When Arris came to, the world was entirely grey. Or no, wait, that was the roof of the cave above him. Arris was currently lying down in the middle of a seemingly naturally occurring tunnel. He wondered how he’d come to get there. With a clack, Arris shoved himself up into a sitting position, taking a quick look around him. Aside from an innocuous pair of glowing leg bones sitting right in front of him, there didn’t really appear to be anything in the tunnel aside from him, at least, not anything that could potentially hurt him.

It was right about then that a large blue window popped up in front of him.

Welcome, Arris Graham, to the World System!

You, alongside another seventy million humans, have survived the transition!

Congratulations!

You will find many things have changed about the world you now live in! Beware, most forms of modern technology have ceased to function! Most attributes will be determined by the World System, much like in a human video game! You will have to learn to survive in the new world with the tools the World System has given you! For the six months after the implementation of the World System, only low leveled, unintelligent monsters will spawn! No dungeons will be opened, prohibiting monsters both from leaving and brave souls from venturing in! After these first six months, however, dungeons will open and regular monster spawns will commence! It is recommended that during the grace period, transition survivors learn how the World System works! Good luck, and may the worthy survive!

Remaining Days of Grace Period:

5 months 29 days

Arris eyed the screen with some considerable skepticism. This couldn’t be real. Well, he’d noticed the description of the world the notice had given talked about lower leveled monsters and the fact that the world would now be like a video game. It would then follow that he should have a level. What level was he? Almost as soon as Arris thought this, another screen popped up.

Current Level: 1

Arris’ eyebrows tried to shoot up. Whatever this World System was, it clearly worked and seemed to somehow be reading his thoughts. Based on the fact that there were levels assigned to both monsters and whatever he qualified as, a player, or person, or something else, Arris assumed that the World System had turned the world into something like a standard MMO RPG. Though, he wouldn’t quite be able to tell for sure until he could go out and around to check things out. Though he could test the system in a couple preliminary ways. There was one simple test Arris could perform to see if the World System had actually turned the world into a game: he could try and open his status page. And sure enough, after desiring to open his status page, a screen filled with a variety of numbers and stats popped up.

Name: Arris Graham

Class

None

Profession

None

Titles

Trailblazer I, Original I

Synchronicity Rating

97.6%

Renown

0

Level

1, 0%

Race

Human Skeleton

Health

120/120

Mana

210/210

Toughness

120/120

Spirit

105/105

Attack : 5-9

Attack Rating : 32

Defense : 1

Defense Rating : 21

Strength : 14

Agility : 18

Intelligence : 20

Wisdom : 22

Luck : 5

Charm : 0

Constitution : 13

Vitality : 8

Health/10sec : 0.018

Mana/10sec : 0.69

Toughness/10sec : 0.09

Spirit/10sec : 0.69%

Resistances

+50% damage taken from fire-based attacks

+150% damage taken from holy sources

-50% damage taken from dark magic

-90% damage taken from death magic

+30% damage from blunt damage types

-30% damage from sharp damage types

-10% damage from magical sources

98% chance to resist mind control and other types of subversive magic

Attributes

Skeletal Frame

Lesser Undead

Immortal

Soulbound

Passive Skills

Mana Sense

Equipped Items

N/A

Active Skills

Condensed Aether Bolt (4) (30 CD)

Arris pored over the status page, examining the entire thing. It seemed his stats were pretty good, from what he could remember from the MMO RPGs he’d played you usually started with ten points in each stat. Considering that the stats weren’t all the same value, he could assume that they had been assigned off preexisting conditions. Arris would’ve normally assumed his stats to be above the average of most of humanity. He’d done Aikido for most his childhood, ran several miles every morning, and was rather intelligent. The fact that his vitality was low wasn’t too surprising either: he frequently got sick and was practically allergic to air.

His luck and charm were admittedly significantly below the values of his other stats, but there were also games where those two stats performed different functions from the other combat based stats. Arris wasn’t quite a socialite, but he still went out partying every once in awhile and had at least a few friends. A charm score of 0 was a little… excessive.

