Two hours later a drenched and defeated Barry had made it halfway across the booby-trapped tiled floor. Things had started off well, until the speed of his walking far outpaced his healing. He resisted the urge to drink the recently obtained health potion or activate his rapid recovery skill. The whole dead woman with the weird wounds experience had somewhat rattled him, and he didn’t want to risk entering a battle with some vicious beast or person without all his skills and items available. For the same reason he was hesitant to let his health drop below seventy percent during his random progress, as he was a bit of a sitting duck in his current location, a strategy that slowed down his pace even further. Barry had continued to try and determine if there was a pattern to the tile maze, but again his efforts led to nothing. Distracting himself from his frustration, he soon swapped the fruitless investigating for more illusion chain formations and training whilst he waited for his health to recover.
Barry sat cross legged on the floor, his aura chain lying next to him as he tested how many links he could add to his illusionary chain. He found if he held the chain in both hands and focussed, he was able to form new links. Limiting himself to reducing his mana by fifty precent Barry found he could add around twelve additional one-inch links to the illusionary chain. Before dispelling the chain Barry held it out in front of him, arms outstretched to examine his work. His focus ran along the length of the chain before something behind it caught his eye.
Dispelling the chain, he stood up and stared forward at the moss-covered wall opposite him. There was something familiar about it. Almost all of the wall was hidden behind the thick moss. Only a single, snaking line of stone was visible through the blue glow. Tracing his finger along in the air to follow the path of the stone, he then looked back at the route he had just taken. “I’m an idiot,” Barry said as he slapped his own forehead. It couldn’t be clearer to him now, the safe route through the tiles was literally staring him in the face. With one eye on the wall, Barry took a step to the right, and sure enough he progressed without issue.
“Better late than never,” he said, as he followed the giant stony map to guide him through the tile maze.
Within five minutes Barry stepped off the last tile and onto uneven, rocky ground once again. Gazing forward into the hallway in front of him, Barry searched for any clue of what challenges he would be facing next, but all he could see was a green light in the distance. Before doing anything else, Barry did a quick check of his stats. Unfortunately, both his health and mana were missing a decent chunk, so he decided to wait it out until he was back at full strength, spending his time collecting mana infused moss and practicing creating sparks with his flint stone and knife.
Time seemed to crawl forward at an extremely slow pace whilst waiting for his stats to recover, so Barry figured this was as good a time as any to test out the effects of consuming the mana infused moss. He wanted to know how it compared to the blue berries from earlier, so he forced himself to eat some of the slimy cave plant. The moss tasted about as good as it looked. The furry texture was unsettling, and his mouth felt instantly dry as soon as the strange plant hit is palate. He couldn’t swallow it whole, instead having to chew on the moss and grinding it down into a disgusting paste. He immediately, washed the green sludge down with some water that was trickling through the cracks nearby which unfortunately didn’t taste much better, having an odd tinny flavour. It did however help to clear out the little bits of moss that had stuck to his teeth.
Once he gulped it all down Barry opened his stats screen and was surprised by the results. The mana didn’t seem to have been restored at all, still being about seventy percent full. But as he looked more closely, he saw that something had in fact changed. The entire mana bar itself had increased in length, including his current mana amounts and his missing mana. So although he was still missing the same amount of mana, his total pool had increased by what Barry guessed was around five percent. There was one other oddity on his screen, just below the mana bar was a timer that was counting down from ten minutes.
“This boost must only be temporary,” thought Barry, “Disappointing but fair I guess.”
Wanting to test out the effects further Barry forced himself to eat another piece of moss. Unfortunately, he found that it neither increased his mana bar further, nor did it restart the timer, meaning he had just eaten that disgusting thing for no reason.
“Clearly there is a cool down for this consumable just like my abilities,” he concluded.
Nine minutes later his mana bar returned to its original size, and an hour later his mana and health were back to full, ready for him to proceed forward.
Barry entered the hallway, chain held firmly in his hand. He moved slowly, looking out for any further traps or puzzles, as the green light at the end of the hall gradually grew brighter. It must have only been thirty metres or so from end to end, but it was surprisingly difficult to see due to the bright light shining into his eyes. Suddenly, he was able to make out another wooden door positioned into the stony wall, the source of the green light. Grasping the handle and stepping through Barry found himself within another cavern. The moment he let go of the handle the door slammed shut, and he watched as it faded away into the wall until no sign of his prior path remained.
