At first, I could only kill them by fighting one-on-one, and after a lot of time and effort, so I slowly and carefully stalked them. I had to be very careful, keeping my eyes on the ceilings and tops of the walls…they loved hiding in places like that.

Their strength made rats look like bugs in comparison.

If I ever got hungry or thirsty, I would be forced to go back to the rat’s territory--and break the forcefield; this was a last resort for me, there would probably be bad results if I did that--the forcefield was probably designed for a reason, having an important function.

Before I left the rat’s territory, I had placed a lot of blood and meat in my leather backpack. Luckily, I had discovered a very useful trick; while I had been considering how to keep the meat from rotting, laying against the wall with my eyes shut--I had been thinking about refrigerators and playing with the bag in my hands. Suddenly, part of a symbol appeared in my head, causing an odd, and slightly painful, flash of blue light behind my eyes.

Opening my eyes, I projected some of my light from my hand, and like when I practiced, I focused on it and shaped it. I don’t know what I did differently…at that time, and a symbol appeared on my bag.

It glowed for a second, before being branded into the leather.

After doing this, I felt a sense of fatigue that was much greater than even when I used my armour for the first time…If I had tried this when I first came here, or even for quite a while after killing the rats, I think my head would have literally exploded.

To see what the symbol did to my bag, I reached my hand in and discovered that inside was very, very cold.

This brought up the question of what the limits of my light actually were; it could defend me, kill enemies, enhance my body--and I now discovered that it could also carve symbols into objects, symbols that had real effects. When I focused on my needs, an actual symbol appeared inside my head--which hadn’t happened before, but I had never really tried like this before.

After the bag was modified, I lay back against the cold stone wall, gasping for breath and trying to ignore the agonizing, pounding, pain in my head. Barely managing to retain my consciousness, I was curious as to why using the light and symbols caused extreme pain; it was also the same as when I died and came back--but that was extremely minor for the cost of not staying dead.

My hunting speed rapidly increased when I discovered that the best way to kill the slimes was to form my light into large spheres and crushing the slime in one blow…if I managed to ambush them, or if they couldn’t separate the part of themselves with their core in time. The heat that occurred whenever I killed slimes increased my speed, strength, and durability--it also increased the defensive and offensive capabilities of my light.

Since I had discovered that I didn’t need to eat or drink, I used the spare space in my backpack to store the broken marbles that I got from killing slimes--they seemed like they would function in a way similar to the crystals from the rats, however, I hadn’t figured out how they worked…yet.

I had been in the slime territory for around five sleeps, but with my body’s current capabilities, I had no idea how long I slept for or how long between each sleep. So, I had no idea how long I had been here for.

My habit was the same as when with the rats, I followed branching corridors so as to hunt slimes, at first individually--but once I got stronger, I could kill them in groups. So I kept hunting them until it got to the point that they were like the rats: they were no longer any use to me--they no longer increased my abilities, or gave me that feeling of heat.

It was now time to continue walking along the main corridor; since I no longer needed food, water, or sleep…unless I fought, or used the glowing symbols, I was fine with supplies. The enemies no longer helped me, so it was time to begin pushing forwards again.

***

The next change that occurred wasn’t the light, but the actually shape of the tunnel; it began to slant downwards, going deeper and deeper into the ground--having no idea where this would lead, so I just followed the path as usual.

As well as leading downwards, there were no longer any offshoot tunnels; and after following the single passage for what seemed like an eternity, since I no longer got hungry, or tired, I had no way to judge the time, I reached a…mostly empty, cavern.

I say mostly empty, because in the center of the room was a giant green crystal pillar…inside the pillar was an astonishingly beautiful girl.

Something about her didn’t seem quite Human, it may have been the aura that she gave off, or her unworldly looks. She looked like she was in her early twenties, though she was short, only five foot, or  five foot one--her face was incredibly cute. She would have looked even younger, if she was judged by her height, or slim build; however, her body was mature in shape, and her bust was quite large.

Approaching the crystal pillar, I looked closely at the girl.

She was wearing very tight black pants and a black shirt. Her hair was midnight black, growing to her waist and fanning out, as though there was liquid inside the pillar.

I felt a strange pull on my body, and mind, like my hand was being forced towards the pillar. Something wanted me to touch the crystal, it could have been my subconscious--my repressed memories, or it could be some kind of influence from the girl who looked like she was unconscious.

When my finger came into contact with the pillar, the crystalline surface rippled and I tiny, incredibly sharp, spike emerged and pricked the skin of my index finger. It actually managed to break my skin, which was incredibly tough--when I used my crystal claw which could cut the stone walls like they were air…it would require actual effort to cut myself.

