You have found a safe room! No monsters may enter the safe room, and no traps have been set within it. The safe room may contain beneficial effects to help you recover.
This is a permanent safe room. It will not disappear, and there is no time limit for staying within it.
While I’d already seen the notification days before, for Cal and Verin, it was a first. Having carefully led them through the paths I’d pre-cleared, the three of us managed to arrive without incident. I’d been half afraid that their presence would trigger some extra fights along the way, but it seemed the labyrinth was not quite so cruel, at least when smug rats and forsaken seers weren’t involved.
As we entered the space where I hoped to set up camp for the foreseeable future, I heard both the others react in their own ways, Cal running ahead with a laugh as Verin released a muted gasp. Both were understandable given the view.
Large enough to house our prairie cabin thrice over, the safe room was carpeted with soft black grass and sported a singular large tree at its center. With gray bark and blackened leaves, it left me feeling like I’d gone color blind. A few ponds lay off to the side, their dark waters having momentarily sent me into fight or flight after my battle until I’d read the safe room notification.
It was undeniably a strange scene, close to what I imagined a dryad’s grove would look like if they had severe clinical depression. Or perhaps that wasn’t entirely fair — for all the muted grays and blacks, the space did have a certain comforting calm to it. Idly, I wondered if a space like this would help Hartha with any of her Dark Heart of the Forest quests.
“I’m tired of being covered in sand,” Cal exclaimed. “This pond is going to be the bath pond.” Thus said, she jumped directly into the largest of the bodies of water, clothes and all. She dunked her head under, coming back up with a shout. “Guys! It’s magic water! Love this place already.”
If somewhat less eager to immediately plunge into the unfamiliar waters, Verin approached one of the other ponds, cupping some of the water in her hands and cautiously taking a sip. She seemed pleasantly surprised by the result, though I wasn’t certain if that was from the taste or the effect. Preferring the slightly minerally taste of the water to my standard conjured water, I followed suit, quenching my thirst.
You have drank from a soothing darkness pond.
Your body feels more relaxed.
+5 Wisdom
+5 Endurance
+5 Constitution
Decreases the duration of all Blind and Perception-altering effects.
Duration: 10 minutes
Especially with all the Perception debuffs I’d been afflicted with, I’d taken a long soak after my fight. It was a lucky break, too, as without having done so, some of the nastier spells the seer had cast on me would still be active.
Having dived back into the inky waters, Cal surfaced once more, this time even more excited than before. “Look! A fish!” She raised her arms to display her catch, the slippery creature trying in vain to escape her grip. “Is it a holiday or something? This beats the sand dune by a league.”
Beside me, Verin stiffened. I wondered if she was squeamish at the sight of the live fish, but that didn’t match at all with the image I had of her. She opened her mouth as if to answer my unspoken question, but uncharacteristically indecisive, she froze, leaving her mouth hanging open. It was the clearest example I’d seen of her Etiquette becoming less effective, as she wasn’t looking very noble at all in that moment.
Cal didn’t seem to notice her predicament, leaving me to snap Verin out of her strange state.
“Verin? Is something wrong?” Perfect execution. I was surprised to not receive a level to any of my social skills.
Seeming to come to her senses, Verin hastily shut her mouth before coming to some sort of conclusion. With a nod, she straightened herself up.
“Apologies. I did not wish to keep anything from either of you, but I had little desire to announce this when there was so little we could do in response. I thought it might be… depressing, so to speak. With the circumstances altered, however, I feel obligated to inform you.” Verin gazed about the room, taking in the serene environment with the hint of a smile. “Today appears to be my birthday.”
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With Verin’s announcement, our day plans shifted dramatically. Gone was any idea of my exploring more today, as we instead did our very best to give her a birthday to remember.
Not that we had much, of course. Compared to what the noble must have been used to, there was no denying we would fall short. In fact, even relative to my or Alara’s birthdays, it would necessarily be a simple affair. If this bothered Verin in any way, she made no mention of it.
Naturally, the first order of business was the food. I lamented that I hadn’t had more time to prepare or I would have tried to find more varied ingredients. On the flip side, I would remember this next time Verin tried to rib me for the time I’d sprung my birthday on her last minute.
In terms of ingredients, though, the room itself was rather helpful. In addition to the aforementioned fish, the water was full of different plants, including some Dark Pondweed. Despite living in freshwater, it was a shockingly good stand-in for seaweed.
A few herbs grew around the base of the tree as well, but the real winner was higher up. Blending in with the leaves, a handful of dark fruits hung from the branches. While they looked just like plums, their taste put them much closer to the orange family, if a bit tarter.
You have consumed a Soothing Dusk Fruit.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Slightly increases the leveling speed of dark spells.
Aids in recovery from mana core injuries.
Provides a small boost to mana manipulation skills.
Duration: 20 minutes
I hoped to never need to recover from a “mana core injury,” which was frankly not something I’d known could exist, but the other effects were a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t confident I’d be able to grow an entire tree back in my garden, but I would stash away a few fruits for their seeds in any case.
That wasn’t the only thing the tree had to offer us, either. Not wanting to run too low on firewood if I could help it, I supplied today’s kindling from its branches, enough casts of Dry allowing me to use them as proper firewood. When they finally caught fire, they burned with a gray and purple flame and subtle jasmine scent.
Fire and ingredients taken care of, I settled on two main dishes.
First, a soup. The pondweed opened some interesting options there, and after boiling it with some scorpion carapace, I had a faux crab dashi broth. It actually turned out better than I expected, and I decided to serve it as a side, without adding in anything else that would muddy the flavor profile. I stored it all away, keeping it warm as I worked on the rest of the food.
