《Explore Grow Die Repeat [LitRPG Dungeon Roguelite]》 Chapter 1 I bolted awake as tons of blue boxes flashed before my mind¡¯s eye faster than I could read their contents. What had just happened? Where was I? Wait, who was I? Why couldn¡¯t I remember my name? Why was everything pitch black? Had my vision failed? Was I blind? ¡°Hello, can anyone hear me?¡± I yelled, hoping desperately that someone could. The noise of my yell reverberated back into my ears unpleasantly. It seemed to rebound all about me. I reached my hand out, trying to placate some of my fear with another sense, and instead realized why my call had gone nowhere. My hands rubbed against the rough, cool surface of what I was pretty sure was stone. Running my hand across the wall, I found myself just turning in a circle. It seemed to entrap me on all sides. I dropped to the ground and quickly felt around the small floor I stood on and found the same. There wasn¡¯t even enough room in here for me to lie down if I wanted to. As my panic set in, I ran my hands across every inch of the walls I could reach: nothing, all stone. There was no way out. How long would my air even last? Wait, was there something above me? I leaped, unable to find a ceiling, but more stone walls everywhere I touched. As I crashed back to the ground, another blue box flashed into my mind¡¯s eye, this time, though it stayed long enough for me to read it.
[Jumping Unlocked]
That confused me even more. Why was jumping now unlocked? I knew how to jump already. What did it even mean by being unlocked? Clearly, I had just done it. The pain in my legs as I hit the ground attested to that. As though on cue from my last thought, the box vanished and was replaced by a cascading series of pop-ups, each lasting several seconds.
[Falling Resistance Unlocked] [Joint Damage Resistance Unlocked] [Bone Damage Resistance Unlocked] [Muscle Strength Unlocked] [Bone Strength Unlocked]
I assumed the clothing I was wearing had protected me from any sort of skin damage resistance or whatever it may be called. My pants felt like some sort of jeans. The shirt was just a simple t-shirt; I couldn¡¯t feel any buttons. The shoes were harder to tell without my sight. I guessed possibly tennis shoes. They didn¡¯t feel heavy enough to be boots. I then realized I had just spent the last minute cataloging what I was wearing, entirely ignoring the insane unlocking messages I had been seeing. Had that been my mind¡¯s way of trying to distract me with something saner? If it had, it hadn¡¯t worked for long. I was still here, trapped in a room with no idea on how to escape. Which forced the question of air back to my mind. How much did I even have? How long had I been in here before I became aware of it? I forced myself to calm down, to slow my breathing as much as I could.
[Controlled Breathing Unlocked] [Mental Focus Unlocked]
The irony of those pop-ups making me lose control of both things wasn¡¯t lost on me. At least I still had a sense of humor, I supposed. Had I had one before? No, no, I couldn¡¯t go back down that existential dread path again yet. I needed to see if I could feel any air flow. Again, I calmed myself down, going as still as I could, listening for the slightest. This time, I managed not to be distracted by the pop-up, keeping myself calm as it flashed away. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
[Listening Unlocked]
There was nothing. It was so silent I could hear my heart beat. My own breathing was the loudest thing in the room and the only thing producing the tiniest air flow. While there still may be a way out on the ceiling, for now at least, I was trapped down here with dead air. I may not know when it would happen, but eventually, the air would run out, and presumably, I would die shortly after. I took a deep breath, covered my ears, and screamed as loudly as I possibly could. ¡°Help!¡±
[Yelling Unlocked]
My throat hurt from how loud I had screamed, but still there was no response. And why had I unlocked yelling now? This was the second time I had done it. Was it because the first wasn¡¯t strong enough? Wait, why was I even focusing on these stupid messages? They had no real use as far as I could tell. They just kept distracting me. Distracting me from what, though? There was nothing here. I was trapped, and I was going to run out of air, and even if that somehow didn¡¯t happen, I would eventually starve to death anyway. I slumped against the wall, sliding to the ground in abject surrender to my own fate. As I sat waiting for the inevitable to come, I considered how it was possible I had even found myself here. With the gaps in my memory, I assumed I had to have been drugged, likely kidnapped. Had I been dropped in from above? That seemed like the most logical way to place me here. Just open the chamber, drop me in, and then seal it again from above. It still didn¡¯t answer why, though. If this was just some serial killer¡¯s idea of fun, wouldn¡¯t they at least want to watch me die? Then again, I supposed they could be. I had no idea what was above me watching me. I had no idea if it was dark or if I was just blind. Everything other than these damn walls were complete and utter mysteries. I existed dammit, and it wasn¡¯t fair that this would be the end of it. I pounded my fist on the ground as hard as I could in my growing rage. My hand screamed in pain as again the pop-ups forced themselves on me.
