The pain awoke him as every bone and muscle in his body potested loudly in regard to the unfair treatment they felt they had received. He lifted his hand unsteadily to his aching head, expecting to feel the dampness of leaking blood, or at least a sharp pain from the contusions he must have suffered, but felt nothing other than the constant ache all over his body, similar to having a toothache. With an effort he managed to sit up and take a look around himself.

It was dark, but not overly dark, for he could make out the dirt walls surrounding him. Looking up he could see the top of the hole he had fallen into, as the bright sky could easily be seen, outlining the edges of the hole he had made, about twenty foot above him, tree roots growing across the empty space above him. He considered using them to climb out, but soon saw that they were beyond his reach. As he looked up, clods of dirt and sand rained down onto his head and shoulders, making him fear the whole thing was going to cave inwards, and crossed off climbing the walls as a way to exit this place.

His concern about being buried beneath falling soil motivated him enough to push himself to his feet and stagger across to one side on the hole he was in, leaning against it to keep himself on his feet. He could see the pile of dirt in the center, where he had landed, but the rest of the floor seemed unnaturally flat and clean. Gordo looked down at the floor beneath his feet carefully, then scrubbed one toe of a shoe across it. The regular indentations that he felt while doing this confirmed his suspicions, and he now knew this floor was made up of laid bricks, and not dirt or natural stone. He was standing in a man made structure, or to be more accurate, a planned structure built by beings of an unknown race.

As he was investigating the floor, his inbox pinged with the arrival of a message. Frowning, for he wasn’t expecting any messages, and hoping it wasn’t game spam, he opened his inbox. The senders identity made him smile in pleasure, for unexpected or not, it was from someone he knew quite well, and it was his first message that wasn’t from the admin team. He decided to put off reading it at this moment, concern over his current predicament overweighing his interest in his mail. He promised that the first thing he would do after getting out of here would be to read it.

He suddenly realized that if this area he was in was built, then logically the builder would have made a method of leaving it, or entering it. Keeping one hand on the wall, for that is now what he realized it was, he slowly walked around the perimeter, keeping one hand in contact with the wall until he finally felt a difference beneath his fingers. The surface texture changed from rough stone to woodgrain, and his trailing fingers picked up a set of splinters before he noticed the change and stopped moving. He pulled back his hand in surprise and a yelp, then lifted them to his lips in a vain attempt to suck the pain and splinters out.

Swearing under his breath to himself, he inspected the area where he had received the splinters from while scratching at his fingers in an attempt to dislodge the small slivers of wood that were lodged firmly under his skin. It took a little while before his eyes adjusted enough for him to make out the shape of a door, set flush with the wall, and hidden under a layer of dirt and dust. Pounding on it with his uninjured hand produced a hollow booming noise, as well as dislodging most of the layer of dirt that coated it. He could not see any handle, or other method of opening it so withdrew his dagger and inserted its point into one of the outlining cracks along its edge and attempted to pry the door free of its frame. The door didn’t budge, so he leaned harder against the handle of the dagger, trying to put as much pressure as he could into it, causing the blade of the dagger to flex with a worrying arc.

The door suddenly gave way just as the daggers blade snapped in two, swinging out towards him and releasing a gust of pent up fetid air that had been trapped behind it. This released air struck Gordo in the face, making him stagger back, coughing violently as his surprised inhalation sucked the foul stuff into his lungs. He dropped to his knees and dry retched as his body tried vainly to purge him of its effects. In a panic, he rolled himself away from the now open doorway, his chest and throat burning, until he lay on his back ten foot away, chest heaving as he sucked in deep breathes of untainted air.It was only at this point he noticed the system message that occupied his vision.

You have received 20 points damage from breathing spore laden air. You have received a Spore debuff. Spore debuff will last for fifteen seconds, and will cause an additional 5 points damage per second until time runs out or you are healed.

Gordo quickly looked at his health and calculated how much damage this debuff will give him as it run its course, then relaxed in relief. His current health was high enough to cover the losses, as long as nothing else happened to affect him, so he lay there until the debuff wore off and his health points started to increase again. A hundred and twenty health was not going to be enough if he kept this up, he thought, but at the moment he was stuck with the ten health per level increase until he found some way of increasing his constitution.

Finally his health returned to its maximum, and he stood up, brushed off the dust from his clothes, and walked back over to the door, sniffing the air as he drew closer to make sure the bad air hadn’t lingered around to affect him again. Not able to detect anything, he looked into the doorway, and found it opened up on a corridor stretching away from him, the far end dimly illuminated by an unknown light source.

