"I don't wanna move."

"But you have to, if you want to go out of this place."

"Do you know a way out?"

"......"

"See? Even if I can go out. Let's say there is actually a way out and I get out through there. What then? What would I do there? I don't have any proof of existence. No food. No money and the worst of them, humans. There will be a lot of them. And if there aren't any then what difference does it make?"

"There are definitely humans. A lot of them too."

"Right? Of course there are. Think about it. We have delicious food here. Water to drink. Even the pond cleared up. So, we can take a bath here too."

"Yes, there are but it will run out sooner or later."

"You don't know that. Maybe the respawn. I have seen the respawning facilities."

"And how many of you killed actually came back?"

"None. Hmmm. Well even if they don't that is not a problem. We have the next floor, then the next next and so on. We don't even know if this thing has an ending."

"Exactly. What if this is the last floor?"

"Even if it is I we can still live for a few years. It's huge you know."

"But you only have so much salt. It will run out and if you don't have any food what are you going to do about getting out? You will starve to death just before exiting."

"Blah blah, you talk too much. I will see when the time comes."

"You are still virgin."

"Shit, you are right. Ho..hold on. Maybe I am not. I had a girlfriend for six years, you know. No no no. I am definitely one. She said she didn't want to do it before marriage."

This does get me excited. Going out and finding a potential partner. I am stuck here for an entire year or so, I think. By the time I go back my girlfriend will move on. She will have a few kids too. Maybe she will wait for me? Nahh not a chance. She is too good. Her parents will probably force her into a marriage. Poor girl. I am really sorry.

Wait. I am forgetting something again aren't I? That's right, she already moved on before I even came here. Why do I keep forgetting that? Was it that traumatic experience? Hmmmmm.. in that case I don't need to worry about that. She did not have much of an empathy to begin with. Why did I kept suffering? Ahhhh, let's just forget about her.

Oh, hi there. Didn't notice you for a bit. I was busy talking to myself. Did I get your hopes up? Hahahaha.. I am not going to find anyone, living that is. This place was sealed you know. It's lonely. So very lonely. Sometimes I talk to myself for a bit of comfort. Words get jumbled up in my mind. Talking to myself clears things up.

I have gotten a bit lazy these days you see. Naturally so. I have almost everything I need. Why bother working hard. Fight. Kill. They just tire me out. I have to think. Get hit. Bleed. Here, I have a stockpile of meat that will last me forever. I don't even have to move much. It's heaven for me you know. It's just a bit lonely that's all. I can handle this much, easy. I will just look at the light coming and disappearing. Cute animals play around outside. Life is good. No one calls me. Or asks me to do things. I can sleep all I want. No one calls me. No one.

Uh let's talk about the not moving much part. I have recently discovered this new thing I call the Inter cave transportation system. So this is what happened. I was going around hitting the wall of my cave. Because my hands were itchy. I did not want to go out and fight things. So, I just started hitting the wall.

After hitting half of the wall I noticed that one portion of the wall is hollow. So I hit it some more, in hope of breaking it. It did not break but when I hit it hard enough the wall splitted into a square shape and slided up a bit. And there were these large circles on it. When I touched it I suddenly found myself on a meat pile. I was really shocked that someone is stockpiling meat inside a dungeon but then looking at it closely I remembered that it was mine.

You should have seen my dance back then. It was an earth shattering dance. I have found a shortcut. Now I don't even have to run all the way to the different floors just to collect meat. Think about it. Just how absolutely perfect this was. Now I could eat all I wanted and didn't have to work for it either. My lazy side kicked in and now I am having a conversation with myself.

"No, I can't lose sight of my goal. I am finally fit. I have a bigger dong too. I can satisfy her as long as she wants. Let's go out and find a girlfriend."

Thinking this I stepped outside. Not knowing something is okay if it does not affect you. That's what I believe. Too much information can be destructive. For example if you know about a drug chain without being involved, it will ruin your life. This place is different. Everything affects me and I need to know everything. Let's start with the perimeter of this floor then.

Hugging the wall I started running at me full speed.

It took me two whole days worth of running to get back where I started from. And let me tell you. I can run faster than a cheetah. It is true that running at my full speed for two days is impossible. I took some food breaks and such from time to time, beside that I ran at a sustainable pace. From my observation I can tell one thing for sure. Birds are annoying as hell. They need to be cleared out. No, not that one. Right, this place is huuugggeee. Almost five thousand kilometres in its circumference. It's not circular in shape but almost like a circle.

Going back to the bird issue. I need to roast them. They are the most annoying thing in this dungeon so far. What they do is, they will swoop down, attack you from a distance and run away. I tried jumping while they were attacking, throwing ice magic at them but none works so far. As soon as they see you move, they will fly up. And man they can fly fast. You just blink and they are gone.

So, to deal with them I am making a bow and arrow. My plan is to make the bow strong enough to reach much higher than my jumping ice attack. I could probably make the ice attack work but as soon as they see magic they run away. Rendering winding up throwing motion before jumping useless.

