Chapter 28 - Attack in the dark

Riin's POV

Underneath the Stoney Mountain, mid winter.

You have been rendered unconscious.

That was all I managed to see as we into the darkness of the earth.

A sharp pain in the back of my head, awoke me from the sweet nothingness that was my unconsciousness… Yeah, reaching up to my head I could feel a small bump forming, giving me a massive headache as it swelled in size, but the good news was that I felt no wetness on the tips of my fingers, meaning that there was no cut made by what had hit me as we fell. Slowly opening my eyes I, all I could see was darkness… Yeah, I had to close and open them a few times before finding out that the place itself for devoid of any light, with the exception of a small, all to well known, light. Now you might be wondering why the fuck is the idiot crawling all the way and not walk, well ladies and gents, it's fucking dark as is zero light except for the small source that is my [lightstone] a good twenty feet away or so, my point in all this is, no way in hell that I'm walking when I can't even see the fucking floor. Did that get my point across? Good, now onwards.

A good thirty minutes or so of me crawling my way towards it in the dark, bumping into a lot of fucking small stones and sharp thing, led me to the small light source, my [Lightstone], I must have dropped it as we fell… Hold on a moment… Ah, I knew that I was forgetting something this whole time, Heca. Now where is that insane old man?

“Heca, where are you?”

Not that I expect him to answer me, but lo and behold, a few small moans of pain was let out a few feet somewhere behind me.

“Heca?”

“Hmm, ahh…”

With the small light source in hand I make my way towards the sound. More grunts of pain is the only answer I receive as I make my way towards him.

“Heca, speak up will you, it's hard to find anything in this stupid darkness.”

“Ahh, kid is that you?”

“Yeah, who else just fell with you…”

“Yeah, yeah, I get you. Are you alright, kid?”

“Other than a bump on my head, I'm fine.”

At that point I finally get to him as I shine the light on him i get to see exactly why he was moaning and oh boy, he has all the right he wants to be grunting out in pain. His fucking shin bone is sticking out of his leg.

“So, how bad does it look, kid?”

While he seems calm I have no intention of risking a panicked old dude in this fucked up place so, I of course answer to the best of my ability.

“It's just a small cut, you will be fine in no time.”

“Ha, so the message telling me, that I have a broken leg, is just to be ignored.”

“Yeah, it's over reacting.”

He laugh a bit before falling quiet once more.

We sat there for a few minutes, before I can't hold it in anymore.

“So, do you think anyone is coming to find us?”

Heca gives a weak laugh before answering my question.

“Yes, they will come for us, but I fear that it will take too long for me, boy.”

Hmm, he is right. The bleeding has not stopped but is it not fussing out either, it's a steady flow, well we can try and fix that, no way I'm staying in this place with a dead body, he is more useful alive.

“Well, I got a little training in first aid, so hold still for a moment, okay?”

“Do it.”

Ah, he knows that I will have to poke his leg a bit for this to work. Reaching up and tearing off some of his shirt, I get ready but before that I want to make sure that he will not try and hit me.

“This is going to hurt a little bit, hold still and… Try not to hit me.”

A small weak laugh is my only answer, here goes nothing. Taking a deep breath before putting my hand in the exposed bone, I slowly sink my other hand down into his wound, I need to make sure that when I push the bone down I don't hit a blood vessel, feeling no exposed veins, I retract my hand.

“Okay, the good news is that you have no cut blood vessels, now I need to push your bone back in place. You ready?”

A small grunt is all I get, while is was having a hand in his leg he was only breathing heavily, that is one though pain tolerance, I tell you.

Getting myself in a position to push the bone down in one good go, I calm myself before doing my best to let all my weight fall on the bone in one quick motion. A strangled scream was all he let loose as I set the bone in place, one though guy I tell you… I bandage the wound with the strips from his shirt.

You have gained the skill [First aid] by tending to a wounded person. For knowing how to help the broken bone in place, you have gained +1 [Intelligence].

Well, that's useful.

“All done, how are you holding up?”

A few laboured breaths was my only response for now, so I sat down and waited for him to be able to talk normally again.

