Day 489

“Are you ready for your last lesson?” Solizzar asked Alanna, who was busy packing all her equipment into a rugged leather backpack. Excitement was written all over her face. There was still a torch slowly burning away in her room, but she hadn’t needed it since taking the goblin extract. It just made her room feel cozier.

“I sure am!” she said confidently. “I can’t believe you prepared an entire obstacle course.”

“It was a lot of work, but you should have a final test for your graduation,” Solizzar stated. The hint of pride in his voice made Alanna giddy. “Just return with the treasure at the end of the course and you’ll be wilderness-worthy!”

She strapped the backpack to her back. It had a few items in there that no decent adventurer or explorer would do without: ropes, torches, a flint and steel set, two regeneration exilers just in case, and a few other things. Her sword was sheathed by her side. Solizzar insisted she’d need it before the end, but wouldn’t tell her why, just that it wouldn’t be dangerous. He inspected the contents of her backpack for her before giving her an approving thumbs up… Or well, a worm up.

“Five stars, you have everything you need except for this.” He took a scroll out of his robes and handed it to her. It was an intricately detailed map of the caves beneath their home, one that could have easily been the product of an expert cartographer's hand. She knew it was all Solizzar’s work, his handwriting was quite distinctive in its elegance. “Just follow the map. If you get lost, come back here and we’ll try again later.”

“I won’t need a second chance,” Alanna responded, which made Solizzar chuckle.

He led her to the entrance of the deeper caves. Everyone with a lick of knowledge about the outside world knew that beneath all the great mountain ranges of the world lay vast networks of caverns known as the Underworld. The first mile down was usually unimpressive and barren, but once you got deep enough you’d start finding forests of fungi and fauna not found anywhere else. This included monsters, of course, as well as a few humanoid races that dared delve in the deep.

However, she wasn’t supposed to go quite that far down. Just an hour down, an hour back, and as long as she followed the map she shouldn’t run into anything dangerous.

“If anything happens, don’t be afraid to run,” Solizzar said. “A lot of people forget that running is an option.” There was a hint of trepidation in his voice.

“Don’t worry so much,” Alanna reassured him. “You personally cleared the entire route yesterday. I’ll be fine! We haven’t been training all this time just for me to slip and crack my head open on a rock on the last day!”

Solizzar tried to smile, but failed to make it look convincing.She probably shouldn’t have planted that mental image in his head.

She started to walk, figuring that if he was going to hesitate she should take the initiative today. “I’ll be back before you know it!” she yelled loud enough to make it echo. That seemed to startle him out of his train of thoughts and he waved at her.

She noticed he was leaning on his staff. Normally he would use his magic as a crutch, not his staff, and she wondered what that could mean. However, she resolved to finish this final test first. She had to concentrate, so she waved back at Solizzar and bounded off towards the Underworld.

The first few minutes going down were easy. The cave was wide enough for three people to walk abreast and tall enough that a fully grown orc could stand upright in it, and the descent was little more than a shallow slope. It didn’t take long for that to change. The width and height of the cave started to vary more, forcing Alanna to squeeze through a few narrow gaps or crawl through places where the ceiling came too low. It was a good warm up, but not more than that.

She started seeing light up ahead. She knew what it was, but she couldn’t help herself and ran forward, eager to finally see a sight she had only seen before in illustrations.

The tunnel opened into a much wider cavern, filled with glowing fungi in all colors of the rainbow. Tall stalks capped with broad blue mushrooms rained a gentle dusting of spores down into the cave, while fleshy orange fronds made their home beneath. The floor was a carpet of blues, yellows and reds, squishing beneath Alanna’s boots as she walked into the cave.

It was beautiful. Alanna thought back on her time in the orphanage, when she’d often spend whole days imagining herself as one of the adventurers in her children’s books, going to places no humanoid had seen before. Walking into this cavern felt like stepping into one of those stories. She didn’t think the hurt of living through those hopeless days would ever go away, but in this moment, she felt some of that pain slip.

She found her first obstacle. Before her was a pit, clearly artificial considering its perfectly square walls, with several tall platforms in the middle. She looked at her map. A note was attached to this area.