My blood started to spread over a small section of the pillar’s surface as the spike retracted, and then without any signs or warning…my blood started to smoke. Lines of blue light emerged from my fingertips, without my input, and began to infiltrate the pillar.

Cracks began to emerge as my light blue light, and the green pillar seemed to fight--I could feel energy rapidly draining from my body.

There was a cracking noise as the conflict rapidly escalated; the symbol on the back of my hand started to glow and writhe a little, my energy began to drain even more quickly. My head was starting to hurt and I was feeling weak--but it was as though my hand was attached to the crystal and I couldn’t pull away.

Finally, my light seemed to win, and cracks very rapidly permeated the crystal surface.

Suddenly, the inside of the pillar flashed with a brilliant sapphire light, and the lines of light which belonged to me, retreated back into my body. However, I didn’t recover the energy that I had lost.

The pillar didn’t change much, other then the cracks.

As I was curiously staring at the pillar, the girl’s flashed open, her irises were a deep emerald green…it was like I was staring into a deep ocean. Her pupils rapidly dilated and then contracted, her eyes started to move as she looked away from my face and around the room. Soon, the focused back on me, a small smile appeared on her face…enhancing her already inhuman beauty many-fold.

Then there was another flash, a green one this time, and when my sight cleared, I saw that the girl had vanished--the pillar was empty and began to flake and decay into a pile of green powder.

Of course, I remembered to scoop up a large amount of it and stored it in my leather backpack. I wonder who the girl was, and why she was trapped here in this very dangerous cave system--she was either guarded, or held prisoner by powerful Monsters.

Since I had used a lot of energy, I was hungry for the first time in a long time.

Ignoring the pain, and the lack of energy, I began to look around the cavern--situated behind where the pillar used to be, was a passageway, which lead upwards. I entered the passage and started following it; my stomach felt like it was empty, but I just kept following it, and ignoring the hunger.

But, luckily, I heard the noise of a Monster…a skittering noise, which made me think of someone tapping on stone with thousands of needles, one by one. Before going any further, I deployed my light; however, because I was so tired and hungry, it was doubtful I could keep it out for long.

Luckily, I found the source of the noise rather quickly--it was a giant centipede. The centipede was easily twenty times my height in length, and twice as tall as I was; when it noticed me approaching, it sped up.

Yes, that’s right, come to me…my food.

I drew my crystal claw from my sheathe.

As soon as the centipede got within range, I kicked the ground and launched myself at the enemy--my claw was extended. There was a deep ‘squish’ noise, which was different than the ‘splat’ of the slimes, as I split the centipede in half, lengthways.

Splitting it from end to end was surprisingly easy; there was a strange sound when I reached the end of the now dead centipede, my speed was barely decreased, and the two halves of the Monster collapsed; the organs and blood splashed onto the stone.

I went over to the left side of the now dead Monster…it was time to get some food, so I surprisingly easily pried the scales off it with my fingers; after five minutes of work, and pain in my stomach and muscles, I finally removed some meat to eat.

But the meat tasted quite good…which may have just been my hunger; as my stomach became filled, it was then that I noticed that it had an odd sour flavour…which made me start to feel even more woozy, and my tongue went numb.

It seems that centipede was poisonous…such a simple mistake.

Luckily, either because of my enhanced body, or the fact that the poison wasn’t too strong, I didn’t die. After my tongue and throat recovered feeling, and my eyes stopped spinning, I ate more of the meat--after I ate a few more handfuls, it no longer affected me.

The centipedes were strong enough to trigger the heat, and increase my strength, which was highly unexpected--because they were much, much easier to kill than the slimes.

So began my time of centipede hunting, to improve my strength--I took this chance, both because the passage was straight and didn’t have offshoots, meaning that the centipedes just attacked me head on, and I had the instinctive feeling that this was the last time I could do this for a while.

While incredibly weak, these Monsters were apparently much more powerful than the slimes--it took me twenty sleeps until they stopped providing heat; I slept after killing a lot of enemies, which may have been a sign that my body was advancing too rapidly and needed time to adjust.

I had long gotten used to their poison, though I kept some of their blood frozen in my bag…just in case it may be useful in the future.

The tunnel continued on, straight as an arrow--without any branching passages; I had finally finished hunting all the centipedes required, so now I focused on walking…just slaughtering the Monsters as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Suddenly, I felt a shiver run through my whole body, an instinctive terror. My head became as cold as ice and a group of strange symbols appeared on the floor, walls, and ceiling.

They then lit up with a brilliant flash.

Suddenly everything went black, and I worried that I had died…again.