I don't know how long I have been underground.
All I know was that I have killed the slimes a hundred times over.
After sleeping in a bed for the first time upon my arrival in this world.
A heavenly feeling I must say.
I had accidentally died after a mistake which got me surrounded by acidic slimes weighing several tons.
I had half expected to have respawned somewhere else, but when I respawned near the bed, I must say it was an unexpected boon.
So by staying underground for literal God knows how long.
There was nothing to do but practice, well...
Everything.
From mining blindly to confidently mining.
From having to separate the slimes for hunting to killing them wantonly.
I practiced and practiced and practiced.
And I must say when you practice so much to the point of entering a trance every now and then.
I finally got perfectly acclimated to my new body.
This body that God gave me was stupidly powerful, and surprisingly adaptable.
After trying out some stretches to limber up my body, I lay half paralyzed due to locked muscles for a day?
The next day? I was able to do things I could only dream about in my past life.
I also learnt everything there was about the powers I had been granted.
There were three different things in each game system respectively.
Experience which I gained from killing, mining, crafting, cooking and everything that involved action.
No use found for it yet.
Cells which I hadn't found the slightest clue of them and still have no idea how to gain.
And coins, which wasn't useful at the slightest when literally the only companions I had were the words of a dead man and slimes.
So I just did what many people called 'the Grind'.
So yeah, I accumulated a ridiculous amount of things that I couldn't even use.
---
Mining away I wiped the sweat from my forehead and placed a torch on the wall.
Getting rid of the black flaming head because I finally got used to controlling it I smiled.
"Hell yeah! I finally got enough diamonds!"
Holding up the precious gem which according to Minecraft could be made into powerful armour and weapons.
With the only use in Terraria being a laser sword and a grappling hook.
And in dead cells cash.
I was definitely more inclined to use it in the mincraftian way.
Holding my pickaxe I rested it onto my shoulder and ran back.
Over time I realised that I had no concept of hunger, which honestly was a good thing or I might've starved from hunger.
And the mincraftian effects definitely saved me when I unknowingly ate a poisonous mushroom from curiosity.
Although it hurt like a bitch as my life was literally hanging by a thread.
A farm of such mushrooms was being grown by me because why not.
Running across the strip mine I had made.
I also realized that although I had no hunger, I had absolutely zero stamina consumption, which meant I could exert my body in all sort of ways without getting tired.
Although I couldn't say the same for my mental stamina, but the trance like state seems to stop it's consumption.
Excitedly running great lengths I reached the edge of the strip mine and jumped.
Only to immediately dodge the arrow heading for my throat.
"The hell!?"
Eyes wide at the sudden arrow that had appeared out of nowhere I stared at the beings who shot those arrows.
'Huh, I was wondering why you guys weren't spawning but I guess it was because of the slimes?'
Seeing one slime I unintentionally left alive crush a nearby zombie under its weight I nodded to myself.
'Yep, that's indeed the case it seems'
Dodging another arrow I grabbed it with superhuman reflexes.
Or tried to at least.
Seeing the arrow go clean through my hand I just looked at it before ripping it out.
'Oh that hurts'
Belatedly realizing that the arrow that had sliced apart a few fingers hurt less than I thought.
I realize that dying a few times in all sorts of ways seems to have done the trick.
Walking forwards the skeleton slowly backed away as it took an arrow out of its quiver and shot at me.
Grabbing my sword from within my inventory I slashed upwards and cleaved the arrow in half.
And quickly regretted it.
'I should've saved that'
But it was to late for regret.
So doing the most logical thing I threw my sword at the skeleton and lodged itself into its skull.
Making a smug grin I was shot in the skull the next second.
Coming back from the dead I just got up from the bed I was on and immediately ran out of the wooden cabin.
It was a much better sight than I had found it now having stone foundations and better placed plank walls.
Instead of the tree log ones from before.
But that wasn't the point.
As I was committing... what was the word for erasing a species again?
Oh yeah! That was the word!
As I was saying, As I committed Genocide on the skeletons ripping off their skulls for piercing mine.
I was in the meantime learning their movements down to the wire.
Just like the slimes.
But then again their movements were really simple as slimes just jumped at me while skeletons jumped at me.
All I had to do was watch for the signs of them preparing to attack, because at the end of the day.
They were trying to attack me.
So using that as a basis, I usually dodged all the incoming blows ahead of time.
Unless another thing like the attack from behind, where I couldn't see happened again.
Then I was perfectly fine.
And just as I said that an arrow nicked my shoulder.
"Die you little cretin!" Throwing his friends skull right at the little cretin who was nocking another arrow I struck it's head off its shoulders.
Smiling at the great shot.
I started to walk back to the cabin right after lopping off a zombie's head.
---
I learned that this world was more realistic than I thought and wasn't something that the God of Fun and Games just created on a whim.
But it was a rather strange combination of both Terraria and Minecraft in it's functions.
Because in my 20 sleeps, yes I'm counting my time down in the caves as sleeps.
There were two types of slimes, zombies and skeletons.
One, the cube slime that split into several more smaller slimes, a zombie with no external wounds and just a green tint to the skin, and a skeleton that fired arrows from Minecraft.
Two, the round slimes with immense weight aiming to crush me, a zombie with external wounds and a grey tint to the skin and finally a skeleton that just mauled me from Terraria.
So I was doing fine in knowing that two of the games I had as powers were literally part of the world.
For the Dead Cells franchise I really didn't know whether it was part of the world as in the backstory of the game.
The monsters and the Beheaded were literally a result of the outbreak of a disease called malaise that made people monsters.
And by now I was just wondering whether I should just find out a way out of this place underneath the ocean.
Walking in the glowing forest with bark covered in glowing purple lines and neon blue leaves.
I stared at the sky.
Or what substituted as a sky, which was a stone roof.
Feeling a vibration from within my inventory I opened it, a familiar grey screen separated by several lines within it sectioning parts off.
And within those parts was a row entirely dedicated to various weapons.
And the rest was just materials of various sizes that I had collected during my mining venture.
But, the item that was the cause for me paying attention to my inventory.
The egg which I still didn't know the function of until today, except that it was most probably important and would hatch a small loyal companion.
Taking it out I saw it tremble in my grasp.
+++
Tree on a cliff