Suzume's glow stick barely pushed the shadows back, creating a small bubble of green light around her.
[Two Players. Two hours trapped. Let's do this.]
She moved through the stone corridors with silent steps.
The dungeon was supposed to be forest-themed. Twisted trees, root systems, that kind of thing. But the destabilization had corrupted it. Stone walls leaked black sap. Branches grew from cracks in the floor. The air tasted like copper and smelled like rot.
Her [Danger Sense] hadn't stopped tingling since she'd entered. Not the sharp spike of immediate threat, but the constant low hum that meant most things here wanted her dead.
She heard a sound up ahead. Wet and rhythmic.
She crept forward, pressing herself against the wall.
Around the corner, she could see them.
Or what was left of them.
Two Players. A tank and a mage, judging by the scattered armor and robes. The wet sound was a Moss Spider, eight legs thick as tree trunks, feeding as its mandibles worked through their flesh.
[Level 28. Shit.]
She turned to leave. There was nothing to rescue here, after all.
But her foot hit a loose stone.
The feeding sounds stopped.
Eight eyes turned toward her, reflecting her glow stick's light like green mirrors.
"Fuck."
The spider moved fast. One second it was twenty meters away, the next it was right there, mandibles spread wide.
[Skill Activated: Guardian Light]
[MP: 105 → 95]
The golden barrier materialized just as the mandibles came down. They bounced off, and the spider reared back, confused.
Suzume ran.
Her boots slammed against stone as she sprinted down the corridor. Behind her, eight legs clicked and scraped, getting closer.
[Ten seconds before Guardian Light comes off cooldown. I need distance!]
She yanked a smoke grenade from her belt and pulled the pin with her teeth, tossing it behind her. Gray smoke filled the narrow passage.
The clicking stopped for a moment. Then resumed, angrier.
[Of course it can track by smell or heat or whatever. Why would anything be easy?]
She turned a corner and saw a door. An actual door, made of thick wood reinforced with iron bands. Some kind of storage room maybe? She grabbed the handle and pulled.
Locked.
"Come on!"
The spider's clicking was right behind her now. She slammed her shoulder into the door. Pain shot through her arm but the door splintered inward.
She dove through the small gap she created and spun, while crawling backward at the same time. The door shook as eight legs slammed into it. But, the iron bands held.
Something was already inside, though, as indicated by the sudden snarling behind her.
A Bark Hound, maybe three feet tall at the shoulder, with wood-grain patterns across its fur and eyes that glowed amber in the darkness.
[Level 5]
The hound and Suzume stared at each other.
"Okay," she breathed. "Guess we're doing this."
She pulled her combat knife. Six inches of system-made steel that had cost her two weeks of maid cafe tips. The weight felt pathetic in her hand, but it was all she had.
The hound moved first, lunging low at her legs.
"ACK!"
She jumped back, swinging the knife down. The blade scraped across its wooden hide with a sound like nails on bark.
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[Right. Bark Hound. The bark is literal armor. Need to find soft spots.]
The creature circled her, incidentally keeping itself between her and the door.
She feinted left. The hound snapped at where she would have been, and she drove the knife toward its exposed flank. It twisted away at the last second, her blade catching nothing but air.
[It's a bit faster than it looks.]
The hound's teeth found her calf. Not deep, but enough to tear through her pants and draw blood.
"Ah!"
She kicked it in the snout with her other foot. It released her, shaking its head.
Blood ran down into her boot. Now, every step sent fire up her leg.
The spider slammed into the door again. One of the iron bands snapped.
[Oh, fuck. I need to end this. Now.]
The hound lunged again. This time she was ready. She dropped to one knee, bringing the knife up. The blade caught it under the jaw, but the angle was wrong. It slid off the bark armor, and the hound's weight crashed into her.
They rolled across the stone floor. The knife went flying.
The hound ended up on top, teeth snapping at her face. She got her forearm up just in time. Its jaws clamped down on her jacket sleeve. The thick fabric was the only thing keeping it from reaching bone.
She drove her knee into its stomach. Once. Twice. The third time, it loosened its grip enough for her to throw it off.
They both scrambled to their feet. The knife was behind the hound now.
[Great. Just great.]
[Skill Activated: Escape Route]
[MP: 95 → 80]
Golden threads appeared in her vision. Most led nowhere useful, blocked by walls or the hound itself. But one thread curved up and over a stack of rotting crates in the corner.
She ran for it.
The hound followed, snapping at her heels. She grabbed the top crate and hauled herself up. The wood was soft with decay, crumbling under her fingers. She kept climbing anyway.
