CHAPTER 11: WHY ALWAYS ON THE HEAD?
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"Put him to death!"
"Murderer!"
"Crucify him!"
"Human scum!"
An overripe Tartis fruit hit him on the head, causing him to sway from the impact, but his Nightshade guards dragged him onwards.
Him and this stain on humanity to his left whom he once had called friend. But that seemed a lifetime away - likely yesterday, but ... that probably was longer ago than what remained of his life. This life, anyway. Step by step - voluntary or not - their journey continued, accompanied by screams, tears, rotten fruits, jeers, demands for their execution ... or worse.
Vengeance.
Such a terrible concept, but ... he could not really deny their right to it. He wondered what the traitor had though, had hoped to achieve. But then again ... it probably was unthinking greed or frustration. And for all of his subordinate's failings, the actions of his bands were his own responsibility, ultimately.
Even if this particular end was not what he had been looking for.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, they reached a large court. It looked like a huge bowl-shaped arena, grown out of nature - with a diameter of more than a hundred meters, where they emerged through a tunnel almost at ground level. The sides of the bowl-shape were uneven, covered in grass and bushes he did not recognize, providing a sitting opportunity if you did not mind a very direct connection with nature. At the top of the bowl, grass-covered ground gave way to a thick forest with a wild array of branches reaching high above and far into the arena. Starlight shone from the midnight sky, the moon brilliant in a perfect full round shape. The light appeared possessed of a will of its own, focusing on illuminating the very center of the arena, where a magnificent oak tree stood. In its center there was a platform, the branches and leaves carefully grown to not obscure it.
The entire arena was filled with a buzzing sound from the thousands over thousands of Fae flying around, sitting on branches, adding their own glows to the lightshow ... having come to watch whatever was about to happen. To see justice done. Or vengeance delivered.
They were led straight before the trunk of the ancient tree and silence descended over them as everybody focused on that platform in the tree. Reality shuddered and suddenly a presence ... unfolded, expanded, engulfing the entire arena, drowning out and supplanting any other impression - a majesty that would not be denied, an authority so absolute there was no questioning it and suddenly the largest Fae he had ever seen materialized on the platform. An unmistakably regal bearing, the elfin creature was wearing flowing robes of silk covering a slender frame, held floating by three sets of large wings. But what truly drew his attention were her eyes - perfect orbs of black and yet he felt them focus on him, as if seeing through him straight to his core.
The Midnight Court was in session.
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Slowly, Arcanis drifted into wakefulness. It was an odd feeling, as his tumbled thoughts slowly regained their proper order and he regained his ability to differentiate between dream and reality. Or rather memory than dream. Been a while since that one came back to haunt me though. He had long since forgotten just when and where it happened, too - not one of the more recent incarnations, for sure.
The process of waking up was also not helped by the fact, that the input from his senses did not actually make much sense. He had gone to sleep on rocky floor, his head propped up on his leather armor, so he really had no business waking up on a bed. Or at least something as soft and comfortable as one.
Arcanis slowly opened his eyes and got up, taking in his surroundings. As it turned out, he appeared to still be in the same room he went to sleep in, but instead of lying on the hard floor, he got up on ... a sheet of starlit nightsky? And while he did not see any comforter, lying on that sheet sure had felt as if he were covered in one. Brushing over it with his hands gave him a funny, soft sensation, a sense of sinking in, as if it were a soft mattress ... and when reaching to the edge of the sheet, he felt it could not possibly be thicker than a millimeter or two.
Curious.
Finally fully awake Arcanis got up, ate a breakfast made of a partial ration from his inventory - ugh - and equipped his armor again, now fully dry. Looking at the sheet, he decided to pick it up and store it in his inventory. Bound to come in handy. Curious, he checked his inventory, wondering what the item was called.
Inventory
* Beginner Staff
* Simple Knife
* Travel Rations (1.5 days)
* Torches (10)
* Writing Tools
* Book
* Magic Cloth: ???
Guess it's not that easy, huh?
