The night was beginning and the sun had gone down. Vina packed her backpack as quickly as she could. After reading the note Priya had written for her sisters, she had a realization. Vina knew for a fact that her sister’s gifts were stored in the ocean cave she escaped from earlier. She had seen the runes on the far door past the traps and she was determined to retrieve what Priya left for her sisters. She readied herself.

Vina put on her Kaliter armor. She had only received it two days ago. Apparently the materials necessary to repair the damage done by the acid was very difficult to obtain. Nonetheless, a master blacksmith had managed to fix her armor. Vina inspected the armor before she headed out.

Armor: Light Armor of the Kaliter (Hardened) Rare Durability 30/30 Required Attributes: Strength 12, Dexterity 16 Armor: 14 Bonus: Crushing and piercing damage reduced by 10% Acid damage reduced by 2% This light armor was created from the scales of a Kaliter. The armor has been hardened by a blacksmith and provides increased defense. This armor has been exposed to acid and has gained resistance to it.

The armor had changed and she was surprised. It now had a resistance to acid and while the effect wasn’t significant, it was surprising. She had asked Ebba about how this happened, but Ebba hand waved her questions away. Vina was resolved to find out exactly what a Kaliter was someday.

Vina headed to the stone city wall. It was massive and seemingly impossible to break through. She had not actually found any weakness in the wall. The only thing she could do was activate her stealth skill and sneak her way to a section of the wall that was unpatrolled. From there, she anchored a rope and lowered herself over the edge. She hid the rope as best she could and stealthed her way back out to the front of the town.

She froze in fear when a flashing red arrow appeared in her vision and she had a notification appear.

You have been partially detected.

Vina held her breath and stayed absolutely still. She tried to control herself when a man in armor wandered nearer to her. He looked around, sword in hand. He crossed her position twice more before shrugging, “Maybe I was just hearing things.” He headed back toward the wall and Vina let out the breath she was holding. “They have guards patrolling the front?”

Skill Level Up: Stealth has reached level 6. While using stealth you are 15% quieter, 15% more difficult to spot, and inflict 37% more damage. Standing near lights will reduce or eliminate the benefits of stealth. You have gained 75 experience from leveling a skill.

Vina slowed her movement and headed back toward where she knew the cave entrance was. After she had moved quite some distance from the town, she finally began to recognize some landmarks. The curve of the coastline was the first thing that oriented her. In no time at all, Vina spotted what she was looking for. The stone latch was surrounded by multiple thick bushes. She slid her way in between them and found the stone plate was in fact covered with a thick layer of vegetation. It blended in perfectly with the environment. She hunted around with her fingers until she found a latch. Once she touched it, the stone slab dipped down and slid to the side. The vegetation was undisturbed.

Vina climbed down the steps that soon appeared and turned on her lantern in the darkness. In her frenzied attempt to flee her attacker, Vina had not truly grasped the area she had walked through. The cave was familiar, but the details were fuzzy. She could see now the floor was perfectly level, but the walls were rough cut. She pressed her hand to the stone and it crumbled. “Is this limestone?” she said to herself. She examined it and the window that popped up confirmed her suspicion.

Vina knew that caves could form from water dissolving limestone. The smooth floor told her that wasn’t the entire story to how this cave was created. Vina didn’t take much longer and jogged her way into the cave. When she arrived, she slowed down. The vines that saved her life were still visible and Vina examined them.

Plant: Stock Plit Vine Common The Stock Pilt Vine is a plant that grows alongside cliff edges. Extremely durable, these plants can grow to great heights. Forage: The Stock Pilt Vine can be used to make many different durable binding materials. Knots: The Stock Pilt Vine can be used to make strong ropes and knots.

Vina paused for a minute and decided to collect some of the vines. She had left her old rope back at the wall when she climbed over and would feel better having a backup. She used her knife to free the vines from the rock wall. To her surprise the plant seemed to come free from the wall easily once its anchored roots were slightly cut. She soon had a large roll stashed away in her backpack.

