I use my dagger immediately and start skinning the Beor. It was a disgusting and messy process but necessary. It took me about 30 min to skin the whole thing.

I laid the skin out before me to inspect my work. Shit. that would be the best way to describe it. Holes and tears littered the pelt which made it look like Frankenstein's skin. Gotta start somewhere right?

A window popped up.

You have learned Skinning.

Skinning- level 1 Use it to gain levels. Skill makes it easier to skin animals or other things. Skill will give bonuses every 25 levels.

“Ok Grook now what do I do?” I was ready to continue and make some clothes.

“Now you cut meat off. Make food and do again. You make clothes when pelt is good.”

I look up the quality of the pelt.

Beor Pelt- Crappy pelt skinned by a terrible skinner. Quality-abysmal.

This could take awhile. I get to work deboning the animal and harvest its meat. After another 2 hours I was finally done.

I had about 300 pounds of meat just staring at me begging to be eaten. “Hey Grook. Got any fire?”

“No. You make.”

Awesome. More for me to do. I grudgingly get up and go grab some wood to make a fire with. Lucky for me I was in Boy Scouts so I had a basic understanding. I also picked some leaves to put under my wood to use as tinder.

I arranged the wood into a teepee formation to maximize the chance of getting a fire. It also helped keep the wind at bay, although oddly enough there was no wind in the dungeon.

Next step was creating a spark, I can’t rub sticks together so I’m not even trying. Lucky for me there’s rocks everywhere! Yay! Ok I might be a little too excited at the thought of food. Not really because I am beyond starved.

I’m so hungry my whole body is shaking. With unsteady hands i strike one rock against another to see if it will spark. Incase you didn’t know, you can’t just create sparks with two random rocks. I don’t know why I just know there’s different types. Although because I’ve done this before I picked up the right types.

Sparks flew and so did my hopes. Quickly I kneeled down and started to strike the stones above the leaves. I had left a little hole in the teepee for easy access. Smart on my part until my hand hit the teepee as I was striking the stones and knocked the whole thing down.

I put it all back up but this time I put some leaves outside of it so I could just move them when they caught the spark. A couple strikes was all it took to get a small ember started in the leaves. I slowly slid the ember and leaves to the others and blew gently to get it going.

I wish i could go back and kiss my troop leader once my fire had finally started. I could see the chances of my survival strengthening by the second as the wood started catching on fire. I grabbed some wood that i had set aside and debarked them to make some skewers for the meat.

I sliced the meat up and put them on the sticks. I angled the kebabs over the fire to let it cook. As I waited I began to think about my skills. I know that actions will give me skills so I figure I should try and do what i can to get a survival skill. The two main things for survival are food and shelter.

Going along this train of thought I search through the meat and start pulling out the tendons. Once that is done I fashion a lean to over the fire that’s far enough away that it won’t burn a but will still get a decent amount of heat. I put the tendons on the lean to to toughen it up for some string. I have no idea if it will work but I figure why not.

It took maybe a min to get the tendons ready. Once those are done I cut the pelt up along the tears that were in it. 72 pieces! Damn I really screwed that pelt up. Once the pelts had toughened up I started sewing them together.

About halfway through I checked the meat, about halfway cooked. I go back to sewing up my pelt. Once done I step back to admire my work. Not too bad. It was roughly 20 feet across in any direction, roughly square and fairly sturdy. Lucky for me the thinness of the pelt made it fairly sturdy yet still malleable.

I stab two long branches that I had found a couple feet away and made a tent out of it all. I went back to the meat and it was finally done. I figure i might as well use the tent and take the meat back with me. The tent had just enough room for me to sit up in so I sat down cross legged and took my first bite of food.

The fatty grease that flooded my mouth was way better than any sex I’ve ever had. I might have cried a little. I devoured all the meat I had cooked which was probably around 20 pounds. Honestly I have no idea where all that food went but I am now a happy man.

“DING”

Through your knowledge of survival you have showed that you know how to cook and make a shelter. Because of your loner expertise you have been awarded the skill Survivor Dude! This is a passive skill and does not level. (Good job! Gaia)

You have learned Cooking.

Cooking- level 1 Use it to gain levels. Skill makes Cooking easier and makes the food taste better. Skill will give bonuses every 25 levels.

I pull up my skill list so i can look into the survival skill.

Active Skills

Passive skills

Identify-Level 1 25/100

Gaia’s Blessing

Blades-Level 1 0/100

Sneak

Armor-Level 1 0/100

Survivor Dude

Unarmed Combat-Level 2 42/100

Dual Wield-Level 1 0/100

Titan Grip-Level 1 0/100

Skinning- level 1 0/100

Cooking- level 1 0/100

Survivor Dude allows you to make a safe zone in the real world as if it was in a dungeon. This means that if you die and you have a safe spot that is still in use, in other words you need the campfire and tent, you will be reborn in the safe zone. (Yes this is overpowered but I’m starting to like you. Zeus)

Woah. Zeus?

