As Joshua passed through the wall of black into the cave, there came a stutter, something like a timeskip, and his thoughts briefly felt fuzzy, but the feeling passed almost too quickly to note.
Or felt like it did, anyway.
Then he was assaulted with notifications.
He ignored them for now, the panels moving to the side and fading away as he took in his surroundings, trying to get his bearings.
As expected, it was dark in here. Impossibly dark. The only thing he could see were the faint outlines of the notifications.
At some point, Sin had settled on his shoulder.
Joshua turned around to look back out the entrance, expecting to see nothing but a wall of black.
But that wasn’t the case, he could see out just fine, see the trail leading up to the cave entrance.
It didn’t make sense, because no light reached inside the cave—he couldn’t even see his own hands—yet he was somehow able to see out.
“I think that should be physically impossible.”
Sin squawked a mercifully quiet warning and Joshua swore as he spotted the kobold and goblin approaching up the slope.
Hoping they hadn’t seen him through the wall of shadow, he moved deeper into the darkness of the cavern. Unable to see where he was going, he awkwardly held his pack against his chest with one hand, and ran the other along the smooth stone wall to feel his way in, stepping carefully.
Despite his caution he suddenly found his left foot coming down onto air instead of ground.
“Whhooooa!” he cried out as he began to topple forward. He dropped the bag and spun his arms wildly to regain some semblance of balance.
It did not work, and he found himself crashing into and then tumbling down an embankment.
At least it’s not a cliff, he thought as he did wild unintentional somersaults down a slope that the unnatural pervasive darkness made invisible. He tried throwing out his arms and legs to arrest his fall, but while this stopped his tumbling, he continued sliding down.
The surface was hardpacked dirt and he couldn’t dig his fingers or the rubbery heels of his Crocs in enough to stop himself.
He slid for what felt like at least a minute, neither slowing down nor gaining speed, having reached an equilibrium. He wasn’t sure, but he thought it was getting brighter. He could almost see the ground he was on.
Ahead of him he saw the ground turn black once more.
As he slid onto what he expected to be darker—and perhaps softer—dirt, he suddenly found himself flying into the air.
It is a cliff! his mind shouted at him a moment before landing with a splash into icy cold water.
He lay there, stunned and heaving, wind half-knocked out of him, the water flowing around the sides of his face. It was a scant five or six inches deep, and had only barely dampened his fall.
He crooked his head down, reluctantly checking whether any of his limbs were at angles they shouldn’t be. His arms moved normally and without pain, and both feet were poking up above the several-inch-deep water, both thankfully pointed in the right direction.
“Oh look, my Crocs stayed on.”
It took him a moment to recognize that there was light enough to see by now. That or his vision had adjusted during his tumultuous tumble.
Sin was fluttering around him, squawking, having left his shoulder at some point and followed him down in a much less painful fashion.
Joshua sat up, waving the bird away.
It landed on his head.
He didn’t have the energy to care.
“I hope this isn’t a sewer.”
Reluctantly, he lifted his wet arm to his nose.
Didn’t smell like one.
“Well, I guess I finally found water. Yay.”
He looked back up the way he’d fallen. He could see the faintest hint of light, just enough to show how long and steep the incline was.
There would be no climbing back up it. Not without climbing gear.
“Stuck underground. That’s fantastic. Not like I’m claustrophobic or had nightmares for days as a kid after watching Ryan Reynolds stuck in a coffin for ninety minutes.”
Sighing, he took in his surroundings. He appeared to be in some kind of underground river, if a small one.
The water flowed in from under a wall to his right and continued to his left, curving out of sight around a bend in the cavern. The ceiling was a good ten-feet high and made of smooth rock that nevertheless looked naturally formed. The water was maybe eight feet across and took up the entire bottom. There was a small ledge just big enough to stand on several yards to his left, but no bank or walkway.
Which meant he would be trudging through water to get out of here.
“At least it’s not sewer water,” he groaned as he got to his feet. He was a little sore, but was happy to confirm nothing was broken. Surprisingly, his clothes were still intact after the long slide. “Weird, but I’m not going to complain about it.”
This made him remember the shards in his pocket, and he quickly checked to see if they were still there or if they’d broken.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
They were all there, and seemed okay, but he activated the information panel on each just to be sure.
The rabbit and wolf were both still depleted, but otherwise had no change. He closed the windows for these, but kept the one to his new daemon shard, the octovine illusionist, open.