Though in general, he was actually rather satisfied with his status page. There were only a couple problems. Why the hell was his race skeleton? And why the hell did he have the attribute “Lesser Undead”? The last time he’d checked, Arris had been a human. Raising his arm, he double checked that his hand was still made of flesh and blood. Unfortunately, as he brought it up to his eyes, he could tell it most decidedly wasn’t.

A glowing bony claw and forelimb now greeted Arris’ eyes, as opposed to the usual pale pinks and tans of his flesh. Arris jolted back, trying to yelp, bony legs scraping against the ground, flailing as he tried to get away from his own hideously animated hand. Unfortunately, as it was attached to him, and he was unable to escape it. Suddenly, he realized something even more critical. Arris’ hands shot up, frantically patting down his now bony rib cage and skeletal limbs before finally arriving at his crotch in the vain hope some of the old him remained. No such luck. Arris gazed down in shock at his new body of alabaster bone. He could see through himself. It was terribly disconcerting. All of a sudden, a window popped up in the air in front of him.

Hello Arris Graham!

The World System would like to apologize for any confusion or shock you may be going through right now! During the implementation of the World System, you appear to have changed races! As the World System was being initialized, the excess residual magical energy condensed in the form of a Lagniappe Nimbus, out of which condensed Aether Bolts, which appear like lightning, were shooting! You were struck by one of these bolts as the system was starting! Your body overloaded with mana, and your flesh melted off as the excess mana took the form of energy or heat! However, before you could fully die and your soul could depart the world, the World System took effect, grounding your soul in what was left of your body! As a soul attached to the skeletal remnants of an organism, your race has been determined as, Skeleton! As a monster type race, you have been placed in the dungeon you spawned near, as opposed to outside of it! Do not worry though, there are paths to regain your humanity! Good luck, and may the worthy survive!

You may review this explanation at any time in the future if you are ever unclear as to exactly what has happened to you and why.

Arris stared blankly at the explanation. A Lagniappe Nimbus? Aether Bolts? His flesh boiled away? What the fuck? He died but didn’t die? Arris’ mind felt like it was stretching in a million different directions. He felt like he was going to implode. He simply couldn’t comprehend what was happening to him. Fuck. He’d been a virgin before all this shit had gone down. He’d never get the chance to correct that. Maybe his luck should be 0, as opposed to his charm.

After a couple minutes of simply sitting on the ground, and reading the description over and over again, Arris still hadn’t come to terms with what had happened. He tried to let out a nervous chuckle but found that as a skeleton he was unable to make any noise other than an odd clacking together of his jaws. What the fuck. He couldn’t even talk.

This whole situation seemed like something out of one of those trashy fantasy reincarnation novels he used to love: he’d been zapped by a lightning bolt, and could now live his new life as a skeleton. No. He did not want to spend the rest of his goddamn life as a skeleton. He would not die a virgin. The World System had mentioned something about a way to regain his humanity. He would fucking find it.

Though, he had some more pressing concerns. The system had told him he was currently in a dungeon. Dungeons weren’t supposed to open for another six months. Was he stuck in the dungeon? The World System had implied that the creatures within the dungeon would be higher leveled than the naturally occurring creatures. As he was only level one, wasn’t he screwed? Wouldn’t they all be higher level than him?

He also wanted to get back to his relatives, Phaky, Kelly, Aunt Gina and Uncle Kevin. They could help him figure out what had happened and maybe even help him to find a solution. He should definitely try and exit the dungeon as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately for Arris though, he really had no idea where exactly he was in the dungeon. It could be possible that he was at the bottom of the dungeon. He wondered if the World System could possibly enlighten him as to where he was. Surely enough, a text box popped up after a quarter second of wait.

You are in the second tunnel of the Skeleton Floor of Malechian’s Dungeon.

