After Dave woke, he was surprised because his left hand was sticky.

"Why is my hand sticky again?! Well, Let's eat, then I will head deeper into the cave!"

Dave ate two more leaves, and surprisingly he was full after he finished the second one. Then he walked over to the passage while holding his sword. He looked down at the containers he had left there, and although they were moved a bit towards the passage, they were full of water, so he drank both of them.

"It seems someone is looking out for me. Thanks again!"

Said Dave and stepped forward; towards the dark passage.

"I wonder, am I able to create some sort of fire as a sort of light source?"

Dave closed his eyes, opened his left palm and slightly raised up. In a few moments, sparkles appeared in his hand and then they grew in number until a tiny flame appeared on top of his opened palm. The flame was strong enough to light the road ahead of him for a few meters.

"It seems this is my limit for now..."

Said Dave as he opened his eyes and noticed the light he managed to produce. Dave smiled nervously, then proceeded to walk forward. As he was walking, the passage soon widened, and its height also increased. The walls had deep holes in them, and in some places, even the ceiling had holes. Said holes were of multiple sizes; there were small, about the size of his fist, and some were larger than his head.

"I hope these holes are natural... but I doubt that it is true!"

As dave walked forward, the passage stopped expanding, and after about a minute of walking later, Dave reached an intersection. One led to the left; the other led forward. The one going left was so small that Dave would barely be able to crawl through there, so he walked forward instead. From that point on, the number of holes gradually decreased and soon vanished; however, after a few meters, Dave reached a vast chamber, so large in fact that even after raising his hand as high as he could, he couldn't see its roof. 

"Wow, this is large. I must be cautious... who knows what monsters are in this cave."

Dave looked around; he couldn't see anything at first glance; however, as he was focusing, he noticed a tiny reddish glow in the distance. However, after a few seconds, the glow vanished.

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

Said Dave, and a moment later, he heard a loud cracking noise, and he jumped to the side unconsciously, just in time because a figure jumped down from the roof of the chamber.

"What the?"

Asked Dave as he quickly looked back at the figure. Before he could see its face, the figure dashed forward and punched him in the face, sending him flying back. The impact was so strong that Dave blacked out for a second, and his fire was extinguished. As he landed, he quickly cleaned his nose as it was bleeding and noticed a pair of glowing red orbs in the darkness.

"Fuck..."

The pair of red orbs started moving, so Dave quickly summoned another flame and slashed his sword towards the incoming orbs. Surprisingly he could create another source of light in a split second, and it was slightly stronger than the previous one. The flame allowed Dave to see what he was up against. It was a stone state, but it was the exact copy of him.

"Wha..."

Shouted Dave, however, was interrupted as the statute punched his approaching sword and shattered it, and fragments of the blade flew into his eyes, and then the statue's fist collided with his injured eye. Dave screamed in pain as he slid back, and his eye started bleeding.

"FUCK!!!"

Screamed Dave and sent his fist flying forward aimlessly. The statue easily evaded it and effortlessly punched his injured eye again. Dave barely slid back this time and clenched both of his fists, putting the fire out for a brief moment, but then his fists gained a firey aura, giving a much weaker lumination, but the two sources of light were still enough for Dave to see. Dave stepped back a few meters, and his back reached the wall of the room. Dave stared at the entity before him, who was slowly approaching him. The moment the stone figure got close enough, Dave initiated a quick jab aimed at its head; however, it was evaded and instead, his opponent delivered a punch to his stomach. The power behind the punch was so great that Dave was forced to vomit, and the wall behind him cracked.

"This is insane; it is too fast and strong!"

Thought Dave as he used one of his hands to clean his mouth and the other to punch and, in the meantime, tried to dash to the side. However, the stone man evaded his punch once again and delivered a kick to Dave's cheeks. Dave fell after receiving the kick and rolled on the ground, but he quickly jumped back. He opened his left hand and thrust his open palm forward. The fiery aura around his hand diminished and concentrated into a tiny point in his palm. And as his hand came to a halt, the little fiery energy extended and erupted forward as a fireball the size of a golf ball. The entity easily evaded it and Punched Dave's injured eye once again, who was ready and, in return, punched the statue's chest. Dave slid back, but his punch caused no damage to the stone figure.

"Fuck, this thing is tough! And I don't think it is serious yet... This thing seems to be toying with me; I am not even a threat to it."

Thought Dave before he was ready to dodge the statue's incoming fist. As he managed to evade the stone figure's punch, he delivered another straight punch to the figure's chest, this time with all of his strength, but to no avail. Dave quickly drew his fist back and brought both of his hands over to his head as he was anticipating another punch. However, it didn't come. Dave looked at the statue and noticed that it was smiling. 

"What the?! Now's my chance!"

Thought Dave as he delivered a punch to the figure's head. He packed everything he had; every last bit of strength he had left; every last bit of mana he could control and use was imbued into that one punch. The moment his fist collided with the face of the stone figure, it glowed so brightly for a moment. Although it was stronger than the previous sources of lights Dave managed to create, it was still not enough to show the top of the chamber.

"I hope it is enough to..."

Though Dave, however, was interrupted because as he was about to pull his fist back, suddenly the stone statue used both of its hands and hit his head from two sides. The hit seriously damaged Dave's skull; causing him to lose consciousness, and then he was about to collapse; however, the statue kneeled into Dave's jaw before he could fall. And then punched Dave once again.