Obviously, there was no response. I couldn't actually call out. All I really could do was wait for someone to show up and talk to. While it wasn't inherently that different from what I had been subject to before, stuck behind that bookcase, it was somehow much worse. Not expecting someone to find you was vastly different from waiting for someone to reassure you.

And it was reassurances that I needed.

'Okay. Let's start from the top. Urchin heard some rumors about a dungeon. Locally known, but not considered particularly dangerous. The party left the next morning to find it, accompanied by our new companion, Asher. Goal, see what Asher could do.

That all lined up so far. They had gotten up early, I don't think the sun had even risen yet. Then it had been a journey out of town. Just getting out of the city had taken some time. And about nearly as long to reach the entrance of the dungeon.

I was actually able to find the entries Hapa had written. When they had stopped at the city gate, waiting for it to open for the morning. While waiting, the adept had described some of the city around them. It was built at the base of some mountains, right before a pass. From his descriptions, the architecture made me think of what if the Vikings had ended up a monarchy. Mostly built from wood and stone, with great big halls for the important buildings.

I hadn't heard from him again until we reached the destination. It had been a spot where a cliff had cut apart a particularly large hill. A waterfall fell from above into a small pool before meandering out into the plains. There were a few trees, and Hapa was certain that it would be a wonderful place to relax for the day, during the summer at least.

Then we had gone in. It was a short ways down a fissure behind the waterfall. From what Hapa said, the room at the bottom had been beautiful. A small garden of bioluminescent plants with little mushlings, as Hapa called them, tending to the place. So far, the dungeon had seemed… kind?

According to Hapa, while the others searched the temple looking ruin, dungeons were a wide variety of things. Alive. Sentient, in a way too. Most were combative in some way, but there were others that were more lax, and simply seemed to exist. So far, this dungeon had proved the later. A good place for the locals to pick up an extra coin or two.

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That was until the boulder's moved and revealed themselves to be giant spiders! Boulder spiders. Hapa was fairly certain they weren't a dungeon monster, but rather something that had wandered in over the winter. The party had found some coin, fought a few more boulder spiders.

They had let Asher take the lead a little bit, distracting the creatures while she did the important spell work. Showing what she could and could not do. Letting the party get something of a feel for how they should work together. It seemed she was going to be a pretty decent fit after all. Her spells were more combative than Hapa's were, which was something the party needed. Fire power, especially at a distance.

Then… 'Then what happened? Something had happened. I remember… feeling it… like… a rhythm! That's what it had been. While Hapa was writing to me on the way out.'

It had been a rhythm. A red-black one that reached from below. It had reached so far. Texts, books, and scrolls, at least as long as I could sense them, had to be relatively nearby. But this one… even thinking about it sent a shudder through my very core.

There had been a weight to it. A heavy, dark weight that had simultaneously been enticing. If Hapa hadn't been writing with me, I wouldn't had been able to tell them about it until after we had left. 'Something is telling me that may have been better…'

'We then… decided to look around, I think. Yea, I remember now. We found another passage that took us deeper. Hapa stopped writing at that point. But I felt it. It got closer. Or rather we got closer to it. And what had been with that notification? 'You have now entered…' something or other. Lots of jostling around and then-'

Pain seared across my pages, like they were being torn asunder. Mentally I recoiled, trying to shrink down inside my void. To hide behind the rhythms of those texts gathered around me.

I don't know how long it was, but eventually their soothing whispers calmed me down. I was able to 'breath' again.

'What was that?! God, it hurt.' It had been more intense then when that dewmous had literally torn pieces out of me. 'Oh no, am I hurt? How did I not notice if I was hurt?'

Name: Nakia Davids Species: Handbook, Level 0 Experience: 58.07/100 Health: 18/25 Stamina: 26/26 Mana: 805/805 (824)

'No, not hurt. At least, my hp is at full. Then wha- WHAT?!' How had that happened? When had that happened?

My experience was no longer at 7.something but was now at 58.07. I stared at my scroll in wonder and confusion. It had taken me quite a bit of time to grind out 7.something experience, but now I was at 58?

Either something had happened down in that dungeon and I had earned a chunk of experience, or I have been out of it for a really long time. 'Oh, I hope everyone is okay. I don't feel like I'm on a cold, stone floor. I feel like I am on wood, a table. I think the sun is on me too. It is a consistent warmth. So I don't think we are in the dungeon anymore. But where is… oh.'

I found it. Scrawled on the next page were a few attempts to contact me before finishing with a note.

"Taken Hapa to do research. Something happened, but we're good. Asher will check in on you. We left you the treasure texts as promised. Be back soon."

'Well, I guess as long as everyone is, okay? I hope they get back soon. I want to find out what happened with out being torn apart, thank you.'

I turned my attention to the rhythms around me.