I was floating in the deep darkness, time seemingly stilled as I ‘stood’ in the nothingness; my consciousness slowly returned to my control, my Ego returned, finally -- like before, the blue lines came back.

The lines danced and spun, an infinite variety of symbols forming and dispersing in patterns that I couldn’t recognize -- it was eerily similar to how the light bent inside the crystal claw which had split my head open.

I was fascinated, watching the changes in the light, in the shape -- in the frequency of movement and intersection. Slowly, the number of lines increased; once an unknown but obviously predetermined number was reached, they all joined up and formed that strange, infinitely complex, infinitely simple, symbol from before.

The darkness disappeared, changing to the normal darkness found when I had my eyes shut.

My head hurt, it was pounding -- but, with effort, I managed to pry my eyes open; everything was blurry. The dimly lit corridor filled my vision, the normally dim seeming white light burned my hypersensitive retina; and strangely, I felt as though the stone ceiling seemed to be staring back at me.

Was that death?

Sitting up, I looked around.

I was laying in a puddle of blood.

I quickly jumped up; when I hurriedly looked down, I saw that my arm wasn’t laying on the ground next to where I fell -- both of my arms were where they should be, attached to my shoulders -- though strangely, the left sleeve of my shirt was missing.

This sight hit me hard -- I didn’t want my clothing to get damaged, because it was all that remained of wherever it was that I originally came from, all that remained from my past.

The only link to my past, and I had the feeling that I should keep it as intact as possible.

My legs were shaking, I used the stone wall to keep standing upright, leaning against the cold stone. I stood in place for a while -- this time I kept my light active and in armour mode.

It seemed that I might have an ability to resurrect when I died, but what caused that to happen?

It was an incredible skill, so what was the cost?

As the light had taught me, all skills had a cost, and the stronger the skill -- the worse the cost. I had to make sure that I didn’t ever get to the point where I would depend on it, the skill could stop working at any time, without any warning.

My backpack was laying on the ground, alongside my crystal claw that I used as weapon, near a puddle of blood; the same puddle of blood which I had woken up in, and still covered my clothing.

How come the Crystal Rat didn’t run off the hide bag, and claw?

At first, I thought that it was because I had good luck; well, that was until I picked up the bag -- which fell apart and dropped all of my collected crystals onto the floor. The Crystal Rat had gnawed on it, but they don’t seem eat crystals, or pure hide; they usually only ate a small hole in their food’s hide, and ate the inside out of them.

I needed to figure out how to use the crystals that I was instinctively collecting, just keeping them probably had no reason. Since I was so busy exploring and surviving, I hadn’t really experimented with them before, but now was the time; if I died again but lost them, all my effort would have gone to waste.

Looking at the shards on the ground, I began to think.

I had absolutely no idea how to use them, so I just went with the first thought that popped into my head -- I used my light armoured hand to grip and crush them one by one. The crystals surprisingly easily turned into a powder; they were surrounded by my light, causing them to glow -- with a soft noise, they were absorbed both into my skin, and into the light itself.

While they were whole, they were almost indestructible -- they could cut stone, and bone, as though they were butter; but when I covered my hand in light and tried to crush them, it was surprisingly easy. It was then that I felt the long lost feeling of warmth, and my light slightly increased in brightness for the first time in ages.

Finally, I had figured out how to use the crystals that I had been hoarding; of course, I hadn’t damaged the crystal claw that I used as a weapon.

I had nothing to do here, so I began moving again.

The corridors may have looked like a natural formation at first, but after being here for such a long time, I could see otherwise. There was a very systematic layout to the veins of glowing crystal set in the stone walls -- which were also a little too smooth -- and the entrances were a perfect oval shape.

As per my habit, I practiced with my light as I walked; however, I was very careful to pay attention, I kept most of the light in the form of armour. The armour was much thinner than normal, but it was enough that I could deflect a single hit and react, I vowed to myself that I was going to be a lot more careful.

I heard another Crystal Rat approaching from further down the passage in front of me -- I suddenly felt my muscles quiver -- but I ignored the fear and changed my light into full-armour form. Standing ready, I waited for the Crystal Rat to approach.

Luckily, the combat was as simple as normal, when I was prepared --when I used my light, my perception and speed increased exponentially.

This time, instead of an ambush, I attacked the Crystal Rat head on, because I was recently killed -- I needed to do this, to make sure I didn’t develop a trauma.

I stared into its beady eyes as it approached me, and once it came within range, I attacked it with my claw. The incredibly sharp claw drew blood, but this time I didn’t go straight for a kill; I allowed the rat to dodge so that the cut was deep, but not lethal. With a pained squeal, it lowered its upper body and whipped its long, scaly tail at my face.

With barely a thought, I shifted the shape of my armour around my hand from a gauntlet into a buckler, and blocked the attack.

