The slime didn't jump. It didn't roar. It simply flowed, a relentless, undulating mass of translucent hunger.
Philip scrambled backward, his boots slipping on the damp stone. His ribs screamed in protest, a sharp reminder that he was barely held together by "emergency stabilization."
Weapon. I need a weapon.
His eyes darted to the lake. The stones at the water's edge were smooth, rounded by eons of mana-rich waves. Useless. He looked to the walls—jagged crystals hummed with power.
If he could just break one off...
The slime lunged.
It moved with a sudden, whip-like speed, a tentacle of acidic jelly lashing out at his legs. Philip threw himself to the side, the sound of the slime hitting the rock behind him like a splash of boiling oil. The stone where it landed hissed, smoke rising from the corrosive contact.
It's not just a slime, Philip realized, his heart hammering against his ribs. It's a localized corruption.
In his past life, he would have looked for a bug in the code. He would have looked for the one variable that governed the entity's logic.
He focused his gaze, squinting through the dim emerald light.
Show me, he thought fiercely. If this is a "Total RPG World," then everything has a stat. Everything has a weakness.
[SYSTEM ERROR]Unable to scan target: Level disparity too high.
[NOTICE]"Architect" trait active... Bypassing standard limitations.
[SUCCESS]Target: Abysmal Corrosive Slime (Level 5)Core Location: 12cm below the surface, center-right.
The slime sensed his focus. It coiled, its translucent body turning a deeper, bruised shade of purple.
Philip didn't wait for the next lunge. He dove toward the nearest cluster of humming crystals. His fingers closed around a shard that had been loosened by the impact of his fall. It was cold—bitterly cold—and the mana within it vibrated so hard it threatened to numb his hand.
Analyze, he commanded, his mind racing. Is this just a rock, or is it a tool?
[NOTICE]Item: Raw Abysmal Mana-Crystal (Unrefined)Properties: High conductivity, Fragile.
He didn't need a sword; he needed a conductor.
The slime launched itself, a full-body leap intended to coat him in its corrosive mass. Philip rolled, his lungs burning, and felt the spray of acid melt the edge of his royal tunic.
He was trapped between the cavern wall and the lake.
"Thirteen princes," he wheezed, his grip tightening on the crystal shard. "Always the ones left to rot."
The slime landed, vibrating as it prepared for a final strike. Philip saw the Core—a small, dark nucleus that pulsed like a dying heart. It shifted within the jelly, moving toward the center-right exactly as the System had predicted.
He had one shot. If he missed, he wouldn't have the strength to stand again.
The slime lunged.
Philip didn't move away. He leaned into the attack, sliding low on the damp stone. As the gelatinous mass soared over him, he thrust the mana-crystal upward with every ounce of his remaining strength.
The crystal sank into the slime.
The numbing cold of the mana-shard met the burning acid of the monster.
[CRITICAL HIT]
A sound like a high-pitched scream—not from a mouth, but from the air itself—shattered the silence. The crystal exploded within the slime, the raw mana reacting violently with the creature's core.
Blue light blinded him.
Philip was thrown backward, hitting the water's edge with a splash. He watched through blurred vision as the slime dissolved into a puddle of inert, steaming liquid.
Silence returned to the cavern, heavier than before.
[NOTICE]Target Neutralized.
[CALCULATING EXPERIENCE...]Level Disparity Bonus Applied.
[LEVEL UP!]Philip Valecrown: Level 1 —> Level 3
[NOTICE]First Kill in Abysmal Dungeon detected.Granting Unique Achievement: [The One Who Defied the Abyss]
Philip let his head fall back into the cool water of the lake. His hand was frostbitten, his tunic was rags, and he was covered in slime residue—but his heart was beating.
"Level three," he whispered, a ghost of a smirk touching his lips. "I'm coming for you, Father."
Philip lay there for a moment, his chest heaving. The steam from the dissolved slime curled around him, smelling of burnt ozone and vinegar.
As the mist cleared, something glinted in the center of the puddle.
It wasn't a crystal. It was a band of metal, dark as the void he had fallen through, etched with silver lines that seemed to move when he didn't look directly at them.
