Liana shrugged. “Always go left, isn’t that the saying?” The younger twin drew her weapons and headed for the left tunnel. Lilith chuckled and settled in to wait, doing some squats and other stretches to keep her muscles warmed up, expecting more fighting. After a few minutes, Liana appeared from the tunnel and nodded to her.
Lilith readied her sword and shield and moved over to her sister, who gestured. “Tunnel is clear to the next room, or at least I didn’t find any traps. There’s three little green guys in there with daggers, just wearing loincloths. Sharp teeth, too, so probably biters.”
Lilith tapped her chin as she considered Liana’s report. “Bites may cause infection, too. We don’t have a way to cure that, so we’ll have to be careful.” She shrugged as she looked at her sister. “I can heal, but it doesn’t seem like the spells fix disease or infection. Maybe they rank up with use?”
Liana nodded – it sounded reasonable. She sheathed her blades, then wiggled her fingers a few times. She looked at Lilith, who raised an eyebrow at her. “What? Some spells require precise finger movements.” Liana paused a moment. “Probably.”
Lilith smirked and walked towards the tunnel. Liana shrugged and drew her weapons, following her sister. She’d been doing that for as long as she could remember, she thought to herself. But she didn’t mind. Lilith was the only person she cared about and she’d do anything for her, including killing someone. Maybe I am fucked up in the head, Liana thought, but she’s my sister and if she wants someone dead, then I’ll find a way to make it happen.
Lilith walked down the tunnel, unaware of her sister’s train of thought at the moment. She would have known if she had seen her face, but she was concerned with her own thoughts at the moment. For one, how did they get here? And they still didn’t know where here was. Another world, apparently, or so she believed from how Malis had said “this world". But was it the same universe or dimension or whatever?
It was a lot to puzzle over, but she pushed the thoughts aside. Knowing the answer wouldn’t help them survive this dungeon and the trip to the fortress. And if they wanted answers, that’s what they had to do. At least they had weapons, armor, and magic, as well as the willingness to use them. To Lilith, that was the most important part – having all that didn’t matter if you weren’t willing to use any of it. They’d both proven their willingness to use violence on Earth, and they weren’t going to back down on this world.
She focused as she arrived at the room, crouching down. Liana arrived a few moments later, crouching next to her. Lilith looked as Liana pointed out the enemies – goblins, perhaps? Whatever.
Liana leaned close and whispered in Lilith’s ear. “I didn’t see an exit earlier, so this may be a dead end. But we don’t want to leave any enemies behind us.”
Lilith nodded, then looked at her sister and raised an eyebrow, wiggling her fingers slightly. Liana shook her head, raising her nose with a disdainful look on her face. Lilith grinned, getting the meaning – Liana didn’t want to waste the spell on these.
Lilith gripped her sword and shield, then walked a few feet into the room. She sheathed her sword and began casting; the sound of her voice alerted the goblins, as the twins thought of them, and they began hooting and running towards her. She finished her spell and a blast of negative energy streamed from above one of the creatures, striking it and making it shriek as it fell.
Lilith ignored it and set her shield even as she began another spell. She caught a flicker of movement from the corner of her eye as Liana stepped forward, casting her own spell at the goblin in front. The goblin stumbled and babbled as the spell connected, but recovered and continued charging, although it was now trailing the third goblin.
That goblin reached Lilith just as she finished her spell, stabbing at her with its dagger. She deflected with her shield as her spell went off, striking the goblin she’d hit previously – it was getting up, making it an easy target. It gurgled and fell over, lying still. Lilith stepped back, keeping her shield between herself and her attacker, frustrating the little creature. It wasn’t frustrated for long, however, as Liana moved behind the distracted monster, stabbing it in the back of the neck. Blood poured from its mouth as the creature fell to its knees, then facedown onto the cave floor.
The last goblin hesitated, dagger pointing forward as it considered its options while facing the dark elven twins. Teeth bared, it hissed as it slowly backed away from them. Liana looked at her sister, who shrugged at her. She turned to look at the goblin, then sheathed her blades. Liana drew her hand crossbow, loaded it, aimed, then fired at the retreating creature. The bolt flew across the short distance and imbedded itself into the goblin's right eye. The creature fell backwards, the dagger it held slipping from nerveless fingers.
Liana returned the crossbow to the holster on her belt as Lilith walked over to her. “That crossbow is pretty handy, Lia.”
The younger twin nodded in agreement. “I guess I could have used a spell, but I wanted to test my aim. Dark elves are supposed to be good shots, right?”
“That’s what I’ve read, yes.” Lilith drew her sword and walked over to where the first goblin had fallen. She stabbed the body in the chest and it yelped, then fell still again. “Thought I saw it move; guess I was right.”
