Okay. He didn’t know what inspired him to sing, since everyone made fun of his voice whenever he tried, but it calmed his nerves nonetheless. He didn’t know all the lyrics to the song, and he kind of had to mumble over parts, and it sucked that he couldn’t listen to the instruments during his impromptu karaoke session, but it was good enough for now. Life wasn’t all that bad, even if someone or something was definitely trying to kill him.

“Right, then, let’s investigate that deadly pit,” Lucas talked to himself.

There were a couple of reasons for doing this. One, maybe the pit wasn’t all that deep, and it would lead somewhere neat. He still had a vague hope that this world would finally give him a break and give him something decent to help him make a living here. A pot of gold would be a nice start, or a completely OP skill would be good, too.

Two, maybe the pit was the way out. Sure, it didn’t seem like it at first, but maybe it did. He wouldn’t know how it would lead out either, since he didn’t see any light down there when he looked earlier, but well, uh. Hrmm.

Look.

He had a feeling that this world was trying to mess with him, what with how he got here, where he was placed, how his first battle was with a magical wolf, etc. He could add more to that list, but he wouldn’t. Simply put, he wouldn’t put it past whatever sick and twisted being was toying with him to make the exit to the cave deeper in the vast pit, rather than in the tunnels. And if the exit was actually down there, he could skip all the troubles the tunnels would no doubt bring him. That was his reasoning, and it was solid as concrete if he did say so himself.

The pit looked as uninvited as it had before, but looks can be deceiving. Lucas walked over to the edge, and watched the stream fall right down into its abyss. Okay, it looked really unwelcoming, but there was still a chance that it could be his ticket out of here, and he knew just the way to test it out. He picked up a small crystal, and dropped it into the hole, and looked to see if it hit some invisible floor. It didn’t, and instead kept falling and falling until he couldn’t see it anymore.

Right then, rule #1 was now stay away from the pit. It obviously wasn’t safe to try and climb down there when he couldn’t see nor hear the pebble hit the bottom. This pit was useless to him as far as escaping was concerned, but maybe it would be a good way to trash the [Ring of Sealed Lesser Imp – Rare] he still had sitting in his pocket. No one would know it was down there, and even if someone did find it, they wouldn’t be able to trace it back to him. Yeah. Let’s toss it.

Lucas felt a bit relieved as he watched the ring fall into the pit. Sure, it hadn’t done anything harmful to him at all, but it was a demonic ring, so it was a sure-fire thing that if he kept it, it would have him eventually. Now, it couldn’t do that, and he felt like he had managed to foil one of the world’s plans to bite him in the rear. He grinned, knowing he had solved a problem before it ever existed.

As he began to walk away, the tremors started up again. It was more violent this time, and if he didn’t know better, he could have sworn the floor was trying to push him into the pit. With ever step he took, it felt like he had to fight with nature as not to trip and fall into the pit. Some of the crystal stalactites shook loose from the ceiling this time, and they very inconveniently all landed in front of him, as if the cave itself was on nature’s side here and trying to drag him into the pit. This precarious dance of his, dodging the crystal spears from above while making sure his feet stayed balance on the ground, lasted for what seemed like forever, but really must have only been thirty seconds or so. When it was over, and everything calmed down again, he sprinted as far away from that hole as possible. He wanted nothing more to do with that stinking pit, no thank you.

“I don’t, huff, know, huff, how I managed, wheeze, to save myself there, huff, but I’m not complaining,” Lucas heaved and gasped for air while he talked to himself. He planted his butt right on a rock that looked like it was just a little bit more comfortable than the cabin’s chair had been as he tried to catch his breath and calm down from his near-death experience.

Seriously, if it was his luck stat was the cause of all this trouble, he needed to put some more points into it ASAP. He didn’t care if it delayed his… character build? Is it a character build if this isn’t a video game? Whatever. Point being, he could wait a bit before getting some more spells and mana if it meant his luck wouldn’t try to screw him over at every turn.

After a few minutes, the rock grew uncomfortable, and he didn’t feel comfortable sitting around and doing nothing in this cave, either. Who knew when the next earthquake might happen. He needed to get out of here.

The only way out seemed to be to try and take one of those tunnels he had avoided earlier. He really, really hoped [Observation 0] and his luck wouldn’t team up together and mess with him in completely inhumane ways. If he had to double back from a bad tunnel and saw tunnels that weren’t there before, he would be so angry. Not for nothing, but he didn’t want to get lost in some cave system where no one would try to find him.

The first tunnel he picked led him on a journey of self-discovery, where he learned everything he wanted to know and picked up the knowledge on how to be a completely perfect human being. Also, the earthquake had somehow managed to let loose a vein of liquid gold! He struck oil! He’d be rich! Yes! Hahaha!

