Levi’s eyes snapped open. He could still feel it, that rush of power. Aecylic Energy. He slowly sat up from where he had slumped to the floor. When he had activated the skill, he had been powerful; the blazing energy had supercharged his body. After experiencing it, he didn’t think anything could come close to the high he had felt. It was unreal, otherworldly even, as even the ghost of the energy made him feel like he could run forever, just keep going and never stop.

It was a drug, pure and simple, and he had to stop himself from trying to activate the skill again. If the results were anything like the first time, it wouldn’t end well. The pain of the rampant energy was just as vivid as the power it brought. He would activate it again though, but right now he had other issues, namely his stomach, and the brass orchestra section it was toting along.

Standing up proved harder than Levi thought it would be, his muscles still ghosting on Aecylic Energy. But dealing with that would have to come later, when he wasn’t in danger of starving to death. He slowly made his way back out of the tunnel, back towards the lake, taking the time to re-center his body.

Soon he was back, jumping down to the ledge and making his way forward around the lake. Finding that tunnel had actually reassured him there was an exit. Even the most poorly designed dungeons surely wouldn’t put a treasure chest in an area without an exit. He just had to keep searching.

It was hard to know, as he couldn’t actually see across the lake, but Levi estimated that by the time he found the exit he was almost directly opposite the waterfall he had entered this area through. It almost made him want to check the other side of the lake to see if there was a similar treasure chest, but his hunger was too much. Those mushrooms had taken the edge off, but he needed actual nutrients. Maybe some vitamin D or some shit like that. He wasn’t sure how long he had been in here, but it couldn’t be healthy to be out of the sun for so long.

The exit Levi found was a tunnel. A boring one at that, just a little bit larger than two and a half meters and mostly circular. It sloped upwards, which he thought was a good sign. He had fallen a long way down when Susan tackled them through the hole so long ago. It was possible the dungeon went deeper, but he thought it equally as likely the boss room was located above him as it was below.

Even if this tunnel didn’t lead towards an exit it lead somewhere, and at this point Levi had no choice but to take it. There didn’t seem to be much of interest in his current location.

He debated taking the tunnel in front of him extremely slowly, testing for traps the whole way, but ultimately gambled and chose to proceed as a reasonable pace. He needed to get out, and caution wasn’t the same thing as paralyzing fear. He had to trust in his skills and hope their levels were enough to see him through.

The tunnel he was in continued go upwards, proceeding in what Levi thought was a spiral pattern, slowly looping back on itself as he went around and around. He had been walking for a while, and he was debating going back down to get a drink before coming back when he finally reached the tunnel’s end.

The tunnel ended abruptly, as Levi came around a curve and found himself facing a wall. At first, he thought it was dead end. He had learned from the dungeon though, and after focusing on activating Improved Awareness, he found what appeared to be a secret door in the wall. Except it wasn’t really that secret. Just walking up to it was enough to figure out it was there, but it clearly wasn’t a regular door, and Levi was befuddled until he realized it was a secret door, he was just looking at the back.

He now had a dilemma. People don’t make secret doors for no reason, and it wasn’t too hard to guess there would be more than an empty room on the other side. But there were no cracks around the edges of the door for Levi to try and spy what lay beyond, so if he were to enter it, and at this point he didn’t have much choice, he would be opening himself up to any traps or enemies that were lying in wait behind it.

He really wished he had a weapon of some kind. Susan had been holding her gun when they fell into the river, and consequently lost it when she blacked out. Levi, perhaps stupidly, had kept all his pocket knives in his backpack, which was also long gone, as was his fishing spear which he left outside the dungeon. There weren’t even any loose rocks in the blasted dungeon, limiting Levi to throwing his shoes at any enemies or maybe trying to choke them out with his shoelaces or belt. He basically had shit all for options.

He did have increased stats, but his only physical stats were in Constitution. He couldn’t very well concentrate someone to death after all. He also had his new skill, Aecylic Empowerment, but after his first attempt he didn’t want to try using the skill without some preparation, or at least with a full stomach. It would be a powerful last resort though if he really needed it.

