*>+31 Copper*
*>+31 Copper*
...
With the newfound ability, the bat monsters were no longer of concern. For several minutes, these were the only monsters that showed up. Their density began to increase, but it wasn't anything Jisha couldn't handle.
Before long, the cave surfaces slowly began to transform.
Until now, the floor was as smooth as a footpath. But now, the dreaded stalagmites began to show up. Though they were fairly small, they still would have spelled trouble for a completely blind person.
*This ability really was as convenient as it could possibly be.*
Jisha would have been in serious trouble without that lucky drop. She was confident that she could handle anything the early game threw at her, but a Tier 0 physique was far worse than she remembered...
*And this is a dungeon I can't just leave. Seriously, why is there a level 31 dungeon in a level 10 area?*
As Jisha made excuses in her head, she noticed something above her.
One of the pulses of ultrasound reflected back a crack in the ceiling.
*Classic.*
It was obviously a trap.
*RUMBLE*
The cave began to shake. Not even a second later, the cracks in the ceiling began to expand, and a section of the cave crumbled inwards.
With a couple of casual steps backwards, Jisha easily avoided the cave-in that would have lethally crushed any Tier 0 player.
She continued as if nothing happened.
*Well... I guess this trap would have been a bit difficult to spot with traditional vision methods.*
In Jisha's eyes, this large imperfection in the ceiling was as blatant as a gigantic literal red flag. However, what if it were a normal party using a dim light source such as a lantern or a torch?
When the light of a lantern dimmed as it spread outwards, the ceiling would be a bit difficult to see.
The cave ceiling was quite high. Though Jisha had definitely descended at least 100 metron downwards, the cave ceiling had remained relatively parallel to the ground. In other words, the ceiling was nearly 100 metron high...
But even then.
Most Northeasterners didn't have the luxury of travel. For a normal person, this would be their first time setting foot in a cave like this. And since Synergy was realistic, they would truly feel like they were there.
Imagine an environment you visited for the first time. It would be impossible to discern every flaw about the place while fending off monsters you had never seen before. However, Jisha had seen everything. Nearly nothing could escape her eyes...
*Please forget about my overestimation of the Tier 0 physique... But... having seen so much of the world... is that a blessing or a curse?*
Jisha continued slaughtering mobs at a breakneck speed. She continued as if it were an ordinary jog.
Monsters? Obstacles? Traps? None of them needed more than a quick glance.
*Haha...*
She didn't know what to feel in this moment.
"Exploring" the game in this second life was not as magical as it was the first time around.
Of course, it hadn't been long since this second life even started, but...
*I'm going to be here for a long time... Will I ever feel that sense of wonder again?*
---
"Woooooooow! Jish, look! What's that?"
"Uh... A hole in a rock?"
Two girls were wandering through a forest when they came across a cave. Though they were both in the upper class of the Northeast, they still hadn't seen a variety of landscapes in person. Though they had travelled a bit, the monotonous landscape that was their continent wasn't all that interesting...
And for better or for worse, the Northeastern continent was separated from the rest of the world by a large ocean's distance. While the rest of the human population was on several landmasses separated only by relatively smaller oceans, the Northeast might as well have been its own planet.
All of the interesting sights were almost literally a world away.
But with VR, a new world was brought directly to them.
Lush green forests.
Towering red and sand-colored rock formations.
And now, a cave system.
It was a stark contrast to their snow-white reality.
The two girls spent a long time marveling at their surroundings.
The sun was warm. The sky was crystal blue.
But then, a quick draft of cold air emanated from a nearby cave.
"Pfft, *obviously* it's a hole in a rock. It's called a cave. We gotta check it out!"
"Uh..."
The avatar labeled Synycal jumped up and down in excitement while the avatar labeled Fae Sol simply stood there with an indiscernible expression.
"Jish, you're such an airhead. What is even happening in that head of yours?"
"I could say the same about you, Syn."
One had a flaming passion while the other had a cool temperament. Their personalities couldn't be more different, but they were best friends.
"Well, whatever. Let's go!"
Synycal began forcefully dragging Fae Sol towards the cave.
"W-w-w-w-w-waaaait I never said I wanted-"
"Too late! I already forgot about your fear of the dark! Just like you forgot to meet me in the Erian Hamlet! This is what you get for making me wait *days* to meet up with you!"
...
"AAAAAAAAAH!"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAHT GET ME OUT OF HEEEERE!!!!!!"
Almost as quickly as they went in, they ran out of the cave screaming.
Scary monsters!
Scary noises!
The dark!
All of these new things were overwhelming for the two girls. And as much as Synycal didn't want to admit... she was also a bit afraid of the dark.
"Haaa... Haaa..."
"Whyyyyy...."
The two of them collapsed in the grass... safe from harm.
They hadn't even run for very long, but the adrenaline of the spooky situation left them trembling.
"... Let's go again!"
"Whaaaaaaaaaat?"
---
*Am I crying?*
Jisha wiped a tear from her eye as she continued through the dungeon. She remembered something from seemingly countless years ago.
Fear. Excitement. Wonder.
None of those emotions existed in her anymore.
When you knew everything, there was nothing left to discover.
The only thing left was to go through the motions.
"Haha..."
Was this truly living? Did she have any emotions that differed from a dead person?
*>+31 Copper*
*>+31 Copper*
...
Like a machine, money and worthless items continuously piled into Jisha's inventory and Coin Pouch.
*>System message: Level up!*
*>Level: 9 -> 10 (+1)*
*>...*
And unsurprisingly, these monsters allowed her to break through to level 10.
