Yes, he felt it. The energy surged subtly through his veins, lasting only a moment. It was akin to the dizziness he experienced when standing up abruptly, but now he could distinguish it better. He now knew what valtite felt like.

Curious, he checked his stats to see if his level had indeed changed. Brian discovered that wanting to see his 'valtite status' would make the words appear before his eyes. It was as if an unseen Sorcerer Supreme was quickly etching them in front of him with mystical energy. The words were large enough for him to focus on, yet small enough not to obscure his surroundings.

Status

Energy Signature: Brian Valtwood

Energy Rank: Latent (lvl 1)

Valtite Reserves: 13

Rank Progress: 13%

No Affinity

No Specialization

No Profession

Vitality: 23/60

Vigor: 31/60

Valtite: 70/70

Stats

Constitution: 6

Strength: 7

Endurance: 6

Dexterity: 8

Wisdom: 7

Intelligence: 8

Untrained Potential: 1

The bleeding seemed to have stopped. Brian noticed the immediate impact of his increased vitality. The wound, once serious though not life-threatening, had transformed following the level-up, now it was more like a superficial wound.

He needed to be careful, Brian didn’t like how his vitality and vigor looked. What really frustrated him was having a full valtite resource pool. He didn't know how to utilize it. I wish I could cast a healing spell.

Brian extended his arms. “PURIFY!” He said, full of determination. His voice echoed through the cavern, reverberating clearly two more times.

Nothing happened. Disappointment etched across Brian's slumped shoulders. Oh, I need a master or something to teach me the ways.

Brian tried jumping as high as he could several times, curious to see if his improved stats had made a noticeable difference. He didn't feel much change, though. His aikido training hadn't exactly conditioned him for soaring vertical jumps. He remembered the days of track and field in college when he'd jumped much higher. Now, he felt he was jumping nearly as high as he had back then. It could be a slight improvement due to the stats, or perhaps it was simply a placebo effect. He wasn't certain.

Brian continued digging his heels into the ground and propelling himself upward in relentless high jumps until additional information appeared in the corner of his vision.

‘DING’ Your untrained potential has been harnessed. Strength enhanced. +1 to Strength stat. Untrained potential: 0.

“Damn, I didn’t want to add any points. But I guess that is how you add them…”

After a few more attempts, Brian confirmed that his vertical jump had, in fact, increased, albeit almost imperceptibly.

***

Brian was stuck at a crossroads. Three paths stretched out before him, all of them as dark and unwelcoming as the next. He had no clue which one led out of this place, and to be honest, he couldn't tell them apart.

"Should I go by my gut feeling… or take each path one by one?" he asked himself, weighing his options. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe..."

He scoffed at his own childish method, opting instead for the closest path. It seemed logical enough - the sooner he explored it, the sooner he could eliminate it as a possibility.

"If I pick a random path I’m not going to remember which one I took," he reasoned. "It's just a game of chance. And since when has my luck ever failed me?" Trick question, luck doesn’t exist!

As he walked, the click-clack of his matte dress shoes echoed off the cold, wet walls. Somewhere, water was dripping, playing a tune that could've been the soundtrack to a horror movie. The only light was still the faint, eerie blue glow that seemed to come from nowhere and played tricks on his eyes, making him see shadows where there weren't any.

"Maybe I should've taken the right path," he joked to himself as he got more and more lost.

"Hello? Anyone there?" Brian called out tentatively, as he hoped for a response that could guide him out of this unnerving maze.

Brian let out a yell that bounced around the cave. Almost instantly, there was a rustle from somewhere up ahead. He squinted into the gloom, trying to figure out what had made the noise.

"Hey! Is someone there?"

Then, something stepped into what passed for light in there. It was small and slim, kind of like a kid. Brian's eyebrows shot up. "What the heck is a kid doing in a place like this?" he wondered aloud.

"Dear God," he whispered, as the mysterious silhouette approached, Brian's chest throbbed with an intense beat. He soon realized, with a mix of dread and disbelief, that the figure was not a child, but an alligator, bizarrely running on two legs. The scene could have been a comical caricature if not for the creature's open jaws and razor-sharp claws, which lent the encounter a nightmarish quality. “Max was fucking right about the reptilians…”

[Lesser Grivaxian - lvl ???]

