The Primal Hunter

As the timer ticked down, he assessed the situation. He knew what to do about the snake platforms, and as he had been given a dagger, he assumed it would have something to do with deactivating either the winged serpent or the wyvern symbols.

If his whole evolution theory was correct, he likely had to do something with the winged serpent symbol. The picture was the same as in the room prior, depicting a winged serpent flying over humanoids and animals, who all submitted before the beast.

If he had to feed the mushroom-eating snake mushrooms, did he have to feed the winged serpent too? It seemed probable. There was just one tiny issue. The only other thing than itself in the picture was other living things. And he was the only human or animal present; he didn’t like where his logic was going.

But he would have to figure something out. The knife was clearly there to cut something, and the only things he had to cut were stones, mushrooms, and himself. And as much as he would like to go on a rampage slicing and dicing mushrooms, he was pretty sure what to cut. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

He lifted the knife and made a small cut in the palm of his hand. Because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right?

He hissed in pain as it started bleeding. Standing at the edge of the platform, he threw out a few drops of blood, luckily hitting one of the symbols with a winged serpent on. When the blood touched it, the blue light disappeared, just like it had when he fed the small snake mushrooms.

Smiling to himself, he nodded at his brilliance. Not that hard. He started looking for the pattern he would have to jump as he wrapped up his hand in the cloth of his robe. This room’s path was a bit longer than the last one, but it should be manageable. Alright so first there… then there…

The seconds ticked by as he mapped out the route in his mind. But he soon noticed an issue. Not with his intended path, but his hand. It hadn’t stopped bleeding; in fact, it felt like it was getting worse.

“Fuck me,” he cursed out loud as he’d just put himself on an even tighter timer.

He quickly went for the pattern he had decided on and started throwing mushrooms and blood all around him as he leaped on the first platform. It made his bleeding hand hurt as it was unwrapped from his cloak, but quite frankly, he wasn’t sure it could get any worse.

As he got a bit over halfway, he started feeling dizzy and nearly stumbled. The blood was coming out at a frightening speed, and his attempts to put pressure on the wound didn’t do jack shit.

He kept pushing forward as his hand began to feel cold, a coldness that soon spread up his arm. A sense of weakness began to overtake his entire body as he finally made it to the last platform and, with a half-hearted leap, tried to jump into the next hallway.

His half-heartedness resulting in him not getting all the way, hitting the ledge hard. He managed to hang on with his barely functional arms, but his feet ended up barely touching the water.

The moment they made contact, he felt a stinging pain. He hauled himself up with a rush of adrenaline, but as he tried to stand up, he heard a weird sound like someone was squashing rotten fruit.

Falling on the ground, the feelings of pain and dizziness were overpowering. He looked behind him and saw the fate of his feet. Both were rotting stumps as blackness spread up his legs, already up to his thighs.

He tried crawling forward, but his knees gave in as even the bone was rotten. He was so close to being all the way into the hallway.

With desperation, he used his hands to claw himself forward. His entire body was cold, but the debilitating pain from his legs made him focus. Even then, his vision started to blur as he kept crawling. Vision in his left eye suddenly gave out, followed by the right eye as he was blinded. The rot had spread to his lower body by now, already reaching the navel.

His mind was blank, yet he kept clawing at the ground, moving him forward inch by inch. It wasn’t even clear if you could call him conscious any longer. His instinct to survive was the only thing still hanging on. The rot had already reached parts of his lungs, and breathing became impossible. Soon it would reach his heart, and no matter how powerful his instinct to survive, that would be the end.

As death was mere moments away, he crawled the last few centimeters, fully entering the hallway.

Challenger fully restored. Challenge continuing.

Make it to the other side of the hall: 2/3

Time remaining: 14:59

Jake opened his eyes with a jolt as all feeling returned to his body. He was already standing up before he could process what had happened. His body was healed, the knife-wound and rot all gone, and even his clothes restored.

