I peer at the injury on my left upper arm, though it’s hard to get a good look at it from this angle. It feels wrong to just leave it like this, but I don’t have anything to clean it with and my [Rapid Healing] has already stopped the bleeding. I’m just going to have to rely on magic here, even if it’s offending every first aid class I ever attended. Getting wool stuck in it while it’s healing won’t help, as much as I hate having my sleeve cut off. At least the wool kept more of the vile spray from touching my skin.
“Can you detect anything about where we’re going with your Clairvoyance?” Rowan asks.
“No,” I say. “Just that there aren’t any monsters nearby. And no animals bigger than your thumbnail.”
The section of tunnels we’re stumbling through is drier and dimmer than the ones we just left. Fewer glowing fungi dot the walls, though not enough that we can’t see. Still, I pull a light crystal out of my bag of holding and use it as a crude flashlight.
“It might have worked better if you’d have attached that to something,” Rowan says.
“Okay, so maybe I should have been a tiny bit more prepared for things to go wrong than focusing so much on meditating these past several days. We’re not being followed, so far as I can tell, so I’ll see what I can whip up real quick.”
I tie the light crystal to the end of my staff with a bit of twine, because of course I have twine in my bag of holding, why wouldn’t I? The system awards my innovation with no skill levels, and I can practically feel it judging my crude work. I feel like a two-bit makeshift wizard here. I shake the staff a bit and hit it against the floor a couple times, and the crystal immediately wiggles loose.
“That’s not going to work,” I mutter. “It’ll come loose as soon as it gets jostled.”
“I’ll hold it,” Rowan says. “I lost my shield anyway so I’ve got a free hand.”
I nod and pass it over to him. “I can see just fine with Clairvoyance anyway. Let’s get moving.”
Skills increased: Enhanced Feet (Mapping Step), Enhanced Heart (Rapid Healing), Enhanced Mind (Fantastic Inspiration)
I’m making heavy use of [Mapping Step] to make sure we’re not going in circles. And I’ve read over one of the books in my [Mental Library] and determined that it’s pretty bad. There’s way too many bland fight scenes that go on for pages and pages, with characters increasingly relying on ridiculously named skills. It spends five pages just punching the same monster.
“If Slar’s alive, he’ll fine us no matter where we go,” I say. “If he’s dead, we’ll need to make our own way back to Splott. So we may as well keep moving.”
The tunnels become rough and I’m increasingly starting to believe we are not going in the direction of Splott. My [Sense of Direction] is not being helpful, so I turn back to watching the flows of energy through the area. I’ve already been directing us away from any monsters above Basic rank, but now I’m noticing telltale signs of a dungeon in the vicinity. Aether is flowing out from a point somewhere ahead and down, while vis is swirling in that general direction. It could be that we’ve wound our way back toward the hot springs, but it could also be another unidentified and potentially extremely dangerous dungeon.
The ground suddenly gives way beneath us. With a clatter of gravel, we go tumbling down into darkness. The light crystal falls from Rowan’s hand as he tries to grab for something to steady himself. It skitters across the ground, thankfully not breaking. These things are tougher than I’d feared. Once we come to a rest, covered in cuts and bruises, it’s the only thing lighting up a tunnel at least ten meters below where we were.
“Rowan, are you alright?” I ask, checking my own stats.
Skills increased: Clairvoyance (Aether Sense), Enhanced Feet (Soft Landing) Health: 3/9
Not great, and it was probably only thanks to my [Soft Landing] skill that it’s not worse than it is.
“I’m at 12 of 17 health,” Rowan replies. “And I think I sprained my ankle. How about you?”
“Nothing seems to be broken, but I feel like I’ve gone through a cheese grater from all that gravel,” I say. “Health’s at 3 of 9. No, wait, 4 of 9 now. I’m pouring Inspiration into [Rapid Healing].”
“I’m doing the same but my Inspiration pool is much smaller than yours.” Rowan groans as he looks up toward the hole in the ceiling. “And I don’t think we’re getting back up there.”
I retrieve my staff, thankfully unbroken, as well as Rowan’s sword. “I don’t know what to do about sprained ankles, but you can lean on my staff. We should keep moving once we’ve rested up for a moment.”
Rowan nods. “Wish we had something to eat. We left our packs behind at the hot spring. They’re probably covered in monster goo by now.”
“I’m detecting a dungeon in that direction,” I say, pointing down the tunnel. “Could make the situation better or worse. Should we go that way, or head the other direction and hope for the best?”
Rowan sighs, using my staff to help him to his feet. “A dungeon might help us or kill us. We should be careful, but it’s probably worth checking out. It will probably have food and water, failing all else.”
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I pick up my light crystal, nodding in agreement. “I’m not sure how far away it is, but let me get this secured better before we start moving.”
I tie a bit of twine around the crystal and hang it around my neck like a crude amulet. It’ll do for now. At least we’re not completely in the dark. Why aren’t there even the ubiquitous glowing fungi down here? Did we break through to the next layer of the In-Between? No help for it, I suppose. We have no means of getting back up top, so our only real options are to go toward the dungeon, away from the dungeon, or wait here until Slar finds us or thirst forces us to move. Better to move before thirst is a problem.
We make our way through the caves, stumbling through narrow, winding, branching tunnels occasionally broken by small caverns. I follow the flow of aether at each branch, but this layer seems to be desperately dry. The upper layer was moist and full of sources of water. Why hasn’t any of it dripped down here? I’m afraid my Knowledge (Geology) is not up to the task of making sense of the layout of the cave systems of an artificial orbital habitat.