Well, that had told Arris jack shit. He scratched his head and frowned at the unenlightening message, before attempting to sigh and feeling rather awkward when he failed. While the second tunnel of the skeleton floor implied he was close to the exit to the floor, the Skeleton Floor could be any floor of the Dungeon. Maybe it would be better if he simply asked the World System to show him the route out of the dungeon. He attempted then attempted to do so.

Though, after a couple seconds of impatient waiting, nothing popped up. That was unfortunate. There was only one other option. In many games, there was something called a minimap, which allowed you to see a small portion of the area around you, and save that portion on a map. It wasn’t that unlikely that he had access to a minimap, and could see a small portion of the area around him. And sure enough, when he requested the minimap, the following image popped up in the periphery of his vision.

To be fair, it really didn’t tell him a lot more than what the system message had told him. But it had told him two incredibly important things, one being that he was incredibly close to the entrance, and the other that he just needed to travel a little north to find the exit.

Arris set off down the corridor, periodically checking his minimap to check his progress. It took him about two minutes of brisk walking to discover that he was going in the wrong direction. He promptly turned around and headed back up the tunnel. After about a minute and a half of walking, he realized he could simply run, and there shouldn’t be any consequences. As a skeleton, he should hypothetically have unlimited stamina. He certainly didn’t have the resource bar.

Arris started running down the corridor. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to run very fast. He was only able to move at a mild run, maybe around 12 miles per hour, which he could have brought up to a low 20 in his old body. A rather unfortunate decline in speed. He could probably beat anyone in a marathon though.

After a minute or two of running, Arris came to a large cavern. A large window then popped up, with the following notification.

Congratulations, you have discovered the first level of the Skeleton Floor of Malechian’s Dungeon! You will find monsters within this portion of the Dungeon!

Now Arris was wary. The notification felt rather ominous. “You will find monsters within this portion of the Dungeon!” It was basically telling him he’d be attacked if he tried to through the cavern. But through the cavern, he had to go. Since this was the first cavern and he'd just exited the second tunnel, it would then follow that the other exit to this level would lead to the exit of the dungeon.

Arris crept out into the cavern, sticking to the walls. He didn’t quite know how large the cavern was, as only a small portion was shown on his minimap, and if he simply struck out across the center, he may become hopelessly lost. Cautiously, Arris made his slow way along the walls of the cavern, staying out of sight as best he could.

As he walked along the wall of the cavern, Arris looked into the wider expanse of the cavern. It wasn’t actually mainly open space but instead appeared to be the ruins of some ancient, long decayed town or city, with the building’s walls all being interconnected and made of stone. From the couple glances he got into the city from the exits and windows he passed every now and again, the city seemed to form a labyrinth of sorts. Outside of this labyrinth, there were several skeletons roaming the dark of the cavern, keeping a watch for intruders.

Arris managed to avoid all of them, until, in a feat of extraordinary unluckiness, Arris got stuck in a situation where he was unable to avoid an encounter without turning back. There were two skeletons. One was also moving along the wall, but in the opposite direction that Arris was. The other was some thirty feet out and ten feet in front of the other skeleton. They were walking together in formation. There was nowhere for Arris to go but back.

In his panic to turn around, Arris made a little bit of a scene when he tripped over a rock before falling to the ground with a clatter. Looking up, he saw that the skeletons somehow hadn’t noticed him, even while he’d tripped into an open area in their direct line of sight. Moving slowly, Arris moved out of the open area, before beginning his retreat. He was careful not to make too much noise, and to always stay out of sight of the two patrolling skeletons. He hoped they would turn around, but at no point did they seem inclined to. They pushed him all the way back to the tunnel from which he’d come out of, a thirty-minute setback for Arris.

He ground his teeth together in frustration back at the tunnel. That had really sucked. He’d wasted a ton of time being stealthy, and from what he’d seen on the pathway, stealth really didn’t seem to matter too much: the skeletons hadn’t even noticed him when he’d loudly tripped out into the open.

