I stood at the base of a mountain, craning my neck and shielding my eyes from the early morning sun as I examined the steep slope. The mountain was wrapped in a thick blanket of trees seemingly to spite me.
As far as I could tell there was no trail in this section of the mountain. I had never been to this area, so I wasn’t really familiar with it either.
I had already walked half a mile from home and was sticky with sweat. Suffice to say I was dreading the daunting task of hiking off the beaten path to find the entrance to the Underhollow that “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” led me to.
Well led was a bit inaccurate, it seemed we were skirting around the rules as we found it mainly by playing hot and cold, or maybe they just wanted to mess with me either way its location was so inconvenient.
The Underhollow as explained by the gods was a complex cave system they added in the earth’s crust to contain monsters, puzzles, dungeons, and treasures. Every god added whatever suited their tastes wherever they wanted, as long as it wasn't within the territory of a dungeon.
Dungeons had more structure, there were dungeons spread throughout the Underhollow and at the center of every dungeon was a tower that Candidates like me and Adventurers could challenge in exchange for larger sums of experience. The gods didn't say explicitly that the tower itself was more dangerous than other areas, but that was what I was assuming anyways.
Dungeons were often found in huge caverns that can span hundreds or thousands of miles, however not all of the huge caverns contained dungeons. The deeper one ventured into the Underhollow the more higher level and difficult enemies they would face. Though going down into lower elevations would yield significantly more dangerous areas than just various exploration further away from the entrance.
I asked about the difference between Candidates and Adventurers but was only met with some basic information I could’ve guessed on my own. I guess I really wasn’t going to get much out of them about it.
To sum it up, Adventurers don’t have the right to be sponsored by gods, but they can get contracts. They also get skills that they can level up rather than actual classes. Some of the gods suggested I go ‘collect’ some Adventurers as ‘lackeys’, it seems like there’s yet another hierarchy among humans.
Out of everything the gods explained the thing I feared most was losing my way while in the Underhollow.
Groaning, I began my trek up the mountain. Aureus had taken up residence on my shoulder, standing occasionally and grabbing my head for balance. I wondered how trees were even able to grow with the ground at such an angle. It didn’t take long for me to get irritable.
A toddler in the form of a dragon pulling my hair and asking question after question about the world and me and him and everything! That’s not even mentioning the livechat that was constantly prodding at me whenever there was a chance. “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask '' making jabs about how the strength stat was clearly important. “Traveling Spring Painter '' meant well but her fussing over my health was driving me up the wall, er or mountain.
After what felt like four hours I finally gave in to frustration and exhaustion and collapsed on a rock. I laid back and closed my eyes to rest a moment. The light behind my eyelids disappeared as a small paw stepped onto my face, its toes pressed into my mouth and I sat up sputtering. “Aureus!”
Quiet! There’s something here. Aureus was flying in place looking behind me and slightly to my left, this was the first time I saw him so serious. My anger was quickly chased out by anxiety. His pupils were narrowed to a slit and didn’t waver. I followed his gaze, but was unable to see anything amiss.
“I don-”
SHH! Stop talking
Okay, sorry but Aureus I don’t see anything, maybe you heard a raccoon or something? There really shouldn’t be any dangerous animals around here.
My gaze wandered from him to the area he was focused on, and I saw it. A pair of amber eyes slowly gliding between the trees, just twenty feet away. Panic was settling into my bones.
A mountain lion? Why is a mountain lion this far east? What was the saying what do you do when you see a mountain lion play dead? No that was definitely for a bear-
Master, calm down, it's just a single animal. Does it have a pack? Will it call them if we attack it?
A pack? Hah, no mountain lions hunt alone, there won’t be anything coming to attack us even if we make a lot of noise. Probably. I really didn’t expect to see a mountain lion here.
Then, can I engage in battle?
What? Oh yes, but you shouldn’t use fire.
It may be difficult to do a lot of damage without the use of fire though master.