Still, Arcanis understood well enough what it did to appreciate the cloth, considering how truly rested he felt, when he had instead expected to be in pain from the hard ground. The aspiring wizard turned around his own axis, inspecting the room but could not see anything or anyone. Still, anybody who can smuggle a sheet of cloth under me without waking me up can probably hear me as well.
Arcanis bowed to nobody in particular, saying "Thank you, whoever you may be. The help was much appreciated."
He straightened again, waiting for a moment or two, but no response came. Well, that's that I suppose, the dungeon ain't gonna explore and escape itself. With a cheerful spring to his step he moved out into a second day of exploration, danger and learning. And hopefully no more pranks!
* * *
A new day of adventuring, exploring the dungeon and trying to find his way up and out was upon Arcanis. And after two more hours of it he was certain of two specific facts. One: He was hopelessly lost and had no expectations of making it out of it. Two: The rumors about dungeons being dangerous were kind of overblown. He had not met a single monster.
The mushroom landscape got sparser with caves and tunnels being more pure rock than subterranean vegetation. His eyes, getting more and more used to the darkness, were mostly fine with the low light conditions and he was able to avoid any major accidents. Indeed, the only thing distracting him from his monotonous journey was the weird feeling in the air, including the infrequent pulses of ... something, that travelled through it without causing much of a breeze. Well, that and the occasional giggling and prank-level traps he managed to avoid. I know I should be annoyed with the shiny critter, but damn if it ain't the only distraction in here!
Some time later Arcanis reached a first break to the pattern: He entered a vast cavern, probably spanning a kilometer to the other end, that had a major distinguishing feature - at the center of the roof there was a brightly burning light, brightening the cavern to almost daylight conditions. The floor was covered in grass, with a small forest in the center, comprised of needle-trees that the aspiring wizard was unable to identify. There were several exit tunnels visible, however the one on the opposing side seemed most promising, visibly leading upwards.
Something felt ... off with the whole scene however. Unable to point out just what was triggering his inner alert, Arcanis proceeded forward with his staff at the ready. One wary step after the other, he approached the forest when finally he noticed the first sign: A few branches of a bush at the edge of the forest were broken. Looking closer, he noticed a light depression in the ground and using that as a beginning point he soon was able to identify more paw prints of what looked to be a four-pawed creature. Given the size of the prints and the height of the broken branches, the creature probably was no larger than a large dog.
Rather than entering the forest after the creature, Arcanis decided to avoid conflict in its home territory and instead started circumventing the forest, keeping enough of a distance to its border to give him enough time to react to a surprise attack. Halfway done with his way around the forest, he found a large section of disturbed bushes, some of the grass leading away from it and into a downward tunnel visibly trampled down.
Curious.
Passing through the damaged bushes, he was again able to detect paw-prints on the forest ground, leading into the heart of the small forest. Or rather, leading out of it. Inspecting them closer, he noticed how they were all mostly of the same size, but were different to the previous prints in one manner: There were three marks on the back side of the print and some earth spread behind it. I wonder what that means. Maybe they were running swiftly?
You have unlocked the skill: Tracking!
Tracking (Level: 1) [Nature]
"Don't bother running, you'll only die tired."
Generally speaking, you really do not need any additional help seeking out trouble.
But ... well, at least you are now more proficient at finding your doom.
Improved ability to detect, identify and trace tracks
Another one without any unlocked attributes, huh? Arcanis shrugged. A kind of confirmation of my conclusions, I suppose.
Checking out the tracks once more, the effects of the new skill became immediately apparent. While subjectively not a large change, the tracks drew his eyes more readily and focusing on a given set of tracks, anything not related to that one set of paw prints appeared to ... deemphasize. None of the colors changed, but it just ... seemed as if his eyes skipped over the parts not related to his focus. Spooky. Will need to take care to not get dizzy.
"Anyway" the aspiring wizard spoke out his thoughts out loud "with the inhabitants out of town, maybe I can dare risk a look at their lair." He nodded to himself and entered the forest.
