Her sudden breakdown caught me off guard. I was still standing there with my hands out to the side not knowing what to say or do. In the end, I decided to just sit down and wait for her to let it all out. It seems she had a lot of pent-up frustration as it took her a good ten minutes to calm herself down again. I saw her sneaking peeps at me now and again. Her eyes had become red and puffy from all the crying but she had called down. I rummaged through my pack for my water skin to offer her a drink but remembered I only had the empty skin and the one with the stream water from the orc camp. Not wanting to offer that to her, I slowly got up with a skin in each hand. "I'm going to get you some water, after that we'll have a talk." She only nodded her head at me as I made my way back into the kitchen. There was a chance the girl would run but I had a feeling she would stay put.

My clean cooking pot had now laid on the floor with water spilled across the stone floor. It would dry up eventually so I just ignored it. I pulled up a fresh pot of water from the well and filled up both of the water skins again. When I got back to the main hall she was still sitting there. I bent down to her level and offered her a skin of water with a smile. Hesitantly, she looked between me and the water skin a few times. Swwing her hesitation I drank from the skin myself before offering it to her again. If she was afraid I had done something to the water this should ease her mind. Slowly she withdrew the water skin from my hands. I took my original seat across from her and silently waited.

"I'm sorry for intruding," she said with a quiet voice.

"Well, it's not like I bought the place," I said with a smile. A frown of confusion spread across her face so I told her the story of how I came upon the keep and decided to make it my camp for the time being. "Is that how you found the keep as well? Did you stumble upon it like I did," I carefully questioned the girl.

She just shook her head and told me the story about how she had found the marked trees that led her to the long and dark tunnel. She then found more of my tracks and decided to follow them before finding the keep. She even told me she was afraid to come inside at first but once she found the after well she just couldn't leave so soon. It seems her water had run out almost a day ago.

I noticed that she kept looking at me over again and again, She specifically focussed on my face. She tried to be careful about it but she seemed young and not that versed in looking without looking. When I caught her looking again I decided to jokingly call her out on it. "Is there something on my face? I swear I took a bath this morning.".

Her face turned slightly red at being caught and she quickly averted her eyes. The questions she asked me next caught me slightly off guard. "Are you a vampire? Are you going to eat me," She asked with new tears already forming in the corners of her eyes. It took me a moment to process her question. My inner teenager kicked in and wanted to joke and call her a snack but her slightly terrified expression made me shut that thought down.

"Why do you think I'd be a vampire," was the only logical thing to ask her.

"Well, you're not green so you're not one of the greenskin tribes. You don't have scales like the Lizardman. You´re not red or horned so not a demonkind. You're not an ugly monster so the wild tribes are out. You also don't have a dark aura like the darling races do. And you're missing the signature ears of an elf," she counted the first options on her fingers and she showed me her own ears on her last point. "So that only leaves the vampires."

There was a lot of information woven into that quick analysis. I filled it away for later. "I'm not one of the vampires, " I told her while lifting up my lip to show her I didn't have any fangs.

"The stories say they can hide their fangs."

"So, you've never actually seen a vampire," I asked her.

She shook her head. "The elves don't associate with the other races anymore after the great wars."

I tried to process that information but something didn't add up. "Then how come you're here if you don't associate with them?"

Something in my question must have triggered a bad memory because her eyes instantly teared up again. Seeing her break down again triggered my own sense of 'must protect' and I slowly made my way over to her and just held her in my arms while she let it all out again. I ended the embrace when she seemed to have calmed down again.

"To answer your earlier question, I'm a human and my name's Michael. What's your name?

"Falliana," she gave her name as she wiped away the rest of her tears.

"That's a nice name. And how did you get to be in the tournament? I was about the play a virtual game when I found myself in a forest with a pretty crappy tutorial." I eagerly took the opportunity to milk the girl for some information but I didn't expect much from it. She seemed as unwilling to be here as much as I was. The fact that she had stated that elves didn't associate with the other races also painted a grim picture.

