Chapter 83: Lost

Felix Sythias’ POV:

The next morning we ate a quick breakfast and headed towards the giant hole in the ground that was the entrance to the caves. There we listened to Scott explain how they were re-organizing the groups. Not everyone was able to handle the monsters on the second floor, so these parties would only go back down to the first floor while the rest of us went back down to the second.

The groups could choose to ask to go down to the second floor anyway, but very few of the parties did so. I personally thought it was a good thing. Knowing your current limits was important.

Our little group was in the second category, and would be going down with the first wave again. And ten minutes later, after the larger group had dispersed, Scott and his assistants took us down again. We once more traveled through the first floor, the assistant taking care of any monsters in our way. We got through it even quicker than yesterday, as everyone who was left could handle a higher pace.

Soon, we made our way down to the second floor. And as we waited in the central cavern, listening to Scott give us some feedback, I couldn’t help but nervously glance at the entrances to the maze-like tunnels. After Scott was done, we followed our guide back into the tunnels. Unlike yesterday, we would be taking more random paths today. It was something we'd discussed on the way here. We wanted to really test and practice making a map and relying on it.

As we walked deeper into the tunnels, the light of the central cavern fading to a pinprick before finally vanishing around a bend, I felt the tightness in my chest rise. So, I took a deep breath and thought of Alex's smile and lying in the sun together yesterday. I didn’t know which memory felt warmer to me, but it didn’t matter. It helped regardless.

I quickly noticed that while I was still nervous, uncomfortable, and a bit afraid, it was less severe than yesterday.

With that in mind, I followed behind the rest. It didn’t take long for us to find a monster. It was another one of the damned mushrooms. Not interested in its awful spores, I warned the others to back off and used my magic to create some spikes underneath the beast, after which I jumped in to smash it a good few times, too, until it finally died.

With that monster out of the way, we continued down the tunnels, taking random turns until we came across more monsters. Alex and Tiki could fight these ones by themselves, so I let them. And then we continued once again.

This pattern repeated itself the whole morning long until it was finally time to start going back. That’s when we realized our maps weren’t quite as good as we thought they were. They were pretty good, but ‘pretty good’ wasn’t good enough when you were in a maze made of interconnecting tunnels that constantly weaved around each other like a plate of spaghetti.

That, or we made the map right, but took a wrong turn, or two, or three, sometime on the way back. One wrong turn was all we needed to completely get off course. Every junction we came to after that only took us further away from our destination.

Either way, when we thought we were only a few minutes away from the entrance, we ran into a dead end. We stood around for a full minute, stunned by the incredulous sight. I’d been sure we were going down the right path, but clearly that was wrong.

Tiki sighed. “Sorry guys, I probably screwed up somewhere while making the map.”

“Nonsense,” Alex said. “I was the one who kept redrawing it, so it could just as well be my fault.”

“Or mine,” I said and swung the map at them. “I’m the one holding the map and guiding us back, after all.”

All three of us were quiet for a moment while we thought. In the corner of my eye I could see our guide smiling slightly. A theory started forming in my mind, but I pushed it away and focussed back on my friends. Not long after, Alex spoke again.

“I have a better idea. None of us are to blame, and instead we begin working on a solution.”

I nodded, and I saw Tiki doing the same. “That’s a good idea,” she said. “And I think we should start by backtracking. We know the route we took to get here, and the monsters we killed on the way should prove a good way to navigate by.”

I handed the map over to her, and we started going back the way we came. Which worked well until we ran into another dead end where there wasn’t supposed to be one. Luckily we could figure our mistake out pretty quickly—we took a wrong turn two junctions ago—and were on track once again and soon made it back from where we came from.

From there we followed the map once again, taking extra care at each junction that we took the right turn. We really should’ve left markers on the walls. I could scratch it easily enough. At least then we didn’t have to trust just the map.

Eventually we came to a junction where the map told us we needed to go right, but I smelt blood coming from the middle tunnel. We were going through these tunnels pretty fast the first time, so I probably didn’t notice, or thought it came from the right tunnel—the one we’d gone into originally.

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I told the rest of the group about it and told them to wait here in the junction while I went to see what the smell was. Soon, I was alone in the dark tunnel, with nothing but a small glowing orb of light. This was a bad idea. Distracting thoughts hammered into me, but I concentrated on just moving forward. At least then I wouldn’t be as likely to get caught by a cave—no! Stop thinking about it.

It luckily only took a few minutes to find the source of the smell. A dead lizard. One that was mutilated by a dozen stone spikes. Definitely my work. It seems we found where the map was wrong.

