Zalia fumbled around with her bag for a moment before finding the small lighter that she kept. Flicking it on, she could see that the crack above her had been filled in with snow and debris. In front of her, the entrance had been completely blocked, only the head of the creature sticking out of the snow.
Zalia moved up to the creature, looking at it through the flickering light of the lighter. As she pushed through the crack towards it the things eyes opened, staring at her.
"Well damn, you're still alive," she said.
The creature tried to get up but failed under the weight of all the snow and debris atop it. The creature let out a sound akin to a whimper, still looking at her.
"Don't worry buddy, I'll put you out of your misery," she murmured, looking sympathetically at it.
She got out her knife and leaning down, activated her kill shot and hunter's mark abilities before slamming the knife into the creature's eye.
Congratulations! You have killed ? - Silver rank. You have received extra experience for killing a creature three ranks above your own.
Congratulations! Kill shot has gained six levels reaching Tin 7.
Congratulations! Hunter's mark has gained four levels reaching Tin 5.
Congratulations! Escape has gained two levels reaching Tin 3.
Congratulations! Hunter's Sight has reached Tin 3.
Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have reached Tin 2.
Congratulations! Hunter class has reached Tin 2. Your Strength and Dexterity have increased.
Zalia could feel the increase in her strength and dexterity. It was a minor thing, she wasn't going to go around lifting mountains but being enough for her to feel meant it was at least an improvement.
"Speaking of mountains," she said, "I just happen to be trapped under one."
"What the hell am I going to do now," she thought, "killing that thing increased my levels by a lot but that isn't going to help me down here."
"Damn, bringing that deer with me was a stupid ass idea. Especially after this thing tracked me because of it once already," she thought to herself.
It was a stupid decision yet she had needed the meat that deer would have provided. Now she was stuck under a damn mountain and eating was no longer her biggest problem.
"Guess I'll have to see if it goes deeper," she said out loud.
Zalia ripped a small piece of wood out from the snow and debris blocking the entrance and used her hand axe to cut it down to a rough torch shape. Pulling up her snow jacket and thick undercoat, she cut a small section off of her thermal shirt underneath. She then cut some of the razor-like fur from the top of the bear creature's head. Using the section of cloth she bound the fur to the top of the piece of wood and lit it up. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do since it would eat up her air and create smoke but without light she wouldn't be able to find escape and would die here anyways. The smell from the burning fur was horrendous but she soldiered on and pushed her way further into the cave.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
For twenty minutes Zalia pushed through the tight tunnel before it widened up enough for her to walk properly. Some sections she had to almost crawl sideways through they were so tight. Ignoring the panic and fear within herself she pushed on. The fur had been enough of a starter to light the actual wood which now burned with a low light. As she kept on, a notification popped up.
Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill 'Low light vision'.
Low light vision - passive
Tin - You see better in low light areas.
Zalia's vision suddenly got better, being able to see a few more metres clearly in the dark.
"Well isn't that just fancy," she muttered.
As she travelled further into the cave, Zalia noticed that it was getting much warmer. Significantly so, much more than it should have just from being out of the winds. She stopped for a moment to take off her snow jacket and carefully fold it before mashing it into her backpack. She still had on her undercoat, a thick, black long-sleeve top and a thermal shirt under that.
After another ten or so minutes, Zalia had to drop the stub that remained of the torch lest she burn herself on it. As she ground down the remains of the torch with her boots, she noticed a faint glow of light coming from the tunnel ahead. Moving slowly, she approached the light to find another tunnel, this one wider, intersecting her own. Peeking around the corner to where the source of light was, she saw a small round room with sparse stone furnishings, some covered with various hides. What drew her attention the most, however, was the centre of the room in which three humanoid figures sat facing away from her on rough-hewn stone stumps. Above them floated small streams of lava as if by magic.
Zalia quickly drew back into the darkness, un-slinging the bow from her back and stringing it. Nocking an arrow, she decided to figure out if the creatures were aggressive or not before she attacked. She stepped out of her side tunnel, prepared to draw the bow,
"Hey!" She called out.
The three humanoids burst into motion, standing up and spinning around before freezing at the sight of her weapon.
? - Iron rank
? - Tin rank
? - Tin rank
Now that Zalia could see them more clearly, she could identify that while humanoid they were definitely not human. Standing at about one point two metres tall they had sharp, angular faces, pointy teeth, disproportionally large eyes and were quite lanky. They wore hide clothes with hoods, almost like a hooded poncho.
The creatures started chattering in some sort of communication, the language including many varieties of clicks. Just as Zalia was about to speak again, the centre creature's eyes started glowing a deep red as the lava streams floating around the room formed into a dozen or so small spheres. As this happened she pulled the drawstring back, holding the bow at full draw.
“STOP, NO VIOLENCE, NO VIOLENCE,” a screeching voice called from behind her.
The voice was odd, the pronunciation seeming off to her. It did however accomplish its goal, which was to give pause to both her and the other three creatures.
Zalia saw as another creature similar to the three in front of her ran out from the tunnel's other direction to stand between the two groups.
? - Bronze rank
It said something to the three in their language before turning back to her,
“No, no no no no. No violence here. Yes, no violence,” it said, nodding along, quite thoroughly out of breath.
“If you want no violence, tell them to put down the freaky lava magic orbs,” Zalia said, nodding towards the three.
The mediator turned to the other group, speaking before the centre one released its magic. The orbs turned back into flowing streams, a still quite terrifying sight. As the orbs slowly returned to this state, Zalia slowly released the tension on the bowstring but left the arrow nocked,
“So I've got a question,” said Zalia, “where the hell am I?”