Like Chinese water torture, Yune lay under the dripstone, catching drop after drop of water in his mouth to hydrate himself. Not having drank water for more than two days and expending so much energy during this time, Yune was just happy to get hydrated again.
After a good hour of laying under the dripstone, Yune finally had the feeling like he had drank enough water, plus, the feeling of water dripping in his mouth for so long became mentally painful.
But, with an hour having passed, Yune had already replenished all his mana and was now ready to reap his rewards. There were several mana gemstones on the walls of the cove that he could absorb and the woofle would also have a mana crystal in its body.
Not being able to wait anymore, Yune walked up to the wall of the cove and placed his hand on the mana gemstone. As the mana flowed into Yune's body, it soon after felt like it was pushing against an invisible barrier again, just like when he was absorbing the mana gemstone's in the bear's cove.
Almost like an addiction, Yune began absorbing every last mana gemstone there was in the cave, noticeably increasing his mana quantity further.
As Yune absorbed the last mana gemstone, the cove became devoid of light once again.
Walking up to the dead woofle, Yune regretfully started cutting up its body to harvest its meat and retrieve the mana crystal. The mana crystal was the size of Yune's thumb, a tiny mana crystal, confirming that the woofle was indeed a level-one monster.
With the Woolfe's meat in one hand and the mana crystal in the other, Yune began absorbing the mana crystal first, which unfortunately didn't take longer than a few seconds. That meant Yune couldn't stall anymore, he was going to have to eat the Woolfe's meat.
His stomach twisting thinking back to eating the bear's meat, Yune plugged his nose and put a big piece of the woofle's meat in his mouth. In a mental battle, Yune was struggling to close his mouth and just let the meat sit in his mouth.
As the meat saturated Yune's tastebuds, it came as a pleasant surprise that it wasn't as gruesome as the bear's meat. Closing his jaws to chew on the meat, it also wasn't as tough as a tire anymore. Well, it was still very tough, though… But at least eating didn't feel like torture.
And, comparing it to the bear's meat, Yune was happy to fill his stomach with the woofle's meat. Quickly disposing of the bear meat from his backpack, Yune gladly replaced it with the woofle's meat.
With a full stomach and being hydrated, Yune called it a day, moving to the back of the small cove and lying down on the cold hard cave floor.
'Today was a good day. A good day indeed.'
With a smile on his face, Yune fell asleep after two full days.
---
After a good night's rest, Yune woke up feeling surprisingly rejuvenated. He didn't feel hungry, or thirsty and his body also didn't hurt. Well, comparatively so.
Squirming over to underneath the dripstone, Yune drank as much water as he could and ate some woofle meat in the meantime.
Today, he was going to need as much energy as possible.
"Let's go exploring again!"
Compared to before, Yune was excited to keep exploring. Just yesterday, Yune was dreading this idea, but now, knowing that there was water in this lower part of the cave and that not all monsters were as strong as that bear, Yune had become optimistic about his survival chances.
Swinging his backpack full of woofle meat over his shoulders, Yune stepped out of the cove and started moving forward through the cave again. This time wasting no time treading carefully, Yune immediately started running forward.
With the pace Yune was traveling at, it didn't take more than, what Yune thought were a few hours, before he saw a familiar glow in the distance again.
'Another cove. That means mana gemstones! And a monster… probably.'
Yune was now almost certain that every cove had a monster inside of it. One thing, however, Yune didn't know for certain. Something that made his heart beat faster the closer he got to the cove.
'Will it be a woofle again, or a bear…?'
Slowing down his speed once he got close to the cave, Yune tried to be as quiet as possible as he approached the cove. Now, practically inching closer to the cove, Yune slowly peaked around the corner.
What he saw immediately slowed his heart rate down.
It was another woofle!
There was one thing Yune wasn't so happy about, however. The woofle was wide awake, looking Yune directly in the eyes, way fiercer than the first woofle he had encountered.
But, from this alone, Yune wasn't deterred from a fight. He now knew what he was capable of and he also knew what the woofle was capable of. Although Yune didn't have an initial sneak attack, the outcome had come out the same.
Yune was the victor with not a scratch on his body while the woofle lay dead on the ground.
The attack pattern from this woofle had roughly been the same, charging at Yune recklessly. Only this time, the woofle jumped at him from a closer distance making it harder for Yune to dodge. But, despite this, Yune dodged the woofle flawlessly every time.
The battle eventually lasted a lot longer than Yune had thought. Even though Yune was able to dodge the woofle, he wasn't able to attack it either. The woofle didn't stay in the air for long enough to create an opening where Yune could attack without any risk.
It was only after the woofle became fatigued that Yune was able to find little openings, leaving small wounds on the woofle's body. But these small wounds eventually piled up, draining the woofle's stamina even further until it left a big opening.
