It was a slow process, rousing himself from unconsciousness. Until it wasn’t, and Levi snapped his eyes open, jumping to his feet and looking around wildly. A few heartbeats later and he calmed down, once more sliding back to the floor, allowing his body to relax, leaning against the wall. It took a little bit to separate illusion from reality, the psychological pressure from the lava room still lingering, its phantom presence pressing down on his mind.

Levi had been expecting traps and crumbling platforms. Instead, his mind had been assaulted, each step further into the room stifling his thinking and forcing his mind to plow forward under an increasingly heavy burden of paranoid delusions. The dungeon was nasty. He could easily imagine someone without his Willpower and skills crumbling under the pressure. Apart, neither aspect of the room was dangerous, but together it created an environment where you were always one step away from death, one false step brought on by the mental pressure enough to spell a challenger’s end. It was a truly insidious room design, and one he was lucky to be well suited to face.

But he was past it now, and Levi cast his mind to the future and what his next plans were. The long-term goal was still escaping and conquering the dungeon, but in the immediate there were two things he needed to focus on: sustenance and his status, which had been bothering him in the back of his mind since he woke up.

Sustenance was the bigger issue, but not one he had any real control over. He thought he could hold out on the hunger front, but his thirst was starting to get to him. The heat from the lava room really drove it home, and Levi’s throat was parched. He could address his status immediately though, so Levi brought it up to have a look at why it was pinging him like some sort of pager he couldn’t turn off.

[Name: Levi Curchman

Level: 15

Titles: System Inductee, Inheritor, Slaughterer

Stats: (Unallocated Stat Points: 8)

Strength: 6 Constitution: 11 Dexterity: 3 Agility: 3

Willpower: 34 Insight: 7 Attunement: 17 Charisma: 2

Concentration: 11 Luck: 3 Aecylic Energy: 8

Skills: Concentrated Will 50, Survival 32, Improved Awareness 25, Aecylic Empowerment 37, Brawling 22, Slaughter 1, Manabody 2]

[Unlocked generic skill slot! Please choose a skill from your available skills list.]

It appeared he had leveled up from passing the lava room, which didn’t really surprise him. Passing obstacles seemed to also grant EXP. It was also fantastic that he reached the threshold to gain another skill, although he would have to once again ponder which one to pick. There was something before that though, something he had forgotten to do before: assign his unallocated stat points.

He had been so out of it before, and when he saw all his new skills he must have forgotten to assign his stat points, completely focused on which skill to pick. Looking over his stats again also reminded him that he also got his bonus stats for being a Human. He hadn’t even been thinking about it, but Humans gained one to each basic stat for every ten levels rounded down, which was a nice bonus.

After some thought, Levi decided to put two points each into Dexterity and Agility and the other four into Constitution. Based on how he felt the Aecylic Energy stat affected him, he theorized that stats had diminishing returns, meaning that one point in a stat below ten was more impactful than that point in a stat above ten. Dexterity and Agility were his lowest stats that he was actively using, so it made some sense to invest in them, and he wanted more Constitution for the survival aspect. There was a huge difference if he got hit and his arm broke versus just getting a bruise. This still left Charisma as his dump stat, but right now he wasn’t really worried about it. Survival came first.

Then it was time to move onto his new skill slot. Deciding to not second guess himself, he went with option number two from his previous deliberations.

[Unlocked skill: Combat Sense! This skill allows for greater ease and finesse when navigating combat. This skill is associated with: Insight.]

It seemed the skill wasn’t quite as powerful, only having one stat association. Levi wasn’t going to complain though. It did what he wanted it to, and even if the stat gains weren’t that great, the increase in his fighting proficiency was hard to quantify. Maybe it wouldn’t be that useful if he was some martial arts master, but for his noob self, any combat edge was valuable.

After sorting his status out, it was time to press onward. He needed water, and he didn’t trust himself to safely pass back through the lava room to get back to the lake, which left him only one option.

Standing up, Levi collected himself, doing one final self-check before advancing onwards.

The tunnel was what he had come to expect from the dungeon, a mostly circular and even passageway with reasonable space for two or three people to advance side by side. Feeling more confident, he started to speed up, upping to previous walking pace to a brisk jog. There were still plenty of ways the dungeon could kill him, but at this point Levi was feeling like he was starting to come into his own. Either the dungeon would kill him, or he would be able to overcome its challenges.

It didn’t take long to get to the next room. He had a small amount of warning as the tunnel suddenly grew much larger for a few hundred meters before opening up into a rather large room.