[Pounding Unlocked] [Stone Breaking Unlocked] [Blunt Force Damage Resistance Unlocked] [Skin Resistance Unlocked]
Wait, that second one had said Stone Breaking Unlocked. I ran my fingers across the ground where I had pounded my fist seconds ago. There was no crack or sign of a dent. I had no idea why that box had claimed it was unlocked if I hadn¡¯t done anything. I hit the ground again, the same as I had before. The result was unchanged. Why did these damnable boxes plague me? Was it just to give me the tiniest shred of hope at changing my fate only to yank it away? I screamed again in frustrated anger, forgetting to cover my ears.
[Sonic Damage Resistance Unlocked]
At this notification, I burst into a fit of uncontrolled laughter. The sheer lunacy of the situation had broken through the fear and anger. Several minutes of cracking up later and it dawned on me that the air must have been getting thin. That was the real reason for the burst of laughter. It was getting harder to focus as my breaths became shallow and ragged. A fit of coughing came on next. Right as the dizziness hit, I knew my time was running out. I felt myself slump forward as it became impossibly difficult to keep myself awake. Finally, I surrendered to that eternal sleep. Whatever had placed me into this prison had won, and I hadn¡¯t even managed the tiniest fight. ¡°Goodbye,¡± I tried to say, but the words came out as an unrecognizable jumble. I tried to laugh again, but it was too late; the need to sleep overwhelmed me, and all thoughts fled. *** I bolted awake, the memories of what had just happened flooded back into me. This time, there was no flash of blue pop-ups. Why was I alive again? I was standing again, just like the first time this had happened, but I was sure I had been sitting when I died. Wait, that wasn¡¯t right. I couldn¡¯t have died. It had to have been some weird dream, right? I reached out, feeling the same stone walls all around me as before. It was not a dream. I was still trapped in my hell of a prison, and now I couldn¡¯t even be promised a release upon death. What could I possibly have done to deserve this? No, I wouldn¡¯t fall to that hopelessness again. If I couldn¡¯t die, that meant that eventually I could escape. There had to be a way. I ran through my thoughts of my brief past life and came to the conclusion that the only truly unexplored option had been the ceiling. I started leaping, over and over, trying desperately to go higher. I made jump after jump, having no idea if I was making the tiniest bit of progress in my dark world. I crashed back to the ground for the unknownth time, not having counted, to finally experience a new change. How was that even possible?
[Jump] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2]
Chapter 2 There was one big problem with the potential behind what I had just seen. Even if that meant what I thought it meant, I hadn¡¯t been doing anything before that would let me measure if my jumping height had actually increased in any meaningful way. I couldn¡¯t see where I was touching, so that was out. And while I could have counted the seconds I was off the ground as a likely marker, I hadn¡¯t been doing that before. So I had nothing to compare it to. I jumped up and down a couple of times just to get a good baseline of where I was at now. I estimated I was staying in the air for around half a second. Whether that was more than before I had hit level two, I didn¡¯t know. With no other option, and air likely to start dwindling at any moment again, I started leaping more. Two thoughts ran through my brain as I pushed myself. The first was that I wished I had an easy way of measuring time other than counting it, as that would require far too much active thought to reasonably work. The second was the realization that it wasn¡¯t just as simple as being denied death, as this room entirely reset itself as far as I knew. Otherwise, I¡¯d have just started to run out of air again immediately. A large blue pop-up filled my head. My first actual goal had been reached. For the first time since the nightmare had started, I felt like I might actually be making progress at something. Sure, Jumping was a pretty abstract thing to be focusing on for a success considering the situation, but at the moment, any win felt monumental.
[Jump] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 3] [Falling Resistance] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2] [Joint Damage Resistance] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2] [Bone Damage Resistance] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2] [Muscle Strength] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2] [Bone Strength] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2]
I wasn¡¯t unhappy with the other things I had leveled up, assuming, of course, they actually did anything, but they were not my focus. I jumped up again, putting as much force as I could into it, and I was sure I had jumped higher. I had been off the ground nearly a second that time. I suspected that was a combination of both jumping and muscle strength, making me happy that I had, in fact, leveled both. I went back to the jumping, completely aware of my impending death. I could already feel the air growing thinner. There was no sense in stopping, though. Quitting to rest would just be a waste of time, so I pushed through dizziness only to spot another blue box as my legs finally gave out from the lack of air.
