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Lea, Nick and Avan were standing at the edge of the clearing and had just discussed the past situation, and Avan let out an audible sigh as he thought about the two deaths and how emotionally cold he had felt doing it.
Since waking up in this world on so much had changed in his life physically and mentally that he barely recognized himself. He was still a kind and good-hearted person, but through all the suffering, the death by his hands or others, and the loss and torture of his person, his soul had become cracked and scarred. Scars that would heal through friends, but would take time. Time, which he did not have right now and it was once again necessary for survival and nefarious behavior.
Behavior which had been necessary again this time. And even if Avan had always liked to see himself on earth as a kind of sniper or assassin in his dreams, it was something else to experience with his own eyes and hands how easy it was to knock out the light of another thinking creature. With a snap of the finger, the person was just alive and then dead, the light of life simply snapped on.
All these thoughts jumped around in Avan's head, and even though he seemed calm on the outside and had learned to act that way more and more during the weeks on Aorus, there was still a certain turmoil inside him. He could not look at his soul and the core of his inner being at the moment, but he was very sure that there had been some cracks that he would definitely have to heal after his time as a slave.
Lea and Nick, meanwhile, while Avan stared up at the sky, discussed the next steps and the possible location of the portal.
Avan shook his head gently and concentrated again on the here and now.
I can't change anything about the past anyway. So let's focus on the here and now, and what's to come.
With these final thoughts about his inner turmoil, he pushed all further thoughts about it aside and put them in one of his many inner drawers to deal with them again another time.
"So, I would say we run in larger and larger circles, starting from here in the middle, and expand the radius more and more, to do a search for the portal." Came straight from Nick. "So sometimes when we were only a few soldiers, we would search areas as well."
"Hmmm, not a bad thought. But that takes time. Do we have that much time? We won't be short of dried food and water for the next few days, but we still don't know how long we'll have to spend in the dungeon, and we should get to the higher levels as soon as possible. Isn't there any clue we can use instead of starting our search from scratch?" Lea asked back, looking thoughtfully at Nick and then letting her gaze wander to Avan, who was chewing on his lower lip and musing as well.
"I... think I might have some kind of clue. At least I noticed something when I had a clear field of vision over the mushroom forest. When we set out in this direction here, there was a strangely shaped hill a little ways to the right." Avan reflected aloud, and the other two looked at him. "And the strange thing is, that was the only landmark for miles around. No large clearings, no lakes, no mountains or other hills. Nothing. Just this strange smaller mountain. And why I call it strange is also simple.... It looked more like a big pile of boulders, and not in one piece. Or more like it was cobbled together. Artificial. Not quite natural."
The trio pondered the information and unanimously decided to start looking at this mound first and then see if they could consider Nick's approach after all.
So the three marched off, Avan back in the treetops or rather above them, and Lea together with Nick down on the forest floor.
Fifteen minutes of hopping and weaving through the forest later, and a short rest in between to drink and eat some of the dried food, all three were standing in front of a really odd-looking hill that Avan had seen from a distance.
"Hmm, what's that?" Avan muttered as he landed on the ground next to the other two, who were also pensive, all looking at the structure in front of them.
"That looks... more like a piece of oversized rope that a giant dropped here..." came from Lea, who, with her head tilted, eyed the thing in front of them critically.
"Yep, definitely doesn't look natural." Avan added to the silent observation.
In front of them was a mound that looked a bit like someone had stacked an odd piece of rope in one spot. Or like a snake...
As Avan had just formed the thought, he suddenly held his breath as it dawned on him and he stared wide-eyed at the hill. "Damn it! Guys, that's not a hill! It's a freaking snake, for crying out loud!"
His two friends gasped and took a few steps back as well, realizing how right Avan had hit the nail on the head with his statement.
Just as they took a few steps back, the hill shook and began to move.
Behind the mound, something large suddenly emerged and two yellow slit-like eyes stared at the group, and as soon as the entire head of the cobra was visible, a cloud of white vapor puffed out of the side of the mouth, just to the right and left of the poison fangs.
The group was frozen, and even Avan didn't dare turn his back on the creature when he saw its sheer size now completely in front of him. He knew that running away was fruitless and that the snake would lunge forward in a single bound and eat them if that was its intention.
The head of the giant cobra, which now towered over ten meters above them, came closer and closer, and it puffed out more clouds of steam as it leisurely let its yellow eyes roam over the three of them.
"Well, look at you... Did I see it right? New guests." Came a hissing but not aggressive voice as the snake opened its mouth to speak in surprise.
Leah, Nick and Avan looked at each other in surprise, and all three instinctively bowed to the giant creature, well aware that politeness would be more useful than having to fight such a monster mana-less.
"Oho, and polite too, it seems. In fact, most of the other guests in the dungeon just attack, like the mindless monkeys they often are. Paints me as pleasantly surprised."
Stolen novel; please report.
Avan took a slow and careful step forward. "Hmm, yes. I can guess why... But it would be pointless to fight, and running certainly wouldn't do much good either, would it?" He explained with irony in his voice. "So the only thing left is polite conversation. And the immediate question that plagues us; can you help us find the portal to the next level?"
The snake suddenly chuckled and a forked tongue twitched briefly as it giggled. "Ahahaha, it's been a long time since anyone was polite and direct with me! Oh, how refreshing. Interesting!"
"Mhmm, hmmm. Yes, in fact you have already passed my first test with that. Congratulations! Come closer and we can talk about it better." Hissed the cobra and pulled back with her head and unwrapped her long dark gray body, showing for the first time what was visible underneath.
The snake had wrapped itself around a stone table and with a gesture of its tail end pointed directly at this stone table with the stone chairs that the three should sit down.