His heart was still pumping fast, and his entire body stiff. It took him around a minute before he finally calmed down, fully realizing what had just happened. Realizing that he was no longer in danger.

He'd felt himself die. While the feeling of coldness and emptiness was physically gone, it still dominated his mind. For the first time since he entered the tutorial, he had truly faced death. His

was nothing he could do about it. He enjoyed fighting; he enjoyed dancing between life

If he died fighting a strong opponent,

companions being mushrooms… he couldn’t accept such a fate. He wanted to die fighting, not lying on the ground helplessly, slowly being corroded

caves with strong enemies and cool bosses? Not just a bunch of sucky halls with even suckier traps. Was this one of those puzzle-dungeons nobody likes in videogames? Could you even call this shithole a dungeon to begin

despair and concern turned to anger as he shifted his attention back to the present. He had lived, he was alive, and he wasn’t going to die in this fucking place. With

placed in the hallway with him. He had dropped it during the last challenge, but it

the others, he would perhaps have to cut his hand once more. This time, however, he swore to make the wound smaller and to not dilly-dally before beginning. Also, to not be a freaking moron and cut

and the pattern of symbols, nothing had changed. But

all of the platforms were neatly organized in rows, meaning one could take the entire trip while only stepping on a single type. Did this mean that one could

wrong. Jake tried to throw a mushroom on the snake platform, and it indeed did turn off for 10 seconds just like all the others. Was this a free room? A mind game? A

middle one solely consisted of the wyvern symbols. The wyvern was sitting on a

But what did this wyvern want? There were only two objects on the entire image, the wyvern, and the mountain. He doubted a bit of blood, or

angry at the sky? But that led to

dungeon itself implanting that thought. But somehow, he felt like the wyvern looked… hesitant. He wasn’t sure if ‘afraid’ would be a better word, but something within the wyvern held it back. The roar was not one of anger or indignation, but one of

needed was courage. The willpower to advance

time, every other platform but the ones with wyverns on turned off. Jake instinctively knew he could move

feed the wyvern courage. Without hesitation, he sprinted towards the still glowing platforms with the blue symbols of

jumped onto the next platform with a wyvern on. Through his sphere, he

leaping from one platform to another until he reached

other platforms crumble to dust. He turned to the doorway and proceeded out

hall by using the

it to the other

Challenge passed!

completed: Show the courage to

Restored. All

everything returned

the same strength he had around… shit,

easy path. If his guess was correct, then the previous room was a test to see if the challenger would take the obvious

himself at his foolhardiness. Well, he thought, at least I

the one he assumed to be a bonus one, he found himself in yet another hall. This one was far bigger, though, so that’s something. There were no pillars like the first or a massive basin of killer-water like the subsequent ones. It was just a long hall with a gigantic mural carved into

the whole carving. It clearly told a story. As he stared, the images began to move as he felt his consciousness be sucked into it. The moving pictures

moments as the snake consumed mushroom after mushroom. The same tiny snake soon began fighting giant beasts, but they were all left half-rotten in its wake. The little

land beneath it. At other times, humanoid beings

across the land, killing all that came in its path, with the

and a ridiculously gigantic bird-like creature. The snake won and once more soared into the

of the same kind of bird it had killed earlier was consumed by a mist of poison that surrounded the scaled beast. It had no rival and slaughtered everything it came across; not even its humanoid followers

below. A wasteland of its own creation. As it lay there, it roared towards the sky. The mural then displayed the passage of time, as the wyvern simply idled. No new grass or trees grew, no new life emerged. The land in which it had grown up

and soared towards the heavens. The sky was shattered

once small snake emerging from the exploding planet, now no longer a wyvern, but a dragon. It soared upwards into the stars as an entire

the images stopped, Jake stood in front of the mural for quite a while, just staring at it. It had shown the small mushroom-loving snake’s complete

the scene was frozen on the image of the wyvern breaking

warm glow entered him. At the same time, he heard the wall off