It’s fine, it would be more dangerous if we got caught in a forest fire. Or well you might be alright since you’re a dragon but I definitely won’t.
[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” informs you that killing wildlife will not grant you any experience.]
[“Traveling Spring Painter” suggests you scare it away.]
The lion had closed the distance and I finally saw it clearly, it was clearly underweight. Which explains a lot, mountain lions rarely approach humans and it is out of its typical habitat.
Aureus, use a basic earth elemental attack while I yell at it to scare it off.
But we can definitely win if we want to.
There’s no need to waste mana on something that won’t get us any experience. I don’t know how far the entrance to the Underhollow is but I’d like to be prepared just in case. Plus they told us about the Underhollow but they refused to answer when I asked if the monsters could leave it so it would be bad if we met actual monsters with low mana.
Okay I understand.
I stepped forward and threw my hands up in the air trying to appear confident and big and just, well, not worth the risk. I started yelling “Just go away! Get out of here! Get-”
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A baseball sized chunk of earth and rocks whizzed past my ear and slammed against its shoulder as it flinched away from me. On impact it fell on its side and rolled a few times down the side of the mountain, as it got up it hissed at us and limped away. We remained static for a while until the receding silhouette of the lion had completely disappeared on the horizon.
As the tension was released from my muscles I exhaled deeply, apparently I had been holding her breath. “You did an excellent job!” I praised Aureus and pulled him into a hug. I gazed up at the mountain ahead wondering where that stupid entrance was, nevertheless we had to march on.
The rest of the hike was mostly uneventful, outside of Aureus discovering a new pastime of terrorizing squirrels. After an hour we ended up at a tall cliff face, if she followed it to the left the trek up the mountain would continue and to the right the cliff seems to continue for tens of feet.
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” says that you should not at all look for a hidden entrance since there aren’t any.]
Exhausted, sweat covered and weak legged I collapsed and gulped down water. “Aureus, can you look for the cave entrance? It might be disguised in some way on this cliff.” I asked as I leaned my head against the rocks behind me. The sun had already risen high in the sky and though it was September it was still sweltering. The air was thick, and humid. The mountain abuzz with the sound of insects and song birds. With a lullaby of nature's own making, I drifted into a light sleep.
~~*~~
I woke up with a start, shocked by a slimy dead squirrel that Aureus had apparently dropped in my lap. Aureus looked up at me expectantly. Picking up the animal with two fingers by the scruff of its neck I returned it to him. I wiped my hands on my pants, patted Aureus and stood up trying not to scowl.
“So you hunted that all on your own huh? You’re getting better.”
I brought it back for you, aren’t you hungry? He asked, teetering on his hind legs as he held it up in his paws, he was innocently asking me to eat a spit covered dead squirrel. It was upsettingly cute.
I’m still unsure of what my expression was but I tried to smile as I responded, I can’t eat that, humans don’t really uhh eat squirrels. Well I mean some... but that isn't the point, it's got your saliva all ove- Ah, I mean I already brought some food for myself. Do you want it?
Are you sure? It was hard to catch. I don't know how long it would take me to get another. He asked with a concerned expression, he hesitated for a moment but I think he saw that I was clearly not interested in eating it so he gobbled it down happily.
“So did you find the entrance?”
Aureus’ eyes widened and then darted downwards as he pushed rocks around with his feet. Uh well I uh… No, I haven't found it yet.
[“Traveling Spring Painter” assures you he searched the front of the cliff while you slept.]
“Okay well then let's at least walk the full length of it, did you go around the bend at all?”
Ah, I didn’t. I didn’t want to go too far.
“Well then let’s start there.” I said as I grabbed my bag and water bottle from the ground where I’d slept. As we rounded the corner it was immediately obvious that this was the entrance to the Underhollow.
An alcove enclosed by foreign symbols carved into the rock was only a couple feet from the edge of where the two cliff faces met. The archway was wide enough for several people to enter abreast, stairs descending into the darkness within it.