Under the trees, the shrub soon made way to ... little but earth, trunks and fallen leaves. Tracing back the steps to their origin, he came to clearing in what he expected to be the center of the forest. Exiting through the bushes bordering it, the clearing was a large circle of grass that was so evenly grown or cut to qualify for the term 'lawn'. On the opposite side, a cave entrance loomed, but there was no sign beyond tracks of its occupants.
Controlling his nerves, Arcanis cautiously approached the entrance ... only for his dangerous reconnaissance to end as swiftly as it started. There was nothing inside. One moderately sized cave with enough space for a pack of dog or wolf sized monsters, some remains of eaten prey, his new skill helping detect tracks all over the cave, but no monsters and no treasure were to be found anywhere. The only worrisome sign was that quite a few of the claw marks were rather deep. In solid stone. "As if they had vacated the place just before I arrived..."
Checking the outside with the softer ground, the latest tracks did not seem too old. Not sure whether tracks fade at their regular speed inside of a dungeon. "Curiouser and Curiouser"
With no further signs and nothing to provide any answers, there was really no reason to remain and Arcanis moved on to leave the large cavern behind.
* * *
Barely a quarter hour and one tunnel later, Arcanis found himself facing the next mystery. This time one with significantly more potential: Coming around a bend in the tunnel, he found his path forwards - and (slightly) upwards! - blocked by dense spider webbing. Not just one flat plane, but one interconnected layer after the other down the entire tunnel, each individual string thicker than any he could remember seeing since the Nassus nest of monster spiders back in ... Actually, I do not remember just how many lifes ago. Whatever - I really doubt I want to meet the weaver of this web as I am.
The crowning touch to this was however the wolf-like creature caught in the first layer of the web. The monster was still lightly struggling, but was well and truly wrapped in so many strands of webbing, that there could be no chance of escape. He cautiously approached the monster with his staff at the ready and - mindful of the risk of getting the weapon caught in the webbing - struck the defenseless creature with a Sweeping Strike against the yet unentangled hindlegs.
A pained yowl and renewed struggling was all the strike yielded, but Arcanis did not let that bother him and continued strike after strike, using the opportunity to perfect the form of the attack while maintaining his balance on the difficult ground. After a few minutes of continuing the assault, the struggling stopped and a few more minutes later he finally was interrupted by a couple of system message indicating the demise of his enemy.
You have raised the skill: Staff: Sweeping Strike to level 6
+1 Strength, +1 Constitution, +5% Maneuver strength
You have raised the skill: Balance to level 4
+2 Agility, Improved stability and sense of balance
Come to think of it, this may not have been the smartest move I've made in some time, if I wanted to avoid the resident spider's attention ...
Looking around nervously, Arcanis found everything to have remained unchanged and no multilegged menace waiting for him. "Got lucky, eh?" He sighed in relief before pondering the issues at hand. In hindsight, luck was truly with him, given how the pack in the forest had decamped before he got there. "Given how tough a single one of them was, they would have torn me apart ..." And I really need to stop vocalizing my thoughts. Being alone in a dark dungeon is really getting to me.
Shaking himself, he reflexively stepped aside, dodging another fungus projectile from deep within the webs. Far into the layers of webs he spotted the glowing spot and - given how it floated in one location for a change - he was barely able to notice an indication of a humanoid shape within it. Realizing it had his attention, the creature waved at the young man, accompanied by its trademark giggle, the sound crystal clear resonated with the same something he felt in the air surrounding him. The part that occasionally gave the feeling of a breeze, even though no wind blew.
The Fae gave Arcanis another wave, this one indicating to follow it, as it turned away and flew deeper into the spiderwebbed tunnel. This almost has to be a trap. On the other hand, this appears to be the best way up I have found yet. Not seeing a good alternate route open to him - the other path in the preceding cave had been going down and he was not about to follow that pack, when a single wolf-like creature had given him this much trouble while defenseless - Arcanis decided to try following the Fae.