“Follow the stepping stones, but do not stray from them!” it said. She looked down into the pit. It was a short fall, just enough to bruise her but not cause any serious harm, but the entire floor of the pit was covered in a thick purple mushroom. She recognized it immediately. Plump helmets. They were completely harmless, and in fact were one of the few things down here that were edible without any amount of cooking, but she figured that if she fell down there she’d be covered in purple goop that’d be impossible to wash off with just the water in her waterskin.

She laughed inwardly. It was a simple challenge with an easy lose condition. If she came back with the treasure but covered in purple goo, she loses! Alanna made quick work of the stepping stones, jumping from one to the other with little effort until she made it to the other side.

She made her way further down. The forest of mushrooms did not go far past the larger cave once she left it, save for a spattering of glowcaps here and there. The descent was becoming steeper as well, she found herself frequently relying on handholds as she moved down the steeper slopes.

Eventually she found another artificial obstacle. Another pit full of plump helmets, but this time it curved around the corner, and the only way around was a thin edge. A climbing test this time, Alanna figured.

She pressed herself up against the wall and began to scoot along the protruding edge. This was more a test of patience and technique than a test of agility. She had to carefully place her feet to avoid tripping or slipping, keep her eyes open for handholds to help her balance and not exhaust herself as she made her way around the bend.

The glow of the plump helmets gave everything a violet hue, but she admitted that without her newfound darkvision she would never have been able to do this without a torch. Those extracts are really amazing, she thought, though Solizzar hadn’t told her what he’d plan to do with them. Sell them? Hand them out for free to give average folk everywhere a chance at a better life? She wasn’t sure. He had evaded the question every time, saying “I’ll figure that out in due time.”

Old man and his secrets, she thought. There were some things he just refused to talk about, and Alanna stopped trying to nudge him into opening up.

It took about half an hour, but she finally made it around the bend and continued on her way.

The air was getting hotter and more humid, and mushrooms started to become more prevalent even outside those hollows that held enough moisture for them to grow. She was getting close to the Underworld proper, which meant she was near the end of her test.

A featureless wall, about 15 feet high, rose up to block her path. It was perfectly smooth, so undoubtedly another product of Solizzar’s magic. A test of endurance and strength, she guessed.

She took out her grappling hook and a length of rope, attached one to the other, and threw with all her might, barely getting the hook over the wall. Her strength had increased only one point since her training started to a measly nine, which showed just how difficult getting ability scores through regular exercise was. It wasn’t impossible, but leveling up got you results much quicker, and both the body and the mind had limits on how far training alone could push them.

She pulled the ripe and felt the hook snag on the other side of the wall. Then she started the climb, using her arms for leverage as she pushed herself up the wall with her legs. It was hard, slow work, but she managed, bit by bit, using the technique Solizzar had taught her. When she crested the wall, she straddled it, reversing the grip of the hook, then rappled down the other side.

By the time she was done she was breathing hard and had worked up quite a sweat. She uncorked her waterskin and took a few deep gulps, relishing in the soothing cool of the water radiating through her body, then sat down to check her map.

“Last stop,” she said aloud as she followed her route with her finger. There was a picture drawn on the map of a crude monster face, maybe a goblin or an orc, with a little skull-and-crossbones sign to indicate danger, followed immediately by a treasure chest. She wasn’t sure what Solizzar had prepared as her final challenge, but she drew her sword and approached carefully.

Only a few minutes after the wall did she run into the final room. It was a great circular hollow. There was a humidity to the cave she hadn’t felt anywhere else, the ground feeling actually soggy as she stepped forward. A few glowcaps illuminated the walls, while a few other hardy fungi managed to grow in patches along the floor. On the far side she saw the treasure chest, and between her and it stood… The training dummy from Solizzar’s home.

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She covered her face with her hand and suppressed a chuckle. Of course Solizzar wasn’t going to have her fight another monster after what happened last time. She had improved greatly since then, but he clearly didn’t want to risk her getting severely injured so far from any help. She saw a note attached to the dummy.

She strode across the mushrooms towards it. The fungi patches here gave off a musty, acrid smell, though they didn’t look any different from the ones she had seen before. She simply avoided the mushrooms where possible and took the note, reading it.

“Dear Alanna,

Congratulations on making it this far! I had no doubt you could do it. To finish your final test, perform thirty strikes, thirty thrusts, thirty sidesteps, and thirty parries against your opponent here. I will have no way to check if you did or not, but I’ll believe you if you said you did. Once you’re done, collect your treasure and return home.