Philip reached out, his fingers trembling. The moment his skin brushed the metal, the ring didn't just sit in his palm—it clicked. It shrank, tightening around his finger with the precision of a closing trap.
[NOTICE]Ancient Relic Detected.
[LINKING...][INFINITY RING EQUIPPED]
[NEW MASTER REGISTRATION COMPLETE]
Philip's breath hitched. He tried to pull it off, but the metal was part of him now, pulsing with a faint, rhythmic heat that matched his own heartbeat.
"Infinity Ring?" he croaked, staring at the shifting silver etchings. "Master registered? What in the world is this?"
For the first time, the System's voice didn't just feel like a notification. It felt… deep. Resonant.
[INFINITY RING: A relic lost to the tides of time.][FUNCTION: Spatial Storage. Capable of housing grimoires, equipment, and personal belongings within a localized sub-dimension.][GROWTH: This item is bound to the soul of the Master. It evolves and upgrades as the Master ascends.]
Philip squinted, waiting for the final bit of data—the most important part of any RPG item.
"Rarity?" he asked. "Classification?"
[CLASSIFICATION: UNKNOWN.][RARITY: ONE OF A KIND.]
Philip stared at the dark band. A spatial storage item that evolved? Even in the Royal Treasury, such things were myths—legendary artifacts held only by the founding kings.
And he had found it in a puddle of slime at the bottom of a death pit.
A dry, jagged laugh escaped his throat.
"Banished to a death sentence," he whispered, looking up into the endless dark of the cavern. "And I find the one thing that can help me carry the world away."
He stood up, his legs steadier than before. The abyss was still dark, and the monsters were still coming, but for the first time since the fall, Philip Valecrown wasn't just a prince in exile.
He was a player with a hand full of wild cards.
Philip looked from the ring to the glowing blue water. If he was going to survive this abyss, he couldn't leave anything behind. Not a single advantage.
"Store," he commanded, testing the word.
The ring pulsed. A tether of silver light lashed out, striking the steaming remains of the slime. In an instant, the corrosive puddle and the shattered fragments of the mana-core vanished into the dark metal of the band.
[NOTICE]Item Stored: Corrosive Slime Residue (x1)Item Stored: Fractured Mana-Core (x1)
Philip's eyes widened. It was instantaneous. No weight, no bulk. He turned his gaze toward the crystals embedded in the wall—the ones he had used to kill the beast.
"Store."
One by one, the jagged shards vanished, pulled into the sub-dimension of the Infinity Ring. He was clearing the room, stripping the dungeon of its resources like a predator stripping a carcass.
Then, he looked at the lake.
The water that had healed his broken ribs. The "Unknown restorative substance" that was likely the only thing keeping him alive in this lightless pit. He didn't just want a drink; he wanted the source.
"Can you take this too?" he whispered, pressing the ring toward the glowing surface.
He expected a few gallons. Maybe a small swirl of water.
He was wrong.
The silver etchings on the ring didn't just glow—they screamed with light. The air in the cavern began to vibrate as a massive gravitational pull centered on his finger.
The blue water didn't just flow; it rose.
A massive, swirling vortex of ethereal blue liquid spiraled into the air, caught in a vacuum that defied the laws of physics. The "gentle" mana he had felt earlier became a roaring torrent, rushing into the tiny dark band on his hand.
Philip gasped, his arm trembling under the sheer pressure of the transfer.
Seconds later, the roaring stopped.
The lake was gone.
Where the glowing water had been, there was now only a massive, empty crater of dry stone. The mist had vanished. The soft blue light was extinguished. The entire cavern was plunged into a deeper, more oppressive darkness, lit only by the faint silver throb of the ring.
[NOTICE]Unique Resource Detected: Abysmal Spring of Life.[STORAGE CAPACITY: 0.01% OCCUPIED]
Philip stared at the empty hole in the ground, then at the ring. It had swallowed an entire lake, and it wasn't even one percent full.
A cold shiver that had nothing to do with the temperature ran down his spine.
"One of a kind," he whispered into the newfound silence.
He turned away from the empty crater and looked deeper into the dark tunnels of the Abysmal Dungeon. He was no longer just a boy falling into a hole.
He was an anomaly with a lake in his pocket, and he was just getting started.
[End of Chapter Two]