The hound jumped, catching her injured leg. Its teeth went deeper this time.
She screamed and kicked down with her other foot, catching it right in the eye. It yelped and let go.
She rolled over the top of the crates and dropped down the other side.
The knife was right there. She grabbed it.
The hound came around the crates fast. Too fast. Its teeth found her shoulder before she could react, driving her back into the wall.
[Guardian Light's off cooldown!]
But she couldn't speak the activation with the hound's weight crushing her chest. Black spots danced in her vision.
[No. Not like this.]
She brought the knife up blindly, stabbing wherever she could reach. The first strike hit bark. The second too. The third found something soft. The hound's grip loosened.
"AGH!"
She stabbed again. And again. Warm liquid splashed across her face.
The hound stumbled back. The knife was buried in the soft flesh where its front leg met its body. Black sap poured from the wound.
It tried to lunge again but the injured leg buckled. She threw herself forward, tackling it to the ground. They rolled, and she ended up on top this time.
The hound snapped at her, but weakly now. She grabbed its head with her free hand, slamming it into the stone floor. Once. Twice. It went limp for a second.
She pulled the knife free and drove it into the creature's eye.
The hound thrashed once, violently. Its claws raked across her ribs, tearing through her shirt and skin. She stabbed it again. The again. Then one more time.
Then it went still.
She stayed there, straddling the dead monster, breathing hard. Blood ran from her shoulder, her leg, her ribs. The hound's black sap covered her hands and face.
[HP: 30/75]
Behind her, the spider hit the door again. Another iron band snapped.
[Need to move.]
She stood on shaking legs. The room had another door on the far side, smaller than the first. She stumbled toward it.
This one opened easily. A narrow maintenance tunnel stretched beyond.
She looked back at the dead hound. Its remaining eye stared at nothing.
The main door cracked. One of the spider's legs punched through, feeling around.
[Skill Activated: Escape Route]
[MP: 80 → 65]
Golden threads blazed to life in her vision again.
But not just one path this time, but a complex web leading through the dungeon's twisted corridors. The brightest thread led straight ahead, then curved up, spiraling back toward the entrance.
She ran.
The tunnel was narrow enough that she had to duck in places. Behind her, the spider broke through. It couldn't fit in the tunnel, but that wouldn't stop it from finding another way around.
[Left here. Now right. Duck under that root.]
The golden thread guided her through passages she never would have found on her own. A crack in the wall that led to another corridor. A half-collapsed ceiling she could climb through. Every turn took her further from the spider's chittering rage.
Her leg burned. Her shoulder throbbed. Blood stuck her shirt to her skin.
[Keep moving. Almost there.]
The thread led up a slope of loose stones. She slipped twice, skinning her palms. The third time she made it, pulling herself over the edge.
There. The portal entrance, swirling green and inviting.
She didn't stop to think. Just dove through.
The night air hit her like ice water.
She collapsed onto grass, chest heaving. Real grass. Real air. Real sky above her with real stars.
"Ha... haha..."
She was laughing. Black sap mixed with red blood on her hands, and she couldn't stop shaking.
[I'm alive. I actually made it out alive.]
[Dungeon Cleared: Failed]
[No Rescues Performed]
"Wow, thanks System. Really feeling the love here."
She sat up, wincing as her shoulder protested. The blood had already started to clot, which was good. The bad news was she looked like she'd murdered someone with her bare hands.
[Can't go home like this. Can't go to a hospital either. They'd ask questions.]
She'd have to clean up in a public bathroom somewhere, hope nobody called the cops on the blood-covered girl at 2 AM.
Her phone buzzed. Yumi.
"You alive?"
"Barely."
"Players?"
"Dead before I got there."
"Shit. You okay?"
Suzume looked at her hands. The hound's blood had dried under her fingernails. She could still feel the knife sliding into its eye, the resistance before it punched through.
"I killed something."
"...First time killing a monster?"
"Yeah."
"How do you feel?"
How did she feel?
"..." She paused and then answered: "Like I need to get better at fighting."
"Jesus. Most people would be traumatized for at least a day or two."
"I don't have time for trauma."
She hung up and started walking. Her shoulder screamed with each step, but she ignored it.
[Level 5 hound nearly killed me. If I'm going to keep doing this, I need to be able to fight.]
The System window popped up again, showing her stats.
[Strength: 3]
[Dexterity: 11]
Three strength. Basically nothing. Even with the System boost, she could barely bench press her own body weight.
[The VR training isn't enough. I need actual combat experience.]
