Testing My Luck in the New World

The world around me had become a pitch-black darkness so deep that even the thought of light seemed impossible. To say that I couldn't even see the tip of my own nose would have been an understatement so egregious that had we not almost died, I would have slapped myself in the face for considering it. When Yua's arms and knees buckled and the ceiling fell, it quickly stole away with the inexplicable visibility illuminating the dungeon, but it was a comforting thought, knowing that it was still there somewhere above us.

We weren't dead, thankfully. I could tell that much from the sweet scent of Yua's breath against my neck as she tried to calm herself. The sheer physical exertion she had to put out to keep the stone from crushing us as long as she did tired her out so much that she wasn't able to stand on her own anymore. So, I put my knee between her thighs to give her something to sit on and to support her while she clung to me. She didn't say a word. Didn't protest in the slightest. She just sat and leaned on me, the tips of her ears tickling my nose all the while.

Cramped as it was in here, in this small little box of stone, her breasts pressed so firmly against my chest that, in any other circumstance, her softness mixed with my inexperience would have been enough to drive me crazy, but for her sake, I managed to keep calm. Though each time her hot breath swept across my sweat-drenched neck, it tickled at my sense of reason.

"Thank that beautiful goddess," I said to distract myself and hugged Yua as tight as I could.

I thought she might protest me this, but in this one case, I wasn't going to have it. I was just happy neither of us died. She didn't reject me, though. Maybe she thought she had no choice as my slave or maybe it was just because she was too exhausted to try, but she relented, did away with her snark and let me hug her without complaint.

I worked hard and finally had something to show for it that was worth a damn. She was safe.

The Material Destruction ability did exactly what I thought it might and destroyed only a section of the stone about to crush us, creating a large hole about the size of a double-wide gym locker just above our heads before it finally fell. Instead of the stone crushing us, we slipped inside of it entirely unharmed. Well, mostly.

It appeared to be an ability similar to another game I occasionally dabbled in that involved mining. Just like in that game, the chunk I removed was, or felt, like a perfect square, judging by how sharp the corners of our little room in solitude felt. The only difference was that I didn't seem to need a pickaxe to make it work.

I had no idea why that goddess chose to incorporate aspects of that game into this world, as it wasn't exactly my idea of an RPG.

While I praised that wonderful Goddess and myself for figuring out how that ability worked on the fly, Yua remained quiet for a long while. The only sounds she made were that of her continued heavy breathing. I was sure that the massive thud that accompanied the falling stone must have really hurt her extra sensitive ear drums. So, I didn't mind it at all when she squeezed my shirt and clung to me with what was left of her strength to deal with the pain. Aside from any muscle damage she sustained holding up that impossibly heavy boulder, her ears must have been ringing. The fact that she was still conscious was a testament to the strength she seemed proud of.

I tried to check on her status page to see how she was doing, but all that popped up was a blank window. I checked mine just to be sure, then tried directly accessing the Help window. Both were blank.

Great. Things that affect my vision like light must also affect the visibility of my menu.

"Where... are we?"