You have entered a dungeon.
Get to the other side to escape.
Astrid read the message multiple times, not quite believing what it said. She had never been in a dungeon before, but she had heard stories about them as a child, and they were said to be notoriously dangerous. This was the place where the monsters that plagued the forests and farmland spawned. But according to the stories, the monsters were the least of the dangers found here. Only professional dungeoneers dared to enter this place, and Astrid wasn’t one. This was bad. She had to get out of here.
She quickly made herself invisible, hoping no monster had seen her yet, before studying her surroundings. With relief, she found she was alone in the room. The walls and ground were indistinguishable from a normal cave except for a single door on the far wall. It was dimly lit by the sunlight that managed to enter through the cave opening. She could still see the forest outside, but when she tried to walk out, she was blocked by an invisible barrier. It reminded her of the barrier that had kept monsters out of Sham’s temple in the forest. Now, however, it was preventing her from leaving.
What had the message said again? She had to get to the other side to escape. Was there really no other way out? Her chances of making it through a dungeon were slim, as she had no idea what awaited her on the other side of the door. Maybe there was someone who could help her, although she loathed to ask him.
“Sham, can you hear me? I could use your help.” No answer. Either he couldn’t hear her, or he wouldn’t. She couldn’t tell which.
Staying here won’t do me any good, so I have no choice but to go though.
With her mind made up, she walked over to the door and pulled it open. She had expected the door to be heavy, so she almost fell when it swung open with ease. On the other side, she found a long, dark corridor. The air was damp and smelled of mold. Ahead was the sound of footsteps and snarls from several monsters, but the darkness made it impossible to see them.
She debated with herself whether she should light a candle. Monsters could see in the dark better than she could, so it would be to her benefit to do so. She would never find her way out, stumbling through the dark, and her cloak would still prevent them from noticing her. At least she hoped so. Shielding herself behind the door, ready to shut it if necessary, she pulled the candle out and lit it. The warm light spread through the tunnel in front of her. Nothing attacked her, so that was good.
She carefully made her way through the tunnel. A couple of monsters roamed in front of her, but they ignored her. She did the same. The tunnel was quite narrow, so she could probably have fought them, but not without getting hurt, and she had no idea what else she would encounter in the dungeon or how big it was. Besides, the message only said to get to the other side alive, not that she had to kill every monster in here. It would be better to only engage in battle when she had the advantage or was forced to do it.
She reached the door at the end of the corridor safely. She carefully pushed the door open and stepped inside, ensuring that her invisibility remained intact. Forgetting to do so had caused her troubles before. Behind her, the door disappeared and was replaced with rocks indistinguishable from the rest of the cave walls. She pushed her hand against the place where the door had been to check if it was just an illusion, but what she found was solid. Apparently, going backwards wasn’t allowed.
Astrid looked around the room, trying to figure out what her next step should be. The room was so big, she couldn’t see all of it in the candlelight. She spotted nothing of interest in her tiny bubble of light, so she slowly began walking, keeping her senses sharp. Something roamed around just out of sight, but since she hadn’t been attacked yet, she was confident the monster would ignore her. She decided to do the same unless a confrontation became necessary for her to progress through the dungeon.
Each step was placed with great care so it wouldn’t make any sound as she walked through the room in what she imagined was a straight line. With her limited range of vision, it was hard to be sure.
Eventually, she made it to the cave wall on the other side without finding anything of interest in the room. Luckily, she hadn’t come across anything dangerous either. She followed the wall, searching for a way forward, until she found a door much like the one she had entered through.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
She grabbed the handle and pushed the door. It didn’t open. She pushed harder, using her entire body weight, trying to force the door open, but it didn’t butch. Then she tried pulling,cluded that the door was locked. but the door remained stubbornly closed. She concluded that the door was locked.
Immediately afterwards, she began analyzing the lock, trying to figure out how to get it open. She didn’t even realize what she was doing at first, as if she were driven by an instinct she had no idea she had. The moment she understood what she was doing and how she stopped.
Lockpicking skill
Lockpicking skill is level 1of 10
You have the ability to analyze locks and attempt to unlock them if you have the tools for it
Lockpicking was one of the skills she had unlocked by reading the divine book of deception, but it was also a skill she had no plans of actually using. She also knew that picking the lock wouldn’t work as she didn’t have any tools on her for such a purpose.
The key must be somewhere in this room, she thought, looking around. If it wasn’t in the room, Astrid would be in big trouble. She shook her head. That possibility was too terrible to even think about. There had to be a way to get out.
She was still unable to see more than a few feet in every direction, as the darkness outside of the candlelight was like an impenetrable wall to her eyes. She could still hear the monster roam around the room, sending shivers down her back. Without getting a good look at the monster, she would be unable to identify it or gauge what level it was at.
She wished she had a better light source than the candle so she could get a better sense of what the room contained. As things were now, she had no other option than a slow, methodical search of the room.
She followed the rough cave wall all the way around the room until she again stood by the locked door. That told her that the room was square and that there was nothing of interest along the edges. That left the entire middle of the room, so she began searching, walking in lines back and forth between the walls.
After what felt like an eternity of searching, she came across a large treasure chest. Again, her instincts analyzed the lock before she could stop it. Doing so was properly impossible, as her ability to identify locks was now second nature to her. It was much like her ability to identify plants or monsters just by looking at them. Unless they were at too high a level or protected by some means, she could get a lot of information from a single glance. It happened automatically and instantly.
Realizing that it was a lost cause trying to suppress the ability, she might as well use it to her advantage. She held the candle closer to the lock and allowed it to do its thing. It was a level-one combination padlock. A code made up of three symbols was needed. Another ability she had never used before told her that the wrong code would be disastrous.
Lockpicking skill
Lockpicking skill is level 1of 10
You have the ability to analyze locks and attempt to unlock them if you have the tools for it
She recognized the ability as coming from her trapping skill, and it allowed her to identify traps, but as this was of a magical kind, she could gauge no more than that poisoned gas would be released if the chest was opened the wrong way. This skill, too, came from the book and was one Astrid would prefer not to use.
However, desperate situations called for desperate measures, and she had to use all the tools available to her to even stand a chance of getting out of this dungeon alive. The fact that Sham had been right about the value of the book's content made her want to punch him in the face.
She went back to the trapped lock, trying to recall what she had read in the book so she could figure out the best way to get the chest opened. Sometimes a good knock with a hard object was enough to make a padlock open, but that wouldn’t work in this case. If she tried, it would only spring the trap.
Maybe the code was depicted somewhere in the room, but with her limited light source gradually burning away, she wasn’t sure she had the time for a lengthy investigation. That left her with another attempt at picking the lock. She knew that if you held the lock the right way and paid close attention, she would be able to feel when the right symbol clicked into place on the lock. At least that was what the book said, but she had never tried to do it before, and unlike abilities to identify things that came naturally to her, actually using the skill for something took practice. At least she had a good grasp on the theory behind what she was about to attempt.
She took a deep breath and grabbed the lock, holding it tight, and before she could lose her nerves, she began scrolling through the symbols. She went slowly, carefully feeling for any change in the resistance as symbol after symbol passed by until she found one that felt differently. Then she moved on to the last slot on the lock, repeating the same process. She could only hope she was doing it right, as there was no turning back. She would only get this by chance.
The middle symbol slid into place, and the lock sprang open with a click. She held her breath just in case something had gone wrong and the poisoned gas would be released, and she pushed the lid open.