“Fuck it, I’m not waiting to find out.” His heart screamed at him to run. A small part of Brian still held on to hope that this was just some theme park employee in a really good alligator suit. He looked around for a rock or a stick, but there was nothing of the sort.

"Okay, okay, think, Brian. What would Steve Irwin do?" he thought, inching back and ready to dart in the opposite direction. "Actually, what would Max do? Ok, I need another big rock."

Just as he was trying to make sense of the upright alligator situation, there was a rumble of fast footsteps from a dark tunnel to his left. His mind went into overdrive, trying to figure out how he'd handle this, plus whatever was barreling his way. Spotting a boulder, he thought he'd try to scramble up and get the high ground advantage. But as he moved, his foot snagged on something and he ended up falling flat on his butt. "Why did I have to be transported the day after leg-day?" he muttered, wincing at the discomfort.

“What the hell is going on? Just stop, it's not funny!” Brian’s plea boomed through the area.

His heart pounded like a drum as he prepared himself for whatever was about to happen. The alligator-thing was almost on him when, out of nowhere, a figure that looked like it had stepped out of a sci-fi Renaissance fair charged in. He was wielding a sword so big, it would make a Final Fantasy character envious.

With a swift and precise swing, the sword chopped the lizard-beast into multiple pieces. Brian thought, staring wide-eyed as purple goo splattered across his face and clothes. The alligator parts fell around him in a messy pile, and he couldn't help but grimace.

You have vanquished [Lesser Grivaxian - lvl 5] - Valtite has been distributed amongst your party. You have gained +1 Valtite reserves

Brian, who was still sitting on the ground and drenched in reptilian gore, stared wide-eyed at the towering man, his mouth agape and cold sweat trickling down his face.

"Thanks for, uh, saving me from that thing," Brian blurted out, trying to ignore the sensation of congealing blood on his skin. "Do you work here? Was that a real alligator?"

Mandrix, looking puzzled, extended a hand to help Brian up before answering. "The name's Mandrix Casto. I’m looking for valtite cores, but I’m also on the assignment to stop the grivaxian expansion. You don't seem to have the right gear for this mission."

Brian had studied in Argentina, becoming proficient in Spanish in addition to his native English. His passion for anime inspired him to learn Japanese on his own, achieving fluency in a third language. Despite his linguistic prowess, Mandrix was speaking a language that was entirely unfamiliar to him – and yet, inexplicably, he understood it perfectly.

"Griva-what now?" To his surprise, he also spoke the foreign language flawlessly. "I don't know how I got here. I was in my office cubicle, then I woke up in this… wherever this is. Man, if this isn’t another world. I need to get back to the office. I have a meeting at 3pm”

Mandrix eyed Brian curiously, intrigued by his strange predicament. "Your office? Don’t tell me you're with the government. This isn't an office, pal. Did you come here to spy on me? If so, I should've let that lesser grivaxian get you."

“Am I in another world?” Brian asked. “Just be honest… Or did my coworkers put you up to this?”

Mandrix scratched his head, "What are you smoking?” He then thought for a moment, “I got separated from my crew. I imagine you didn’t come alone either. We should stick together… I mean if you stop being a fucking weirdo.”

"Yeah, let's do that. By the way, what are… valtite cores or whatever you said?"

Brian realized he had no other option but to follow Mandrix. He might not find anyone else for god knows how long, and despite Mandrix's combative personality, he didn't give him a bad feeling

“Fella, what’s up with you? I know government employees aren't the most practical, but why did you come to Reptiscale Caverns in… pajamas?” Mandrix asked, giving Brian a suspicious look.

Brian looked himself over, trying to wipe some of the grape-colored blood off his business shirt, “this is what I wear on Mon… days...”

Mandrix reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a pair of high-tech glasses. The lenses flickered with an eerie blue light as he slipped them in front of his eyes. His face muscles tensed, and he pressed a button on the white frame of his fancy sunglasses. The blue lenses turned orange. He then burst into spontaneous laughter, “Hahaha, you gotta be kidding me. Your valtite energy is practically zero! No wonder you choked against a lesser grivaxian. Who the hell are you?”

