Walking a game trail through the thick forest the familiar drone of insects seems to be louder than normal a mix of cascades and crickets, Raven blanches recalling the run in with the spider. Picking up the pace of walk Raven proceeds down the trail trying to ignore the horrible memories. As he walks there's a crash of splintering wood ahead of him as a tree crashes down several hundred feet ahead of him, Diving for cover and activating sneak Raven peeks ahead to see what the sound was caused from. In a small clearing ahead of him there is a large bear being attacked by a swarm of fist sized beetles and it is losing badly. The beetles, black in color with a purple line down the middle of them have a large mandibles on their heads and a large circular mouth with razor teeth taking chunks off the bear with each pass. The bear howls in pain swatting at the bugs as it bleeds its fur seems to grow gray and the flesh on the bear starts to sag, once its fur fully turns gray the bear collapses to the ground in a final groan of pain. The swarm now seemingly glowing red fly up and over the tree canopy the drone of insects slowly fading away.

Raven approaches the bears corpse with caution looking it over the wounds seem to ooze dark blood the body of the bear is visibly shrinking as the ooze flows from the body in a pool around the bear. The fur starting to slosh off the bear starts to look very familiar and Raven starts to back away fearing what he thinks is about to happen. With a raspy groan the bears body shudders and begins to stand, black foam pouring from its mouth the bear turns to face Raven snapping its jaws with loud snaps it peers at Raven with hunger in its white milky eyes. With a groan Raven grunts “fuck” turning and running for his life yet again. Weaving between trees and bushes along the trail looking back over his shoulder the bear doesn't seem to be bothered by the trees crashing through most of them deflecting off the larger ones. Running looking at the bear Raven raises his hand as the ring shines with a blinding light just as the bear is about to bite Raven, the ring blasts the bear back, Raven turns to continue running as he clears a bush he finds himself running in mid air looking down he finds himself falling from a cliff down into a dark cave mouth, falling from the cliff Raven screams on his way down “fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!”

Some time later Raven wakes up cold and wet, looking around he finds himself in a dark oval cave opening with a small pond which seemingly broke his fall from the opening at the top of the cave 100 feet up laying halfway in the water he groans in pain. Looking around he sees several tunnel off shoots, moss growing on the rocks and a few mushrooms growing on a dirt pile. He doesn't seem to be injured just very sore hungry and tired, giving himself a once over he nods his head, “yep… still in hell.” Getting out of the water and shaking off what water he can when he hears a loud splash behind him, turning in surprise he sees something large sinking into the water. “Fuck me… please don’t be the bear… please don’t be the bear… its the bear… fuck me..” Spotting the sinking form of the bear.

Raven decides now would be a good time to run like the wind. Running for a cave tunnel as fast as he can fear fueling his speed. Raven runs for hours in the dark weaving between tunnels and chambers not paying much attention to where he's going, when he comes to another room entering it the smell from the room knocked Raven out of his running fit stopping him dead in his tracks. Looking around the room he finds 6 stone tables in a circle stained with blood the stains leading to the center of the room where a small hole in the floor sits. Looking around the floor there seems to be symbols carved into the stone that have old blood staining them, the room stinks of death and sulfur and makes Ravens skin crawl, something truly evil was here. Looking around the room there are two tunnels coming from the room the one he came from and one that seems to go deeper underground, Raven turns to go back the way he came when he hears the bears groans in the distance, changing his mind he jogs down the other tunnel going deeper under ground.

Jogging down the newest of tunnels Raven feels lost scared hungry and hot? “What is going on why is it so damn hot!?” looking around a bend in the tunnel he sees a light down the passage way, coming to the chamber its a wide open cavern with magma free flowing below a cliff edge within the chamber. Raven peers over the edge of the cliff where the lava flows a few hundred feet down. Admiring the view and the warmth Raven sighs as his stomach rumbles, pulling out a travel ration and eating the hard tack bread, as he swallows the bread he hears something from behind him. Turning around he sees the bear staring at him just a few feet away, Raven gulps and the bear charges, Raven dodges to the side as the bear rushes by it stops at the edge of the cliff turning and biting at Raven. Biting down on his right hand Raven screams in pain drawing his sword and stabbing at the bear seems to do little to nothing, the bear shakes its head throwing Raven around hanging him over the cliff the bear glares at Raven seemingly to grin as it lets go of his hand dropping him down the cliff face, as he falls he slides face first down the rocky face. Dropping from the rocky wall he drops onto a ledge, laying there in pain he looks around finding a tunnel on the small ledge he collects himself standing and decides only way is forward is well… forward.

