He had been observing the camp for some time now. This area did not have any noises except those produced by the insects, birds, and the occasional rustling of the winds. The atmosphere was soothing, almost causing him to nod off sometimes. He was starting to get sleepy again now that the novelty of the experience was no longer there. To keep himself from falling asleep he had been moving around, observing the camp and the arriving parties of goblins, all of them having five members.

One thing that he had observed about these goblins was that they talked in low voices and their ears twitched a lot. Even small disturbances which created faint noises immediately caught their attention. Fortunately for him, they seemed more focused upon returning to their camp than observing the disturbances that he created.

He was still in the relative direction from where he had initially come after killing the parties. They would soon notice their missing companions, he thought. He certainly did not want to be there when they started searching so he started circling towards the opposite side of the camp.

He was moving slowly, reducing the noise as much as he could while picking any stones that he came across, especially the sharp ones. As he was circling, he also started increasing the distance from the camp.

Rustle Rustle

He turned toward the sound and found a lone goblin rushing towards him from the bushes at the side. Reflexively, he threw a stone at the goblin which was easily bypassed. He ran towards the goblin while drawing the sword from the scabbard. As he started striking, he remembered that he had never seen one alone.

Just as he was thinking of it, suddenly a whole lot of them emerged from the surroundings. He paled as he considered the implications of being surrounded. His sword was not coated with poison. He did not have any advantage and he was surrounded by a whole lot of them.

He forcefully completed the swing, ignoring the voice that suggested he give up. Give up and fulfill his desire to die. Still, he completed the swing. Only after giving my best, he thought because he would only let go of his life after fighting tooth and nail for it.

Goblin tried to evade it but he quickly kicked it and then stabbed it in the neck as it fell to the ground. Adrenaline started coursing through his veins as he turned to face the goblins. Every one of them was seemingly frozen, just staring at him standing at the corpse of one of their own. Slowly, their faces contorted from anger as they started rushing at him.

Blood and pain. A single moment, simultaneously, an eternity. When he came to his senses he was hurt all over. Cuts big and small, some places he could see white of his bones. His sword was somehow still in his hands.

He felt a weight tugging at his left hand. As he looked towards it he saw the poison bottle without its cap, tightly grasped. The bottle was half empty.

He started to move away from the location, his body shaking as if it would just shut down at any moment. Somehow he kept walking despite the extreme pain and continued blood loss. He was just approaching the corner of the battlefield when shouts started resounding again, most of them coming from the direction of the camp.

He quickly gave the mission menu some attention.

Mission Type: Extermination

Minimum Requirements: 100 Kills

Payment: 2 Contribution Points

Remaining: 35 Kills

Still a lot, this thought briefly crossed his mind and he started dragging himself towards the shouts while tugging his left arm to pour some poison at the blade. Wasteful. He did not stop though, this was the best that he could do at the moment.

They started appearing, daggers in their hands, his only saving grace was that they did not have any ranged equipment. They started rushing at him, swinging their weapons. He also swung his sword, his objective was only to cut. He did not deliver the finishing blow to anyone, that task he left to the poison that had proven itself more than capable. As the dogfight ensued more started appearing.

Again he swung at something that appeared in front of him.

Clang

The vibrations from the sword refocused his eyes a bit. In front of him stood a considerably larger goblin. It was still shorter than him though not by much. As he glanced around, everything was dead or was in the process of dying. He could not bring himself to care because as he came to himself so did return the pain. He could not scream, rather did not have any energy to.

Its screaming brought his attention towards it as did its blade that dug into his shoulder. Should I give up, despite thinking like that he dragged himself closer to it. Pain erupted again, it was a drop in the ocean though. It retracted the blade and swung towards the bottle but he adjusted himself and took the hit. It retracted the blade and started circling around him. Sometimes striking at his left hand. At the start, he kept defending it, not for long though as he started taking hits with his body. Sometimes he would retaliate, using up the little energy that he would save up till that point.

The goblin started getting excited, the rage turned into glee as opportunities started appearing. This was true for Azaan too as he noticed increased chances that he could avail. He just waited. Suddenly, he started hearing faint noises. This time they were not coming from the direction of the camp and as they grew nearer so did the excitement of the one in front of him.

It was again circling him. As it was going to strike he threw himself at it causing both of them to fall on the corpses. It started screaming while he tried to swing the sword but failed. It tried to push him away while screaming. As it was screaming he thrust his left hand towards its mouth. Big drops splashed from the bottle, some fell on the face while others went into the eyes and the mouth.

