Turning left was indeed the better choice. After all, that was where my visitors came from.

Since they decided to head further into the prison themselves, no need to bother them now, do I?

Keeping myself close to a wall and running as fast as possible, I finally saw what seemed like a speck of light at the end of this murky tunnel.

Picking up the pace, I sped forth, every step bringing my hopes of escape to greater heights.

Ah.

A different speck of light sparkled a few yards in front of me

The view before me as I burst out of the damp flea’s nest was…unpleasant, to say the least.

“Hey…you’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” I whispered in irritation to no one in particular as I took a few seconds to take in the scenery before me. Well, “scenery” is too nice a word to use, more like “where-the-fuck-am-I”.

Strange markings and wordings decorated the walls of the dimly lit tunnel. This new area was certainly brighter than the shit-hole I came from, but the light illuminating the place was…strange. There were no other words to describe the prospect before me. Aside from the fact that my vision was clearer than before, nothing seemed even close to “natural”. Purplish, glowing rocks were jutting out from the walls and the air smelled thick and musty. While those were off-putting enough, there were more pressing issues at hand.

As my eyes adjusted itself to the new lighting, I noticed a few oddities.

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…6…7.

Staring back at me were 7 pairs of soul-less eyes, their bodies scarred and limp. Judging by their clothes, they were probably my friendly captors that I missed. Or not. Draped in simple, grey cloths, those fellows looked more like apostles of monks than soldiers.

There are a couple of questions I really need answers to.

But first…

Dropping to the floor, I listened intently with my left ear kissing the soothingly cold earth.

Good.

Life was far from close.

Priorities: Food, water and shelter.

After carefully examining the sandy cave-like walls, it seemed that the rocks were natural gemstones that gave off the funny lighting. Pondering my options, I finally settled on trying to pry them out with a small dagger looted from one of the poor fellows.

“Snap!”

Despite putting in every ounce of my strength, I only managed to chip off a small shard of the large lodestone.

Pity. Well, better than nothing I suppose.

Having a portable light source will surely come in handy. Putting the stone aside, I moved on to my next task.

Time to get some food.

I could try to eat a few parts of the corpses before me, seeing how only some parts of them were starting to rot.

Must be due to the lack of warmth and sunlight…poor fucks can’t even rot properly.

But that would also increase the risk of me contracting all kinds of diseases. Not wise. Especially for someone who can’t even use magic to heal or cure illnesses.

After plundering their satchels, I only managed to find some dry meat, a make-shift stone knife (?) and a half-filled canteen.

At least they have decent clothing.

Your average Mr. Sane would probably wince at the thought of groping around a corpse’s body let alone actually do it. But living surrounded by death can really condition your senses, huh.

After a few minutes of making sure that I could salvage every bit of useful item I could find, I pocketed the gemstone, took a few glances into the hole where I left and sighed.

Better not linger around.

Moving as stealthily and as quickly as possible, I started towards the only path to take: Forward.