Again, congratulations! You’ve earned this.

* Solizzar.”

Alanna felt herself tearing up reading the note. She had worked so hard to get here. More than anything, she felt pride, this time not in knowing Solizzar believed in her, but in herself. It had been well over a year since she was exiled, and now she felt like she was actually becoming a person rather than someone’s burden or accessory.

A rhythmic clicking noise grew in intensity behind her. She turned just in time to see a massive insect barreling towards her. Her body moved before her mind, throwing herself out of the way as it barreled over the training dummy, filling the air with splinters.

It hissed angrily. Alanna got to her feet as quickly as she could, picking up her fallen sword and facing the creature. It was a massive centipede, easily as tall as a warhorse and thrice as long. Alanna recognized immediately this wasn’t an ordinary monster, this was a mutant. Mutants were either animals that had turned into monsters, or monsters that had turned into a new variant of themselves. Some mutants were unique, others would go on to become their own species.

She didn’t recognize this thing, which meant it was likely a unique creature. That did little to diminish her fear. There was no thrill of discovery here, as this thing could easily bite her head off, crush her beneath its weight, and its mandibles dripped with reeking venom.

She made the decision a heartbeat later and ran. From the corners of her eyes she saw now how foolish she had been. There were holes in the walls at the same height as the floor, partially hidden in the glow of the mushrooms. This thing had burrowed into this open space and probably found it a suitable nest. That’s where all the bad smells had been coming from! If she had taken her time to think she would never have been ambushed like this and she cursed herself for letting her guard down. Just because Solizzar had prepared this area didn’t mean it was guaranteed to be safe.

The creature barreled after her. She looked behind her as she ran and saw that the creature’s many legs frequently got caught on jutting rocks and slipped on mushroom patches, like some sort of drunk. She didn’t have time to think, even with her fast legs and its clumsy pursuit it gained on her in no time and lunged to strike with its maw.

She brought her sword up to turn away the creature, but it was so heavy it felt like she was trying to move a rolling log. Instead she used what leverage she had to move herself out of the way of the strike. It barely worked. She collided with the side of the creature’s head and had the wind knocked out of her, rolling away until she hit the side of the cave.

She saw stars and struggled to refill her lungs, but she realized she couldn’t stop or the next attack would certainly kill her. She tried to push herself up and grab her sword, just out of arm’s reach, when she realized the mutant centipede wasn’t looking at her.

She stopped. The creature scanned the room with its milky white compound eyes. It turned towards her…Then away again.

Alanna stayed perfectly still, trying not to cough from her aching chest, as she realized this creature was entirely blind. Unless they were from an established subspecies, mutants were incredibly unpredictable. Sometimes a creature that was entirely landbound would have a mutant offspring that grew wings and could fly. Sometimes it gained the ability to breathe fire or freeze other living things with a touch. But these changes aren’t always beneficial. Sometimes these creatures would gain weaknesses, such as the ability to breathe water but not air, or a weakness to electricity, or had an easily identifiable weak spot in an otherwise impenetrable carapace.

This creature might have gained immense size and power, but it had completely lost its eyesight in turn. It was looking for Alanna, but as long as she stayed perfectly still, it wouldn’t find her. That’s when it started moving, slowly, deliberately, using the long antenna on its head to feel around the cave floor.

It knew she was still here, and if she couldn’t find a way out of this situation, it would find her eventually.

She saw the centipede was heading away from her, and after it approached the far wall she dared to reach out and take up her sword again. She almost had it when the blade just slightly scraped the rocky cavern floor.

The creature’s head perked up like an alerted hound. It had definitely heard that minute sound, but it didn’t immediately attack. Instead it began heading in her direction, feeling around with its antenna for its prey.

The mounting pressure was making her heart pound in her ears. Think! she thought to herself.She had only a few spare moments before it would find her. If its hearing was that acute running wasn’t an option, it would hear her immediately and she had no hope of outrunning something that fast. She wasn’t even sure she could get up without alerting it.

She thought back to her training, to the many instructions Solizzar gave, but her mind instead drifted to the goblin whose essence she stole. An image came into being in her mind, that of her stabbing a creature in the back, straight through its heart. That was the idea she needed, but she had no practical way of reaching the creature’s vitals… Not unless it got dangerously close.

