Chapter 3: Illimunination
The labyrinth was close to the town, no more than a few hours walk. For the first time in his life Zeke was going on an adventure, if it weren't so tragic, he would have found it fun and exciting. Along the road to the labyrinth, he encountered monsters in the fields. Slimes were common outside of town and one of the lowest of low monsters. He remembered he used to use their corpses in the shop to shine the equipment, but this would be his first time fighting one.
Nervously he grabbed his sword from his waist and approached a bouncing slime. For the most part they were harmless, only able to cause mild bruises if they bounced against you. However, it was vital the local adventurers kept the population down. Slimes eat vegetation and left unchecked can leave fields and forests barren. IF the plants die, so do the other herbivores, then the carnivores, the entire food chain collapses. Even knowing all that, he still was nervous.
He took his arms and lifted his sword so that it was parallel to his face. He lunged forward and stabbed directly into the slime's core. This was the only method of killing a slime. As the core shattered the orange slime turned gray, signaling that it was a corpse.
[Experience gained: 60]
[Congratulations Level Up!]
Flashed above his eyes. "That's different." He said to himself. Previously as a merchant he gained experience through transactions, which caused him to level at a slower rate. However, for each of his fifteen levels before not once did he ever receive a notification. "Status."
He looked through his skills again and found one he missed. "Awareness, huh?" He said. "Apparently it connects me to the system of the world. I can now see it as words in reality, and also says I have the ability to scan other lifeforms. That is useful, let me try it." He turned and looked towards another slime. "Scan: Slime."
[Slime: Race Slime, Level 1, Skills: Bounce, consume. Experience gain: 20]
"That is so neat!" Zeke said in excitement. "Oh, right I leveled. Status." He said to bring his status up again once more, this time to check his base stats. "So, they increase by fifteen per level. That is way more than I have ever heard. As a merchant I barely had fifteen in a few stats, and I was level fifteen."
Surprised by the ease at which slimes died he decided to kill a few more on his way to the labyrinth. By the time he reached it, he was back to his old level of fifteen. He found the entrance, with relative ease. Lucy has explained it to him during one of their conversations. It looked like an old mine shaft protruding from a hill with trees and bushes on either side. Inside was total darkness, without an ounce of light making it past the first few feet.
"Going in there without a torch will be a problem." Zeke said while trying to think of what to do. "If only I knew how to use my magic. Maybe I just say the words?" He held his hand out and started saying random words in hope of something, anything. "Flame, fire, light, burn, fireball, fire blast, lantern…" He continued. "… Fire please?" Upset that nothing was working he gave up and tried to come up with a better plan. He looked around the base of the trees and bushes and grabbed some dry tinder. He had picked up a few simple corpses and placed them in his bag earlier just in case he needed one. He knew they were cold at cleaning, but he didn't know if they burned.
"You never know until you try." He said as he walked over to the tree nearest him and pulled down a branch big enough to be his torch. He took his sword and cut away all the tiny twigs connected to the branch and stripped it of its leaves. He then sharpened the end to a point and stabbed the slime corpse. He then laid the makeshift torch on the ground and made a pile from the tinder he had collected. He then took too sticks he had found on the ground and began to rub them together as fast as he could. Due to his increased stats, he was able to move faster than he had ever moved in his life and sparks began to fly from the friction. Soon a spark landed in the tinder and ignited a flame. He picked up the torch he made and dipped the slime's corpse into the fire. Nothing happened at first, but he kept at it. Eventually the slime began to smoke, until finally it ignited.
"Alright!" Zeke cheered. With his new torch he was now prepared to enter the labyrinth. He took the torch in one hand and his sword in the other and walked inside. The darkness of the area blinded him from anything outside the radius of his torch. As he walked, he found an intersection of three paths. "I wish I would have asked Lucy more about this place." Zeke sighed. Not knowing which would be the correct path, he picked one at random. "Since I am only here for experience anyway, I guess it doesn't matter which way I pick." He said as he took the rightmost path.
Walking the path, he could see what looked like light up ahead. "Is that an exit?" He asked. "I have never heard of an alternate exit." He continued to investigate. To his surprise he found himself in a vast subterranean chamber. The walls were green stone with carvings of ancient monsters and people.
The chamber was illuminated by its ceiling. Some sort of enchantment was placed there. Perhaps by adventurers who had been exploring or the people who once lived there. Being new to this sort of thing Zeke had no idea which had occurred. At the center of the chamber was an ancient structure that was suspended over a lake. Two waterfalls were in the room, one on either side, and they fed into the lake. The path that Zeke was on was also suspended over the water. "What a beautiful place." Zeke said, taking it all in.
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