Ben woke up in the dark.
"Dammit. Where am I?
It's so dark, but I recognize this smell. I am underground," he said with a grunt.
He tried to remember what had happened.
He had just returned from a bar after talking with his best friend, Bob.
After that, he had spent some time with an escort. Everything after that turned fuzzy.
"Did I get kidnapped?
I should have listened to Bob and started giving them larger tips," he thought.
He raised his voice.
"Hello? Anyone here?
I swear I will give you more money, just let me out!"
His shout echoed around him, but no one answered.
Ben picked a direction and walked, one hand stretched forward.
Fear started to grow in his chest.
The place was not only completely dark, it was also completely silent. There was no air movement, no dripping water, nothing.
His fingers brushed against something cold and rough.
"A wall? Rock?" he thought.
He tapped it a few times. It felt like a cave wall, but the surface was too even.
The rock felt like natural stone, but it was flat in every direction.
"Is this whole place a complete cube?" Ben wondered as he followed the wall.
Then the texture changed.
Under his palm, he felt a shallow depression.
It fit his hand almost exactly.
He spread his fingers and moved his hand inside the shape.
The moment his palm filled it, a green light shone out from the wall.
It grew bright enough for him to see the whole room.
As he had guessed, it was a square room.
Each side was about five meters long, so roughly five by five meters.
Text appeared in front of his eyes.
[Congratulations, you have been chosen as a Crafter.]
[You get 1 Blockify Pickaxe.]
[You get 1 crude dimensional pocket.]
"What is this? A system, like in those novels?" he thought.
Reading webnovels and playing games were his main hobbies.
Because of that, the floating text and game-like messages did not feel that strange to him.
"Let me see," he thought, focusing on the items.
***
Crude Dimensional Pocket
Type: Storage Item
Rarity: Common (Upgradeable)
Capacity: Can store up to 10 items
Durability: Infinite
Ability:
Dimensional Access
Provides a small, rudimentary pocket dimension accessible only by the user.
Allows the user to retrieve stored items instantly in any environment, even while under physical or magical restraints.
Limitations: Cannot store living beings, magical artifacts, or liquids without risking damage to the item.
Due to its crude construction, there is a 5% chance items stored may temporarily "misplace" themselves, reappearing randomly within 24 hours.
Tooltip: "A crude pocket dimension, convenient, but a bit unpredictable."
***
Blockify Pickaxe
Type: Tool/Weapon
Rarity: Divine (Growth)
Durability: Infinite
Damage: 10 (Melee)
Ability:
Send You Flying
Knockback: 4 (Weak)
Critical Strike Chance: 4%
Blockify
Power: 1
Limitations: Cannot be used on living beings, equipment, or liquids.
Tooltip: "A strange power lies within, turning nearly anything into blocks, but not without a cost."
***
"A dimensional pocket and a pickaxe. Interesting," Ben thought.
He opened what he assumed was his inventory.
A simple grid of slots appeared in his vision.
One of the slots held an icon shaped like a small bag.
"If this is like the games I used to play, that means I can equip multiple inventory items," he thought.
"Looks like I have three slots for now. Let's see what is inside this dimensional pocket."
He focused on the crude dimensional pocket. Another grid appeared, this one with ten empty slots.
Ben then tried to summon the pickaxe. He thought of it appearing in his hand.
A crude pickaxe appeared in his grasp in the next moment.
It had a rusty iron head and a wooden handle.
It looked like simple construction equipment, but it felt different in his hand.
His fear faded. Curiosity and excitement took its place.
The pickaxe felt like an extension of his arm.
The weight was light and easy to control.
Ben had experience with construction work, and he had even helped build mines before.
It was not the first time he had held a pickaxe.
That was why he knew this one was not normal.
Real pickaxes were far heavier and more tiring to swing.
This one felt almost weightless.
He grinned and swung the pickaxe at the stone wall.
Bam.
Cracks spread out from the point of impact.
He swung again.
Bam. Bam.
[Ding! You get 1 Stone Block!]
The piece of wall he had hit turned into a hollow gap.
The empty space was shaped like a perfect cube, as if a machine had cut it with extreme precision.
"The size is exactly one by one meter," he thought.
At this point, Ben understood the basic function.
The Blockify ability turned solid materials into discrete blocks, similar to one of his favorite games.
Each object seemed to have its own health value.
Based on the pickaxe damage and how many hits he needed, he guessed the rock had around 21 to 30 HP.
There was another stat on the pickaxe, Power 1.
That likely meant some materials would have a higher hardness level, and he would not be able to damage them at all until he upgraded the pickaxe.
"The next question is how to upgrade it," he thought.
"In games, this is usually done at a crafting station, but right now, I cannot do any crafting.
There should be a trigger to unlock a recipe."
Curious, he continued to mine.
He swung the pickaxe in a methodical pattern, cutting out one cube after another and slowly expanding the small cubic room.
[Ding! You get 1 Stone Block!]
[Ding! You get 1 Stone Block!]
[…]
Time passed without any way to measure it.
"I have gathered more than one hundred, but why has crafting not shown up yet?" Ben wondered.
Sweat covered his forehead. He wiped it with the back of his hand.
By now, the green light had faded and the room had fallen back into total darkness.
The only thing that changed was the space around him, which was now much larger.
He opened his inventory again. Text floated in front of him.
123 Stone Blocks and 1 Bronze Ore.
That was all he had after mining for who knew how many hours.
His throat felt dry and painful.
There was no sign of water anywhere.
"Inventory," he said out loud, focusing again.
***
Stone Block x 123:
Type: Block
Use: Crafting material, building
Understanding: 1.23%
Max Stack: 9999
Rarity: Common
Naturally occurring underground, in caverns, or in the dirt layer.
***
Bronze Ore x 1
Type: Ore/Material
Use: Crafting material
Understanding: 0.1%
Rarity: Common
Max Stack: 999
"An abundant metal with many uses."
***
"Understanding?" he muttered.
"Right now, I have 123 stone blocks. Does this mean every 100 blocks raise it by 1%?"
Ben lay down on the cold stone floor and stared into the darkness.
He took a deep breath. Then he started cursing.
"FUCK! Who sent me here? Did you just want to kill me?
No water, and I need to farm at least 1000 stones to raise my understanding by 10%? And what does that even give me?"
His voice rose as he kept going.
"I should be at home, eating something warm, maybe a nice stew, but no!
I am here, slaving away in a hole without any pay, living the dream!
Whoever sent me here, may you #$%@##$%!"
He kept going for a long time.
He threw every insult he knew at the unknown force that had brought him here.
His words had no effect.
The one who sent him here existed in a higher dimension, where words and imagination could create new reality.
This small outburst did not reach them at all.
After he finished his long string of curses, Ben lay still for a moment.
Then he took another deep breath and pushed himself back to his feet.
"Hah. That is relieving," he said.
"At least here, I can curse out loud as much as I want."
It was not the first time Ben had compared himself to a slave.
Even back in the real world, he had often felt like one.
He had been overworked. His pay had barely covered his bills.
He had a mountain of debt, thanks to bad policies and greedy elites.
His only relief had been reading novels on his phone or playing video games.
He had barely any friends, and his only romantic contact came from hiring escorts.
That was the life he had lived before he was sent here.
He looked around at the darkness and the invisible stone walls.
"Well, at least now I can do whatever I want," he said. "Let's do this."