After some looking about, he found a hidden opening within one of the walls. The red stone in his hand cast a slight glow into the abyss, enough to see a few feet ahead of him. He didn't know where it led or what lay ahead, but it was a way out and he was gonna take it.

Once in a while, he would glance at his hands and simply marvel. He never believed in life after death, only that once it was over, it was over. This puts everything into a whole new perspective, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that, but at the same time it was a chance at a new reality. Though how far he could get looking how he does was a different story.

There was another aspect to this new reality he'll have to learn pretty quickly to get stronger.

Magic.

He's heard of Magic when he was a kid and he was interested in it at that age. As he grew and matured, he lost interest in Magic. By the time he was in his twenties, he had forgotten about his interest, as he was too busy serving his country.

His younger brother had gotten into gaming, and he would constantly talk about this new game that had just come out and how complex its magic structure was. He even went into details, all of which went over his head. Now, he really wished that he had actually read his letters instead of simply replying with something like 'That’s pretty cool' or 'Sounds like fun'.

Except, in this world, his very limited knowledge of Magic was called Mana. And if what he remembered from his younger days, it seems it's a similar concept. Though, he'll have to broaden his knowledge regardless.

Slone and Mary had used Mana and he almost died from it. Slone had spoken a word to activate his trick. Mary simply raised her staff and it did its thing. He was thinking that the holographic-like screens that would appear and disappear with his thoughts was maguc enough, but his body coming together had to have something to do with this Mana.

Lost in thought, he didn't realize that the cave had begun to shrink until he scraped his skull on the ceiling. Once again, he didn't know how he was able to feel anything with his nerves and muscles gone.

Shaking his head, he focused ahead and saw that the cave had started to brighten from a light that slowly appeared. He advanced towards the light. By the time he reached it, he was on his knees. As he reached out, his hand touched nothing but air. Moving his arm around, he felt the edge of the cave and pulled himself out, only for his hand to slip and he tumbled to the ground.

[You have entered a dungeon. Loading legend.]

[After being destroyed in a devastating battle centuries ago, the Crypt of Zmon remained uninhabited. Currently, it is over-run with worms, who hold no regard to the history of this place. A recent rumor states that the legendary Sword of Dimoraxis is hidden within its walls.]

[Quest] Locate Zmon's research room.

[Drop Quest] Find the keys to unlock the bolt doors. 0/2

[Drop Quest] Discover the secrets of the crypt. 0%

Chris sat on the ground, his bony back against the wall. He looked over the messages and felt overwhelmed. All these tasks and he didn't know what they meant.

'Zmon? What a strange name. And a Crypt? Was he someone important? Guess I'll find out, since that's part of my tasks.'

He stood up and saw that the gem had skidded a bit further. As he picked up the gem, it broke into small blue particles and vanished. ‘Did it break or something? Oh, well.’ He didn’t really need it anymore. As he looked around, he noticed the room was made out of fancy looking stone, since it seemed to give off a light of its own. He placed his skeletal hand on the wall and felt vibrations on his fingertips. Were the walls filled with Mana too or were those the worms infesting the caves?

Noticing a wooden door ahead, he pressed his hand against it, gave it a push and it opened without a struggle.

The room behind the door was roughly the same size as the one he was just in. A broken table was in the center, accompanied with two broken chairs. Against one corner was a wooden chest. Walking up to it, he lifted the lid and saw that the chest was filled with circular objects, almost like coins. When he reached out, the small objects vanished into the air the same way the Mana Gem had and a few messages popped up.

[+72 Copper Coins, +8 Silver Coins]

[No data found on currency. Find a Merchant to learn how currency works. Currency will be moved to the Inventory.]

'No information on currency? At least I don't have to deal with this headache until later, so it is what it is.'

Another message popped up.

[The Inventory is a dimensional storage space run by the System. Anything you collect will be automatically stored there. To take anything out or put back inside, simply think or speak the name of the needed objects.]

'Ah, that's how my bow and gem vanished even though I still had the notion they were there. That's convenient. Inventory'

A big screen appeared, filled with a large amount of empty boxes, spaced out evenly. Five boxes were already filled with the things he currently had. He mentally swiped the screens away after a minute and looked about the room.

An identical door was on the right. Opening it revealed a bigger room. The wall straight across was lined with bookshelves. The books that occupied them looked old and worn out, cobwebs strewn about on some of the shelves. A large table stood in front of the book shelves, made of the same wood as in the previous room.

When he approached the books and picked one up, a message popped up.

[Your Mana efficiency is too low. You have enough Mana to access only one skill book. Would you like to use the skill book? Yes/No]

'A skill book? That sounds like something Mana related. Definitely want to learn that. Yes.'

When he said yes, a book on the furthest right shelf began glowing a dark green color. When he approached and picked it up, it melted into his hands, like cotton candy in water.

[New skill unlocked]

[Sap] You are able to absorb the Mana of other monsters, dead or alive. The higher your level, the more Mana you are able to absorb. When you reach max absorption, your Mana will permanently increase by 1.

While he was reading the message, he noticed motion in his peripheral vision. Looking over, he saw something moving inside the wall. It was a white silhouette of what looked like a worm.

Then he remembered that the legend he read stated that the walls of this Crypt were infested with them. Looking away from the worm, he saw more of these creatures, wriggling around inside the rocky foundation.

When he walked over to the wall to his right and placed his hand in the location on one of the worms, the white light surrounding the worm began to move away from the worm and into his hand, until it vanished and a message popped up.

[You have killed a Rock Worm. You have gained 12 experience.]

[Mana Absorption (0.1%)]

It seemed Mana acted as the life force of monsters and he had the ability to literally sap them of it. And each kill also raised his Mana Absorption, though it was slow, but he understood that they were just worms, after all. As grateful as he was, this seemed a little too powerful for someone to have. Nonetheless, he was going to use it to its fullest extent.

Seeing how easy it was to kill one worm, he got an idea. Why not kill all the worms? Since they were an infestation like the legend stated, killing them was a good thing. Right?

With that in mind, he walked around the room and placed his hands where the worms were. Each kill prompted the two messages.

[You have killed a Rock Worm. You have gained 12 experience.]

[Mana Absorption (0.2%)]

He proceeded with this for a while until he no longer saw any white silhouettes in the walls. As he looked at the screens in front of him, there were a good number of them, but he noticed that one of the screens had a 23 in the top right corner. Mentally opening it revealed 23 identical messages as before. Looks like the system grouped the same messages. That was convenient. He mentally closed those screens and focused on the other screens.

[You have reached level 3 (6/450)]

[All Stats increased by 1]

[You have received 5 Stat Points (SP)]

[Mana Absorption (2.5%)]

While he was looking at the screens, he felt a vibration all around him and chunks of ceiling began to rain down. Looking up, he noticed cracks forming and a large orange silhouette a little bigger than him approaching. His instincts told him to run and he jumped out of the way as the ceiling collapsed and a large form destroyed the ground where he had stood. When the creature passed, a sign above its head read in orange letters.

[Mother Rock Worm (LV4)]

He watched the Mother Rock Worm turn itself about and advance his way. Instead of digging to go under him, it crawled back out the hole it made and lingered there.

And then it spoke.