DUNGEON EXPLORATION

The dungeon entrance had been under the lake on the far side! The lake wasn't an ordinary one. It was unusually deep and the depth did not increase gradually but with a steep drop. Tristan's mom would tell him about her childhood when several children had often slipped in and almost drowned which was why going near the lake was dissuaded among children.

But now, Tristan had to take the plunge into a frozen lake! He creates a sharp blade of wind that bores through a deep wedge into the glacial ice. Despite the strength of the magic he wasn't able to completely make a hole to dive in. After four more tries an isolated chunk of ice block had been removed. Tristan could see the clear blue water spanning fearful depths. He decided to create a thin veil of wind followed by another of fire to protect him from getting wet, cold or getting a burn from his own magic. However he could only maintain this for a minute before his manna would be completely consumed.

Before he had a chance to regret it, he created an air bubble around his head and dove deep into the lake. Searching with manna earlier had already made him aware of the entrance's location. He reinforced his body with magic to quickly swim to the entrance.

The lake was brimming with marine life insulated by the thick sheet of ice from the cold. Tristan could see multicolored fish that would glow in the dark. He was reminded of the times when he had to tirelessly fish for these fish and fail under his teacher's spartan directives. As the school of fish swam around him and made vivid patterns, Tristan looked marvelled at the beauty of nature. But he didn't have a lot of time and quickly swam towards the entrance which was submerged in water. He only had a 39 seconds left before he would finish off his manna. He decided to end the insulation of fire to preserve manna till he could find air.

Zap!

Right at that moment, Tristan was caught in enormous translucent tentacles which zapped him with electricity! He momentarily lost consciousness before waking up in seconds. It was a jellyfish twice bigger than himself. Tristan panicked and released a powerful blade of wind, but the water dissipated the blade before it reached the jellyfish. The jellyfish however didn't realise this immediately and was startled by the bizarre attack and released Tristan in panic. The wind coat of magic that Tristan used had prevented him from getting badly electrocuted but his costumes metallic fibres ensured he got shocked either way.

Tristan was thinking quickly. He needed to exterminate the jellyfish before it attacked him again. But he couldn't use his throw weapons and his manna was depleting fast, while the jellyfish had long tentacles to make up the distance. Another shock and Tristan would die.

He decided to quickly swim into the entrance, he needed to find an air pocket before his manna ran out. He had been overwhelmed by the Freshwater Jellyfish.Its sheer size astounded him into submission and made him flee. However, it wasn't without reason.

As the jellyfish entered the entrance to the submerged cave, Tristan slapped his hands together and then slammed his right palm on the wall. His glove immediately started glowing as it used the transmutation array to create extremely sharp stalactites and stalagmites of earth which pierced through the jellyfish, killing it instantly. With his final spurt, Tristan managed to escape death, however he had almost no manna left and would drown. 

Tristan swam with all his might into the labyrinth, he went in straight until he found a vent going upwards. He followed it until he came to the surface of the water. He quickly got out of the water, surveyed his surroundings and on finding it deserted he laid down in rest. Just at that moment he felt a surge of energy through his body and he felt a little stronger than before. It was an extremely unique and bizarre feeling. His depleted manna once again had a little bit moreanna remaining. Tristan was too tired to speculate about the reason for this and fell asleep.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Several hours later, he was now wide awake, scanning the labyrinthine dungeon carefully. It was pitch black darkness and reinforcing his eyes, ears and nose was the only way he could get around. He was trying to find Charmy who hadstayed guard at the hole while Tristan would scout and return so they could both enter. He telepathically reached Charmy and told him to hide in the shed until beckoned. There was no way he could return the way he came in so it felt prudent.

He was now alone in the dungeon. Scouting had turned into a dungeon exploration in the blink of an eye. Carefully treading his steps, making no sound, he followed the rustling sounds he could hear, to find the creatures of the dungeon. He crawled through passages until it merged to a large hall. He crept to the far corner of the hall with extreme stealth as his heart throbbed violently seeing the site.

In the center of the hall were 10 large bulls who had just one sharp horn each on their foreheads. They seemed to have poor eyesight but would react to the slightest of sounds made by the other bulls. Menacing and muscularly padded, they would randomly ram their head into a wall, creating a huge crater. Bulls on rampage!

Tristan formulated a plan to escape from the bulls. If his presence was detected he would stand no chance against their incredible physical power and defense. He had to stealthily move ahead but the only other exit was in the center of the hall guarded by the 6 bulls at all times. He decided to put the bulls to sleep with an intoxicant.

He slowly crept to the bulls walking near the walls and quietly injected a powerful sleep drug into the bull's neck. But the bull moo'd extremely loudly, swerved as it tried to kick Tristan but immediately lost balance and fell to the ground with a huge thud. The other bulls immediately figured out that something wasn't right and angrily bellowed towards their fallen comrade. Tristan quietly crept past the panicked herd and began taking them out one by one.

After a few tense minutes it was just Tristan and the alpha bull who had still remained in guard of the exit in the center of the room. He carefully repeated the procedure of putting the bull to sleep. But just as he injected the drug into the alert cow he was flung powerfully towards the wall.

Tristan was badly hurt, but luckily was saved from serious damage thanks to timely reinforcement at the places of impact. He looked at the bull in horror, the bull staggered for a bit but then resumed its prideful balance. It knew where Tristan was now and bellowed with a power Tristan couldn't believe possible.

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

The air produced shockwaves which barraged into Tristan as he was hit with increasingly severe blows. The bull then galloped in his direction trying to impale him with his horn. As it ran, the horn started glowing a pale yellow.

Tristan reacted instinctively. Powerfully kicking the wall he was embedded into using reinforcement on his right leg, he made a quick somersault as the bull rammed its horn into the wall which exploded violently. Taking the opportunity Tristan ran towards the hole in the center and jumped!

But the hole had a transparent barrier which glowed the moment Tristan stepped on it and threw him into the air spiralling diagonally as he hit a wall and fell to the ground. Tristan was badly hurt this time since he didn't have reinforcement prepared. The alpha bull too had need damaged by it's reckless attack. Tristan decided to bait and switch.

Repeating what happened the last time, Tristan lured the bull into severely hurting itself to the point that it could no longer stand. He would stand by a wall and make blinking fire signals to taunt to bull and at the last moment dodge it while the bull would explode walls and harm itself. Soon it's limbs gave way and it fell down. Realising that it didn't have a chance at victory and its allies all down, the bull bellowed loudly again as its horn shone a blinding red!

Tristan realised that something was amiss and decided to terminate the bull before something happened. He took his dagger and slammed it with full force into the bull's neck. There was a loud wail as the bull's head collapsed onto the ground. It was dead. The horn gradually stopped glowing and turned black with sharp red and yellow lines running across it. Tristan decided to cut all the horns and collect them. Just as with the jellyfish, he felt a surge of power within himself and he felt himself become stronger.

Deciding to spare the lives of the other bulls, he sawed off their horns and checked the hole to find the barrier gone. He decided to carefully jump in.