On his second venture into the cavern, Arris walked with far less regard for stealth. The skeletons towards the middle didn’t really seem to notice him at all. He’d gotten a couple hundred feet past the prior furthest point he’d reached in about half the time when all of a sudden, he encountered another block of skeletons moving towards him just as he was walking under an especially large stone arch. This time there was a group of three skeletons moving back along the wall towards him.

Mentally cursing, Arris once again began stealthily retreating back towards the entrance tunnel. Unfortunately, it was then that he noticed the block of skeletons which had been following at a distance behind him. If Arris could’ve broken into a cold sweat, he would’ve. There was nowhere to run. Arris could see that out towards the middle of the cavern there were several skeletons milling around. The only way to get out would be to dodge around the block of four skeletons moving towards him and make a mad dash for the tunnel.

Arris moved towards the skeleton closest to the wall, positioning himself in just the right way behind a boulder so that none of the other skeletons could possibly see him. He raised his fists in a defensive posture, setting his stance, preparing for the skeleton’s charge. Staring at it, he attempted to analyze its characteristics and was rewarded with the following message appearing above its head.

The Skeleton Drudge appeared to be carrying a weapon, some sort of curved, badly dented, badly rusted scimitar. Arris nodded. The weapon looked rather unwieldy, and would likely have severe damage penalties. He could do this, no problem. Right?

Surprisingly enough though, as the Skeleton Drudge approached, Arris barely felt any fear at all. He supposed it was reasonable that since he was now a skeleton, he would no longer feel emotions quite so intensely. In fact, now that he thought about it, it was surprising that he even felt emotions at all. Skeletons didn’t have a nervous system, and emotions were caused by chemical reactions which required more than bones to occur. Huh. Arris would have to revisit this train of thought later, but this was not the time to be engaging in a self-induced existential debate. There was a skeleton fast approaching.

Or actually, it wasn’t. It was leisurely walking towards him as if it had all the time in the world. It could almost definitely see him at this point. If this was any normal MMO RPG, it would’ve aggroed. He was maybe twenty feet away from it, almost directly in the path it would take walking along the wall. The odds that it hadn’t seen him yet were slim to none.

Maybe skeletons were just really slow. Though that seemed more than a little ridiculous. If skeletons could only ever walk towards their enemies, anything with half a brain cell and a bunch of rocks could take out a legion of the things. And anyway, he could run at a slow speed and he was a skeleton. Why shouldn’t these skeletons be able to do the same?

Now thoroughly perplexed, though still wary of the skeleton, Arris scooted to the side, moving out of its path, though still maintaining his fighting stance. Maybe it would go by. It didn’t seem to be acting aggressively. The skeleton steadily walked closer. Fifteen feet and he was pretty sure that it was looking at him. Ten feet, and now he could tell for sure that it was looking at him. Five feet… and then it just shifted focus, looking back further along its patrol route, totally ignoring Arris and walking right by him without any signs of aggression.

Arris waited until it had walked another few feet by him, glanced around himself to make sure nothing was sneaking up on him to launch a sneaky surprise attack, and then dropped his guard, heaving a mental sigh of relief. Now he just felt like an idiot. Of course, the skeleton wouldn’t attack him. They were both skeletons after all. He probably went undetected by other skeletons, and following that logic, other types of undead as well. That was quite convenient.

Well, now it should hardly be any trouble getting out of the dungeon. If there were only skeletons on this floor, as the name, The Skeleton Floor implied, he shouldn’t have any unexpected attackers on his walk to the exit.

Arris continued walking along the wall, being cautious around the first several skeletons he passed. As he walked by them, he looked at their nameplates, which hovered above them, and the weapons on them.

The monsters seemed to be relatively low leveled, with pretty bad equips as well. The weapons they carried were heavily rusted, and barely resembled weapons at all in the state they were in. Even the Archer’s bow seemed like it would snap after a couple shots. Arris figured that with the fact that he could easily get into melee range of the skeletons without them suspecting anything, that if he really wanted to, he could take out some of the lower leveled ones, like the lower leveled drudge. If Arris wasn’t so spooked by the fact that he’d turned into a skeleton and set on finding his relatives and confirming they were alright, he probably would’ve stopped to farm a couple mobs and maybe get a level.