After having tended and closed up the cut as much as I could, I waited for him to catch his breath before asking him my next question and if you want my opinion the most important one at that. Minutes ticked by while we sat in the darkness, with the [lightstone] as our only company, against this unknown place, that we accidentally had found ourselves in.

“So, how long do you think it will take for them to get down to us?”

See? It was an important question, I can be smart sometimes, you know, what followed was a deep silence.

“Well depending on the strength of the rock surrounding the hole we fell in it can take some time, seeing as they first have to secure their own way down.”

Well, that did make sense. But what I found worrying as well was our lack of food or water for that matter. While I was thinking about that problems hours went by, Heca never being a big talker didn't seem to think that he needed to say anything, also kept quite in the hours that followed.

Many silent hours after our fall, something happened, weak glowing lights started to light up our surroundings, giving up a better view of what was down here.

“Heca, something is happening.”

“Hmm?”

We sat there and looked on as the area around us slowly showed itself, small mushrooms lit up the cave… Well, I say ‘cave’ what it really looked like was an underground world of its own, even with the new light, I had no sight of the ceiling.

“What in the…”

Heca, interrupted me in my crushing.

“The Underdark.”

“Huh?”

“That is what this place is called, The Underdark.”

“Oh…”

Wait a fucking moment, we are in a complete new land… Area… Place? What the fuck is going on here.

“So… How big is this Underdark place?”

A ‘hmph’ sound, that was followed by a small laugh sounded from Hecas general area.

“This Underdark place… don't make me laugh kid, did your parents not tell you anything.”

Oh, no you don't shithead, don't even go there or you will lose your head very fast.

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“Don't you dare insult my parents, Heca”

I felt the weak sting in my hands, telling me that I had broken the skin as I fisted my hands but I paid it no mind.

A few moments of silence followed.

“Oh, I'm sorry kid, I meant no harm by it.”

Too long, he took too long to apologise, that fucker. Just you wait, you will find me to be patient as hell when I want to see someone suffer, just you wait.

“Well, how about it, how big is it then.”

“The whole world.”

Huh? Does he seriously want to tell me that this place that we are in spans the whole fucking world… How?

“What about oceans?”

“There are said to be non, only massive lakes.”

Holy fuck… Not that I get to ponder moreover this, as a low growling sets a stopper for anymore questions I might have. As time ticks by slowly the low growling is soon followed by footsteps, heavy footsteps, on that note and all too soon we get to see the owner of those feet. Let's just say that I'm glad for the light given by the mushrooms, if that thing found its way to us in the dark than we were loyalty fucked, not that we have a very high chance of survival now but still, man I'm grateful for those small mushrooms.

What is staring at us or more likely, Heca, who is pretty much unable to move is… Well, how to describe this… Now I would call it a mutated bear in two legs, but the walks is just plain out weird, it's ‘legs’ are small and it's arms are too long, it almost has a gorilla type of build to it, but the white pelt looks too much like a bear, but the face is kind of cat like I would say… all in all a weird looking fucker.

“Oh, no no no no…”

Judging from how Heca is reacting the cat-bear-gorilla-thing is bad new for us. I whisper to him.

“What is that thing?”

“Quaggoth.”

Okay, that didn't help me at all… a Quaggoth, and how the fuck is that even pronounced?

Quaggoth is pronounced, kwah-goth

Well… That's helpful…

All the while I have been staring at my message, the Quaggoth has moved closer to Heca, while it's focus is on him I am slowly moving away from its sight.

“Kid!? Where are you going!?”

Oh, shut the fuck up, you fucking parent hating asshat. As he makes more noise, the Quaggoth growls louder at him, I slowly make my way behind it. On that note, man I'm glad that it is covering up its ass with a leather loincloth, I mean who needs to see some naked bear butt, yeah, exactly, no one, that how many.

As I finally get myself behind it, it has made its way fully towards Heca.

“Kid!”