Apart from the familiar stone walls and the constant dripping of water, this area was a completely different environment when compared to the moss and rock filled section he had just left. This room was equally massive and the ceiling was still nowhere to be seen. There were a few tall trees scattered around the edges of the space near the walls, all dead and charred as if a fire had torn through the area long ago. The ground was covered in fluorescent green grass averaging about a foot in height. Like the blue moss from the prior room, this grass glowed strongly, illuminating the entire cavern, and in the distance Barry could see what looked like a giant hill covered in the tall, glowing grass.
The first thing Barry decided to do was climb the closest dead tree to get a better view of his surroundings. He knew other initiates or beasts must be present somewhere in the cavern, as he doubted the woman in the previous room had inflicted those grievous wounds upon herself. That made him wary, plus he had already grown comfortable living within the branches. As he climbed he examined the grass, already having a hunch of what it could be.
Stamina infused grass A rare variant of common grass that has matured within a dense magical space. The unique environment in which it has grown has given it stamina boosting properties when consumed. Can be used as a crafting item to create stamina elixirs.
Barry didn’t even bother doing a taste test, he was confident the grass acted exactly like the moss in the previous room, only instead of increasing total mana, it would increase stamina. Even at his current elevation, high up in the tree, he could only just see the top of the large, steep hill in the distance. From this new angle Barry could see that a winding trail of the grass was not glowing like the rest of the hill. Something that from his previous ground level view was completely invisible. Unfortunately, he could only see around a third of the trail as it snuck around the other side off the mound.
“I wonder if that’s the right path?” pondered Barry, suddenly feeling a little smug with the hope that he had already discovered the trick to this caverns puzzle.
Barry made a mental note of the path of the grass before jumping down from the tree and making a bee line straight for the hill to test his theory, gathering up some of the glowing stamina grass on his way.
Standing in front of the massive hill Barry could not differentiate between the bits of grass at all, the entire thing just looked like a giant glowing green grassy mound.. But trusting his gut, Barry stepped up to where he remembered the change in colour being. He stepped forward, and nothing happened. Looking down he could see he was standing in normal grass, with no glow.
“I guess it really is just a matter of perspective,” smiled Barry, entertaining himself with his own thoughts.
After a moment Barry stepped back off the hill, he then walked a few metres to the left, before taking a hesitant step onto the hill once more. He instantly felt the grass around his feet and shins moisten as a thin layer on water crept up his legs, before it instantly vanished. Barry felt something draining out from deep within himself as the water receded. Taking a quick look at his stats page he saw that his mana had dropped by around ten percent.
Over the next thirty minutes Barry, climbed up and down the various trees scattered around the edge of the cavern. With his elevated viewpoints of his grassy surroundings, he was able to put together a full picture of the safe track up the hill. Another forty-five minutes later and he made it to the top of the hill, after a few hiccups where he couldn’t remember the path and he had to climb back up the trees to check it once more. But soon enough he had made it, and he still had around eighty percent of his mana remaining. Worryingly though, at the top of the hill lay another dead body covered in those same round, burnt wounds. This person was some sort of strange lizard humanoid. Its body was covered in mustard coloured, triangular scales. It had the head and tail of a lizard, but its limbs rested in a position that made Barry feel they were bipedal. The lizard man was level four and specialised in perception from Barry’s inspection. Unlike the previous body this unfortunate soul was not carrying any useful items, he was just a lonely man who had been left here to rot. Again, Barry waited for his stats to fully recover before moving on, his mind swirling with thoughts of what it was that had taken the lives of these two people. As soon as they returned to normal, he pushed onwards to the next phase of the cavern via a wooden trap door that led to an underground tunnel below the hill.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Barry crawled through the narrow, dark tunnel that led from the hatch in the hill. The only light was a red hue in the distance that gradually got brighter the further he crawled. Eventually he found himself in front of yet another wooden door and without hesitation he opened it and tumbled out into another completely new cavern. Barry dusted himself off and allowed his eyes to adjust to light. As soon as he looked up he instantly felt sick, as sweat beads appeared on his forehead. The ground was covered in protruding red and white spotty mushrooms, disrupted only by a collection of lifeless bodies. There must have been at least a dozen corpses lying in various unnatural positions scattered around the cavern. The closest fresh corpse looked just like an orc from one of those Lord of the Rings movies. The body of the dead orc was covered in bruises, his head dented, and he bore the same strange round wounds as the two previous bodies he had come across within this cave. The others were an eclectic mix of humanoid bodies of varying familiar and unfamiliar races.
