Aurelia stood there in the entrance to the cave, deer in the headlights, as the three bears stared right back at her. For a moment as she looked at the large beasts in front of her, she feared she was actually in her last moments of life. All this time spent in the dungeon, fighting for her life, and it might have all been for nothing. Fear gripped her and she could hear her blood pounding in her head.
The golden bear moved first, taking a step forwards with one giant paw. Aurelia responded with a flick of her wand and cast a lightning chain. To her continued dismay and horror, absolutely nothing happened. Her mana levels dropped, but no lightning bolt came from her wand and the bear was not hit by anything. Her spell didn’t work. She took a step away as the bear took another forward. She cast a spatial slash, but again no spell was released from her wand. Her magic wasn’t working and at the worst possible moment. The bear leapt at her.
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King Darius stared down at the map of his kingdom. The land they occupied was relatively large, but the constant wars over the last two decades had made the edges of the kingdom a warzone. The outer villages and towns had either fled inwards or they had been destroyed by the war. The king clenched his fists in anger, but he had no one to blame but himself. Unfortunately for those around him, he did blame everyone but himself.
Everything had been going so well before, he had overcome his destiny as second son and had become king of Gildenshores. Only for the beginning of his reign to involve losing the kingdom’s greatest treasure, an uprising that undermined his authority in the kingdom, and a war had begun with a nearby kingdom, just because the other king used to be friends with his older brother.
King Darius was frustrated at himself for being blinded by his supposed victory. He couldn’t help but to think that everything had gone the way his older brother had desired, rather than Darius’ own plans.
He looked up as the double doors leading into the war room burst open, and high warlock Carten entered along with three of his knights. King Darius looked up at the disturbance and glowered at his longtime companion.
“What is it, Carten?” The king asked.
The warlock bowed deeply to his king, the knights mimicking the action. With his face still facing the ground, Carten replied, “We have news, your Majesty.” He paused.
Annoyed, Darius barked at the warlock, “What is it? Speak!”
With a hesitant note in his voice, Carten said, “These three knights have returned from their venture on Earth. They were unsuccessful in retrieving the orb.”
“What happened, Carten!”
Carten licked his suddenly dry lips, his eyes still facing the ground. “The tracking artifact led the four nights not to the orb, but rather to a young woman on earth. As they set to apprehend the girl to bring her and the orb back to Eldria, she had already teleported away. One of the knights went missing as well, and it is suspected that he is a traitor to the order.”
The warlock did not see it, but he heard the sound of the heavy oak table being upturned and thrown across the room. Shards of wood scattered across the floor, a piece landing next to his foot. Carten winced, and felt pity that he had to be the one to tell the king.
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Two young men sat in a corner of the Painted Tavern, which so happened to be the only tavern in the town of Rainy Hollow. The two best friends sampled the stew in front of them as they argued.
“That would be incredibly stupid!” the sandy haired one scoffed at the other.
“Well I can’t get myself to even care anymore, Justin!” The second replied. “I am so sick and tired of staying in this pointless town day after day, doing nothing of use.”
Justin combed his fingers through his hair in annoyance. “I feel the same way, Zen, but I don’t want to get us killed either.”
The two paused when the barmaid, Lia, walked up to their table. She asked them if they would like a refill on their drinks, two which the men agreed. Zen avoided eye-contact with Lia and stared at his soup, chin on his fist. After she walked away, Justin gave Zen a raised eyebrow. “Come on, man, you can’t avoid her forever.”
Zen scowled back at Justin, but ignored the comment. “Maybe we should just ask Marge for her help. Surely there are others looking to become adventurers in the town. I mean, we could always ask Belle…” Zen trailed off when he saw Justin’s dubious look.
Zen frowned in consternation and looked his friend in the eye. “What do you expect of us then? Just go out hunting day after day, waiting for a sign or a miracle to happen? With that line of reasoning, we would be waiting until our hair turned gray and our fingers couldn’t hold a weapon anymore.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Justin opened his mouth to reply when the sound of the tavern door being slammed open echoed throughout the room. Both young men jumped in their seats as a messenger boy dashed into the room.
All eyes were on the boy as he gasped for breath trying to say something, but his words were inaudible. The tavern had gone quiet, the men and women eating lunch looking confused. The tavern’s owner, Ivan, looked impatient as he spoke up, “Speak boy! What is it?”
The messenger boy held up a finger, indicating he needed a moment. After a few seconds, he had calmed down enough to give his message. “The northern meadow! I saw it! Just at the edge of the forest!”
“What? What did you see, boy?” Ivan interrupted.
“A dungeon! A new dungeon has appeared in Rainy Hollow! We have a dungeon!” the boy cried out in excitement.