‘Yea I’m as shocked as you are.’

Hey can we be friends? I’m sorry I’ve been an idiot but I am trying here.

‘I’ll try. Not like life would be pleasant if I hated you constantly.’

Yea that’s true. I’m gonna talk to Grook now so um... chime in anytime if ya want.

‘Will do. Oh and please don’t die. When you get hurt… I get hurt. Were linked together remember.’

OK no pressure there. “Ok Grook where’s the next one?” I ask.

“It spawn soon.”

Sounds good. I really want a weapon though. “Grook. I don’t suppose you have any swords do you?”

He just looks at me like I’m an idiot. Yea I get it big guy. You don’t even wear clothes so how are you gonna have a sword.

“Listen. Here you train fists and craft. If you make weapon then you use. Ahhhh I sorry. I know it difficult but that is how Asmodeus is. Soon you get weapons but not now.”

“Thank you Grook. I appreciate your honesty. Now let’s do this!”

Slowly another Beor faded into existence. It was really trippy to watch. It was like watching one of those old movies that fade to black at the end only this was in reverse.

This time when the Beor rushed me I goaded it into standing up. I hit is in the nuts again but instead of a long fight where I just hit it over and over I instead hit it in the head and knocked it out. This made dispatching the beast much easier as it just took my punches till it was dead.

Once it departed this world I skinned it and ate it once again. This process repeated about 10 times till it was time for me to go to bed. A total of 12 hours had passed for this slew of fights to end. I had pushed all notifications off to the side so I could just take care of everything before I went to bed. I had also cooked all the meat and ate it as well.

Congrats! You killed your foe! 350,000 EXP awarded! X 10

Total EXP 3,800,000

Huh more EXP than I thought. This is because of the Intelligence I now have.

You have leveled up x 7, Unarmed Combat has leveled up x 4, Skinning has leveled up x 7, Cooking has leveled up x 7!

Wow that’s a lot. I distribute my Stat points to make things easier. I also fiddled around and found out how i can use abbreviations for my stats so it’s not so much to read anymore.

Name

Zach

Class

Dual Blade Warrior

Age

27

Race

Human

Level

27

EXP

633,315/1,683,442

HP

650/17.2 min

Stamina

680/17.4min

Mana

N/A

Str

36

Dex

35

Vit

35

Cha

35

Wis

35

Int

35

Luck

99(Max)

Unused Stat Points

0

Attack

5,376

Active Skills

Passive skills

Identify-Level 1 25/100

Gaia’s Blessing

Blades-Level 1 0/100

Sneak

Armor-Level 1 0/100

Survivor Dude

Unarmed Combat-Level 6 42/100

Dual Wield-Level 1 0/100

Titan Grip-Level 1 0/100

Skinning- level 8 34/100

Cooking- level 8 34/100

Congrats! You have passed the threshold of your human body and brought your strength up to 30. Each point in strength now adds 4 to your attack from now on.

Congrats! You have passed the threshold of your human body and brought your Vitality up to 30. Each point in strength now adds 30 to your health and increases your regeneration by an additional .2 from now on.

Congrats! You have passed the threshold of your human body and brought your Dexterity up to 30. Each point in strength now adds 30 to your Stamina and increases your regeneration by an additional .2 from now on.

Honestly I feel like an idiot. It would have been much easier to do these battles if I had distributed my stats earlier. With a sigh I decide it’s time for sleep and repeat the same thing tomorrow.

Lucky for me the days in the dungeon actually had a day and night cycle. Also lucky for me was that I had place my camp far enough away that the Beor never noticed me.

That night I dreamt terrible dreams. I watched as all the people I had ever known were raped and eaten by monsters. The next day I woke up in a cold sweat. I needed to get strong and I needed to do it fast.

Grook was waiting just outside of my camp as I got up and got ready. Not much to do in getting ready honestly. My clothes were now completely gone and I had no weapons. Really I just heated up a little meat that I had saved from yesterday. Let me tell you that even day old cooked Beor meat is still very good. It seemed to change subtly no matter how many times I ate it.

After eating I charged the Beor that was waiting to be slaughtered. Now that I had distributed all my stats and my unarmed combat was at 6 I killed it in one hit. I didn’t even get a crit.

I had done a running jump and hit it with my fist as hard as I could. My fist punctured through its skull and destroyed its brain completely. It was all very anticlimactic.

‘Wow. that unarmed combat skill is way to strong. Are you sure you don’t want to be a monk?’

Hahaha. Yea it is OP but no. I like to think of unarmed combat as a backup plan. I mean what happens if I hit something that is so hard it broke my hands or feet?

‘Well when you put it that way it makes total sense. Nice to know you can think!’

You cheeky brat. Ha i like it though. Alright back to Grook. “Hey bud how’s it going?”

“Hmm. Good you ready to fight Grook younglings.”

