My sickle swung! His claws clashed! My [Health] was low and my [Stamina] waned! This was no fight I could endure. My feet had to be swift. My strikes needed to be true!
The mimic, putrid and pungent in its pool of abyssal darkness, challenged me. It fought not for a meal, but for victory. I knew not its true intentions besides the yearning it had to tear my limbs from their sockets and to taste what little flesh it could before I was transported away in death.
The sun had hidden behind the piled sands of the observatory chamber, enshrouding the dungeon in darkness once again. I was blind. Briar’s light had vanished. Torches had diminished. A scraping sickle combined with my [Firemaking] skill was my only source of light.
Like a strobe, the mimic would flash before me, and then disappear. Fortunately, the monster was loud and wounded. Its insatiable hunger for flesh and its charred body had left it creaking after each swing.
My sickle sliced against its arms, its legs, its torso, and its back. Black ichor streamed through the cracks of stone as we danced in the dungeon. The tips of the mimic’s claw grazed my skin and soaked my hands in crimson. Fury from my lost party members fueled my fervor. I cared not to gaze at my [HP] until the beast had fallen to my boots, but while we clashed, he had pulled me from them.
The demon of darkness grasped me by the throat and held me to the sky. Claws from the damned had dug into the back of my skull. This time, it had answered my pleas to finish what it started.
Last I saw before the blinding blue was the inner of its black maw and down its esophagus. An unusual arcane red light shimmered from inside the mimic’s belly, one of crimson energy cast by a stoic spellcaster. I felt the sharp pain of its jagged teeth pierce my torso, and then the most energy I’ve ever felt since before I was summoned here.
It felt like time had slowed in my final moments. Blue shards of diamond dust floated in the black cosmos of the mimic’s mouth. I thought I was chomped, chewed, swallowed, and began the transportation process. Instead, it felt like I was pulled from its maw, like I was regurgitated and unwanted. Do I really taste this bad? I thought.
Thrown to the stone like a rotten apple, I saw the azure glitter of shimmering diamonds covering the beast's mouth. While it wailed a torpid tantrum, I looked down and saw my amulet had hollowed. The diamond had shattered and what remained was a copper shell on my neck.
Upon my realization that the amulet had saved my life, it had also slowed time and produced [System] notifications.
[Amulet of Protection: Used!]
[Health Restored!]
[Stamina Restored!]
I rose from the ground and marched to the mimic like I waded through knee-deep mud in the slowed-down time. The glitter dimmed and time regained as I pounced upon the monstrosity.
The mimic writhed and stumbled as I gripped the back of its hinged head. My sickle hooked into its mouth and caught its tongue, dissecting it into a fork while it grasped for me. Claws shredded my back while it tried to tumble me forward. But I held on and rode the beast like a colossus. In its final moments, I scraped my sickle against its teeth; embers flashed down its throat while the beast tried throwing me off. But I lodged my sickle deep into its flesh.
Momentum from the mimic’s throw allowed me to slide down its torso. Crimson light poured from inside the mimic and crawled along the creature’s body. The rotten and charred skin turned a vibrant, wrathful red. Taro’s missile had reawakened and seared the beast once again. It must have been able to brace the pain with its contorting, shapeshifting powers, but not when my sickle had pried its wound open.
The monster howled a final deafening cry that rang my ears and vibrated my head. With two hands, I forced my dull blade down its belly. Golden jewels, silver coins, ruby rings, and a fur-beast’s leg spilled from its stomachs onto the dungeon floor.
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I sprinted to Gadaan. Pools of blood stained his trousers and stuck to his wound. He was unconscious and cold, but faint breaths came from his snout. I tied off and wrapped his wound as much as I could. The bone of the beast’s leg was jagged. Strings of flesh and his empty pant leg fell limp as I tried to carry him.
He winced and moaned. And in a quiet voice, he growled in my ear, “Don’t leave here empty-handed. Get something for you and Briar, won’t you?”
