All told, and minus Lauren’s little ‘self donation’, the results of our combat are 20 coins (once examined, revealed to be copper, the same as the ones I found earlier), a bronze ring, 2 ancient swords, 1 good condition zweihander, and 1 shortsword.

A lot of weapons and a few valuables. Lauren has pockets and straps to hold onto the shortsword, the coins we’ll leave by the entrance with the rest, and the ancient swords are unlikely to be very useful, which leaves me to deal with the ring and zweihander. Lauren has no interest in either.

The ring goes on my finger, and I make a first pass at binding it to me with my Energy. It resists, prompting me to wait for later. Inanimate objects are so stubborn.

As for the zweihander, I pry a back harness off the Wight who originally owned the weapon. It’s ratty, loose, and smells like rot, but it keeps the massive blade from dragging and my hands free.

If I can Infuse Energy into that, it’ll be monstrous and indestructible.

I can’t wait.

We continue down to the end of the passage, turn right, and can easily see that the main passage continues after the next right, however, something draws our attention. A large crack in the relatively smooth cave wall on our left. It looks like I can just barely squeeze through, and claustrophobia has never bothered me. Leaning my greatsword and satchel against the wall, I climb through the gap, followed shortly by Lauren. Kaythe crawls along the wall overhead, obviously in its element. He doesn’t warn me of anything, so I assume there are no traps. Not that Kaythe is infallible, but dark ass caves are literally his home turf. As I emerge into a larger cavern, I note how this passage is much more crude. Where the main passage is mostly flat, well hewn stone, this looks like someone with a pickaxe spent a while digging and no time making it look nice. The tunnel curves down, and I let Kaythe back onto my shoulders and ready my stick, just in case.

There are a few tricky moments with loose rock, but I never seem to lose my balance, and I always manage to find areas that hold my weight and prevent me from sliding the rest of the way down.

At the bottom, there is a small peninsula that reaches to the middle of a small, underground lake. The water is dark, darker than I think it should be… but that might be an artifact of my strange darksight ability. Lauren also seems to have it, so I’m almost certain it’s Perception based. I wonder what other things can be seen, with a high enough Perception…

This place is serene and beautiful, even without color, but while I don’t mind tight spaces, I do mind dark, cold water. This seems to be the end of the road, at least for this path.

“Care for a swim?” I wonder if she can make out the smirk.

-”I will absolutely shove you into this water and leave.” Yeah she definitely can.

“Point taken.”

Returning to the main passage, we continue deeper still, and with every step I feel more uncertain. The walls are bare, the floor is uniform, there is nothing in this passage! That makes it an ideal location to put a trap.

-”Why are you moving so slowly.”

I frown but make no reply. If she wants to run ahead, I’m perfectly fine healing her. Assuming she survives.

I’m going to be careful. Whoever built this place had an eye for lethal traps.

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The hallway drags on, and Lauren makes her impatience known with frequent groans and loud sighs. I swear, she’s like a kid sometimes. A stupid, deranged kid.

I’m so absorbed in checking everything, so certain I’m going to find a trap that I nearly walk into the far wall. Another left turn, and I can make out that the source of the flickering light is in the next room. Which concerns me.

I could see the flickering all the way from the entrance, but that isn’t how normal light behaves. Maybe if the walls were wet, but they aren’t. We’re being led. If someone entered this place and didn’t have a high Perception, they’d already be dead from the pit trap they never would have seen, saying nothing of the Wights. There’s something wrong here.

“Careful.”

No mocking remark, just a curt nod. At least she can be serious sometimes.

I start moving forward, even more slowly than before, examining by inches rather than feet. All the time in the world, no need to rush. Nobody is going to charge in here without a light, and we’ll hear them approaching. Plenty of time to stash the loot.

I actually wonder what’s holding them up- Focus.

Step by careful step, no warnings from Kaythe, but while I expect he’ll protect me from pits, I’m not sure he’s smart enough to know what more well hidden traps look like.

Step, step, st- “Wait.”

The stone has been perfectly even up to this point, but there’s a bump here. It looks like a poorly managed strike didn’t make the ground quite level, but… no, there’s a gap around it. A trigger mechanism, but for what? My eyes glide to the walls, the ceiling, and back to the floor. Nothing I can see.

Better to not find out the hard way.

“These areas are almost certainly triggers for something. Don’t touch them.”

Now that I’ve seen them, I notice a very obvious path through them as well.

[Having the faculties is one thing, applying them is much more demanding. Perception Enhanced.]

Waving away the distraction, I pick my way slowly across to the other side.

The moment I reach the far side, my balance suddenly shifts back, almost making me trip onto one of the triggers. “Kay-” I almost get through scolding it before Lauren scoffs and takes a running start. -”I’m doing it my way!” Fuck! She doesn’t know there’s another pit!

By the time I open my mouth, she’s already in the air. Her jump will easily clear the triggers, but put her right into the pit.

If I try to grab her and arrest her fall, I’ll be pulled in too, so instead I gamble on her increased Dexterity to save her and, dropping into a steady stance, plunge my hand through the ground. Just as with the last one, the floor shudders and disappears, revealing a number of unforgiving metal stakes at the bottom of at least 10 feet of empty space. “Here!” I shout, my hand at the maximum angle I could still catch her at and not be pulled in. To her credit, she doesn’t scream, instead using every bit of her ability to twist in the air and slam her foot into my hand as she passes. My shoes skid across the dust, pulling my toes over the edge as I stop her forward motion -and, just barely, her vertical motion- before she can fall head first into the waiting maw of earth. This would have been so fucking impossible without a combination of high Strength, Dexterity, and Perception.

I hear a tinkling as some metal falls out of her pockets into the spiked abyss. Probably those coins, the idiot. Lot of good they do now. I’m very careful to control every shift in weight as I slowly haul her back up. One wrong move and I’ll trigger the trap and we’re both fucked. By the time I’ve got her head above the lip, I realize I have nowhere to put her, especially not upside down.

-”Enjoying the view, jackass?” Ok yes, I’m looking down vaguely in the crotch region, but what the hell, it’s at eye level. Not my fault.

“Well if you like that, you’ll love this. I’m going to flip you, slowly, so I hope you don’t mind being groped.” I’m mostly being facetious; her armor has tons of places to hold onto so I’ll have no trouble finding safe places to grab.

Still fun to torment her. I can’t tell in the dark, but I assume she’s blushing because she doesn’t respond. A point for me.

Thank the game for the Strength Skill; this precise movement is a massive strain and I’d never have been able to even think about doing it before, no matter how light she is.

Once she’s on her feet behind me, I throw a comment with as little snide and smug as I can muster that went something like “Step only where I step. If you wanted to die, I could have left you to the Shades.”

What the hell is she trying to show off to me for? I guess even the attention of people you despise is worth something when everyone hates you back. Honestly…