One With The Abyss

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"So, Abby. How do you think the second floor is going to go?" I asked, seeing an opening at the end of the spiralling staircase I had been descending.

"More of the same, probably. Big open fields, maybe a forest. You might even get a swamp or a jungle if you’re lucky" Abby seemed very confident about what the next floor would involve, so imagine her surprise when we entered into what looks to be a large underground cave system.

It was so dark that I could barely see, the only reason I could see what was in front of me was thanks to the 2 talents I had that boosted all of my senses. Otherwise I would have been completely blind in here.

“Real nice forest here.” I mocked, “I'm especially loving the view.”

"This... This shouldn't..." Abby started stammering and despite my joke I still became much more cautious in the face of the unknown. Before, on the first level, everything was in plain view - if barely obscured by the long, blue grass - but now, I could hardly see even a metre in front of me. Every step I took was almost silent, I was used to making as little noise as possible from living at home, needing to avoid attention from both my family and the staff. Now, this skill helped me navigate through the darkness of this tunnel and, hopefully, out of the notice of whatever monsters populated it.

I soon learned that I had not managed to hide myself nearly as well as I thought I did, as the hairs on my neck stood on end. Not knowing what to do I just ducked, as quick as I could, only to see a blade cross right where my neck would have been.

"SHIT!" I let out a yell, having to roll to the side to avoid yet another attack. Thankfully my senses had prevented the worst outcome, but I still wasn't sure I could overcome this enemy. Especially, considering I still didn't fully understand what it was. A shrill cry sounded around me, the monster clearly displeased at having missed me twice and again charged forward, scuttling along the ground.

This allowed me to see what I was fighting, but it wasn't a pleasant sight, to say the least. In front of me was a human sized praying mantis, I later learned was a Cave Mantis; its bladed arm lifted and ready to bisect me across the chest. Instead of jumping back, I charged towards it, disrupting the flow of its attack by maintaining a position it couldn't attack from. With it unable to use its primary means of attack I had stunned it, only for a moment. With that I transformed my hand into the full paw of the Gris Wolf boss from the first floor and slashed at its chest. The energy cost was high, but I was glad I chose to do this; watching as my attack dealt a shallow wound to the monster. Had I used something small I would no doubt have not done very little damage. So I continued to attack it with my paw, now having much larger energy reserves and a better control over my shapeshifting.

At that moment, I pierced through the exoskeleton and undid my paw transformation. The bug was weakened but I still had to copy its talent, it shrieked and I worried it would attract allies to it so copied the move I had used to defeat the wolf. My hand became covered in fangs and I hooked them inside the open wound on the mantis' chest, activating the copy to gain more power. When I felt the process had reached completion I went back to attacking and finished it off quickly. With the mantis dead, I made my way back to the stairs in case its dying throes had attracted other monsters. I quickly checked what the new talent was:

[Enhanced Agility (0/1)]

[Greatly Enhances users speed and reaction times]

The talent was average, I guess the way it could be seen was a skill and not a talent, but what I was really pleased about was the shapeshifting applications.

I could now grow blades along my arm, I could grow them in other places but that was mostly pointless, though I had to roll up my sleeve to prevent it from getting ruined. It had about a similar strength to the wolf boss's claws but required less energy to maintain as a partial transformation instead of a full on like the wolf claw. The blade slightly curved inwards like a scythe but would still make for a much more useful weapon than the teeth, claws and horns I had been forced to use up until this point. Now if only I had some kind of sword skill, I might know how to properly use this form.

Once my energy was restored I made my way back up the path I originally went, seeing not only the drop items I had left behind but also 2 more mantises. I decided to sneak up on them, my last attempt at stealth had failed but for now it was working. It may have been the sight of me that alerted the first mantis since I was having a much easier time approaching than before. 

However, as I thought this, the mantises began acting abnormally. It looked as if they were going to turn so I rushed forward towards the left monster and tried to sever its neck. I couldn't completely cut off its head but I did manage to severely wound it, it fell to the floor as the other mantis turned to face me. I had managed to make the fight a one on one match, so I slashed wildly with my other arm, managing to slash marks into its exoskeleton. The fight resulted in me standing atop the dying mantis so I decided I would copy its ability, and found that even through my shoes I could. I quickly dispatched the other mantis, without being able to copy whatever it had; I still copied from its corpse even if it gave diluted results. Thankfully it just had the [Enhanced Agility] talent the other 2 had. Even then I was a little disappointed that all of the talents I had acquired since the slime were simple attribute buffs.

