Levi sat on the ground, staring forlornly at the broken mushrooms surrounding him. It had seemed so simple, but actual shelves and mushroom lookalikes weren’t the same thing.

With a large sigh, Levi stood up and tried to plan out round two of reaching the fissure in the wall. He had tried all the obvious ways, climbing and jumping, and neither had succeeded. The mushrooms were shelf-like, but they were barely hanging onto the wall. They might, might, be able to provide more traction than the regular wall, but any difference was negligible.

What he really needed was a rope of some sort, and possibly a grappling hook. He actually had a rope in his backpack, but of course he lost that ages ago. He had a lot of things in his backpack, things that would make this whole exploration business at lot easier. It’s wasn’t good to dwell on the past though, and he tried to bring himself back to the present and take stock of what he actually had.

It wasn’t much. He had a short sleeve shirt, a lightweight jacket, some pants, hiking boots, sock, and underwear. He actually had a belt, but it was nowhere near long enough to reach where he needed it to.

Levi absently mindedly began patting his pockets down, looking for something he had missed. His only thought was maybe making some sort of chain out of his clothing. Like maybe use his boots and try to wedge them into the crack as an anchor. It was when he glanced down at his boots that it hit him.

“Of course, my shoelaces, how could I forget after that freaking attendant who kept going on and on about their tensile strength, saying how they could support a grown man. Time to put that to the test.”

He quickly unstrung his shoelaces, tying them together to form a fairly long rope. He added his belt at one end, and one of his boots at the other, the plan being to hold the end with his belt and then throw his boot up into the crack, hopefully wedging it in there enough to support his weight.

The first time failed. He actually succeeded in getting his boot up there, but it immediately fell out as soon as he tried to put his weight on the rope. The second and third tries he failed to get it in at all. The fourth try he almost hit himself on the head when his boot fell back down. The fifth try seemed to stick though, and it was with a rising sense of anticipation that Levi put his full weight on improvised rope. It held, and he let out a large breath he didn’t know he had been holding.

Before the System, Levi wasn’t sure if he would have been able to scramble up the wall to reach the fissure, rope or no rope, but with the System, it was almost too easy. Mostly because his Constitution made it so that he didn’t have to worry about his thin shoelaces digging into his hands. He quickly clambered up, luckily finding some easy handholds to grab onto to pull him the last part of the way into the crevice.

Once up, he re-laced his boots and turned to face the tunnel ahead, for it was a real tunnel, further confirming his suspicions that this was an area meant to be explored. Just hopefully one that explorers were meant to return from. Before coming up Levi had resolved to leave any golden idols he saw. He wasn’t taking any chances.

Entering the tunnel, he was starting to appreciate more and more the constant lowlight that permeated the dungeon. If he had any sort of torch or something it would have been hell trying to maneuver it though the cramped tunnel he was in. He was almost bent over double in some sections. While it was clear that it was in fact a tunnel, it was way too uniform to be anything but, the size varied the most out of every section of the dungeon Levi had seen so far.

It was slow going. With his skills turned up as much as he could, Levi was fully prepared to take as long as he needed to insure his safety. He had realized that while Improved Awareness was great at potentially spotting danger, it augmented his current senses, not overwrote them. That meant that the more he was aware of normally, the more he would perceive with his skill. Which would have been a useful thing to know in the skill description. But the System liked to play hard to get, and Levi just had to learn to deal with it.

As the tunnel stretched on, Levi prayed he wouldn’t have to try and quickly escape back down it. He had no confidence he could do so without hitting his head on the changing ceiling height, especially considering the slick floor. He had already slipped once, and that was with him being careful. He probably needed more Agility or something.

Levi dipped his head under one final crag in the rock before freezing. The tunnel came to an abrupt end, and he found himself in a small room, barely big enough for two people. Two people and a treasure chest, because that’s what he saw in front of him. A genuine wooden treasure chest, sitting quietly under a small stream of water that dripped down the wall behind it.

Truthfully, he wasn’t really sure what to do at this point. Of course, the obvious thing to do was open the chest. Yeah right he was about to waltz up to the first chest he sees and get blown up as it triggered a fireball or some shit. But if he wasn’t going to open the chest, what was the point of even coming here then? He spent a lot of effort just getting up here, and that didn’t speak to his reason for wanting to come into the dungeon in the first place. People explored dungeons for treasure, it was just that simple, and Levi was no different.

Gently moving into the room, Levi found a dryer spot on the floor to sit down and think. The treasure chest was baiting him, practically begging him to just open it. He wouldn’t be fooled though. He had to stay calm.

“Fuck it.”

He turned around. Now he couldn’t see the chest, so it obviously wasn’t there. He was just going to sit here and debate opening some other chest, not the one behind him that he really wanted to open really, really badly. Nope, no chest here.

