Bai Xuan snapped his eyes open and bolted upright, gasping for air.
His clothes were soaked with sweat, clinging to his skin with a chilly dampness that helped him snap back to reality.
The fragments of his memories receded quickly, but the oppressive weight of the emotions in his chest refused to dissipate.
Thinking back to the memories that surfaced during his transmigration, he hurriedly checked his chest, but there was no wound.
After organizing his thoughts, he pulled up the Ogre’s status panel again to look at the status column.
“Zane Cross...”
He whispered the name under his breath. “I’ll settle this score with you sooner or later.”
Then, the scene in the priest’s room flashed through his mind. “And that Julia!”
“To think I was kind enough to save her back then, and I’m only worth two gold coins?”
“The next time I see her, I’m going to hurl those gold coins right in her face!”
After venting to the empty air, his chaotic thoughts finally cleared a bit.
He pulled up his own status panel and quickly scanned his condition:
【Bai Xuan】
【Level: Lv.1 (22%)】
【Class: None】
【HP: 40/40】
【Mana: 25/25】
【Potential: ￥%…*&】
【Trait: Digitalization (Consumes mental energy to present the target's current status in digital form)】
【Skills: Holy Light Catalyst Lv.0 (1%), Redemption Strike Lv.0 (2%)】
【Current Pleasure: 0, Draws available: 0】
His status was fully recovered, which was a relief.
He let out a sigh. “But why is the potential section such a mess? Is my potential so great that the panel can’t even identify it?”
Bai Xuan shook his head, clearing out the delusions, and focused his gaze on the 【Digitalization】 trait to continue his calculations.
“A trait that lets me see the target’s panel information... I wonder if there's a way to level it up.”
Then he looked at his skills. “The mana cost for the healing skill is twice that of the attack skill. One heal costs enough mana to beat up two goblins.”
“Pleasure and experience are simple enough; I just need to kill more monsters in the future.”
Gurgle—
A loud protest suddenly came from his stomach, reminding him it was time to eat, and his throat felt tight with dryness.
Bai Xuan rubbed his hollow stomach. “How long was I asleep? If I don’t find food soon, I’ll starve to death before a monster even gets to me.”
“It should be safe outside by now...”
Hoping for the best, he stood up and brushed the dust off his clothes.
【Holy Light Catalyst】
He extended a finger, and a faint white light flickered at the tip, barely illuminating his surroundings.
In the next second, Bai Xuan’s expression froze as he took in his surroundings, his entire body going stiff.
The stone door he had entered through was gone!
The wall where the door should have been was now perfectly solid, merging seamlessly with the surrounding stone walls without a single crack.
“Wait...”
He looked around, unease beginning to set in. “This isn't the room where I passed out.”
He remembered clearly that the previous space was very small, with almost no room to move, but this stone chamber was significantly larger and emptier.
The only exit was a pitch-black tunnel opening directly opposite him.
To be honest, Bai Xuan didn't want to enter that ominous-looking tunnel. Who knew what kind of bizarre things were hiding inside?
“I’ll look around some more. Maybe there’s a hidden passage or a mechanism?”
Before the skill’s effect wore off, he quickly searched the stone chamber, but found nothing except for a layer of dust on the floor.
Just then, he noticed a translucent sphere embedded in the wall at a corner.
He walked over quickly and used his mental energy to check it:
【Simple Lighting Orb: Inject a trace amount of mana to activate; provides stable illumination.】
Finally, something useful.
Bai Xuan breathed a small sigh of relief.
If he had to rely on his skill for light, his mana would run out sooner or later.
He channeled 1 point of mana into it, and a soft white light radiated from within the orb, quickly illuminating the entire stone chamber.
Holding the orb, he scanned the room. The chamber was rectangular with a flat stone floor and no decorations—exceedingly plain.
But when his gaze fell upon the spot where he had been lying, Bai Xuan’s heart skipped a beat as hope flared up.
There was a complex circular pattern on the floor.
The lines of the pattern looked profound, but what appeared to be key nodes now bore scorch marks.
He hurried over, knelt down, and used his mental energy to inspect it:
【Directional Teleportation Circle (Small)】
【Status: Damaged by overload, energy circuits severed.】
【Effect: Can teleport a target to current coordinates.】
“A damaged teleportation circle?”
The hope that had just ignited in Bai Xuan vanished. “It couldn't have broken when it teleported me, could it? If it’s broken, how am I supposed to get back?”
Clearly, the only way out was that pitch-black tunnel.
He walked to the entrance of the tunnel and tried to peek inside.
However, it was void of light, and the light from the Lighting Orb seemed to be restricted by some force, unable to penetrate deep within.
“Is anyone there?!”
He shouted into the darkness, but strangely, there was no echo. It was as if he were shouting at a solid wall.
“This is getting creepy...” Bai Xuan was hesitant to enter. “Should I just wait here? Maybe someone will come to save me?”
But on second thought, this was practically a sealed space. Waiting would only lead to starvation.
“Fine, I don’t have a choice. This is the only way.” Bai Xuan took a deep breath and steeled himself to step into the darkness.
The moment his entire body entered the tunnel...
Hum!
A strange vibration rippled through his body. Sensing something was wrong, he immediately spun around!
He discovered that the entrance he had just come from... had vanished.
Behind him was the same tunnel extending into the darkness, nearly identical to the one in front of him.
Front, back, left, right, up, and down—everywhere was the same rough stone wall, forming an infinitely extending corridor.
The light from the Lighting Orb seemed even more suppressed here, only able to illuminate about ten meters around him.
“I knew something was wrong!”
His ominous premonition had become reality. Bai Xuan’s heart sank as he hurriedly used his mental energy to check:
【Spatial Labyrinth: Appears to have only one direction, but is actually a labyrinth of overlapping spatial layers. Cannot be exited normally; requires a key or a rule-based item to leave.】
“...” Bai Xuan looked at the prompt, nearly dropping the Lighting Orb.
“If I can’t walk out normally, how am I supposed to leave? A key would definitely be in the hands of whoever made this labyrinth.”
He forced himself to calm down, chose a direction, and walked quickly. But as he moved, there was nothing but the sound of his own footsteps.
Eventually, unable to take it anymore, Bai Xuan simply started running.
His rapid footsteps produced hollow echoes in the passage that lingered for a long time.
He ran for at least ten minutes, his anxiety growing. At his speed, he should have covered several kilometers, but the scene before him hadn't changed in the slightest.
“No, if I keep running like this, I’ll eventually drop dead from exhaustion. I have to find a way!”
He stopped immediately, made a mark on the wall, and began running in the opposite direction.
Rate on N.U.
