The only thing Astrid could think about was making it back to Largon before the gates closed for the night. She ran as fast as she could until her stamina was depleted. Then she stopped, but only long enough to chuck down a stamina potion before continuing her frantic sprint. Her concussed head pounded every time her foot hit the ground, but she did her best to ignore it.

Her stamina was almost depleted again by the time she made it to the city with only a few moments to spare. The guards had been just about to close the gate but allowed her to enter before they shut it behind her.

She wanted to go back to the inn right away but knew she was in desperate need of seeing a healer. The trip to the Temple of Medicine happened in a daze. Now that she was safely back in the city, she felt so exhausted she could barely think coherently. Only at the last moment did she remember that she couldn’t use the cloak to disguise herself in case she had to remove it for the healing. She had left the city disguised as her sister but now had no idea what people saw when they looked at her. To be sure she didn’t end up having to explain a sudden change in age and appearance, she took off the cloak before entering.

Someone was over her the moment she stepped through the door, and before she knew it, she was lying in a bed with a priestess standing over her, chanting a spell. Gradually, her headache diminished until it vanished entirely.

“Do you feel better?” The priestess asked.

“Yes. Thank you.”

“How long have you gone with that concussion?” Her stern voice reminded Astrid of how her mother would scold her as a child whenever she delayed doing her chores.

“I’m not sure exactly, but it can’t have been that long. Why?” Astrid asked. She was suddenly worried that going with a head injury for so long had caused serious damage.

“A concussion like this often comes with a great loss in health, and yours has already recovered quite a bit.”

“I took a healing potion and got here as fast as I could.”

“I see. You’re lucky it’s so high to begin with. That unusual for someone your age.”

Astrid had no idea how to respond to this and just shrugged. Fortunately for her, the priestess didn’t ask further questions.

“Well, you're fine now, and there shouldn’t be any lasting damage, but if you have any headaches or memory issues in the next few days, don’t hesitate to come back.”

"Okay,” Astrid said and got up to leave.

Healing was free for everyone, and those who could would often leave a donation at the altar upon exiting. She decided to give one of her large coppers as a thanks for the healing before heading back to the inn.

*

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The next morning, she woke still exhausted from the ordeals of yesterday. It didn’t help that her sleep had been plagued by new nightmares of getting trapped in the dungeon. Every time she thought she had gotten out, she would somehow find herself back at the beginning, and she would have to go through everything all over again.

It was tempting to stay in bed, but she had things to do, so there was no time to dwell on what had happened. She shook her head, disbursing the remnants of the dream. First, she checked her stats to ensure she had recovered properly.

Health: 24/24

Stamina: 30/30

Mana: 14/14

Focus: 14/14

Spirit: 16/16

With relief, she noted that everything looked fine, and as she didn’t have any headaches, she figured she was fit to go to school. It would be a good way to keep her mind off dungeons and monsters.

She made it to school just in time for her first class. However, no matter how hard she tried to focus on her teacher’s lecture on Otimra’s geography, her thoughts kept drifting back to the very thing she tried not to think about. Yesterday. The horror of what she had experienced had been dimmed by adrenalin and her head injury.

Now that was no longer the case, and that left her terrified with no idea what to do. She doubted that her efforts in the dungeon had done anything to slow the release of monsters into the real world and therefore hadn’t achieved much, if anything. The dungeon still needed to be cleared completely in order to make it safe for people to live outside of Largon’s gate.

“Sigrid, are you paying attention?” It took some time for Astrid to realize that it was her the teacher was talking to.”

“Yes?”

“I asked if you could tell us which part of Otimra Largon is located in.”

Astrid felt her check flush as she was unable to answer the teacher’s question. She was sure this was basic knowledge and that everyone in the class already knew the answer, but she had never learned about this before. Trying to recall Largon’s location on the map Sham had given her proved futile. Was this a side effect of her concussion? She hoped not.

“It’s in the eastern part,” the teacher supplied after what felt like an eternity of awkward silence. “If you don’t start paying attention, you won’t get any grade tokens for this class.”

The teacher resumed the lesson, and Astrid tried her best to focus, but a few minutes later her mind drifted again.

Now that she knew what was inside, she had no plans of ever going back. It was too dangerous, and besides, she was far from strong enough to slay all the monsters found inside. It would take too long for her to reach the point where she could confidently fight level three monsters, assuming that was the level the bear was in. She couldn’t know for sure, as her ability hadn’t allowed her to appraise the monster.

Anyway, someone else had to deal with it, but she should probably report her findings to someone. Maybe the mayor or the guards. Perhaps the monster slayers could use the information to clear the dungeon. However, Astrid was hesitant to tell anyone, as she feared she wouldn’t be believed even if she disguised herself as an adult. How could she explain how she accidentally found the dungeon and managed to get out alive without giving herself away as a follower of Deception or being required to go back inside? She couldn’t risk it, and the only way to stay safe was to stay silent.

Maybe she could talk to Sham about it. However, then she would have to admit that the stuff he had made her read about had been useful. She was not ready to deal with that. She still hated how easily using both her trapping skill and her lockpicking skill had come to her.

Eventually her first class ended, and Astrid left the room to get to her next class. The teacher didn’t grant her the five grade tokens for participating in class, but that was fair enough. Astrid knew she didn’t deserve them since she had been distracted during the entirety of the lesson. If anyone asked her what she had learned, she would struggle to answer. Hopefully the physical activity of her combat magician training and seeing her friends would take her mind off the dungeon for a while, though if it was going to be like yesterday, she would spend a lot of time sitting on the sideline recovering her mana.