You know, I tried to be optimistic when I was brought, against my will, into this gaming world. I had to put up with a crazy, fickle cat girl who petted you and comforted you like a best friend one minute and then turn into a violent killing machine the next. I dealt with gods who have stripped me of my cherished freedom as well as privacy and intruded on my personal thoughts in both explicit and subtle ways that often make me wonder if my decisions were my own, or I was simply following some grand, divine scheme or two. I exercised and trained until I literally collapsed from exhaustion. I cried my eyes out when I watched, while inside a steel cage, as town residents were "culled" for turning into wererats. I endured so many obstacles during my six days, so far, inside this world. I was proud of myself for the way I persevered both physically and mentally.

But now, I face my greatest challenge yet: descending into the bowels of hell. No, it wasn't literally hell where I was but rather the MONOTONY of the steps (237 and counting), the darkness, and the lack of sound besides our footsteps. This was the sort of environment that could induce a writer to type "REDRUM" repeatedly on his word processor, a la the main character in "The Shining" movie based on a Stephen King novel.

There were moments when I felt dizzy and nauseous, and I couldn't breathe. The air was stale and dusty. A light wind blew from above. Every now and then, rocks dropped from the ceiling, reminding us of the precarious position that we were in if the cavern shook again like before. I kept my left hand on the cold wall the entire time while I was walking down the stairs. To my great shame, there were moments where I shook nervously until Kalistra petted my head reassuringly. Apparently, her night vision allowed the cat girl to witness my fear and discomfort.

Alsaj, on the other hand, never paused or slowed in her steps. Nor did she quicken her pace. She was as rock steady as the mountain itself. Her hand, which held our only source of light in this foreboding darkness, never wavered or dropped despite the endless amount of time we were spending on these stairs. Her breathing was steady and constant. It was as if this activity was merely a light exercise to her.

Again, I couldn't help but marvel and admire the inner strength of this diminutive monk. Unlike her, I was breathing harder and harder. The pervasive darkness surrounding us was paralyzing me with great fear and anxiety. My mind slowly became obsessed with the dark and my legs became more sluggish with each step.

Suddenly, I misjudged a step and started to tumble down the stairs! The dice started rolling inside my head and continued as my body tumbled with the dice. "Dexterity saving throw FAILED. -10 Health." Somehow, my body twisted while rolling down the staircase and veered right off the stairs!

Abruptly, my arms were grabbed, preventing my body from falling down. However, my legs were dangling in the air. I was very tempted to look down but wisely squeezed my eyes shut instead. Slowly, I was pulled back onto the staircase. When I opened my eyes, I saw the fire orb on a step. Alsaj's hands were holding my left arm while Kalistra was holding my other arm.

"Are you okay?" the monk asked as she released me. Her face was full of concern.

"Klutz," the cat girl muttered as she, too, released me.

"Thank you for saving my life," I said and bowed my head.

"You can thank us by not rolling off the stairs again," my master admonished me for my clumsiness.

"It's okay to be afraid of the dark," the sister said kindly. "We still have a long way to go. Do you want to hold my hand?" Alsaj offered.

Kalistra's tail whiplashed several times. "Lawrence is my pupil and under my supervision. I will help him down these stairs," she rebuffed the monk.

The sister looked directly at the cat girl for a moment and then gave a small nod. She managed to avoid giggling at my moody and jealous master. "I leave him to your care," she acquiesced with a slight smile. Grabbing the fire orb, Alsaj rose to her feet and resumed walking down the staircase.

I got back to my feet as well. However, when I extended my left leg to take a step down the stairs, I felt my right shoulder being grabbed from behind.

"No," Kalistra said.

I turned around and looked at my master with confusion. What did she mean by that? "What should I do?" I asked.

"Just a moment," Kalistra replied as she squeezed past me on the stairs to reposition herself in front of me. She turned around and ordered, "Climb on my back."

I heard a giggle from the monk but she did not slow her walk. I was so shocked by the offer that it took a moment for me to find my voice. "You want to give me a piggy back ride?" I asked timidly, afraid to confirm what Kalistra meant by her order.

"If I don't carry you down the stairs, you will risk falling off again," the cat girl explained. "And we may not be fast enough to catch you a second time," she added. To her chagrin, Kalistra discovered that the human monk had extremely quick reflexes. The cat girl wouldn't be surprised if the sister had a very high dexterity score.

I sighed deeply. What was more important to me: my pride as a man or my life? I swallowed my pride and drew closer to the petite cat girl. I leaned my chest against her back and hugged her shoulders tightly with my arms. I knew that Kalistra was much stronger than me; she could carry me on her back with no trouble at all.

My master leaned forward, clasped her paws together around my lower back and started dragging me down the stairs.

Since I was much taller than Kalistra, my feet still touched the ground even though she was bent over at the waist to carry me. Sure, I could have wrapped my legs around her waist and make her carry my entire weight. But I could only endure so much humiliation as a man, and leaving my feet on the ground to take some weight off her was a reasonable compromise, in my view. Furthermore, my new boots were especially thick in the front portion where my toes were. Consequently, I did not receive a notification of taking damage as the cat girl dragged me down the stairs.