Pussy. The Quaggoth, gets down in a more crouched position as it takes a sniff as Heca. At this point, he seems to lose it, just a tiny bit as he decide to takes a swing for its head. A deep growl is heard as it moves away from the incoming hit. It lifts its arm and grab a hold of his wrist, a cracking sound soon follows. Aw, that got to hurt, judging by the small scream that he lets out it did in fact hurt. As is it growling at Heca and holding one of his arm, I find that I will get no better chance than this and so makes my move. I rise from my crawling position into a run, my aim? It's back, the seven feet something tall thing is now down to around four feet, as it is bend down over Heca, I pull my knife as I run as fast and silent as I can in the half lit place. Knife raised, I aim for the back of its neck, seeing as I will most likely not get a second change, my aim, is the vertebrae and the blood vessels and nerves that run along there.

I somehow manage to jump onto its back, grabbing hold of any fur I can, I ram the knife down to its neck, a deafening roar is released from the creature as the knife gets borrowed down into its neck, my hand still on the knife I rip it out as the Quaggoth stand up, knowing that time is of the essence, I twist the knife in the wound trying to do as much damage as I can in the short amount of time it's takes it to stand up from the moment I landed on its back and the knife was rammed down into its neck. I feel the bones as I twist the knife, just as it reaches behind its head to grab me, I rip the knife in between it's vertebrae and pull out, kicking myself of its back and hopefully out of its reach. My not so graceful landing aside, the Quaggoth turns around to face the new attacker. But in the end that is all it ever manage to do, just as it stares at me it drops to the ground, talk about anticlimax.

You have slain a [Quaggoth - Thonot] granting you 700 experience. Being quick thinking and having fast feet, in an overwhelming situation you have gained +1 [Intelligence] and +1 [Dexterity]. Bloodlust Aura has gained 1, [91]

That was a bit too close, I so hope we get picked up soon, then again, Heca does make for a great escape goat. Speaking of Heca… He looks a bit shocked.

“You… It… How… That…”

And he is making as much sense as a stone at the moment…

“Wait here, I will see if there is anything that we can use as a fire, there must be something burnable down here… It can eaten right… ?”

I mean it is in essence a bear, right? All he does is nod his head, if it is for the part about the fire or the eating part, I don't know, so I can only assume, that it covers both of them. I leave the dead bear and the [lightstone] with Heca, as I move towards the phosphorescent fungus, I hope that there is some kind of moss grow down here that we can use as fire material or anything dry at all.

What feels like hours later in this half lit dark, I finally find what seems to be some kind of dry moss or plant, scraping it of the rock wall, I make my way along the wall looking for more. I find what looks to be normal cave mushrooms, that I bring back with me as well. As I made my way around our camp in a small circle always keeping the [Lightstones] light in sight, I found, to my great relief I might add, a small stream flowing in the rock floor. Getting on my knees I dipped a finger in the water, ice cold, fucking freezing I tell you, but nonetheless it was precious water an extremely good find in this dark place. Looking back towards Heca, I save the location in my mind and moved back to him, time for some food, but before I left I took a good few mouthfuls of nice cold water, ah, so refreshing.

As I step into the light, Heca looks up at me, startled, by my sudden appearance, what a weakling he is proving to be.

“I found some edible mushrooms, out there.”

He gave me a questionable look, what you fucker don't like mushrooms?

“If you don't like eating mushrooms, you don't have too, you know…”

He looked at me for a short while without saying anything, well suit yourself, shithead.

I pulled out the burnable plants, that I had found on my walk and started to made myself a small fireplace. With a little persistence, - that meaning me hitting two rocks together for an hour, I got the stones to spark and finally got a the fire going. As the flames started to burn strong, Heca finally graced me with some wise words.

“You sure, that they are edible, the mushrooms, I mean?”

… What did I tell you, wise, wise words of a complete moron, who don't know anything about plants and their abilities and not a thing at all about mushrooms, so why do he even open his mouth, I truly do wonder.

“Yes, I'm sure of it.”

Idiot.

“Hmph, so how are we going to survive off a few mushrooms, boy.”

Moron.

“Did you forget about the bear already?”