Which posed the next challenge, given how his way was barred by the densest spiderweb structure he had seen in - literally - ages. Thanks to the wolf-monster's sacrifice, he would be able to sneak past the first set of webs, but even that would require slow and careful progress. Everything beyond that was plain impossible for anything larger than a mouse - or Fae.
"Nothing for it, let's see ..." Arcanis withdrew his utility knife from his inventory and tried cutting one set of strands of the leading web ... and was quite successful at getting his tool stuck and entangled in the web. Cutting it ... not so much. His attempts to put it back in storage failed, the system refusing to store anything that solidly connected to something else, apparently.
Great, what now? The aspiring wizard sat down and considered his options, but nothing came readily to mind. Some time later, looking for inspiration - and totally not because he was out of ideas and wanted to distract himself from that fact! Not at all! - he went through his status screens. Nothing notable jumped into his eyes, until finally ...
Spells
* Firebolt*
* Healing Touch*
* -
Right, totally forgot about the Firebolt spell. The web should be flammable. Turning thought into actions, he raised his hand, pointed it at the web and "Firebolt!". The bolt of fire manifest and struck the web ... for little apparent effect. The spot struck smoldered a little and embers clung to it, but that was it.
Given a sudden revelation, Arcanis covered his face in shame. Right. So much for forgetting to bring something to light the torches! He shook his head in frustration. "You're supposed to be the smart one, Arcanis. Oh well ..."
The aspiring wizard turned back to the web and added another "Firebolt", hitting the exact same spot again. It still had as little effect as the first spell, when he suddenly noticed, that the entire string had a slight red tone to it.
A moment later the entire first web burst into flames. With the better lighting Arcanis could see how the strings connecting to the next web gradually became redder, the color spreading along the string, then branching into the various strings of the next web and the one after. The combustion followed the color with a short delay but plenty of energy. Looks like the outside of the string is fairly resistant, but once it penetrates the interior that's an entirely different matter.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
An actual wind started to blow and smoke started to build, leading the young man to a sudden epiphany. "Great, you were supposed to be the smart one." Fire. Cave. Not a good combination. Arcanis ran down the tunnel, facing the storm of air trying to backfill the hole left by what was consumed by the fire. Combined with the uneven ground, it was a challenge, but he made it into the large cavern with the forest. Barely, and only his improved stats allowed even that.
He barely managed to throw himself out of the way from the entrance before what had been a very strong gale turned into a raging storm that he could not possibly have withstood. Holy crap! Just how combustible and how large was that whole web system, to be able to fuel the fire - and air consumption - needed to generate this kind of pull?! After a short time - no more than a minute or two - the storm abated and conditions started to stabilize. Highly combustible but not much sustained fuel, eh?
Still, Arcanis had some modest experience with fire from his previous career/life as barbarian warlord and this seemed a little too ... energetic. "Maybe the physics work differently in this realm." Especially in a dungeon. Deciding that this would be a good opportunity to rest a bit, the aspiring wizard settled down on the grassy floor, dipped a little into his remaining ration reserves and relaxed for a bit, hoping the consequences of this mishap would not be too bad.
Taking the opportunity to stop and think for a bit, the young man leant back into the grassy floor and looked up at the light source, imitating a sun. In a way, this dungeon delve, voluntary or not, was exactly what he had needed. Things were ... simple. No long term planning, nobody else to deal with, no secrets to hide. You just went down the tunnel and faced whatever challenges came up or failed trying. "Would have been nice to be allowed to prepare for it though."
Food would be a problem soon - he was down to the last day of rations - but at least there were enough water sources throughout the caves. Will probably need to try and eat dungeon monsters soon. I wonder whether their meat is safe to eat?
* * *
Returning to the crime scene, Arcanis found his path clear. None of the webs had survived the blaze, however, almost all illuminating mushrooms had met the same fate as well, casting the whole tunnel into near perfect darkness. The air was still very hot, but breathable, no trace of smoke remained. "I wonder, do dungeons have air cleaners?" Moving on, around the next bend in the tunnel - and steadily upwards - he found yet more traces of burnt webs, but nothing that would impede his path.