Pushing through the tunnel Raven comes to a large room, in the center of the room a red crystal floats pulsing with red and white light. Above the crystal there is a hole in the roof with a small drip of blood coming from the hole dripping onto the crystal, with each droplet hitting the crystal it pulses with light and the blood disappears within the crystal. The sense of pure evil radiates from the room and the smell of death chokes Ravens senses, with a shutter Raven approaches the crystal to look it over. As he gets closer the sense of dread and the over whelming need to flee almost over taking him, but with no where to go except back to the lava chamber Raven decides to suck it up and investigate. Looking the crystal over there appears to be several hand sized runes carved into the face. The crystal sits a foot above the ground and stands two times the height of Raven. Reaching out Raven places his hand on the crystal and a system notification pops up “ would you like to claim this source of power? Once claimed the source of power will be linked to your mana removing it from from the physical world and bonding it to your soul. Would you like to continue?” Raven shakes his head, “no I don’t think I will, that sounds like a horrible idea.” Retracting his hand from the crystal surface and turning to inspect the room closer there are symbols carved all over the walls in seemingly no order all having what appears to be dried blood within the grooves, Raven gets the feeling a lot of somethings have died in this room. A loud buzz coming from the hole in the roof alerts Raven as he runs for the tunnel entrance from which he came hiding while still peaking at the crystal, as expected a swarm of blood red beetles swarms from the hole in the roof surrounding the crystal, as they do the crystal glows and pulses rapidly each time it does large sections of the swarm return to their normal coloring and fly out of the cave through the hole in the roof.

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Once the swarm was fully gone Raven approaches the crystal looking it over for any changes, it appears to be more red with a new rune on the face and seems to be glowing brighter than before. Raven reaches out to the crystal once again and receives the same system message except at the end “ warning this crystal of power is nearing its max energy if it exceeds its power storage it will be violently destroyed. Once destroyed this source will release its seal weakening the jail of the fallen one. There are currently 6 of 7 seals still active, as seals fall the Fallen ones influence will expand across the land. Absorbing the Crystal will not break the seal but will weaken it till its placed once again.” Raven sighs “yeah ok you win, lets absorb the big evil god stone why not… what could possibly go wrong right? This wont blow up in my face not at all… ugh” face palming Raven selects yes. The Crystal flashes red one last time then begins to shrink, as it shrinks he can feel the doom and gloom subsiding, with a flash of green light the crystal vanishes from site with a pop. Raven looks around tense. “ What no whammy? Come on I’m not that lucky.” Shortly after the the statement the ground begins to shake and the smell of sulfur increases within the cave. “Yeah… that's more like it.” Raven says shaking his head. Walking out of the room back the way he came he looks down the cliff at the lava below the level is rising at a steady rate. Raven feels the air pressure increasing drastically and the ground begins cracking, looking up Raven doesn't see an opening above for the gas to escape, he does however spot the bear glaring at him from above. “Oh good its still here… of course it is because why not right…”

Raven retreats to the crystal room in a panic looking everywhere for some hidden door or something to save him from being melted to death. As he panic searches there is a load crack from the entrance, as he turns he sees the opening collapse sealing him in the room. The temperature quickly increasing but the air pressure seems to have normalized. Looking to the collapsed tunnel he can hear a faint sound like rocks being moved. “Oh good its the bear isn’t it…” he can hear the thing roaring and bashing away at the stone on the other side of the collapse but doesn’t appear to be making any progress how ever the temperature is continuing to increase the stones in the collapse are starting to faintly glow red. Raven decides to try casting create water on the stones to cool them off at least a little maybe it will help… it doesn’t. As soon as the water touches the stones the water turns to steam instantly filling the room with hot steam burning Ravens exposed skin, As he screams in agony the stones hit with water crack and a loud hiss can be heard from the cracks. The shaking of the ground intensifies then with a loud boom Raven feels like he's falling before there is another big explosion then the air in the room gets sucked out through the cracks making Ravens hearing ring his eyes go blurry from the heat and burns, with another boom the collapsed tunnel opens up in an explosion of rock and ash throwing Raven across the room knocking him out.