That, however, could be arranged.

She picked up handful of small rocks. She was only gonna get one shot at this. There was so much adrenaline rushing through her body it felt like time had slowed down. Bracing herself, she flicked one of the rocks to her side.

It hit the rocky floor with a crack. The centipede responded immediately to the sound, its entire body tensing up. She flicked two more rocks. That was enough, the creature barreled towards the space the noise had come from.

It was fast, but this time that proved to be to its detriment. As its antenna brushed past Alanna and the creature realized it had been fooled, Alanna towards it and used all her might to ram her blade down into the creature's head.

“You have dealt 3 damage!”

It was a pitiful damage number, but she hit the creature exactly where she intended. Bitter yellow ichor sprayed all over her as her sword bisected the creature’s brain. It trashed, throwing Alanna onto her back, slammed against the wall, then fell onto its back. It let out a hiss as its legs contracted towards its own body. Then it grew still.

Alanna was only just able to process what had happened when a series of messages entered her mind.

“You have leveled up! You have leveled up! Weather Reader, Lesser replaced with Weather Reader. ”

Her body instantly felt better. She pulled up her status and was amazed at the improvements she saw.

“Half-Rabbitfolk Peasant.

Level 3.

Hitpoints: 13/17

Mana: 8/8

Strength: 9

Dexterity: 13

Constitution: 10

Intelligence: 12

Wisdom: 13

Charisma: 10

Experience: 13.2%.

Feats: [Good Runner (Racial)], [Great Hearing (Racial)], [Weather Reader (Class)], [Darkvision (Racial)], [Goblin Trapfinding (Racial)] [Plant Analyzer (Class)], [Animal Analyzer (Class)]

Conditions: None”

Her hitpoints had increased drastically. Her Class abilities were predictably useless for combat, but now she would be able to take significantly more of a pummeling than before. She was incredibly excited, already thinking of showing off her gains to Solizzar.

However, first things first. She got up and brushed some of the gunk that had ended up on her during the fight. It was mostly dirt with a few squashed mushrooms. None of them were purple, luckily, so there was no chance of it looking like she had fallen on the obstacle course.

She headed up towards the treasure chest, thankfully still intact, and pushed it open. Within she saw something that looked like clothing, with another note on top.

“Dear Alanna,

I trust that you completed your exercises! Now that your training is complete, this is my last gift to you. No matter what you decide to do with your life, this will keep you safe.

Your humble mentor and friend.

- Solizzar”

She pulled out what she thought were clothes, only to realize they were far more valuable. Within was a suit of armor, made from fine leather plates, studded with steel. This was true adventurer’s gear, durable enough to protect from animal bites, primitive arrows and crude blades, all without weighing you down. Richer adventurers would opt for fully metal armor, but that stuff was heavy and not all Classes could use it effectively. This was the sort of armor all non-arcane casters would wish they started off with.

She hugged the cuirass close, letting out a few grateful tears.

The armor fit neatly over her clothes. It felt sturdy and flexible, giving her a sense of safety, and it made no noise while she moved. After her fight with the mutant centipede she was especially grateful for that last part.

However, there was one more thing to take care of before she headed home… The centipede. Surely one of its parts could be used to brew an extract, but she had forgotten to bring any silver dust. She cursed inwardly, when she remembered that she had been carrying some silver dust in her pocket a few days ago to assist Solizzar. She stuck her fingers into that pocket and they came out slightly glittery. She had just a few grains of silver to work with, enough to test one part of the centipede’s body. Now she had to decide which.

She opted for the head. If it worked for the goblin, she figured it would work with the centipede as well. She spent a point off mana, infusing it into the dust as Solizzar instructed. Doing so made her fingertips feel cold, as though the process drained the heat from her body, and she saw the dust glimmer on her skin. They smeared it across the centipede’s head.

Nothing. No glow. She cursed, but saw that a few grains had ended up closer to the centipede’s maw and were ever so slightly glittering in the dark.

Gathering up grains from the centipede’s head she instead applied them around its mouth, which still drooled a mixture of saliva and ichor, and saw to her delight that the grains that touched the centipede’s mandibles were now glowing.

She took her sword and cut them off. Now she had two sets of trophies to bring home.