Bad visibility and footing slowed him down, but after what felt like an eternity and probably was half an hour and a few more bends in the tunnel, finally the ascent stopped and the tunnel expanded into the next cave. Little could have prepared him for what he found.
"What the hell!?" Arcanis looked into what were the remains of a living room, made of spider silk. Most of it was burnt to ashes, but enough 'furniture' remained to clearly identify it. A cupboard in the corner was untouched, there was a light stream of water in another corner that vanished into the floor. The spider silk-made wash basin beside it was fully intact - the mirror embedded into the construct however was blackened with soot. A stool. A rocking chair.
All made of spider silk.
Cold sweat started to run down his spine and every piece of intuition screamed danger. He was no longer alone in the cave.
The young man turned around slowly, staff in hand and ready, but found ... nothing. Still, his danger sense was yelling at him and Arcanis had long ago learned to listen to it. Following light movement in his peripheral vision, he looked at the roof of the cave and found himself facing the largest spider since ... well, since the Nassus incident.
Larger than a wolf, the creature had a metallic-white body, the abdomen looked atypically solid, as if the creature was armored, its eight legs were bladed on the inside. The most prominent - and ominous - features however were the eight eyes: Two large eyes, with three smaller ones arranged on the outside of each of the larger eyes. They all started glowing red, as the monster stared at him, making it the dominant feature in the current lighting situation.
It dropped down to the ground, without a single sound, size notwithstanding, then approached him while moving erratically and its two front legs swinging wildly, ready to cut whatever they struck.
Not waiting to be cut into pieces, Arcanis struck the spider the moment it entered staff range. Or at least, that had been the plan, as the creature dodged away with lightning speed and swiftly skittered up the cave wall. It seemed agitated and spat something at the aspiring wizard, who barely managed to dodge the projectile. The sizzling sound from behind him, where the projectile had hit the wall told Arcanis all he needed to know about the wisdom of avoiding future projectiles as well.
Pointing with his right hand at the spider, which had moved away, opening the distance to more than ten meters, he cast "Firebolt" and the fiery projectile flew out and hit the spider. It did not even leave a burn. It did however succeed at agitating it further, having it move swiftly across the cave roof in an erratic pattern that was impossible to predict. Whether that was an active attempt at evasion or just randomness was more than Arcanis could say, but his subsequent attempts to hit it with more Firebolt spells were abysmal failures.
And then it was the aspiring wizard's turn to dodge left and right, as the creature retaliated with projectiles of its own, preventing and suppressing any counter fire. The first two spat projectiles he managed to dodge confidently, by the third and fourth however things got closer and as the projectiles came faster and more precise, each evasion became more desperate until finally he stumbled and fell over the uneven floor and the spider hit him with one of its projectiles, scouring his back. The armor caught it all, but it was swiftly eaten through and he started screaming as the acid began work on his back, causing excruciating agony.
Panicked and maddened by the pain, Arcanis managed to roll over to where the water was flowing, dousing his back in the flow, washing off the source of his pain.
460 / 870 HP
Relieved it was over, and his health no longer dropping, Arcanis recovered his wits and realized the opening he had given his foe. Turning around to face the spider, he was just in time to see one of its legs descending on his head with its flat side.
Darkness claimed him.
* * *
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He looked up from his bowl and looked around the campfire, checking out his companions. The large, blonde warrior looked every bit as confident as always, his chest bare and his long Zweihänder sword lying at his side, in easy reach. Small, yet stout, the Dwarven scout more focused on his beer than his food, his proud beard "properly" splattered by his brew. Diminutive, cautious and somewhat shy, their halfling apprentice wizard in his scarlet robes. Still, a true force to be reckoned with. While his mana lasted, anyway.
"Aw, stop worrying, Tirion!" The warrior shouted at him, raising his own mug in mock salute. "You'd think it's the first time in a dungeon for you!"
