Chris took a few minutes to examine the hole that the Mother Rock Worm had made to see if there was a light source, but found nothing but darkness. Saddened, he proceeded onto the next room. A message popped up when he opened the door.

[Crypt of Zmon discovery at 20%]

When he entered the room, he saw the same layout as the second room, with a table and a chair. Three empty bookshelves lined the back wall. On one of those bookshelves, he saw something that had a small yellow glow to it.

When he walked over to it, he saw that it was a golden key. It had no design to it, just a regular key. He picked it up and it broke into pixels and vanished.

[Golden Key discovered]

[Golden Key moved to Inventory]

[Find the keys to Zmon's research room. (1/2)]

'So it moves things to the Inventory automatically. That's pretty neat. Now I just need one more key.'

When he turned around to head for the next room, he stepped on a lowered piece of the ground and heard a 'clunk'. Looking down, he noticed that his skeletal foot had sunk lower than the rest of the floor. When he lifted his foot, he heard a grinding sound and a thud behind him as the lowered piece raised back in place.

When he turned back around, he noticed that the bookshelf had opened into the wall and he saw stone stairs leading down into darkness.

'A secret entrance?'

He was hesitant about going down those stairs, but when he focused his eyes into the darkness, he could see a small light down below.

That was enough to let him know that there was something of either value or some importance. And it was a secret entrance, so someone had tried to hide something and he wanted to find out what it was.

As he descended a few steps, two balls of white light burst to life on either side of him, illuminating the stone walls. As he continued his descent, more lights came to life. When the last light came on, he was staring at an iron door. It was a blank door, with only a single keyhole at the center.

[Golden Key detected. Insert the Golden Key to open the Iron Gate.]

He mentally called the Golden Key out of the Inventory and it materialized into his hand in a flash of pixelated blue light. When he inserted the key, the lock turned and the door lifted into the ceiling. What he saw ahead was quite shocking.

The floor was littered with bones and carcasses. Some were impaled onto large stone spikes that lined the floor, spread out evenly by two feet of space between them.

[You have entered Zmon's Hidden Chamber]

[Crypt of Zmon discovery at 30%]

When he entered, he imagined how bad it would have smelled, but he was thankful that he at least didn't have that anymore. As he looked around, he noticed a large, square opening in the ceiling. As he lined up the location of the carcasses and bones to the hole, he realized it was some sort of trap door.

'All these unfortunate people. I wonder how long they've been down here.'

As he walked about, he saw piles of Coins strewn about, both large and small. Walking up to them, he received multiple messages.

[You are able to collect Coins]

[To collect Coins, put your hand over them and command 'Collect']

[Collecting Coins with the owner nearby will alert them. Ownership is forfeited once the owner dies. Stolen Coins will be marked for 24 hours and may not be used for transactions.]

[You can exchange Coins by saying 'Transfer x amount to x'.]

'That's a rather complicated and thought out management system. But it seems that the owner of these Coins is long dead, so I should be fine.'

He knelt down and placed his hand a few inches above the Coin pile next to him. 'Collect.' Once he thought of that command, the pile of Coins began to break into pixels, starting from the top until there were none.

[+2 Gold Coins]

[+42 Silver Coins]

[+83 Copper Coins]

'I don't know how these Coins work yet or how valuable they actually are, but I'll keep collecting them anyway.'

He continued to collect the Coins around the cave for the next hour. He knew he was done when he got the message he was expecting.

[You have reached max Coin capacity]

[You currently have 100 Gold Coins, 100 Silver Coins, 100 Copper Coins]

[Excess Coins will be stored in the Inventory and automatically refill the Coin Bag]

[You currently have 182 Gold Coins, 248 Silver Coins, 437 Copper Coins in reserves]

'Holy Moly, that's a good number of Coins. I pretty much emptied this place. What else is there here?'

He took another look around but didn't find any equipment that he could wear. Most of these bones were not from monsters. A few he found were, but they were destroyed. The only two things he found were a pair of black boots and a ring.

[Skyhigh Boots] A pair of strong leather boots laced with Wind Mana. Equipping the boots allows the wearer to float for five minutes. A one hour cooldown will take effect once the five minutes are done. Consumes 1 Mana per use.

[Golden Space Ring] A ring made of quality gold. It allows the wearer to store one object within the ring and call upon it on command. It is unknown who or how the ring was made.

'A pair of boots with Mana? What kind of creature wore this? It must've been intelligent. That's a shame.'

He had hoped that he could float his way to the hole on the roof, but a message popped up as soon as he equipped the boots.

[Unable to utilize the ability of the gear. Reach LV10 to unlock the feature.]

He was somewhat glad, since having an ability to float over obstacles seemed a little too much at his low level. Even if he didn't fully grasp the concept of levels, he was smart enough to understand it was a form of survival of the fittest. And having power he didn't work for didn't really suit him, either.

He moved on to the ring and slid it on his bony finger. He called out the Mana Gem and held it in front of the ring, but nothing happened.

'Ah, a command. Do I need to assign one? Hmm...Store.'

[Command recorded]

The Mana Gem melted into the Ring and a gem symbol engraving appeared on the portion of the ring inside the palm.

'Release.'

[Command recorded]

The Mana Gem appeared in the air and dropped into his hand. It didn't appear in his hand, so he had to reach for it. He understood the basics, but it'll still take some practice to master.

He placed the Mana Gem back in the Inventory and Stored the bow in the ring, a bow engraving appeared soon after. He was unable to Store the arrows, so he would have to work on his coordination on calling two things from two different places.

When he did another check throughout the cave and found nothing else of use, he proceeded back to the entrance. Once he exited, the bookshelf closed behind him.

He sighed and proceeded to the next room. To his surprise, the next three rooms had nothing in them, not even Coins. When he entered the fourth room, he saw a dead carcass. When he walked over to it, above it was a name in white letters.

[LV16 Father Rock Worm (Deceased)]

When he looked over the body, he noticed that there was a silver light coming from its stomach. When he knelt down and touched it, the stomach ripped open and its contents spilled out. Steam filled the air, so he assumed he would be throwing up by now. Upon further examination, he noticed that the silver light was coming from a metallic object.

[Silver Key detected]

The other key. He needed it and this carcass wasn't going to stop him. He reached towards the key. Once he felt something, he grabbed it.

[Silver Key discovered]

[Silver Key moved to Inventory]

When he began moving his hand, he felt something else grab onto him and he yanked back his hand. Looking down, he noticed a small baby rock worm had attached itself to his hand. Unlike the others, this one had a black gem imbued into its head.

[LV3 Mana Worm (Corrupted)]

He grabbed the worm and pulled on it. It let go of his finger, but a shriek filled the air as the black gem cracked and a violent burst of white light blinded him and he felt his skeletal frame heat up.

[Durability decreased to 9%]

[You have been hit by a Mana Core eruption]

He couldn't stop his mind from collapsing as his frame fell apart and was sent flying around the room. He once more faded away.