Liana chuckled, then pointed to the back of the room. “Looks like a camp or something. We should check it out, might be some loot.”
The two dark elves walked to the small camp, holding their nose as they drew closer – the smell almost overpowered them. Grimacing, Lilith used her sword to dig through the trash and filthy bedding, finding nothing of value. The two teenagers hurried away from the site after that was done, barely breathing until they were at the entrance of the room.
“Fuck me, that was disgusting.” Liana gagged a little, then took a mouthful of water from the waterskin in her bag and rinsed her mouth. She spat the water on the ground. “Too bad we don’t have magical air filters.”
Lilith nodded in agreement, deciding to follow her sister’s example. Finishing up and spitting the water out, she took a drink, then capped the waterskin and put it in her bag. “Goblins or not, those weren’t much of a challenge. Even the rats seemed tougher.” She thought for a minute. “I bet they’d be devastating in a huge group, though.”
Liana capped her own waterskin and returned it to her bag. “You’re probably right. Swarm tactics are a valid strategy unless you’re fighting a spellcaster with AoE spells.” She drew her blades one at a time, wiping them clean with a rag she made from a shirt in her bag. “I hope I get some AoE spells, even if they’re point-blank range or whatever. I bet you will, if you decide to be a priestess or whatever they call them here.”
“Maybe? That white mage job had the Holy spell, but I doubt I’d be much of a white mage,” Lilith said, making Liana giggle. “I’m sure there’s some sort of priest class or job or whatever here I could do. Malis said she’d accept me, so there’s that to consider.”
Liana crouched. “Yeah, you always did like the divine classes the best. I’d like to be a magic assassin or whatever the equivalent is here. But if this world is like it was on Earth, I think the closest would be a bard or some other hybrid caster class. I wonder how my singing voice is? Oh, or I could be a dancing bard!”
Lilith laughed as Liana stood up and twirled around, arms out wide, then did a backwards flip. “Okay, that flip was cool. Maybe you should be a kung fu master or something.”
“Huh, that might actually be cool, if they have powers like the monks in games.” Lilith rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “How fucking cool would it be to punch a dragon and knock that bitch out?”
Lilith pondered that for a few moments, considering that image, then nodded. She could see her trying it, anyway. “I could see you doing that. Maybe you should consider it as an option.”
Liana straightened up, a thoughtful look on her face. “I dunno, magic assassin sounds pretty fucking awesome. Even if I’d have to be a bard or something, but I could make it work. I’m pretty awesome.” She turned and started walking down the tunnel. “Meet me at the other tunnel? I’ll scout.”
As Liana ran off, Lilith had to agree that yes, her sister was pretty awesome. She smiled to herself as she jogged down the tunnel, reaching the entrance to the other passage after a couple of minutes. Lilith stretched, noting that while she was a little sore, it wasn’t much more than after a hard workout. She attributed it to the fact she hadn’t done much actual fighting, relying on spells more than anything else.
It took longer for her sister to return this time, but just when she was about to start down the tunnel, concerned she might be hurt, Liana exited the tunnel. “Sorry it took so long. I found the exit and took a look around outside.”
Lilith raised an eyebrow. “The exit? Not much of a dungeon if there were only two rooms.”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing, but this is basically a newbie quest, right? So it sort of makes sense – get a little combat experience, try out some magic, then a little exploration,” Liana said, nodding. “When you look at it that way, it’s perfect. We have a few days of travel, so we’ll probably have some more fights along the way to the fortress.”
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The last room was clear, as Liana had said. Liana pointed out signs of recent movement, but nothing appeared before they reached the exit. The dark elves crouched at the dungeon exit (or maybe entrance, they thought) to again see if anything was nearby.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Outside the dungeon, a small clearing, maybe twenty feet across by thirty feet wide, surrounded the entrance. The grass in the clearing was tall, reaching up to almost their knees. Past the clearing was a forest, with overgrown brush along the edges, although the twins could see a path leading away through the trees.
Lilith considered their options as she took a compass from her bag. She handed the compass to Liana, who took it and checked it, then pointed in the direction the path led. Liana had done a survival training course a few years earlier because she thought it was interesting, and afterwards she’d taught Lilith some basics. Lilith had gotten interested in plants from that, and spent some time learning uses for different herbs and plants.
Of course, that might not apply here, she thought, frowning. They were on a different world, or that’s how they would treat it until they confirmed one way or another. We’ll have to go with the worst-case scenario, as if our training won’t apply. Lilith turned to her sister, who was keeping watch while Lilith thought things over.
“For now, we’ll go with the compass heading, but we need to find someone we can interrogate to confirm it’s right.” The word interrogate made Liana’s eyes brighten, and Lilith suppressed a giggle. Her sister had a lot of ideas on how to make people answer questions, and none of them were pleasant. “Let’s go slowly until we get an idea of what we’re dealing with.”
