[EMERGENCY ABILITY USE: VOID FLICKER]
The world flickered before Murphy's eyes. He was still in the cave, but a few meters away from where he was standing a moment ago.
His heart was pounding as he watched a grotesque, slimy appendage hit the air where he had been.
Murphy blinked, then screamed. "What the fuck is that thing?!" He didn't have time to think about how he almost died here again as the creature launched at him.
It was wrong. Like someone had tried to sculpt a centipede out of melted candles and rotten meat, then dipped the whole mess in motor oil for good measure.
It let out a screech—a sound that Murphy felt more in his teeth than in his ears.
"Oh god. Okay. Okay. Thanks for rescuing me, but what am I supposed to do now?!" Murphy's stomach dropped as he watched the creature move towards him on dozens of its legs.
"Yeah. I know! Use it again. Again!" Murphy begged before seeing another notification appear before his eyes.
[ABILITY USED: VOID FLICKER]
[COOLDOWN: 60 SECONDS]
His eye twitched. "Huh? 60 seconds?! Are you kidding me? Is this some mobile game? Do I need watch an ad to skip the cooldown?"
The centipede-nightmare thing screeched again, its oily hide glistening in the dim, pulsing light of the cave. Its legs scraped and squelched across the gooey floor, leaving trails of black sludge in its wake.
This time, Murphy didn't wait for his end. He turned and ran as fast as he could, which... wasn't fast considering the slimy floor that kept sticking to his boots.
He slipped, stumbled, then caught himself on what he hoped was a rock and not a piece of sentient fungus.
"Hey, system? Buddy? Pal? Any ideas?!"
[RECOMMENDATION: AVOID DYING]
"Oh, wow. Sherlock Holmes out there! How did I not think about it?" Murphy grunted, sliding around a corner in the cave and barely keeping his balance. His breath came in ragged gasps, but not from exhaustion—it was panic, pure and raw.
The tunnel ahead narrowed, writhing like a throat preparing to swallow him. He gagged at the thought and the smell. Something somewhere was breathing, and it wasn't him.
Behind him, the creature crashed into the tunnel wall with a sickening splat. It shrieked and started after him again, this time even faster—probably pissed off that its lunch had grown legs and attitude.
Murphy spotted a split ahead. "Left or right? Quick!"
[WARNING: BOTH PATHS CONTAIN UNKNOWN THREADS]
"Perfect. Flip a coin? Oh wait, I'm dead, and broke. No coins!" He veered right on instinct, his boots sticking to the floor like he was running through snot. "If I survive this, I'm burning these shoes. And maybe my entire wardrobe."
The tunnel curved sharply, and Murphy's shoulder slammed into the wall. It squished and let out a wet squelch.
Murphy's face twisted in disgust as his mind registered the wet sound. "Oh hell nah!" He screamed before pushing himself off the wall.
Something warm and slightly furry clung to his sleeve. He looked down. It was a tongue. A wall tongue.
Murphy screamed again. "What kind of hentai hellhole did I get dropped into?!"
He yanked his arm away, the tongue stretching like gum before snapping back with a wet plop. He didn't stop to process. He just ran.
Behind him, the centipede abomination screeched again. The sound echoed off the fleshy walls, bouncing like sonar and stabbing at his sanity.
"System, I swear if I live through it, I'm uninstalling you."
[REQUEST INVALID: I AM INTEGRATED]
"Oh, even better, like a virus with sass."
Murphy turned another corner and almost skidded straight into a pit. He teetered on the edge, arms flailing wildly. "Nope! Not today, gravity!"
He barely caught his balance and backed away from the drop, just in time to watch the centipede-thing scramble into view. It paused, sensing him. Its face—if it could be called that—had too many eyes and not enough symmetry. One of the eyes blinked sideways.
"Okay, jumping down doesn't seem that bad anymore."
[NOTE: A MONUMENT DETECTED 10 METERS BELOW]
Murphy didn't have time to ask what a monument was. The centipede launched at him with yet another screech.
Murphy jumped down.
For one terrifying second he was falling. Then he was still falling. And then—he hit the ground.
Wait... not a solid ground?
It was... spongy.
Like someone had filled a bouncy castle with old yogurt and finished it with snot.
Murphy bounced once, then gagged, then stood on his shaking legs. "God, what is it this time."
[ANSWER: YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW]
"Huh?" Murphy blinked before gagging again. "Ugh... don't tell me it's what I think it is."
