**[Aiden, Day 4]**

He had been angry; the others had left him without giving his plan any thought, but the last day had dulled that rage into soft resentment. He had traveled through the room for a while and eventually settled into a corner to wait. It proved to be quite safe, which made him feel better for his choice. The others could have shared this restful period with him if only they had waited a few more minutes for him to explain. When nothing had changed after he had woken hours later, he again began to explore. The room was more of a widened corridor at second glance, and lines of cages went for easily a hundred yards in each direction. All of the cages proved to be completely empty after investigation. He wondered at that. There were larger crystals in divots along the walls that provided light for him, and he found no debris, hair, excrement, or food to suggest these cells had ever held an occupant. He walked the whole space twice to double-check this before gaining the confidence to continue into a tunnel branching out of the room. He had hoped to meet the owner of this prison here instead of in their home to avoid any added aggression, but fate must have had other plans. Regardless of his expectations, there had not been a hint of another presence the whole time he had been waiting, and he was impatient to prove himself correct. Waiting just made the worry for his friends arise to the forefront of his mind, but it receded once he decided to move on.

Marching out of the room, he made zero effort in concealing his movements. Being sneaky would only hurt his survival chances as it could cause him to startle someone. The tunnel he was traveling in had numerous rooms cut out on each side as he passed, and they all had locked metal doors. With his height, he could peer in the top to see inside and found the first few to be empty. He stopped checking the others as he passed in favor of maintaining a good pace for him despite his limp, and he nearly screamed when he heard a skittering noise in the room beside him.

Cautiously he lifted his eyes to look in and yelped out loud when a long nail nearly pierced straight through his eye. His quick movement saved him, and he received a long gouge to his head and ear instead. The claw pulled back into the cell. He heard the creature moving back. A quiet, sucking sound made him shiver as he imagined the beast drinking the blood off of its claw. Horace’s voice in his head encouraged him to use this opportunity, and he quickly raised his head once more and focused on the monster.

[Drop Claw]

Level: 16

Status: Starved

Special abilities: Heat sense, dismember, and camouflage

Weaknesses: Light sensitivity

It was the same species as the one they had fought; only this one was clearly an adult as its size was double that of the immature one they had fought. He moved away from the door after confirming the identity of the monster. From his brief glimpse, he had seen scars and wounds scattered on its coat, and it looked feral. He was not sure what to do with the information that actual monsters were being held here, but in the end, determined his best path was still forward. It might explain why they had hardly seen a thing since they arrived. The encounter and the potential implication of it had resulted in him checking every cell he passed. He found more and more were filled. There was another drop claw, three new arachnid-like creatures clustered in a cell together called Morren, a large snake with tan scales called a stone adder, and lastly, a pale humanoid creature looked to be quite sickly. It looked almost like an emaciated child in stature with its protruding stomach and starkly visible ribs, yet was liberally coated in patchy grey hair that almost concealed the sad state it was in. He took particular interest in its identity and the species as he had never heard of one before.

[Gremlin]

Level: 14

Class: Cleric

Status: Diseased

Peering at it from the slats at the top of the door, he attempted to communicate. “Hello there, might I ask what a fine gremlin like yourself is doing locked up in this dungeon.” He used his most friendly tone and made sure to avoid looking directly at the sad creature before him.

His voice had some effect in making it look at him, but it made little effort to move, and a weak raspy voice echoed out to him, “I am nothing fine, child. If you want to avoid being like me, you need to advance quickly. Only the strong, the useful, or the entertaining survive here long. Make sure you are one of those.” The voice continued longer than he would have expected. He tried to ask another question, yet it waved a slow hand in a shooing motion. “Get now, boy. They will be around soon, and a level three nothing like yourself will be killed with an accidental shove. Be a shame to see such a nice head wasted on a pike. No use rescuing me. I'm too useful to be allowed to die, and I am too tired today to bother.”

He was unsure what to do, but a sharp laugh in the distance made up his mind. He crept back, his previous bravado forgotten, and he hid past the cell with the scarred drop claw. Minutes passed before he caught sight of a burly male creature tossing scraps through the slates in the door. As it neared him, he resisted the urge to identify it since higher leveled creatures are rumored to be able to sense such things and instead used his eyes. The man was about five feet tall with broad shoulders, a slim waist, and rough-looking beige skin. He was dressed in a bare loin cloth with leather straps on his chest, holding a chipped ax. As the creature approached the drop claw’s cage, he dropped the sack of food bits and instead pulled open the door. The drop claw did not rush out like Aiden would have expected, and he had to resist the urge to peer out farther to better see what was happening.

