I spawn in

A bright flash of light, and suddenly I was in a deep chasm with sheer cliffs to my left and right. The jagged rock faces and cold howling winds gave the place a very ominous look and feel. I noticed that I was precariously close to a sheer drop into pitch darkness.

'Couldn't have put me in a better place, spawner? Guess I got lucky picking the Lore of Mountains.'

First things first, I needed to find shelter; this wind might actually kill me, either by cold or just blowing me off the ledge to my doom. There wasn't much sunlight as it was cloudy, so I activated God's Eye to see where I was going; apparently it comes with full-colour night vision. I wriggled my slime body towards a nearby cave to get some cover from the winds. It was a rough-going; the wind threatening to blow me away, but I made it inside. Once in the cave, I consulted the Lore of Mountains.

'Alright, let's see where I am…'

[Chasm of Killian]
Among the most cursed places in Ruyanei, the Chasm of Killain is among, if not the most cursed place of them all. Named after the previous Demon King's right-hand man, it was formed when the Hero deflected a powerful Dark magic beam from him, splitting the earth with such **** of Dark magic that it rendered the impact area barren. Close to three dozen villages and towns near the impact area had to be abandoned. Due to the high concentration of Dark magic, it has caused many dungeon cores to form within the caverns. While it has slowly begun to recover, no amount of recovery could dispel the superstitions that surrounded it.
There are rumors of great riches hiding within the deeper parts of the chasm, though no one dares ventures into the darkness. Only monsters live here within the many cave systems, and even then, only the strongest can call the deepest parts home.

'...Oh.'

So I spawned in the most cursed place in this entire world. And there were monsters within the caves, some incredibly powerful monsters, too.

'It's probably going to get worse, isn't it?'

A loud, guttural shout and shaking coming from deeper in the cave confirmed my suspicions.

Welp, no use crying over spilt milk. I had to make the best of my situation. I started bouncing into the deeper parts of the cave to investigate the sound. There were plenty of forks within the cave, so to avoid getting lost, I marked the floor and walls with arrows pointing back to the entrance using a sharpened slime spike I formed. As I bounced deeper and deeper into the cave, the sounds of battle grew louder and louder.

'How deep does this cave go?'

Eventually, I came to an opening which opened up to a massive cavern system. The exit was incredibly high up relative to the floor, so it gave me a great vantage point to observe what could only be described as a battle royale of pretty much all monster types, from goblins, treants and undead, to minotaurs, small dragons and devils, and even machines.

'What the heck is going on here?'

I noticed multiple tunnel entrances on the opposite wall, but near ground level with the cavern floor. From each tunnel spilled out a specific type of monster: Goblins came from one, undead came from another; only one family of monster came from any individual tunnel. Then, I remembered the Lore saying that a lot of dungeon cores sprung up from the Dark magic that was in the area. Those tunnels were probably connected to a dungeon each.

I formed a hypothesis: With such a confined area, there was the distinct possibility of two or more dungeons overlapping. And dungeons respond to invasions by sending in waves after waves of monsters of their specified family. Maybe this area was where a bunch of dungeons overlap, causing a never-ending stream of monsters to pour into it as the dungeons tried to 'protect' themselves. Though, I had no way of proving it. Either way, the place looked like a good source of XP, so that was sorted. The dungeons themselves also probably have loot chests in them, so that was a plus, provided I could get past that giant free-for-all, but I'd worry about that later.

'Alright, what next?'

I decided to try and find proper shelter. As convenient as staying in the cave would be, I didn't really feel like sleeping on hard rock always under threat by falling spikes. The description of the chasm did say the area around it had villages and towns. Maybe there was a house left standing I could stay in, though I didn't hold my breath. I headed back to the entrance, following the arrows I carved into the rock. The strong cold winds greeted me at the entrance, so I decided to hunker in the cave until they died down.

As the winds continued bellowing, I planned out how to get from my entrance to the cavern floor and back again. While the height from the cavern floor to the tunnel would prevent most of them from chasing me, it wasn't very conducive to loot retrieval, especially since I didn't have an inventory, so I'd have to carry it all out on my own. Until I figure out a solution, I'd be stuck only being able to retrieve small items for the foreseeable future. Still, it was better than nothing.

Just then, the winds slowed down a little, the howling becoming slightly quieter. Now's my chance! I exited the cave and began climbing up the chasm wall, using every available nook and crevice, combined with my form's stickiness, to hold onto the rock face. I had to be fast: At any moment, the winds could kick up again, and even this lessened amount was making it hard to get a decent grip on the rock face. Any mistake could mean plummeting to my ****; no safety harnesses to catch me. Bit by bit, I made my way up, stopping infrequently to rest. Every inch I climbed up was painful, the jagged rocks piercing my body, but I pressed on, determined to make it to the top.