I ran my fingers across the carvings and they lit up with a faint purple glow. It was beautiful, it reminded me of the aurora borealis. Aureus smacked a symbol at the bottom which glowed brighter as the light rippled through the surrounding symbols with a slight low wheeenngg.
The purple light particles were awe inspiring and starkly contrasted the dark stairwell behind them, just looking into it gave her an eerie feeling of unease.
[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” congratulates you on being the first one to find this entrance, while he collects some 🬋🬋🬋🬫🬗🬗🬗🬗 from other gods and distributes it out to others.]
[“Traveling Spring Painter” smiles as she says she knew you could find it!]
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” states that what she actually meant was that she knew Aureus wouldn’t find it first.]
[“Traveling Spring Painter” ignores "Whispering Playwright behind a Mask" and encourages you to go in.]
[“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” curses and throws her glass at the wall.]
[“Reflection of an Empty Throne” complains that he really thought the dragon would be able to find it. He exclaims that it was so close!]
“Wow…” my fingers traveled along the arc of the opening purple symbols lighting in my wake. I definitely would have spent a good bit of time playing with the light and inspecting the entrance had it not been for the uproar of complaints to go down quickly.
I took a faltering first step down onto the stairs, rows of purple flames flared along the walls one after the other. I flinched at the sudden change. The stairs that seemed to descend forever were made from perfectly cut square bricks.
Bricks also made up the walls and ceiling, but were cut into more organic shapes. All of the bricks in the stairwell were made of a different kind of rock than the cliff it was set in, rather than a pale gray they were medium gray with a slight tinge of blue.
Condensation dripped down the walls despite the dry chill in the air and was lapped up by deep green creeping vines that sprawled across them. In some of the corners of steps there were carpets of bright blue moss soaking up any moisture that managed to reach them. And all of it bathed in a light purple light from the simple black sconces that lined my path forward.
[“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” whistles at the sight asking "Whispering Playwright behind a Mask" how much time they spent on this.]
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” straightens their suit pointing their nose up into the air, but doesn't respond.]
[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” pulls out a notebook flipping through it before saying they spent quite a sum of materials and several days just setting up the aesthetics of this entrance.]
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” begins chasing “Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” snatching at his notebook.]
[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” continues while evading “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” saying that several spells were put in place to insure the ambiance was to their preferences, including spells for the runes at the entrance and a chilling spell to make you feel cold without changing the temperature.]
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” finally steals the notebook but gets tackled by "Seeker of Magic and Knowledge".]
[“Traveling Spring Painter” separates the two of them and smacks the backs of their heads.]
[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” glares at “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” as he tucks his book safely away.]
“Do you guys usually fight like kids?” I asked when the chaos in the chat windows subsided.
[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” clears his throat and apologizes for exposing you to something unsightly, but also blames “Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” for being petty.]
“So how does this compare to other entrances? Is this one really that nice?” I continued the descent while pondering on the quality of the entrance.
I mean the construction is nice and I was pleasantly surprised there were light sources but it's damp and chilly and looks a bit unkempt. Well I suppose it is wild in a beautiful way.
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” scoffs and in a mocking tone repeats, is this one really that nice before calling humans shortsighted and ungrateful.]
[“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” states that it is a much nicer entrance compared to others and wonders aloud if she should send her contractors here.]
[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” sulks in the corner mumbling about color schemes, ambiance, and theatrics.]
“No I, I mean I wasn’t saying it like that! The entrance really surpassed my expectations, the purple flames are such a nice touch!”
I was looking at the chat windows waiting for a response when Aureus roared OOH! The bottom! Finally we can see the bottom of the stairs! As he jumped over a couple stairs at a time on his way down to the landing. I was shocked at how fast we reached the bottom, sure we had been walking for a while but it looked much deeper than this. I followed Aureus down, quickening my pace as my curiosity pushed me further. From the semicircle of bricks that made up the landing I stumbled forward spinning around mouth agape at my first taste of the Underhollow.