Roars echoed behind him, and John lamented his poor luck. It was only the second day of being stuck in the dungeon and he was trying his best to make progress in the daily quest, but of course things couldn't be too easy for him.
Winding time back a few hours...
As he was running down a new tunnel he ran into a strange plant, with numerous small golden flowers that radiated an intense aura. He immediately knew that it was a medicinal herb, but he had never heard of one like this in any of the top thirty floors they were prepped on in the dungeon classes.
The herb was alone, in a small crevasse, no more than four inches deep and 2 feet wide and over eight feet tall in the wall. Where it gree like a vine along the entirety of the eight foot tall surface. He didn't notice any monsters near by, and after a short survey of the area was sure there was no monster nearby.
Recalling the training he received and the time he spent studying medicinal herbs before delving into the dungeon, he quickly found out how to harvest the plant. Using a small pocket knife he separated only the flowers from the vine and stored them in an empty container he had in his bag.
He noted the cavern that the vine was in for later use and continued running. He decided that he had explored enough for one day and using some mana he cut symbols of a flower in the wall at the floor of every branch that lead back to his cavern from the medical herb.
Sadly right as he was about to get to his cavern, he ran into trouble. The medicinal herb was so strong that its aura not only lingered on his hands and knife, but also radiated from his bag.
This caught the attention of a pack of monsters he was usually able to avoid. As he crept past their cavern as stealthily as possible, the numerous monster were awoken by the powerful aura radiating from him and began to charge towards him.
In a flail of limbs the beast clawed and slashed at each other, gouging the ground with their vicious claws. John's heart jumped into his through as he turned and bolted. His boots thudding against the ground, he flung himself with all his might as the hoard of hunger maddened beasts chased after him.
"Damn it!"
He bolted down the narrow and jagged caves the uneven floor furthing the stress of the situation. The floor caved under the weight of the beast hoard, causing numerous large cracks to chase along the surface of the cavern. Forcing John to leap, barely managing to land with a roll, he continued bolting towards his cave. The majority of the beast had stopped chasing him due to them falling into a lower part of the tower floor, but numerous nimble and quick witted beast were still on his tail.
One of the beast with a hulking form that vaguely looked like a bear channeled its mana as it continued running, and the heat in the cavern quickly plummeted. Several spears of ice formed above its head and with a victorious howl the spears pierced towards him.
Knowing he couldn't dodge conveniently, John whipped around and threw himself at the nearest beast. A giant turtle like monster which took up most of the tunnel. As the spears fly the ice bear continued adjusting their trajectories. The massive ice spears pierced through the monster John jumped on.
Fear ripped through him as he watched the spears effortlessly stab into the monster he was on. In a heartbeat John jumped off the beast, and hit the ground hard. The spears had lost their momentum after stabbing into the beast and didn't manage to fully pierce through it.
The beast had been severely damaged and collapsed. The remaining beasts unable to stop their forward momentum crashed into the turtle. But John didn't care, he force himself to get up and keep running. At most that would only stop the beast for a minute, he poured all his mana into his legs and forced himself to run at full speed. He heard the raging roars of the beasts as the rammed into the dead turtle beast with all their might.
Even as he felt his bones creak and the dull ache of what had to be several broken bones he ran with all his might. Finally he whipped around the last corner and had a straight shot to the entrance of his cavern. The roars which had continued getting angrier as time ticked by, finally began getting closer. John heard the thudding of the hoard rapidly approaching just as he turned into the caverns opening.
He heard the beast finally get to right before the opening of the cavern and heard the beast slow and let out confused whimpers. And then there was silence, it seemed as soon as John entered the opening in the wall, the beasts were unable to sense the energy of the flowers any longer.
John sat on the floor breath hitched in his throat, as far into the small cave as he could be. Slowly he heard the beasts begin to make the trek back to their cavern. And after a while they had gotten too far for him to hear.