Most of Levi’s experiences with fighting were getting beat up during middle school, which, understandably, didn’t inspire confidence. But he had to go through that door. His only hope was that the other side just had more traps, if that could even be called a hope. Maybe a nice easy trap he could disarm with his improved skill levels that conveniently had a perfectly cooked juicy steak as the bait. Mmm, he could picture it now, the smell of roasting meat, perfectly seasoned, accompanied by the clatter of rocks and the shriek of high pitched voices. Wait a minute…

He was an idiot. Improved Awareness didn’t say anything about only working on specific senses, but for some reason he had interpreted it as something that gave him a sixth sense for danger and improved his vision, which was the sense he had primarily been using. But he had other senses, senses he now actively used as he snuck closer to the door to listen in.

High pitched squeaks and grunts accompanied the banging of rocks and possibly some sort of metal. In addition, there was meat. The sweet smell of roasting meat. It wafted through the invisible gaps around the door, caressing Levi’s nose and stimulating his taste buds, creating a veritable waterfall of saliva. He didn’t care what was on the other side of that door, there was meat, and he was going in.

Before that though, he needed a plan, or as much of one as he could create with his limited resources and knowledge. There were clearly creatures of some sort in the room beyond, creatures likely to try to bash his brains out and stab his ankles. In other words, goblins. He had no clue if they were real goblins, but Levi reckoned they were probably close enough. What else would be in a classic dungeon? He tried to think about what he would do if they were trolls or orcs, and it didn’t look good. So he just assumed they were goblins. Goblins that he could hopefully defeat with his limited combat experience.

Levi crept back up to the door, hand to the handle, ear pressed close, trying to hear as best he could what was happening on the other side. He waited until it sounded like the creatures were well and truly distracted, i.e., making a lot of noise, then he opened the door and charged in.

As soon as he entered Levi was greeting by the sight of five smallish grey humanoid figures. They were hunched around a campfire, just about to start eating dinner, which was roasting on the spit over the fire. The smell of the meat was overpowering once he was in the room and Levi could clearly hear the sizzle of fat as it dripped onto the fire.

It took a second for the goblins, for that seemed an appropriate analogue, to react to Levi’s presence. In that time, he had sprinted up to the nearest one, tackling it to the ground and started beating its head in with what appeared to be a stone plate it was about to use for its meal. As soon as Levi finished off the initial goblin, he looked up, only to be tackled himself by the remaining four goblins.

What followed was a melee of flailing limbs and claws. Levi tried to use his stone plate, basically a slightly flattish rock, to brain the other goblins similar to the first one, but his makeshift weapons was soon wrested from his grasp.

The opening sequences of the battle showed the utility of Levi’s Constitution. Not only were the goblins having a harder time scratching him with their claws, but he also found it easier to lay about with his fists, not needing to worry about bruising his knuckles.

Levi put in a herculean effort, but he soon realized he was losing the battle, the wounds starting to pile up while he had only bruised the goblins. They were much more suited for a chaotic ground battle. Ignoring their attacks, Levi changed the flow, managing to stand up despite one of the creatures hanging on his back and another wrapped around his leg.

As soon as he was up, Levi reached behind his head, grabbed the goblin on his back, and threw him across the room. The things were less than a meter tall and must have weighed no more than twenty kilograms. He then kicked the goblin on his leg into another goblin, while trying to use his arms to protect against the last one.

The goblin on his leg was sent tumbling together with another goblin, leaving Levi to turn on the one previous attacking him. He straight up ignored defense, instead opting to wail away at its head with his fists. He must have been doing something right, as by the time the other two untangled themselves, he had knocked out the goblin he had been attacking, blood pooling from its head. There was currently no sign of the goblin he had thrown, and Levi didn’t have the ability to worry about it at the moment.

He turned towards freshly untangled goblins as they charged him. He decided to send a kick at one, but missed, and ended up back on the floor after the other tackled his standing leg, attempting to gnaw it off. A messy scuffle ensued, with Levi trying and failing to stand up, and eventually settling for choking out one goblin and then turning and overpowering the second.

With four goblins out for the count, Levi stood up and looked around the room, searching for the final goblin he had thrown earlier.

He saw it immediately. By pure coincidence he had thrown it towards one of the entrances to the room he was currently in, an entrance that had apparently been trapped, judging by the multitude of arrows penetrating the goblin corpse lying in the entryway.

The sound of his heavy breathing filled the room as Levi looked around one final time, making sure he was the only living thing left. Stillness and silence greeted him. He had won. It had been a close thing, and his body was full of scratches and bite marks, but he had done it. He had survived his first real battle.