As Barry’s mind swirled, trying to piece together what exactly could have happened here, he suddenly noticed a figure appearing from the distance, walking casually towards him. Barry could see that they were male from the rectangular body shape and broad shoulders. They carried a long rod of some sort in their left hand that was doubling as a walking stick. Instantly, Barry identified the man.
Inspection:
Race: Human
Level: 8
Stat: Strength
Barry felt a wave of fear roll over him, different from anything he had felt before. His palms were sweaty, and his breathing became rapid. Through his many recent forest battles with the various beasts, one thing has always given him an advantage, his intelligence. But now that he was facing another person, not some beast driven by hunger, he felt it was a completely different scenario. Barry froze in place, not knowing whether he should run, attack, or try to talk to the man.
“Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation for all of this?” he thought as he watched the man approach. “What could possibly explain all of this death?” he countered in his mind as he tried to mentally prepare himself for battle.
The man grew ever closer, and Barry could now more easily make out his features. He was tall, taller than Barry, probably around six foot four. Strangely, his skin was an odd greenish colour, like a slightly faded green tree frog. He had scars over his face and neck that were still pink, as if they were halfway healed from some recent injury. His hair was blonde and matted, and his bright blue eyes were focussed on Barry. His shoulders were extremely broad, and his muscular arms bulged out from his sleeveless vest. The rod in his hand appeared to be a bō staff made entirely of metal. It was almost as long as the man looked tall, and when he lifted it to step forward Barry saw it was quite thick. A lightbulb went off in Barry’s mind as he realised that the end of the staff was exactly the same thickness and shape as the round wounds covering the various corpses he’d seen. Barry felt a fire build in his belly as he understood that this was the person responsible for all the death around him.
The man stopped his walk a mere twenty metres away. As the man stared forwards Barry felt a rush of some odd, uneasy sensation within his soul that vanished as quickly as it appeared. Barry frowned and turned his head from side to side, confused as to what had just happened, the man however just smiled a toothy grin in response. “Clearly you’ve never been on the receiving end of the inspection skill I see,” the large man said in a deep, croaky voice.
“Welcome to the magical drip cavern, it’s so nice to see another new face,” he continued in a sarcastic tone, “And finally another human! Although your skin is very weird, why are you so pale and white?” he added.
“What happened to these people?” Barry snapped back, ignoring the man’s confusing comments.
The man frowned back at Barry, “My, my, not very polite, are we? Well, if you must know, we had a few disagreements and unfortunately things escalated a bit,” the man replied, maintaining his sarcastic tone.
“Escalated? They’re all dead!” Barry shouted.
“Now, now, no need to get all worked up. I’m sure you’ll be much more reasonable than those fools,” the man sneered.
“Those people you killed, they were initiates just like you and me, I’m sure of it. I bet they were brought here the same as we were. How could you just kill them so brutally?” Barry asked in horror.
“You don’t get it do you?” the man snorted, “This world is kill or be killed. If I didn’t strike first, then you can bet it would be me lying lifelessly on the ground. Only the strong can survive in this place. The only reason you are still standing here is that we both know how much stronger I am than you. You are no threat to me.”
Barry took an anxious step back but quickly realised he was backed into a literal corner as he bumped into the stony wall behind him. This man in front of him was a monster, from the looks of it he had killed every one of these poor initiates. How was it even possible that he could have ended so many lives in such a short period of time? The training grounds had only been going on for a couple of days, it seemed impossible that so many could have found this hidden dungeon and already met their doom.
“How, how long have you been here?” Barry mumbled through his nervously chattering teeth.
The green man’s demeaner changed again at this comment, looking whimsical for a moment before returning his steely stare.
“It’s hard to say, there is no day or night in this cavern. Sometimes it feels like weeks, sometimes months, sometimes years. It was two weeks into this so-called training grounds when I first entered this miserable cave. Perhaps you may be able to help me get a grasp for how long has passed on the outside,” the green man declared.
This answer just confused Barry even more, was this guy a complete loony? Perhaps he had been struck down by some mind-altering sickness and that was why his skin looked such a sickly green colour. How could he have been here for weeks or months? More importantly how could he have spent two weeks in the training grounds before entering this dungeon when Barry was certain only a couple of days had passed on the outside.
“It’s not possible that you’ve been here for that long,” Barry stated, “The training grounds has only been going on for a few days max.”
Instantly, he regretted his comments as the stern stare of the green man changed to an intimidating frown as he snapped back in reply.