I had figured out how to change the shape of my projected light, so I could make it into any shape that I could imagine. But I didn’t need to make weapons, my claw was good enough.

It didn’t unnecessarily waste energy; I could also shape it into small sphere which I could throw like stones, killing enemies from a distance.

Unlike the first time I was attacked, the impact of the tail merely knocked me back a step. It was obvious that killing the rats had made me much stronger, but still not enough to react to an ambush without my light.

Before the rat could retract its scaly appendage, I slashed it, cutting straight through a section of the tail.

The rat screeched loudly and spun in place, lowering its body, it dashed straight towards me, the partially severed tail dragging along the ground, leaving a trail of blood on the stone floor. As soon as it reached a sufficient range, it attacked with its huge claws.

Ignoring the attack, I stepped forwards, between the paws; holding my weapon towards its exposed face.

I was knocked backwards a few steps as the heavy body slammed into me.

The claw in my hand penetrated its skull, skewering the brain and killing it instantly.

Being hungry after dying, I cut some meat from the corpse; I still disliked the taste of the meat, but now eating it, and drinking the thick, metallic blood was tolerable -- but I would never enjoy it.

Eating no longer caused me any pain at all, neither was there any warmth.

With a sigh, I finished, wiping my mouth on my left arm; normally doing this would wipe the blood off my skin and onto my shirt, as per habit, but I forgot that the sleeve was missing.

I remembered to strip the Crystal Rat of its claws and the crystal shards in its bones, I absorbed them straight away.

Getting up, I followed the corridor.

I found many more rat nests.

--Time passed as it did.

I made sure to wipe out any Crystal Rats that I found, whenever I found them.

As I advanced down the identical passageways, I began to have to kill the rats in groups -- luckily, I was considerably physically stronger than when I first smashed through the stone roof, so it was possible to kill them -- instead of having to sneak attack.

Fighting so many rats, over such a long time, they gave me a chance to memorize their attack patterns; I also noticed that my speed had increased, even without using my light to enhance myself.

By the time that I had killed a couple hundred, maybe even thousands of the rodents of unusual size, I found that if I found them in advance and if it was only one at a time, I could kill them even without using my light. Even though I used it to negate damage and allow me to kill them faster and in groups; I noticed that my skin had gotten stronger and I healed faster.

Since I had killed an unknowable number of rats by now, including complete nests, I actually had to actively search to find prey. After sweeping around the newest offshoot of the main corridor that I had been exploring, I went back. I had long figured out that while there were the two main corridors, which lead who knows where -- but most of the offshoots just lead to mazes, random rooms, or rat nests.

The two corridors weren’t technically straight, but they followed a discernible pattern. I followed the main corridor and began ignoring offshoots, except when I was hungry. Unlike the first corridor I chose, this one changed -- the lighting was the first difference, going from a soft white, to a similarly soft golden illumination.

I felt excitement surge inside me.

This was the first change that I had seen since being stuck in this underground labyrinth.

I had been here for an unknown amount of time; but judging by the amount of times I had to eat and sleep, it was likely many days, possibly years.

After walking through the corridors with the different lighting for a fair while, I decided to turn back to the entrance, however,  I saw that there was some form of translucent barrier at the boundary between white crystal veins and golden ones. It shimmered and rippled when I touched it.

I realized that it was unlikely that I could now go back without physically shattering it.

It was time for me to begin exploring my new location, and after a few more minutes of walking, I noticed the second change.

I began hearing a strange squishing sound.

But, when I looked around, I couldn’t see anything.

Of course, I didn’t do anything stupid like ignoring the changes, I kept my light armour activated. I didn’t use it at full power, so that I could keep it up without wasting much of my energy, only using enough that it guaranteed that I would get to react if I was ambushed.

The squishing was getting louder and louder.

Strangely, I couldn’t locate the source by sound, I had long gotten used to hunting rats by listening to their noises, but these ones seemed to be slightly muted and multiplied.

Without warning, a massive weight drove me to my knees -- well, knee deep into the solid rock floor, shattering my light armour.

I quickly remade my light, this time at full power.

The stone was restricting my movement, so I slammed my fist into the ground and freed myself, jumping back without a moment’s hesitation. There was a high-pitched whistling noise as a tentacle of clear liquid smashed into  the ground where I had stood, with enough force to penetrate an unknown depth into the ground. This impact left a hole with the diameter of my fist. As the tentacle was pulled up again, the stone shattered, leaving a much larger crater with a visible depth of a meter and a smaller one that continued downwards beyond sight.

My strength and speed had improved greatly since I smashed through the roof of this strange labyrinth. I could even shatter a rock with a punch, and luckily  my speed was enough to dodge the tentacle once I knew that it was coming; I soon realized that its source was the ceiling.

Looking up at my new enemy, I took a step back and drew my crystal claw from the leather sheathe that I kept it at my waist, moving my hand automatically. Moving without taking my eyes off the creature on the ceiling.

