Paul fell from the shelf fungus, hitting the ground below. His chest felt like steel bands were constricting it from all sides, and his breaths came in short, staccato gasps. Tears ran down his face as he struggled to breathe. Every muscle tensed, and clammy sweat covered his skin.

He didn’t know how long he lay, panting, sweating, and struggling to fill his lungs. It was [Meditation] that saved him, the skill activating as Paul desperately tried to process the overwhelming feelings of guilt that wracked his mind. Ironically, the same skill that allowed him to dredge up the memories helped calm him in their aftermath, but after a long hour, his breathing returned to normal. At some point, [Meditation] ranked up again, but Paul ignored the notification as he tried to grapple with what happened.

He now understood the purpose the holes in his memory served, those gaps where vast chunks of his life were missing. They were for his protection. Paul didn’t know if it was the system or if his mind had sealed off these memories, but he knew why. The holes protected him from some sort of unresolved trauma and guilt. Just a touch of it had rendered him insensate, and he shuddered to think what full recollection would bring.

He lay like that for a while before a hint of hunger nipped at his consciousness. It reminded him of Seymore nipping at his ear for food. Then, sighing, he stretched and stood, shivering as his sweat evaporated in the cavern’s cool air, slowly walking over to perform his ablutions at his latrine before washing up in the stream and removing some jerky and berries from his improvised coldbox.

He slowly relaxed as he gnawed at the jerky and thought about his next steps.

One, keep those memories under wraps.

He feared that doing so would be an exercise in futility, as he knew that trying not to think about something would only lead to failure. Still, somehow his mind allowed him to wrap his trauma back up and stow it away, a skeleton placed back firmly in its closet.

Two, start exploring again.

The feather the Mantis Troll with fire magic had worn pointed to an exit somewhere in these caves; Paul just had to find it. Unfortunately, his explorations had been cut short by his encounters with the trolls, and there were dozens of passages left to scout.

Three, stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Paul’s meditation, while ending disastrously, had allowed him one measure of peace. He had decided he was done blaming himself for his weakness. Weakness just meant he had potential to grow, and so grow he would.

Squaring his shoulders, Paul got to work.

---

Since receiving his first notification from the system, Paul had held it at arm's length. He had used it, to be sure, even specifically working on gaining ranks in [Silent Movement] and [Darkvision], and he had spent a lot of time developing his ability to manipulate light.

However, most of his skills were born from chance, and most of his ranks he gained haphazardly, not because Paul had any plan. Most of the time, Paul had been reeling from one crisis to the next, so caught up in survival that an actual training plan seemed like a luxury.

That ends today. For better or worse, in these caves, I’m in control of my own destiny.

Paul almost thought he heard an approving chirp from Seymore.

---

A week later, Paul loped through the darkness, long strides eating up the distance in the meandering tunnels. [Long Distance Running] kept his strides steady and his breaths easy as he ran. A constellation of tiny lights trailed behind him, nine flickering motes in the darkness that Paul moved through a lazy figure-8. He kept the lights behind him, letting his [Dark Vision] do the work rather than using them to illuminate his surroundings.

His eyes were in constant motion, noting tracks on the dusty cave floor, a sheen on the cave wall that indicated water, different fungi, and the musty smell of cave-muskox. Each detail he noted and filed away for future use, each nuance fleshing out his mental map from this [Pathfinder] skill. He had received [Eye for Detail] a few days ago, and Paul had been amazed by how much more he could see around him.

[Eye for Detail] seemed to synergize with [Tracking], allowing Paul to find signs of animals and trolls that he would never have noticed previously. Up ahead, a crevasse split the tunnel floor.

Paul accelerated toward it using what he had gained in [Jumping], [Free-Running], and [Tumbling] together to execute a tidy flip over the gap while making sure to keep his arrows and javelins secure. He landed without breaking stride.

Running through unexplored tunnels wasn’t as safe as Paul’s previous method of exploration - careful, quiet skulking - but it certainly was faster, and Paul wasn’t afraid of what lurked in the tunnels any longer. He wondered about what ranks he had achieved in his long battle with the Mantis Trolls as he led them through his trapped caverns, but whatever they were, the notifications gained that day were lost to him. He had ignored them in his panicked search for Seymore, and it was only as he gained new ranks now that he realized how far that battle had pushed him.

Up ahead, coiled around the tunnel's walls and ceiling, he could see the slightest hint of an outline of a cave serpent. It didn’t come as a surprise; he had seen the signs that one lived in this section of caves hundreds of strides back: motes of shed skin, bones of its prey, the smell of its scat.

