Every dozen or so steps down the staircase a new tunnel opening appeared, branching off to who knew where? This enormous cavern was the heart of the mountain, and there was no doubt a human hand had been involved in its creation. My excitement grew even greater as I wondered just what it was all for.

My steps were measured as I moved carefully downwards. The stairs jutted from the cave wall with absolutely nothing beneath them. If they failed me, I would plummet into the shadowy depths. Peeking carefully over the outside, unprotected side of the stairs, I looked downward.

I could see the staircase spiraling around and down for about forty feet before vanishing into the darkness. I had no clue just how deep this cavity was, or what waited for me below. All I knew is that every step I took scared me to death.

It didn’t help that for some reason that I couldn’t discern, a pebble would sometimes fall from the wall and bounce away to the depths below, the echo as it clattered would quake the entire cave. The first time this happened I dropped to my knees instantly in fear, wondering what the noise was. Only after I was sure I wasn’t going to plummet below did I dare stand up and keep moving.

Each time I passed a new opening along the stairway I dipped my head inside to see where it led. None of the tunnels seemed interesting, but I could feel soul signatures located in the distance.

I completed an entire spiral before realizing that I couldn’t safely continue. The soul signatures below were something that would pose a considerable threat to my life, if not kill me. It seemed like I would need to take a detour back and start maneuvering along the smaller passageways.

Perhaps my smartest decision would be to just pack up and leave. Enough time had passed that I could go back to Arturii and get my reward for enlisting: EXP potions and a hefty sum of Zeny. That was the safest option by far.

Yet safe wasn’t going to prepare me for what was coming. The situation on Yetera was worsening by the day. The wave of high-level monsters was creating a crisis that was predicted to end in the annihilation of all; which perhaps had something to do with the reason why I was here in the first place. Better to stay and try to level and solve the mystery of this mountain.

The subsequent days in the tunnels were long and unforgiving, but only because I pushed myself hard. I found out quickly that it wasn’t only the Yeti living in these caves. There were numerous other beasts, including reptiles… and insects.

The situation had its ups and downs, but I managed to deal with them. There was food to be had, and fresh snow to melt and drink from directly outside. The cave protected me from the howling winds and that was enough to keep me from freezing.

After four days of grinding in these mountain caverns of unknown origin, things were looking up. Each winding cavity of the section I was now exploring was enormous in length, and some were enormous in height too. My battles against proportionately large mobs were cut out for me to gain EXP from.

My rations were still in good shape as I had taken a note from Steven’s book and made do with the meat I could obtain from here for food. So long as I kept two days of rations in hand, I would have enough to get me back south into the forest, and there I could continue to survive until I reached Arturii.

The goal post had shifted temporarily. Yes, I wanted to help the guilds and the people of Arturii, but the best way to do so was to grow stronger while I had the chance.

My days started with adventuring through these side cavities for anything of value. The most valuable gain of all though, was EXP. I held nothing back as each battle was different.

I couldn’t choose my terrain, and sometimes I found myself backed against a wall, or fighting in a narrow corridor that I could barely fit through. This series of duels in tunnels taught me something incredibly valuable in the process, though.

My magic was remained incredibly strong despite my new-found melee abilities. Pairing the two was the best choice of action for me. Combing both in a flexible way led to my having an unpredictable fighting style, and a most potent one.

The first day of hunting the upper level tunnels had been relatively uneventful due to my caution, but I had progressed faster thereafter. My confidence and knowledge of the mobs (Ice Lizards, Winter Beetles, Giant Furry Bat and many others) increased, and so did my speed of travel through these shafts. In four days I had picked up a level and a half of EXP.

It was both fortunate and unfortunate that the cave system wasn’t filled with just Frost Yetis. The elites that I ran into along the way didn’t give nearly as much HP and MP for harvesting them as did the common mobs. My gains were still considerable though: 161 HP and MP for four days of strenuous hunting.

The soul signatures below still seemed to be too high a level for me though, and I started to question whether I would be strong enough to venture down anytime soon. All I could do was continue through these tunnels and increase my strength.

I decided that at level 38 I would venture down regardless of my current feelings. The increase in stats as well as the added HP and MP value should be enough to at least allow me to escape.

That level and a half took me only two days: a big acceleration from the previous four days. I was much more familiar with the cave system, as well as the foes I would fight within it. My kill speed was efficient as possible.

Current EXP: 1400/115000 LEVEL: 38 Soul Harvester Eternal

HP: 2475/2475 MP: 1288/1288

STR: 30+2

AGI: 35+11

DEX: 35 +5

VIT: 30 +4

INT: 55 +21

Available:

Harvest Soul: 347 HP: 712 MP: 712

It was becoming very clear to me how overpowered my unique situation might become. I no longer scaled per level, but even if I didn’t add any more to Harvest Soul, for the next ten or fifteen levels I would have more HP and MP than a mage or even melee combatant of a similar level.

