Chapter 5: The Cave
The moment Basil had uttered the words, something inside him had clicked.
It wasn't the mana. It wasn't even the sword.
It was Lark.
During his endless training, Basil had developed habits without realizing—subtle sounds he'd make with each style of swing. A grunt here. A syllable there. Little bursts of air tied unconsciously to the rhythm of his movements. They were meaningless to him.
But not to Lark.
Lark, the so-called idiot, had mimicked those sounds—not at random, but in patterns. Basil had thought it was nonsense, gibberish. In truth, Lark had been repeating Basil's own combat rhythms back to him, repurposing them into a sequence. A code.
A combo.
One more refined than Basil had ever designed himself.
Lark the idiot had become Lark the genius.
And the result… was freedom.
⸻
The wall split in half, torn by Basil's blade in a flash of red and violet light. For the first time in hundreds of years, the cube was breached.
As the dust cleared, Basil stood before the newly carved exit, panting slightly. His hands trembled as he lowered the sword, mana pulsing from its edge in soft, angry wisps.
"I did it…" he whispered. "I actually did it."
Before him, the wall had peeled open like the skin of an apple. A jagged tunnel stretched forward—seven feet long, carved through the unbreakable shell of the cube. Beyond that… blackness. An unknown space.
Behind him, Tess, Rob, and Lark were plastered against the far wall.
Basil glanced back at them, regret in his eyes.
"I'm gonna take a look and come right back," he said, half to reassure them, half to convince himself. "This won't be goodbye."
The sword in his hand still radiated heat. It was the best weapon he had ever forged—dense with mana, etched with years of forge knowledge. And it was still intact. No cracks, no shatter.
He gripped it tighter and stepped forward.
Into the unknown.
⸻
The one-way tunnel opened into a wide crossroad—dark, rocky, and hollow. The walls stretched high, dripping with moisture, and the air felt damp and ancient.
"It looks like I'm in some kind of ca—"
CRACK.
A massive, blue hand slammed down just above the tunnel entrance. Four fingers, long and thick, dug into the stone with hooked, yellowed nails.
Basil froze.
A head followed.
Not just any head—a giant's head. Pale blue flesh, one oversized eye in the center of its forehead, and rows of jagged teeth. As it looked down, it let out a shriek that shattered the silence and rattled Basil's bones.
The creature roared and thrust its other hand forward in a blurring punch.
Basil barely had time to register the movement before the hit landed square in his chest, launching him backwards like a missile.
He smashed into the back wall of the cube with a crack, leaving a human-shaped dent in the metal.
"Owwww…" he groaned, peeling himself out of the wall, ribs throbbing, sword somehow still in hand.
No time to think.
He bolted forward.
The creature had bent over, revealing something sharp and metallic protruding from the center of its forehead—like a jagged horn.
With a snarl, it charged him.
Basil tried to dodge but wasn't fast enough. The creature's horn drove straight into his lower right abdomen, lifting him from the ground.
He screamed as it carried him backward—back through the tunnel, back into the cube—before slamming him into the far wall, the horn puncturing straight through, mangling his insides.
Basil coughed out blood.
As the beast struggled to back out, its horn still embedded in the wall, Basil seized the chance.
He drove his sword into its neck.
Again. And again.
He stabbed the same spot until blue blood fountained from the wound and the beast's struggling slowed. Then stopped.
Its body slumped.
Still impaled on the wall, Basil cut away what remained of the head around the horn, pushing himself off of it. The movement tore what little was left of his abdomen.
Groaning, he staggered forward.
"That sucked…" he muttered.
Then his legs gave out.
"Whoa… I feel kinda dizzy…"
He collapsed face-first onto the floor.
DING
## You have been poisoned ##- • Poison from the blood of the Paralyzing Blue Dragon has entered your body.
- • You will die in: 00:30
Basil blinked as the words hovered over him.
His mouth couldn't move anymore. His limbs were going numb. He could only think:
I can't believe I'm on this stupid floor again, about to die.
Well… at least this beats bleeding out for six hours.
⸻
His vision faded again.
Darkness swallowed him.
Then, light.