He didn’t sense hostility from the giant, and his priority was gathering as much information as possible. First, he needed to know if universal travel was a thing. 'So… have you visited any new universes recently?

Mandrix then got on his guard and pointed his large sword at Brian, the tip of the sword was less than an inch from Brian’s neck. “Wait wait wait, are you a kaelumine? You’ve got a monster’s energy signature.”

Brian raised his hands, trying to appear less threatening and started to beg for his life. “Please please, I am human like you.”

“Human? I’ve never heard of that monster race. Listen, mate. Ok ok, but look, you say you are government, you are wearing pajamas, and you have zero valtite energy… Oh, and your valtite screams monster. But you don’t seem hostile.” Mandrix rotated his arm to put his sword on his back, and a mechanism seemed to suction it into place, serving as a sheath.

"I promise I’m not.” Brian said, completely lost. “Also, what exactly is valtite?”

"Valtite," Mandrix repeated, removing the futuristic glasses. "Since you seem to genuinely not know. It's a type of energy that permeates everything in our world. Every living being should have at least some trace of it."

"Ah, right," Brian replied, attempting to feign understanding. "That… makes perfect sense. Must've left mine at home."

"Stop joking!" Mandrix snapped. "This is serious! If you have no valtite energy, then how are you even alive? How did you get here?"

"I wasn’t planning," Brian said, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. "It just sort of happened. I told you, I was in my office cubicle, and then I woke up in this cave. That’s all I remember. This is an astronomical nightmare.”

"A cubicle?" Mandrix raised an eyebrow. "What kind of job do you have that puts you in such danger?"

“Electrical engineering.” Brian squinted for a second.

"Look, I am not gonna leave you here, you look aestari to me. Besides, I've always believed that everyone deserves help when they're in danger, no matter who they are or what they look like. That's just how I roll, but you gotta get real," he explained to Brian. “Here, try this on and tell me what you see.” Mandrix presented his goggles to Brian.

"Sure, what's a little conjunctivitis to top it all off?"

[SpectraSight V-Scanners (Trace)] - These high-tech goggles have the ability to see Valtite signatures and analyze them, providing crucial information to the wearer.

Brian grasped the goggles, puzzled as information flooded his mind. It surprised him that his strange commentary ability allowed him to glean details about an item’s valtite compatibility.

He quipped while trying on the pair of glasses. To his astonishment, the orange lenses brought the world around him into sharp focus. He could see particles of energy dust floating through the air in every direction, and mysterious hieroglyphs began to appear wherever the energy flowed.

☠︎□︎ ✞︎♋︎●︎⧫︎♓︎⧫︎♏︎ ♍︎□︎❒︎♏︎⬧︎ ■︎♏︎♋︎❒︎ ♌︎⍓︎

✌︎●︎●︎ ✞︎♋︎●︎⧫︎♓︎⧫︎♏︎ ☹︎♏︎❖︎♏︎●︎⬧︎ ♋︎❒︎♏︎ ⬧︎⧫︎♋︎♌︎●︎♏︎

❄︎♒︎♏︎❒︎♏︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♍︎◆︎❒︎❒︎♏︎■︎⧫︎●︎⍓︎ 📂︎📁︎📁︎📁︎ ✞︎♋︎●︎⧫︎♓︎⧫︎♏︎ ☜︎■︎♏︎❒︎♑︎⍓︎ ♓︎■︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ✌︎♓︎❒︎

Brian couldn't decipher the symbols, and the sensory overload became too much to bear. Overwhelmed, he hastily removed the goggles and handed them back to Mandrix while panting and struggling to keep himself from collapsing.

“What was that…?” Brian shook his head, trying to regain his composure. “What type of VR are those? And what were those symbols?”

Mandix squinted and scratched his cheek, “What do you mean symbols? Oh right, you probably haven’t even been to the Decimator academy? I mean you are not supposed to leave the city, if you’ve not attended the Academy… If you’re aestari, that is.”

“Not the world’s best college, but I got an engineering degree,” Brian replied, trying to understand Mandrix’s bewilderment.

"And it didn’t teach you to manifest your valtite?" Mandrix asked, his eyes narrowing further. "How can you be so calm when there are monsters in these caves that could rip you apart?"

"Just what I always wanted: a life-threatening adventure in a monster-infested labyrinth."