It was a lump of clear slime.

With a slurping noise, followed by a plopping noise, the slime released itself from the stone ceiling and landed on the floor. Its body wriggled and swirled, and a spear-shaped tentacle formed and protruded slightly.

With a soft noise, the spear rapidly retracted back into the gooey body, then with a whooshing noise, the body returned to its completely round shape, firing the spear out.

It flashed forwards incredibly quickly, it was the same attack that had gouged out the floor.

There was almost no time for me to do anything other than block.

Even with the warning, and my light at full power, I barely managed to block it -- I had made sure to extend my light around my weapon as well.

The impact caused an incredibly loud ‘clink’ noise, and a massive pressure slammed into my arm. My feet slipped along the stone floor, causing me to slide backwards a few meters, before I managed to negate the force and regain my footing.

I rearranged my grip on the claw, dashing forwards towards the slime, which just sat in the middle of the corridor.

As I approached, the slime began rapidly distorting and reforming, creating spears and firing them wildly towards me; they were fired both individually, and in batches, alternating.

Since I could barely see the trajectory, I managed to dodge the projectiles. Though they would occasionally brush my light armour, ripping sections out of it.

These holes would slowly regenerate.

After fighting for a while, I had started to figure out some of the most basic of its attack patterns. My combat instincts were much better then when I first started fighting--I could learn as I fought.

However, the moment that I arrived a short distance from the enemy, it stopped firing spears and began to fire small balls of slime -- the balls were clustered closely together, seeming to form a wall which filled the corridor.

I couldn’t dodge them, the wall of slime, there weren’t enough gaps for me to utilize. I began to slice at the balls, splattering them, and deflected others with my free hand.

The impacts were incredibly heavy, every time I blocked, I was driven backwards a few steps. Of course, their force wasn’t anywhere near that of the spears, but they were still formidable. The ones that I hit with the side of my claw felt like I was smacking it against a wall, while I managed to deflect or cause them to splatter, it was surprisingly difficult.

A few of the balls got through my defence, causing my light armour to shimmer and ripple, denting inwards with each impact, but they were not quite strong enough to destroy it.

I managed to destroy or deflect enough of these slime balls to barely survive.

Even with the constant impacts pushing me backwards, I managed to get close to the slime, breaking through its defensive fire -- once I made it into range, I swung at its main body.

Unfortunately, when the blade slashed through the goo, there was no damage, it passed through it like a stick through water. As I dodged the blades which the slime generated in self defence, I observed its body closely.

There didn’t seem to be anything solid, or an obvious weak point.

It seemed that slashing or penetration was ineffective, so my next try was to go with impact damage. Maybe if I splattered it all over the corridors, it would die.

Coating my hand more thickly with my light, changing it from a defensive form into something that would explode on impact -- I punched the slime. There was an explosive noise, followed by a ‘splat’, and the slime flew backwards…impacting the stone wall with extreme force.

My plan worked.

Because, when it hit the stone, the slime splattered; as it did, goo sprayed all over the place and coated the corridor with clear slime -- all that remained, was a transparent marble, which had been cracked.

The marble clinked onto the floor.

Then I felt that surge of heat that I had been missing for a long time --It felt really good.

The heat was much greater than what the rats caused in me, even the first time -- it felt like even the marrow in my bones was being burned to ash. It was more painful than when I ate the first rat…while I hate pain, the warm energy felt good.

All this from just killing the creature.

I don’t think I should eat the remains just yet.

Limping over, forcing my pained body to move, I looked down at the strange marble; it was the same colour as the slime’s body. Because it was cracked and deformed, it looked different than it would when whole -- it would have been perfectly spherical. There were lines and patterns running over the surface of the marble, they were very slightly differently coloured than the primary colour of the the marble itself.

The patterns seemed very similar to the some of the symbols that were inside my head when I died.

Without thought, I placed the cracked marble into my pocket.

Apparently, the slime’s liquid was acidic, it was dissolving the floor and releasing some steam. However, it didn’t make it through my light armour to damage my clothing. I tried very hard not to breath the mist, because I had no idea what it could do to me.

Since there was nothing more to see, I continued forwards along the corridor, and saw that side passages started to split off more and more often. Squishing noises came from the branching passageways, and I decided that it was time to go hunting Slimes -- for the heat, which I knew improved my strength, as well as for experience.

It didn’t seem that I could eat the slime, but I also discovered that I didn’t feel hunger. looking back, I hadn’t felt it for quite a while, I just ate on instinct. It is possible that if I killed more Slimes and got stronger, I may never need to eat or drink again.

Of course, I also wished to get stronger, and the heat that made me stronger no longer came from the rats -- now the Slimes had to fill that role; so I told myself that it was a sign that I should kill as many as possible.

So began my time of hunting Slimes.