Stepping through the blue light filled doorway Barry instantly felt rejuvenated, and instinctively knew that all his abilities and stats were fully restored and ready to use again.

“Well, I guess I just wasted a couple of hours,” he thought.

Barry found himself within an enormous indoor cavern. It was beyond belief how this massive area was tucked behind such a small door, hidden under a flowing river. In fact, it was more than that, it was physically impossible. Barry knew for a fact that he had only fallen around ten metres off the side of the waterfall, and yet as he looked up, he was unable to even see the ceiling of the massive cave he found himself in. Instead, as he gazed up all he could see was an endless blackness and the constant falling of water from some far hidden clouds.

“Definitely the work of the gods,” thought Barry as he took in the new environment.

The cavern walls stretched out around Barry to both sides, and he estimated the width of the cavern to be around one hundred metres. The tall walls were made up of large, layered stones covered in a strange, blue, glowing moss that lit up the area. This moss wasn’t confined to the walls however, as lines of the blue plants covered the uneven stony ground before him. Shallow trickles of water flowed between the prominent rocks in his direction before disappearing into cracks in the wall to either side. The flowing water reflected the light provided by the moss, further emphasising the blue colouration of the cavern. In the distance Barry observed that the scattered rocks gradually increased in size, but he couldn’t take in much else from where he was standing due to the vast distance. Although he had only been in this cavern for minutes, he already felt the falling droplets from above starting to wet his hair and dampen his clothing once again. Water trickled down his face, tickling his cheek and making his eyes glazy.

“Appropriately named cavern,” Barry thought as he rubbed the water from his eyes and turned to examine the wooden door once more.

As Barry turned around, he was stunned to find that the door he had just entered through had completely vanished. Behind him was nothing but more stone and moss. He placed his hands on the slimy wall, feeling around for the wooden door that he was certain had just been there.

“Am I losing my mind?” Barry thought, struggling to come to terms with what was going on, and realising he may well be trapped in this place.

When he first walked in Barry had found the wet, blue environment oddly entrancing and calming. Now however, when faced with the possibility of being trapped in this cavern, he found the entire place overwhelmingly creepy.

Barry was exhausted, not physically, but mentally. The past day and a half had been a relentless series of life-or-death events. And just when he thought he’d stumbled upon a secret oasis, he was instead faced with the possibility of being stuck in a dreary, wet cave, completely alone. A collection of negative thoughts continued to enter Barry’s mind before he had a moment of clarity as he looked at his reflection in the water trickling beside his feet.

“Snap out of it,” Barry said to himself, slapping his cheek with his palm. “You always wished for a way out of your old, weak body. And now that you’ve got it you want to give up because things are getting a bit hard? Pathetic!”

Shaking off his momentary depression, Barry kicked the water, gathered up all his determination and turned towards the depths of the cave, marching forward with a newfound purpose.

Given he was likely going to be in this place for a while Barry decided he might as well inspect his environment as he focussed on the strange glowing blue moss.

Inspection:

Mana infused moss: A rare variant of common moss that has matured within a dense magical space. The unique environment in which it has grown has given it mana boosting properties when consumed. Can be used as a crafting item to create mana elixirs.

“Mana boosting moss? Is it the same as the berries?” Barry wondered.

Picking off a small piece of the moss he brought it up in front of his face to assess it more closely. There were definitely some subtle magical properties to the plant, as it gave off a faint aura. The moss felt equally moist and furry to touch and it gave off a smell similar to that of dusty cardboard. The thought of consuming it was less than appealing, and given Barry’s mana was full currently, he decided to throw the moss back down to the ground as he continued his march towards the larger rocks.

Every step required thought and consideration due to the slipperiness of the mossy rocks. Within a few hundred metres Barry had stumbled multiple times, usually catching himself, but occasionally falling down onto his hands. By now the lower half of his body was fully soaked from the constant splashing and slipping that he decided to bite the bullet and walk up the small rivulets as he found they provided more even footing.

Eventually Barry reached a section of boulders that were averaging two metres in diameter. He found it harder to follow the path of the small stream as it narrowed between the large rocks to the point that it was just a trickle between the stones. At this point Barry realised he had to climb. He slowed his pace and chose his path carefully, not wanting to risk a fall. He clambered up and over one rock after another, each larger than the one before. As he reached a plateau in the tower of rocks Barry paused to assess his surroundings. But before he could fully take in the environment, something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. A pair of human legs.