A unknown time later Raven awakens to aches and pains all over his body, looking around his surroundings he finds himself covered with a thick layer of ash and some rock debris but his vision seems to have recovered from earlier. Getting up slowly and cleaning himself off he finds the sulfur smell seems to have disappeared, looking to the tunnel he finds it still open but now day light comes from the opening. Moving to the tunnel and peaking outside he finds the cavern he was in is gone and blue sky greats him, the side of the chamber seems to have fallen in covering the lava and producing a rather rough path up and out. As Raven scrambles up the stones he finds the bear stuck in some rocks only one paw and its head protruding from the entrapment. Raven walks over chuckling and drawing his sword and ending the bears unlife with several dozen strikes. “You have killed a level three undead bear and gained fifty experience.” “You have collected a point of power and survived to tell the tale you have gained six hundred experience” “you have gained a level from Level three to level five” Opening the system he quickly adds his points to constitution as he has been knocked out far to many times and healing has become a major need.

Leaving the rubble behind Raven continues his journey to the mountains, but can’t help but feel as though he's being watched and not by something friendly. Moving along through the forest making good speed Raven can feel the weight of the last day finally leave his shoulders almost dying constantly and in a fight for his life, Raven lets out a chuckle as he walks looking to the sky and sighing. Darkness approaches so Raven sets up camp and cleaning his clothing maintaining his gear and eating what he can. As he sits in his camp he recalls the spider attack from a while back keeping on alert but maintaining a camp fire in hopes to ward off anything. During the night there are a few cracks in the woods and movement just in the corner of his eye but nothing comes within his camp to try and eat him.

The next morning Raven packs up what he has and heads for the mountains with them in site and slowly getting bigger and the grounds getting rockier he knows it should be only a day or two more walk. Picking up the pace and with the instinctual feeling that safety awaits him in the mountains Raven starts to feel relaxed sightly the feeling like everything will be ok fills his spirit. The next two days are uneventful as Raven makes his way to the closest mountain, as he gets to the base of the mountain he can see caves all over high and low the mountain looks like an ant hill with the amount of tunnels it appears to have in it. Coming to the closest tunnel Raven feels the inner pull to go within and go deep, with no where else to go Raven decides to advance into the caves going into the depths of the planet once again.

Walking into the depths of the tunnel it slowly grades down going deeper and the temperature seems perfect heat coming from down the tunnel seemingly keeping the tunnel a steady temperature, bioluminescent moss glowing green and blue grows from the walls. Walking down some tunnels for about an hour Raven comes to a small cavern glowing with blue and green light Raven spots a small body of water in a corner of the room fed by a slow trickle of water coming down the walls funneled to the pond. Next to the pond he finds the same mushrooms he spotted before in large number if edible he could live here for a while off them. Settling down for the time being and setting up camp Raven begins gearing down and getting ready for a long needed true sleep, staying near the water Raven scarfs down the last of his travel rations and meat once full Raven sets up his bed and goes to sleep for the night.

Waking from his slumber Raven stretches with a deep yawn he gets up feeling well rested but stiff from the hard surface, walking over to the mushrooms Raven shrugs and pops one in his mouth. “Well that's strange it tastes like slimy rubbery meat.” Raven says with a laugh “not the greatest tasting but it beats week old dried meat and hard bread.” Looking at the pond Raven takes a sip with a smile he drinks his fill, while cold and clean it has a mild salt taste to it. The pond seems deep enough to last and seems to have a fair amount of new water refilling it but sadly not big enough to support fish life so it looks like mushrooms are on the menu for the next while.