NOVEL WEB Chapter 1: Awakening
The young man stirred, consciousness clawing its way back from the void—a nightmare that wasn't merely a dream but something far worse.
Endless and suffocating, it was a place of nothingness. No ground beneath his feet, no sky above. Not even the faintest trace of life. Just an all-consuming blankness, stretching forever.
He had died there. Or perhaps he had never truly lived.
When his vision finally returned, he found himself in a new kind of darkness—a suffocating, tangible one.
His sharp, soulless silver eyes opened. It gazed upon the unfamiliar ceiling.
A damp, musty room swallowed him whole, the cool scent of limestone hanging in the air.
Water dripped from unseen cracks above, pattering faintly against the cold stone floor.
One drop struck his pale cheek, tracing through streaks of blood he hadn't even realized were there.
"What... happened?" His voice barely rose above a whisper, the sound hollow against the oppressive silence.
The man with black hair was lying on the unforgiving stone, his bones chill. A faint mist coiled around him.
It was pale and ghostly, lingering as though it had always belonged here.
He sighed, trying to stand up.
But suddenly, a sharp chime echoed in his mind, and a translucent interface appeared in his vision, glowing faintly in the darkness:
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
Status Update
Name: Unknown
Class: Survivor
Level: 1
HP: 100/100
MP: 0/0
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
Endurance: 7
Skill: Survival Instinct – Increases efficiency in scavenging, cooking, and crafting under adverse conditions.
Ability: Unknown Mutation – Minor physical mutation detected. Genetic structures have started evolving in response to the local environment. Further changes may occur. -Skill rank S.
Ability: Skill Ascended - Able to gain every skill possible with the cost of Skill point. [noticed: not every skill would be compatible with the user's Stats.] (Unupgradeable) -Skill rank SSS.
Skill Point: 1
His breath hitched. The words hung there, glowing faintly in his vision as if burned into his retinas.
"What… is this?" he muttered, his voice shaking.
No response came, but the interface didn't waver. The text was real, tangible, and impossible to ignore.
A system?
Was this some kind of delusion?
A hallucination born from whatever torment had brought him here?
He raised a trembling hand, staring at it. It looked normal, but deep inside, something felt wrong—alien. The interface seemed to confirm his unease.
Ability: Unknown Mutation.
The phrase made his stomach twist. He didn't know what it meant, but it filled him with a foreboding sense of unease.
Before he could dwell on it, another line of text appeared:
SYSTEM QUEST:
Escape the Forgotten Dungeon.
The command was blunt and simple, yet it carried a strange weight. Disobedience didn't feel like an option—it felt like a death sentence.
Clenching his fists, he forced himself to his feet, shaking off the cold that had seeped into his body. His memories were gone, burned to ash.
Everything about "him" had vanished. His past was nothing more than a blank slate, waiting to be rewritten.
And perhaps that was for the best.
"Let bygones be bygones," he muttered, his voice barely louder than a breath. "None of it matters anymore."
His hand moved instinctively, brushing against something cold. A bloodstained knife lay on the ground beside him, its blade dull with age.
Without hesitation, he picked it up, the weight familiar despite the strangeness of his situation.
He exhaled slowly, his grip tightening around the blade. The mist coiled at his feet, swirling like a living thing, and the chamber's suffocating darkness stretched endlessly ahead.
The system's words pulsed in his mind: Survive.
And so, with cautious steps, he walked into the unknown.
***
Clack clack... clack clack...
He tapped the edge of the cave with the tip of his knife, each strike echoing through the suffocating silence, the only sound in the dark void.
He was trying to gauge the size of the dungeon, but the dense blackness around him made it impossible to tell.
"I know these sounds might attract other creatures, whether they exist or not, but there's no other choice."
The air around him was heavy, thick with the cold, and yet, despite the darkness, the cave wasn't entirely black.
Small shafts of light filtered in through cracks in the walls, casting pale beams onto the floor where crystal formations grew.
The crystals flickered with an almost ethereal glow, painting the rough stone in fleeting hues of violet and green.
It wasn't much light, but it was enough. The dungeon wasn't completely devoid of life, after all—just... quiet. And that bothered him.
He shifted his weight, boredom gnawing at him. A few hours had passed, and still, nothing.
"Hm, this type of light could help plants photosynthesize... Interesting."
The thought was fleeting. The only thing of real interest was the small bushes growing under the crystals.
He crouched down, using his knife to carefully cut a few branches.
They looked edible, but he wasn't foolish enough to eat them just yet. There was too much uncertainty.
Poisonous plants weren't something to test when you had no idea what might kill you here.
As he inspected the leaves, something caught his attention. Tiny bite marks marred the edges of the plant's leaves.
"Where there are plants, there must be something eating them, right?"
A slight frown creased his brow. He scanned the area, waiting for any sign of movement. He pressed himself into the narrow corner of the path, trying to make himself invisible, his breath shallow.
Hours passed. Or at least, it felt like hours. His biological clock told him it had been two more, but time in a dungeon like this wasn't reliable. Nothing stirred.
"Maybe I was wrong…"
But just as he was about to give up and move on, a round shape emerged from the shadows. Slow at first, but then quicker as it scurried forward, its nose twitching toward the bushes.
It was a rat. Larger than any he'd seen, its size more akin to a boar than a rodent. Its fur was patchy and unkempt, its beady eyes gleaming in the dim light.
"Here it is."
His fingers tightened around his knife. His muscles tensed. This was the opportunity he'd been waiting for.
Without a second thought, he launched himself forward, moving like a striking serpent.
In one smooth motion, his knife plunged deep into the rat's thick skin, piercing through the fat and muscle, driving into its heart.
The rat let out a horrified squeal, but it was too late. The strike had been swift, efficient. The creature's body convulsed once, then went still.
Blood pooled out, dark and sticky, splattering across his hands. The metallic scent filled the air. He pulled the knife out, the blood still dripping from the blade, and brought his hand up to sniff it.
Just ordinary foul-smelling blood...
He felt a flicker of uncertainty. Something wasn't right. The rat hadn't been normal—not just its size, but the ecosystem around him.
"I don't fully understand how the ecosystem works here... But this isn't just an ordinary cave."
He glanced up at the glowing crystal above him, the light shimmering faintly as if responding to his thoughts.
Beneath him, scattered rocks lay in disarray.
He picked them up, his mind already calculating. Pressing them together, he tested their strength. The crystal's structure was odd—fragile, yet unyielding.
With each throw, the stones chipped away at it, but it was only after a dozen attempts that the crystal shattered, releasing a small burst of light.
"Seems like it's not glowing because of its structure…"
He grabbed a shard, running his fingers over the sharp edges. It was hard—harder than any stone he'd encountered—but surprisingly brittle, like a mix of quartz and glass.
"I could make a lot of things from this."
He turned his attention back to the rat.
His stomach growled, reminding him of the hunger gnawing at him. There was no time to waste. He needed to eat.
The thought crossed his mind again: 'Who was I before to know how to do all of this?'
His movements were precise, even though it was his first time gutting and skinning a rat. It was as if the knowledge had been buried deep within him, just waiting for the right moment to surface.
His knife cut through its flesh with fluid efficiency, and before long, the rat was ready to be cooked.
"Let's just roast it... the rest can wait."
The meat sizzled over the fire, the smell filling the air. It tasted... surprisingly good. The ratio of fat to meat was perfect, and the flavor was rich, and savory.
The rat was unlike any he'd ever encountered in a city's gutters. It wasn't a sewer rat at all.