Basil gasped back to life, lying flat on the cold metal floor. Mana at its maximum capacity again—restored by death, as always. But something was wrong.
A cold grip wrapped around his arm.
He turned his head.
The corpse was still alive.
The beast—headless, twitching, gurgling blue blood—had its thick fingers wrapped around his arm, claw tips biting into his skin.
Basil didn't hesitate.
"No way you're still alive."
He summoned his sword into his hand and, with renewed strength, sliced clean through the monster's wrist.
The severed hand dropped with a wet slap.
The creature twitched. Basil's brow furrowed.
"Alright. Let's make this permanent."
He stabbed it in the chest.
Then the stomach.
Then the back.
Over and over.
"Die—already—how do I kill you, huh?!"
He stabbed until the blade sunk smoothly through the spine and the twitching finally stopped.
DING
### Nice Kill!###
• You killed an Abomination (S+)
(A man-made monster created through forcefully combining the DNA of demons and other creatures.)
• You have been awarded: 8,000 XP
DING
### Level Up! ###
• Level 66 achieved
Rewards:
+5 Stat Points
+1 Skill Point
Next Level: 10,000 XP required
Basil took a shaky breath, letting his sword drop to his side.
"Huh… looks like that worked."
He chuckled dryly.
"Well, guys… looks like this isn't going to be so easy after all, huh?"
Silence.
He turned toward the back of the cube.
"…Guys?"
His voice faltered.
The wall was torn apart.
Not just cracked—shredded. Deep gouges ran across the surface, metal twisted and peeled like paper. Bits of ink and scorched metal marked where Rob, Tess, and Lark had once been.
They were gone.
He hadn't noticed it before, but when he broke the wall during his escape, the intricate rune pathways woven into the cube's structure had shattered as well. The runes had powered everything—the bindings, the enchantments, the toughness of the wall.
And when the wall lost its reinforcement from the runes…
They lost their lives.
During the fight, the Abomination's claws had ripped through the now-weakened metal, carving up the interior of the cube—and everything in it.
Basil stepped toward the wall, numb. A piece of Lark's face—just two dots for eyes and a half-shredded smile—lay at his feet, still smudged with the ink he used to draw it.
Basil knelt down and gently picked up the piece of metal.
"Ah… I see," he said quietly.
A single tear slid down his cheek and landed on the metal.
He closed his eyes to wipe it away, and in that brief moment of darkness, he felt something stir. A familiar energy, warm and subtle, flowed through his chest. When he opened his eyes, he saw it—his soul fragment, the one he'd given to Lark, slowly drifting back into him. It shimmered faintly as it returned to its source, like a lost piece finally finding home.
"Forgive me," Basil muttered. "Even you guys… I couldn't protect."
He rose to his feet and moved to what remained of the other two—Rob and Tess. Their fragments followed suit, drawn back into him with bittersweet ease. He stored one small piece of each of them in his inventory, a quiet promise to carry them with him.
His inventory had been sealed the entire time he'd been inside the cube. He figured it had been due to the runes woven deep into the floor—some kind of restriction, preventing him from accessing it. But now, with the runes broken and the seal gone, it functioned again.
He found the hilt of his old, broken sword and summoned the soul fragment from within it too, recalling it into himself.
Then, gripping the hilt of his new sword, Basil turned and stepped out of the cube. His eyes glowed with dangerous light—deep purple, pulsing like embers in the dark.
Back in the wide chamber at the end of the tunnel, Basil paused. He closed his eyes, focusing. Mana surged around him, the world humming faintly in his ears.
"Twenty-seven… huh. Good enough."
He extended his senses, concentrating. Three tunnels branched off from the chamber, excluding the one he'd come through. With focus, Basil could see—threads of mana moving in each of them, thin and pulsing like veins. He could feel the presence of enemies close by.
DING
## New Skill Created! ##• (no name) (C)
- • You can see the flow of mana in living beings within a 50-meter radius by focusing.
- • Would you like to name this skill, or let the system decide?
- Cost: 1 Mp per second
"Woah… a new skill? Since when was I allowed to do that?"
He thought for a moment.
"Umm… let's name it…" As the name box appeared, Basil muttered, "Mana Vision, I guess."