"Ye twat! Ye know that's exactly what it is, stop making fun of the lad!" The Dwarf intervened.
"First time for all of us" The halfling added, barely audible, silent as he was.
"Not you too, Aurum!" The warrior spat into the fire in disgust. "We've trained for this long enough." He formed a fist with his right hand and smacked it into the open left hand. "We are ready." Smack! "This is a simple beginner dungeon!" Smack! "They are only Goblins!" Smack! "We're not trying to clear it!"
He relaxed his posture and rested his back against his pack and smiled at the others. "We're only trying to find the missing team and get back out.
What could possibly go wrong?"
Tirion looked down at the dead eyes of the warrior, knelt down, and closed them. Ignoring the stench of the festering gut wound he took the adventurer's tag the dead man no longer needed, after which they distributed his gear and supplies among the three survivors.
They looked at each other, no trace of the levity from the campfire the last evening in evidence, nodded somberly and moved on, past the eight goblin cadavers and the body of the companion that would not get back out after all.
They continued down the tunnel, Tirion in front, shield and sword ready, though his primary concern was avoiding all the traps - a task fortunately rather easy due to the simplicity and obvious placement of said traps. Seriously! If you want us to fall into a pit trap, how about adding some camouflage?
Still, the traps only needed to succeed once, so ... focus!
An explosion thundered from up ahead, followed by screams of pain and rage. Both in goblin voices.
With a silent hand signal, the trio accelerated to a barely safe speed, as they rushed to the aid of whoever fought there. More explosions, screams and the unmistakable sound of melee combat continued and grew louder as they neared the scene. From the end of the tunnel, a reddish light showed in sync to the sound of explosions. Almost there.
Tirion charged around the curve in the tunnel with his shield held high, ready to block whatever might come his way. Which turned out to be the shredded remains of a goblin.
Deflecting the mass of the creature's remains, he entered the room and beheld a truly ghastly scene: The room was a perfect square of smooth granite, about twenty-five meters to a side. On the other side, facing their entrance was a stone throne and goblins rushed it from multiple entries on both side of the hall, while the center was dominated by a red storm of grace and carnage.
They did not quite believe their own eyes - excepting maybe the halfling, who was rather busy throwing up, considering the blood and entrails covering most of the hall's floor - but the dozens of goblins were trying to pin down one human woman, who was using the throne to good effect as she danced around their attacks, blocking one goblin's rusty sword with her staff, redirecting its momentum, picking it up in her own weapon's movement, smashing in the head of another attacker while using the time bought with that to send a powerful blast of fire into the other direction, frying and splattering the goblins that had been closing from the other side.
Before whirling back, dispatching the first attacker and engaging the next creatures in the wave.
Rallying his wits - and then with a "With me!" at his teammates - Tirion broke out of his surprise and charged into the fray.
The last goblin died in a scorching blast of fire, melting off not just the face but the entire head.
The adventurer they had tried to rescue playfully whirled her staff, sending blood splatters in all directions - not that it would make much of a difference to the state of the room - before turning towards them, grinning cheerfully. "Took ya long enough!" The grin removed any sting the accusation might have carried.
Somehow the small woman with her black ponytail, clad in leather armor had managed to not get a single splatter of blood on herself in all that carnage. Overwhelmed, the three adventurers could do nothing but stare while she stretched her back, as if the life-or-death struggle just now had been nothing but exercise. For all the trouble she had with the goblins it might as well have been ...
"Sooooo ..." her smile somehow impish, challenging and cheerful all in one "... anybody up to taking down the dungeon boss?"
This one is going to either die young or become a legend.
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Boy was I ever right
* * *
Arcanis slowly woke up to the steady, yet powerful pounding on the door. He had trouble focusing on anything specific and the steady noise did not help his befuddled mind. "Knock it off, will ya?!" he yelled. "Coming, I'm coming!" His exclamation was ignored and the knocking continued - if anything, it got even faster.