Liana nodded, drawing her hand crossbow and loading it before checking the sky. It was beginning to grow dark, which would suit the dark elves perfectly. Their dark skin would be a bonus then, as would their darkvision. Liana led the way, scouting ahead, as the twins set off.
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The twins had no way of knowing that they were technically in enemy territory. While they were located on Slaosi Island, which was controlled by Malis' church, the section they were in was overrun with bandits. The bandits were left alone, for the most part, as long as they didn’t interfere with church business or attack church property.
The forest surrounding the dungeon was “claimed" by a group of bandits and slavers calling themselves the Scars. They were a small group, currently with eight members. They had a small group of six slaves with them, freshly captured from a raid on a nearby village. The village was comprised of mixed races, mostly beastkin but also some wood elves. The slavers currently had five beastkin and one wood elf as captives, with plans to sell them to the church.
The twins had been traveling for almost two days when Liana spotted the slavers. They had been traveling at night and resting during the day, taking advantage of their dark skin and ability to see at night. They had run into a few goblin patrols, two or three to a group, but other than that, they had encountered no issues.
They had discovered a few things about their new bodies. For one, they didn’t really sleep. They discovered they could meditate for four to five hours, after which they would feel completely rested. They had tested this and found that they were still able to react to outside influences, such as an alarm. This made it easier, and they were able to travel much faster, using an alarm spell to let them meditate at the same time.
Both twins were also naturally more dexterous now, which didn’t surprise them, as that was common belief on Earth. It did make them wonder how much of the elven lore back home was actually fact, and if the basis for the many games came from this world. They experimented and found that armor did in fact restrict their movement, with the chainmail Lilith being more restrictive.
After more experiments, they sat and discussed their findings, and finally agreed the world seemed to be modeled after a very popular tabletop RPG they had played, albeit online at a virtual tabletop website with a large number of games available. As they were both familiar with the game, that would give them a huge advantage if they could confirm it as true. Which would hopefully be in the next few days, when they believed they would arrive at the fortress.
They had found a solitary home the morning after leaving the dungeon and, donning hooded cloaks they found in their bags, stopped and confirmed they were headed the correct direction. They didn’t mention the fortress, just that they were looking for a village to the west, and that they wanted to make sure they hadn’t gotten turned around. The husband and wife confirmed they were headed in the right direction, and that there was a village a day or two farther along. The couple also warned them about the bandit gangs in the area of the village.
After a short discussion, the twins decided they would check out the village. It could be a useful resource, especially if they ever needed to return to this area and needed supplies. It would add a few hours to their trip, but gaining information would be worth it. And they might be able to acquire or steal some mounts – they had some gold in the bags they’d been given.
They arrived at the village, which they were told didn’t have an official name, about three hours before dawn. They were able to see it easily due to several houses being on fire. The dark elves approached closer, but didn’t enter, instead choosing to watch from a distance.
The scene in the village was chaos. A group of men stood in the center of the village, surrounded by what the twins guessed to be villagers, all kneeling on the ground. They could hear shouting from the men before one, who they picked out as the leader, drew a sword and stabbed one of the villagers. As the dark elves slowly circled the village to do reconnaissance, they found something unexpected.
Hiding at the edge of the forest was a group of younger people, mostly children, with two young adults. They were mostly beastkin, with two elves, and they were all trying to remain as silent as possible. The two young adults looked to be in their late teens or early twenties, and were both female, with one being a catgirl and the other an elf. Liana poked Lilith excitedly when she saw the older catgirl, making Lilith grin – Liana had a thing for catgirls.
Lilith leaned close to her sister and whispered directly into her ear. “Thoughts? If we help, we might be able to get some information, or even servants if we play it correctly.”
Liana nodded, pointing at the catgirl, then herself – of course she wanted the catgirl – then the elf, before pointing at Lilith. Lilith didn’t have a thing for elves like her sister did for catgirls, but from what she could see, the girl was attractive, and Lilith didn’t want an ugly servant. She nodded agreement to Liana, who quietly approached the group, then picked up a pebble and tossed it, gently striking the catgirl on the shoulder.
The young woman jumped and spun around to see a hooded figure beckoning her, while also gesturing for her to remain silent. She tapped the elf on the shoulder, pointing to the hooded figure pointing at the two of them and repeating the “come here" motion. Frowning, the elf looked at the catgirl, then shrugged and nodded. The two young women moved towards the stranger after bidding the other youngsters to remain quiet and stay put.
Liana led the two a few feet away, still in sight of the children, to where Lilith waited. When the three arrived, the dark elves crouched down, and the two villagers followed their example.
