Of course, in order to get out of the bunker, he first had to get out of the room. The watchfloor, or rather the former watchfloor, was about 100 feet wide, 80 feet long, and had large vaulted ceilings. There was a small changing room off to one side and then a heavy duty metal door that required a key code to open. The door didn’t require a code to leave, a safety measure he was glad had been implemented. It did mean that he wasn’t going to be able to get back in without breaking down the door.

He couldn’t risk leaving anything inside that he was going to need. So in short bursts as he waited for the light from the sword to appear, he rummaged through the various lockers and desks looking for anything of value. He grabbed his civilian clothes, but kept his uniform on; it was sturdier and would be able to protect him better from the monsters he expected to encounter. After all, the bunker would make a perfect dungeon.

He filled up the two duffle bags that he found in Marsh’s locker. They had Marsh’s distinctive smell--the larger man sweated even in the climate controlled watchfloor. He stuffed one with extra clothing and other supplies he thought might be useful; the other had all the snackbar food shoved into it. It also had the box of organic pop tarts that he found in Marsh’s locker; he’d tried one and determined that they were as disgusting as they sounded.

Now with the two duffles at his feet and the shaft of the fire axe leaning against his hip, he stared into the darkness. A fear deep within him stirred, trying to pull him down to inaction. He was before the door, but he sensed that as soon as he stepped out of the quiet darkness of this room that all of this would become real. He was going to have to face monsters, more darkness, and who knew what else. The world had kept on moving while he had been in the tutorial. His partner hadn’t returned, he was five floors down in a bunker near the primary nexus, and he was alone.

Wallowing in the fear that threatened to swallow him, Drew let that wash over him, let it eat away at his resolve. Then he pushed it away. He had acknowledged his fear, had experienced it in full. It would not control him. “Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unquenchable soul.” He quoted Invictus to himself as his fingers formed the seals and pushed down, activating major mana guard, the yellow light flashing briefly before disappearing into his skin.

He lifted the axe, holding it in one hand as he pushed open the door, the red light of dancing sword sending strange shadows around the antechamber.

Drew paused for a moment, looking around the small room. Then he slung both duffles over his shoulder and stepped forward. The silence here was the same, comfortingly without any of the wheezing breath or the clack of claws on cement that his brain had imagined monsters would be making.

He didn’t look up.

The only thing that saved him was the dancing sword responding to threats automatically, slashing up at the chitionious mass that clung to the ceiling above him.

It was impossible to see in the darkness. The sword’s quick movements sent dark-red shadows throughout the room. However, the creature had fallen to the floor a few feet away from Drew, knocked off course by the sword’s blow.

There were no floating damage meters. There wasn’t a floating HP bar above the creature’s head either. So much for the system being like the games he used to play. With a thought, he struck out with cone of frost. The air immediately around him turned frigid instantly, but the creature reacted with a harrowing scream as it seemed to curl up around itself.

The sword’s duration ran out and he was plunged into darkness yet again. But his axe was already swinging towards the body of the thing that had managed to sneak up on him. He could feel the blade bite into it deeply, and then it stuck when he tried to pull it out, the sound of metal grating against chitin. He lashed out with his boot, kicking at the the thing while his other hand tried to cast another dancing blade.

He wanted the light; he needed it. The creature under his boot continued to thrash against his leg, long and hard legs or arms grasping at the thick fabric of his uniform pants. Yellow light flared every so often as mana guard protected him from damage. The spell’s cooldown wasn’t over yet and wouldn’t be for more than a minute. The thing was too close to use fireball. He should have slotted spark; it’s low recharge and single target nature was perfect for this sort of fighting.

Drew pushed the axe down, trying to drive it deeper into the creature, simultaneously causing damage and keeping the thing away from him.

Suddenly the mass under the axe twisted, a chunk of chitin bouncing off his shin as it was torn free by the action. Another short hand movement and he thrust a finger in the direction of the thing, another blast of cold erupting into the room.

The creature screamed again, and judging by the sound, it was attempting to retreat. Shifting the shape of his hand slightly, a massive bloom of fire streaked towards the other side of the small room. Drew’s eyes were focused on the creature he was fighting. The burst of light from the fireball had been enough to give him a good look at it for the first time. It was a massive spider, it’s body as thick as a soccer ball. It was dripping blue ichor from the axe and sword wounds with three of its legs encased in ice, while the main body just happened to be directly in the path of the blast. He could see the chitin melting as the ball passed through it’s body and then exploded against the far wall.