I finally felt confident enough to head deeper into the cave. I could feel the soul signatures below, but I couldn’t be exactly sure what the layout looked like. It was possible they were all resident inside a deeper part of the cave system but probably they were at the base of the mysterious staircase.

As I headed into the depths of the mountain, the air around me became warmer and warmer. Even my strange stone had grown hotter to the touch and yet I couldn’t see the bottom of the stairs.

The tunnels along the staircase grew less frequent and the soul signatures within were significantly stronger than the ones above. Out of caution, I descended slowly but that just made it seem there was no end.

Despite the risk, there came a time when I couldn’t resist lighting a fireball and tossing it down. It fell and fell before finally hitting the floor at least three full cycles of the stairs below. The ground there was hard to make out, but one thing I was sure of was that it was clear of any monsters.

Only after I finally reached the bottom could I see the layout: there was only a single tunnel on the opposite side to the foot of the staircase. Inside was a soul signature that gave me cold sweats just thinking about it.

The tunnel wasn’t the only feature of interest, though. In the very center of this room at the heart of the mountain was a slightly elevated platform. On that platform was an odd structure made of a stone like marble. The sculpture looked like a horseshoe with its two prongs pointed towards the cave ceiling.

I approached carefully while removing the mysterious stone from my inventory. Not only was it extremely warm to the touch, it started to glow from within. Whatever it was, it was meant for this structure.

The prongs had unknown characters written all along them and my fingers traced the markings as I ran my hand along one of the prongs. Eventually I reached the bottom, the middle of the curve, where there was a single groove with a hole at the exact center of the horseshoe.

As I moved the mysterious stone closer to the hole and held it there, it became obvious it would fit perfectly. Like the pieces of a puzzle coming together. For a moment I hesitated. Any number of things could happen when placing the stone inside this monument. Hell, it could even blow up immediately.

My heart started to race as I weighed my options. I hadn’t just spent six days in this cave for nothing. I hated caves with a passion. Despite making that point to my brain, my hand was shaking.

I couldn’t keep my myself steady at all as I moved the stone towards the groove. It even bounced and clacked against the structure multiple times before I fumbled it in. There was an immediate reaction.

The marking on the prongs slowly illuminated and began lighting up as a slow glow permeated the cave. The progress of the light was orderly and even. Markings on both sides of the sculpture lit up at the same time as they traveled from the tips downward towards the stone.

My eyes couldn’t look away as I counted the seconds in my head. The illumination continued unhindered all the way until the markings connected with each other through the mysterious stone. There was a flash of light.

The glow felt eerily recognizable and I knew what it was almost immediately. There was a portal waiting there in between the prongs. The sheet of glowing light looked almost identical to that which Feroce had come out of back on campus.

The question I had to ask myself now was if I should dare walk into it? Could this be a portal back to my Earth? As soon as that thought entered my head I couldn’t get it out. I stepped up onto the base of the structure and stood directly before the plane of light.

I couldn’t help but look down at my body, a sort of pre-check for whatever was to come. My eyes closed and I walked forward.

All at once, I was surrounded by a dense jungle. I didn’t know where I was but the change in temperature was bewildering; I began sweating immediately. My eyes darted here and there as I tried to catch my bearings.

I had arrived on a platform that was covered in vines and incredibly hard to make out. There were even vines attempting to cross from one prong of the horns to the other. They were cut apart by the open portal.

Was I even on Yetera anymore? What if I was now on Earth somewhere? Those thoughts started to pop into my mind as I became incredibly excited. I started to inspect the area.

The jungle around me was so over-grown it would take considerable force even with Mana Scythe to clear a path. If I wanted to find out where or when I was, I’d need to do it anyway. So I used 50% of my MP to create the scythe and then looked about to decide on my path.

Unfortunately, every direction looked exactly the same. There was nothing at all to suggest one direction was better than another. Something else that bothered me was why this portal was here? Seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

I started to hack and slash as I pushed forward only to find more and more jungle. There was nothing but dense foliage ahead and thick canopy above. What was I even looking for? Honestly, I was exploring out of curiosity.

It took me five minutes to travel a dozen feet. Even with Mana Scythe at 50%, the foliage was not easy to cut at all. Everything here was incredibly sturdy to a scary degree. On my next step, however, I suddenly felt my footing pivot in an odd direction.

There was something hard below me. I crouched and started to dig. Grass and vines and underbrush were pulled and then tossed to the side before I realized what I had found. It was a piece of metal, a signboard.

As with the writing on Yetera, it was comprehensible. The signboard said Fresey. I didn’t know where that was at all and had definitely never heard of it before. I pulled up the board and realized there was something beneath it.

There was cobblestone here as well. Hacking at the vegetation I realized there was cobblestone below everywhere. As I took a rest on my haunches, I glanced at an odd growth nearby and then started pulling at it.

The vines and brambles were not covering a tree but a pillar. There was more stone nearby as well. This entire jungle area I was walking on looked like ruins once I started to piece it together. Was this once a city?