Barry scrambled across a few rocks to where he could more clearly see the legs poking out from behind a nearby boulder on a stony plateau, just in front and below his own position. From this angle it appeared someone was resting their back up against a boulder with their legs outstretched in front of them. Barry’s heart pounded. He was excited to finally meet another person in this strange place, but he was also apprehensive. He was all too aware of the dangers of the training grounds and there was a good chance that this person might not be as excited to see him as he was to meet them. In fact, odds were that they would be wary or even aggressive. With these thoughts Barry slowed his approach and attempted to inspect the person, receiving no information in return.

“That’s strange,” Barry thought, “Maybe because I can’t see their whole body the inspection skill doesn’t work?”

Barry slowly crept around to his right where he would have a better viewpoint. He soon found he was unable to walk any further that way due to a large, unscalable boulder, and he would be forced to climb down closer to the resting person. He thought about yelling out to alert them, but Barry was in two minds with this. He didn’t want to frighten or aggravate them with his voice, his preference was to catch a quick glimpse, inspect them, after which he could decide whether to approach them, or slink away to safety depending on their level. With that he slowly lowered himself down and crept around the side of the boulder, grimacing every time his feet splashed loudly as he stepped. As he closed in Barry took a deep breath, and peered around the side of the rock, before immediately swinging back around in panic.

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Barry’s mouth hung open in shock, his heart racing as he took in what he had just seen. The person was not a human after all, but some other frightening humanoid race. They had purplish-brown coloured skin and bright red lips. Where ears would normally be on a human were instead two large spiralling horns that stuck out laterally before shooting up vertically about ten centimetres above the top of their head. The person was clearly female from her shapely figure. She had long black hair that flowed all the way down to her waist. She wore a leather tunic that had multiple five centimetres wide circular pieces of it melted away, showing deep round wounds underneath. Her arms were extremely long and appeared to have one additional joint in them causing them to look odd and spider like. At their ends were not hands, but a single large thumb and finger that appeared to act like a pincer. In one pincer she held a small, near empty bottle containing only traces of some red liquid. Attached to her waist was a hessian waist bag and belt. Her legs were really the only part of her that looked human like, but on closer inspection they too were long and extra jointed, as if she had two knees per leg. All of her features were striking and unique, but that wasn’t why Barry was stressed. It was instead the fact that she was obviously dead, and it clearly wasn’t a peaceful death.

Barry was all too familiar with death; he’d seen plenty of it in his life before the recent magical upheaval. He’d watched some of his friends from the hospital pass away, and he’d even prepared himself for his own death. And more recently he’d been responsible for the deaths of numerous beasts. But this was different, it felt different. Barry instinctively knew that this was not some beast in front of him, but a sentient, intelligent person, an initiate just like himself. This was meant to be a new beginning for her like it was for him, but instead her life was over. It was obvious there had been a struggle, a fight. The circular attacks this woman had faced had not just melted away at her clothes, but also her flesh, with some of the wounds creating an empty tunnel from one side of her body to the other. Something, or someone had killed her in this very cavern where he was now trapped. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t human, it mattered that she was once a living, breathing person and now she was gone. Barry sunk down to the ground, unwittingly mimicking the pose of the dead woman as his legs stretched out in front of him, a single tear of fear ran down his face, mixing with the rain as he gathered his thoughts and assessed the information that had just entered his mind.

Inspection:

Race: Spindling

Level: 5

Stat: Stamina

The influx of information brought Barry little relief.

“She was level five, the same as me,” he thought with dismay.

Barry felt a new sense of dread as the reality of his current situation was sinking in. This poor soul had been trapped in the same place he was, she had faced the same dangers he was likely about to face, and she had perished. Would the same happen to him?

Barry pushed himself to his feet and gulped, swallowing some of the dripping water that had made its way into his open mouth. With a deep breath to gather his confidence he stepped back around the rock in front of the dead woman, and analysed the situation. Fresh blood pooled on the ground below her, having leaked out from the round wounds covering her body. Her eyes were closed and her head was tilted slightly forward. Barry felt sick, but he knew he had to be practical at this moment. He leant down and struggled to undo the belt from the woman’s waist. The stained hessian bag dripped blood onto Barry’s feet as he dragged it away from the woman’s lifeless corpse.

Barry turned and emptied the contents of the bag onto the stone floor, disgusted with himself at his own actions. However, desperation overpowered his disgust. He knew he would need to gather any useful items he could find, and that was going to require scavenging from the odd corpse, despite the way he felt. For now he needed to bury his feelings and deal with them at a later time. Within the bag he found a few red berries and a single vial full of the same red liquid the deceased woman was holding. He also found a small knife and a strange rectangular stone. Apart from that it was mostly just full of blue moss.

