Slamming my rock down on the last of the most recent pack of chitterers who’d come after me I was rewarded with to a warm sensation running through my body, as all my aches and pains faded away for a moment.

You have leveled, Congratulations! You will be awarded 1 Specialization point to spend on your current skills. Traits are non-refundable and must be spent within 48 hours of level-up.

Doing a quick scan to make that the coast was clear I pulld up my information sheet, to find my health doubled to a whopping 360/360 and all the skills listed on my sheet were now highlighted. Focusing on Improvised combat I found myself treated to a short list of what must be specializations.

Always armed – Everything is a weapon in your hands; improvised weapons are counted as the closest comparable weapon for skill usage and leveling.

You Break it you buy it – Even the most fragile items are deadly when used correctly; items that break while being used inflict a scaling bleed effect.

Improvised Defense – Not everything can be about attack, double the durability of any improvised weapon used to block or parry an attack.

Adapt and Upgrade – By bending, breaking or changing your improvised weapon you can change and increase the type of damage inflicted. +2% damage increase per level

Well, with always armed I could hopefully start leveling a real weapon skill while stuck in the cave. I’d retrieved my knife earlier but it still had yet to be useful, then again I was hoping I wouldn’t be in here much longer, and I didn’t fancy running around a battlefield with a bag full of chairs and serving platters. Giving one last check to make sure everything was clear; I set back to moving rocks. The chitterers had been coming more and more frequently since the first escaped and I was eager to get out of here. As I continued to dig myself to freedom I looked through the remaining talents available. Lowlight didn’t have any specializations, and I wrote off climbing until I knew what I’d be dealing with outside this cave. But unarmed combat seemed like it could be useful far into the future.

Constrictor – Your hold is one that could make a python jealous, allows you to inflicting crushing damage to an opponent while grappled.

Iron Fist – You punch brick walls for fun, and your callouses have callouses. Increase all unarmed damage dealt by punches by +2% each level.

Iron Body – Scars are your armor, and you’ll collect a lot of them. +1 natural armor every level.

Stunning Blow – Allows you to deliver a devastating blow to your opponent, stunning and disorienting them for 4 seconds.

I kind of liked the idea of being some living weapon monk, though the thought was a whole lot less appealing realizing I didn’t have the speed or agility to dodge most blows. The thought of being a soak tank in a game without pain dampeners was one thing I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready for. Right now the only thing that made sense to me was more defense till I got some sort of armor, so Iron Body it was. Selecting it I pulled up my character sheet to look at the new changes.

Gideon / Ulcragg

Level 2 (524/1000)/ Status: Tired

Strength: 14

Health 360/360

Agility: 6

Mana 300/300

Endurance: 18

Stamina: 32%

Willpower: 15

Lowlight Vision: lvl 50 - 100%

Intelligence: 10

Climbing: lvl 1 – 28%

Charisma: 8

Unarmed lvl 2 – 4%

- Iron Body +2 Natural Armor

Improvised Weapons lvl 3– 98%

It was back to digging once everything was settled again, I’d finished the last of my bread and water since starting in on the day already and I was quickly losing stamina as my body continued to heal after the chitterer attacks and each time I cut myself on a stone or dropped one on my toe.

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Grunting with effort I rolled the current stone from atop my thighs onto the ground behind me, letting out an exhausted breath as I leaned against the stone wall taking a break. Somewhere since leveling my stamina had dipped below the twenty-five percent mark again. My tongue felt heavy and thick in my mouth and I had to fight to swallow past the dust and dryness. With my forehead pressed against the cool stone I was left to dark thoughts, what happened if I exhausted myself here without food and water? Would I just die or would I have to lay here until the chitterers come to finish me off, and where would I revive, right back here in the cave? I was already almost two full days behind everyone else and all I had to show for it is a gore covered rock and a single sad level.

It was then that I smelt it, over the rank smell of my own rancid sweat and the musky damp cave, fresh air! Running my hands over the wall I caught a faint cool breeze coming through the cracks between the rocks. I couldn’t hold back the half strangled cry of relief that this was finally almost over. It was then that I heard something that crushed my relief instantly, the throaty garbled warble coming from the main cavern. Rushing to the edge of the cliff I threw myself flat on my stomach peering over the lip. There! Roaming around the outside of the stone pillars, three chitterers unlike I’d seen before. They were bigger, the size of Rottweilers with skin pulled taut over their faces and bodies giving them an almost skeletal appearance, but their back legs were all muscle. And they were all sporting a wicked looking set of spurs on their front taloned claws. I watched them carefully for a moment as they circled the stones, never passing between them to enter the moss, as they communicated with that alien warble. Suddenly a notice scrolled over my vision as I watch the largest sniffing the air.

[Chitterer Hunter] [Level 7] [490/490]

Holy shit…no way I could take even one of those things on. Carefully pushing myself away from the edge I scrambled back to the cave in.

Carefully lifting each rock out of the way I tried to set it down with as little noise as possible. Grabbing the next I saw light! In my hurry to dig though a rock slipped between my tattered fingers, thudding to the ground before rolling into another stone with a loud clack. I froze, holding my breath as I looked back down the tunnel when I heard it, like hounds baying the chitterers had heard me and they were getting closer. With no need for stealth anymore I started to rip at the rocks in front of me, throwing them to the side. I could hear the scratching of their claws on the cliff face down the tunnel, climbing up to cut me to ribbons. Dropping a stone to the ground I heard a grating as more rocks tumbled free bashing into my legs and pinching my toes. Hissing in pain I jumped back, but there was a hole now just barely big enough for me to crawl through, if I could widen it a bit. Reaching to grab the next stone I heard them again right down the end of the tunnel. It was too late; I’d just have to hope I fit. Diving for the hole arms first I started to wriggle my way through, rough jagged stones cutting and dragging at my skin, the sound of them clattering down the tunnel pushing me on. My arms found empty space, the other side of the cave in, wedging them back I started to pull frantically. I could feel a sharp stone catch against side, but I didn’t have time to try and twist free, I pulled harder. Screaming with frustrated madness giving one last pull, I felt the rock cutting into my flesh and then I was free. Flopping to the ground in a giant tangle of limbs I forced myself to climb to my feet, grabbing at rocks and shoving them into the gap I just escaped from. Slamming the last stone home as the sound of scratching at the other side could be heard, unable to get out. Falling back on my ass I couldn’t help but laugh, I’d made it. I had successfully made it out of the spawning zone. I couldn’t stop laughing, feeling something wet running down my face I realized I was crying.