Opening his eyes, the young man realized, he was still in the cave where he fought the spider monster - if you can call that a fight - prone on the rock floor. Checking his state, he found himself in command of his body and unrestrained. The pounding had been - and still was - his raging headache, reacting and amplifying each heartbeat into a spike of agony. And my back would probably be killing me, if that bump on my head did not claim precedence.
"Why do they always hit me on the head?"
Distracting himself from the pain - and the bump on his cranium - he checked the system messages that were waiting for him.
You have raised the skill: Balance to level 5
+2 Agility, Improved stability and sense of balance
You have raised the skill: Dodge to level 13
+1 Agility, +5% Speed for the purpose of evading attacks
You have raised the skill: Dodge to level 14
+1 Agility, +5% Speed for the purpose of evading attacks
You have raised the skill: Night Vision to level 8
+1 Mana, Reduced sight penalty from darkness
You have raised the skill: Athletics to level 5
+1 Agility, +1 Constitution, -1% EP Consumption from exertion
You have raised the skill: Combat Casting to level 2
+1 Power, +1 Constitution, +1% Cast Time Reduction, +1% Pain Tolerance
You have raised the skill: Pain Tolerance to level 4
+1 Constitution, +2% Pain Tolerance
Substantial gains once again. I wonder when the Pain Tolerance will start doing its job though ...
Arcanis was interrupted from his inspection by ... bright giggles. Standing up and turning around he once again faced the Fae, floating around in its shiny aura, displaying its contempt for both the laws of aerodynamics and gravity.
He let out a tired sigh. "Any particular reason you keep throwing mushrooms at me?" The Fae - it was finally close enough that Arcanis could see through the aura to realize it was a she - laughed in her childlike voice, then waved at Arcanis. He blinked and suddenly she was straight in front of him, the aura of white light blinding him to the point he barely saw the motion of her ... punching him in the nose.
It tickled.
The status effect [Minor Concussion] has been cured.
"What?!"
The headache receded, fading somewhat into the background. It was still very much there, but ... less all-encompassing, all-consuming. Something on a level, that could be acknowledged and then ignored.
The Fae flew away, gaining some distance, then raced around him in circles, giggling at his confusion.
Which was fair enough - Arcanis was completely baffled. What is her game?? He watched the small, cheerful rascal as she circled around him and - frustration or no frustration - could not prevent a smile of his own forming, her good mood highly infectious. Annoying or not, no reason to ignore courtesy I suppose.
The aspiring wizard bowed to the Fae. "Thank you for your aid, small one."
She lowered her aura of light to barely visible, enabling him to see her smile in response. With the next blink of his eyes she was gone. A single, small mushroom dropped on his head, but it did not explode into spores and merely rolled off to his left.
Shaking his head at her antics, Arcanis was soon interrupted from his musings by motion in the corner of his eyes - through one of the entrances, the spider returned ... and completely ignored him.
It moved towards one of the damaged spider-silk cupboards and ... well, if he did not know better, he would have assumed it sighed. Which was something patently absurd to interpret into a spider's action. For a reason he could not really identify, the young man had the impression of weariness and exhaustion from the creature, as it started to fix the damaged item.
He watched it in wonder for a while as the spider went about its business, until finally it turned back to Arcanis, the creepy eyes obviously focusing on him. The aspiring wizard braced himself, but after another spider sigh it simply used one of its front legs to point at one tunnel entrance.
Taking the hint, he nodded and moved towards the exit indicated. Almost there, following his intuition, he turned back to the spider, bowed and spoke up. "Apologies for attacking you."
The spider looked at him, its head turning to one side and somehow Arcanis got a sense of curiosity from the creature. "I am tired, in a stressful environment and every creature I met before you has been hostile. Still, no excuse to attack a peaceful being in its own home. After setting it on fire, no less." He gave it another bow "So thank you for sparing my life."
The spider gave an answering full-body nod, which looked rather ... funny, that not exactly being an expected movement out of a spider. He nodded back yet again, turned around and left through the indicated exit.