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She turned around and made for the hall she couldn’t explore previously. When the runed door came into view, Vina stopped near where the trap had activated when she first found this place. She knelt down and activated Observe. She stared down the long hall for quite some time before finally she saw a tiny red thread. Vina followed the thread with her vision and saw it was hooked on a very small piece of dust. The dust was only slightly larger than a grain of sand. Vina traced her eyes back the other direction and saw a red highlighted circle.

Vina moved herself slowly, on her stomach, and inched her way over to the small circle. She didn’t see anything at all in its place. There was just a bare floor. Vina furrowed her eyebrows, “What is going on here…” Vina crawled over to where the thin thread was tied to. She pulled out her knife and cut it. She heard a loud pop and her armor was pelted with metal fragments. Vina looked to where she had seen the circle. A moderate cloud of smoke was rising and there was a blast mark on the stone.

“Geez!” she claimed. “Was that a grenade or something?” Vina headed back to the blast area and saw fragments of some kind of metal scattered about. She tried to Examine it.

Trap: Minor Blast Trap (Destroyed) Common This is a common trap placed on the ground. When stepped on, the trap activates and destroys itself with a small explosion.

Vina shook her head. Was this really something Priya had made? She focused again and soon found another trap. At first it was completely invisible to Vina, but after looking at it for a few minutes, she began to see some details. Almost like it was cloaked in invisibility and it slowly became visible. This one was a freestanding trap with another pressure plate. Vina saw it looked mostly like a bear trap.

Trap: Minor Pressure Trap of Hobbling Common This is a common trap placed on the ground. When stepped on the trap activates and closes two large teeth onto the victims ankles.

When Vina laid onto her side, she could see a small and thin metal tab under the trap. She slid a single finger underneath and pushed the tab to the side. It slid and the trap slowly closed itself.

New Skill Learned: Trap Detection. Trap Detection is an active skill. Progress to next skill level 16%. Quest updated: Learn Skills 3 28/75

Vina celebrated for a minute before activating the skill. To her utter shock, every inch of the hall was filled with traps. Her skill seemed limited to only the first six feet in front of her, but she could guess there were hundreds of traps here. Vina sighed heavily and resigned herself to a long night of work ahead of her. She approached the nearest trap and with her skill active she quickly identified the release mechanism. She cut the string and the trap was disabled. Vina moved to the next nearest trap and methodically began disabling it. After what felt like hours, Vina had processed dozens of traps.

Skill Level Up: Trap Detection has reached level four. Traps are 9% easier to detect and can be disabled 6% faster. Traps are 3% less likely to accidentally go off while you are disabling them. You have earned 695 experience from disabling traps.

Vina felt she was making progress, but the runed door was still very far away. Vina examined her next trap. She was a bit confused about this one. She could not find a way to disable it.

Trap: Reflexive Target Trap Rare This is a Target Trap Trap Detection: The Reflexive Target Trap paints a target on its victim. All traps in a six foot radius will activate and target the victim

Try as she might, Vina could not find a way to shut this trap off. She would have preferred to just ignore it, but the trap somehow had an effective activation area the entire width and length of the remaining hallway. Her trap detection skill was telling her that if she stepped into the surrounding red area, the trap would activate. She could only imagine what would happen after that.

Vina looked back behind herself. She had made about twenty feet of progress in the last few hours. She gaped when she realized the power of this trap. “They wanted me to be here…” she said softly to herself. Vina sprinted back out of the hallway, considering deeply the situation she almost stepped into.

Once she was back to where the cave vines grew, she looked back in disbelief. “They wanted me to feel safe disabling all of those traps. Then once I’m deep enough down the hallway, they set up a trap of traps. If I activate the reflexive trap, it must activate a chain reaction that triggers every remaining trap in the hallway. No one could run fast enough away once that happens.” She shook her head, considering the devious mind that went into that trap design. Vina was stumped. How could she overcome this? As she sat against the wall, considering her options, the hole through the vines began to show the end of the night and the coming of the morning. Vina cursed and ran out of the cave.