Entering level 10, I come across a large open space with many tunnels in all directions.

The last time I came here, almost two months ago, I took the tunnel that is farther to the northeast.

This time I'm going to vary a bit and go into the tunnel that's in the northwest.

Entering the tunnel, it seemed to be narrow, but gradually it is opening up, but it is still a small space. The place is quiet, the lighting is worse than the previous levels, with only a few crystals of light in isolated spots illuminating a small part of the floor.

Only a noise can be heard: the drops that fall from the stalactites that have formed on the ceiling.

I go deeper into the darkness, trying to make the least noise so as not to wake the monsters, especially the monster I'm trying to look for.

Giant Bats don't normally present much danger when they're alone, but when they're in a pack, they can become a problem.

One of the places they like to stay is on the ceilings, so I'm always looking up to see if I can find any.

As I walk, I realize that I am already far from where I came from. It may be that in a little while I will enter level 11.

I walk around, looking up, until I find two red dots on the ceiling. This sure is an eye of a Giant Bat!

He's upside down.

I slowly raise my right hand upwards, aiming at him. Small blue particles emerge from the air and begin to gather in the center of the palm of my hand. These particles grow and turn into drops of water that come together and form a sphere of water that spins violently.

Setting my aim, I shoot at the monster, which swerves at the last moment. It begins to fly away from me and reveals the whole body. A bat about 1 meter and 20 meters tall.

He's heading towards absolute darkness; if he gets there, I'll lose sight of him!

Running after him, I shoot more with water spheres. I shoot on the right; he swerves to the left. I shoot on the left, and he dodges to the right. He's pretty quick, that little brat.

Since that's so, I'm going to try something new.

Instead of shooting a big sphere of water, I'm going to make small balls of water and shoot.

That's going to be a little hard to do on the go. I raise my hand, and the particles gather in small amounts scattered in the palm of my hand until they see drops of water spinning at high speed.

I set my sights and shoot the bat. Some of the drops hit the right wing. Slowly, the bat begins to lose speed and also begins to fly lower.

Now is the time to catch up with him. I need to run faster!

I try a little harder to run until I get close to him. I grab one of the monster's paws and throw it to the ground with all my might.

"KHIIIZ" The bat screams.

I think I exaggerated a little; the poor guy even screamed...

He tries to take flight but can't. I make a sphere of water and finish it by hitting it in the head. Purple blood begins to spread across the floor. Kind of disgusting that.

With him already dead, a small crystal begins to form from the bat's hair. The crystal forms completely and slowly turns gray.

I take the crystal and put it in my hip bag.

There are only 4 left.

Crystals form from the bodies of monsters, but the body itself does not disappear. For example, sometimes some people ask only for the wing of the Giant Bat, the crystal in this case is not of greater importance.

I think I'll move on; there should be more bats.

Digging deeper into the darkness of level 10, I keep looking up, searching to find more bats.

I confess that I am quite lost. I should have taken a map. Well, complaining isn't going to change anything.

Walking aimlessly, I hear a noise coming from my right.

I immediately run towards the sound. Getting there, I find myself with rats that are coming at me! I position myself to fight.

The rats come towards me and pass me; they are running away! That might be a good sign.

Giant Bats typically feed on the rats, so if they're running away, it means there must be some in front.

Moving forward silently and slowly, I find a Giant Bat feeding on a dead rat on the ground. The bat does not appear to be an adult, it must be a cub.

Would it be cruel for me to kill a cub monster?

Rather him than me!

I've never wondered if monsters have feelings, but this is the worst time to ask yourself. Imagining his parents' reaction to learning that he was killed by an evil adventurer...

Yes, I can't do that, but it's his parents' fault for leaving him alone.

At least I had an idea: I'm going to scare him, so he can take me to his parents!

Then, when I find the parents, I kill them both!

Come to think of it, I'd leave him an orphan...

Suddenly, the little bat begins to fly and heads towards the darkness.

I guess I was overthinking.

I begin to follow him, and before I know it, I enter absolute darkness.

Good thing I picked up some small torches. Opening my backpack, I pick up the torch with my right hand. The torch has a small crystal of illumination that activates in the darkness. The lighting is very dim, I should have bought a higher quality.

I hear the bat finally stop flying. He must have hung from the ceiling.

I should have ended it when I had the chance.

I light up the place a bit with the torch and see the red eyes of the bat shining on the ceiling.

I raise my left hand, preparing to attack him with my water sphere magic.

I hope you find peace in death... That was a lot more dramatic than I thought.

Wait a minute... Does this place have no way out?

I undo my magic and raise my hand with the torch up. The lighting is pretty precarious, but I can see a little more now.

And I see thousands of red eyes on the ceiling and the walls, looking at me. Thousands of Giant Bats that were hiding in the shadows. I thought that baby bat had gotten lost, but it was a trap!

I stop instantly, I'm completely frozen by the scene I see.

There are many, I will not be able to account for them all.

A silence lingers in the air, as if they were waiting for me to make the first move to attack.

The exit is behind me. The problem is: how am I going to get there without them attacking me first?

I need to be quick. My heart started beating faster in that instant, it must be because I don't want to turn into bat food.

Slowly, I lower the torch and turn to the exit.

Now you have to be fast.

I take a deep breath, ready to run.

Three.

Two.

One...

Now!

I run as fast as I can to get out of this place, but when I'm about to leave, many bats block the passage, and simultaneously, all the other bats come towards me.

They start biting and scratching me from all sides!

The only thing I can do is defend myself by covering my head!

They make a lot of scratches on my body, tearing pieces of my pants and T-shirt.

Slowly, I am pushed back!

They look like they want to trap me at the bottom of the cave.

I can't let them act like that!

I stop protecting myself and raise my two hands tilted vertically, letting the torch fall.

Conjuring a sphere of water in each hand, I cast it over the bats.

I can't see much since the torch fell, but I could hear a lot of bats dying screaming.

Even so, they don't stop pushing me.

Suddenly, I feel a big thrust against my legs, causing me to fall!

It feels like it's my end.

I start crawling up to the cave wall as countless bats attack me.

Ugh, those bites that hurt like needles.

I'm full of injuries everywhere on my body, I'm not seeing anything due to the torch I dropped. I'm going to have to use all my mana to get out of here!

The bats attack my leg violently while I'm crawling!

I walk on my back as fast as I can, to get to the wall. If I get to the wall, they won't be able to attack my back, and I'll be able to attack more of them.

I crawl with one hand, and with the other, I throw spheres of water anywhere, counting on luck for me to hit one of them.

They bite my arm, but at the same time, I hit them.

I must be near the wall.

Putting up with all the pain, I get up as they bite me.

I take steps back while casting water spells at them.

Walking backwards, do I trip over something—a rock or a bat?!

I can't see anything, but I can feel it.

I'm falling...

I feel the wind against my body, maybe this really is the end. How pathetic, to die to a bunch of random bats...

But wait, why didn't I hit the ground?!

I start to fall into a hole that looks like a slide made of dirt!

"AAAAAAAH!!!! MY GOD OF HEAVEN, WHERE AM I GOING?!?!?"

I slip through the tunnel on my back, and I see only a little of that horde of bats getting farther and farther away.

So a light, coming from behind me, begins to illuminate me.