“Whoa there bud. I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.” I had really started to like this guy. Sure he wasn’t very talkative but he was better than nothing.

“You are. It good for us to. We no respawn so we be free. It good.”

Wow. Ok. Not sure how to take that.

‘His race has been trapped here for no reason. They want to be free and you are that freedom. Just deal with it and don’t be angry about it. You are doing them a favor.’

“Ok Grook. Let’s go.”

He gives me an approving look and watches me contentedly as I packed up my stuff. I skin the Beor quickly and gather all its meat. I had used all the abysmal pelts from before now to make a giant bag so I can carry what I need to.

As I finish putting all the meat into the bag I grab the newest pelt I had made, it looked pretty good to me. I use identify and nearly jumped for joy.

Beor Pelt- OK pelt skinned by a up and coming skinner. Quality-Good.

“Grook! The quality is good!”

“Good. You make clothes later though. On second floor.”

Fuck. He had already started walking away so I knew he wouldn’t say anything else. Asshole. He said I could make some cloths if the quality was good. Jerk.

We headed deeper into the forest and then past it. Beyond the forest was a village looking area, however the houses were the giant boulder trees. As we approached the trees more and more vine demons could be seen. They all looked the same, same height, width and facial features. Well rather none of them had facial features just roughly a face made out of wood and vines with a mouth on it. Oh and they were all male. Weird.

Grook strode forward and started talking to them. It sounded like the swaying of leaves on a tree during a windy day with the occasional groan that resembled a tree under a lot of stress from the wind. After a while he turned back to me.

“You fight now. The first youngling has been chosen. You will fight Grook.”

Yea Grook. Totally forgot all of you are named that. I will never understand the intricacies of vine demons.

“Ok. let’s get this over with. We walked for at least ten hours and I am exhausted.”

“Come to arena.”

I thought we were at the arena earlier. “Why not the arena earlier?”

“That was not arena we just call it arena.”

Yea that made sense. “Lead the way Grook.”

With that all the Grook’s turned and headed in the same direction, towards the centre of the village, grove thing. In the centre was a big sand pit that a couple vine demons were sparring in.

One of the vine demons came up to me as i stopped at the side of the arena. He was a little different than the others, on his head was a crown of thorns that were anywhere from 1 to 3 inches long. He was also slightly bigger than the others. In my vast wisdom i used identify on him as soon as he stopped in front of me.

Name

Grook

Race

Branch Demon-Chief

Level

???

HP

???????

Congrats! Identify has leveled up and you can now view levels of beings higher than you!

I identify him again.

Name

Grook

Race

Branch Demon-Chief

Level

230

HP

???????

Note to self, I am weak, so very, very weak.

“You must be the one Asmodeus is expecting. Allow me to elaborate some things for you little human.” Wow he is eloquent compared to Grook, the first one i met not all the others so far.

“You were chosen because of your unfortunate situation and also because you are the only one to come here. You see we have been in this dungeon, all of us on all levels, for millions of years. Lucky for you we are done with it but the only way out is to be killed and reincarnate. We will give you as much knowledge as we can. As for us branch demons, sadly we do not know much other than trial by combat. It is a good start for you.

“There are thirty of us here so you will have to only fight thirty times. Please be merciless and dispatch us quickly. We will however fight back as much as we can. There is no honor, after all, in laying down to die. Now please fight your first fight today and tomorrow you might be able to fight the rest. Oh and before i forget set up your tent just outside of the arena and yes before you ask I know about your survivor dude skill. Make sure you keep that skill secret.”

“No problem chief.”

“How did you know I was the chief.”

“I used identify duh.” Ha! Got yall back with that one. I feel pretty good about that.

“Oh ok. Well good to see that you are using your head and not just your muscles.”

‘Yea I know right? You would not believe how dumb he has been.’

Hey were supposed to be nice to each other, remember?

‘I AM being nice.’

Whatever. “Yea i’ve been trying. Ok so who’s my first opponent?” I said as i rubbed my hands together.

“That Grook over there. Oh yea I’m supposed to let you know that you get more experience from sentient beings rather than mindless beasts like that Beor you were fighting. It has to do with the fact that sentients can change tactics and took longer to level up. So don’t be surprised to get a lot of experience from killing us.”

I cringe a little. “Can you please not say it like that. It just sounds so wrong.”

He looks at me curiously. “It is odd to see another life form that is not a demon sympathize with us in any way.”

“Yea well thats me. I am all sorts of odd.”

With that I step into the arena to fight the young Grook. As he stepped in i identified him as well.

Name

Grook

Race

Branch Demon

Level

125

HP

400,000

How am I ready for this? Why do I have to fight those that are so much higher than me? This is worse than the Beor and what’s with that HP? I am so fucked here.

We walked to the centre of the arena and squared off. He looked at me with hope in his eyes, which was quite odd since I was here to kill him. Still can’t wrap my head around it.