Trees there are a lot of. So, making the shaft and arrows are easy. String on the other hand is not. Lather is not gonna work. Tendons are easy to snap and I don't have the tools to weev the hairs of animals. The only option left is to find some strong vines or plant fiber.

I took my hammer with me this time. My goal was to kill anything I see and find something that can be used as string. Venturing forward, I decided on going to the depth instead around the perimeter.

There are not very many trees on the outskirts. So, my hope is to find a place with lots of trees because the more trees there are the better chance of finding good vines. I have learned this from my grandfather. When they were young they used to go to a forest to collect some kind of vines and make traps with them.

The ideal situation for me would be to find a forest thin enough for the light to reach the bottom but not thin enough for the vines to grow sideways. After scoring a century and travelling a few miles the tree density started to become thicker. Another few miles down a sudden sticky feeling passed by me. Looking back I saw a wall of almost jello like substance stretching across the horizon. 'Did I pass into a different zone?' I thought. The possibility is low as all the previous floors were clearly separated by walls but you can never say anything for certain in a place like this. Especially for me, who had no idea what was what. I braced for worse and started moving again.

Several hours of search yielded no result. There was no vine strong enough that I could find but the trip was not entirely in vain. I discovered three things. One, that jello like substance was indeed a zone divider. Two, the forest gets denser the farther you move from the 21st zone. Third, 23rd level is doable for me but challenging it now will be hard.

The animals are powerful and they start to show some special traits. The dense trees also make it harder to fight freely. Hammer needs long windup space, so does the claws. A poke from the claws will do almost nothing to a beast father down. A short sword would be ideal but I don't have one. Bones can be used to make one but they can only be used to poke.

"I can make a bone knuckle and a short spear. Well, let's make a bow first and see what that wind magic is all about."

There is an idea. My body is very hard but I have yet to test that thoroughly. If I can deduce something about magic from learning wind magic maybe I can do something about my current predicament. For now though, making a bow takes priority. I want to taste those birds too, so I am biased.

After a few deliberations, fist won by a landslide. My own capabilities are mostly unknown to me. As I progress through the dungeon, ambushing is becoming harder and harder. Then there are those boss fights. As we know from previous failures, weapons made from low ranked enemies are not reliable. If the 23rd level has enemies that powerful, it can be imagined how much of a threat those in the higher area will cause. Making new weapons after clearing every zone is impractical and if the weapon breaks mid fight, I will be utterly defenceless.

So, I have decided to use my body as a weapon. To train myself and to know my limit. With three purposes keeping me in check? My inner turmoil subsided substantially. Absence of a constant buzzing sound in your head is a wonderful thing. So is the absence of ants under my skin.

A few days passed. At this point I have stopped counting days. Knowing how many days I have spent in this place only serves to make me more anxious. I already have enough on my plate as is.

Spending a few days in constant busyness resulted in massive benefits. Mostly toward my sanity. I can feel a fog lifting, making my mind sharper. I even found some great vines. Bright purple in color, thin as a maiden's hair it stood there. Proud and unyielding. Even though its spine was broken, the fighting spirit was there. Busking in the light of dusk, reminding of how great chicken tests.

……

Sorry, my stomach started talking for a moment there. Anyway, the vine was quite thin, ⅙ th of a pinky finger. It's toughness was to my liking too. Collecting it concluded my few days of expedition. Body training will have to wait for a bit. It's bow time.

Making a simple bow is easy. All you have to do is, cut the tree, make a plunk that goes with the grain all the way through, shape it, exercise it, put on the string and boom. You have a bow now. Choosing the correct wood and making the string however are different beasts all together.

After making about 9 bows I finally settled on the wood. The tree had big leaves and a dark wood. It was flexible enough and had a good draw strength. I could shoot 50 to 60 arrows with it no problem.

The strings took a few experiments to make too. I started with drying them. It was not hard per say, more like annoyingly time consuming. Too much heat at once and you will wind up with a rigid and brittle stick. After drying them perfectly you need to weave a few of them together until satisfactory thickness. Then rub it with sandpaper, in my case hand, and make them smooth.

The bow was finally ready. After making some arrows with wood and bone chips it was time to hunt the birds. Roaming around in the open was a great place to find these birds.

Nocking arrow to the bow I roamed around in a relatively quiet area. Other animals in the area will pose a problem if they get involved.

A few minutes passed and finally one decided to show up. Crying a sharp cry it announced its presence to the world and started flying away. I aimed at the bird and shot an arrow. With a 'saaahh' sound it went past the bird. The arrow missed but got the birds attention. Looking at a potential target, the bird cried again and started to swoop down. I waited, readying my bow. I waited for it to come close and attack me. 'The moment it brings it's claws up is the moment it won't be able to move away that fast.' Eventually, the claw approached and my bow shot toward the bird's body. Next moment with a shriek the bird started to trumble down. Jumping up I caught its head and twisted it. Breaking its neck.

"Finally. I can get rid of these pesky flying chickens."

Lighting up a fire and excitement in my heart the roasting started. The smell was delicious. Burning fat, a bit of charcoal mixed with my hunger. I could not wait anymore. I took a bite. Closed my eyes and chewed.

"It's good."