As it was though, Arris was hurrying along the wall, searching for a tunnel out. He’d already long since passed the opposite side of the cavern and was now heading back towards the tunnel he’d come out of. After another while of walking, Arris had come full circle, arriving back at the original tunnel he’d come out of. This made no sense. He consulted his minimap.

It didn’t appear to be giving him any clues either. Well now, he was well and truly perplexed. Arris sat down, putting his back against the cold stone of a wall, while he pondered on where the exit tunnel to the cavern could be.

There were a few options. The first of which was that there was no exit tunnel aside from the one he’d come in. In this situation, he’d simply be well and truly fucked, as there would be no real exit to the dungeon. He’d have to complete the entire thing to get out. He found this scenario unlikely. If there was no way to retreat from a dungeon halfway through it, they’d be literal deathtraps. Unprepared parties could never escape. Another option was that he’d simply missed the exit tunnel while he was walking around. This was also rather unlikely. Arris could be unobservant at times, but this would not be one of them: he was hyped up on the unexpectedness and intensity of the situation he was in and was certainly paying enough attention to see a tunnel his size. The final option was that the exit was concealed, or wasn’t located along the wall. This was probably the most rational conclusion. Of course, then again, it wouldn’t really make sense for the exit to be in the middle of the cavern unless it was a portal or something weird. It was most likely the exit was somehow concealed.

Arris went for a second walk around the cavern, this time examining the walls and any cracks with much more scrutiny. He was methodical and precise and missed nothing. He walked with his hand to the wall, to make sure that no illusionary wall was disguising the tunnel. Unfortunately, after another forty minute walk around the cavern, Arris had found nothing. From this, he could draw a couple conclusions. The first of which was that the exit was almost definitely not on the outer wall, and either didn’t exist at all or had to be somewhere near the middle of the cavern. Now he needed to look through the rest of the cave.

Arris had felt safer near the walls. He knew that as long as he stuck to the walls, nothing could ambush him and that he could find the entrance tunnel again. Of course, then again, this cavern didn’t seem too large. He could probably comb it in an hour or two.

Arris set out into the cavern, intending to methodically search the entire thing. Unfortunately, he soon got lost in the maze of walls. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t actually seen that many exits to the city while he’d been walking around, maybe five or six. Portions were very clearly designed in the shape of buildings, but removing those stylistic decisions, the place was undoubtedly a labyrinth. Arris wondered if there was some backstory to the whole labyrinth city, or if it was randomly generated. Maybe he’d find out later.

After ten minutes of twisting turns, Arris was well and truly lost. This was unfair. There was no way an amateur like him could navigate this labyrinth, and it didn’t really seem like there was any way to zoom in with the minimap to help him. With no clear path to his goal, and too far in to be able to retrace his steps, Arris simply decided to wander through the labyrinth until he found a way out, either back into the rest of the cavern or out of the dungeon.

As Arris explored the labyrinth city, he peered into houses, wondering if they had occupants. At one point, he spotted a poorly covered glowing chest in the back of one of the buildings he was walking by. Intrigued, Arris couldn’t help but venture into the building.

Glancing around, he didn’t spot anything that could potentially kill him, and no exit corridors or stairwells to possibly conceal enemies, so he simply continued on to the chest. He pulled the worn tarp off the chest and then proceeded to undo the metal clasping which kept it shut. He hesitated before opening the chest, glancing around and behind him. He felt like he was cheating. Any normal delver would’ve had to go through a lot more to get to this chest. Meh. Whatever. First come, first serve. He could use the stuff. It might still be trapped though.

