Dave needed some source of light to investigate the room further. His first thought was the text windows he got since they themselves seemed to be readable and illuminated somehow. So he pulled up the skill description for Spark and moved next to the door.

The window popped up and the soft bluish light lit the box. But even though the window was bright enough to read the text perfectly, for some strange reason no light passed over to the surrounding surfaces.

With a sigh Dave closed the window again.

He decided to study the door more carefully. As he ran his hands over it he was surprised to find it wasn’t made out of quite the same wood as the rest of the room. Or maybe it was just treated differently. The door felt sturdy but after knocking his knuckles against it a few times he judged it to be less than an inch thick. Of course he could be way off, he didn’t know much about wood. The window at the top was barely big enough for him to fit his hand through and he couldn’t see much of the hallway through it, only the opposite wall. But he could see that he somewhat judged the thickness of the door accordingly.

Pushing against it also didn’t seem to be doing much. Dave took the spear from the wall he had leaned it against and turned it around so that the blunt end was facing upwards. Then he hammered it against the door right at the spot where he would judge a lock to be.

A crash was heard and a jolt shot through Dave's whole body but the door only budged a little. Not satisfied with the result he tried again. This time he really set down and put his whole body into it, turning at the hips.

Again the door bulged but still held. This time it felt less stable though. He repeated the whole process a few times and felt like the door was shaking a bit more every time he tried. Dave quickly grew tired after hammering away like a madman for minutes but felt like he was making progress.

Leaning the spear against the wall again he took a rest. Examining his spear, he was happy with how it was holding up.

Dave held his hand close to the spot of the door he had pounded against and what he saw surprised him. The door had felt like polished wood before, very smooth to the touch but it looked like the outside bark of an oak tree. The musters of bark were running through the wood but he couldn’t feel it. At the spot he had worked on the wood was beginning to splinter, clearly showing signs that his method was effective.

Dave laughed about the obscurity of this whole situation, he found himself in a completely new world, with magical powers, in a cell trapped by magical creatures and his first instinct was to pound his spear against a wooden door.

While sitting there he suddenly was beginning to wonder if those squirrels had guards. He hadn’t even thought about the fact that he may be alerting these things with the noise he was making but luckily the hallway stayed quiet. If they came looking for him, he would probably try out something he once saw in a movie. Play wounded and hope they will check in on him. There had to be a reason they kept him alive and he was betting on them being interested in his well being. If they were to check in on him he would try to jump them with his new powers.

He had never fought anything before but he felt pretty confident in holding these little beasts off with his new powers. As long as there weren’t too many of them.

Feeling somewhat satisfied with his backup plan Dave went to work again. He repeated the whole process of hammering against the wall using his spear as a rammbock and resting in between for many many rounds.

The weeks of traveling hadn’t been great for his stamina. At home he would go to the gym regularly, he wasn’t a meathead by any means but he was reasonably strong and went running every now and again. Since the start of the trip he had worked out maybe twice, drank way too many cocktails and ate way too much street food. So it wasn’t long until he was completely soaked in sweat.

Dave had no accurate way to judge time but he estimated he spent a few hours on it. He was close to giving up again like multiple times, when he suddenly felt the door give in on his swing. With a creaking sound the door swung open on the side he was hammering against and revealed a wall made of bark on the other side of the hallway. Dave smiled in relief and accomplishment.

Exhausted he stepped out of the cell, looked up and finally saw where the light was coming from, a golden acorn dangled on the roof, throwing the hallway into smooth light like light bulbs. To his dissatisfaction he realized he was still inside whatever this was. The ceiling was almost five meters high. The hallway was almost as wide as high, to his right it ended in a wall and to his left it went around the corner. Apparently his cell was situated in a dead end corner of this tree dungeon.

He made it out of his cell. One objective complete. But Dave couldn’t rest now, he still had to find his group and make his way out. Slowly he sneaked up to the corner and peeked around it. The next hallway was empty as well, it looked similar to his but without any door to be seen. Dave walked down the corridor, which ended in a crossroads, he took the left way and decided to keep that strategy for this whole place, so he wouldn’t get completely lost.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He tried to move as quietly as possible so as to not alert any guards but even after sneaking around several of the monotone looking hallways he hadn’t seen any guards.

All the hallways were a uniform, very light brown color, almost whitish at times, the walls showing markings of bark but none of their texture. The high ceilings with acorn lights hanging on them gave these tunnels a feel of spaciousness.

He would’ve liked to know how long he was wandering around, he had a sense that this could become a real concern in the future now that phones no longer worked to check the time on. But finally he looked around a corner and saw another door in the wall. Dave slowly crept closer, being as quiet as possible. He tried peeking in but was startled when he heard the person in there talking.