[ANSWER: FILTERED]
"That doesn't make it any better!" Murphy screamed before steading himself on the gooey ground. "Okay. Alright. Ugh. I can't be that bad—ugh. Oh my goodness, I'm gonna vomit."
He bent over, hands on his knees, trying to breathe through his mouth. That didn't help. It just meant he tasted the air now. It was like licking a wet sponge that had been soaking in monster foot sweat for a century.
"I hate this place." He muttered, blinking away the tears that formed in his eyes and swallowed, which didn't make things much better.
Then he swallowed again. Bad move. It made the taste somehow even worse. "Oh god... okay, system, if I died here, I want it on record that I tried."
[RECORDING STATEMENT]
"Don't you dare..."
[RECORDING CANCELLED]
He took a shaky step forward, the group squelching with every move. "I don't know if this would fit better for a horror or a monster hentai game."
[ANSWER: BOTH]
Murphy rolled his eyes. "Figured."
He shuffled forward, trying to ignore the wet suction sounds his steps made. "You said something about a monument, right?"
[MONUMENT IDENTIFIED: POSSIBLE SOUL CORE UPGRADE]
"Upgrade? That sounds useful." He stumbled forward, hand brushing against a gelatinous wall. It jiggled. He screamed again. "Stop jiggling! You're a wall, have some dignity!"
As Murphy rounded another squishy corner, the space opened into what could generously be called a chamber—and less generously, a sinus cavity the size of a garage. In the center stood... something.
It pulsed with a faint light. Pale lavender hues shimmered across a structure that looked like a cross between a crystal, a tumor, and a cathedral designed by someone very, very high.
"This is the monument?" Murphy muttered, stepping closer. He had to squint to look at it directly—it was like looking at a mirage.
[CONFIRMED: THIS IS A LEVEL ONE MONUMENT]
[INTERACTION ADVISED]
"Okay, I'm gonna touch it, but I'm haunting you if it eats me." He approached cautiously, the goo pulling at his feet with each step like it was trying to keep him away.
He raised his hand, the palm touched the monument. It felt slimy as well and jiggled slightly. "Man, I'm starting to think this cave got some slime fetish."
Murphy closed his eyes as the monument burst into light. "My eyes..." He blinked, trying to clear his vision. The monument was gone, leaving even bigger puddle of fluids.
"Alright, that's still disgusting, but, hey, it... wasn't as bad as I thought. System? You here, pal?" He scratched the back of his head before the voice appeared again.
[CORE ABILITY ACQUIRED: VOID STEP (PASSIVE)]
[CORE ABILITY ACQUIRED: KINETIC PUNCH]
Murphy blinked at the flashing messages that appeared before him, still recovering from the blinding light. His head throbbed as if it had just been dunked into a vat of sludge and then set on fire.
"Alright. So what has just happened?" He murmured, looking down at his hands, like he became hyper aware of them now.
"Uh... so void step and kinetic punch, is this some cheap knockoff superhero starting pack?"
He flexed his fingers, waiting for some sort of dramatic transformation or maybe a flashy explosion, but nothing happened.
"What do these do, exactly?" He murmured under his breath, hoping the system was still here. "Buddy?"
[PROCESSING...]
"Oh, you're still here. So?" Murphy raised an eyebrow, expecting another snarky response.
[VOID STEP: ACTIVATES WHEN USER IS IN DANGER: TELEPORTS USER A FEW METERS AWAY FROM THE ATTACK]
[KINETIC PUNCH: ENABLES YOU TO CHANNEL KINETIC FORCE INTO A PUNCH, IMPACT STRENGTH INCREASED]
Murphy blinked at the messages, processing them with a confused frown. "Oh, I can teleport now? And punch things really hard? Sounds badass."
"So... if I do this..." He experimentally clenched his fist, half-expecting some kind of cartoonish explosion or super-powered shockwave to rip through the air. But nope. Nothing. Just a normal, goo-covered fist.
"Well... that's kinda disappointing." He muttered, but quickly stiffened as the ground beneath him shook again.
[ALERT: ENEMY IS APPROACHING]
"Figured that. Wait. Oh god. Don't tell me it's the centipede monster again." And like it heard him, it screeched, slowly sliding down the wall of the pit.
It looked at Murphy with dozens of eyes that were still in the wrong positions. Its tongue flickered out like it was already tasting him.
Murphy shivered, feeling the disgust in his stomach. "Okay. Alright. This time I'm buffed. Ready for round 2?"