She took a big breath of air to steady herself before she told me the tale of how she came to be here. My first estimate had been correct that she was still a teenager. A boy in her school had set up a sailing trip on his family's sailboat. Her friend Phalia had a crush on that boy and was very eager to go but didn't want to do it alone she had slightly forced Falliana to come along with her. The trip had started out normally and they quickly made their way a good distance onto the open sea. At around midday the weather suddenly turned and their ship was caught in the storm and had drifted a long way off course. By the time the storm had passed, they found themselves in unfamiliar waters. using their navigation they tried to make their way back home but not long after they spotted another ship coming their way. Everyone assumed another ship had been sent out to find them after the storm but as it got closer it became clear that it was an orcish warship.

They had tried to get away but it was a futile escape, The warship quickly closed the distance and boarded the sailboat. The few adults were quickly disabled and they were forced to surrender. Their ship got towed back into an orcish port two days later where everyone onboard was detained inside a low-security holding facility. A few more days passed as they spent their time inside the facility. Then a demon showed up and gave them all the outline of their current situation. They had been caught in orcish waters and were being accused of invading another country. As prisoners of war, they could be sold into slavery or they could try to win back their freedom by winning the upcoming Survival tournament. A deal was struck that if anyone who participated would win their entire group and their ship would be escorted back to the elven-owned water and set free. From the crew, four of the male sailors decided to participate. Perhaps looking to gain a substation amount of honour for freeing their group two boys who had come on the trip also signed up. Having to choose between spending more time in the holding facility or getting her own shot at freedom, Falliana also stepped up despite her friends pleading with her not to.

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My stomach turned at the thought of the depravity of it all. They had basically forced them to join this death game on the promise of survival. It was very similar to my own situation except that I didn't know what awaited me at the end. I asked her how much she knew about the tournament, the rules, the following round, or any of the cards but she had even less knowledge than I did. She only knew that you could upgrade cards and that synergy was important. The tournament wasn't broadcasted in elven lands but viewing crystals did circulate. And she had heard the boys in her class occasionally talk about it.

When I asked her if I could see her deck she became a little defensive and weary. As a counteroffer, I pulled out all the cards from my storage compartment and fanned them out between us. Even if it seemed safe I wasn't going to risk not having my deck on hand. Seeing the set of cards displayed in front of her, she pulled out her own card and made four stacks. The first stack was her common wolf cards, the second her two bigger wolves, the third her equivalent to my commander and the fourth stack was an uncommon card I hadn't seen before.

"Where did you get this card from," I asked her. She told me how it was her reward for clearing out a monster den. The fact that it had a Light pack sub-type caught my interest. Apart from my own tomb guardians with the Jah'kali tag no other cards had them and I suspected that there was a meaning behind those types.

"So, you didn't go inside of the dungeon inside of the dark tunnel?"

"I didn't see a dungeon in there. I just went in a straight line," was her response. Thinking about it for a moment, She probably never saw the side tunnel if she came from the 'exit' side of the tunnel. I recalled my own time in the dungeon and how I had beaten it with basically the same starting deck. I wasn't going to force her to clean the entire dungeon but she should be able to at least clear the first two rooms and the room with the single guardian. The one that summoned more spiders was a bit tricky if she was very new to card battlers in general. Exomedia was also an option for her if she dared to fight it.

I gave her a quick outline of my plan to take her to the dungeon so she could get some more rewards. I told her about my own experience inside and how it was a very good source of experience, coins, cards, and a ring she could use to protect herself in battle. Unfortunately, she was hesitant about the idea of fighting giant spiders and called them icky. It was currently halfway through the fourth day and my fight with Un'Gol had shown the futility of fighting with just the basic deck on hand. If this girl was to survive she needed to toughen up and boost her deck.

What I did next wasn't my proudest moment. "I've already killed one of the other players," I coldly told her. She flinched at my words at her eyes became weary again. "He came here looking for me and challenged me to a duel." I pointed to where the goblin stood during our duel while looking her in the eyes. "And that is where he died for doing so." I let the words linger in the air.