The reverberating force threw him back against the wall and he felt sharp pain in his lower back from a shelf he had been smashed against. Mana guard’s energy spent, he could feel the air around him loosen as it’s protection disappeared. But it was over; there was no way the spider had survived that.

The door behind Drew clicked closed, denying him the safety of the former watchfloor. His limbs were shaking from adrenaline, the aches and pains from impacts he hadn’t even realized had happened during the brief fight began to make themselves known. He quickly cast major refresh on himself.

The pain receded immediately as he took stock of the situation. One of the duffle bags still hung around his shoulder; the other had been dropped sometime during the fight. The axe haft still hung in his trembling hands. He quickly pulled up his node structure and slotted minor acid dart and major spark in the constellation to the left of his origin node and confirmed the change.

As the pain began, he realized he’d made a horrible mistake. If he lost consciousness again here where it wasn’t safe, there was a good chance he wouldn’t survive. His fingers tightened around the wood of the axe handle, turning white as he fought against the pain that burned throughout his entire body.

He could instantly tell that it wasn’t nearly as bad as the first time. Six xatherite of higher grade clearly imparted more information into his brain than the two low grade spells he’d just put in. Still, the pain was intense and he started to see lights dancing in the darkness.

Drew slumped back against the wall, not caring if the shelves dug into his back. His legs were shaking too hard for him to stay standing.

He had escaped relatively unscathed from the ordeal. But at the same time, there were no notifications popping up in his vision telling him how much experience he had acquired. There was no level on the spider indicating how hard it was compared to other monsters. No system generated loot from it’s corpse. Everything was the same as before, except now there were monsters, and he could cast fireball.

Sitting in the darkness, Drew tried to catch his breath, the headache dissipating as he tried to collect himself. Casting dancing blade again, he grabbed the handle of the axe and pushed himself back up to an upright position. He groaned again, feeling where the sharp corner of a shelf had dug into his back when he collapsed earlier. He walked over to the remains of the spider and nudged it with the axe, then looked around the room for any loot.

Monsters dropped loot and they guarded treasure chests. That was just how games worked, and while he was becoming more and more convinced that this wasn’t actually a game like the ones he was used to, his brain kept telling him that there had be more game elements in the world now.

The only thing he found was a bunch of spiderwebs in the corner above the door. Small dark spots in the webs were remnants of the spider’s previous meals. If this were a game, he’d collect the webbing and use it to make some rope, or some super strong cloth. But looking at the sticky stuff, he shivered slightly, having no desire to go about gathering it.

Miraculously, both duffles had landed on this side of the door, but he realized that carrying both of them would make fighting extremely difficult. He would kill for a bag of holding or a magic system inventory. Or heck, a Tenser’s floating disk.

With the duffles in a slightly better position on his back and the fire axe in hand, he cautiously moved to the next door. He pressed the side of his head against the door and listened for a moment. This little vestibule wasn’t soundproof and the spider had screamed quite loudly. If something was out there, it probably would have heard the fight. But maybe the explosion would have scared anything off?

He cracked the door open just enough to send a cone of frost into the hallway beyond. The tension of wandering the dark hallways was already making him a little on edge, and since the only ‘cost’ associated with casting his spells was the cooldown as far as he could tell, he figured it wasn’t a big risk.

Nothing screamed on the other side as he closed it and leaned in to push his weight against the door, listening again. He waited for dancing blade’s cooldown to be up so that he would have some light, then opened the door again, glancing around at the dark hallway.

To the left was the less secure facility where all the unclassified work was done, and to the right were offices of some of the chain of command. The way out was to the left. But the realization that he didn’t have a plan for how to leave the bunker caused him to close the door again and back up as he considered his options.

He could follow his normal route out, which would take him across half the building and up and down eight flights of stairs. The bunker was built to house thousands of office workers. Granted, the only people in it when the advent began were the two people on his watchfloor, the security guards and…the other night watch.

They were in the commandant’s plot room and had a couple people stationed there at all hours of the day. Which meant there were four or five people in there, and if he could meet up with them, he wouldn’t be alone.

He considered his options. The building was massive. He had explored some of it, but he still got lost in the unmarked corridors. His best bet was to follow his known route, which would take him out to the ground level near the parking structure. There were a couple of vending machines along the way that could be raided for additional foodstuffs. That was, assuming they didn’t have spiders guarding them.

So the plan was to head to the commandant’s plot, see if they were still in their watch room, and then escape the building along his normal route. With a nod of his head, he stood up again, his next few actions determined.

Spoiler: Xatherite Map