He gave me a utterly confused look, oh for fucks sake, why did I have to get stuck here with a brainless dimwits of all things.

“The Quaggoth…”

His eyes grew very big.

“You… You can't be thinking of eating that monster!?”

Well… Yes, yes I in fact can and will do so. I have lived of rotten food just to survive, - thanks to daddy dears, so a dead bear is not on my list of things that are non-eatable. So instead of wasting more words on the shitface, I simply gave him a firm nod.

“It's a monster! You can't eat it!”

Can't… who's going to stop me, him? He has one good leg and one usable arm left, the fuck he's gonna do? And what's with the fucking yelling, I'm not deaf, yet at least.

“Heca, I will not starve down here when there is fresh meat right in front of me. End of discussion.”

“That is madness, boy! To eat of a monster!? Madness, I tell you!”

“Starving is madness.”

Seeing as Heca and I had very different opinions on what was and was not acceptable to eat, we ended up with him staring at me as I cooked the meat of the Quaggoth on the hot stones and him after a very long time nipping away at the mushrooms that I had collected on my walk. After the meat was well done and cooked, I took my first bite, much to Hecas great horror and dismay. Hmm, not bad, a bit on the chewy side but not bad at all and so with Heca distrusted face I finished my first small cut of meat, I think I deserve a little delici for my hard work so far.

“What in the good gods, are you doing, boy!?”

“Hmm, oh, I'm getting the best parts as a little treat for my hard work.”

“Treat! You call that a treat!?”

Crist man, I'm not fucking deaf, you know…

“Yes… They hold a lot of protein, it's good for you, you know?”

“How in the world is, its eyes and hearth good for you!?”

At this point in time he was really breathing heavily, like an… obese man trying to catch the train.

“This is blasfemi!!”

Huh… are you shiting with me… blasfemi?

Don't talk to me about blasfemi, I would strike god should he stand in my way or breaks the neck of death should he try and take me… oh, done that once… heh heh.

“Blasfemi?”

“Yes! To consume the flesh of a monster!”

“Now, now Heca, don't joke with me, you have eaten monsters before too, I even cooked some of them for you.”

Ah, his face, I so wish that I had a camera right about now.

“No… No… I have not! I have not committed such a sin!”

“Is a monster not defined by the [Challenge Rating]? If so you have eaten monsters each time you eat meat.”

A deep silence had fallen over our little camp and then a roar of anger was let loose by Heca.

“You imbecile little brat!!”

Speaking of overreaching…

“Am I wrong?”

“You!”

Ha, speechless are we now, since I'm fundamentally right.

“To gain experience, you must first slay a ‘monster’, a monster is defined by the [Challenge Rating] given to it by this world. Different monsters have a different rating, for a deer to a dragon, they are all ‘monsters’ in the eyes of this world's system.”

You have gained +1 [Intelligence] for your reasoning behind ‘monsters’ and how one define such.

See, even the world system agrees with me on this one, take that shitface. After our little ‘conversion’ I proceeded to cut out the hearth and its eyes, snack time, yum yum. The eyes as with any eyes was a bit salty but not bad at all, the hearth was just as chewy as any other hearth.

“Blasfemi, I say.”

I gave Heca one short look.

“Did you enjoy the mushrooms?”

“Yes, so what? That has nothing to do with this, blasfemi.”

Oh, how wrong you are…

“Oh, so you want mushrooms to eat and I don't want to hear of your complaining about what I choose to eat or not eat, do we understand each other.”

He looked a me a short while before opening his mouth once more, yes, that's it be careful what you say, old man, or you just might find yourself without any food source, in this dark and cold place, not to mention about the lovely water.

“I'm starting to think different of you, boy.”

“Oh, really now?”

“Yes…”

“I see.”

At that point at had finished up my lovely hearth.

You have consumed the flesh of a dark inhabitant, - consuming the eyes and hearth of your fallen foe. By committing such an horrible act, you have you have gained the skill [Darkvision], granting you the ability to see in even the darkest of places.

Horrible act… come on! It's was a fucking bear… man even the system messages are after me now…