Luckily, she didn’t have to move her arms much to break her fall since they were already positioned in front of her. She opened her eyes to a flood of red light and uneven earth below her. She attempted to place her hand in the smoothest place that she could, but she didn’t have much time to react. Lani’s hands hit stone and slid, barely managing to slow her descent. Her body hit the ground hard immediately followed with an exhalation of a minute amount of air that had fled her body.

Lani laid there unmoving for a moment thinking about how she would live through this Monolith. She had zero actual tools for survival, only the prison clothes on her body, her wit and her training. She was determined that it would be enough regardless of the type of scenario she was deposited in. If it was some type of puzzle or any challenge were she had to use her brain, she was confident in her education. If it was a scenario with monsters and fighting, she knew her intense training for nearly as long as she could remember was sufficient. The monolith never put a challenge in front of you that it didn’t think you could handle. She didn’t know if she believed that, but all the intelligence indicated that was the case, even though many people still died.

She was confident in her training though, since she had been preparing for this ever since her parents had died. Her brother, relentless in his desire for any type of vengeance had trained himself and her for this very moment. After he too died, she didn’t stop the relentless training to finish his goal. Sure, she didn’t make it there exactly how she wanted - standing with the non-prisoners, but she was there nonetheless. She had just turned eighteen a few weeks before and due to her being of legal age and her subsequent incarceration, she was given the choice of prison, or attempting to “straighten out her life” by entering the monolith and then the Ascendant Guard Forces after.

Anyone can actually enter the monolith, but only those who join the guard forces get an escort there, so they then end up being the only people who go. Before her brother died, he and Lani were planning on braving the world outside the gates and making their way there together. After he was gone, she had to find another way without him. She thought it fitting that she made it there in a similar manner as him. The only difference between the two was that she wanted to get arrested. Also unlike him, she planned on living and exacting revenge on this society that caused the death of all those that she loved and brought unnecessary hardship to many more.

After a moment of silently wallowing in pity while splayed out on the ground, Lani rolled over to her back. Even though she wasn’t allowed the same advantages as those entering the monolith on the right side of the law, she was confident that she would make it out. Those with the advantages could bring bags with supplies they thought might be needed. Some had armor although it might be useless. Some undoubtedly brought ropes and hooks and lamps and markers and even items of entertainment - not that the last would help them. Lani didn’t even have a good pair of shoes, just the flimsy, lace-less and minimally padded shoes provided at the prison.

The largest advantage Lani had on the others besides her desire and training was her extensive knowledge of the Monolith and the many scenarios it puts those in who brave its challenges. Even though all the scenarios hadn’t been documented, many dozens, if not hundreds had and Lani had attempted to study and learn from every one that she could. Every video about it still allowed on the network to every underground pamphlet hidden away, she had tried to get her hands on them to learn its secrets.

The Ascendant King didn’t like the general populace to know too much about it though. The Ascendant King, ruler of her sheltered city wanted to control who became Ascendant and when they did. Additionally, other city-kingdoms could discover the types of powers the Ascendants had with knowledge of the first trials that they went through.

Even though becoming Ascendant and gaining powers was highly regulated in the city, it was still the dream of many to one day achieve that lofty goal. It was seen as a sign that one was chosen be something greater than they thought possible. Ascendant powers came in unlimited arrays of specialties, from super speed and flying like the convoy escorts to anything in between. Lani’s parents were Ascendant when they died and it was her brother’s primary desire that one-way or the other, they too become Ascendant.

Lani picked herself up and dusted the dirt off her pants. She couldn’t see where the red light was coming from, but she could tell that she was in a cavern. The cavern’s height was about twenty to thirty feet up. The ceiling of the cavern was covered in stalactites that were too numerous to count and looked like the mouth of a demon. She used to time while her eyes slowly adjusted to the red light to look around the area. She moved closer to the wall and could see that the light was actually coming for small from glowing rocks, or crystals embedded into the cave walls. The lighted portions were smooth and contrasted to the rough-hew of the rock.

After finding the answer to her first mystery of the Monolith, Lani looked back to where she entered the cavern. She expected a dark portal just like the one she entered, but it was a dead end. With no other choice of a direction, she warily began to trek into the cavern. Even though she had no idea what was going to happen or what dangers awaited her.