"That's just the way it is." Abby explained to me, "The lower beings all have talents, but most of the time they don't close the gap between higher and lower beings."

"I guess, still though. I was hoping for something to help me see better." I sighed, I was still struggling to see anything in the dark and it would certainly make my clearing of the 2nd floor much harder, even if my eyes had gotten more adjusted to the darkness.

"Well, if you're lucky you'll find a mutated monster with a superior talent." 

After that I looked over the drops I had gotten. Bits of carapace, a vial of what looked to either be venom or blood, and the obligatory crystal all monsters gave; though this one was much more brown than the others. I had no way to carry any of the items, having no bag or pockets in my skirt; still I decided to tuck the vial away somewhere safe just in case. I did wonder for a moment how a glass vial, something unmistakably artificial, could appear here, but then again this was a dungeon where processed lumps of meat were consistently presented to me upon a successful kill. That again did offer worries, the bug dropped no food and the 1st floor may not be safe; it may not be possible for me to get food for a while now.

I continued walking through the caves, quickly raising [Enhanced Agility] up to (1/1), much faster than I had with the rabbits and wolves, but I equated that with circumstance: The bugs were much more abundant and I had a far superior weapon in their blades.

But it wasn't long before I came upon yet another foe to face: A worm. It was a disgusting creature that burrowed its way into my path, dropping right in front of me. Unfortunately for it, however, that was the last thing it did. Unlike the mantis, who had sturdy exoskeletons, the worm was simply a giant mass of flesh, wiggling around in the filth around it; and so it was cut down, spraying me in green juices I suspected were its blood. Though, to its merit, that didn't kill it; it simply produced another of its kind, the 2 being weaker than the larger one from before.

"You have to get it in the heart, Tia." Abby said to me, it was a little annoying she had only told me after I had acted but at least I could gain a new talent from it.

[Tight Fit(0/1)]

[Greatly increases flexibility of the body.Able to fit through any hole larger than your head]

The ability was quite good with the second part being seemingly useless, but useless skills could become important later. Following my acquisition I pieced the hearts of the now 2 worms.

"This talent probably won't be seeing much use." I laughed, reading over the description.

"You never know, maybe you'll find a path you can only get through with it." The 2 of us laughed together, subtly of course so as to not attract attention, and carried on killing mantis. So much so that another of my talents increased: [Superior Traits] reaching its maximum strength, allowing me to cleave through a mantis' neck with a single swipe. A talent that will no doubt be a cornerstone of my strength going forward. So, with my increased strength and flexibility I made my way through the caves, the worms being more uncommon than the mantis but still appearing every now and then to drop their usual worm meat and a crystal.

I was desperate not to have to eat it but eventually I could not help myself and relented. Surprisingly the taste was pleasant.

Due to the low number I couldn't quickly increase [Tight Fit] and it got very little use since I could so easily kill the mantis now. I had noticed something new on this floor that was not present previously: Traps. I had just barely managed to avoid an arrow to the temple after stepping on a pressure plate, following this I kept a closer eye out for abnormalities. Finding a pitfall that blocked my path, a section that would have collapsed on top of me and even more arrows attempting to fill me with holes.

After noticing their triggers however, avoiding them became easy. So my main worry was that I had made very little progress, not that I could even tell as these paths winded and curved like a great labyrinth; foiling my shoddy mapping abilities.

After killing what felt like the hundreth mantis I came across another type of monster.

"Finally..." I muttered in my exasperation. This was not what I should have done. My brief expression of displeasure woke up around 10 monsters that came and attacked me. Sure they didn't have the size the mantis had but their number were a real threat. Abby told me these were Gro Bats, weak monsters who hunted in large packs. 

“No shit they hunt in large packs.” I muttered, turning to run.

10 bat monsters chased after me with incredible rage, having disturbed their slumber. Eventually, I decided I would just have to kill them, even if my vision was still bad due to the lack of light. Perhaps they would even have a talent that would eliminate this.

