“Ughhhh,” Jason rolled over on the hard cave floor with a groan. Sitting up right before the dim blue screen showed up.

Experience Gained

Stamina: 91

LEVEL UP

Jason once more threw all of his points into Luck and took a moment to analyze everything in it once more.

General Information

Class: None

Species: Human

Favor: NA

Experience: 13 / 200

Level: 2

Titles: None

Stats

Fortitude:

10

100 / 100 hp

Vitality:

10

5 hp / hour

Endurance:

10

86 / 100 sp

Vigor:

10

5 sp / hour

Focus:

10

100 / 100 mp

Willpower

10

5 mp / hour

Charisma:

10

10 bf

Luck:

20

10% (11%) | 1%

Stat Points Available: 0

Skills and Talents

Active:

Offense: None

Defense: None

Utility: None

Passive: Offense: None

Defense: None

Utility: Lodenstone of Chance [I] (0 / 200)

Talents: None

Skill Points Available: 1

So it’s not 100 experience each time. I knew it was too good to be true. But 200 isn’t so bad. In that case though I really shouldn’t take the other Luck skill because those can’t get me experience in any reliable form.

I need either a low-cost active skill that I can use repeatedly or a passive skill that increases the more I do a certain thing. One bad thing is that I can’t see how much experience I’m getting until I go to bed and wake up. Maybe that’ll change but I don’t know.

I still don’t really need an Offensive or a Defensive skill so let’s go back to Utility. From there uh… persuasion and luck aren’t options. The buff and debuff splits into auras, songs, and spells and all of those will probably require mana of some sort which I don’t know how to use.

So perception, movement, or control. Control goes to mana, body, and environmental so maybe body control… ehh maybe later. I don’t fancy having to randomly twist my body every which way, especially since it would interrupt my exploring. Environmental would be cool but again mana. Perception seems useful, especially the eyesight subtree, so it’s either that or movement.

Eyesight

Hearing

Olfactory

Touch

Taste

Aura

Sneaking

Running

Jumping

Crawling

Climbing

Flying

“So either Eyesight, Running, Jumping, Crawling, or Climbing. The only problem with Eyesight is that it may require you to find hidden or far away objects to level up and I don’t mean to brag but it’s pretty easy to spot most of these traps. Those that I don’t see right away I usually don’t see until a log or blade is flying toward my head.” Jason rubs his arm remembering his most recent encounter with a blunt log.

Being unable to use his arm until his next blue fruit was not a fun experience to say the least. “Let’s not get Eyesight. So one of the movements then. I’ll get a running skill. It’s a good way for me to waste stamina quickly then I’ll rest a bit and run some more. I’ll sleep more frequently and hopefully I’ll be able to extend a fruit's duration to a third cycle. More experience and all that. Obviously let’s do a passive one so I don’t have to focus on it being activated.”

Tier 1

Unnatural Speed [Rank I] (0 / 200) Increase your running speed by 10% (of base) Increases by 10% each rank Unnatural Endurance [Rank I] (0 / 200) Decrease your stamina consumed by running by 5% (of base) Increases by 5% each rank

Either I’m fast or I use less stamina. Easy decision. Let me get rid of that stamina usage. Maybe I’ll be able to continuously run soon. Sweet!

After picking Unnatural Endurance Jason started running. He tried to keep an eye out for traps and such so that he didn’t accidentally trigger one. Like that he continued for a while.

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Jason was still running down the cave system. These caves have to end. I’ve gone thousands of kilometers by now at least and I still haven’t gotten out. Then again I abandoned my strategy of constantly going up on like the third cycle. Maybe if I hadn’t then I would’ve gotten out by now. It’s too late for regrets at this point though.

Jason noticed by some displaced dust in the air that there was definitely a trap. The traps typically gave away their positions by dust being displaced where they were. Jason guessed it was to give the adventurer’s a fighting chance if they had no torches and no way to detect the traps. After all dust shouldn’t be eternally displaced as if wind was blowing. It should settle down eventually.

The trap was a simple pressure plate trap. The pressure plate was in the center of the passage and Jason could just walk right around it and then keep running. Although at this point he only had 35 stamina left so maybe he would walk for a little while and try to get that stamina up again.

Running drains a lot of stamina. I guess that makes sense since walking takes way more than I could regenerate. Running drains it at a noticeable pace. If someone asked me to guess I’d say that running took around 25 or so stamina an hour. No actual way to measure it but I think that’s it. Still that’s amazing because I swear I could only run for around an hour or so on Earth. Sprinting for only a minute if that. I wonder how long I can sprint now? A question for another time.

Jason was starting to walk around when he noticed something else. There was a crack on the wall running along it and up to a point right above the pressure plate. The crack was stable and nothing was shaking thank god, but still odd that it ended right where the pressure plate was.

As Jason was walking a sudden rumbling filled the cave. Everything started to shake and vibrate at a visible rate. The dust shook off all the walls and started to fill the air. A hacking sounded out as Jason’s throat was assaulted by all the particles in the air.

When Jason managed to get a hold of himself the worst of the rumbling had subsided and it was only a few slight shakes here and there. Soon even that was gone.

Thank god that’s over. I thought I was going to stumble into the pressure plate…. WAIT!! The CRACK! Jason’s head whipped around and saw the crack just as it was before. No rock fell and no disaster was caused.

Phew… that would’ve been horrible. Jason leaned against the wall and sighed. Tink. A clear yet quiet noise filled the passageway. Jason’s head turned as if he was a stiff marionette to look at the trap.

There it was. A small rock on the plate. With a trail of dust leading up to the ceiling.

“Oh fu--!” Before Jason could even finish a bigger piece fell and struck the plate with enough force that Jason heard a hiss followed by a ka-thunk. Next thing Jason knew the passageway was filled with axes swinging like pendulums from the ceiling. Five meters in front and five behind were just filled with swinging axes.

Between each one there was just barely enough room for a person to stand safely.

“Oh fuck...fuck fuck fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck FUCK!!!” Jason said progressing from a whisper to a yell. Hyperventilating Jason looked at the six axes on either side trying to find the path to survival.

There’s a path. I know there is. I refuse to let there not be one. There absolutely has to be a PATH FORWARD DAMNIT!!! Jason geared himself up and decided to try and escape through the forward six axes.

Shwing. Shwing. Shwing. The axes were steadily moving through the air. Barely enough time for someone to pass through them safely. Jason took a deep breath to calm himself. Failed. Then decided to try that again.

Fuck it. Nope. I’m not gonna calm down. I just gotta get it done. Three...two...one...GO! Jason’s body refused to budge. His muscles tightened and tensed up but he stood there seething, unmoving. Alright alright alright. Come on Jason. You’re gonna have to risk death if you want to live. Come on. It’s either you get through here and maybe die or stay put and certainly die of starvation.

This time Jason didn’t need a warmup or a countdown. He just rushed through. Each axe parting his path right before he got there. It was only a second or two of intense and straining tension. Then… it was over. Jason stood there outside the axe’s range and took a deep breath inhaling and enjoying the sensation of air filling up his lungs. Then he breathed out.

“I… I did it.” Jason whispered into his hands. Then he raised his fists into the air in victory.

Directly after that. He collapsed and slipped into unconsciousness. His back slick with blood.