“You’re wrong, you pasty, pale imbecile. I thought maybe a human would be more sensible, but it looks like you are just as confused as the rest. I spent two weeks in that blasted training grounds city before coming here I’m sure of it!”
“Two weeks? Training grounds city? It doesn’t make any sense,” Barry thought, now even more confused, as he looked around for any way out of this fucked up situation. “Where on earth are you from? I’ve never met a green human before,” Barry asked sheepishly, trying to change the topic of conversation.
“Earth?” the man asked with irritation evident in his voice, “Why do you speak in such riddles? I’ve never heard of such a place.”
Barry’s eyes widened further at those comments, maybe this human wasn’t from earth at all. Nothing about this guy made sense and the only thing Barry truly knew about him was he was quite clearly mentally unstable and highly dangerous. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head as he thought back to the message he'd received when he first discovered that blue glowing door leading into this miserable place.
“Eternal drip cavern,” Barry thought, “I wonder if time works differently here.” Barry allowed himself to glance up to the sky above, drops of rain falling over his face.
As he focussed, he could feel the magical properties within the water as it flowed down his cheek and onto the ground.
“Clearly, I only have a very basic understanding of magic. Maybe it’s possible that this human is from a completely different planet. Or a different time. Or possibly even another universe,” he thought before turning his attention back to the man in front of him.
“What’s your name?” Barry asked as he stared the blonde man in the eyes.
The young man returned his gaze, shuffling forward a few steps, hand gripped tightly on his staff.
“My name is Devon,” the man answered.
“I’m Barry,” Barry said bluntly. Barry felt sick from fear, but he had to hold it together, this man was a killer, clearly a skilled one, and he was a full two levels higher than him.
Barry had faced a stronger beast before in the ratbear, but a person was whole different ball game.
“So, what now, are you going to attack me or what?” Barry asked as the two men stared each other down.
“Now, now, don’t be so jumpy. Us humans should stick together,” Devon smiled.
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you,” Barry replied. “By the way, why haven’t you managed to get out of here yet?”
Devon scrunched his nose at the comment, and Barry flinched.
“This level is not so simple; I can’t even tell where the exit should be. There’s nothing here but stupid mushrooms and rocks. I think this whole cavern is a trap with no way out,” Devon complained.
“That can’t be true,” Barry said, “There’s got to be some trick to solving the puzzle.”
‘Well, none of those other idiots could work it out so what makes you so special,” Devon snapped.
“What do you mean those other idiots? I thought you attacked them before they had a chance to fight back?” Barry said as he readied himself for a potential assault.
“Ahh there I go with my big mouth again. You got me. I used the others to help me solve the puzzles on the previous two levels. However, no one has been able to figure out the trick with this one, and eventually I grew tired of waiting. But you look smart, maybe you can get me out of here. So let me tell you how this is going to work. You run around, solving the puzzle and I won’t kill you. We’re both human, I know you’ve inspected me, and I have inspected you. We both know that I’m stronger. So don’t try anything funny. The great thing about killing people is it does wonders for your experience,” Devon said with a sinister smile as he spun his staff in his hands.
Barry was shocked by the blunt honesty of the man and the intimidating words, and he was faced with a dilemma. If he did what the man said and tried to solve the puzzle, then there was a good chance some of his stats would be depleted along the way. Both of the other sections were booby-trapped, and Barry was sure this area would be no different, and he wasn’t so vain as to think he could magically work it out without any mistakes right from the start. He simply wasn’t that smart. If he lost stats like that then he would be in an even more vulnerable position if this lunatic attacked him. But if he refused, then this guy said he would attack Barry anyway. So, the question was, did Barry believe that if he solved the puzzle that Devon would just let him walk out of here unscathed?
“Not a chance,” thought Barry, “This guy is a cold-blooded killer if ever I’ve seen one.”
Barry knew the man’s words were empty and unreliable, and although he didn’t like it, he would rather fight right here and right now than wait to be stabbed in the back at a later moment. He summoned his aura chain, letting it slowly appear link by link from his palm before grasping it in his hand as it rested partly on the ground. He followed up by bending down to pick up one of the mushrooms from the floor and munching down on it, having just inspected it to confirm its vitality boosting properties, before also consuming some mana moss and stamina grass from his waist bag. With these boosts he felt invigorated, he felt strong, he felt ready. Devon just sniggered and scoffed down the same food before his eyes narrowed in on Barry.
“I see you’ve got a death wish. I’ll be happy to fulfil it,” Devon growled as he stepped forward, his staff pointing at Barry’s throat.