So, from out of the air I grabbed one, feeling it thrash around in my hand as I copied its talent. I could feel pain where it was scratching me but I didn't see another situation where I could achieve this without having to kill all of them first. Eventually, I finished copying and killed the poor bat in my hand by growing horns to impale it. The monster was quite weak, showing the mantis were the strongest on this floor, while the worms were fodder and the bats attacked with numbers to ensure victory. A good thing came of this, as my visibility had now increased slightly thanks to them.

[Night Vision (0/1)]

[Able to see clearly in the dark]

The mystery to me, however, was [Night Vision], from what I understood bats were blind and used sound to locate things. I had expected some kind of sound based talent, perhaps even echolocation itself; but these were monster bats so I simply put the thoughts aside and killed the 9 others chasing me. When all of them had fallen I decided to try and grow bat wings, seeing if I could fly. This resulted in many failed attempts and a loss of energy that I had to recover a few times, but eventually, although shakey, I could grow a wing from the side of my arm. As I marvelled at the creation I heard the distinct noise of the system:

[Shapeshifting (2/9)]

It was increasing at quite the pace, though I could likely credit that to the synergy it had with [One with the Abyss]. When that upgrade occurred the transformation became much more stable and easier to hold. After seeing that I could now produce it I tried to make it useful. Unfortunately, despite my level increase I could not increase its size to one with the strength to carry me; not without a massive energy pool increase. So, I went on killing again through the caves.

An indeterminable time passed with nothing interesting occurring, I simply killed the monsters and copied their talents. In a way this floor's greatest challenge was navigating it; unlike the first floor, which was a wide open field, this was a twisting cavern of misdirection that I was struggling to navigate. Even though the enemies here are stronger than the previous floor, with my new skillset and energy reserves, killing them is much easier than even the wolves on the first floor. 

As I wandered around the halls of the cave, running my fingers along the left wall, I felt a change in texture. The wall feels looser. Looking over I notice the colour is slightly different as well; my vision is not entirely clear as my [Night Vision] talent has not yet reached the next level, but I can see a hole leading into a room, too far for me to accurately make out. If this were under normal circumstances that I had noticed this, the protocol would likely have been to dig out this looser dirt and make a larger hole. But as it turned out, the hole was just larger than my head was.

"Getting a power then using it like a minute later after joking about it…" I muttered, “That’s just bad writing.”

“What are you talking about?” Abby asked.

I just told her not to worry about it before beginning to push my head through the dirt. One thing I had made sure to keep before discarding my blazer was my hair tie, so, with my hair mostly secured I began my adventure through the tiny hole in the wall.

As my entire body contorted to fit into the hole I wiggled around to propel myself forward and felt the slow movement into the hole. Had I been claustrophobic this would no doubt have been a torturous experience, but as a result of constantly being beaten and crammed into tight spaces I had gotten over any possible fear of them. It was daunting yes and reminded me of some trauma I had, but I soldiered on. Eventually, the discomfort I felt from the odd shape my body took mostly disappeared, coming from the talent gotten from the worm levelling up. Despite being hopelessly lost on this floor I had increased so many of my talents levels here, soon enough I fell into an open space that was as dark, if not darker than the rest of the cave dungeon I had been walking through.

All that awaited inside was a dome shaped room and a wooden chest sat in the middle of it, just like when I had defeated the wolf boss, only in a cave this time.

I was about to approach the chest and open it when a thought came to me. 

"What if this is a mimic or something." I muttered.

"Throw something at it and check." Abby responded, it seemed like a good enough idea. I picked up some of the loose dirt and prepared for a fight before throwing the clump at the chest. There was no reaction so I carefully approached the box, poking at it with my bladed hand. Again, no reaction

Deciding it was most likely safe I opened the box, still maintaining some caution. Thankfully, there was no trap or monster waiting, just 'loot'.

It was like the dungeon was responding to my desires as well since inside the chest was not only a scroll which I found to be a map of the second floor, but also a pair of black, leather boots and a bag with a few golden coins - which I believed to be this world's currency, or at least some fancy dungeon subsidiary of it.