Just kidding. The tunnel just circled back on itself but in an extremely roundabout manner. Ha, as if a random cave could actually give him an experience like that. That would be the joke of the century. Haha, even in the worst situation, he still had the time to crack amazing witticisms like this! Nothing could keep him down! Yeah!

…

Okay, maybe the cave madness was starting to set in. That was just another thing to add on his long list of reasons to get out of here.

The second tunnel stopped in a very unnatural-looking dead end. As in, the tunnel just ended with a flat wall. If this were a video game, this would obviously be the spot where a hidden room was, or maybe an illusionary wall, but when he tapped on it nothing happened. Something didn’t sit right with him about the wall, but there was nothing he could do about it, and frankly even if he could do something about it, with his terrible luck, it would probably just lead him into a room with deadly traps or something. So screw it, on to the next tunnel.

The third tunnel he tried exploring actually went to an exit, so that was nice. The not nice part was the exit oversaw a small village a short distance away, which was even nicer because that meant that the blizzard was done and over with. He could make his way to civilization and make an informed decision about how he should try living his life and where he should go. The tutorial of this crappy world was finally nearing its end!

What wasn’t nice was that was probably the village Frank was from, so he couldn’t exactly waltz in there without being immediately recognized and hassled. Still, being hassled was better than being dead, and he would have to find a way to leave eventually, so… nice. He had a way out, even if it forced him to interact with potential malcontents. How terribly convenient.

Even though going to the village was definitely the play to make right now, he didn’t really want to go just yet. Call him stupid, but he wanted to try out one more tunnel. Sure, this world had screwed him over at every turn, but cave hiking was turning out to be kind of fun now that he knew he could quit at any time he wanted. Plus, with a cave so close to town, surely there wouldn’t be some sort of evil threat lurking in some hidden crevasse. Plus plus, the cave hadn’t been rumbling at all lately, either. The earthquakes were probably done and over with now. Still, maybe he should go back down and prioritize his own safety. He didn’t want another tremor pushing him into some unseen pit.

Eh, nah. It would be fine. Surely this cave contained some isekai powerup or treasure or for him, since it was so close to the cabin. It was definitely made as baby’s first dungeon. It was as safe as safe could be.

The tunnel he traversed ended up being the longest one he tried. There were multiple times where he had to navigate difficult terrain, such as climbing over boulders, squishing himself between narrow cracks in the walls, and jumping down small ledges. Surely, after this hours long hike, he would find something at the end.

Finally, when he reached the end of the passage, he arrived at a medium-sized cavern, with crystals were colored crimson instead of the normal blue. There were brick-like stones littered everywhere as well, like they had been the remains of some small building that once stood in the cavern but was no longer there. The centerpiece of this creepy cavern was a single, dark brown coffin, which laid in the center of the room upon a stone pedestal. It was decorated with gold lines and crimson roses, and despite being a resting place for the dead, it did not smell like death and decay.

Instant regret. There was no way there was something that was supposed to help him here. In fact, just the imagery of him being alone in a room with a coffin was enough to tell him that he made another mistake. It was time to go to the village and face Frank and all his complaints now.

As he turned to leave, another tremor happened, because of course it did. He really needed this in his life right now, it wasn’t difficult enough yet. This tremor was the worst one yet, as it threw him around with a violent fervor. His first instinct was to seek a small overhang where he could hopefully be safe from the stalactites falling, but there was no such protection here. The best he could do, then, was to light flat on the ground in an area without too many sharp rocks and hope for the best.

But wouldn’t you believe it, his hopes didn’t pan out at all. A stalactite fell and shattered on the floor, and one of the shards flew right by him and gashed his shoulder. The searing hot pain immediately came over him, and he howled, trying to make the pain go away, but it refused.

[HP 30/55]

[Status: Bleeding, -1 HP every five seconds]

“Jee, thanks,” he shouted sarcastically at the system. Without a stupid message box hovering in the air, he never would have guessed that he was dying. At least the earthquake was over, having only lasted a suspiciously short amount of time.

After he fumbled with the belt and untied the health potion from his waist, he immediately chugged it all. It still tasted awful, but if his options were to bleed to death or drink, he’d drink every time. Not that he even knew if this would stop the bleeding or not, but he didn’t exactly have any other choices available to him right now.

[HP 30/55]

[Bleeding cured]

He still felt like crap, and his shoulder felt worse than that, but at least the potion stopped the bleeding. Maybe it wasn’t a healing potion, but a multi-purpose potion or something similar to that. After all, this time when he drank it, it didn’t even restore a single point of HP, but instead it just stopped his bleeding. He was thankful for that, and it was cool that he wouldn’t die today, but he would have really liked it if the potion stopped the pain too. Alas, not everything can be as he wanted, but he was used to that. He’d just have to live with his shoulder hurting like heck until it didn’t.

What he didn’t want to live with, however, was his new situation.

The tunnel was caved in, and he was stuck inside a cavern with a coffin in it.

“Neat” wasn’t the word he would use to describe this situation.