Now unarmed by the loss of his only weapon, the dagger, Gordo hesitated before entering the corridor, knowing full well that if there was any creatures down here, he was dead. He also knew he didn’t have any other choice, either, for he needed to find a way to escape this place, and the corridor held out the only hope possible. With all this in his mind, he slowly made his way towards the far end, checking the walls and floor as much as he could in the dimness that surrounded him, in an attempt to detect or locate any traps that could have been placed here. He didn’t detect any traps, but also reached the far end unscathed, so he considered himself extremely lucky, and foolish for the time he had spend searching.

The room at the end of corridor was small, being about ten foot square, but what occupied it made him stare in wonder. It was easy for him to work out from the sarcophagus in the center that this was a burial vault, and the hill above a barrow raised to cover it. The walls were constructed of finely interlocked blocks of stone, illuminated, surprisingly, with lit torches mounted on each wall. How they had remained lit here was a mystery, but not one he was going to worry about at this time, for this was a game, after all, and weird shit like this was fairly normal.

He entered the room and slowly walked around the room, finding nothing but the coffin and the torches inside it. He reached up and pulled one of the torches out of the sconce that held it up and inspected it.

Torch of Eternal Flame

This torch will always remain lit and provide light under any conditions. This religious item is usually found illuminating the crypts of famous warriors and nobles. The method of creating this rare item has been lost to the ages.

He stared at the torch in amazement, realization of the luck of this find dawning upon him. Looking up, at the other three, his face broke out into a wide grin, knowing that he now had something he could sell for enough money to outfit himself properly. He didn’t know what they were worth, but still confidant that whatever it was, it would be plenty enough to him. Then another thought suddenly struck him, and he stared at the coffin avidly. These torches were only used in important crypts, so this must be an important crypt. Important crypts usually held items worth looting. His grin grew even wider as he placed the torch back into its sconce, he would retrieve it later, after he had finished with the coffin.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Taking one of the old items of clothing from his bag, he used it to brush away the dust that had gathered on its surface, obscuring the carvings on the coffin lid. Dust billowed up, filling the air, making Gordo back away, coughing, until it had dispersed enough for him to be able to see the surface again. Peering closely, he could make out a series of runes carved deep into its surface, their grooves filled with fine particles of dust. Gordo brushed one hand across them, clearing away more of the obscuring material until they became legible.

Here lies Lanbard the Unwise

Prince of the House of Ravenswood

A noble warrior who lost his life by placing his faith and trust in the hands of those unworthy. May the gods protect his soul.

He paused, head bowed reverently for a minute, then gave a firm thrust with both hands on the edge of the lid, causing it to slide away from him, to finally topple off the far edge onto the floor. Inside the casket lay an dry and withered corpse, hands crossed on top of its sunken chest. The skin that stretched across the skull was dark and leathery, a fine patina of cracks crossing the desiccated flesh. Leaning over the casket, he became aware of the dry, musty smell that the body was giving off, a good sign that the corpse had become mummified, rather than rotting, another good sign as this meant that any other items that could be in the coffin would be in a relatively undamaged condition.

Reaching down Gordo carefully touched the corpse with one finger, prepared to yank it away if the corpse turned out to be some form of the living dead and suddenly attacked him, but was relieved when there was no reaction to his touch. He quickly ran the search option that opened up and was astounded by the list of items he found, for it seemed like he had inadvertently hit the jackpot.

You have found:

Dagger (Unidentified)

Pendant (Unidentified)

Scroll (Unidentified)

Longsword, Broken (Unidentified)

Medium Leather Bag – (Unidentified)

Ring (Unidentified)

Leather Armour (Unidentified)

Stone (Unidentified)

He was ecstatic at the sheer number of items that had popped up that was available to him, but he had never seen this unidentified remark that they all displayed, on items before. But it was fairly obvious what he needed to do. His amazement grew even greater when a following message popped up informing him he had also found one hundred gold coins, followed by the sound of the coins rattling into his inventory. He was that overwhelmed with this munificence that had dropped into his lap that he momentarily blanked out.

Coming back to his senses, he realized this was like the mythological lucky strike that is always referred to in fantasy gameplay novels, but actually happening, and happening to him. Hoping that this wouldn’t all pan out into some warped storyline where he ends up cursed or something, he quickly retrieved the Leather Bag and inspected it.

Medium Leather Bag

This leather bag has a 50 slot carrying capacity, and will reduce the weight of all items stored within it by 25% of the combined weight.