While there were no pants for me to change into, I could finally change out of the uncomfortable dress shoes LEE forced their students to wear. Just like the shirt I had gotten, these boots fit perfectly and were extremely comfortable. They made walking around much more comfortable and accommodated my feet in the cave's rough terrain.

I looked at the other 2 items, the pouch and the map, deciding the map was obviously valuable, but the golden coins, not so much. I had no idea how long I would be in the dungeon and doubted I would be needing them in here for now. At the moment this bag would be more useful to carry my items than waste space carrying a handful of golden coins, besides it would be hard to get the extra mass out of the hole.

With everything sorted I made my way out into the main dungeon.

"Why didn't you tell me there were treasure chests hidden around dungeons, like this." I asked Abby, strapping the cloth bag to my back, “I might have missed something on the first floor.”

"Few reasons, firstly, they don't typically show up this low in a dungeon. Secondly, I didn't want to ruin the fun of you finding it." Abby had been getting more... Human lately, it was pleasant for sure, but slightly annoying at times like this.

"Whatever, well it was quite fun discovering a secret like that." I muttered, looking down at the map.

The map loosely covered some of the tunnels in the cave system. There were quite a few paths that just ended in an abnormal way, such that it looked more like an unexplored area than a dead-end. Thankfully, the map marked a chamber, much larger than any of the other tunnels, that I believed to be the boss arena. The map marked only the chest room I found it in with an X, and a rough set of bearings as to where to go from there. I decided this would be the best way to get from the cave and into the next floor, so I decided to follow it. Unfortunately, the map didn't show any more secret treasure rooms, meaning there either wasn't any on the map, or they simply didn't exist. Soon enough I found myself at a larger opening in the cave, right before the giant stone door.

In the door were carvings depicting a race of insect people fighting with a giant bat monster, pretty much clueing me into what I would have to fight behind that door. It was likely some kind of advanced bat monster, different from the ones I had been fighting, that came at me in groups of 10 at a time.

Hopefully, it would just be a single bat and not a large amount, or a boss and its minions since I doubted I could take that on. I placed the map in my bag and swung it back onto my back. Then, gathering my confidence, I walked up to the door and pushed it open. Inside was weirdly darker than outside the door, weird because I could clearly make out multiple crystals shining up on the roof that looked like they should have emitted light. 

As I stepped further into the room I heard a slight noise, like the squeaking of a mouse. However, I had misunderstood that sound and found myself flying through the air, before crashing into the stone wall - feeling my ribs crack once again. 

"What... The fuck... Just happened." I panted, coughing blood; having sustained an injury almost as bad as when the ogres mangled my arm. But what happened became clear pretty quickly.

The room soon began shining with light, rapidly increasing in brightness such that my eyes began to hurt. Before I readjusted I heard the squeaking noise again, instinctually I jumped to the side, ignoring the searing pain coming from my chest, and watched as the wall behind where I stood was now splintered and cracked. Having adjusted, I could see what I was fighting: A bat monster.

"I... Expected a mantis." I muttered, rising to my feet.

This bat was different to all of the others I had faced in the cave. For starters it was the size of a car and had 4 wings instead of 2. The other bats were very simple, looking like normal bats with rust coloured webbing along their wings instead of the leathery colour bats on Earth had; this one had subtly green webbing and deep black fur. The boss monster had teeth and a nose but lacked any eyes, the place where the eyes should have been were simply smooth and blank, nothing in their place, greatly unsettling me as I looked at it. Abby quickly interjected with her thoughts.

"What the hell is wrong with this dungeon!" She had been silent for most of this dungeon, but before I could ask what she meant she already answered me, "That's a Screech Bat, a highly advanced bat monster that uses sound magic."

"So there's good news and bad news. Bad news is you're probably going to die. Good news is, if you don't you'll get an amazing talent to use."

That was enough for me, my left arm quickly shifted into a mantis blade and I ran forward to meet the bat head on. It raised its wings and pushed forward with force, sending me flying backwards as the wind it had generated lifted me from the ground. Next the boss's fanged mouth opened wide and a gut twisting screech emanated from deep within it, sending visible waves of energy through the air until it reached me. I could feel my senses slipping away from me, the shapeshifting coming undone as I could no longer control myself. Blood dripped from every hole in my face as I flew through the air for what felt like an eternity, eventually crashing into the wall again; only to spit out what looked like an ocean of blood.