Levi looked out at the space before him, scanning for any potential threats. None were immediately apparent. The room was large, able to easily fit a sports field or two. It was also largely empty. There were only two things of note, a small waterfall feeding a decently sized pool of water over on the right side, and a set of oversized double doors down at the far end of the room. After another few moments of looking for threats he moved for the water. His throat was killing him after the lava room. A nice cold drink was just what he needed.

He wasn’t sure what tipped him off. One moment he was moving toward the water, and then something, perhaps a sixth sense or his Improves Awareness skill, warned him of the impending doom. Levi desperately threw himself backwards, Aecylic Empowerment immediately at max power as the previously still waters of the pool rippled, deforming to release the leviathan within. As he fell backwards, the crack of powerful jaws snapping shut resounding in his ears as sure death missed him by centimeters.

He could feel the wind on his skin whooshing over him as came face to face with the maw of a giant crocodile. Or it might have been an alligator. He wasn’t really sure how to tell the difference. Levi scrambled to retreat from the ginormous crocogator, his wide-eyed stare finally having the space to take in its bulk.

It was huge. Its jaws able to easily crush cars, and possibly even small trucks. And it was angry. The water was slowly dripping off it dark grey bulk, echoing through the cavern with a syncopated drip drip. For a second, they just stood there staring, both man and beast sizing up the opposition. Then the moment was over, and Levi turned and ran.

A roar from the beast almost caused Levi to stumble, the noise a physical shockwave. A quick glance backwards showed the crocogator in hot pursuit, its stubby legs propelling its huge body multiple meters with every step. Levi almost ran back towards the tunnel, thinking about retreating and fighting another day. Instead, he threw himself to the right, the place he had been standing before soon occupied by his furious foe. The crocogator had shot forward with a speed belied by its mass, its snapping jaws luckily finding only air.

What ensued was a perilous game of cat and mouse, one that made Levi grateful he hadn’t tried to escape back down the tunnel. The crocogator was capable of astounding lunges, lunges Levi could only dodge with lateral movement, movement he wouldn’t have had space to do had he retreated down the tunnel. And thanks to the dungeon increasing the size of the tunnel close to the room the monster was in it would have no trouble following him down the tunnel before gobbling up a tasty human snack.

While he was able to successfully dodge the snapping jaws of doom, Levi had no clue how to go about wounding a monster of such size. He didn’t have a weapon, and even if he did it might not have made a difference. The crocogator was just too big, any wounds he could have made minuscule in comparison to its girth. Levi had tried giving it a few punches along its body. It wasn’t quite like punching a wall, but it might as well have been for how much damage he was doing. He needed a new plan, and soon. He had a feeling the crocogator would outlast him in a prolonged fight.

His first thought was to jump into its mouth. They were always doing stuff like that in movies and anime. Or maybe prop its mouth open so it was helpless. Except he would probably need a steel girder for that, which he was currently lacking. A few dodges of the jaws of doom later and he decided he had only one viable option. He had run a few scenarios through his head, but this plan was the only one that his Combat Sense seemed to think might have a chance at succeeding. A few more dodges later and he was in position.

This time when the crocogator lunged at him, instead of dodging to the side trying to get as much distance as he could, Levi sidestepped, just barely escaping the snapping jaws. He could smell its breath as its jaws clamped shut less than a meter from his face. Then, instead of running away, he ran towards it, specifically its left eye. A flaring of Aecylic Empowerment and a jump later and he found himself face to face with the beast’s left eye. And then he was in its eye, the thin film protecting it not enough to stop his momentum.

Levi held his breath as he was surrounded by aqueous humour. The biggest danger of his plan was that the beast would either be able to claw him out of its eye or throw him out with its thrashing, and thrashing it was. He frantically tried to orient himself as he felt his weight constantly shift, the liquid he was in providing little resistance as he was thrown about the inside of the crocogator’s eye. But eventually a quick thrust of his hand penetrated something more stable, allowing him to hold on for dear life and prevent himself being tossed out of the beast’s eye socket.

One hand became two, and soon Levi started his plan of burrowing into the crocogator’s body, digging for its brain. It was like swimming through jello, and only Concentrated Will allowed him to ignore the nausea caused by his present situation. The thrashing got worse, but he was entrenched now, and he knew it was life or death. Either he succeeded, or he suffocated, asphyxiated by the bodily fluids surrounding him.

It felt like a lifetime later when his surroundings finally gave one last shudder before going still. Quickly, Levi retraced his steps, moving back out of his fleshy tunnel towards sweet, sweet air. Moments later he emerged, gasping for breath. He would have been afraid the beast was only playing dead were it not for the feeling in the back of his mind that his status had changed.

Trying to wipe the blood from his face so he could see, Levi made his way over to the pool of water, stopping twice to dry heave. He would think about things once he was clean. For now, it was enough to just breathe and be alive.