Rubbing his hands in glee, he quickly transferred the trash he was carrying in his current bag across to the new one, then discarded the old bag. It wasn’t worth keeping it, for it had no resale value at all, seeing it was the starting bag for new players. Once the new bag was in place he took his time to pick up each of the unidentified items and attempted to see if he could gain more information on them.

Dagger, Ornamental

This dagger, being of exceptional quality, was crafted for one of noble birth. Due to the quality of materials and workmanship that went into its creation, this weapon will impart more damage than a similar weapon of plain manufacture.

Base Damage 2 – 5

Durability 20 / 20

Gordo equipped the dagger immediately, feeling a little more secure now he had a weapon again. The next three items he took and examined produced little information about themselves, all of them marked ‘quest item’. As he didn’t have any quests, he figured that these items would produce more information if he found the necessary quests that each required. Shoving them into his new bag, he returned back to the items remaining.

The ring proved to be magical in nature, and had a plus one to dexterity bonus, so he placed it on his finger. This brought him to the leather armor, and its information, while quite impressive, was useless to him at this time, for it had a requirement that the wearer have a strength of four to be able to equip it. Shrugging, he placed it into the sack, knowing he would use it once he had managed to raise his to meet this requirement.

The last item was a stone, about the size of a dinner plate and in the shape of a hexagon. He didn’t know what material it was made of, but it looked and felt like some form of china, producing a musical ding when he tapped on it with one fingernail. Carved into one surface was a numeric rune representing the number one. He gave this item the once over, but a message popped up informing him that his intelligence was not high enough to identify this item. He hefted it a little while thinking, then slid it into his bag with the other items he had no knowledge on.

Now he had taken all the items from the body, the pop up remained, showing the only think possible to take from this location was the bag he had discarded. He dismissed the loot window with a wave and looked around to locate any other exit from this room other than the one he had entered through. He couldn’t see any as he wandered around the walls, prodding them with a hand, and occasionally his dagger. They all felt like solid walls, with nothing to indicate they hid a doorway.

Deciding it was time to return to the place where he had fallen into this place and look for another way of leaving there, he took one last walk around the walls, taking the torches off the walls and placing them in his bag as he passed them. As he took the last one from its sconce, he heard a low grating sound and the floor beneath his feet began to tremble. He feared the walls and roof were going to crumble in and bury his alongside the late Lanbard the Unwise, so he dashed for the doorway to leave, but not quick enough, for a solid slab of stone quickly descended down, sealing him inside the crypt.

As he stood there in front of the stone slab, banging his hand against it in futile frustration, he saw the walls of the room start to leak a clear liquid into the room. From the way it oozed out from the cracks between the stones and ran down the walls in a gelatinous manner, he knew that this wasn’t water but something probably a whole lot more dangerous, and backed away as it started to pool on the floor. He looked around in a panic, trying desperately to find a method of escaping but saw nothing but the coffin in the middle of the room. As he was looking , the viscous substance reached his feet and he felt a burning sting as it started to dissolve the tips of the shoes we was wearing, emitting a small puff of smoke as it did so. Gordo took another step back away from it, his back almost against the side of the coffin, realizing this goo was acidic, and if he stayed here, his bones would be the only thing left to identify him.

Suddenly an inspiration came to him, a desperate one at that, for if it didn’t work, he wouldn’t have a second chance. He quickly eased himself around to the opposite side of the coffin, to where the fallen lid lay on the ground and picked it up. It was unaffected by the acidic goop that had been touching it, reassuring him he may have made the right choice. Carefully easing himself into the coffin, he lifted the lid above him,, then lay down, closing the coffin above him. It was a tight squeeze with two bodies in the small space, but thankfully there was just enough to make sure the top had settled properly into place.

He could hear the stuff as it slowly rose higher in the room outside, lapping up the sides only inches away from where he lay until it finally covered the whole coffin. He struggled to breath the dry and dusty air, moving as little as possible, for each time he did so, more dust rose from the corpse beneath him. He lay there and without realizing it, slowly nodded off to sleep,

He awoke when the whole coffin suddenly shook and he peered about to make sure nothing had knocked the top askew and allowing access to where he lay, but was thrust downwards as the coffin finally separated from the floor beneath it, to rocket upwards towards the surface of the thick liquid like a rising cork. The heaviness only lasted a couple of seconds before weightlessness struck him, rapidly followed by a falling sensation. The coffin came to an abrupt halt, snapping his head backwards into the forehead of the unfortunate corpse beneath him. Then everything became still as the wild ride came to a sudden and jarring end, the bones of the corpse beneath him cracking as they broke.