"He came in here with a deck similar to your own. Full of basic cards with a few upgrades mixed in. He even had an equipment card which he didn't bother to equip to one of his cards. He lost all his life points and I didn't even take a single of damage in return." Her eyes from wide at my statement and her skin became just a little bit paler.

"If you want to experience the same fate then by all means go around and do the save thing. But let me tell you this. Those that take risks are the ones that will come out on top. This dungeon is as safe as can be. As long as you listen to how I cleared it, I'm sure you can do the same and reap the same rewards that I have."

"I'll even make you an offer. If you say yes now to clearing out this dungeon I'll give you these three warg cads to boost your deck before going inside. You can walk up to the dungeon to verify the difficulty before entering and I'll stay a good while back so you're not afraid of me pushing you inside a death trap. If you want to survive and be the one that frees your friend this is a risk that you'll have to take, for their sake." It was a dick move and I knew it. I was literally manipulating the girl into going inside the dungeon. But what other choice did I have? Only two people would go on to the next round and this was her best chance of getting there. I didn't know if we would both advance to the same zone but if we did, there was safety in numbers after all.

I saw a whole range of emotion pass her face as she looked between me, the cards still on the ground, and the spot I had pointed to where Un'Gol had died. She tried to put up a brave front but her eyes betrayed her. She was scared but also determined to win. "I'll do it," she said after a few minutes of thinking it over. I walked over to the cards, scooped up my set, and took out my wolf and three warg cards before putting them back in my storage. I held the four cards out for her and after a slight hesitation, she took them from me and put them in her deck with her own cards. She had a wolf tribal going for her and the wargs still had the wolf sub-type.

"So what kind of an effect does your deck box give to you? Mine gives me a free skeleton after five of them have died."

"Uhm, it has an effect? How do I check that," she asked sheepishly. I suppressed a sigh and told her how to pull up the deck box information. Her effect was very similar to my own but with two key differences.

Box of the pack

Effect 1: When you play a creature with the wolf sub type create a pack token.

Effect 2: You can use 5 pack tokens to summon a basic common wolf (1/1) with vanguard to the field

She only needed to play five wolves for it to take effect and her token was vanguard only. My own token could also be played as a rearguard unit.

I also asked her about the matriarch upgrade and she told me about the tree upgrade path and the three options she had for the second upgrade. I agreed with her that health was a wasted option. While the two other upgrades would indeed do the same thing, I advised her to take the Inspire upgrade. If her vanguard unit killed their vanguard unit, the matriarch would attack the rearguard or even the opposing player. It also had a better synergy with her current defensive playstyle. Lower attack and bigger health vanguard need that extra oomph to kill their opponents. She gave me a soft thank you for the advice. I just smiled at her and walked over to the door. A few seconds later she followed after me.

The trip back to the giant hole was made in silence as she trailed behind me. She fidgeted with her bracelet as we stopped right in front of the entrance. I pulled out one of my few remaining torches and used the fire starter to light it. I was sure the mole field effect I had cleared was no longer there since she also hadn't fought it on her way here after I asked her about it. Fifteen minutes later we were at the side tunnel. I stood to the side so she could pass by me and take the lead.

"You promise that it's a Beginner dungeon," she asked me when she neared the edge of the light. I gave her a quick nod of the head. She looked between me and the darkness a few times. "I'm afraid to go alone. Will you come with me," she asked with a pleasing voice.

I only thought it over for a minute before I also stepped into the tunnel. She still stayed at the edge of the light and after a few minutes, we came upon the dungeon. She let out a sigh of relief as she read her notification about the dungeon difficulty.

"You'll be here when I come out again, right?"

"Yes, I'll wait for you right here while you're clearing the dungeon, " I assured her.

She turned her hands into fists as she stepped into the dungeon. I was surprised to see that she vanished from my sight but quickly stored it under dungeon shenanigans. I dropped my backpack next to me, sat down on the ground, and made myself comfortable while I waited for her to clear the dungeon.