“Mirai, just as a heads up, there’s at least one monster lurking around.”

She drew her sword quickly. “Where?”

“It’s not an immediate threat, but… something is definitely out there. I smell death.”

She relaxed a bit, but didn’t sheath her sword. “I’m glad your sense of smell is working out. The visibility in here is awful, so let me know if you notice anything else.”

They continued walking the path for a few more minutes until the path led them to the bank of a river. Here the path took a hard turn, parallel to the stream’s edge, heading upstream. They could see water pouring out of a massive crack, feeding the river, and beside it, the path lead right up to the cavern wall.

Curious, they followed the path to its end and examined the rocky wall. A thick layer of the spindly moss grew up the wall here, near the source of the water. Edgar caught a whiff of something odd and raised his nose while Mirai began hacking at the moss with her sword.

“I bet the exit is right here!”

Big chunks of moss fell to the floor, creating big puffs of spores. Edgar’s nose immediately went haywire and he bowled over, sneezing uncontrollably.

“You alright back there? You gotta see this!”

“Acho! Wha—acho!—What? Sniffle.” He rubbed his dripping nose, to try and clear it, but after all his sneezing a scent like oil and body odor had gotten lodged in it.

Glancing ahead, Mirai was standing in front of a door that looked like the front door to a woodland nymph’s home. Mirai had her hand on the door’s handle, twisting vigorously.

“Damn, it’s locked.”

“That’s alright, sniffle, we’re not ready to leave yet anyway, right? We haven’t found your shrooms yet.”

“There must be a key somewhere in the room. There’s clearly a keyhole...” She continued fiddling with the door, squinting into the keyhole.

“A keyhole? Achoo!” Edgar asked, his nose so full of oil and pungent body odor he might sneeze again.

Suddenly he felt a stirring in his core, from among his skills and abilities. [Animal Awareness] had stirred awake and it was telling him to move, now. Even as his conscious mind continued to catch up, his body was already moving. He grabbed Mirai by the shoulder, tearing her away from the door, and tapped [Acrobatics], throwing her one way and himself the other.

What looked like a massive root lashed at the wall where they had been standing.

“Edgar!” Mirai shouted, falling into the river.

The root’s impact sent a cloud of moss dust into the air.

Achoo! Edgar bowled over at the force of the sneeze and when he looked up, he saw the root lash out again.

Then everything went dark.

…

..

.

When he finally came to, it was to the smell of fresh death. He was lying in a small cave, facing a wall. Flickering firelight sent his shadow dancing. Moving as discreetly as he could, he tried to see if he could spot his captor and quickly realized his hands and feet were bound with a plant-based rope of some kind.

“Uk-Oh! Awakened, has he?”

Creepy. As. Hell.

Edgar rolled over and pushed himself up against the wall, as far away from that voice as he could possibly move.

The creature was like a dark silhouette against the fire. Two hoofed feet and furry legs with a human torso and horns like a ram on its head.

Monster: [Faun]

* Type: [Fey]

* Level: 2

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“A Faun!?” He couldn’t help but remember the name of the mushroom they were after.

“Uk-ah!… A Faun who watches over… A Faun who brings the barren rocks to fruit…”

It spoke in a sing-song voice and walked with a skip to its step, the short stubby tail quivering gleefully, but it was no cute woodland Faun.

It pranced towards him and Edgar noticed a shining bauble swinging from its neck—a key!

“I—I don’t mean you any harm… friend?”

“A friend? Uk-oh! A friend in need, used for feed! Huk-uk-uk!“

The thing’s laughter was gross. He instinctively reached for his skills, hoping to use [Tail Whip] to cut the ropes, but the skill fizzled out.

It slipped right into cool down without activating!

Fearful, he pulled up his stats.

* Heath: 10/10

* Mana: 0/10

* Stamina: 0/10

As he watched, a single point of stamina regenerated, and there was a cold tingle at his wrists and ankles—where the strange, plant-based rope was tied—and the point of stamina was instantly drained away.

