Soon enough, he woke up and found himself in a white and black looking forest, he was laying in a circular clearing. The freezing temperature was already evident by the way he was able to see his own breath. He stood up and left off to a random direction.
Slowly his body temperature dropped and hypothermia began to take over, the pain was unbearable at first, but after a while it became bearable, if it weren't for the feeling of losing your limbs. His tears quickly froze.
"Why..." - He thought to himself, as he sluggishly made his way through the forest, spotting a hut in the distance. He reached with his frozen hand and opened the door at the best of his abilities. That was the end of Level 129 and the beginning of another level: level 280.
The staircases stretched out into a fog which covered up the paths that lead lower. He looked back once he stepped beyond that door and it was gone, nothing but more staircases going up. At first he tried going up, but it didn't work. He gave a sigh and simple gave up on trying. This lead him on the long descend.
But soon after he felt a presence from behind. When he turned around he saw a creature staring him down. He stared back at it for a while, before deciding to step back, which was his biggest mistake, because that initiated a chase.
"This is bad." - He said to himself a quickly around and ran for his life.
There were quite a few moments where he almost got caught by it. It was eating away at his sanity, if he had any in the first place.
The running continued for what felt like a hour, a hour of stress and adrenaline.
Then he realized - "Why am I running?"
He sudden stopped phasing through the creature, before tripping it and watching as it fell down. It was quite entertaining. He stood there for a moment in silence with an empty expression, holding back a laughter.
As it to faded into the mist, he began to slowly more down. The world around him became quiet, oh, so peaceful. His trip down was filled with a lot of self reflection - he was immortal yet he feared, but did he really. He was thinking over everything: the book's contents, the gentleman's words; it was all so confusing.
"Just..." - He looked dreaded as he descended the stairs. He had too many questions yet so little answers.
But then he asked himself : "Do the other entities think so deeply about life?"
It was like a revelation - enlightenment.
All he needed to do now was stop thinking so hard about stuff...
Enjoy yourself...
"But how?"
"stfu."
He was free from that way of thinking.
The descent was far more pleasant how that the intrusive thoughts have been muted.
After a bit more of this he finally reached the bottom.
Grass and trees all around even though there is absolutely no sun here.
In the distance a building - nothing too big just a humble little building. Without much of thinking approached it and came in.
"Hello there!" a guy said with a raised hand, open palm.
The kid looked at him before replying: "Hello."
The man was expecting to be asked something, but instead he was met with awkward silence.
The seconds ticked as they just looked at one another.
"Ok, i have had enough, I'm leaving." - The kid said, turning around and following his intuition towards the exit of the level.
And just like that he found it - a cave opening.
A cold gust of wind flew past him from the entrance.
He shivered just a but since that's the only exit he is feeling he decided to enter.
The pace, at which he was going was slow and careful.
For a few minutes or so, he was able of withstanding the cold temperature, but it slowly began to affect him.
His breath has been visible from the very beginning, but now his form began to shiver.
"So cold..." - he said quietly with a trembling voice, but still he continued moving forward.
The environment around him echoed with the sound of dripping liquid from the rock formations it didn't more thing any more bearable.
It has a real challenge of seeing anything may be he should return and ask the man at the building for some help.
(meanwhile)
The man was chatting with the others at the building(the cafe).
"And then he just left. I was going to ask him it he wanted help, but no - he just left."
(return)
The kid somehow navigated back to where he came from, but there was no exit back to the staircase level. He wasn't confused those books did give him a good bit of info.
"Welp, it was worth the try..." he murmured before going back to exploration.
By the 30-minute mark he found himself in a section with a few little glowing orbs.
Finally - light.
With no communication whatsoever they lead him somewhere - to a stream with small glowing marbles on the bottom.
He wasn't thirsty yet he reached down and drank.
It tasted lovely - refreshing to no end.
Maybe this place isn't this bad, aside from the cold temperatures.
He looked down at his hands and saw spiders crawling on his forearms.
Yeah, and aside the spiders.
He curled up and began moving again. To somewhere, to leave this place.
On his way he saw a moving light, so he followed it, the echo of foot slow, gentle footsteps tapping along.
"Hey!" - the kid would call out big mistake
in that moment from nowhere an entity would throw itself at him before quickly ending him.
Or so it thought - the kid no clipped out of sheer panic and evade the bite.
At that moment the distant group began making their way towards the kid's location.
The hunter screeched and growled in frustration. The kid held his ground by standing there looking down on it.
By then the group found him one of them drew their blade.
The entity lunge towards the location of the sound, but before it could harm anyone the man sliced forward, straight town the entity's head.
The corpse was still in motion, so the man stepper to the side allowing it to crash in the h near by wall.
The girl of the group, who also wore a suit with an eagle logo on it, knelt down beside him before asking: "Are you alright?"
"Yeah... Who are you people?" - The kid asked.
The two looked at one another before turning back towards the kid. - "We are from M.E.G and we assist wanderers on their way out of level 8."
Upon closer inspection there was another guy who was hiding behind the corner.
The kid looked at them for a bit thinking "So we are in level 80 then?"
"I'm freezing. Is the exit far away?" - He would ask.
"It isn't far from here about 20 minutes it we don't run into something." - the woman explained.
The kids eyes narrowed as he shivered and said: "After you..."
For a second or so the two M.E.G members were reconsidering if it were a good idea to bring him along.
The guy who was more of a survivalist whispered very gently to her - "Are you sure about this? I mean, look at him. He is glitchy all over. What if some entity? Or what if - corrupted human."
She sighed - "We have seen enough weird stuff here. He can't be that bad."
He chuckled before commenting - "Alright, but if anything goes wrong I'm killing him."
And so after this trey begin walking.
Who could have guessed that a flashlight would be so useful?
The man gave the kid the side eye from time to time, because he was still skeptical of the kid's intentions.
Yet at the end of that journey, the kid did nothing wrong, except for the few times when he murmured "Hold me..." or "Warm", which could have happened because of hypothermia forming.
Luckily though the two little wonderers they brought along had successfully escaped in level 9.
"Good job to us - we brought them safe and sound." - She sighed contently - "Glad that kid didn't drown."
"Still don't trust him..." - the man said.
"Aww, come on, can't you be more open? Not everything is out to kill you." - She nudged him a bit.