I called down the tunnel for the others to come, then focused back on the corpse, going over every little detail to distract myself from the crushing feeling the walls gave me. I still didn’t like how similar it looked to me. Like a miniature dragon without wings, a shorter tail, and of course without any intelligence.

A few minutes later, the rest arrived, and I sat down right beside Alex—I needed his comfort right now—while we discussed what to do next. We quickly came to a decision, but decided we could take a small break to eat some food. I was grateful for that. Next time I wasn’t going into the dark scary tunnel alone. That had been a terrible choice of me.

After we finished lunch, we continued down the tunnels, following the map. It was a pretty big assumption to assume the rest of the map was correct, but we didn’t really have many other options. But in case the map was wrong again, I left scratch marks at every junction on the left wall of the tunnel we came from. That way, we could easily find our way back if the map turned out to be wrong.

Luckily, that didn’t prove necessary, as ten minutes later, we walked back into the large cavern that formed the entrance. Strangely, enough, despite having backtracked so much, and spending so much extra time wandering the tunnels on our way back here, we were still the first to arrive. We found Scott sitting in a meditative position on a central platform that I was sure hadn’t been there before we left. Occasionally his head swiveled around to look at something only he could see.

When we entered the entrance cave, he looked up at us and grinned. “Ah, welcome back! I’m glad you were able to find your way despite using an incorrect map. You did remarkably well. The rest are still searching for the way back.”

What Scott said poked at an idea I had earlier, and now I had to know if it was correct. “Did we actually make a mistake while making the map, or did our guide change it so we would get lost?”

Scott’s grin turned wider, but he didn’t say anything, instead going back to staring at the illusions only he could see. I sighed and turned to my friends.

“Well, that answers that question. I wonder how she did it, though,” I said, referring to our guide.

“Really? You left the map with me every time you fought,” a voice said from behind me, and I jumped. Snapping my head around, I saw our guide standing there with a smirk on her face. “It was child’s play,” she said, then walked off towards Scott.

After she left, Tiki and Alex squinted at the map. “Now that she mentions it, the wrong junction does look a tiny bit different from the rest,” Alex said. “The lines are a bit less sure. Definitely not my work.”

“Well, I suppose it was definitely a learning experience. I imagine the next time we’ll get lost, we’ll feel a little more sure about finding our way back,” Tiki said.

“Good, that was the point!” Scott yelled at us from the center of the cave.

After that, we discussed everything we could’ve done differently to make things easier on ourselves, like leaving marks, and writing a log of which turns we took in order. Our guide also wandered by to give her feedback, and we listened with rapt attention as she scolded us for not realizing the map had been tampered with, as she was apparently just sitting there, doodling on our map while we rested nearby after a fight. We all felt pretty dumb for that one.

While we talked, other students slowly trickled in. Some found their own way back, some had left marks and didn’t have any issues at all—except for those groups where their guides had removed the marks after they left. Quite a few came back trailing behind their guide, however. They’d likely given up on finding their own way back and asked the guide for help.

When everyone had finally returned, Scott had a small lecture about the things the successful groups had done, and why the unsuccessful groups had failed. He didn’t name any specific groups, but it was clear who he was talking about from all the awkward shifting the people did.

The main reason so many groups had failed is that they simply made poor maps that were either already incorrect or just confusing. It wasn’t all that strange. For most people here, this excursion was the first time they had to make any map at all, so of course some groups would have trouble with it. Scott recognized that too, so he wasn’t too hard on the failed groups. But everyone who couldn’t make their way back on their own would spend the rest of the day in the survival class learning how to navigate and make maps.

Anyone who wanted to learn more was welcome, too, of course. We discussed it with the group, but Tiki already had significant experience navigating, and I had learned much from my dad, while Alex needed to be good at it simply because he’d lived in a desert. He still wanted to go take a look, though, since the forests and caves were very different from the desert he grew up in.

After Scott’s lecture, we made our way back to the surface, and while we walked, we talked about the gains everyone had made from all the fighting today. It wasn’t that great. Both Tiki and Alex had only leveled once, pushing them to level sixteen and seventeen, respectively. Alex had also leveled his drawing Skill and temperature Skill once, while Tiki didn’t level any. It certainly wasn’t a bad run, but not that great either. We could only hope we weren’t too over-leveled for the third floor tomorrow.

When we got back to the surface, we went to de-stress in the sun like we’d done yesterday, and this time Tiki joined us. The weather was nice, and we talked about the most nonsensical things and just had a good time until the survival class was about to begin. Alex went by himself, leaving me alone with Tiki, as he wanted some time alone too, as hard that was for him to admit. Luckily I didn’t need to explain that even though we were a couple now, we didn’t have to spend every moment together.

I looked at Tiki. “So, what do you want to do now?”