Michael
They were back out in the forest only a while later. Eydis was the vanguard as always; Zeke, Lance, and Erhen forming a protective triangle around Michael and Silas in the rear.
The rain started and stopped multiple times while they trudged through the mud. Michael wished he could return to his study and sit in front of the fire with a book, but he didn’t voice this weakness.
“If we don’t run into the scout, we will have a hard time finding it with this map,” Sir Zeke said. “Will be hard to track them too in the rain.”
It was true the map showed three landmarks and a rough direction and nothing more, Michael would be impressed if they actually found the cave.
“How high is the probability that the adventurers simply got lost,” he asked and shook the water from his face.
“Might be. Would be a huge waste for us to go looking then but at least we won’t run into an ambush then,” Erhen said with a miserable expression.
Michael smirked at the young knight's attitude but concentrated on the path.
A whistling noise grabbed their attention and they stopped. A man came jogging out of the forest a few moments later.
He stopped in front of them and bowed before talking, “Good to see you, milord. I didn’t know you were in the area.”
Michael nodded, “You must be the scout that Sir Geron has sent out to find the adventurers. We have come to investigate. Did you find them?”
“I found their target and traces of them going in but none coming out. I didn’t dare to enter the cave alone.” The scout looked a little bit concerned about his failure, but Michael paid it no mind.
“Lead us there, if they are still alive then we will find them.”
The way to the cave wasn’t far from the spot where the scout had found them. They questioned the man about everything he found on his way, but he didn’t have much useful information.
It was quickly apparent that they would have missed their target if the scout hadn’t found them but only half an hour later, they were kneeling on a little ridge looking down to the cave.
To call it a cave was an overstatement in Michael’s opinion, it was more like a hole in the ground. The ground around it looked disturbed, as if many people had gone in and out.
“This is definitely the place,” Michael said and turned to the scout. “Go back to the camp and report to Sir Geron that we have found it and are going in.”
“Yes, milord. Good luck.” He turned around and hurried back in the direction they came from.
The young lord turned back to the little open space in front of the cave and asked the group, “What do you think?”
“I can't make out any sentries,” Lance said.
“Me neither,” Erhen confirmed.
Michael nodded and got up from his crouching position, “Then let's go down and take a closer look.
They descended down the ridge toward the cave entrance keeping up their vigil and prepared for whatever had stopped the adventurers from coming back.
Nothing happened as they carefully approached the entrance and Michael relaxed a little bit.
Eydis went down on one knee once they had made sure that they wouldn't be ambushed and started examining the ground.
“There is no evidence that this group of goblins is bigger than we thought, maybe a dozen from what I can see,” she signed with purposeful slowness. The knights had proven zealous in learning sign language, but it still had only been a little over a month.
“There are human prints here that match the number of adventurers, they entered the cave and I see no signs of a fight here.”
“I can't imagine that a dozen goblins could take down a group of adventurers in an open space even if they were only woods and coppers,” Sir Zeke said with a thoughtful expression. “They probably ambushed them inside of the cave or they are hiding their true numbers.”
Michael nodded, “Then let's move in carefully, no one is helped if we get ourselves into an ambush.”
They got back into formation and began descending through the hole into the cave. Michael conjured two balls of light while they were still in the light of day, which provided ample light.
Eydis ordered Erhen to light a torch nonetheless to give Michael more light to work with in case of a fight or provide illumination if Michael had to weaponize his light orbs.
The tunnel they entered was tight, two people could probably press through next to each other but they just stuck to a single file line to allow everyone some kind of freedom of movement.
The walls were bleak rock and Michael wondered how this tunnel had come to be, it didn't look artificial, but he couldn't discern any reason for it to be here, no stream or any limestone that were normal reasons.
They moved on through the tunnel and it didn't take them long to find the first goblins just behind a turn. Two corpses of the little grayish cousins of the forest goblins they had fought earlier laid in puddles of their own blood.
Eydis signaled them to halt the moment she spotted them and carefully went ahead to investigate. She stepped closer with her eyes jumping from one shadow to the other shadow, expecting an attack at every moment.
She reached the goblins and inspected them for a moment before waving the rest of the group closer.
“Everything seemed to go well for the adventurers for now, they didn't look to have put up much of a fight and I can't find any sign for any goblin to have escaped. It is just so weird for them to have sentries at such a strange spot. Why not move them back a couple of meters so they can't be surprised by someone charging around the corner.”
Michael could hear Silas shuffle behind him uncomfortably and looked at the man. “What is wrong?”
“It is nothing, milord,” he answered but after a raised eyebrow and strict gaze from Michael he continued, “Is it only me or is it getting warm down here?”
He was right, Michael realized with a frown, it had gotten just a little warmer since they descended down into the hole.
“It shouldn't get warmer this close to the surface,” he said with a worried voice.