Before long, the monotony finally came to an end.
*Is that... light?*
The sense that had been useless until now finally picked something up.
Obviously, it wasn't sunlight. That couldn't reach this far down. Nor was it blue.
When she approached it, the identity of the light source became obvious.
*Mana crystals?*
In a smaller tunnel that branched off from the main path, mana was gathered here in one of its purest forms. And these particular crystals were radiating so much energy that they were glowing.
These were valuable items and were likely the source of the mana anomaly in the forest. Unfortunately, Jisha currently didn't have any way to harvest them.
She once again cursed her Tier 0 physique.
*I'll just have to come back here later.*
As she made a mental note to herself about these valuable items, she headed farther and farther down the dimly lit tunnel. And as she progressed, the light gradually grew less and less dim.
*...*
Jisha now *really* wished she had a higher-leveled character. The mana crystals now lit up the cave as if there were fluorescent lighting throughout.
*I wonder what's going on here...*
Eventually she came across a room that was clearly artificial.
Its shape was that of an ordinary rectangular prism. The previously jagged walls and floors were smoothed and finished, giving it a sleek shine.
In one corner there were stone urns, in another was a hefty oak desk, and one of the walls had a something that looked like an elevator door.
*Why is this here?*
Usually, the technological level of places in Synergy corresponded to their level. For example, in the game's infancy when everyone was below level 10, there was no modern technology. In fact, even things of the historic Industrial Age were not present.
Wooden and/or mud huts and wells of water were commonplace... and these dated back to maybe even before the Ancient Middle Ages.
Of course, there were outlier scenarios like this one. This elevator door screamed "Industrial Age" at a glance.
When Jisha approached it, she realized it was locked and had to be opened with a code via keypad.
She immediately knew what to do. Just like with any classic video game with a locked doorway, a key would be hidden somewhere nearby.
Sometimes this key was just an ordinary physical object. Other times, it was a code. And often times, one had to complete a puzzle to access it.
This was something most people with video game experience instinctively knew.
And so, she checked the wooden desk that was not far away from her.
On top of the desk was a small stack of paper. As this could have some hints for the code, Jisha naturally read it.
*The Search For Purer Energy Sources... huh?*
It almost read like a scientific paper. Most people's eyes would glaze over in boredom, but Jisha skimmed through it as if it were a history recap.
Though there was scientific terminology used in the paper, it wasn't the result of research or an experiment or anything of the like. It was simply an article that held hope for the future.
*"At first it was simply human effort alongside tame natural phenomena. Then, as we tamed them, horses, oxen, and other large animals did the heavy lifting for us. Then, the introduction of simple machines. And later, steam power. Then, the generation of electricity which allowed us to store power. Then, nuclear fission. And now, the application of fusion.*
*"As society makes technological advancements, the amount of energy they need increases exponentially. The further and further we go, the more efficient we need to be at harvesting energy.*
...
*"Is the chase of antimatter worth it, or is there some unknown, untapped, energy source humanity has yet to discover?*"
There were no clues for a code, but reading this made Jisha a bit nostalgic.
She was reminded she now lived in the pre-Synergy era.
One without the existence of "mana".
Yes, in the future, this "unknown, untapped" energy source would be discovered. And people would go crazy over it.
She stared at the mana crystals around her again and sighed.
*How something so simple can plunge the world into chaos...*
After reminiscing briefly, she moved on to the desk drawers. Maybe there was something in there.
Unsurprisingly, there were many other sheets of paper in these drawers. But all of them read the same thing.
"*REDACTED*"
"*XX*"
It didn't seem helpful at first glance, but Jisha kept it in mind regardless. You never knew when some seemingly useless information could end up being a necessity for clearing the dungeon.
Now, the only other thing left in the room was the stone urns.
These urns were fairly tall. They were almost as tall as Jisha's current avatar. This, along with the fact that they were made of solid stone, meant that they were impossible to lift. It also meant that she couldn't reach inside and take out whatever was in them.
She then tried pushing them over. Just because you couldn't lift something didn't mean you couldn't tip it over! But...
*No luck.*
It was as if they were bolted to the ground; they wouldn't budge.
She then took out her Golden Slingshot and fired a pellet at the urns. By shattering them, whatever was inside would naturally come out.
However, even that did nothing. These urns were too solid.
*I only have one more option, then.*
If a physical attack didn't work, then a magical attack might. Some materials were ridiculously resistant against physical damage but were weak against magic. Perhaps this stone was of a similar nature.
But... Fae Sol was of the Slingshotter class. She didn't have any magical abilities at her disposal.
However, she did possess an item that could deal magical attacks.
*>Name: Magical Oaken Dagger*
*...*
Though damage dealt with this item would be halved as it didn't match her class, it still dealt a bit of magic damage.
And using it, Jisha sliced at the urns.
On the surface, this seemed ridiculous. How could wood slice through stone?
However, mana made the impossible possible.
With one clean slice, the top halves of all four urns cleanly slid off revealing the inside.
Each urn held a massive 6-sided die. Each die only had one number written on all sides.
Two of them read "1", and two of them read "0".
This was all the information she needed.
Jisha walked up to the keypad and entered a four digit code.
These numbers, along with "XX" that was written on the sheets of paper, meant that the code was most likely...
*One, zero, one, zero.*
The door slowly slid open. It was a success.
Past the doorway was a staircase that led down into the darkness.
There was only one thing to do.
*Well... let's see what's down there.*
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