Jack stood at the entrance to a one-story building made of stone blocks. The structure was old and decrepit. Creeper plants covered the walls, merging the building with the surrounding forest. No sound reached his ears from the entrance. Gripping the hilt of his sword tightly in his hand, Jack stepped into the dilapidated building.
The structure appeared even smaller from the inside than it did from the outside. The room he found himself in was absolutely empty. The only thing that he noticed was a spiral staircase leading somewhere underground. Jack carefully descended the steps until he reached the bottom.
He found himself in a dark tunnel. There weren’t any sources of light, so it took his eyes a little while to get adjusted to the darkness. It was a man-made corridor. The floor was paved with cobblestones, many of which were cracked or dented. The walls were made of large red bricks. Here and there, roots had grown through the walls and the floor. The ceiling was covered in thick cobwebs.
Jack hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with huge spiders. A mere thought about enormous arachnids made his skin crawl. Come to think of it, he had no idea what kind of monsters he would encounter in this place. From the description of the quest, he’d learned that his objective was to investigate this ancient place, but other than that it hadn’t told him anything else. He had to be ready for anything.
He walked down the tunnel, his echoing footsteps the only sound in this place. While his eyes had already gotten used to the lack of light, he still couldn’t see farther than a few paces into the tunnel. He continued to carefully walk forward, listening for any sounds that might indicate the presence of some creatures in this underground place. So far, he hadn’t encountered anything on his way down the corridor. Yet he had a feeling it would change soon.
The tunnel opened out into a vast room. He stopped at the opening, looking around. Except for a few columns, the room was devoid of any objects. Seeing no sign of danger, Jack stepped into the room. Just like in the corridor, there were no sources of light anywhere to be found. When Jack reached the middle of the room, he spotted an archway on the other side of the room, leading somewhere further into the catacombs. Aside from this archway and the one he’d walked through, there weren’t any other doors or openings to be seen.
Before progressing further, Jack decided to look around one more time to make sure he didn’t miss anything. The room was pretty big, and the farthest corners were completely shrouded in darkness. Jack kept staring into one of the corners until he thought he was able to make out the outline of something there. It looked like some kind of creature, but it was hard to tell for sure because whatever it was stood completely still.
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“What the hell,” Jack muttered, still not quite comprehending what he was seeing. Was it actually some kind of creature? Or maybe it was just his imagination?
He had to know for sure. He wasn’t willing to go farther into the catacombs, knowing that somewhere behind him could be lurking an unknown creature waiting for the right moment to attack him.
Jack was about to get closer to the corner when he heard something behind him. He spun around raising his sword. He didn’t see anything at first. Then out of another dark corner stepped someone—something. At first, Jack thought it was a person, but he quickly realized he was wrong. It looked humanoid with two arms and two legs. And that was where the similarity to a person ended. The misshapen, stooping figure had arms that were too long. Its skin was deathly pale, its head devoid of hair, its nose just two small holes, and its ears long and pointed. As the creature shambled a little closer to him, Jack saw that it didn’t have any eyes. What it did have was an enormous mouth filled with long curved yellowish teeth. They were so large and there were so many of them that the creature’s mouth couldn’t even close.
The creature continued to move in Jack’s general direction, shuffling its naked feet across the cobblestoned floor. The mutant’s–or whatever this creature was–fingers ended in large dagger-like claws. The sight of this monster unnerved Jack. He had fought lots of various insect-like creatures and various wild animals in the forest, but it was the very first time he’d encountered such an abomination. He had no idea what to expect from it. While the mutant was blind and its movements were sluggish and unsure, the creature could still prove to be dangerous. Its razor-sharp teeth and dagger-like claws looked nasty. Jack was sure that the mutant could use its natural weapons quite efficiently.
A shuffling sound came from behind him. Jack looked back over his shoulder and saw another similar mutant step from the corner that Jack had been studying a minute before. The second mutant began to move in his general direction too. These creatures were blind, so they must have sensed him somehow. Probably they’d heard him when he uttered some words a minute before. Their sense of hearing should be quite good.
Jack looked around but didn’t spot any more mutants anywhere in the room. Two monsters shouldn’t pose much of a threat to him. He was used to dealing with many more monsters at once. However, since he’d never encountered such mutants before, he didn’t know what to expect from them. So he decided to exercise caution.
He stepped aside out of the path of the two mutants, making sure to make as little noise as possible. Jack was sure he produced little to no sounds at all while moving, yet the two mutants heard him, unmistakably turning their ugly heads in his direction. Their sense of hearing must have been amazingly good, which wasn’t all that surprising, what with how large and well-developed their ears were.
The two mutants froze for a second, sniffing the air. Then they turned and walked toward him, moving much faster and more confident this time. It was time to fight them.
Jack held his left hand out toward one of the two mutants and cast a fireball.