Ruins(1)

A pyramid-like structure was in front of Marco's eyes. This structure looked a lot smaller than the regular pyramid. But Marco was happy with it's its. Marco knew that a large ruin would take a long time to clear. Marco only had 3 raw meats in his inventory, which he got from hunting "weak" scorpions, as his reserves.

Marco suddenly felt a tremor around him. Marco did not wait for anything this time. He ran in the direction of the ruins with all of his might as he knew what was coming with the tremors.

In the desert, " When it tremors, trouble follows ". A huge worm-like creature came out of the ground Marco was standing on and leapt in the direction Marco was running. The face of this worm was non-existent.

There were only layers of sharp teeth present on its face, which was just a mouth. This was a level 30 monster called the death worm. They exist in levels ranging from 30 to 80. Since this was the first encounter, the worm is automatically at the minimum level.

Marco ran as fast as he could without looking back and jumped into the entrance of the ruin in the nick of time. The death worm roared in anger as its prey got away,, and he also missed what he came for.

The death worm was furious that it couldn't get its hands (mouth) on the cactus fruit. It acted like it left the area by going underground and tried to bait the prey into coming out. Marco knew about this and chose to stay inside the ruins.

Marco took out the cactus sticks from his bag and Scorpion's bladder from his inventory. He cut the bladder open and poured some oil on one side of the stick. He then took 2 of his shortswords and kept hitting them against each other.

The sparks that came out of it lit the stick on fire, making a torch. Marco held the torch in one hand and started walking inside. He then came across a long hallway with a narrow path. He instinctively felt that this was a trap road.

A trap road is a term used to refer to narrow paths that are filled with traps. There is a skill called trap disabling in the skill set of a subclass dungeon raider. But that skill only unlocks when the dungeon raider subclass is level 3.

Each dungeon has traps randomly placed in it. They are in the form of invisible strings, trapdoors, switches, etc., Marco now had no way but to walk and hope that it was some trap that he could manage.

As Marco started walking, he saw many mini-heads of a dragon with its mouth open on the sides of the wall.

*click * Suddenly, the block he was standing on went down, and an arrow came flying from one of the dragon's mouths, hitting Marco in his left shoulder.

"F**k " shouted Marco " Out of all the traps it had to be the arrow trap. Marco took the arrow out of his shoulder for confirmation, and he saw purple coloured liquid on the arrowhead." And of course it had to be laced with poison".

Marco had no idea what this poison was, and he started moving forward,, dodging all the incoming arrows until he couldn't . That is when he realised that he had been hit with a paralysis poison.

What goes around comes around. Marco poisoned all of the scorpions he saw with their own paralysis poison before killing them. Now the poison he used is inside his body, making him sluggish. That is when Marco realised that he had no antidote.

The cactus fruit only gives resistance to a certain type of poison at random. Even if he gains the paralysis poison resistance, which Marco was so sure of, that will not be enough to cope with the poison that will spread in his body for an hour until he absorbs the fruit.

With no other option on his side, Marco did a Hail Mary and started running towards the end with no strategy in mind. Arrows started raining on Marco one after another. After getting hit for some time, he couldn't even scream from the pain.

His sense of pain became numb due to continuous paralysis poison on his body. He knew that, although the type of poison in a ruin is random, only one type of poison will be there throughout the ruin.

There used to be all types of poison, but the players realised that some poison, like paralysis, can help them resist poison like pain amplification, bleeding and burning. So the game devs chose to change the format.

Marco lost his sense of smell and hearing. He couldn't even hear the arrows shooting out of the dragon's mouth. He felt so tired and wanted to sleep. He then remembered about the time he spent dozing off in his house during winter break.

Marco was at his limit. I can't think of these depressing thoughts now, thought Marco. He then remembered the loot he had to leave behind for this ruin. His anger surged higher, making him wake up.

Marco lost the feeling of touch in both of his hands. Initially, he lost the sense of touch on his left hand, but was not much worried as he held the torch in his right hand. Now, with his right hand gone, his grip on the torch gave up, and the torch fell.

The light from the torch was the only light that showed his eyes what was in front. He could not lose the torch, either, is what he thought. Both of his legs were still fine, so he kicked the torch as it was falling, stopped and bit the holding end of the torch with his mouth and continued running.

The pain from the burning flame near his cheeks protected his eyes and face from going numb.

...

Time passed by. Marco had no idea how far he ran. He had no sense of time, only one goal - living. Marco was looking like a porcupine with needles also on its front, which was now running on 2 legs.

Marco suddenly saw the end of the corridor and suddenly felt a surge of happiness filling him. He was getting close to the end until his right leg gave out.

Marco fell down, thinking No, I am right there. He did not give up, with his leg gone, he started crawling towards the corridor using only his body. His arms were numb, so he had no choice but to crawl only by using his shoulders, which were slowly going numb too. Marco was so sure that he could survive if he could get to the other end.

The arrows in front of him broke and fell out. Marco started to bleed extensively from the front. That did not stop him from crawling. The pain only made it easier for him to stay awake

He barely made it to the other side, which had no miracles but only darkness in it. Marco stopped chewing the torch and used his hands to take out all the arrows stuck in his back. He took out as many as possible in one stroke.

The pain of bleeding in the torso returned the sense of touch in his arms. Now, Marco was bleeding all over and losing health at an alarming rate. Marco got up to his sitting position, as his legs were still numb, and threw the torch as far as possible.

Suddenly, a bunch of bats were visible under the torch. The bats flew towards Marco to escape from the illuminated area and saw Marco's bloodied body.

These bats are called Frenzied Bats. A level 8 monster that is always found in the area after a trap-infested area.

These bats, already in panic, noticed that there was a lot of blood coming out of Marco's body. Marco now seemed like a dinner served on a silver platter to them. All the bats started to suck on his blood. This continued for 5 seconds until all the bats fell onto the floor. The paralysis poison in his blood has now been transported to these Bats.

If this were any other poison, Marco could have been in trouble. He could have dodged the arrows, but he had no way to deal with these bats. This still did not mean Marco was safe, as he had lost a lot of blood in 5 seconds

Now Marco shouted " emergency treatment " with all of his strength. Suddenly, all of his wounds closed, and Marco was left with 1 health. This was the effect of the Undying warrior skill.

Emergency treatment - a skill that does not heal you but closes all of your wounds and removes all status effects. It has a cooldown of 24 hours.

Emergency treatment is a skill you gain when you choose the Medic subclass. Marco chose this subclass when he was hit by the first paralysis arrow. It was a gamble, but he was victorious in the end.

"Haha...hahahahahahhahaahahhhaha".Marco, who had felt like hell while walking, started laughing crazily for the next 10 minutes.