"Sound is an advanced form of wind magic!" Abby called out, her voice clear over the ringing in my head, "It'll be hard to overcome the distance and both sound and wind magic are incredibly deadly - JUMP LEFT!"

Her sentence was cut short as she yelled out in a panic, I followed immediately, obeying her orders implicitly, and watched as a wave of air cut into the wall I had been resting against. Had it hit me I would have been cut in 2.

My eardrums hadn't burst, thankfully, but I was still unstable on my feet. I again ran towards the monster, not transforming my hand as it would hinder what I was planning. It lifted its wings but I had expected this and ducked down; the gust of wind passed almost harmlessly over my head and I used a grip I had taken on the jagged floor to maintain my position before propelling myself forward. With its size, making any fatal injury would be near impossible right now, but that wasn't what I was aiming for. My bladed hand moved to strike and the bat pulled back slightly at my feint, bringing its neck far from my grasp, but my weapon quickly met flesh as it cut through the leathery webbing of its wing. The bat seemed to use its body as a means to amplify its wind magic, so by taking care of its weapons I may be able to cripple it. The bat screeched out in pain, a cut forming from the centre of the bottom left wing all the way to the bottom of it.

My plan seemed to work but the bat swatted me away with a purely physical attack, being hit showed me the bat's only strength was its magical ability, despite its size. I noted that and prepared to face off with it again. Suddenly, my chest flared up in pain and almost caused me to be hit by one of its wind blades; I would need to end this fight soon or I may collapse from my injuries. From what I had seen the bat had 4 attacks: Gust, wind blade, screech, and a sound bomb. The bomb and gust attacks were easy to avoid, since they had clear warning signs like a game’s telegraphing, but the wind blade attack came quickly and silently - with me only being able to notice it due to my senses picking up a shift in the air around me. This attack was the most dangerous, but the screeching attack was not to be taken lightly either, despite its obvious telegraph and long wind up time. Should I find myself immobilised it could severely damage me, as it already had; the boss had moves that would quickly end the fight and a low physical ability, so dragging out the fight would be optimal in most cases, however, due to my injuries I couldn't do that. It had put me in a dangerous position. My mind spun as I jumped around the arena, dodging sound bombs and wind blades as they dropped on me one after the other. Soon I devised a plan, a bad one, but a plan nonetheless.

As another whistling telegraph, however, instead of jumping forward I swivelled my body and jumped just out of the attack's range. Having dodged it multiple times I could easily grasp how the attack functioned and used it to jumpstart my counter attack. I flew through the air and it stepped backwards, stunned by the speed at which I approached. The bat, while lacking eyes, could see perfectly well as Abby told me wind magic was extremely versatile and it was most likely seeing the vibrations in air mana I produced by moving. It stood stunned for a moment as I rocketed towards it, before it realised I was going to crash right into it. Then, like when I had been launched into the air the bat opened its mouth wide, I wasn't sure I could handle another screech attack so forced my mind to find a solution.

I had only acted like this to get close to it due to not being willing to risk being hit by another gust attack, but it had now backfired as I was still just as vulnerable now as I would have been should I have been launched by the bat. Right before the air had exited the bats lungs an idea flashed into my mind and I put the plan into action, leaning to my left. My hope was that the missing weight in my right side would allow for me to fall out of the screech attack's trajectory; the ripples in the air came towards me as I felt myself shifting. By less than a quarter of an inch the attack passed me by, as I forced my leg to shift up out of the expanding funnel of attack, soon I landed almost where I had intended. My aim was to reach its head, but instead I used my left hand to grip its top left wing. As if on instinct I began forming a copy of its talent while the bat wildly swung itself around to remove my hold. I could feel my grip slipping but the copying had not yet finished, so I employed one of my favourite tricks: Fang hands. The newly grown fangs dug into the wing, but I was now sliding down the leather as I cut through it with the Gris Wolf's fangs. The bat screamed in pain and the wild swinging intensified, I felt myself feeling ill at the force of the emotion but I had no choice but to try and hang on as the ripping wing now continued in short bursts. I hung to the bat for more than a minute as its strength far surpassed mine, but soon I could hang no longer. The bat pulled its wing forward, lighting up slightly as it did so, and threw me from its body; however, just as my extended finger tip disconnected from the bat's leathery wings I heard the signature dinging of the system.

