This place is weird.
I glance over at the two boys who seem almost identical if it weren’t for their hair colour and different cultures, with their features being very similar. Their jaws and everything are the same. The one who took charge before, Taegan, with his orange and yellow hair is unique, and his blindfold is a classic of the desert people, as it prevents sand getting into their eyes.
As we walk around the labyrinth a bit, I can’t help but notice that nothing here is not purple. The walls, the plants, the light, absolutely everything was purple.
“So, does anyone want to talk about how you two are creepily similar?” I say, finally gathering some courage to start a conversation. They both fix me with an identical stare, before glancing at each other. Taegan decided to talk first. “Well, I don’t know about you Shankhe, but I was found in a broken carriage from a monster attack on the edge of Tingari by some desert scouts. They were the ones to raise me. You?” We both look towards Shankhe, who is deep in thought.
“Matron, the name of my orphanage director, said that adventurers found me in an abandoned broken down carriage near the edge of Tingari as well! She said they thought they heard another baby cry, but monsters were approaching, so they didn’t have time to check.” He says with excitement.
Taegan suddenly lights up. “Wait, do you have this?” He asks, despite knowing the answer already. He moves his shirt up, revealing a small ying-yang pendant that hangs to his shorts.
“The desert scouts who brought me up said they found this with me when they discovered me.” Shankhe lights up. “Yeah!” He says. “We may totally be brothers!” I smile, happy for them, but just then, I hear rustling nearby.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Ummm guys, I’m sorry to ruin the moment, but we may have company soon.” Taegan, who had been caught up in the moment, scowls as he looks around. “You’re right. Dalyva, stay behind me, and Shankhe, be careful.” He says, tensing up, just as a rat emerges from the surrounding purple foliage.
It doesn’t look natural though, it’s fur purple and eyes shot violet sclera all purple, with glowing purple liquid all over it. Almost like it was… corrupted. Immediately, I step behind Taegan, having no confidence in fighting, with no training, and my specialisation being untrained as well.
Taegan grabs his bottle, ready to attack. He quickly opens it, letting some sand slink out as he harnesses it into his hands. The rat is moving ever closer, and soon launches at us for an attack. Taegan grimaces, as if not the hero I envisioned. He sends out streams of sand, wishing to slow it down, but it doesn’t back down, as if wishing for death.
It gets close, and I flinch, scared and nervous. Shankhe looks at me, making sure I’m okay, as well as Taegan, and, seeing that I’m okay, they both focus back on the rat.
However that moment of distraction was all the rat needed, launching towards Shankhe. Deftly, Shankhe throws a hand out, intercepting the rat in the face. It is thrown back a meter or so, and Shankhe shakes his hand, trying to get some purple stuff off his hand that had ended up there after he punched the rat.
He now has time to open his bottle, and lets the water clean his hand, however his skin stays purple. Ignoring that for now, he sends streams of water at the creature, and it dodges them, rushing Taegan, who gets a good shot, and kills it, sand going through its eye into its brain. It collapses, before dissolving into rainbow mist.
The mist is the worst smell I’ve ever smelt in my life, way worse than anything imaginable, and I gag upon smelling it. In its place is some neatly folded up rat fur, and some meat, that I presume to be rat meat, as well as a few copper.
I look at Taegan, who is grimacing upon seeing the rainbow mist. “Alright…” He stretches out the word, like it‘s a bad thing he’s about to say. “Unfortunately, this is a dungeon.” He says, grimacing. Shankhe, who was going to pick up the loot, turns to him. “What does that mean for us now?” He asked. “It means that now, we only have three ways to get out, two of them are options that the Entity presented before, and the last, to defeat the boss of this labyrinth. The only problem is, I think the boss of this labyrinth just so happens to be the Corruption Entity.” He says entity and not god because, as we think of it, gods don’t act like that.
A shiver runs down my spine as he says the Corruption Entity, the fear from before still in me. We gather the loot, and Taegan puts it away in his bag on his back.