“Fire Mage,” Lance suggested but Sir Zeke shook his head, “Their tribe should be way too small to have a shaman.”
“We are gonna keep it in mind. Let's go on we should be close to the camp,” Michael decided, and they moved on, but a certain tension was apparent in everyone.
Their journey was eventless until they reached a cavern that reeked of blood and burned flesh.
It was a strange scene; the goblin camp was in shambles, their makeshift tents were trampled, blood was spilled everywhere and much of the cavern had scorch marks but there were no bodies anywhere.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“What the hells happened here,” Erhen blurted out while other knights instantly fell into combat positions.
“Fan out, look for any sign of the adventurers,” Michael ordered with a frown.
Sir Zeke stayed next to Michael while the rest began to slowly traverse the remains of the goblin camp. “Milord, was there any mention that one of the adventurers is a fire mage?”
Michael frowned and scolded himself internally that he had neither asked nor thought about it himself, so he shook his head. “Not to my knowledge but as Clara has shown even if one was, we can't be sure that he or she would have shared that information with us.”
They stepped through the remains together and Michael noticed that at more than one spot even the stone floor seemed to have been charred.
The others returned to them a few minutes later after having completed their searches.
“Have you found anyone?”
They shook their heads, all but Silas who said, “I found one goblin completely buried under some rubble but no sign of the adventurers.”
“Did you find the gestation pool,” Michael asked again, Lance and Erhen exchanged an uncomfortable glance before the older knight spoke. “We found it, we think, but it is empty.”
“Empty? What do you mean,” Sir Zeke interjected and looked at the two young knights.
They signaled the others to follow them and turned around toward one of the walls. They led them to a small opening in the wall and pointed at it. “It is safe, we checked.”
Michael stepped forward and looked at the hole. It was small, the knights would have difficulty squeezing in there but that was not what caught Michael's attention. The rock surrounding the entrance was melted and covered in claw marks, that looked to be at least from the size of a bear.
“What do you think did this,” Erhen asked with a concerned voice and let his fingers wander over the deep gashes.
“Some kind of monster or magical creature with a fire affinity, no doubt,” Silas answered with a solemn tone. “I think we can consider the adventurers dead if they met something that can do this.”
Michael ignored the comment and peered into the hole, inside was a similar scene with the smoldered stone and claw marks. It looked like something too big for the hole had pushed its head in forcefully. That was probably true with the remains of the gestation pool completely empty.
“I would guess a monster. With the mana inside of the gestation pool, every monster would relish in it,” he said and took a step back. “Shouldn't be anything too dangerous this far down the mountain, so the adventurers might be still alive.”
Sir Zeke frowned, “It ripped through the entire camp and melted stone, I am not sure if low-level adventurers can square up against that.”
“We are going to look anyway. At least to kill that monster if we can't find it,” Michael retorted in a commanding voice and the knights nodded.
Eydis whistled a little and then signed, “It came in through a collapsed pathway. It might have opened up when the goblins and adventurers fought.”
“Go on then,” Michael said, his mood had worsened considerably, and even though he wanted to hope that they could still find them, the words of the knights made sense.
They followed her to a collapsed part of the wall, this cavern seemed to have been the end of the cave once but with this new entrance it stretched further underground, and Michael could feel some potent mana coming up through it.
As he stepped through the rubble of the breakthrough in the wall, he looked at the debris and said, “No, something came through from the other side. The rubble got flung into the cavern.” He went down on one knee and inspected the tracks of multiple somethings being pulled toward the opening.
“The adventurers must have lost and been pulled into the lair of the monster. Too many bodies to devour them all right away,” Silas commented with a hard expression.
Michael rose and looked at the others, “They might be still alive. Dead bodies start losing mana quickly so a monster would like to capture them if it can't eat them right away, right? Maybe some of them were even still fighting and chased the monster down there.”
The knights looked at each other with a doubtful expression but Michael remained adamant. “We have to hurry; we might be able to still save some of them.”
He wanted to walk through the new entrance, but Eydis held him back. “If we are doing this then we are gonna do it right,” she signed and then entered first.
The mana in the tunnels got denser and denser to the same degree as it got warmer and soon, they were all soaked in sweat.
“What the hells, is this place? Some kind of furnace,” Silas complained, “Do we even know where we are going?”
“How wouldn't we? We are just walking down a tunnel,” Lance retorted while shaking his head but similarly soaked in sweat.
Eydis raised a fist, signaling them to stop, and narrowed her eyes trying to see better. Michael looked past her, but he only saw some vague light in the distance, Eydis had way better senses than everyone else here.
“What is it,” he asked.
“There are plants up ahead,” she signed back with a confused gaze, “Glowing plants.”
“Do you mean like moss,” Michael whispered back with a frown.