The red light of the cavern didn’t abate as Lani continued deeper into the cave. At first, the only sound was that of her shuffling feet. As she progressed further along, the sound of dripping water started to occasionally echo around the red cavern. She looked around trying to find the source of the water dripping. It was the only thing standing out to her in the cavern. Although she didn’t notice any signs of danger, her gut twisted in warning and she wasn’t one to ignore it.

She eventually found one of the sources of the sound. As she was looking she inspected a stalagmite at the mouth of another opening in the cave that led to a different area. Lani peered around the stalagmite to the small space between it and the wall of the cavern. There, she noticed a small pool of water. She took a knee to get a better look at the water. Under the ever-present red glow, the water looked clear so she got a little closer to see if any creatures might be living inside of it. Not seeing anything alive, Lani tentatively reached her hand forward. She didn’t have any supplies and had no idea how long the trial would last. She wanted to make sure that the water was clean.

Lani reached forward to dip her hand and as she does a drop of water fell from somewhere on the ceiling of cavern to land on her exposed forearm. It took her a moment to register what was happening. Instead of it being cold as she subconsciously expected, it began to burn her arm. As the water dripped off it her, it left a line of burned skin before dripping to the puddle. Lani screamed in pain but with her hand covering her mouth, she cut it off quickly for fear of whatever lurked in the cavern.

As the water fell off her arm and into the puddle, a ripple of movement ran across the surface. Then with prompting, another ripple rolled along the surface, and then another. Realization dawned on Lani that she had actually found one of the creatures that lurked in the cave, but it was a little too late.

Lani jumped to the side as a tendril lashes up from the puddle. She wasn’t quick enough and it belted her shoulder in a four inch line that burned through her cloth jumpsuit. Just to be sure that she was out of danger, Lani fell all the way to the ground and rolled away from the spot. The whiplash crashed into where she would have been if she didn’t roll.

The lash didn’t retreat back to the puddle. In pulses of mass that she could see running from the pool to the end of the tendril, the volume increased and the tendril continued to flail around looking for its prey. Lani continued to back out of the increasing range of the tendril and moved deeper into the cavern.

What kind of bad luck do I have? What the hell am I supposed to do about a slime?

Lani was just told about the danger of slimes outside the Monolith and she didn’t like her odds. If senior members of the Ascendant don’t usually mess with slimes and they had superpowers, she was wholly unable to deal with the threat. Additionally, based off of basic knowledge of the Monolith that she had gathered, the floors usually have a similar theme throughout. So if her first encounter was a slime, there will certainly be more.

Well, if I can’t do anything to them, my only choice is to try and avoid them. Usually, the last room of the Monolith is either a large fight or a dangerous puzzle room. I will have to hope that it is a dangerous room and not a giant slime or something crazy like that.

Lani backed up and gave the stalagmite and puddle a slime a wide berth as she moved as she left the large cavern to enter the short passage way to the next area. As she walked down the passage, her bad feeling lessened a little, yet she didn’t relax. At the end of the passage the cavern once again opened up to an area that looked eerily similar to the one she had left, and as her stomach once again twisted in fear of danger she learned what the pattern of this floor of the monolith was going to be and she silently cursed.

While the new cavern looked very similar to the first, she looked around for a few minutes listening to the drops of water that echoed through the area. The drops sounded as if they were falling faster than the last open area. Lani discovered that the slimes weren’t dropping faster, there was just two of them where the last area only had one. One puddle looked clear in the red light so Lani assumed that it was the same type of slime. In the low red light of the cavern, the other puddle of slime looked to be a dark brown. The color indicated that it probably wasn’t a fire based slime as the one had attacked her. She couldn’t be sure what its true nature was.

Under this red light, green might look brown, but orange and brown would probably look brown too. Damn! Well, it’s not like it matters. I don’t have anything to counter the slime's element, so I am still just keeping away from them.

As Lani tried her best to silently slip past the slimes, she apparently walked a little too close to the one filled with brown goop. She could see as the slime somehow sensed her and ripples began forming on the surface of the puddle. Once she moved far enough away, she stopped and looked back at it. She could almost feel some type of pull toward the creature. Although the feeling warred with her sense of danger so she dared not move closer.

Unable to do anything, she moved to the next area.