It was said that a man's will to survive was when he unleashed his full capabilities.
His need to survive at the moment was so strong, that he would completely give up his rational thoughts and give in to his instincts.
This will to live, that need to get back to life, was more powerful than any consideration of civility, decency, manners and politeness.
If anything, it was a very powerful force.
That was what it was like for Arthur, at that moment rather than his mind trying to think of a way of how to evade the beast.
It instinctually worked and relied on Arthur's skills to save him at that moment, and that was when the only skill that could work at the moment activated.
'[Shadow Blend]'
Instantly, Arthur's form melted into the cavern shadow, leaving the beast to charge mindlessly into the wall again triggering an even larger quake.
Sensing the right moment to strike again, Arthur immediately cancelled his skill and appeared behind the yeti.
To the yeti, its prey and intruder was dead, no more than cubes of flesh and blood at this point, but why did it feel like he had touched nothing?
Its question was soon answered, as Arthur quickly drove his one dagger into its kneepit causing the beast to roar with rage.
But Arthur payed his cries no mind and instantly shrouded his leg again and shooting towards the beast.
The beast was too occupied with its new injury that it had no idea that Arthur would try to attack the same spot again.
And so Arthur quickly appeared above the beast and drove an axe kick straight to its nape, causing even more cracks to resound throughout the cave.
The yeti's neck finally bent making a V shape, and the beast fell to the ground losing its remaining color and life from its eyes.
Arthur landed by its dead body, and looked towards it while heaving a big sigh of relief and a shudder to pass through his body.
'I was lucky that I hadn't used [Shadow Blend] when I was coming up, otherwise I would be dead right now,'
Adrenaline wore off and exhaustion finally kicked in as Arthur felt his body go heavy from the constant climbing and jumping straight into battle.
His body stumbled a little and with a dizzy gait he walked to the nearby wall and sat down before his body finally succumbed and he fell unconscious.
*****
[After 3 Hours]
Arthur's eyes finally opened with pain and weakness, as he observed his surroundings.
Memories of the fight came surfacing to his mind, and he saw that his body was still covered in injuries.
Arthur took out the honey container, and after opening it poured its contents into his mouth and his injuries started to heal.
Unfortunately, they couldn't be healed fully even with all the honey as some of his bones had rattled with such intensity that he thought they were going to break.
He threw the container at the corner of the cave without looking and the sound came rattling to his ears.
The sound grew more feeble and feeble as if it had been thrown far away.
Arthur's gaze drifted towards it and his eyes widened with shock.
At the corner of the cave, a pathway had opened up in the shape of a semi-circle. He hadn't noticed it previously because it was located in the dark but now he could see it clearly.
He also knew that the pathway hadn't been there previously when he was fighting.
That was when realization struck him, and his gaze drifted to the yeti's corpse. The yeti wasn't just a normal beast, it was a mini-boss!
Although, he had suspected it previously because of its strength, he wasn't quite sure as it could be a normal beast, just that the rank of the labyrinth would be too high.
But now that he had confirmed it, he had a rough estimate of the labyrinth's rank, it was around D- or D, though he would settle for the former.
He got up and walked towards the pathway, not bothering to check the beast. He could just check it later before going down.
He entered the path, and he instantly felt like he had entered another dimension. The feeling of outside and inside felt quite different.
He thought this was spatial dimensions, and then shrugged and started walking forward. If they were then he could do nothing, after all he wasn't well versed in it.
After about a minute of walking, he arrived at the end of the tunnel or more like its space. The tunnel's face took the form of a whole square room at the end.
The whole room was perfectly edged, which confirmed that this was not a natural occurrence.
But what caught Arthur's eye was in the middle of the room.
In the middle, a pillar stood with various archaic and ancient runes and writings engraved into it which spoke of the pillar's ancientness and its history.
Its length was half meter and it emitted a purple glow around a certain radius. On the top of the pillar, shrouded in a purple light, two daggers were levitating.