The tavern erupted in sound, both Justin and Zen exclaiming along with the rest. The two men gave each other a wide-eyed look, and Justin grinned. “What were you saying again about a miracle?”
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Aurelia jumped out of the way just in time as the golden bear crashed down where she had previously stood. The two white bears followed closely behind as they scrambled in her direction. Aurelia shrieked in fear and ran forwards, trying to teleport away from the bears. The first attempt did not work as she continued down the cavern hallway. She turned her head to see the bears running into each other as they attempted to catch her and she ran even faster. A couple seconds later she tried to teleport again, and this time it actually worked. Aurelia teleported as far as she could in the direction of the exit over and over to cover more ground.
She heard the roar of the bears behind her, but didn’t dare look back. She ran. Aurelia held the glow crystal in front of her as she rushed around rock outcroppings and through the cave tunnels. To her immense relief, the sound of the bears became more and more faint as she ran and teleported forwards.
Before she knew it, Aurelia found herself again outside among the trees. She didn’t stop running. After a couple minutes, she found an overhang of rocks with a couple bushes she could hide behind. Aurelia sat down trying to keep out of sight. She tried to be as quiet as possible as she listened for sounds of the bears.
Aurelia heard a roar in the distance, but after a couple more minutes, the forest was quiet again. Her heart continued to pound and her hands shook from the adrenaline and fright. She waited a bit longer to be sure she was alone before she relaxed slightly. Aurelia wrapped her arms around her legs as she pulled them to her chest. Her head fell to rest on her knees and she began to cry.
When she finally stopped feeling sorry for herself, Aurelia decided to look through her notifications to see what had happened in the cave. For some reason, her magic and spells had not even activated, leaving her unable to even fight the bears. Aurelia pulled up the notification screens in her vision. The most recent notification came from her successful teleportations as she fled from the bears. She dismissed those ones until she found what she was looking for.
“Failed Spatial Teleport from an anti-magic aura?” Aurelia read aloud to herself. She paused as she realized what that meant. One of the bears, and Aurelia would bet everything she had in this world that it was the golden bear, had some sort of anti-magic aura which would leave her unable to use her magic. And completely unfortunately for Aurelia, magic spells were the only type of fighting power she possessed.
She groaned in frustration and banged her forehead against her knees over and over again. What was she to do?
Aurelia was alone in this dungeon, therefore she was the only one who could get herself out. This might be a completely unfair situation, but Aurelia knew that a tutorial was meant to help a player understand the rules of the game. And in this game magic would not always be the answer. Aurelia relaxed her position and sat criss-cross on the rocky earth.
She glanced down and caught sight of the three daggers at her belt. Aurelia fingered the hilt of the flame dagger as she considered what she should do. Magic spells may not work on the golden bear, but surely magic daggers could still do the trick.
Aurelia’s red and swollen eyes gazed down at her weapons with determination. She would not die in this dungeon, not if she had anything to say about it.
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For centuries she had lived among these mountains, high above the young and pitiful races below. Before that she had traveled the stars, her adventures were many and wonderful. Now she lay in her home of stone all alone, her family slaug tered by those she saw as pests. Her beloved son and husband had been killed for the magic in their cores. Their bodies had been desecrated, their parts used for riches.
Amenthyne glowered as wafts of acrid smoke floated up out of her nostrils. Her large tail moved back and forth along the cavern ground, knocking over piles of bones and treasure. Her long talons scratched against the rock, carving deep trenches into the mountain.
It had been twenty five years since the pests had found and killed her beloved mate, and a month since they had killed her son. She wanted revenge. She could always simply torch the kingdoms to the ground, but that didn’t seem good enough. Besides, while she was powerful, there were still individuals who could band together and still pose a threat to her. No, she needed to do something else.
Amenthyne looked down at her glittering purple amethyst scales and thought of her dear mate. She could remember every detail of his form, the passing time no detriment to her perfect memory. Yes, he needed to be avenged.
When the pests had killed her mate for his core, they had also taken his most prized treasure. Gold could always be replaced, but the Orb had been one of a kind. Amenthyne grinded her teeth at the memory of the lost treasure. She had not been on Eldria when her mate had died and therefore could not immediately avenge his death and the theft. By the time she had returned, her mate was dead and the orb was no longer on Eldria.
As she lay there in her cave, something shifted in the magic around her. Her head lifted up as she recognized the feel of the magic. It was the orb. Her orb. Amenthyne felt it in her bones, the magic of space had been reunited with an old friend. The orb of Inercise and Space had arrived back on Eldria, and Amenthyne desired it back.
She would find the orb, but first she needed to do something. Amenthyne glanced down at the glowing silver chains that encircled her legs. It was time for her to finally escape her prison.