John finally let out a bated breath, and retrieved the container with the flowers. His haul was successful but he clenched his fist and vowed to never take that path again. He would have to find a way around the beasts before he could return for anymore of the flowers.
After catching his breath for a few minutes, John was ready to prepare the flowers for his consumption. He quickly took count of all the flowers he had and realized he managed to get fifteen small and eight medium sized flowers. Deciding to use 10 of the small and 4 of the medium flowers, he quickly went about preparing for the potion he was going to make.
He got out one of the metal containers in the pile of equipment he left in the cave and filled it with water before plucking off the petals from the flowers. Then he diced up the leaves and crushed the remnants of the stems up, after adding them in he quickly started a fire with some sticks he gathered earlier that morning.
He set the metal container in the center of the fire after letting it burn to just the coals. And after an hour the water changed color, from clear to a deep blue as the flower pieces dissolved. Quickly throwing on a pair of thick monster hide gloves he pull the metal container from the flames and let it cool down.
Once it had cooled he poured it into a metal bottle. With his excitement at its peak he chugged the potion in one quick motion.
John collapsed to the floor and clenched his chest, his insides felt like they were on fire. As soon as the potion his is stomach the immense power of the medicinal herbs exposed out to every inch of his body. Quickly burning way impurities and making his body grow more in tune with the mana around him.
John grit his teeth so hard his jaw ached.
"Ghh—!"
He refused to scream.
The dungeon was too dangerous for that.
Instead he curled against the cold stone floor, fingers digging into the ground as the transformation continued.
Minutes crawled by like hours.
The heat intensified, flooding through his bones, his organs, even his mind. For a moment he thought his heart might explode from the pressure.
Then—slowly—the pain began to fade.
After what felt like an eternity, exhaustion claimed him.
John collapsed into darkness.
He woke up to the blaring alarm from his watch, his was mouth dry, but his body felt insanely light and he could no longer feel any pain from the broken bones and cuts that covered his body.
With him getting his bearing the system decided to enlighten him on the aftermath of his potion consumption.
[Ding]
[Host has consumed a potion of awakening, class had been upgraded and the mage root has begun growing in your mental realm]
[Class: Newbie Gardener (rank i) => Newbie Gardener (rank h). Elemental affinities are now available to gain through training]
John stared at the glowing words.
Then he let out a breathless laugh.
"Wow… finally something good from this evil system that clearly wants me dead."
He rubbed his face, still half in disbelief.
"But what does advancing my class even do…?" The instructors had never explained that part yet. That lecture had been scheduled after the first dungeon expedition. John glanced toward the tunnel entrance.
"…And I'm definitely not getting back to class."
He was far deeper than the first thirty floors they had studied. Deep enough that no beginner was supposed to survive. The thought left a hollow feeling in his chest. Until now he had been too busy running, hiding, and trying not to die to really think about it. But in the quiet of the cavern… the reality sank in. He might never leave the dungeon. John leaned back against the cave wall and stared at the ceiling. Rob's stupid grin flashed in his mind.
"Hah… that bastard is probably already drinking all my beer." A weak smile tugged at his lips. "And if he finds out I disappeared, he'll definitely try to steal my apartment too." His voice softened.
"…At least my plants will be taken care of." He exhaled slowly.
"I still can't believe they put him in a different expedition group. I didn't even get to say goodbye." The emotions he had buried since entering the dungeon finally broke through. Tears slid down his face. John wiped them away angrily. He pushed himself to his feet. His hands trembled slightly, but his eyes had hardened.
The dungeon had taken his safety.His future. Maybe even his way home. But it hadn't taken everything. John clenched his fist. Mana stirred faintly within him.
"I will survive." His voice echoed quietly through the cavern. "I'm not done fighting."
He looked toward the dark tunnel beyond his refuge. Somewhere out there were monsters, deeper floors, and whatever twisted force had created the dungeon.
John took a slow breath.
"…And if this place wants to kill me—"
A faint, determined smile crossed his face. "It's going to have to try a lot harder than that."