[Oxygen Depletion Resistance] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2]
Huh, why hadn¡¯t I ever seen that unlocked if I was able to level it up? Or had that been something that had popped up as I lay dying in my last life? If I had been out of it enough, it reasoned that I¡¯d either not remember it or possibly not even have been fully conscious when it first manifested. Hopefully, that would mean I could last longer in my next life. That final thought comforted me as the rest of my thoughts grew fuzzy. Death was very near yet again. I coughed, wondering if perhaps last time had only been a fluke. Had I just wasted my second chance only to not be given a third? *** I bolted awake, gulping in a deep breath of air as my mind caught back up with what had just happened. It seemed it was more than a single extra chance. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was in my best interest to operate under the idea of an infinite series of chances or tread carefully in each new life. At the moment, I supposed it didn¡¯t really matter, as my options for survival were still extremely limited. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. I sighed. Back to jumping I went. And after what felt like forever, I finally got the notification for the next level. The air hadn¡¯t seemed to thin yet, so I figured I should keep going. There was always the chance I could grab another level in muscle strength.
[Jump] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 4]
I made my next jump, starting to count as I pushed my feet off the hard floor below. My counting came to an immediate halt as I felt my head hit something sharp that must have been hanging from the ceiling above me. The stabbing pain of the protrusion impaled deeply into my skull. I managed to spot five more pop-ups as I crashed to the ground, blood pouring from my head.
[Piercing Damage Resistance Unlocked] [Blood Loss Resistance Unlocked] [Brain Damage Resistance Unlocked] [Bone Damage Resistance] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 3] [Bone Strength] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 3]
I tried to yell in pain, but found my mouth wasn¡¯t moving right. I had obviously done something to my brain based on one of the resistances I unlocked, but it was getting harder to remember what that was. Wait, why did my head hurt so much? Why did my mouth taste like copper? *** I bolted awake and immediately brought my hands to my head to check for any lasting damage. Nope, no blood that I could feel. I was keenly aware now what the last few seconds of severe brain trauma felt like as you lay dying, and the memory of being unable to even remember what was happening to me was not a pleasant one. The bigger problem than that newly added spike to brain phobia though was my only potential way out was again removed. Had whoever built this place really just put spikes on a ceiling that I couldn¡¯t see solely to cause me to hurt or kill myself in an attempt to climb out? Considering the lack of air, I wasn¡¯t sure why they had bothered. I just didn¡¯t see how that gained anything unless there really was someone just observing every way I managed to get myself killed. So what was I supposed to do now? If up wasn¡¯t a possibility, just what was I left with? I recalled that I had already unlocked something called Stone Breaking. Was it possible to punch my way through the walls if I kept at it long enough? I supposed that depended on how thick the walls were. I once again ran my hands across the walls. This time, I did it much slower, feeling for any kind of difference. There were four corners to this room, and it seemed the walls were about equally apart, so I guessed I was in a cube-shaped room, though maybe not a true cube, as the ceiling was too high for that. My fingertips continued their journey carefully across the cold stone. Actually, no, not all of the stone was cold. In fact, only one side was that cool; the other three were warmer for some reason. They felt closer to room temperature than the other wall did. Why was that? The question was apparently enough to unlock more blue boxes.
[Perception Unlocked] [Tactile Feedback Unlocked] [Masonry Knowledge Unlocked] [Temperature Detection Unlocked]
As with several times before, I still didn¡¯t understand what exactly caused these new unlocked abilities. Several seemed like ones I should already have possessed or at least gained access to in my first life. Were they sometimes unlocked in an order to give me a clue on the means of my escape? I had no idea on the answer to that question, but I did have my next plan of action in mind. I stood in front of the single cold wall, and I started to punch it, over and over again. As the pop-ups flared into my mind, I kept going.
[Punching Unlocked] [Bone Damage Resistance] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 4] [Bone Strength] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 4] [Muscle Strength] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 3] [Blunt Force Damage Resistance] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2] [Skin Damage Resistance Unlocked] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2] [Punching Unlocked] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 2] [Punching Unlocked] [¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö¡ö 100%] [Level 3]
The process had easily been the most notifications I had gotten from anything so far. Did that mean I was going in the right direction now? I didn¡¯t know the answer, but I did know that despite how much my hands were starting to hurt, I could feel the stone beginning to crumble with each new hit. My fists were now capable of doing real damage to the wall in front of me, and that brought some catharsis to bear as I let my rage out onto the stone sealing me into this death chamber. One more punch and the tiniest stream of light appeared through the hole I had just made. My eyes watered at the sudden intrusion, but I just smiled. I wasn¡¯t blind, and through this wall was light. I continued my onslaught, feeling a rush of more air into the room as the wall crumbled before me. I blinked through the pain of the light that flooded over my form for the first time since I had arrived. My vision finally cleared, revealing a long corridor with a single door on the other side.