Within the cabin was a man, a withered husk of what used to be a well built middle aged hunter. His eyes could see the experience carved into the muscles and bones of the man despite the atrophy. This man wasn’t weak, nor was he a coward. That made the dungeon more dangerous then.

He motioned for the healer to check him out. His only job was to investigate the dungeon and report important details about it. If the dungeon, somehow, caused madness or weakened an individual’s mind, that would become a problem. His entire party was constructed for this purpose.

The healer went to work, a disgraced member of the clergy. All that he knew was that the disgraced healer was a priestess, or at least female. Words in old chants from ancient, religious texts were said and a pure, warm light appeared. The madman who had become quite agitated by their existence calmed down and went to sleep.

“There is no curse, and if there was mental corruption it is long gone,” said the healer.

“Potential treatments or medicine?” Andres asked.

“That would be a bit difficult. There isn’t really a cause for this. Whatever he saw in the cave had shattered him. There are some medicines and herbs that can help, and some rituals from the church that can stitch his mind back together.”

“Can you make him mentally stable enough for him to answer some of my questions?”

“Hmm…maybe? This isn’t my expertise but I can try.”

“Then please do.”

More religious chanting and the madman woke up. The delusion and delirium that clouded his eyes slowly melted away and the thin knife’s edge of clarity showed.

“I am Andres, a sellsword sent here to investigate the cave. Please tell us all the dangers you experienced there. Every bit of information we get can help us understand this cave and get this village the food and help it needs.”

The man seemed to stare into the distance before replying, “I don’t have much information to tell. When I and my group headed out to find food, and discovered that damned cave, it was simply a tunnel leading down into the earth. There was nothing special, except how it played with our minds.

“Then we found a hole, a sheer cliff. My more aggressive friends went down first. I…I am struggling to remember what happened after that. All I can say for sure was that the rest of my friends were killed. At the bottom of that abyss were animals. They all turned and looked at me, but something was behind their eyes. They were cursed, possessed…they were…”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Andres, I am losing him!”

“Don’t worry, just put him to sleep. We have gotten everything we needed.” Like he promised the old man, they avoided causing more damage to this man’s mental state. Dungeons were dangerous places, and the presence of mana made anything possible. Madness could come from the horror this man was forced to go through, or from too much magic in his blood.

Leaving the madman to his demons, they went out and interviewed the rest of the village members that investigated the cave. Like the stories, their exploration was vastly different. Instead of a singular tunnel, there was a maze. Mammals believed to be rats attacked them with paralyzing venom.

They checked on the patients and victims of these bites. The healer improved their condition, but it was still beyond her expertise to fully recover them. At least they can now walk and talk to a decent degree. He interviewed them too, studied the bites on them, then retreated to the old man’s house and the ‘library’ he had.

Andres couldn’t read well, but he wasn’t there for that. Using the old man, they found the animal that best matched the teeth marks. It was one of the rats from the area, a nuisance that lacked any known magical abilities, magical properties, or unique attributes. There were records of other people getting bitten by them - there were no stories of paralysis from them though except from disease or mechanical damage to the nerves.

He and his party stopped for lunch before returning back to the area of the cave. There were reports that monsters from deeper parts of these forests, the areas even the villagers were hesitant to explore and hunt, had appeared and entered the cave. However, the magic user had other concerns.

“It seems like this area has been drained of mana.” Andres didn’t know much about him, he covered himself in a cloak. There were bad rumors, but there were bad rumors about everyone in Millpond. In the end, he could only trust him.

He had no experience with magic or mana though, and he only understood the basics. A lack of mana could cause problems like an overabundance of mana can, if there really was a lack of mana from the forest that could be a cause for the madman’s condition.

He himself couldn’t sense it, all he could feel was the cave breathing. They did some more exploring to waste time, none of them wanted to put their lives in danger. However, there wasn’t much they could do about it. This was their only chance for getting a better life, so all they could do was procrastinate exploring the dungeon for another day.

----------------------------------------

In the dead of night, no one was guarding the dungeon anymore. After the wrinkled argos, being near the dungeon was as much of a danger as being in it. This caused no one to realize the mass attacking the dungeon.

There was another tree goliath, this time accompanied by a couple of other monsters summoned by the forest spirit. One was a wolf of large size, covered in black for that seemed to eat away all light that hit it. Another was a giant, white humanoid with sunken eyes and hairless skin. It looked like a zombie or a ghoul, a cursed spirit in a giant body made from white candle wax and flames in its ash-covered eye sockets.

Together, this band of monsters entered the dungeon to kill the dungeon core.