Paul came to a stop, but the lights behind him did not. Instead, they flew by his head toward the head of the snake. As the lights passed him, Paul pumped them full of intent and mentally triggered them, causing them to speed away in a spiraling path that left afterimages in Paul’s dark-adapted eyes.

The lights smacked against the snake's body, shattering its scales but inflicting no real damage. They had their intended effect, though, causing the serpent to slither from hiding and propel itself toward Paul.

It was big, its head as tall as Paul’s torso, but he stood still as it rocketed toward him. Paul had already reformed five of his lights before its maw reached him. Its mouth was open, fangs glistening in the wan light of Paul’s orbs, and it snapped its mouth shut on Paul - or where he once was.

At the last moment, Paul took one step back and leaned away from the snake’s trajectory, its mouth passing centimeters from his body. His heart hammered in his chest, but his [Fear Management] kept his mind clear. He watched as the snake whipped around, head bearing down on him again while the bulk of the snake threatened to wrap around his body.

He stepped twice, back toward the snake and then the side, keeping his center of gravity low as [Footwork] dictated. It was one of the skills he had gained during his fight with the trolls and had shown its worth several times since then.

He clutched his spear in one hand, looking for opportunities to use [Vital Strike]. Many presented themselves - the soft underbelly of the serpent, its eyes, a spot right behind its head - but Paul kept moving, anticipating the serpent’s movements and moving just out of reach each time. It was difficult in the narrow cavern, now filled with the snake’s bulk, but he kept at it.

The serpent hissed in frustration, and its movements became wilder, harder to predict, and Paul decided to end it. It struck toward him, and Paul ducked low, letting its head pass overhead. Then, with a two-handed lunge upwards with his spear, he thrust it through the bottom of its lower jaw and up into its brain. He quickly removed the spear before the snake fell to ensure that the spear’s fragile obsidian tip didn’t snap.

*[Footwork] increased to rank 5*

*[Dodge] increased to rank 9*

*[Piercing Weapons] increased to rank 15*

*[Thrust] increased to rank 11*

*[Vital Strike] increased to rank 12*

*New skill gained: [Combat Flow]*

He let the notifications wash over him. Paul had long ago realized that his ranks increased much faster when fighting rather than just practicing on his own, but the difficulty was that when hunting, his goal was to dispatch his prey quickly and efficiently. These quick battles were great for bringing home dinner but less effective in increasing his skills.

Since his breakdown a week prior, when encountering the more aggressive denizens in the dark, Paul had stopped trying to kill them quickly. Instead, he used them as unwitting sparring partners. By drawing out the fight and not going for the kill, Paul could test his combat skills in a way he had only experienced against the trolls.

He was careful not to make the rats and serpents suffer, trying to end them cleanly in one blow, as wearing them down with strikes seemed cruel. Instead, it was mostly his defensive skills he practiced: How to stand, how to move, how to avoid blows, and how to anticipate them. It was the anticipation of his opponents that he felt led to the acquisition of his most recent skill. He could feel like he was on the verge of something for the last few battles, an incomplete understanding that just needed a little more clarity.

He understood it now, and he could feel it working by the end of his battle with the serpent. A slight shift in the snake’s jaws, a flicker in its eyes, and Paul had known where the snake would strike before it did.

Paul looked down at the snake’s corpse and sighed. Killing each one he came across seemed so wasteful and unnecessary. He didn’t need the food or the materials they provided and killing them just to gain a rank or two felt wrong. Paul wondered if that was partly his [Survival] skill’s doing.

He had tried sneaking past them before, but the last time he had, the serpent had followed him for a dozen kilometers of tunnels before he had stopped and dispatched it. Trying to sneak past had proved futile, some sort of enhanced smell or sense of vibrations allowing them to track Paul even when he was whisper quiet. Leading one back to his home cave, or even leaving one at his back when he stopped to sleep, seemed like a poor choice, so Paul had resolved to exterminate them as he encountered each one.

I hope they’re not endangered. I would feel like such an asshole if I made them extinct.

For now, Paul dragged the snake’s body back to the chasm he had jumped over a few hundred meters back and pushed it over the side. Then, mentally, he checked his [Pathfinder] skill to orient himself. He was a few dozen kilometers away and about 5 “down” from his home cavern, choosing to explore the caverns that led deeper, opposite the higher tunnels where he had encountered the Trolls.

Brushing himself off, Paul checked his tools and weapons, tightened the straps on his pack, and began to run again, deeper into the abyss.