“Oh no…”

“Uk-oh! Yes!” The Faun called happily, clapping its hands and dancing around the fire.

As the Faun loped around the fire, shaking a sort of tambourine, Edgar tried to get a clearer view of his surroundings. The Faun had a small wagon to one side loaded with farmers tools, a pot of tea coming to boil over the fire, a table and chairs off to the side—all mismatched—and lastly a patch of soil covered with rotting bodies.

That explains the smell.

The Faun saw Edgar staring at the bodies and changed its tune.

“Uk-oh, into dirt, the body goes! Death before and mushrooms grow! Kept in darkness, born in blood, a morsel tasted, I must know!”

The Faun produced a pan flute and began absolutely shredding it. If the situation were even slightly less deadly, Edgar probably would have been impressed with the masterful playing. However, given even this slight distraction, Edgar was searching for anything that might help him escape. Anything he could use as a weapon. Anything sharp he could use to…

Anything sharp…

If he had his hands free, he’d be palming his forehead right about now. He had multiple knives at the ready—ten to be exact. Just to be safe, he flexed a single one of his claws and was pleased to feel it extend. The restraints clearly blocked all skills and abilities, but apparently his claws weren’t affected. They were more like a natural weapon or an innate feature of his race.

He couldn’t help but be grateful for this strange, but useful body.

Maybe once this was all over, he’d give that meddling bastard a call.

However, even if Edgar had his ticket out of here, he still needed a plan. He couldn’t just cut the restraint and run, the Faun was level two, after all—it was only safe to assume it’d be faster than him. Although, compared to his fight with the Wanderer from the bone arena, the Faun was more creepy than it was intimidating.

He took a deep breath to steady his nerves. It was impossible to know what skills it had, and he could only imagine the farmer Faun had some tailored to putting him in the dirt. He sighed and continued scanning the area for clues and other ideas.

The cave was completely enclosed except for the entrance on the other side of the fire. The dirt pit with the mushrooms sat against the far wall. He could even spot a few of them growing just under the stone rim of the enclosure, in a spot you could only see if you happened to be lying on the ground. They were tiny things, vivid orange with fluorescent pink swirls.

Edgar tried to activate [Bulk Loot], but they were just out of range. He began scooting over, retrying the skill each foot or so. It wasn’t terribly discrete, but the Faun was thoroughly distracted by its own music and dancing. Finally, five of the things appeared in his inventory just as the Faun noticed his odd shuffling.

“Uk-oi! Where are you rolling off to!”

The Faun pranced over and gave Edgar a solid kick, sending him rolling away from the dirt pit once again. When he came to rest, the Faun was staring down at him. Its eyes were dark, with mesmerizing swirls of purple. Up close, its skin was a mossy green and its fur was similarly green, but a few shades darker.

“Uk-ah. Stay. Little Riftling.”

Edgar groaned, rolling out from under the creepy Faun. It watched him for another moment, but then the tea came to boil and began whistling. The creature pranced over to its wagon and removed a mushroom that was all but shouting, “Don’t eat me, I’m deadly.” It handled the mushroom gingerly, tossing it quickly into the pot of tea, then laughing.

“Uk-uk-uk! Ooooh! Uk-uk-uk!”

As the tea continued to boil, the creature launched into song and dance again.

“Uk-ooooooh! Into dirt, the body goes! Death before and mushrooms grow!…”

But, Edgar’s attention had drifted. He was no longer watching the Faun. He was watching a pair of scared green eyes peeking out from a shadow near the cave’s entrance. There was a glint of blue moon metal as well and three fingers held up.

Edgar glanced at the Faun. It switched back to its pan flute after completing the verse, closing its eyes as music gushed forth.

He looked back at Mirai and nodded.

She dropped one finger. Edgar discretely flexed one of his claws, quickly slicing through the restraints of his feet and hands.

She dropped another finger. Her sword began to glow. Edgar prepared himself, readying his skills.

He watched as she dropped the final finger.

~~~~~~~~~~

* Check out the Stats Page for this Chapter here