Welcome to the dungeon.

Mark's senses gradually returned. He heard a slight breeze blow past his ear, the slowly swaying grass stalks, and the sound of water moving.

His senses gradually returned. Mark felt a small, gentle breeze ruffle his hair and flap his clothes. The grass below him swayed, and he felt at peace.

Opening his eyes, he was greeted by yet another beautiful sight.

Unlike the entrance from before, this was a different kind of beauty; it was the natural kind. He was greeted by a vast grassland, trees speckled throughout. A small distance away from him was a river y-shaped river with a small forest on the other side. Mark took a second to admire the sight. It was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. Mark snapped out of his daze quickly, though.

'I'm in a dungeon. I shouldn't be admiring its beauty, especially when I don't even know if the area surrounding me is safe.'

Mark assessed his surroundings, checking for monsters or other dangers. He could see that nothing was near him; no monsters, no people, no... Ryan.

'Shoot, where is he? I thought he was supposed to enter with me?'

Spinning in a full circle, he double-checked, in case he missed him. However, he saw nothing, only a small silhouette on the other side of the river.

'What is that? Is it moving towards me? There is a river separating us. If it's hostile, I should be safe.'

While Mark was checking the silhouette out, it started to wave at him. Mark was startled. 'Is that Ryan?'

Focusing more, Mark could make out faint shouts coming from the direction of that 'thing.'

"Mark! It's me! Come down here before a monster spots you!"

Mark shouted back, "Coming!"

He then started walking towards Ryan. Halfway there, however, he saw a trail of dirt moving towards him. He recalled that Wyrms, when digging, had a visible trail of dirt that surfaced above them. He quickly took out his dagger, facing the Wyrm. Wyrms typically dug under you, then jumped out of the dirt, biting your leg in the process. After they jumped, they would quickly burrow back in the ground, only giving you a few seconds to attack them.

Adrenaline filled Mark. He was excited. It would be his first battle; his first kill. When the worm was a foot away from him, Mark side-stepped. The Wyrm jumped out of the soil, its teeth grazing Mark's leg. Mark flinched from the pain, but quickly slashed its body along the side, allowing the Wyrm's upward momentum to aid in the attack. Green blood oozed out of the slash mark; most of the Wyrm's arteries were cut open.

It bled out before it could reach the ground. Impacting against the ground, a small thud could be heard.

"*Pant* SHOOT, that hurts a lot. Urgh, if only I side-stepped half a second earlier."

Mark kneeled down on one knee and scrutinized the wound.

'At least it isn't deep. It'll be fine when Ryan treats it... I hope.'

Standing up, Mark noticed Ryan moved further upstream.

'It's probably shallow near there. Well, here goes nothing.'

Gritting his teeth, Mark endured the pain and stood up. He started running upstream. When he was around one hundred feet from Ryan, he heard him yelling,

"Mark! Are you okay? How badly are you injured?"

Mark yelled back, "Well, as you can clearly *pant* see, I'm able to run! Hurts like hell, though!"

Looking down at his leg, he saw that blood was seeping down towards his ankles. He ran even faster towards Ryan, who was now holding the backpack above his head, swiftly wading through the waist-high waters. Ryan was able to get through the river at mind-boggling speeds; likely due to the assistance of his wind powers. Rushing over to Mark, he said,

"You got attacked by a Wyrm? Did you not notice it or something?"

"No, it's not that. I *pant* just dodged a little bit late. I was excited for my very first fight, and my mind was clouded a *pant* little."

"You should always be focused during a fight, even if the enemy is weaker than you. That's enough scolding. Let's get your wound healed."

"Urgh.. Please."

Ryan grabbed a first-aid kit out of his backpack and applied some healing ointment onto the wound. Taking bandages out of the first-aid kit, he wrapped it tightly around the wound.

"Ow ow ow, that's tight. Does it need to be that tight?"

"The tighter the better. Well, unless it cuts off your circulation... WAIT. Did you activate your regeneration ability?"

"Ah.. I might have forgotten about that."

"You really are stupid, Mark. Well, hurry up and activate it."

Mark quickly activated the ability mentally. Thinking about how he didn't activate it earlier, he felt embarrassed.

Ryan took a blanket out of the backpack, saying, "We'll rest for half an hour to give it time to heal. The healing oil should fully scab it by then, and hopefully your ability heals it further."

Mark grimaced, then said, "Thanks. Still hurts from how tight you bandaged it."

Hearing Mark, Ryan smirked for a moment but quickly hid it. Luckily, Mark was busy laying down, so it escaped his notice.

Ten minutes later, Mark was sweating from mana exhaustion.

"Darn.. the ability consumes so much mana."

"Hey, look on the bright side, you lasted two times longer than before. That's a big improvement, you know."

"True... I wonder what caused such a big improvement. Speaking of which, it isn't as painful as before."

"Do you think it healed at all?"

"Probably. We should check it. The bandage is drenched, anyway."

Ryan nodded and took off Mark's bandage. To their amazement, not only was the wound fully scabbed, it was already starting to scar. Ryan, amazed, said,

"Woah.. That healed fast."

"Yeah.. sure did."

Suddenly, they felt faint vibrations under them. Mark, confusedly, looked at Ryan, who was ashen-faced.

"Mark, get up! It's a stampede!"