earth Wall between us just as the warg is a foot away from clamping down on my throat. I hear a crunch against the wall and see the wall buckle from the impact. I undo the spell taking advantage of the warg disorientation from hitting face first into the wall. The wall out of the way I see the monster on the ground shaking away the pain. I thrust with a goblin spear straight into its eye and let go to get closer unholstering my axe and swing down on the back of its neck breaking it.

Everything happened within a matter of seconds. I look down at the collapsed warg and confirm that it is dead. “Hahahahaha” I start laughing at how much stronger I have become soaking in the excitement of the easy victory. “GRAAAAA!!!” I yell a victory shout letting the monsters ahead know that I was just getting started releasing my own bloodlust.