Barry instantly inspected the items. The knife didn’t tell him anything except that it was a sharp knife. The strange stone was a flint stone, meaning Barry could potentially make sparks for a fire if he struck the knife, or even his chain, against it. The red berries were a vitality restoring alternative to the blue and black berries he had previously found. And finally, he inspected the red liquid.

Inspection:

Health potion (minor): A health potion that instantly restores a small amount of health points. 1 hour cool down.

Barry knew these finds were extremely useful, but he found it difficult to feel joy in his current situation. He now had a tool to skin and butcher meat, a way to make fire, a bag for portable storage and a potion to heal himself. He took the bag and rinsed the blood off in some nearby water, momentarily turning the small flowing stream red from blood. He then took the now soaked bag, affixed the belt to his waist and packed it again with the items he had found. The belt was especially welcomed as it helped to hold his increasingly tattered gown together so there was less flapping of the material, and therefore less backside exposure. With his new accessories Barry resumed his climb up and over the large rocks that blocked his way.

The boulders were now consistently so large that climbing was becoming effortful and tiring, and Barry could feel that his stamina had dropped a little due to the exertion. After ten minutes or so of a zigzagged climb he finally reached a new plateau, this one much larger than the previous space where the deceased woman had lay. The flat area in front of him was around fifty metres in length and width. The stone walls and moss encroached to both sides of the space making it clear that the only way to progress was through this route. The floor was no longer made of bumpy, natural rock formations but instead of smooth flat stone tiles. Each tile was exactly one metre wide and grey, giving it a distinctive grid like design. The only exception was a single additional tile that lay just in front of the first row, in line with the very centre column. On the other side of the tiled floor he could see a large arched hallway leading out of this area.

“What is going on here,” wondered Barry as he stepped forward just in front of the line of tiles.

There was something unnatural about their presence here and he had the distinctive feeling that there was some hidden secret to this place. Not knowing any better, and not wanting to stay idle any longer Barry placed his foot on the closest tile about a quarter of the way along the first row. As he did so he paused, anxiously waiting for some trap to trigger. However, after more than a minute had passed without anything happening he finally started to feel safe. With that he stepped his other foot forward and stood with his full weight on the tile. The moment he did so the tile lit up with a bright white hue, and a torrent of water fell from above faster than Barry could react. The liquid hit Barry and he felt it seep in through his pores and down into his very soul. At the same time, he experienced a chill, and he felt his health drop before the sensation vanished. There was no warning, no pain, just an instant loss of vitality and then nothing. Opening his status screen Barry saw he had lost around ten percent of his health, not a scary amount, but enough that it would quickly add up and become a problem considering he had to do this at least fifty times to reach the other side that was obviously the exit.

Barry stepped back off the tile and onto the normal rocky ground, somewhat rattled from the experience. He was once again thankful for his large vitality pool for otherwise this hit to his health could have been much more substantial. The tile he previously stood on when the water hit him once again reverted to its standard grey colour as if nothing had happened. Even Barry, with his limited experience immediately knew what this was... A dungeon puzzle. Clearly this was a maze of sorts and he had just taken a very wrong first step. However, he had a hunch of where he was meant to start, the single outlying tile in the middle of the first row. Testing his theory, Barry walked over to the lone tile and reluctantly stood on top of it. The same white light lit up the tile and Barry flinched, waiting for the water torrent to cover him once more. He waited, and waited, but the rain never appeared. Barry smiled and took another step forward, assuming the puzzle would only include straight line movements. His hunch proved correct as he safely made it to the second tile without issue.

Now officially four percent of the way across the maze Barry stopped to further assess the situation. If this was anything like the dungeon puzzles like those found in video games, then there must be a clue to solving it. He looked across the checked floor for any sign, any discolourations, anything really. He leant down to see if there was any difference in the height of the tiles. Next, he tried placing a hand on the surrounding tiles to see if there was any change in texture. Despite his efforts he found nothing.

“Why didn’t I put more points into wisdom?” muttered Barry, “I guess I might as well put my high health to good use,” he said to himself as he stepped forward and was hit with a torrent of water from above and a knock to his health.

Huffing, he wiped the water from his eyes, stepped back and proceeded to the left, this time without issue. Barry sighed, as he knew this was going to be a slow process, especially with the waiting periods to allow his vitality to recover. But at the end of the day it felt better to be moving forward at random, rather than to be standing still contemplating his lack of intelligence.