The descent was fast. The impact with the water caused me minimal damage; maybe due to my falling position but most likely just due to luck. I fell down into a small lake; one that seemed to drain away underwater as I was being sucked along a current downwards. I could not resist the flow of water because the effect from the FEAR debuff still remained. I could only hold my breath and hope for the best. I could still survive depending on if there was an underground cave or not but my chances were looking grim.

I was quickly swept into a tunnel and was forced along its path. I would sometimes slam into a glowing wall, or maybe ceiling, which would knock some of my precious air out of my lungs. After about thirty seconds of entering the tunnel, my lungs started to burn like fire. They were begging for air. Desperate for air and half delusional, I looked at Greeny, who was not suffering due to lack of oxygen.

A shadow appeared behind Greeny and quickly swallowed him up. It was moving fast, creeping along the walls towards me. My feet became enveloped in the darkness but it didn’t hurt. It must be slowly absorbing my life! I quickly tried to slash at the darkness but it seemed to be not affective. The water resistance was stopping any attack that I would try to make.

Whatever monster it was, it seemed to be perfectly evolved for this. It would be the sort of thing I would have added to my dungeon if it existed in my world. I guess I am going to die by a monster that I can’t even resist against.

The current was still washing me down the underwater tunnel, deeper and deeper. It started to get colder and colder. The chilling temperature creeped into my bones as I was dying; then again, this feeling could just be the feeling of my health being absorbed. As seconds passed by, I felt as though time had slowed down just to lengthen my suffering. The seconds each felt like minutes, which in turn felt like hours. DAMN IT!

It took Greeny to reappear in my vision to correct my sense of time and make me to realise I was just losing consciousness. He also made me realise all of my hard work so far. Why have I trained? Why have I overcome the odds and came out of that first dungeon? Why did I barter for my life with the chieftain if I was just going to die in a different way soon after?! My vision cleared up for five seconds as I willed myself to live. I told myself that I would live over and over.

The last thought that crossed my mind was ‘I WILL SURVIVE AND GET STRONGER!’

I woke up coughing up water. Greeny was bouncing up and down on my chest. I looked around and realised I was somewhere underground at the edge of a river. Realising I was lucky that I washed up instead of being dragged to my death by the current, I was quite happy.

I couldn’t move however; although the debuff had seemed to run out, I was covered in bruises from bashing into walls. I just lay there for what seemed to be hours on end. The calming sound of the river calmed me as I lost consciousness again.

I regained consciousness after an unknown amount of time. I had no sun to check the time against and even if I was ‘above ground’, I would still be in a dungeon where there was no natural light. I slowly got up and straightened out my aching body. It hurt a lot to move but it seemed there was nothing broken. At least I do not have to apply first aid on myself. A creepy smile appeared on my face as I remembered the shabby first aid I had applied when I broke my arm.

Now that I looked at the cave a bit more, I could see that there was only ground where I was standing and onwards. I was not going to attempt to swim back up the river with my body in this state so I decided to hobble down the ground next to the water.

I looked ahead of me as the river seemed to be going on forever. As I began walking, with slime in tow, I could only think how I hoped it ended up near the end of the dungeon.

___

Author note: This would have been longer but due to time constraint, I had to release it before I wanted to. Anyway, daily hype. This will now be daily again like I promised so yay you guys. PS: Next chapter in the Author Notes at the top will have a serious topic that I want to talk about. Anyway, love you all and hope you enjoyed chapter 21.