The staircase led to a labyrinth of tunnels through which Gunnar had to walk around for hours.
He had long lost his sense of direction and was aimlessly roaming around.
"How long should I walk like this? Why am I not finding anything? Something. Just anything… would be fine."
As he was thinking, he heard a faint noise. He looked ahead and saw a human-sized spider crawling on the ceiling.
It suddenly sprang at him, making him move out of the way. The spider crashed on the floor but then got back up and attacked him.
Gunnar ran away in fright because his mindset against the monsters was still as how it was in the past.
The spider sprang forth and caught him with its legs from behind.
With the dagger, Gunnar reflexively stabbed its face over his shoulder, making it scream.
It let go of him momentarily.
"Get away from me, you damn spider!" Gunnar turned around and punched it with his left fist.
The spider's head and body blasted to bits and pieces, and its limbs flew in different directions.
Gunnar's face froze for a second.
He blinked a couple times. "Huh?"
He couldn't believe what he just did, but then again, it also made sense.
As seconds passed, it all slowly sank in.
He was convinced that he was not a weakling anymore.
He didn't have to run and hide from the monsters like in the past, and it made him feel strangely satisfied.
Gunnar then opened his left hand. All the gold coins in his hand were bent and lost their shape.
"Damn it. I didn't even use aura, and these coins got all warped. I should be more careful. If they lose too much shape, then these coins might not work outside."
From then on, Gunnar decided to use only his right hand to fight.
He didn't even use his fists but used the dagger instead.
Even though it was dark all around, he fought dozens of spiders and snakes and salamanders and lizards.
"The monsters aren't that strong, but they are popping out of nowhere," Gunnar thought.
He closed his eyes and tried to feel the wind.
He was able to barely feel the wind movement every now and then.
Using that, he decided in which direction he should move.
Along the way, he killed many more kinds of beasts, and he learned to release aura onto the dagger, too, though the energy wasn't staying on the dagger for long.
"This is quite trickier than I thought. If I put too much energy, the dagger repels it back, but if I put too little, then it's not working properly. It's so much more delicate than covering my fists with aura."
Even though he was annoyed, he also liked the challenge.
"Raha was able to cloak her sword with aura back then. That means she was more skillful with a weapon back then than I am now. She would have likely managed to escape these tunnels." He faintly smiled. "I wonder which one of us is stronger now."
After nearly one and half days of travel, Gunnar finally saw light.
It was faint, but enough to brighten his eyes.
Even though he hadn't eaten anything these past two days, he didn't feel hungry or thirsty or even sleepy. He was still feeling pretty energetic.
He reached the edge of the tunnel, where there was a waterfall screening his view of the outside, but the water looked a bit blue in color.
His nose stung a bit.
"This is… the scent of poison. So the entrance of this tunnel is behind a poisonous waterfall, huh. That makes it very difficult for others to even think of approaching it."
With effort, Gunnar covered himself with aura all over his body and jumped out.
He fell hundreds of meters down through the waterfall and crashed into the waters below.
He swam out and reached the shore, where there was a pack of dogs feasting on fish.
These dogs had green fur and eyes.
"Virid dogs…" Gunnar was surprised as they were known to carry a toxic poison in their saliva just a drop of which could paralyze humans in seconds, eventually leading to death if untreated.
Hunters avoided these dogs at all costs.
More than a dozen of these dogs converged on Gunnar apace.
If it was the Gunnar of the past, he would have probably jumped into the waters, but now, he stepped forward, despite knowing the risk of fighting these ravenous dogs.
A dog leaped at him, viciously swinging its paw forth.
Gunnar swiped the dagger and cut through the dog's paw as well as its neck in one go.
Seeing that, all the other dogs lost a great deal of their confidence.
"Well, well, lowering your tails already?" Gunnar smirked. "I was nervous for no reason. You are all weaker than the lizards and spiders I fought in the tunnels. This isn't even fun."
He just stomped on the ground, and the dogs turned their tails and ran away, squealing at the top of their lungs.
"Hahaha," Gunnar laughed.
This was the first time he made monsters run away from him.
This made him feel proud of himself.
It felt so satisfying and exciting at the same time.
Just then he heard ruckus in the distance.
"This sound…"
He quickly ran toward the source of the sound that came from across the poisonous river.
He hid in a berry bush and noticed the group of three men who were fighting each other after killing a big boar.
"Damn, that's a six-tusk boar," Gunnar thought while chewing on a berry. "It's not fully grown, but I bet it tastes delicious."
"The boar's core is mine!" one guy shouted.
"Crawl off! You can take all of its flesh and bones if you want, but the core is mine!" another guy shouted.
"Both of you are talking shit because I dealt the most damage to the boar, so the core is mine!" the third guy shouted.
Just then, Gunnar jumped out of the bush and said aloud, "Brothers, how about you lend me some of its fur so that I can cover my nakedness? Or do you have spare clothes by chance?"
"Ah?" the three men in their mid twenties looked at Gunnar who was completely nude. With his long hair, he looked like a youthful barbarian. "Who's this little…." their eyes lowered toward Gunnar's crotch, "big shit? Did you grow up in these mountains or something, brat? Can't you see that we're busy? If you don't want to die, then get lost."
Gunnar, however, just stood there with his arms on his waist. "It's okay. You can fight. I'll just watch."
His words angered them even more. "You want us to entertain you? You brought this on yourself!" They together decided to deal with him first, so they attacked him together.
"H-Hey," Gunnar swiftly closed the distance and smacked the front guy's face with the back of his hand, causing blood to spray in the air. "Go easy on me, okay?"
The front guy spun through the air thrice and then collapsed on the ground, making the other two men to back away as they were weaker than the guy who just got thrashed so easily.
"I'll be taking this brother's clothes because he attacked me first," Gunnar told them and took the guy's clothes before walking away in a happy mood.
The remaining two guys were staring at Gunnar stupidly. "Who in the seven mountains was that?"