As the density of aether spikes, we come upon a wooden door incongruously set into the rock. Gleaming brass hinges and doorknob look bright and new. It even has a welcome mat in front of it.
You have discovered the Empty Halls. Skills increased: Survival (Caving) Your Endurance has increased.
“Well, that’s not creepy at all,” Rowan says. “I’m reconsidering the wisdom of just sitting down and waiting until the goblin Scout finds us.”
“Just hope for water, at least,” I say. “Healing and food would also be nice.”
I try the doorknob, but it’s locked. Before bringing out the lockpicks, however, I look under the welcome mat. Sure enough, there’s a tiny brass key beneath it.
“That’s… convenient,” Rowan says. “How did you guess that would be there?”
“Just a hunch.” I try it on the door, which opens with a click.
We step into the most plain hallway ever. Flat, blank gray walls lacking even much in the way of texture surround us.
“This is creepier than if it were simply full of monsters,” Rowan says warily. “And where’s that light coming from?”
I hadn’t noticed (being the one with a light hanging on my chest) but the halls are full of ambient light seemingly coming from nowhere, allowing us to see without breaking up the nondescriptness of the walls. The hallway splits into a T-intersection exactly ten meters in front of the door. We walk ahead far enough to look either way, and the door creaks shut behind us.
Rowan looks back at it with a frown. “Dear nice dungeon,” he says aloud. “If you’re going to trap us in here, we will need food and water. Please and thank you.”
Both branches of the hallway extend for twenty feet in each direction, with subsequent branches leading off from them halfway down and at the end. I pull out my notebook and a pencil and start drawing a map of the maze. I’m done rushing for the moment and want to do this slowly and carefully.
Seeing no real difference between them, I turn to head down the left corridor, keeping one finger on the wall and Rowan’s sword in my right hand. I don’t trust the dungeon not to mess around with mazes, though, so I keep [Mapping Step] up as well. At each branch, I also add to the map in my notebook.
Between this and trying to heal myself, my Inspiration is draining like a bathtub. I split off an additional mind to read another one of the mediocre novels in my mind without having to divert my attention from searching for traps and being alert for an ambush. Rowan’s eyes and ears might help here too, but I’m the one with Clairvoyance.
“I hear water,” Rowan says quietly.
I pause and listen as well. Somewhere in the distance, the sound of trinkling water like a stream or fountain echoes through the halls.
After a few turns, a low, square fountain comes into view, and the hallway opens into a perfectly square room. Rowan rushes toward it and restrains himself from dunking his face into the water at the last moment.
“Is… is it safe?” he asks.
“Yeah, probably,” I say. “There’s more healing aether in this than in the hot springs! If there’s a trap here, I can’t detect it.”
“Oh, thank the cores.”
I inspect the room more closely as Rowan drinks, and scan about for any sign of monsters. Four identical corridors lead off in each cardinal direction. If it weren’t for [Mapping Step], [Aether Sense], drawing a map in my notebook, and the left-hand rule, we might be completely lost by now.
Skills increased: Enhanced Soul (Fractal Consciousness), Enhanced Feet (Mapping Step), Enhanced Mind (Fantastic Inspiration), Crafting (Cartography)
“Go ahead and drink,” Rowan says. “I feel great. I’ll keep an eye out. Though I haven’t seen or heard anything but water yet.”
I pass the sword off to him and go to drink. The water is cool and sweet, possibly the most delicious water I have ever tasted. I drink my fill, then rub some of it over my body with my hands. It feels good, though I think I’ll take the opportunity to absorb some more healing, life, and cleansing aether. I’m still covered with cuts and bruises, and this is just life-aspected water, not actual healing elixir.
It’s perfectly safe here. I could just stay here forever. I peacefully meditate, drawing life energy in from the water to heal my wounds.
Skills increased: Enhanced Heart (Rapid Healing), Enhanced Soul (Salubrity), Discipline (Self-Awareness)
What? Why do I have the urge to stay here? Of course I don’t want to stay here. I shake off the compulsion (not that it was an especially strong one) and examine the fountain more closely. I hadn’t even gotten the sense that the aspects of peace and tranquility could be dangerous. I’d been looking for poison and decay, after all.
Far from keeping watch, Rowan has actually fallen asleep curled up next to the fountain, his green sword still clenched in hand and fortunately not poking him. I shake him awake.
“Nngh, let me keep napping here where it’s safe a little bit longer,” Rowan mumbles, not opening his eyes.
“It’s not safe,” I say. “We have to keep moving.”
“Is perfectly safe.”
“We still haven’t found food,” I say. “Are you getting hungry? I’m sure there’s some delicious food in this perfectly safe dungeon maze somewhere.”
That gets his attention. “Right, food. I’m starving.”
“Probably not literally starving just yet but we definitely will be if we fall asleep here,” I say. “Let’s just hope the food isn’t as insidious.”
Not much one to rely on hope when I could be paranoid, I make sure that [Fractal Consciousness] is in place so that only one of me is likely to be affected by whatever else the dungeon has in store for us. So far it hasn’t actually hurt us, so if it really wants us to stick around, it’s going to need to feed us at least. Failing all else, my family will find us, I’m sure.
I’m finding it very hard to feel as worried as I rationally should be. No help for it, though. We move on, and I return to carefully mapping the maze.