As the woofle leaped towards Yune, it stumbled, leaving its underside completely open. And, unfortunately for the woofle, Yune didn't let this chance go by as he quickly thrusted his short sword upwards, easily piercing the woofle's chest, it immediately falling motionless as its heart had been stabbed.
Yune had claimed ownership of yet another cove with mana gemstones, dripstones, and meat to last him for days to come. Deciding to not venture further for the day, Yune began drinking some water from the dripstones, eating his fill of woofle meat, and absorbing the mana gemstones once his mana had fully recovered.
After this, Yune rested in his cave rather comfortably, until his eyes finally laid rest.
Opening his eyes again in the morning, Yune was ready to perform this exact routine again. And that is exactly what he did. After eating and drinking his fill, Yune wandered further into the cave, only stopping when he found another cove to challenge another woofle for its cove.
With each encounter Yune had with a woofle, he was finetuning his swordsmanship and gaining practical experience battling real enemies. The fights against the woofles would last shorter and shorter each time.
Eventually, Yune even became so comfortable fighting the woofle's that he dared to fight the woofle's without using his powers to decrease his weight, giving away the advantage of his increased speed just to make the fight a little less… boring.
Yune had initially begun doing this because he was becoming bored, already having spent a full week just running through the cave and fighting against woofles day in and out. But it turned out that it could also bring advantages, and it had even borne fruit quicker than Yune had thought.
After only a few encounters, not using his powers to decrease his weight, Yune had grown accustomed to the speed of the woofles and was now managing to dodge the woofles flawlessly without much effort by just reading the woofles' movements and anticipating their trajectory.
Not needing his advantage over speed anymore, Yune even took it a step further and began using his powers to increase the power gravity would have on his body, thus making him slower.
But this time, Yune had a clear reason for this, not just because of boredom. With his increased gravity, Yune's attacks were also getting heavier, being able to break through the defenses of the woofle easier. At least that was the plan.
First Yune had a slow start, even getting injured a few times. Getting hit by the woofles who previously couldn't even touch him. With every time he got hit, Yune began to think that maybe it would be better to begin fighting the woofle's again with his advantage over speed.
But, partly to blame because of boredom, Yune didn't give up, and luckily so, as he was improving fast. Before he knew it, Yune wasn't getting injured by the woofles anymore with his increased gravity.
And, soon after, Yune had taken a huge leap in his progress. Now being able to keep up with the woofles while he had an increased gravity, Yune was now able to make short meat of the woofles, defeating them with a single heavy strike without fail, each and every single encounter with the woofles.
Yune really felt like there wasn't a single threat to his survival in the cave anymore. Now, Yune just had to keep moving forward and find a way out. And that is just what he did, moving forward. Well, not that he had any choice.
Just like that, days passed by quickly. Every single day Yune was encountering more and more coves with woofles inside them as he kept increasing his pace, being able to absorb more mana after each cove he conquered.
With Yune's perception of time, he thought that around ten days had passed, because he had slept a total of nine times. But, Yune couldn't be more wrong.
What Yune had failed to take into account is that his mana-filled body would now need less sleep. In actuality more than two weeks had already passed… and his perception of time was only worsening as Yune continued to absorb heaps of mana gemstones every single day.
At this point in time, Yune had already started using as much mana as possible to pick up his speed, not conserving his mana for fights anymore as he was confident he could fight them without much mana, or any mana even.
With this, Yune was covering large distances daily. Every day felt the same, encountering the same thing time after time, just dark cave walls, and coves with woofles every so often, Yune was getting bored once again.
But now, he didn't have anything to quench his boredom anymore. He had already fought the woofles in every way imaginable, even trying to double-wield his two short swords.
Yune was becoming more mindless by the day, just wishing for an end to the cave to come. And, after what Yune thought was two weeks, his wish seemed to have come true.
In the distance, instead of the darkness of a seemingly endless cave, Yune saw a wall blocking it. Having first set his sights upon this seemingly dead end, Yune's heart sank, his eyes filling with disbelief.
Picking up his pace even more, Yune sprinted towards the dead end with his eyebrows furrowing by the second. It really looked like a dead end.
Dejectedly slowing down his pace, Yune lowered his head. The expression that then fell on his face could only be described as the expression of someone not mentally sane.
"…Ha…HAHA! A lake! It's not a dead end! It's a lake! My way out!"
Laughing like some maniac with his voice hoar from not having talked for many days, Yune once again began running forward. He had finally found something, something that might lead to the surface.
But his first thought was that he was thirsty. He hadn't drunk a lot of water the past few days, so he immediately put his lips to the water, not even worrying about the possibility of a monster pulling him down.
As soon as Yune had put his lips on the water and taken a sip, however, he spat it all out.
'Bluh, salty! ...wait salty?!'