Darkness.
No matter what else changed with the hours, the darkness present in the surroundings was the only thing that stayed consistent.
In the distance, the roars of beasts could be heard intermittently ringing out. The mana fluctuations of battles between them emanated.
In a dark cave somewhere on the floor, a boy sat curled up in a ball.
It was all too much.
Just yesterday, he had been living a solid life.
It wasn’t a life he wanted, nor was it a life he was proud of, but at least it was a life.
Sure, he had been in dungeons before. He had even killed a few beasts. But was that ever through the use of his own strength?
Every kill he got was achieved by stealing from others.
A dungeon was a dangerous place. Even 6 years after the World Awakening, they weren’t places people could just go without preparation.
To raid a dungeon, a large team was required. Not only for attacking, but also for healing and collection.
To enter a dungeon alone? It was unheard of.
But, it wasn’t like he entered by choice.
“…why?”
It wasn’t like he didn’t understand why he ended up in this situation.
He just couldn’t accept reality.
The fact that he was friends with a girl that happened to be a bit more beautiful than the rest.
Was that justification to put him to death?
He resented it, but it was the law of the world. With strength, nothing was impossible.
Whether it be strength or backing, the one who pushed him into the dungeon had both. Meanwhile, he had none.
He was angry. He was furious at the law of the world and he was furious at the fact that he was put into such a situation.
But even greater than that fury was his fear. A fear which translated into hatred for everything that caused him to feel it.
“If it wasn’t for him…”
Jin Horten.
Even if he was destined to die in this dungeon, he would carve that name into his heart and never forget it.
“If it wasn’t for her…”
Elena Pierce. His best friend since childhood. Even if he wasn’t thinking straight, he knew it was stupid to resent her. She didn’t bear any blame for the current situation.
In fact, she might’ve even prevented such a situation from happening to him countless times in the past without his knowledge.
If it wasn’t for her serious injury this time, perhaps it would’ve been the same.
But his mind wasn’t stable. He couldn’t control his emotions.
Regardless of what logic told him, he couldn’t help but resent her.
Resent her for what? For being pretty? For being loyal? It was resentment without reason, but the fact that he couldn’t find a reason for it only made his resentment grow fiercer.
“I’m…hungry…”
He couldn’t eat, though. Eating meant mutating into a horrendous beast. Even if he had to die, he wouldn’t do it in such a way.
“I have to level up…”
It wasn’t a thought born out of strength.
When one’s level increased, their stamina would also recover a bit. Even if it wasn’t much, it was still something.
Since he couldn’t eat, he had to level up. That way, he wouldn’t be hungry anymore.
“I have to survive…”
It had only been a day since he made an oath to survive, since he forged a will to do so. But, saying he would do it and putting it into motion were two different things entirely.
He desperately wanted to hold to his oath, but every time those bestial roars rang out, his body would freeze in fear.
He didn’t have a choice, though.
He was a coward, sure. He was weak, sure. But he had survived on earth for so long on his own.
He desperately clung to life. He worked any odd job he could get. If it was necessary, he slept on the street to lower the amount of money he spent on himself.
All the while supporting his mother and paying her hospital bills so that she could survive as well.
He had built up a certain pride after surviving for so long in a hopeless situation. It was a dog’s pride, sure, but it was pride nonetheless.
He wouldn’t allow himself to die if he didn’t at least try to survive first.
His trembling hands reached out to the floor next to him and grabbed the hilts of the two rusted short swords he had found yesterday.
He slowly stood up and walked out of the cave.
But there was no way it would be easy to just hunt.
Wolves, tigers, bears, all the beasts he ran into were massive and ferocious. He didn’t have the strength nor the courage to fight against them.
He hid behind boulders and crawled along the dungeon floor, avoiding the beasts he saw but couldn’t fight.
He barely had any mana in his body, so even if these beasts noticed him, they ignored him since it wasn’t even beneficial to devour him.
Kill, eat, evolve.
This was the entire life of a beast without intelligence. Since he couldn’t benefit their evolution, they instinctively cast him aside.
Even in a land of beasts, he was treated like trash.
He wanted to laugh at the bleak outcome, but he couldn’t even force it out of his throat.
Instead, he kept crawling.
And after hours of such actions, he finally stumbled upon something that looked doable.
A group of small rabbit-like beasts that were moving through the dungeon. As he watched, he noticed that one of the rabbits had fallen away from the rest.
“A chance…”
If it was a rabbit, he should be able to do it. All he had to do was run up and stab it with his blades before it ran away. That way, he’d get at least a little experience.
After the main group of rabbits had escaped his line of sight, he made his move.
He ran forward with everything he had and ambushed the rabbit from behind.
His short swords plunged downward without aim. As long as they stabbed into the rabbit, it was fine.
But at that moment that the short swords were about to pierce through, the rabbit hopped forward.
The efforts of his reckless charge were all for null.
Before he could even understand that he had failed, the rabbit turned a full 180 degrees and hopped towards him.
In that single hop, it had already arrived at his position.
Its little arms looked so innocent at that moment, but in the next, frightening claws elongated from within.
They slashed forward.
Blood spurted into the air.
His face paled.
He couldn’t even scream.
While he was still in shock, he backed away.
He couldn’t feel his left leg.
But that didn’t matter. That terrifying rabbit was coming towards him again.
He continued to back away. He turned around and ran.
But he only had one fully functional leg. He limped at the fastest pace he could to escape.
But that pace wasn’t fast at all.
The rabbit caught up without difficulty and slashed again.
His left leg spurted more blood.
He almost collapsed right away.
But the pain didn’t come immediately. His mind was too shocked to register it.
His vision went dark and a feeling of dizziness. Even as he tried to limp away, he couldn’t tell which direction he was moving in.
He didn’t know how he escaped.
Or maybe he didn’t escape at all.
It was just, at some point, that rabbit stopped chasing him.
He limped and he limped. He was too far away from his original cave. His consciousness was already fading.
He found a nearby rock that was close to the dungeon wall. The space between the two was barely enough to fit his skinny body into.
He crawled into that space and hid.
And then, the pain finally hit him.