Arris slowly opened the chest, wary of a trap. He could see that it was glowing, which he assumed meant that it was magical in some way. However, no arrows shot out, no poison gas misted forth, and no skeletal hands reached out to pull him in. After waiting a second and a half after fully opening the chest, Arris deemed it more or less safe and took a step forwards to loom over and look into the chest. There were a chestplate and a tome. Both seemed in good condition. Arris, now excited, reached into the chest to pick up the book. As soon as his hand went into the chest, however, a dark pulse of energy instantaneously formed at the bottom of the chest, and surged up into him, throwing him back.

Arris was hurled back through the air almost to the door, in front of which he fell to the ground in a clatter of limbs. The following notifications popped up.

> Dungeon Trap deals 113 dark magic damage to you! <

Warning adventurer! Opening chests without first clearing the area of monsters will result in the chest being trapped!

Well great. Why couldn’t the damn System tell him that before he was almost dead on the ground? Maneuvering himself back into a sitting position, Arris looked peevishly at the chest. In the upper right-hand corner of his vision, he could see a flashing red bar, denoting his health. It currently read 7. Actually, now that he’d noticed, he could see all his resource bars there, for Health, Mana, Toughness, Spirit, and Experience. He frowned. He still didn’t know what Toughness and Spirit did. Whatever. He’d figure it out eventually.

Arris got back up, determined to claim his items. The chest had done its worst, and even if it was idiotic, Arris wanted the loot. Looking at the chest, he could see that it was no longer glowing. Whatever magical trap had been on the chest was gone. The book inside it, however, was certainly glowing. Arris tried to grin but instead just clacked his jaws together, raising the tome into the air and reading the title. It read Skill Book: Dark Blow. If Arris’ skeletal face had the muscles to increase the size of his grin, it would’ve certainly stretched even wider. Instead, his jaws just clacked together again. Arris knew how useful skill books were from his experiences playing MMOs. A good skill book was potentially worth a fortune.

He immediately popped it open, wanting the skill. The following message appeared.

Would you like to learn skill Dark Blow?

Y/N

Arris immediately mentally responded with a, ‘yes’, and the book popped open, its pages rapidly flipping, darkness pouring out of them and into Arris before it finally slammed shut and crumbled to dust. Another window popped up.

Congratulations!

You have learned the skill, Dark Blow! You may activate this skill to infuse your weapon with darkness, causing it to deal bonus dark damage on your next blow!

Damage:

100% of Attack physical damage

+20% Attack dark damage

+ 10% Wisdom dark damage

Costs:

-20 Mana

-20 Stamina (Not Applicable)

10 second CD

As far as Arris could tell, it was a pretty good ability. Actually, now that Arris thought about it, he had another active ability, didn’t he? Condensed Aether Bolt. Arris hadn’t really even considered the ability yet. He had no idea how he’d gotten the ability, just assumed when he first saw it that it was just some byproduct of being struck and melted by… well… a condensed Aether Bolt. He asked the System for a description, and one popped up.

Condensed Aether Bolt

You may activate this skill to condense your mana into a supercharged mana bolt, which will strike enemies for massive damage. This strike is near instant and inflicts fire, light, and energy damage. This spell does not need a full charge to activate. Additional mana may be channeled into the spell, dealing an additional 52% damage for every 200 mana channeled in. Mana is channeled at a rate of 100 mana per second. At max, 4.16 seconds of overcharge.

Damage:

88 base mixed damage

+31.2% Wisdom mixed damage

+3.06% Mana mixed damage

Cost:

-200 Mana

-30 Spirit

2 seconds channeling

30 second CD

Arris had to reread the ability once or twice to confirm it was real. This ability was incredibly powerful! If he was doing his math right, the ability dealt roughly 100 damage in a single shot, and he could charge it to deal a little bit more damage if he really needed! There was no way a noob like him should have access to such a high-level spell. But he did.

Now feeling much more confident in himself, Arris went for the second item, the chestplate. Holding it up, he asked the system to show the chestplate’s stats, and the following notifications popped up.

Congratulations!

You have learned the skill, Assess!

Crude Iron Chestplate

Condition: Medium

12 kg

Requirements:

10 Strength

10 Constitution

Stats:

+20 Defense to equipped area

More weird stuff. Why was the name colored and what was this condition about? As soon as he had that thought, a couple more screens popped up.