Lilith spoke quietly. “Bandit raid?”
“Slavers,” the elf replied, her voice almost musical even though she spoke softly. She had black hair that hung to her waist. “They’re here to capture the younger people, but a hunter was returning late and spotted them, then warned everyone. The older villagers stayed to give us time to hide.”
Lilith nodded, looking back towards the village, where another male villager had apparently been killed. “We can help you, but there’s a price for it. Or we can continue our journey and leave you to remain in hiding and hope the slavers don’t have a tracker. It will be difficult to hide the tracks of a group this large.”
“Also, why didn’t you fight? There’s only eight of them, and over twenty of you.” Liana was genuinely curious, as she would never have let the men push her around.
The catgirl answered that question. “T-the slavers all have combat Paths, and one is a spellcaster of some sort. Everyone in the village that has a Path follows a non-combat Paths. Analie…" She gestured to the elf. “Analie and I know what Path we want, but the elders are against us choosing them, so we’ve refused to take one at all.” The catgirl looked defeated.
Liana nodded. She’d have done the same, refusing to select something she didn’t want, but she’d still have picked up a weapon and stabbed as many of those fuckers as she could before they took her. “Okay, so basically the people in the village are pussies who are afraid to fight, got it.” Analie and the catgirl looked at her, shocked, while Lilith just grinned.
“What? We’re all thinking it. You two don’t have training or whatever, I get it. First time is rough. But they’re all older and probably been in this situation before, and they laid down like fucking sheep rather than fight.” Liana grimaced. “So yeah, they’re pussies. And if you want us to help, like my sister said, it’ll cost you.”
Analie glared at Liana, who just stared back at her before lowering her hood. “We’re not a fucking charity. We didn’t have to stop, or even offer to help for a price.”
The two young women froze when Liana lowered her hood, recognizing her as a dark elf. Lilith lowered hers as well, now that they were revealed. “My sister is correct. We’re not going to harm you or force you to agree, but we do require payment of some sort. Two against eight is manageable, but we are still risking our lives.” Lilith shrugged. “We’re new to this world, and we have a lot to learn, but being paid for services rendered is common on our world.”
The two villagers looked at each other, then back at the dark elves. “You’re… not from this world?” Analie studied the twins for a moment, then looked at the catgirl. “Cara… I bet they’re Fated!”
Cara, the catgirl, just stared at them, her mouth open, before finally speaking in a hushed tone, awe evident in her voice. “Is… is that true? You were summoned to Irdean by one of the gods?” Her voice began to get a little louder towards the end and Analie hurriedly clamped a hand over the catgirl’s mouth.
Lilith shrugged, not knowing the term. “We were brought here by a goddess, yes, but we don’t know the term Fated. Is that what you call people summoned here?” Liana tapped Lilith on the shoulder, gesturing towards the village. “Right, we can play the question game later. Do you want our help? If so, our price is simple – we want you two to become our servants.”
The villagers looked at the dark elves, apparently considering the offer. Finally, Analie nodded. “I’ll do it. I’ll never get to follow the Path I want here, anyway. But I don’t want to be just a servant – I want to learn to fight and grow stronger. I’ll do whatever you want, be whatever, even warm your beds, if you promise me that.”
Lilith nodded. “I’ll agree to that. Neither of us will force you to service us in bed, but the rest is agreeable. How about you, Cara?” Liana leaned forward slightly, crossing her fingers. She wanted the pretty catgirl to go with them, and she’d gladly murder every one of those slavers four times over to make it happen. Lilith smirked as she glanced at her sister, seeing the eagerness in her body language.
Cara bit her lip and looked at Analie, then the dark elves, as she considered the situation. Finally, she nodded. “I’ll do it, but the same terms as Analie. And I want to be able to visit once in a while, to see my little sister.” She pointed at one of the other villagers, who seemed a year or two younger than Cara.
Lilith nodded her agreement. “That is acceptable. We won’t agree to a schedule, but we’ll try at least once a year if we’re able.” She looked at Liana, then back to the villagers. “We’ll see if there is some sort of magical contract when we get to our destination. For now, we’ll trust your word, but if you try to renege on our deal once we kill the slavers , we’ll kill everyone in the village and take you anyway. Except that way you’ll be slaves, not servants.”
The two villagers nodded their understanding quickly. Lilith stood, drawing her sword and shield as her sister readied her crossbow. They took a few moments to stretch, then headed toward the village. As they walked, Lilith looked at Liana, who had a sadistic smile on her face. She chuckled, almost feeling pity for any of the slavers who might be unlucky enough to survive.
Or, she thought, any of the villagers who might try to stop them from claiming their prize when this side quest was finished.
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