The daggers were obsidian purple in color which highly complemented with the purple glow that the pillar was emitting.
Various black runic lines and texts ran along the edge of the blade that gave the daggers an ancient glow.
Both daggers were deftly curved at the end making way to a sharp and pointy tip.
An image of a purple wolf biting ran along the other side of the blade straight to its tips' edge.
Arthur smiled with ironically, he had just lost both his daggers and now he was getting two more.
He walked towards them and took the daggers from the pillar, causing its purple glow to dim and finally fade away.
Instantly, a translucent blue holographic screen popped up displaying the item's status.
___________________
Weapon Name: Fenrir's Fangs
Weapon Rank: Novice++
Weapon Description:
Carved from the tooths of Fenrir, one of the three monstrous children of Loki. The wielder of these daggers can use them to move stealthily and swiftly to end their opponent's lives, a perfect weapon for an assassin. By inputting mana into the blades, the wielder can inflict the [Bleed] effect on their opponent, which can be used to use two abilities.
[Poison Infliction: Inflict your target with poison for the next 1 minute. The potency of poison decreases the higher the opponent's rank from the weapon.]
[Paralyze Imbuing: Inflict your target with the paralyze effect for the next 1 minute. The potency of the effect decreases the higher the opponent's rank from the weapon.]
Bleed Effect Chance: 50% per ten strikes
___________________
Arthur's eyes gleamed a little with shock as he read the weapon's description.
Both the abilities were great for a [Novice++] rank weapon, at least till the point where he fight opponent's in its range.
Once his enemies were at a higher rank, the abilities were useless which would make the weapon, just like a normal weapon just a lot durable.
The [Bleed] effect chance was quite manageable, it meant that for every ten strikes he had a 50% chance to inflict [Bleed] on his opponent and use his two abilities.
Feeling satisfied with his reward, Arthur tried to store his daggers in his [Status] by waving them in the air and thinking of storing them.
Just like he expected, the daggers emitted blue lightning over all their body and then vanished.
He walked out of the pathway, and as soon as he came back into the cave, the tunnel before him vanished being replaced by rocks as if nothing was ever there.
Arthur was quite intrigued about the process but he could do nothing about it.
He walked over to the corpse of the yeti checked and after a few punches, dug into its chest to find what he was looking for.
At first he couldn't feel it, but then he felt his hand closing around a ball, or accurately a large marble.
He dug his fist out and saw it, the blue opaque marble that shone with a translucent light.
It was the mana core of the monster and though it was not guaranteed, Arthur had expected that maybe the monster would have one.
It was of [Ice] element and by its size and purity he could see, a [Journeyman] mana core.
He pocketed the core in his tattered suit, it could be used when required later.
Right now, it was still night and Arthur didn't plan to descend a dangerous mountain straight into the bosses den right now.
So, he decided to sleep the night and tomorrow he would go and hopefully challenge the boss.
He started a fire at the far end of the cave, and after carefully dissecting the yeti, ate its meat.
The meat of mana monsters he noticed, was much delicious and tastier than even the most rarest delicacies of his previous world.
Then, he laid out his coat and tried to sleep awaiting for the next day.
Much had transpired today, he had fought bees, climbed a dangerous mountain and then fought a yeti while almost losing his life.
This made him realize that although he was quite strong, with the support of a god, and also awakening his stigmata when he was just 3.
He was not invincible and this world was even more dangerous and risky than his previous one.
Then sleep overtook his still exhausted body, and his thoughts stopped and eyes closed.
Tomorrow would be the final day in this hellhole of a labyrinth.
_______________
Hello!
What do you think will happen tomorrow?
Will Arthur win or something happen again?
Who was that masked man, who hasn't been mentioned yet both by Arthur and Hades?
Find out in the next episode of Dragon Ball - jk
Please don't hesitate to drop your suggestions and point out my mistakes in the comments, after all I'm just a new author. Anyways.
Thanks for reading!