His mouth bloomed into a massive grin, he did not notice it though, and just fell down as it started coughing violently. He could not feel his body, his mind was somehow extremely clear though and he kept staring at the message.

Mission Type: Extermination

Minimum Requirements: 100 Kills

Payment: 2 Contribution Points

Return: Y/N

Everything went dark and his thoughts slowed down, his already numb body entirely disappeared from his senses and like the first time, all the senses started to gradually return.

Before he knew it, he was again in the hall, his sword still welded into his hand and so was the bottle though most of its content had leaked. Light started to encapsulate him and he heard the voice of the statue again.

“Beginning process: Healing. It would cost 0.25 points to heal your body. Should we proceed?”

“Yes.”

He said with much difficulty and blacked out. Green-colored light started shining from the floor and the ceiling. The beam of light encapsulated his body. Time passed as the pillar of light kept shining upon his body. Suddenly, the light started decreasing in intensity and after a bit of time, it completely disappeared.

It did not take long for Azaan to wake up. He stretched his body, feeling incredibly well-rested. As he saw his tattered clothes he remembered his body’s condition and started checking all over. He was shocked to find that there was not a single scar upon his body even though his clothes were full of cuts, holes, and blood.

“Calculating payment:”

A flash of light, as well as its sound, caused him to turn his attention towards the statue and he saw a hologram floating above it.

Base Payment: 2 CP

Additional: 1 CP

Achievements: 1 (E)

Total: 3 CP, 1 (E)

“Shop”

As the menu opened, he saw that his points had increased and it also showed the achievement that he had just earned now. He started browsing, clearly ignoring what he had just gone through. He opened the first tab titled ‘Self-Enhancement’.

Body: 89 [4 CP]

Senses: 97 [4 CP]

Mind: 133 [4 CP]

Recovery: 89 [4 CP]

Energy: 140 [ 4 CP]

Then he opened the ‘Mutation’ and scrolled through it. Everything there was listed in the range of thousands which caused him to close it. He certainly did not have anything to do with it when even earning three points had caused him to die. Next, he opened the ‘Powers’ tab and this time the thing was considerably less expensive. This did not mean that he could buy them though because they were in the range of hundreds. There was even a search bar up top, he typed some fictional powers and surprisingly they did pop up. Again the prices were beyond his means so he went to the ‘Healing/Recovery’ tab, ignoring the equipment tab as he had already seen it somewhat. There was nothing in there that caused him to close the tab again.

He felt a need to do something, anything. He started looking around at the white space, as he was doing so, his eye met with the eyes of the statue. His eyes became fixed. Drops of sweat started rolling across his face

Overwhelming dread. Like the one, he had experienced the first time he glanced upon it. The pain from the dive that he had been ignoring with much difficulty, he suddenly forgot. Compared to what he was currently feeling, it felt like nothing. As if all his experiences amounted to nothing.

He felt extremely insignificant, losing all the strength in his body. He was only saved when his body toppled down on the floor. He laid there for some time, feeling completely spent. It felt as if all the energy was drained out of his body.

"Leave the dungeon"

Exit the Endless Dungeon

Y/N

As he confirmed, he was suddenly in his bed. He laid there but was unable to sleep. His mind kept repeating the sensation that he felt in the white room. Unable to cope up with it, he opened his laptop and started working on the game.

At first, it did not have any effect, he kept doing it though because there was nothing else for him to do. As he kept doing what amounted to nothing, he started hearing azaan from the mosque. Surprised, he checked the time, it was nearly 5:40 am. This broke him out of his thoughts and he went to the bathroom to perform ablution but decided to bathe when he saw the condition of himself and his clothes. Dried blood clung to his clothes. Most of his body was suspiciously clean. Most likely the work of the healing, he thought as he took the bath.

The familiar routine allowed him to start controlling his emotions a bit. After prayer, he performed the zikr causing him to calm down significantly allowing him to start analyzing the situation more objectively. He wanted to create a plan on how he would deal with this situation. There was no way out of it, he was sure of that as the image of the flashing blue eyes emerged again in his mind, threatening to destabilize him again. He was able to control it this time though.

“Inventory”

The inventory menu opened in front of him. He went to the bath, menu followed him but as he stood in front of the mirror, he only saw himself. That is good, he thought. He took out one of the yellow fruit from the inventory.

“Enter the dungeon.”

Enter the Endless Dungeon

Y/N

He quickly selected no. Now that he had confirmed, again, that he did not just have a bad dream, he sat down on his desk and started brainstorming on how he could increase his chances.