The last few days had been quite eventful for Silas, as of right now he was still stuck in the cave system but had managed to drag himself to a more defendable and secluded cavern.

He had been sustaining himself off of roasted imp and the light trickle of fluorescent cave water that ran down from the uneven stalactites. The water may have tasted like sucking on a lemon but at this point even if it was dripping horse piss Silas would treasure it like any hoard of gold and jewels.

So far for the last few days, he had been secluded to this small cavern, killing anything foolish enough to come by, to wounded to move but not wounded enough to warrant giving up he was trapped in a sort of hellish limbo.

That all changed today.

For during the past few days and the battles that had ensued Silas had accumulated much experience and skills, changing both the status screen and skill tree immensely.

Name: Silas Victor Horne Level: 4 (exp toward level up 37/100%) Age: 34 Gender: Male Statistics: Str - 16 Agl - 15 Dex - 20 Cha - 7 Int - 13 Wis - 12 Con - 12 End - 17 Per - 15 Health - 120 - +1.2/second Stamina - 170 +1.7/second Mana - 90 +1.2/second Skills: Select Here For Skills

Skill List:

Knife Mastery lvl 9, Pistol Mastery lvl 19, Rifle Mastery lvl 12, Tracking lvl 10, Riding lvl 6, Intimidate lvl 4, Foraging lvl 8, Herbalism lvl 3, Skinning lvl 5, Cooking lvl 3, Sneak lvl 3, Craft (basic) lvl 5, Pain Tolerance lvl 3, Passive Regeneration lvl 2

Passive regeneration was the skill that had gotten him so excited, he had earned after sitting here waiting for his leg to heal for three days straight and now, finally, he could visually see the wound stitching itself together.

It brought a tear to his eye, both from the knowledge that he would finally be able to leave this godforsaken room and in the fact that accelerated healing hurts as much as the initial wound did, it just lasts longer.

Silas stood up after a few minutes and stretched his leg, feeling the pops from his joints after days of inactivity was an almost orgasmic sensation.

He checked everything was in place, his gun, knife, and hat were all accounted for. Time to explore.

Since his recent growth in levels, Silas was now able to take on a group of 2 imps with no problem and could probably scrape by with only a few injuries against three, but now was not the time for fighting, now was the time for scouting!

Silas crept silently around the corner of his room and peered into the hallway beyond.

So far of what he had seen of the cave, there was the room he had initially found himself in, which he now believed to be the beginning of the dungeon.

This room then led off into a long winding hallway that turned sharply to the left after 100 meters obscuring his vision of it. About 20 meters down this same hallway was where his current room was located, the entrance to which was a small crevice in the wall leading into a larger cavern.

Silas crept down the uneven cave hallway, curious as to the sights that had been alluding him for many days.

He stopped at the turn and peered around carefully, cockiness was the domain of young men and fools he told himself before continuing down an equally boring hallway.

After about 3 minutes of tense hallway exploration, Silas began to become increasingly bored with his current station. There are only so many cave moss clumps that you can admire before things become more and more of the same.

This trend of boredom and the subsequent erosion of his alertness continued until he reached an unfamiliar hallway.

The strangeness of it set off alarm bells in Silas's head, alarm belles made by years of hard life on the trail.

The hallway began to grow larger on all sides, widening until it was about 4 meters tall and the same distance wide. Even more worryingly was the fact that it seemed to bear the telltale marks of tool scraping. It was man-made.

The strange hallway continued until it opened into a truly immense cathedral-like cavern.

It was a hemisphere, with an unnaturally flat and level floor and had a diameter of approximately 300 meters with a set of columns ringing the outer edge.

The columns held up a raised platform that was about 10 meters off the floor and acted as a sort of bypass. Allowing people to pass through the room without disturbing the residents below. The walls that ran along the far edge of the raised platform opened into rooms and other hallways at set intervals, it was one of these alcoves that Silas entered from carefully.

He crept to the edge of the raised platform, wary of any watchers and when he peered over the slight stone railing that kept people from falling he was truly amazed at what he saw.

It was like nothing he had ever seen, in the center of the room was a large gate, easily 5+ meters tall and instead of being vacant like a gate without a door should be, it seemed to open into another realm. Purple and red hellish energy spilling out from its maw.

Standing in front of the terrifying structure was a large, grotesque mass of fat and tumorous skin, if it had a face Silas could not find it and its booming voice seemed not to emanate from one place but from the entire being equally.

Surrounding the creature were hordes upon hordes of demons, he counted hundreds of imps and several horned things, winged things and things he cared not to recall or see.

It was at this point that his hardships and tribulations were rewarded with a new message from the system he was sure was mocking him. Congratulations my arse!

Dungeon Quest:

Congratulations, you have found the cause of the demonic incursion into the Howling Caves Dungeon. To defeat this dungeon you must close the summoning portal and kill the Demonic Foulspawn Summoner (lvl 27)

Good luck hero!

Well fuck me, getting on that level is going to take some time. He thought shaking his head as he crouch-walked to the nearest exit to the summoning chamber.