DING
## Ohhh Yeaaa!! ##- •Congratulations! Through your Authority, you have created a new skill:
- 'Mana Vision I Guess' (C)
Basil's eye twitched.
"Huhhh?? No—wait, why'd you add the 'I guess' at the end? Oh come onnn…"
He rubbed the side of his head and sighed. "Let's try this one more time. I need to make sure this actually works."
He stepped into a nearby shadow, letting his mana coat his body. A zip of energy surged through his limbs.
He vanished.
Then reappeared in another shadow, three meters away.
DING
## New Skill Created! ##•(No name) (F)
- • You can move between shadows up to a maximum distance of 3 meters.
- • Would you like to name this skill, or let the system decide?
- Cost: 50 Mp
Basil grinned. "Insane…"
"Just like Mana Vision… something I came up with while in the cube. And now it's a real skill registered by the system!"
This time, he kept his eyes open as he spoke. "Let's call this one… Phantom Step."
DING
## Ohhh Yeaaa!! ##- • Congratulations! Through your Authority, you have created a new skill:
- • 'Phantom Step' (F)
"This… this is just too insane to comprehend," he said with a breathless laugh. "I can actually make skills now."
His expression darkened slightly. "I wonder if I can get my old ones back too…"
He coated his hand in mana, extending it like a blade, and slashed toward the wall.
A thin arc of energy ripped through the stone with a sharp hiss.
DING
## Skill Acquired ##- • Mana Slash (D)
- • Sends a forward slash of pure mana in the targeted direction.
- • Mana Cost: 5
- • Base Damage: 10
Basil exhaled and lowered his arm.
"Hah… looks like all that bastard did was steal them."
He'd feared the worst—some permanent seal on his soul, cutting him off from all skills and inventory access forever. But no. The King of Hell, for all his might, was no goddess. His curse had only slowed Basil down… not stopped him.
"It looks like he just robbed me of everything that wasnt tied to my soul or had no value. At least he left me with some gold."
A dry chuckle escaped his lips.
"Honestly… that's a relief. If I can recreate my skills, even if they're weak at first, I can rebuild. With time… I'll be stronger than ever."
His glowing purple eyes scanned the three tunnels branching off into the dark.
"With my inventory back and the seal on my skills gone I can get to work"
He tightened his grip on his sword, the blade humming low and deadly.
"Lets go have a chat with my new roommates."
He stepped into the tunnel on the right, fading into a patch of shadow. Using Phantom Step, he moved silently—slipping from one shadow to another, his form blinking forward with ghost-like fluidity.
No sound followed him.
Only the glow of his eyes, faint and violet, drifting like twin embers deeper into the dark.
"Look at this poor little lost lamb, sectioned off from the others are we?"
Basil said while creeping up on an abomination that had wondered off by itself.
"Your going to make a perfect test subject."
Basil grabbed a rock and threw it at the abomination grabbing its attention. When it turned around Basil had retreated into the shadows causing the monster to walk towards the spot he believed it came from.
Basil repeated this process until he had the abomination back in the tunnel by the cube.
"Tsk.."
"Tsk.."
"Tsk.."
"Are you lost little guy?"
The abomination turned around following the sound of the voice and could see nothing but an outline of a man with glowing purple eyes. Approaching him. Twirling what seem to be a sword in his right hand.
*swoosh
Basil had sent his sword flying towards the beast impaling his right shoulder into the wall.
"You see a friend of yours did some unforgivable things to some friends of mine"
Basil inched closer to the beast making a small swirling motion with his hand creating 3 spikes that floated above him.
"And now, your going to pay for his mistakes"
DING
## Skill Acquired ##
- • Earth Spike (B)
- • A Spell that Allows You To Create A Spike As Hard As The Crust of molten lava Using Mana As The Base.
- Cost: 25 Mp
- DMG: 50 Hp
The beast tried reaching for the sword in its shoulder but before it could grab it.
*Swosh
*Thud
*Thud
*Thud
Basil had sent the spikes he created spiraling towards the abomination nailing his hand and feet to the wall as well.
"Now, lets begin"
Basil said as a smile that replicated the demons he encountered as a boy crept across his face.