“Finally I was starving! Thank… wait, who are you?” Dave couldn’t see the person in there due to the darkness inside, but they had a British accent. This wasn’t anybody from his group. Dave was slightly disappointed but at least he found somebody and maybe that person would know more. And he wouldn’t be alone anymore.

“Uhm I’m Dave, those things took me prisoner as well. I’m looking for my friends. Let me try to get you out” he had already taken a step back from the door, wanting to use the same pounding technique he had before, when he noticed that the doors actually had a door handle on the outside. Feeling a bit silly he instead went to grab for the handle.

“Well hello Dave, that’s nice of you, but you will need the right keys to unlock the door. How did you even get out?” The voice sounded slightly amused.

“I broke down the door.” Dave said with a shrug. To his surprise he heard the other person laughing.

“Ha I guess that makes sense, those room weren’t..” but the voice stopped abruptly “careful behind you.”

Dave immediately turned around, just in time to see one of these squirrel things move around the corner with a tablet of food in its hand. Upon seeing Dave it instantly dropped the food in surprise and hissed angrily at him.

He stared at the thing in shock for a second, not knowing what to do. Dave’s heart hammered and he felt adrenaline rushing through him as he looked at the four feet abomination of a squirrel in front of him. Fear started settling into his bones as he noticed the wicked sharp teeth of the squirrel. But he decided not to let it get a hold of him.

Dave tightened his grip on his weapon and charged forward. Trying to overwhelm the thing with a mix of speed, superior size and a sharp pointy end.

His spear shot forward, but the thing was nimble and dodged underneath the attack, immediately it was upon him, biting down deep into his leg. Dave cried out in pain, stumbled a few steps and almost lost his footing. He wanted to shake it off but the little beast was too heavy for him to really move his leg. Like a child-sized parasite it clung to his leg.

Dave tried hitting it one the head with the side of his spear but he couldn’t muster enough force to force the thing to let go as it continued to furiously bite down on his quad. Dave managed to turn his spear and cut the squirrel a shallow wound with its tip. But he couldn't muster enough force to really hurt it.

After his small victory, Dave was forced by the excruciating pain to use his spear as a crutch to steady himself. He wanted to avoid dropping to the floor against that beast.

Sensing his pain, it sunk its teeth deeper eliciting another cry of pain. Panic started entering Dave's mind. Agony like he had never felt before went through him and he had to struggle to not let the pain overwhelm him.

He tried to push the thing away, but it held firm. Dave could only watch helplessly, the fear growing in him. But he had one more ace in his sleeve.

Dave willed the Mana from his body into his hand, activating his Minor Spark Skill. It was a struggle to keep focus, but soon he felt the crackling energy concentrate in his palm. Dave moved his hand close to the squirrel's head before releasing all the electric energy he had charged.

The squirrel seemed to notice something was wrong as it stared at Dave at the last moment before the discharge left his hand. A crack sounded out like thunder and after a brief flash it was over. A familiar looking blue box appeared in Dave's vision, the text on it was blurred though and it vanished shortly after.

Before he could make sense of it the smell of charred flesh made its way to Dave's nose and he looked down at the squirrel. It had fallen to the ground and laid there motionless, eyes unmoving, with a patch of blackened fur on the top of its head. The whole fight had only taken a few seconds, yet some part of Dave felt mentally drained.

The adrenaline was still rushing through his body and his heart was pounding. That combined with the shock and fear kept Dave standing. He could’ve died there. Had he slipped this thing undoubtedly would’ve devoured him. He wasn’t quite able to comprehend that thought.

Then the smell of charred flesh hit his nose again, ripping him out of his panic instead filling him with disgust. Disgust and even numbness. Before Dave had never killed an animal and didn’t believe himself capable of taking a life like that. But he felt not a tiny bit of remorse right now, indifferent even. Was that a good or a bad thing?

Before he could delve deeper into philosophical thoughts a voice interrupted him.

“What happened out there? Dave, are you okay?” Dave noticed genuine worry in the voice, which oddly calmed him down a litte.

“Yeah I’m okay. Or at least okayish, this fucker bit me. Do you think he has a key?” not waiting for an answer Dave already began looking. It somehow felt almost instinctual to look through this thing, years of gaming had taught him to look for loot after defeating something. It felt a bit surreal to admit and on its merit alone he would’ve never acted on it, but the thought was there somewhere, ingrained in the back of his mind.

Also he knew he had to act now while the adrenaline was still cursing through his veins, numbing his pain.

His leg still hurt like hell bending down but it didn’t take much looking and after turning the thing over once he saw a little key on a ring tied around the squirrel's waist on a rope.

“Found it.” Dave said as he stepped over to the door.

“Dave I will be deeply grateful for you. But please don’t be scared when opening the door.” he said just as Dave had unlocked the door. He swung it open to reveal the inside of the cell.