“Gadaan, Briar’s not—”
The beast gripped my shirt, “I’m not leaving until we made our fortune, plainskin!”
There were more important things at stake, but I didn’t want to test the beast… even if he was fading in and out of consciousness. I scooped handfuls of ichor-stained loot into my pockets and Gadaan’s bag before searching for the exit. I pondered the idea of holding onto his severed leg in hopes of magic that could reattach it, but the thought of traveling through the desert with the rotting limb made me sick to my stomach.
With the bag of treasure on my back and Gadaan in my arms, I stumbled through the dungeon in hopes of an exit. I shuffled along the walls in the dark in fear of traps or bottomless pits. Eventually, I ran into a grouping of pillars and the faintest beam of light that came from the ceiling.
More glass? I thought. I walked beneath it, and to my surprise, stone steps were chiseled to reach the bright heavens. But a trapdoor awaited me. With my shoulders and thick orcish skull, I propped open the door buried by the sands of this ancient world.
The sun was as beautiful as an enchanted fire opal that sparkled in the purple skies above. Dusk was calling and the temperature was dropping. I looked around the desert dunes with my blinded eyes and saw Gadaan’s wagon and four horses standing idle in the shadow of a cliff. I was joyous to see the team still alive—not dead from thirst or plucked by vultures like I expected. I knew not how long we stayed in the dungeon, but Gadaan’s hearty horses made due with the sparse shrubs and dry grass.
I placed Gadaan and his treasures in the back of the wagon. It was still full of crates of trinkets and silk that would slow us down on the journey to Hubloc. The fur-beast awoke in a panic after the first thud of the crates fell to the sands. He muttered something incoherent until smacking his lips and laying his head back.
“I’m parched, pup. How long has it been since we had a proper drink? You’d be kind enough to fetch me one of the fancy bottles, won’t you?”
“Bottles? Where?” I asked, hoping to see extra rations that we could use on the journey.
“Under the… seat,” he mumbled, before falling back unconscious.
I climbed the driver’s steps, and sure enough, a latched crate full of parchments and booze rattled when I pulled it out. My eyes drew to the maps and names of what I could assume were other dungeons in faraway lands, but my hand settled on a corked vibrant red bottle.
“Booze will only make you bleed out faster, old dog,” I muttered. I sniffed the insides of it, expecting it to be sour like a wine, but my nose detected no trace of alcohol. My own throat was dry enough from the dust of the dungeon and I took a small swig. It tasted fantastic. Like cherries and vanilla beans produced a child of divine birth. The liquid ran smooth down my gullet but my skin began to burn.
My thoughts raced to allergies and an accidental death, but I looked over my body. What once were my open wounds seared as if they were cauterized by hot iron. The thin streams of blood that flowed, halted, and my [Health] rose to full again. Don’t tell me they have fucking potions in this world too, I thought.
I wasn’t trained in the art of healing another or the ways of medicine, but cramming the entire health potion into the mouth of the beast was probably the correct solution. He gagged, coughed, and awoke in a wide-eyed frenzy. Red liquid dripped from his furry chin while he gripped his healing leg. Gadaan gritted his fangs in a high-pitched yelp and snatched my arm, digging his claws into me until he fell limp.
“I’m sorry,” I said with watering eyes. I knew now he would survive, but I was afraid that he wished he didn’t the next time he woke up. I hopped onto the driver’s seat, opened my [Map] to tell where south was, and gripped the reins of the horses.
Red sands parted beneath the wagon wheels while the final rays of the day shone their last. A cold breeze drifted from the sparkling dunes, and notifications covered my eyes.
Attributes Leveled-Up!
[Strength] — LVL 2 -> LVL 3
[Endurance] — LVL 1 -> LVL 2
Skill Leveled-Up!
{Firemaking] — LVL 3 -> LVL 4
[Butchering] — LVL 2 -> LVL 3
Skills Discovered!
[Alchemy] Acquired!
[Animal Handling] Acquired!
[PARTY MEMBER DISBANDED]