My 37,735th attempt wasn't supposed to happen

I opened my eyes abruptly. I quickly sat up. I felt the lack of air in my lungs, and began taking quick, desperate breaths. My eyes felt like they were burning, and I have never felt so much soreness in my life. But despite feeling the worse I have ever felt before, I felt relief.

"I died." I whispered to myself, as I examined my body. I'm sure I died, I'm not even going to pretend and try to convince myself it was all a dream. I still feel the sharp pain of the venom coursing through my veins, yet I'm fine. I looked at my surroundings. It was the same cave as always. The same darkness. The same feeling of overwhelming mustiness. The ever-welcoming creepiness of the entire thing. Yeah, this is my cave, alright. 

So I really am back at the beginning. But how is that possible? I died. I never got to the top of The White Pillar. I never got to wish to return back to the very beginning, that should have been it. It should've all been over, it should've...

I quickly slapped my cheeks, with enough strenght to make the sound echo throughout the cave. What was I even thinking on my deathbed? That me dying was a happy ending? I can't believe the thought even went through my head. That's not like me. Definitely not. 

"I guess approaching death really messes you up, huh?" I laughed at myself. How pathetic I was in my supposed last moments. I stood up, and dusted off my clothes the same as I have always done. I don't know why I'm still alive, but I won't find anything out by sitting in a dark cave mulling over it. I have to get going. And so, I headed off.

I've always considered Nabya Cavern awful place to start in. It's dark, it's like a maze and there are monsters all over the place. Shadow bats, a couple varieties of slime, a skeleton knight here and there... I remember the first time I had to go through here, I stared at death in the eyes a couple times. Never have I had to run for my life so much. According to Goroa, she didn't choose where she'd drop me, called it 'too much divine intervention for her liking', which I figure really means she doesn't want to admit she had a bad idea and now pretends it was all out of her control.

The following attempts, I began charting in my head the perfect route that avoided all monsters. The when and where they'd appear pretty much became second nature to me, so by my 50th attempt, traversing through this cave was done purely out of muscle memory. 

As I gloated to myself about how I know this cave like the back of my hand, an unexpected sound pierced my ears. It was a guttural growl, mixed with a sharp, bone-chilling hiss. But that can't be right. There aren't supposed to be any of these here. And there it was again, the same growl and hiss, but followed by an intense thud, which shook the entire cave. Only a big monster could've made all that. And if it is, then it's very irritated.

"... I could run if it gets down to it." I have to figre out what's happening. If it is what I think it is, it is not supposed to be here. What I need right now is information, and if it is as irritated as it sounds, it's probably distracted hunting down a smaller monster as prey. But then again, that thing could eat me whole in one bite.

Right on cue to cure me out of my indecision, i heard another sound. A scream, very distinctively human. If there's really another person here, I have to do something. And so, despite my better judgement, I sprinted towards the commotion.

When i arrived, my worst fears were confirmed. Not only was there a High Ashfang, a gigantic cobra that's way beyond the scope of this cavern, but also a human, a girl about my age, being hunted by said monster. The High Ashfang lunges towards the girl, with her barely able to dodge to the side. She continuosly tries to run towards the exit of the room, but the Ashfang's body prevents her escape, blocking her path.

My mind went back to my last conversation with Goroa. "A bleeding heart, she says..." I don't know if my heart is bleeding enough to do something about this mess. One wrong step and it just won't be my heart that ends up bleeding. But even while those thoughts ran through my mind, my body was already scouring the floor in search of a fitting pebble. 

"Well, here goes nothing." And so, I hurled the pebble with all the strenght I could towards the High Ashfang. The desire of survival within me wished that the High Ashfang would not notice my little attempt at a distraction, but that bit of hope was soon replaced by an overwhelming flight response as soon as the High Ashfang turned towards me.

"Hey, you!" I shouted, but not at the Hugh Ashfang. "Whatever you do, don't follow me, you got that?! Now get out of here!" I called out to the girl, who was now staring at me in confusion.

"Wait!" The girl shouted back, but I had no time to hear out her protests, since now I had a 40 ft snake interested in making me a light snack. I quickly turned around, and began my escape through the tunnels of Nabya Cavern.

This was not a calculated part of the plan. For starters, there are supposed to be no High Ashfangs in Nabya Cavern. If I had met one of these in my first run through, that would probably have been my first and last one. Despite their size, High Ashfangs are extremely nimble, making outrunning one very difficult for the inexperienced. But the main issue is the existence of it all. Not once during my 37,734 loops have things deviated to this point. And in the back of my mind, there's also the issue of the unnatural way this loop came up. And to top it all off, there were not supposed to be any humans here at Nabya Cavern. But the layout of the cavern is identical to the one I know.

Given these, I can only reach two possible conclusions: Either Nabya Cavern has an identical, more dangerous twin brother and I happened to spawn in it, or this is Nabya Cavern, and I can't expect things to play out exactly the same as they did before.

Regardless, that's not as big of an issue as my current predicament. I dodged and weaved through the cavern corridors, while the monster followed behind me at surprising speed.

"Seriously, how can you fit in here?!" I complained out loud, as I headed towards my destination. Behind me, I could hear the sound of the High Ashfang slithering, scraping along rock, tail thundering behind it. I had a plan. I made one as soon as I began considering the possibility that the weird sound I heard was one of these suckers. It's a plan that maybe will get rid of it, purely relying on my knowledge of the layout of this place. But what if it's not exactly the same? I have no time to think about that. I just have to trust it'll be how I expect it to be.

Minutes of running felt never-ending. But eventually, things began to fill familiar. I was getting close to my destination. if I recall correctly, while exploring this cave during one of my first loops I managed to stumble into an area that lead to a pitch black chasm, that went down into the depths of the cavern and of the earth itself. I never thought it'd come in handy, so I'm glad i kept a mental note of it.

As I rounded the corner, reaching the place where the chasm was in my previous loops, I felt a chill run down my spine and the blood drain completely from my face. What was supposed to be a giant pit that'd bring me a chance of salvation was instead an unceremonious dead end.