Daemon: [Octovine Illusionist]
Abilities: ★★★
Attack: ★
Defense: ★
Speed: ★
Durability: ★
Agency: ★★★★
Growth: ★★
“One-star speed and it was outrunning me?” Maybe he was more injured than he realized.
He put the shards back in his pocket for now, and inspected the wall to his right.
There was an opening at the bottom of it out of which the water flowed, but it was too small to crawl through.
“Want to take a look?” he asked Sin.
Sin pecked the top of his head twice.
“Stop that. And get down from there.”
Sin hopped from his head to his shoulder.
Joshua brought up his map, but as expected, it didn’t show him what was beyond the wall, revealing only areas he’d previously been. As he tried panning around, he discovered that even where he’d traveled before was obscured.
“Did my map reset?”
As he zoomed out, he realized the map had simply changed to focus on his current area below ground.
“Like a dungeon map. Great. Am I in a dungeon? Is that a thing here? Is that why I couldn’t see inside through that wall of black?”
This made him remember the messages he’d gotten upon entering. They were to the side of his vision, faded and shrunk so as to be almost unnoticeable.
With a thought he was able to bring them front and center. Controlling it this way was oddly disorienting, like someone answering your question as soon as you began to ask it.
Ongoing Quest Update: [The Basics of Life]
Shelter found. One of three basics of life remaining.
Quest Complete: [To Eat or To Seed]
The goblin and kobold are working together to guard the area around an ancient and forgotten dungeon. You’ve managed to discover this all while keeping your intestines empty and in place. Impressive.
Reward:
You have received [Joy Shard] × 100
You have received [Spirit Shard] × 10
New Quest: [Mysterious Dungeon]
Explore the dungeon and discover what nefarious deeds are conducted within.
Reward: Shards
Ongoing Quest Update: [The Basics of Life]
Water found. Zero of three basics of life remaining.
Quest Complete: [The Basics of Life]
You have found shelter, water, and danger.
Reward: Congratulations, now you might live to die another day… if diarrhea doesn’t get you first.
“Oh nice,” Joshua said sarcastically, “it is a dungeon.”
He was a little confused at having completed the To Eat or To Seed quest, as he hadn’t actually known they were guarding the area, nor had he been certain this was a dungeon, until reading the quest-completed message which told him these facts.
“At least it means I got away from them. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
And now this new quest wanted him to explore a dungeon. “I thought you were meant to help. Are you trying to get me killed?”
Sin squawked at him.
“Not you. My interface. Though you are the one who led me here.” Joshua let out a weary sigh, and returned his attention to the guide. “Are you still not going to tell me what joy shards and spirit shards are?”
Before, all the guide had told him was that he needed spirit shards to enhance his spells and talents, and joy shards to access the bazaar. This time, however, it actually showed him information on them.
[Joy Shard]
(shard)
The most common form of currency, joy shards may be crushed and inhaled to immediately produce feelings of joy and happiness.
[Spirit Shard]
(shard)
A concentrated source of spirit. Use to enhance your Aspects, Talents, or Spells.
“Inhaling shards. That doesn’t sound healthy.”
At least it finally told him what they were.
Was it telling him now because he’d actually gotten the items? He had felt his Identify spell cast and latch onto something nearby, so maybe he needed to have the item before it would tell him about it.
He frowned when he opened his inventory and found it still contained only the wolf’s organs. He was expecting either more slots or some kind of currency counter.
“Hey, where are my items?” He also remembered he’d dropped his pack of loot at the top of the slope.
If the items weren’t in his inventory, they couldn’t be too far away since he’d felt his Identify spell cast on them.
Sin squawked and fluttered up the embankment, then back down, circling around Joshua.
“They’re up there? I guess that makes sense. That’s where I was when I got the messages. What did they do, just fall at my feet as soon as I entered the cave? Surprised I didn’t trip over them.” Joshua sighed. “I wish I could fit more in my inventory.”
Would you like to enhance Spell [Storage]?
Enhancing [Storage] from ❬0❭ to ❬1❭ will increase item capacity to 20.
“Um, yes. And why didn’t you ask me that sooner?”
Enhancing Spell [Storage] requires 1 spirit shard. You currently have 0 spirit shards. You cannot enhance [Storage] at this time.
“Oh, right.” Joshua looked at Sin. “Can you fly up there and get those shards?”
Sin cawed happily and took off up the embankment.
Joshua watched it go with a frown. “I really hope the goblin and kobold don’t see you.”