To the credit of my companions, they did not say a word about the excessive "clod" noise that I was making as my boots hit the next steps in the descending staircase. They took a rather pragmatic view that we already made our presence known to anyone residing under the mountain with the light from the fire orb. And the two were keenly aware that we could be ambushed at any moment. However, unless there was a hidden alcove on the wall above our heads, there was no way for anyone to reach our position on the staircase.

To take my mind off my humiliating predicament, I resumed counting the steps. By the time we reached the bottom, I counted 666 steps. Swell. Whoever made the staircase definitely had a sense of humor. I felt the cat girl's paws removed from my back, and I immediately let go of her shoulders and stood on my feet. "Thank you, master!" I bowed deeply to Kalistra.

The cat girl did not turn to look at me. Her tail twitched and she shook her left paw. "You can thank me by winning at least the first round of the tournament," she grumbled. To Kalistra, helping her student, especially to protect him from a dangerous situation, was the Honorable thing to do. Thus, carrying Lawrence down the stairs was nothing to be thanked over. To receive thanks for carrying out her duty Honorably was almost an insult, even though the cat girl understood that I was merely expressing my deep appreciation to her.

Seeing the discomfort that my master felt over what happened, I quickly changed the subject. "What do we do now, Sister?" I asked. I saw the monk standing before a large doorway. There was a wall blocking the doorway, with no visible door knob or another way to push the wall aside.

Alsaj held her fire orb near her chin, and she was looking closely at the wall. "There's writing on this wall," she announced. "It reads: 'To enter and see the wonders beyond requires the presence of a visitor of beyond this world.'" She turned her head toward me.

I also noticed Kalistra looking at me, but I couldn't understand why. "Huh?" I blurted out.

"Did your brains scramble, too, when you were rolling down the stairs?" my master rolled her eyes at me. "Only you can remove this wall," she said.

"Why me?" I asked.

"You were brought here to our world by the overlord of the gods," Alsaj replied. "That means you're a 'visitor of beyond this world,'" she quoted the passage on the wall again.

"How did you know I'm not from around here?" I was alarmed because I never told her that I came from elsewhere.

The diminutive monk shook her head. "My goddess revealed a lot of things to me about you. Apparently, she knew that your assistance was critical to complete my mission. Hence, she gave me a vision of where to meet you. And now, here we are," she noted cheerfully.

Before I could reply, something dropped down next to me. Plop! Dice started rattling inside my head and stopped. "Dexterity saving throw FAILED." Before I knew it, I was engulfed . . . in slime! I tried to break free, but it felt like I was very deep underwater. My movement was sluggish. More importantly, though, I couldn't breathe!

My companions immediately acted to rescue me. Kalistra started hacking away at the gray colored slime, taking great care to avoid cutting me with her blade.

Alsaj took a much different approach. She clapped her hands together and meditated for a moment. She did not resist when the giant slime engulfed her, too! Once the monk entered the monster's body, she reached for the void and acted as a conduit for the negative energy to devour the slime from the inside. Once she burned away enough of the slime's body to move more freely, the sister headed in my direction. Suddenly, the would-be rescuer noticed a pulsating gemstone right above my head and she pointed at it.

I noticed Alsaj's gesture and looked up. I saw a milky-gray colored stone the size of my fist, and it pulsated with black light. I saw that the monk gestured for me to grab it. So I did. When I reached for the gemstone and grabbed hold of it, the stone started quivering and then its color darkened. The viscous slime began to harden and turn into sand. With a "poof!" the slime monster exploded, freeing me and Alsaj.

I desperately breathed in the fresh air, as my lungs and heart were burning from the lack of oxygen. It took a few minutes for my breathing to return to normal again. When that occurred, I finally noticed the pop-up message, which read, "+250 XP." I also realized that I was still holding the gemstone.

"Can I see that stone?" Alsaj requested.

"Sure," I replied as I passed it over to her. I watched as the monk walked back to the blocked doorway. I finally noticed a slot on the wall to the right of the writings. In fact, the hole was embedded into the doorway itself.

Alsaj inserted the gemstone into the slot, but nothing happened.

"If we take the writing on the wall at face value, I think Lawrence needs to be the one to put that stone into the hole," Kalistra pointed out.

The human monk turned to face the cat girl. "You may be right," Alsaj admitted and pulled the stone from the wall. She gave it back to me with a smile.

I couldn't help but smile back at her as I took possession of the stone.

"Just put it in already!" Kalistra huffed. "You can make goo-goo eyes at each other once we're inside."

The monk giggled at that remark while I winced.

I took a deep breath, not knowing what will happen next. I inserted the former heart of the slime monster into the hole. Click! Two panels closed around my wrist, trapping my hand in place. The stone started turning clockwise, twisting my wrist at a ninety degrees angle.

"It's opening!" Alsaj gasped with excitement.

I turned my head and saw that this was true. As the stone turned, the wall slowly lifted up. When the stone stopped turning, the wall completely disappeared from view. Click-click! The panels released my wrist and I pulled my hand out. Phew! I was very concerned that my hand would be stuck. When I tried to take the gemstone, I discovered that IT was stuck in the wall no matter how hard I tried to pull the stone out.

"What's that?" Kalistra blurted out and pointed.

I heard clicking and whirling sounds coming from beyond the doorway. I gave up and released the stone. When I peered through the doorway, the unexpected sight caused my jaw to drop!