Fish-wise, I decided to do a marinade. While that was normally something I’d have prepared beforehand, fish were easy when it came to marination, only taking half an hour to soak up the flavors properly. I made and chilled another batch of dashi, mixing it with some dusk-fruit juice and a bunch of herbs, tasting the marinate as I went.
Though exceptionally rare, I found my mind returning to my childhood, something which felt more possible since Trauma Suppression had failed. There’d been a solid year where my mother had cooked almost nothing but tilapia, marinating it in an orange-soy-garlic mixture. If not quite the same flavors, what I was doing was similar enough to bring me back.
With how numb I often felt these days, I was surprised to feel a twinge of pain at the memory. It threatened to bring a host of difficult questions along with it, all of which I’d managed to avoid thinking too hard about for the past year.
Decidedly not birthday thoughts. I distracted myself by asking Verin to make me a flat-bottomed ice bowl to keep the fish cold as it marinated. Not trusting myself to pull off an evenly-cooked whole fish, I did my best to scale and filet it. Not a coastal city, Sylum hadn’t been the best for teaching me how to handle seafood, but I’d been getting better after preparing the other fish I’d found in the labyrinth.
For some variety, I sliced and roasted some dusk fruit with a bunch of edible plants I’d stumbled upon over the months, resulting in a passable side of wilted greens. There was a lot of thumb twiddling involved as I waited for the fish to marinate, but half an hour later, I had a few decently flaky, pan-fried fish filets.
Cooking has reached level 15!
As I plated everything, I realized it was possibly the first meal I’d made that I wouldn’t have been embarrassed to serve back home. Sure, the salt and oil problem persisted, but for once, it even looked pretty good, a far cry from the hodgepodge stews and bland skewers I’d been making thus far.
The others seem to agree as well. The entire time, Cal had been pestering Verin, getting her to recount past birthdays and trying to figure out if there were any customs we needed to observe to celebrate properly. As the smells of the finished meals began to fill the safe room, though, both of them came over unbidden, making all sorts of appreciative noises.
As we all sat to eat, I said the only thing that came to mind: “Happy birthday, Verin.”
She nodded, examining all the food as she seemed to collect herself. Rather than dig in immediately, she addressed the two of us.
“Thank you, Lady Tess. And truly, you have outdone yourself here. I did not expect to be receiving such fare at any point during our stay here, let alone today. Concerning the birthday itself…” As if her mouth had grown too dry to continue, Verin took a brief sip from her water cup.
“In many ways, I find myself in nonideal circumstances this year. However, looking back, I have often found my past birthdays to have been rather stiff affairs. For a multitude of reasons, it has been a… struggle to make genuine connections in Sylum.” Averting her eyes from ours, she grew quieter as she continued. “I suspect this birthday will be far more memorable, if only for the good company.” With a mischievous glint in her eyes, Verin tilted her chin towards Cal. “And I suppose for the ‘okay’ company as well.”
Caught off guard, Cal squawked out a protest, the shock on her face transforming into mirth as all three of us laughed as one. In retaliation, she made a poor attempt to steal some fish from Verin’s plate, but after frost began to creep along her fingers, she quickly relented.
We idly chatted for a time, with me doing my best to chime in for Verin’s sake. Once the sober part of the festivities were finished, however, it was naturally time to pull out the moonshine. Feeling that Verin deserved something better than the harsh booze, I tried to make some shooters by mixing it with dusk fruit juice.
Unfortunately, it was nasty. We drank it anyway.
A few games of cards later, we were toasty enough that Cal even managed to convince us to dance. Verin, as to be expected, was more than a bit skilled here, though her moves were much more suited to Sylum’s ballrooms than they were to its dance halls.
Thankfully, I managed to rebuff Cal’s attempts to then switch to karaoke, as my voice would have no doubt ruined whatever good memories Verin would have of the night.
With little else to keep us occupied, the festivities soon tapered down. For all that the night hadn’t been bad, I promised myself that when we escaped the dungeon, we would take her out for a redo.
Or if we’re still here in a year, I’ll just need to make sure that her next birthday is even better.
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In broad strokes, the next weeks continued much as the last few had, save for our new base of operations.
Admittedly, there were a few differences. Emboldened by my earlier success while cooking, I decided to spend more time experimenting with the labyrinth’s herbs. A few of my attempts failed completely, and others went in the exact opposite direction I’d been going for, creating blinding potions. By the end of the first week, though, I could reliably brew darkvision tonics and blindness curatives.
With the potions to help them along, Cal and Verin spent less time cooped up, too. I made sure to go with them the first few times, and I pushed them to only explore paths I’d had a chance to scout beforehand.
Even so, it was probably an unnecessary risk, but it was one they wanted to take. There was no telling what else the dungeon would hold, and if they hid themselves away whenever something didn’t perfectly suit their skillset, they would never get the levels, skills, or experience they needed to survive when push came to shove. I didn’t particularly like it, but I wasn’t their mother, and I knew that the system rewarded those who pushed themselves. Thankfully, they never came back with more than a few bites.
If my biggest fear was for their safety, my second biggest fear was that this would go on forever. Would there be another forsaken seer? Another safe room after that? So on and so forth for a year?
It was something of a shock, then, when one day I turned a corner, and it happened.
Without even thinking to examine any further, I rushed back, finding Cal and Verin sitting by one of the ponds. Sensing my frantic arrival, they turned to me expectantly.
“Tess? What’s up?”
I held the map out from me, etching in a large “X” where I’d just been.
“I found the exit.”