Nick, Lea and Avan looked at each other silently for a moment and shrugged their shoulders in surrender, and wandered over to the stone table with its five stone chairs to sit down as they were told.
As soon as the three of them sat down, the cobra's head lowered again and looked at the three of them insistently from the other side of the stone table. Nothing happened for a few seconds, until the snake blinked once and giggled again.
"Well, well... Normally, I would give you a mixture of riddles in a certain order, and ask some questions which would have to be answered truthfully. But..." The cobra explained and looked up wistfully, a sad expression briefly flitting across the snake's face, even though the three humans didn't know for sure if they had interpreted the emotion correctly.
A hissing deep sigh and more clouds of steam escaped the snake's mouth as it turned its gaze back to the three in front of it. "However, I don't have the time or the inclination in the current situation.... I will tell you something instead, and then ask a single question. On the basis of your answer I will weigh whether you are worth it... or die."
Lea and Nick now had visible sweat on their foreheads and looked at each other in surprise, while Avan simply tilted his head and stared thoughtfully but calmly at the cobra. And then sighed and shrugged his shoulders, which was met with a puzzled look from his two friends. "I think that won't be a problem." He explained confidently, and now even the cobra looked mildly surprised at the little human, who seemed so confident and unafraid.
"Interesting... I actually don't perceive any fear in you. Curious..." The snake hissed before continuing.
"But well... It's a rather short tale. A few years ago, some strange smelling people invaded this dungeon and were able to get to the dungeon core effortlessly without any problems and with a very strange kind of magic and mana. What they did there, or how they did it, I don't know, because I can't see more than my own level. But when they came back out, something had changed. They had left something behind, or planted something. Something had changed in the dungeon, and I could no longer establish a telepathic connection with the dungeon core.... You have to know, this dungeon is very old and had developed a kind of consciousness over time. Sentient, not sapient. Still enough to grow beyond the mechanical commands of a normal dungeon. It allowed us dungeon creatures to communicate with our creator, the dungeon core. But when those little people left, suddenly everything was closed off. That was the first sign. And over the years it got worse. The other guardians and creatures with consciousness on the higher levels, closer to the core, I gradually could not reach either, until one day my twin on the floor above me came to me and told me something disturbing, just before I lost the connection to him as well..."
The group looked spellbound at the cobra, and Avan had a vague idea of what it would all come down to, as he made the connections with the help of the knowledge from the dungeon of akkalon.
"He had told me just before the telepathic disconnection that the monsters and even the entire planes were distorting and spreading a kind of corruption. Something twisted had nested in the dungeon core, or rather was most likely planted there. It had all started when the little humans reached the dungeon core. A kind of dark purple corruption gradually spread out from the highest level, infecting all life, level by level, creature by creature. I myself am the last level and creature that has not yet come into contact with it, but the purple light above us is the first sign of it. Less than two weeks ago it was still orange, and had slowly changed into an oppressive purple light, when the first purple veins appeared in the sky."
The three people in front of the cobra held their breath, anticipating what was to come.
"And that leaves me with no other choice.... I need your help. I would send you to the highest level, directly to the dungeon core. If you are willing to help. If not, then everything is lost for me anyway, and I can also devour you directly and give free rein to corruption, because then I am also no more..." whispered the snake regretfully at the end, and then looked at the three people sitting at the stone table one after the other.
"Sure we accept." Came abruptly the statement of Avan, and not only the huge cobra blinked several times in surprise, but also his two friends stared at him like a madman.
"What-are you crazy? What are we supposed to be able to do Avan!" Came an abrupt burst from Lea, who stared at him in disbelief. "Are you a madman?"
Nick also stared at him in amazement, but then shook his head in disbelief and giggled, which ended in a loud laugh, and all heads abruptly turned to him. "Ahahaha, I knew it. There's something different about you-Avan! Okay, I'm in. The other choice would be to fight this thing and probably die anyway." Nick continued to chuckle, and then looked up apologetically at the cobra. "Sorry for the choice of words." He grinned, then looked back at Avan.
Lea just stared open-mouthed at Nick as if she wanted to catch flying, while the cobra continued to blink and didn't quite seem to make sense. "Huh." Was the only thing the snake could think of to say, until an eerie grin formed on its face.
"Hah! Good answer. I'll accept it that way, then. Come on, there's not much time left anyway, and in a few days at the latest, I'll be just as mindless as all the other creatures. So now it's up to you. If we should ever meet again, I promise you one thing; no matter what it is, I owe you something big if you should manage to stop this... thing!"
Without waiting for further comments, and ignoring the gasping Lea, the mouth of the snake in front of them surprisingly opened extremely wide. As wide as only snakes with their flexible jaws were able to swallow huge prey with one swallow.
Directly behind the tongue, which lay rolled out on the floor in front of them like a red carpet, an ominous purple and almost black portal wafted, which emitted a kind of mist of the same color.
Avan had already made his own picture with the help of the information he had been told by the founder of the Order of Akkalon and suspected this dark organization, with its Blights Hands, as the cause of this corruption. The same thing that the bookworm had told about these corrupt and twisted monsters was apparently happening here. And that he, of all people, now landed here seemed to him more than just a big coincidence.
He walked around the stone table without comment and stepped in front of the open mouth of the cobra, while he turned to his two comrades with a calm look.
"Please survive." He whispered audibly and loud enough for the others to hear, causing them to look up in surprise.
Before his two friends could say anything back and before they could stop him, Avan marched into the portal and spoke one last time before disappearing. "Snake, please close the portal after me." And disappeared into the billowing darkness of the portal, leaving behind two gawking friends who showed a wide variety of emotions from bewilderment to rage on their faces in a split second, and the cobra closed its mouth again.
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