Rarity:

There are several rankings in terms of Rarity. They are as listed below:

Categories:

Abundant

Common

Uncommon

Rare

Unique

Unusual

Special

Epic

Legendary

(displayed through color)

Rarity is a measure of the abundance of an item.

Additional aspects of Rarity remain unmentioned

Condition:

There are several rankings in terms of Condition. They are as listed below:

Terrible

Poor

Medium

Fine

Good

Excellent

Superb

Splendid

Exquisite

Sublime

Condition is not a direct measure of the condition an item is in, instead, it is the measure of the condition an item is in relation to the original craftsmanship of the weapon. For example, if an item were to be crafted at the Splendid level and then rusted, the weapon would likely only decay to the Excellent level. Conversely, a weapon crafted at the Terrible could likely never achieve Sublime level, even with a million sharpenings.

Huh. That pretty much made sense. Too many terms at once for Arris, but he’d acclimate eventually. From what he could tell, it seemed the chestplate was pretty shitty. That was fine with him though. Better a shitty chestplate than no chestplate at all.

With his new loot and ability, Arris felt far more secure in exploring the dungeon. He went house to house, searching for chests. He found none, but in the 17th household he ventured into, he discovered something debatably just as interesting. A stairway leading upwards.

Hesitantly, he ascended it, looking around to be careful nothing was going to jump down from the top of the stairwell and kill him. He made it to the top with no incident. Now at the top, he realized that he was actually standing above the network of the labyrinth, and could see the entire thing. The walls seemed to be uneven in terms of height, and this was one of the highest points visible. Off to one side, about three hundred feet away, there was a large stone arch which led to a small tunnel, actually the same stone arch the previous group of seven skeletons had cornered him under. The arch was considerably higher than the rest of the dungeon, and the entire thing could easily be seen from the top.

Now it all made a lot more sense. The dungeon wasn’t throwing the noobs straight into a complicated labyrinth of impassable stone walls. It was seeing if they were actually prepared to traverse the dungeon. If they went down into the labyrinth and attempted to traverse it without taking advantage of the fact they could easily see the entire thing and route a path through, they would surely get lost. A smart adventurer could prepare though.

From his vantage point, Arris could see everything in the level. A small barracks with some twenty skeletons milling around near it. A small hall with what appeared to be a boss. And the billion twisting turns and ruined houses of the labyrinth.

But Arris didn’t have time to appreciate and inspect the labyrinth. No. He had one goal: to get to the exit, leave the dungeon, and find his relatives. He struck out across the top of the labyrinth, running along the tops of walls till he reached the exit tunnel.

You are in the first tunnel of the Skeleton Floor of Malechian’s Dungeon

Arris ran down the tunnel, making good time and quickly nearing the exit. After roughly three minutes of running, he reached another larger cavern and entered it.

Congratulations, you have discovered the Initial Safe Cavern of Malechian’s Dungeon!

However, beware, monsters may frequent this cavern during the grace period!

Alright, it seemed Arris was close to the exit. Looking out across the cavern, Arris could spot what looked like a mining area, a sleeping area full of tents, an area for waste disposal of various types, and an area for cooking. Beyond those places, he could see two exit tunnels. Frowning, he decided to go with the one closer to the dungeon entrance on his minimap.

You are in the first tunnel of Malechian’s Dungeon

It wouldn’t be long now. Just two more minutes of running, an easy feat for a skeleton like him with no measurable stamina. He jogged down the tunnel, looking forward to seeing the sun and the green of grass once again. He’d spent too long in the darkness of the dungeon.

But when he finally reached the end of the tunnel, there was no sunlight, no breeze, no green grass and outside world awaiting him. Just a cold stone wall and a notification.

Dungeons are closed during the World System’s grace period! Nothing may enter or exit a dungeon until the grace period has ended!

Time Remaining:

5 months 29 days

Good luck, and may the worthy survive!