* * *
The journey went on and on, the upwards trend continuing consistently, though to a lesser degree than before. Over the next two hours Arcanis noticed how that odd feeling in the air became clearer to perceive, though he still had no idea just what this "liquid"-like impression was. The path led through several more caves with different styles ... and signs of monsters leaving hurriedly.
Almost as if the dungeon was evacuating the monsters I am not yet able to face. The observation was more than academic at that moment, given how Arcanis found himself in a significantly larger-then-usual tunnel, standing in paw-prints almost as large as he was.
Well, no need for the tracking skill to follow those tracks-
You have raised the skill: Tracking to level 2
Improved ability to detect, identify and trace tracks
-but I suppose I'll take it anyway.
While the size of the prints was ... worrisome, the fact that they were clearly visible in the solid rock surface was even more so. Large and heavy. Based on their shape they appeared to be feline, with no sign of claw marks indicating retractable claws if any. Some dust in the print indicated it was not new, but-
The dust moved.
It shifted again, slightly, and the aspiring wizard focused on his senses, going so far as to closing his eyes, to concentrate on the remaining ones. It happened again and this time he realized what he had noticed only unconsciously before: Vibrations.
They were very light, but again and again, vibrations ran through the ground and his intuition yelled at Arcanis that this was definitely a moment for the latter aspect of his Fight or Flight instincts. He obeyed.
Rushing back as silently as he was able he rushed into the smaller tunnel he had come from and hid behind a large rock, then peeked around it to spot what was happening. It did not require much in the way of waiting - minutes later a black cat snuck around the corner, from the way it looked around a predator on the hunt. Its pelt was glorious, silken, sleek and shiny blackness, its cat-eyes glowing in the dark, ever-searching for prey - it would have made for a most impressive pet ... if its shoulder-height were not on the dark side of three meters.
The gargantuan feline filled out much of the larger tunnel, and it approached silently, only the slight vibrations in sync with its steps evidence of its passing. Arcanis fully hid behind his rocky cover, hoping to remain unnoticed or - more likely - unreachable in the too small side tunnel.
The giant cat stopped right in front of the side passage and breathed in, creating a draft, as the air was sucked in from around the young man. Everything went silent for a moment ... until the cat decided to stick its head into the tunnel where its torso was unlikely to fit. Arcanis froze as the its whiskers scrapped against his cover, but did not reach him.
This close, the breath of the monster passed right over both cover and aspiring wizard, the hot air carrying a weird dampness with it but little in the way of smell.
The head withdrew and Arcanis breathed out in silent relief ... only to freeze again as a gargantuan paw was pushed into his tunnel, trying to reach for whatever the cat had noticed. Hopefully not me.
With a loud crumbling the paw crushed the rock right beside his cover, then tried feeling around the debris, obviously searching. When this did not lead the monster to find what it had expected, the paw was finally withdrawn and Arcanis held his breath waiting for it to leave.
After observing the tunnel for a bit more, finally the cat moved on, one paw-triggered vibration after another.
* * *
Down to the last half day of his rations and some hours later, Arcanis finally found ... hope. He had reached the largest cavern yet, easily five kilometers across, but at its other end, there was a huge stone arch, behind which stairs led straight up. Into the dark maybe, but upwards none-the-less - the clearest sign of directed, intentional ascent, and hopefully towards the exit.
The lighting was little better than in most of the dungeon so far, and there were only two reasons, why he was able to spot it at this distance: For one thing, the arch was huge, easily able to pass through an army. The other reason was the local illumination - in opposite to the rest of the cavern, large fires were lighting up the entire area around the arch, making it impossible to miss. Straining his eyes, Arcanis could spot small humanoid shapes moving around the area, but at the current distance it was impossible to tell more.
From the outlines visible in the dark, most of the huge cavern appeared to be a ruined city, even with the bad visibility signs of battle and decay could be made out.
"Alright, let's do this! Cautiously." He headed off towards the ruins, staff in hand.