We halted and waited in silence, hoping they would pass without incident. But after awhile their voices became audible—even I could tell they were getting closer. I just kept thinking: not again. Please, not again….

“Is there another way to town?” Cuby whispered to Kontor.

But the dwarf shook his head. “Not without passing through the upper caverns.”

“And that’s bad?”

“Too many worms,” he said. “I doubt we’d make it even if they weren’t being corrupted into demons.”

“Not good.”

Suddenly a man’s voice echoed through the cave ahead of us. “Is someone ahead up there?”

When none of us answered, he added: “We mean you no harm. My friends and I are down here helping to take care of the infestation. The lift is working now, if you care to just pass us by.”

After a moment, Kontor called out: “It was broken?”

“Yes. It had been overtaken by some kind of more intelligent fiend, but one of the chosen took it back.”

“Haroshi,” Cuby muttered.

“I can’t blame you if you feel we’re untrustworthy,” said the voice. “We came across some bodies outside, near the cave-mouth. There are player-killers about, but I promise we mean you no harm.”

We exchanged glances, then Cuby shrugged. “We’re coming closer!” she shouted.

“All right.”

A few more turns of the cave and we could see the man attached to the voice. He was a wolf-folk with gray-black hair, along with two companions: a dwarf woman and a stocky black bear—a shifter?

Borogar - Level 3

Haesh - Level 3

Nyon - Level 2

I relaxed a little when we saw their levels—we’d be threatening enough to scare them off even if they were just trying to trick us, which I doubted.

“We were attacked by other players in what looked like a loading bay of some kind,” said Cuby. “We ran, but they chased us deeper into the mines, where we sprung a trap. Their bodies are back there still.”

Borogar—the wolf-folk—shook his head in apparent regret. “No-one has attacked us yet,” he said. “But we found six dead stuffed into a thick bush outside—someone tried to hide them.”

“What were their injuries like?” Cuby asked.

“Crushed skulls and burnt-out eyes,” said Borogar.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“A pilgrim with a hammer, maybe,” Cuby said. “Or a fighter and a priest. We fought a tombworm back there, too—you may want to watch out. They have a bodyslam that’s lethal if you get stuck under it—almost killed me.”

“I see,” said Borogar. He asked a few more questions about the worm, but it was clear that both our groups wanted to move on. We said our curt goodbyes, wished them luck, and proceeded into the cave.

“Haroshi was probably a pilgrim, like I guessed,” said Cuby when the others were out of earshot. “Remember what I told you? I said he’d killed people to level fast after getting to the mines.”

“Yeah,” I said quietly.

Cuby sighed. “This isn’t good. Why couldn’t we spawn in an area without any of the chosen? They’re too much to worry about—goodness, they’re one in a few thousand and he’s the second person I meet.”

We kept going, though my mind still hadn’t left the chamber with the three bodies in it. It must have still been obvious that my mind was elsewhere, because Kontor and Cuby kept casting me sidelong glances, and when we came to a chamber with a few more level 3 Weblings, they each asked if I would be okay to kill them for experience.

“I’m fine,” I said. A part of me was thankful for such an easy, uncomplicated enemy. The weblings were still too stupid to fight past the illusion, and we dispatched them without their breaking Cuby’s Mana Shield.

We found more rooms and more weblings—it was obvious that nobody had been the way that Kontor was leading us. It was strange: we killed a few dozen of them, and then I looked down at my experience bar to find that it was almost full. We’d almost reached level 5. Cuby hadn’t been lying when she said that people gave a lot of experience.

Then, as we made our way through the passages, Kontor let out a sigh and said: “Finally!”

The cave broadened ahead of us, becoming a smooth, square corridor of cut stone. Brackets along the walls held glow stones like the ones in my inventory, though these were polished, brighter.

“There are normally more people around,” said Kontor as he lead us through the corridor. “But with the initialization, I’m sure all of the day workers have been withdrawn—looks like guards up ahead.”

Two armored dwarves stood at the end of the corridor, each level 4. One of them squinted as we approached.

“Kontor?” he asked.

“Aye,” said Kontor. “I was captured on my morning gather—and rescued by these two, here.”

The guard nodded. “There’s a quite a few that went missing, though it’s good to see another one back. It goes without saying, but you can expect the town to be in a commotion when you get up.”

“Naturally,” said Kontor.

“Hard to believe it’s finally here—initialization, I mean.”

“Heh,” said Kontor. “I felt that way at first, but I think I got used to it somewhere in the caves. Take care, then.”

They clasped hands as a farewell gesture, and Kontor led us out into a massive chamber. Ahead of us was a huge wooden platform attached to many massive chains that were set into grooves along the wall. The space above us was empty darkness—there was no ceiling in sight.

Kontor led us past this huge lift and to a smaller one that was set into the far wall. We boarded it, then he threw a small lever and we were moving upward—soon, by the light of the glowstones, we could see corridors and windows set into the sides of the shaft, evidence of an underground dwelling. Then, as the lift slowed and rose over the lip of the uppermost floor, a bright wash of light made me shield my eyes.

For a moment I wondered what it was—but then I realized that we’d been underground so long that my eyes had adjusted to the dark. It was sunlight—not even direct sunlight, at that. It was coming in from a cavernous opening in the side of the lift chamber that led out into what looked like the town proper.

Another guard spoke with Kontor for a moment, then they clasped hands and Kontor directed us toward the open air. “Took us long enough,” he said with a grumble. “But welcome to Oromar’s Bastion.”

A message from the system appeared in my field of vision:

Quest Objective Completed - Find a Safe Zone

You Receive 200 Experience Points.

Reward: You receive 200 gold.