It took a little over an hour for Lucian to recover all his Spirit. His body was still sore but he could deal with that. He stood up and groaned, leaning against the tree for a moment. “No more traveling on top of the trees, I guess…” He sighed.

  “I do need to reorient myself, though…” He thought, having gotten turned around as he dodged for his life. He carefully climbed the tree he had rested under, only high enough to see the buildings he was headed.

  He dropped back to the ground and began to walk. Surviving such an encounter left him feeling strangely confident. Armed with a new skill, he felt that he stood a better chance than ever of beating whatever else he came across - provided it wasn’t worse than that bird.

  “Speaking of [Quickstep], I should test that out.” Lucian took a step forward and activated [Quickstep]. As his foot left the ground he shot forward. It wasn’t as jarring as the haphazard attempts that had let him acquire the skill in the first place. Similarly to his other skills, he kind of just knew how it worked. The step carried him forward a fair distance, stopping as his heel came down. “It is one step after all, you just go further… Importantly, the deceleration isn’t bad.”

  He tried it one more time, but this time adjusted himself slightly. He used [Quickstep] and shot forward again, but only travelled half as far. Just as his instincts told him, the distance was variable. It was only the upper limit of the skill that was raised with his Agility.

  It did cost 20 Spirit, but Lucian felt the tests were necessary. Now he was even more confident than before.

  With that taken care of, he continued on his way towards the buildings.

  As Lucian trekked through the undergrowth of the jungle, it became even denser. Vines hung from branches, and flowers the color of sunsets bloomed at the roots of trees.

  Through the foliage Lucian caught sight of something moving and stopped in his tracks. It was barely noticeable, the same colors and patterns as the ground and leaves. Then he heard the telltale hiss of a snake as a massive serpent raised its head up above the greenery and flicked its tongue at him.

  It was massive, around 2 feet thick. Lucian has been to the Florida Everglades when he was younger. He had seen some of the pythons there, they were huge. This put them to shame. He couldn’t see the rest of its body through the foliage and grasses.

  It felt dangerous… And yet… Lucian smiled and summoned his sword with [Manifest Weapon]. It didn’t have the same oppressive feeling that the hawk did. His body didn’t scream that this was certain death.

  In response to Lucian’s unspoken declaration of challenge, the serpent opened its mouth and hissed loudly. It lacked the large fangs of a venomous snake - confirming to Lucian that it was a constrictor.

  Lucian moved forward and swung his sword sideways. The snake lunged, and Lucian felt his sword stop as the beast caught it in its mouth, clamping its jaw shut around the blade, “Shit.” He quickly took one hand off of the blade and closed his fist, delivering two punches to the side of the snake’s head.

  It refused to release the blade, instead bringing its tail into view, bringing its entire body closer to Lucian in an attempt to wrap him in it.

  Lucian jerked his blade hard. It didn’t budge. Lucian decided that [Slash] probably wouldn’t be enough either, and opted to try changing the shape of the blade before abandoning it. He pivoted, straddling the back of the snake’s head while gripping the handle of his blade to dodge the tail as it swiped through the air where he was.

  Lucian willed the blade to change. He willed the blade to thin, and thin - as much as he could. “Come on…!” Lucian forced his will on it.

  The blade rapidly thinned and changed shape, going from a longsword to a rapier. Lucian vaulted off of the top of the snake and pulled the sword with him as he moved - with less surface area for the teeth to clamp down, he was able to pull it out.

  He landed several feet away and quickly changed his weapon back into a longsword - he felt a slashing edge paired better with his skills than a piercing point. He changed it further as he dodged back out of the way of another tail swipe, making the blade longer and wider, “It's getting closer and closer to a greatsword.” He felt the weight change as he modified it, “More weight more force…”

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  Lucian exhaled and took a breath in, bringing his sword to his side, ready to swing. “Alright… let's do this!”

  The snake reared up again, and its eyes flashed with a blood red light. Lucian felt his heart start to beat faster and his Agility decrease slightly, “Some kind of fear effect?” Lucian narrowed his eyes and stomped his foot against the ground. “Lowering my Agility is a smart call. But… if this works… it won’t matter much.” Even with his Agility lowered by a few points, [Quickstep] still could take him pretty far.

  Lucian took a step forward as the snake began to lunge. As soon as his heel touched the ground he activated [Quickstep].

  He shot past the snake and came to a stop. The snake moved its head, but before it could reorient itself Lucian pushed off the ground with a second [Quickstep] as he swung his sword and activated a second skill - [Slash].

  Lucian’s sword cut through the air like a bullet, the force of the blow amplified by the speed of [Quickstep] and the power of [Slash].

  The snake was caught mid turn as it tried, and failed, to track Lucian’s movement. The edge of Lucian’s sword bit into the scales along its body and slid through them before cleaving through its flesh.

  [Quickstep] carried Lucian a few feet past the snake as his sword completed the arc of its swing. Blood sprayed against the ground as the serpent’s body was sliced in half, its head falling against the grasses with a thud.

  Lucian laughed, “That was fucking sick.” He swung his sword around a few times before dismissing it. “It cost a lot of Spirit but… that is an excellent trump card. I wasn’t sure if it would even work properly. I’m glad it did.”

  As he looked back at the body of the beast, he felt the familiar feeling of a level up as the body stopped moving.

  Lucian distributed his free points. He put 4 into Strength bringing it to 51 and he put 2 into Clarity bringing it to 31, “I barely noticed it. If I hadn't, that probably wouldn’t have gone so well.” The changes brought his Spirit to 68.

  The fight has cost him 37 Spirit. “I really hope I can figure out how to increase my regeneration soon, with my Spirit getting higher and higher every level the downtime gets higher too.”

  He smiled, “All that aside, 2 levels and 2 skill level ups is nothing to scoff at.” Satisfied with the results of the fight, and his performance, Lucian walked away - continuing to blaze a trail through the jungle.

  It wasn’t like the buildings were going anywhere, probably, but he didn’t want to daddle. “Especially since that horrible bird might decide it wants to try again…” Lucian shivered at the thought and picked up his pace.

  After another half hour, Lucian caught sight of the side of one of the buildings through the trees. The area around them was fairly sparse of trees, though the grasses and flowers were flourishing. “I wonder why no trees came up here…” Lucian mused to himself as he approached.

  The largest building looked to be some kind of residential building. Beside it sat a small convenience store with what was probably more living space above it. Beside that, another shop. The sign mounted on the wall revealed it to be a pizza place of some sort.

  Lucian approached the shops. The windows were shattered.

  Lucian cautiously entered, “Hello?” He called out into the dark shop. The only response was silence. After a few moments, he continued into the store. Obviously, there was no power. But it hadn’t been long enough for the drinks in the coolers to go bad.

  He opened one of the glass doors and pulled out a bottle of water, cracking it open and downing it quickly, “Haa… That's better.” He grabbed a few more bottles and put them in his backpack.

  After quenching his thirst and pocketing some water for later, he exited the store and began to walk around the buildings.

  As he turned the corner around the outside, his eyes were drawn down. Where there might have been another building before, there was a giant square hole in the ground lined with aged looking bricks of light gray stone.

  “Ah…” Lucian approached the edge of the pit and looked down. Around its inner edge there was a staircase that led downwards.

  An ominous feeling emanated from the dark depths.

  Lucian had found a dungeon.