The man had to go into the cage to get to it, leaving his possessions outside, and Aiden suddenly had a horrible idea. He had left the key in the lock when he wandered inside, and in a fit of madness, Aiden shut the door, turned the lock, and pulled out the key. He hid down to conceal himself after and heard shouting from inside. A pained squeal told him the drop claw had suffered from his action, but after listening to a few minutes of angry yelling, he figured the door must be strong enough to hold the creature if it hadn’t tried to break free already. Feeling safer, he jumped up to read the identity of this powerful humanoid.

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[Orc]

Level: 22

Class: Guard

Status: Enraged

He had never heard of an orc before, but the level was enough to make him beyond cautious. Not knowing what to do now that he had captured one of the guards to this strange place, he collected the keys and the bag. Snacking helped make him feel better even though he had to force down every bite of the grisly bits left at the bottom of the bag. It was still meat, and the energy helped clear his mind. The gremlin had been correct that he was useless and weak, but he now had keys that likely opened every cell in here. That was a power of its own. The problem was this guard. If left alive, he would certainly seek revenge. As it was currently, Aiden had no way to hurt the orc, yet he could see a potential way to increase his strength to give himself better odds while he thought about what to do.

The Morren had only been level ten each, and Aiden decided to take a risk in the name of power. He opened the cell next to the Morren that was empty and used the door along with the one across to block the passage backward. It was hardly foolproof as they were only resting against one another, yet it served as an added barrier between his prey and escape. He then unlocked their door and swung it open, bracing himself on the other side. A pregnant pause made his heart pound through his chest before a chittery rattle identified the movement of the Morren. Praying to any gods that would listen, he began slamming the door. The first one successfully escaped while half of the other was caught in the door. This was better than he had hoped. His strength was not especially high, but the door moved easily, and he was able to bash it into the creature to wedge it shut. The free morren turned at the sound of him slamming the door on its companion, and in a blind rush, it ran right into the propped open doors.

He was cheering for himself when the third creature began to try and bully the door open, and he had to use his new dagger to hack at the body of its crushed friend to make room for it to shut. Despite their high comparative level, they have very weak carapaces, and he cut through easily with his knife bonus. He got the door to shut, leaving the last one trapped once again while the free arachnid took the previous moments to come out of its daze and to realize he was not the threat it might have thought initially. The expectation of an orc level threat had granted Aiden more time than he should have had to deal with the threat of the now caged third morren.

The remaining one leaped towards him, but due to its disorientation from hitting its head on the hard metal door, he was able to successfully dodge it and strike it in the side. Dark blood sprayed him as it passed, blinding him momentarily. Sharp pain in his calf dropped him to his knees, and he swiped out frantically to protect himself while he recovered. The two-foot-tall monster began to glow green around its eyes, and he felt a sudden surge of panic. Not knowing what magic or ability it was using, he grabbed the creature in a one-armed hug and used his spare hand to activate his contingency plan, with one small adjustment for the current circumstances.

He opened the door of the adder by turning the key he had strategically left in the lock, and through the barest of openings, threw the glowing monster inside before promptly shutting it once more. A hiss and a loud sizzle came through to the tunnel, and a notification informed him of his successful completion of the battle. He had never been prouder. This had worked out better than he had expected, and he had only planned to free the adder if the morren were too much for him. Now he had managed to deal with two threats at once. The following message suggested the adder was still alive, but the ant creature must have done some damage to it from the sounds he heard. He had no intention of finding out either way. His luck had held, and he was tougher as a result.

Encounter Complete! You have single-handedly, with a fair bit of cheating, defeated [Morren Scout] level 10 and [Morren Pillager] level 11. You are a very lucky ducky indeed to have pulled off such an idiotic attempt with success. This encounter has revealed information about your foe. As these creatures were three times higher than you, there will be no penalty to the tactics used, and all skills utilized in this encounter will receive increased growth. Happy hunting, Adventurer!

Level Up!

1 stat points to distribute

Minor wounds healed

Skill increase Knife Proficiency: 5 ->6

Skill increase Mathematics: 1->2

Skill gained Trap Setting: 0->1

Skills:

Knife proficiency: Lvl 6

(Bonus: “Clean Cut”: When cutting meat, muscles/sinew slices easier, allowing for better cuts of meat with worse knives)

Cooking: Lvl 5

(bonus: “making meals from mutton”: enhanced flavor of sub-par ingredients)

Gossip: Lvl 5

(Bonus achieved: “Sense Veracity”: the ability to feel the truth in the information learned from second-hand sources)

Mathematics: Lvl 3

Butcher: Lvl 2

Anatomy: Lvl 2

Manipulation: Lvl 2

Unarmed Combat: Lvl 1

Field Medicine: Lvl 1

Trap Setting: Lvl 1