Now that I devoured one of them, rest of the mice should be stored somewhere, and looking at my current position, this clearing could make a good temporary base. My system protection for houses shouldn’t work in a dungeon so I could also make some traps to catch prey.

I would amass some food, evolve and then move further. Evolution seems to be taking a lot of nutrients, so I need to catch some monsters if I want to do it safely. I was now level seven so two or three mice should make me evolve, and since they are quite big, along with the mice I killed earlier they should be enough to satisfy my needs.

I quickly started laying my traps on the edges of the clearing and then proceeded to make a simple home for me to sleep and to store my prey. It took me the rest of the day, and I had to eat another mouse because of it, so my evolution plan would be postponed a bit.

My sleep was quite comfortable, but not as much as the one back in the nest. I had no dreams this time but it was okay. I had to concentrate on conquering the dungeon, I couldn’t let myself be distracted by something like dreams.

I went out of my house to check traps, and unfortunately, nothing was caught in them. I already anticipated it since the mice should rarely leave the high grass. What I had to do, was luring them out. I made some equipment, if throwable balls of thread could be called as such, and then connected one of my threads to my house, because I didn’t want to get lost.

After a while of wandering in the grass, I heard unnatural rustling, most probably a sign of a monster. But assassin mice did not generate any sound when they travelled, so this was something different.
I heard something going past me, and even though I didn’t see it, I knew it passed right before my eyes. Not only did it pass before me, it hurt my leg somehow, effectively blasting it away.

I lost my leg, and didn’t know who my enemy was, that enough made me sprint for my life. My enemy was clearly faster than me and attacked me some times on the way. I succeeded in dodging once but still lost another two legs before I reached my clearing.

I jumped over the traps, and waited for my enemy to show up, but even after waiting for a long time, it was still hidden in the grass. I knew it was there, it may be some sort of spider’s instinct but I knew it didn’t leave the place. It was waiting for me to enter the grass.

I was trapped in my own house. I couldn’t leave as long as this mysterious adversary was in the vicinity. Good thing was that I had food for now, but if I couldn’t find beatable monsters I couldn’t evolve and I would be stuck on this floor. And my food supply will end after some time.

I had no idea what to do, maybe it would get bored and leave? I seriously hoped so. I lost three of my legs, and I didn’t know if they would grow back. What if I’m stuck like that for the rest of my life. This floor looked so easy to pass, and now I’m hunted by something I didn’t even get to see.

What if I could mow down the grass? Maybe it wouldn’t jump on me if I did it? But how can I cut it without getting close enough to be ambushed? The mice earlier didn’t have a problem with leaving the grass.

First of all, how can I cut it in large amounts? I would need to mow down half of the floor in my search for next preys, and it would take a huge amount of time. I had to find a method that would make it easiest as possible.

Can I use my web for it? I made a single thin thread, without any viscosity and made sure it’s as sturdy as possible. Then I tried swinging it at the grass but I lacked momentum to deal any damage. After experimenting for a while, I managed to cut a bit of the grass, but it still wasn’t as affective as I would want.

I was getting tired of swinging, but suddenly there was a movement in the grass. I jumped away from it and observed. To my pleasant surprise, a single assassin mouse came out.

[Assasin mouse lvl. 1]

And it was weak. Well, no matter how strong would be, it was already stuck in one of my traps, so free food and experience for me. I quickly killed it and took to my prey storage. What wasn’t a good news was that I didn’t level up by killing it. Maybe it was too weak? Or was my level to high?

That doesn’t matter for now since I’m stuck here anyway, back to cutting I go! It was boring and not very rewarding work, but I was making progress steadily. What I was hoping for were some skills that would make cutting grass easier.

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Endurance lvl. 2] ]

And here is one of them. Come to think of it, it was pretty tiring cutting all this grass, and I wasn’t even meters in. This was going to take a lot of time, but more than going through, I cared about the skills I would gain from the whole ordeal.

I mean when I cut grass with thread, it’s kind of like using a weapon and if I can weaponize my threads, fighting monsters should get easier. If I can get something related to cutting or hardening it, I could make a solid whip. That would be cool.