Embarrassed, Nathan quickly stood up.
The sudden motion made his head spin, exhaustion from the potion and the fight catching up all at once.
He swayed and then steadied himself as he became acutely aware of the eyes still lingering on him.
'I have to clean this up.'
He brushed at his clothes urgently, hands moving over his shirt and pants.
Trying to wipe away the dirt and dried blood but it just didn't work.
The stains were set deep into the fabric, refusing to come off no matter how hard he rubbed.
'Of course it won't come off,' he thought bitterly.
Every swipe of his hand only smeared things further instead of removing it.
His white t-shirt looked even worse now.
Nathan clenched his jaw.
'There's no way I am making it worse than it already is.'
He forced his hands to still at his sides, breathing out slowly.
Just then he heard footsteps approach.
Nathan looked up to see a soldier walking toward him with their helmet tucked under one arm.
The soldier stopped a few steps away and looked him over from head to toe.
"You alright?" the soldier asked.
The question hit a nerve.
Nathan's irritation flared instantly, embarrassment twisting into something sharper.
"Do I fucking look okay?" Nathan snapped before he could stop himself.
The words came out harsher than he intended, edged with frustration and leftover adrenaline.
The soldier sighed.
Not annoyed nor offended.
"I get it," the soldier said calmly. "But you shouldn't be embarrassed."
Nathan scoffed quietly, glancing down at himself again.
"Easy for you to say," he muttered.
The soldier leaned back slightly, resting his weight on one leg.
"You'd be surprised how many people look exactly like that their first time."
Nathan frowned faintly.
"A lot of people go through this daily," the soldier continued.
He paused briefly, then added,
"The goblins, although not lethal are usually enough to scare them completely off hunting."
Nathan's head snapped back up.
"Scare them… off?" he repeated.
The soldier studied him for a moment, as if deciding how much to say.
"According to our orders," the soldier said slowly,
"We only intervene when someone is about to die."
Nathan felt something cold settle in his stomach.
"That's part of the job," the soldier went on.
"Letting new hunters understand that hunting isn't a game and that pain is part of the lesson."
Nathan said nothing.
He just stared at the soldier, the words sinking in piece by piece.
The soldier shrugged lightly. "Most people feel pain like that once and never come back."
Silence stretched between them.
Nathan's mind replayed the moment the cleaver cut him.
'He's right,' Nathan realized.
'If that had gone a little worse…'
The soldier straightened. "Looks like you're fine," he said.
He turned, then paused, glancing back over his shoulder.
"Don't worry," the soldier added casually.
"You won't be coming back anyway. Most people who get hurt like that, don't."
With that, he walked away.
Nathan stood there long after the soldier disappeared back to his post.
The noise of the administrated area faded into the background.
His thoughts turned inward.
'So that's how it is.'
He replayed the soldier's words carefully, stripping away the casual tone and looking at the meaning underneath.
They hadn't helped him on purpose.
They could have.
There were soldiers everywhere.
If one had intervened the moment he was injured, the fight would have ended instantly.
But they hadn't.
Because they weren't meant to.
'This is intentional,' Nathan realized slowly.
The Sunken Maintenance Tunnels wasn't just a beginner dungeon.
It was a filter.
Nathan's gaze drifted to the tunnels leading back into darkness.
How many people had gone in confident, only to come out shaken or not come out at all?
'It's not about killing goblins,' he thought.
'It's about seeing who sticks around.'
And then the larger picture snapped into focus.
The number of hunters had exploded when the system first appeared.
Too many people with powers.
Too many people outside government control.
Hunters didn't answer to normal authority the way civilians did.
Guilds had their own influence, their own leverage.
'The government lost power because of hunters,' Nathan realized.
And they were still losing it.
So they did what they could.
They controlled entry level rifts.
And for government-owned dungeons like this one, they controlled the experience.
Pain, fear, near death experiences.
Enough to make most people walk away.
'They set a soft cap,' Nathan thought grimly.
Not an official limit.
A psychological one.
The government didn't need to ban hunters outright.
They just needed to make sure only a certain amount stuck around.
Nathan looked down at himself again.
At the blood-stained shirt, his torn vest, his hands that still trembled slightly.
'This is where most people quit,' he realized.
Fear of pain, fear of death and fear of going through that again.
His chest tightened—but not with fear.
With something else.
Anger.
'They expected me to leave.'
The soldier had already assumed it.
The hunters laughing at him probably did too.
Nathan slowly clenched his fists.
So was he going to go back to watching streams while others carried the weight of the world,
What about the burden his brother had shouldered alone for years.
'If this is meant to scare me away…'
Nathan took a slow, steady breath.
'Then they're going to be disappointed.'
Nathan tightened his grip around the shaft of his spear.
The wood creaked faintly under the pressure.
His chest still felt heavy with exhaustion.
His clothes still stained and ruined, but the fear that had threatened to linger no longer had the same weight.
'I'm not done,' he thought firmly.
The tunnels no longer looked like something meant to break him.
They looked like something meant to test him.
And then, almost as an afterthought, another realization surfaced.
'Oh, wait.'
'The system notification.'
Nathan straightened slightly and inhaled, steadying himself.
He simply focused on wanting to see the system window.
And then in response to his focus, the system reacted.
A translucent window shimmered into existence before him, red text sharp and unmistakable against the air.
Nathan's breath caught as the system message finally appeared.
[DING]
[New Entity Slain, Goblin Scout Records Acquired]
[Goblin Scout Slain, +0.1 AGI]
[Goblin Scout Slain, +0.1 AGI]
The red system message lingered in front of Nathan's eyes.
'So this is what you get after killing a monster,' he thought.
Nathan blinked.
'Only 0.2 agility...' he murmured inwardly.
The number itself felt small almost insultingly so.
'I guess these stats are going to take time to gather.'
This wasn't a game where numbers jumped dramatically after one fight.
Growth in reality was incremental.
Earned slowly and painfully.
Nathan glanced toward the tunnel entrances again.
For a brief moment, the thought surfaced naturally.
'If I go back in…'
'Maybe take on one more scout.'
He could get more agility, maybe other stats.
Maybe get his hand on shards.
His fingers tightened unconsciously around the spear.
Then the memory of blood, panic, and fight he just went through cut that thought out instantly.
'No.'
He shook his head.
'Today was just to test the waters.'
And the first day alone had almost swallowed him whole.
Nathan turned away from the tunnels and walked toward the rift instead.
His steps were slower now, heavier, exhaustion finally settling deep into his limbs.
He stepped through the blue tear.
The administrated office reformed around him in a blink.
He took in the sight of clean floors and bright lights.
Reality snapping back into place.
As he walked forward, another realization struck him.
"…The goblin ears."
He stopped briefly, then let out a quiet breath.
He'd forgotten them entirely.
'Two dollars each,' he recalled vaguely.
Nathan shook his head. "Barely any money."
Not worth going back for.
Later, seated on the bus heading home, Nathan leaned back against the window.
The city slid by outside, reflection warping in the window.
He had changed into the spare black t-shirt from his bag.
The ruined white one folded and tucked away where he wouldn't have to look at it.
His body ached.
His mind felt heavy.
But beneath it all, something else had settled in quietly.
Resolve.
Nathan looked out at the passing streets and made a decision—not dramatic, not loud, but firm.
'I'll try again tomorrow.'
This time, he wouldn't be testing the waters.
This time, he'd be ready to step deeper.