Activating Concentrated Will, Levi focused. He had to be real with himself, he was going to open the chest. The only question was, how, and what should he do first? He didn’t have a true trap finding skill, and if the chest was trapped inside he had no way of knowing except if Improved Awareness told him, and based on how useful it was to Susan, the skill wasn’t omnipotent.

So, if he couldn’t be sure of what was in the chest, he needed to check the outside of it. After a few moments thought, he turned back around to enact his plan.

The plan basically revolved around carefully inspecting every single surface of the small room he could before opening the chest. First, he started with the entrance to the room, running his hand over the floor, walls, and ceiling. He then moved further in, carefully inspecting every surface for any potential traps with Improved Awareness on at full blast. He then moved to the chest itself, first swinging his belt at it, and when that didn’t get a reaction, feeling around it for any sign of foul play. There was nothing. It was a normal room with a damp floor and a chest.

With a deep breath, Levi moved to kneel in front of the chest. It wasn’t particularly large, but everyone knows that chest sizes don’t matter, although he would have preferred a bigger chest. Sometimes bigger was better.

Trepidation filled him as he reverently moved to grab the chest. This would be the first chest he ever touched, and Levi wanted to savor the moment. Ever so slowly, he placed his hands on it. And then he opened it.

Nothing. Levi could feel the blood coursing through his body as he cracked the lid. He was on high alert, waiting for the other shoe to drop, expecting poisoned needles to fly at him or the chest to sprout teeth and legs and bite his head off. After five seconds of nothing happening it sunk in. He had actually found a real honest to goodness treasure chest.

With a whoop of joy, Levi threw the lid open exposing the chest in all its chesty glory. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, maybe piles of gold or a gem encrusted weapon. Maybe a space large on the inside than out. Instead, there was a crystal. And that was it. Just one crystal.

He couldn’t tell much more than that. It wasn’t glowing, and because of the darkness he wasn’t able to tell what color it was. But if that was the only thing in there, it had to be useful. Levi carefully reached inside, picking it up. Nothing happened for a split second, before he received a notification from the System.

[Congratulations! You have obtained a Skill Crystal! Skill Crystals can be absorbed to learn one skill.]

Levi sat there, holding onto the Skill Crystal, waiting for the next message. It never came.

“You fucking piece of shit system, that’s it? That’s fucking it? Nothing else? Just one measly message. But of course it is. Why would I expect any-fucking-thing else?”

He was pissed. Of course he would get a great reward like this and the System would go and ruin it for him. Why couldn’t it tell him how to fucking use it for instance? And what did it even do? Did it give a specific skill, or allow him to choose one like before? He didn’t even know if he had a skill limit. He could absorb the crystal and then be stuck with a hopscotch skill he was unable to get rid of.

No, there was no reason to be upset. Levi took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. It was just the tension that got to him. He had been half expecting the System to tell him he picked up a cursed rock or something. It was a Skill Crystal though, and even if he didn’t exactly know what that meant yet, it sounded pretty good. He had to look on the bright side. If he wanted to learn about it, he would probably have to use it. The System didn’t tell you anything for free.

Levi moved back over to the dryer part of the floor he had sat on before and sat down, crossing his legs and holding the crystal with both hands in his lap. He closed his eyes, took a few long, deep breaths, and concentrated.

Still nothing. He almost lost it again, feeling the urge to start shouting profanities. Even concentrating on the crystal didn’t give him any new information. There wasn’t enough light to inspect it visually, and Levi decided crushing it should be a last resort. That limited him to absorbing it. Refocusing, he activated Concentrated Will and focused on absorbing the crystal, praying for success.

[Unlocked skill: Aecylic Empowerment! This skill allows for Aecylic Energy to be channeled to empower the body. This skill is associated with: Willpower, Willpower, Attunement, Attunement, Aecylic Energy.]

[Unlocked stat: Aecylic Energy! You now have access to the Aecylic Energy stat.]

“Fuck yes!”

Levi couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face. He had been hoping the Skill Crystal would give him a powerful skill, and it looked like his prayers were answered. He didn’t have a true way of judging a skills power level, but stat associations were currently his best bet. And his new skill had five of them. Five! It even included a new stat.

Levi did a little dance as he sat there on the floor. Finally, this shitty dungeon came through for him. After taking so much from him he finally got something back. This sounded like exactly the type of thing he could use to escape. Susan must have answered his prayers. He couldn’t let her down. He was sure she was watching him from above.

Calming down, Levi tried activating his skill. It was surprisingly difficult. With a frown, he tried first activating Concentrated Will to hone in on his new skill, guessing he needed more help to activate it. His guess proved correct, and Levi suddenly found himself awash in a powerful energy.

But it was too powerful, and seconds after activating it, he lost control of the skill, the energy running rampant in his body, frying him from the inside out. His muscles contracted, and his breathing sped up, his heartrate accelerating. Then came the pain, and Levi’s eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the floor, drifting into unconsciousness.