“No, real big plans and they are glowing in the dark.”
“Glowing plants growing underground,” Erhen asked confused.
“Let's take a look,” Michael's curiosity was piqued, and he softly pushed Eydis to go ahead.
They moved slower now until they emerged from the tunnel into a large cavern, the roof was around five to ten meters above them, but they couldn't see the walls because of the plant life.
There was mostly shrubbery, but they grew nearly as tall as a man most of the time, and some kinds of trees stood here and there. Their leaves were different shades of red and yellow and their sticks were black like charred wood.
Michael wasn't the only one who was awestruck by the alien landscape, but he was the first to react. He walked forward past the rest and reached for one of the leaves. It was strangely warm, and Michael could feel the warm flow of mana inside.
He could hear his guards talking behind him, but he was too enthralled by the new discovery. Michael let his hand slide over the leave and then broke it off to take with him. The moment he did some of the plant fluid splashed on his hand and burned like boiling water.
“GOD DAMMIT,” he cursed and shook his head wildly.
Eydis rushed over to him, wiped his hand, and smacked him against the head once she saw that his hand was fine. “What is wrong with you?”
“Sorry, curiosity got the better of me.”
“We are not in your study or Reen anymore. This is the big world, and everything here wants to fucking eat you and then spit you out. So don't be an idiot, I don't want to die trying to protect you just because you ran into danger for no reason.” She looked upset and Michael nodded apologetically after which her expression softened, and she rubbed his shoulder before turning back to their surroundings.
“Anyone know what this is,” Michael asked and looked at his guards.
“Some kind of mana refuge, I guess. Probably fire affinity from the scorching feeling,” Silas said.
Mana refuges were places that had an unusually high mana concentration because of either magical ore, water, trees, or something else that attracted and stored the mana. They were the reason that magical races didn't go extinct and were rarely uninhabited from what Michael had learned.
A cracking sound followed by a roar surprised them from the right side which was followed by another from the other side.
Sir Zeke looked around, his eyes widening, as he said, “Oh no, this isn't a mana refuge, this is a damned Dungeon.”
More yells joined in on the first as everyone started moving together in a defensive formation.
“What is a dungeon,” Erhen asked, his head turning from one sound to the next.
“How do you not know that,” Silas growled with his shield raised.
“Calm down everyone, remember your training,” Zeke said in a calm voice. “A dungeon is a place with a high mana concentration that becomes a breeding ground for monsters. They are more numerous here and evolve faster with the high mana and ample prey. So, we are going to back off slowly before we attract any attention and seal it as it should be.”
“What about the adventurers,” Michael argued and turned to the interim leader of his guard.
“They are all dead. There is no way that they are alive down here. Dungeons are very dangerous. This one is only the second one I have ever seen, and we don't know how long this has been here and on what level it is.”
Michael wanted to retort something but just before he did his reasonable mind kicked in. Zeke was right, Michael had of course learned about dungeons, but of course, he had never seen one, due to the fact that there have been like two in the last fifty years in the kingdom and that was deep underground, but he knew that they could be dangerous enough to threaten even his father if they grew enough.
“Alright, let's head back, block the entrance, and inform Geron,” he said with an unhappy expression and turned around only to notice two orange glowing eyes, red shiny scales, and a row of scorched teeth.
“Shhhhi...,” was the only thing he could get out before a torrent of fire erupted like a beam from the maw and barreled in their direction. He jumped back but his guard was way faster, Eydis grabbed him and pulled him to the side, Lance and Erhen were between Michael and the fire in an instant, their shields raised, and two mana blades surged toward the monster from Silas and Zeke.
They connected cleanly but only managed to wound the beast which let out an ear-shattering scream.
“We need to get out of here before the whole fucking dungeon hears the dinner bells,” Silas yelled and turned toward the entrance a couple of meters away from them.
The others also began running with Eydis picking Michael up to keep pace. Michael started constructing a sigil the moment he realized what happened. They didn't get more than two steps when another pony-sized lizard came scurrying down the wall above the tunnel entrance and breathed in for another flame breath.
Michael quickly raised his hand with the magic sigil. The light flickered into existence just a moment before the lizard could breathe out and materialized into a light javelin. Michael threw it at the monster, cut through the first swath of fire, and nailed its lower jaw to the wall beneath.
The monster tried to rip free, but it lost its bearings and slipped off the wall. The javelin was still stuck in the wall though and the weight of the lizard combined with the velocity of the fall made it into a strong lever.
The first thing to fall was the lizard, followed by a large chunk of rock that had been broken off by the javelin and lastly, the whole roof of the tunnel came crashing down, completely blocking the tunnel they had entered through just a few minutes earlier and crushing the fire-breathing lizard.
“Defensive positions,” was the last thing Sir Zeke could yell before more monsters broke through the boiling foliage.