I flew through the air, content, looking at the message that had come to obscure my view; but something abnormal occurred and more messages began to appear. 

[Obtained: <Mana Veins (0/6)>]

[Error: <Mana Vein> Talent not compatible with host's body]

[Attempting to Overhaul talent]

[Error: Attempt failure]

[Error: Attempt failure]

[Error: Attempt failure]

[Overhaul failed: Searching for alternative remedy]

[Possible remedy acquired]

[Attempting to alter talent structure]

[Error: Attempt failure]

[Error: Attempt failure]

[Attempt success]

[Obtained: -

Before I could read the next line I came to a sudden stop and felt myself impact the wall. My ribs worsened and more blood seeped from my mouth

"*Cough* *Cough*... I haven't even been cut and I might still die of blood loss." I laughed, trying to lighten my mood as, while having dealt significant damage to the bat, I had sustained some pretty fatal wounds to my internals. Still, I managed to pull myself to my feet only to have my body overcome with pain. 

"AAARRRGGGHHH!" A guttural scream came from my mouth, endless pain covered my body. It felt as if someone was carving lines throughout my body and I fell to the ground expecting a death that never came. Soon the pain subsided but my clothes were drenched in sweat and even more blood. Thankfully, the bat had not fully recovered from my attack, now having lost functionality for 2 of its wings, so I was kind of safe.

"What... Was... That..." I panted, through bated breaths.

"Check your talent." Abby instructed, almost sounding giddy. So I did:

[Obtained: <Abyss Vein (0/6)>]

[Abyss vein (0/6)]

[Reconstructs body to fit optimal form for carrying abyssal energy. Lines of power have been carved along the most efficient paths to move abyssal energy. Increases abyssal energy movement efficiency. Grants ability to sense abyssal energy. Grants ability to manipulate abyssal energy]

"Is... That... What... That... Pain... Was?" I said, not yet having fully recovered from what had just happened to me.

"YES! HAHAHA!" Abby cheered, pissing me off, like she laughed at my pain, "You have no idea how useful this talent is! How perfectly it can be used by you!"

I managed to stand back up, but noticed something was wrong. I threw myself sideways, rolling along the cave floor and further damaging my broken bones. The bat had now regained some of its sense as a blade of wind slashed towards me.

"Talk later." I muttered, now ready to finish my enemy off. My steps had slowed, and yet I felt more invigorated. The bat, having lost both wings on its left side, could no longer use its gust attack (assuming I moved in from the left) and was now open for my attack.

I quickly closed the distance between the 2 of us, and my arm shifted into the mantis blade, fully forming at a faster pace than I was used to - causing my slice to be slightly off target. A line of blood ran down its side where I had struck, I jumped back as the sound bomb's signature whistle appeared. I had become used to the bat's attacks, and now unable to effectively use its gust attack I easily took the upper hand.

The Screech Bat quickly fell to the ground in a puddle of blood, one last attack would finish the creature off. I had taken some heavy hits, not only were my ribs almost shattered but I had gotten careless and a large gash cut through my side, leaking my blood everywhere along the cave floor. But I had won this fight. I raised my hand to kill the boss when its mouth opened, I moved away from the radius - expecting a screech - but my body still became racked with pain. It felt as if each of my molecules were shaking in agony as the creature let out an eldritch cry. I fell to my knees, even more blood gushing from my wounds; my skin had gone a ghastly pale colour and I wasn't sure I would survive to the end of this attack.

I tried everything I could think of but couldn't even stand, let alone stop it.

My mind was in turmoil.

I won't die here. I won't die here! I WON'T DIE HERE!

The last of my abyssal energy ran through my body, purple lines burning along my skin as my arm raised, stretching to form a blade much longer than I could normally manifest. Then like an executioner's axe, my weapon struck: Silencing the beast for good.

The carcass soon turned into items and a chest appeared, just as it had before.

I took my findings, uncaring as to what they were, uncaring as to the sounds of the system in my head. My mind ignoring anything other than the order for me to get to safety.

I took what I had earned and descended deeper into the dungeon.

To the third floor as a victor.

As a Champion!