The group, seven kobolds and four humans, continued down the freeway. If they looked up, they’d see the sun slowly drifting to the horizon. They’d also watch as the color shifted from whitish to yellow. However, their eyes weren’t looking up.

“What-,” Mary held back vomit and coughed, “Is that smell?”

Dale sniffed the air and nearly wretched himself. “Smells like rot and human feces.”

Dale caught Ichnick starting to tremble out of the corner of his eye. “You know what that smell is?”

“Basilisk!” Ichnick hissed.

All the kobolds began to shiver in fear.

Dale licked his finger and then held it up. The wind was blowing from the west. He ushered everyone over to the dividers and helped the group climb over to the other side of the freeway. It wasn’t a guaranteed fix, but it would at least get them out of the path of the monster if it was coming to the freeway.

Xilbit walked alongside Dale and grabbed his attention by waving a spear at him.

“Yes?” Dale asked.

“Attack?” Xilbit asked.

Dale froze for a second until he saw a small smirk on the kobold’s snout. “The chief has jokes?”

Xilbit snorted. “I am a joke!”

Dale shook his head. “You mean to say, you’re funny.”

Xilbit shook his snout. “Not funny, a joke!” He shook his spear at his fellow kobolds. “Is not Xilbit biggest joke among kobolds?” Many kobolds nodded. Steve and Mary were staring at the little monster and trying not to laugh.

Dale chuckled to himself and shook his head. “Seriously, you should say, Xilbit is the funniest kobold.”

Xilbit offered a hurt expression. Ichnick walked over and began hissing and clicking at his chieftain. It took a few minutes until Xilbit looked embarrassed.

Dale kept an eye on the forest to their left. During a sweep, he finally caught sight of the basilisk. He’d heard of the creatures and seen them in various forms in literature. Looking at a giant lizard the size of a doublewide trailer that stunk worse than anything he’d ever smelled in his life was a different story.

It was a brownish green and didn’t have scales. The skin was like lizard skin. Rough and dry. It looked similar to a Gila Monster. Although the general body shape is where the similarity ended.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Something inside Dale could feel the aura of the beast. It wasn’t like anything he’d ever experienced. Sort of like electricity, it left his own aura trembling.

“These magical senses are freaking me out.” Dale remarked. He looked over at Anna. She was now clinging to her father with her face buried in his neck. Her body was shivering a bit from what could only be her reaction to the monster’s magical aura.

The Basilisk slowly stomped its way south. Soon all they could see of it was a swinging lump of tail and trees shaking from being bumped into.

“Is that normal for where you are from?” Dale asked Xilbit and Ichnick.

They stared at each other. Ichnick sighed. “We would see a creature like that maybe once a year. If that often.”

“Basically, that is bad.” Dale stared as a tree cracked and after a couple precarious seconds, broke completely and fell over. The top of it barely crested the freeway.

Ichnick shrugged. “We were on plains. This is forest.”

“It is also cold here.” Xilbit interjected.

Dale looked at them both. “Are you warm blooded or cold blooded?”

They both stared at him.

“Do you hibernate when it gets really cold? Sleep for the winter?” Dale asked.

“This is colder than ever at home.” Xilbit explained.

Dale tried not to let his worries get the better of him. If they turned out to be cold blooded, they might wind up dying without a proper heat source to keep them alive during the winter.

Something tingled in Dale’s senses, and he turned toward the direction it came from. A large semitruck and refrigerated trailer felt to him like it was beckoning to him. He turned to Anna and saw she was staring hard at the truck as well.

“Ichnick. Are you feeling anything strange from that truck over there?” Dale asked him.

Ichnick turned and looked at the truck then raised his snout a little. “It is a magic nexus. They create strange effects. My people usually stay away from them due to danger. I’ve never seen much good come from magic nexus.”

Dale frowned and moved closer to the truck. Everyone followed but stayed back far enough that if something happened to him, they wouldn’t be caught in the blowback.

The feeling grew as he moved closer to the truck. It wasn’t long before his skin was literally crawling from the sensation of electricity in the air. The beckoning sensation also grew, but not much. The pull was resistible but constantly present.

“Why don’t we feel it?” Mary asked. She was currently holding onto her daughter’s hand and keeping her from moving closer while Dale checked it out.

Dale shrugged. “As far as I can tell, there are forces at work beneath the surface. This game setup with character sheets and abilities is part of it. However, magic itself isn’t totally in line with it.” Dale stopped and turned toward her. He held up his hand. After a second, a flame started dancing above his palm. “I know what is happening here. I can feel it. My own energy is being converted to heat. Some of that energy is changing the air itself into fuel for the fire. I’m not actually using any ability though. My mana points are going down but I’m not actively casting a spell. Just making fire with magic.”

Dale let the ball sputter out. He turned to Ichnick. “Has magic felt more real to you since you got here?”

Ichnick’s eyes tightened in concentration. “Magic has long been slow. You have to wait for it to move when you want something. Since being here, there has been no wait. I do not understand this.”

Dale shrugged. “I get a feeling it has something to do with the story. No idea what, but something.”

Dale continued to move toward the truck. When he finally reached the large doors on the back of the trailer, a window popped up:

You are at the entrance to the Icey Halls Dungeon. Do you wish to proceed, Y/n?

Dale grinned.