[Become Invisible duration remaining: 4:32]
[Current Visibility: 0/200]
Isabelle reached the end of the hall and focused on the door in front of her.
[Prison Door - Locked]
Isabelle thought ‘Unlock.’
[Prison Door - Unlocked]
Great! Isabelle pushed the door open carefully. On seeing what was inside, she was very happy she was still invisible. She seemed to have opened the door to the guards’ breakroom. Most of them were sat at wooden tables drinking mead, while a couple others were doing target practice with bow and arrows in a long, far corner of the room. Isabelle felt like it was almost too good to be true that here she was, standing in this room, completely invisible. It was kind of hilarious. She almost wanted to start laughing.
[Constitution check: success]
Isabelle didn’t laugh. Then, she noticed the message from the system. What exactly was it talking about when it mentioned a constitution check?
[Clarification: In certain high-tension situations (outside of combat mode), there is a risk that you may slip up. In this specific situation, you almost started laughing nervously out of fear and surprise, but your constitution check prevented it from happening.]
Huh. Isabelle felt thankful for the system. She would’ve been in quite a bad situation if the guards suddenly noticed the invisible prison escapee in the room.
“Hey! Help! Help!” faintly yelled the voice of the guard in the room of cells behind her. Shit. If Isabelle had remembered to close the door behind her, the yelled would’ve probably been inaudible.
“Hey, is that Api yelling for us in the cell room?” asked one of the guards.
“That’s what it sounds like,” said another guard.
“Hmm, that’s pretty suspicious,” said a third guard. “Let’s go check on her.”
Three of the guards stood up and walked towards the door. Isabelle had to move. She darted to the side and crouched down.
[Current visibility: 0/200]
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 3:26]
Whew. She was going to be fine.
The three guards walked out of the room, leaving two at the tables and two practicing their archery. It occurred to Isabelle that, if it were possible, she ought to try and take a weapon from this room before moving on to the next. Looking around, the best options she could see were an abandoned longbow with about ten arrows in a sling beside it and a steel mace hanging on the wall. Not willing to waste another second, Isabelle crawled up to them and focused on the items.
[Longbow added to inventory]
[Standard arrows x12 added to inventory]
[Steel mace added to inventory]
“Hey, did somebody just grab something?” asked one of the guards at the table. “Is anybody here?”
[Current visibility: 15/200]
Isabelle didn’t move.
“Avna, stop being such a doofus,” said another guard. “There’s nobody in here but the four of us.
“Hey! Hey! A prisoner has escaped!” yelled one of the guards from back in the room of cells.
Four guards, including the one Isabelle had locked in her cell, ran back into the breakroom, swords drawn.
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 2:34]
“Have any of you seen anyone in this room?” asked a guard from the cell room.
“No,” said one of the guards that had been practicing archery. “Nobody in here but us.”
“Hmmm,” said another guard. “We must’ve missed her. She’s probably already snuck past to the next room, so let’s all go in there and look for her.”
All of the guards nodded in affirmation. Those guards who’d been seated stood up and drew their swords. A guard walked forward, opened the next door, and ran through. They all followed, running in unison.
[Current visibility: 0/200]
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 1:52]
Well, that was convenient enough, though Isabelle would’ve preferred to not have had her attempted escape noticed so quickly. Since she was now the only one in the room, she decided to stalk around a little bit and see if she could find anything else useful. Isabelle walked up to a nearby wooden desk covered in papers and coffee stains.
[Loot ‘Guard Planning and Scheduling Desk’?]
Isabelle thought yes.
Inventory: Guard Planning and Scheduling Desk
Item
Traits
Map of Prison grounds
+ 0.5 carry weight
Steel Gloves
+1 str, +3 damage, +1 carry weight
Steel Dagger
+5 damage, +1 carry weight
Gold (10)
n/a
Awesome. Isabelle took it all.
Inventory: Guard Planning and Scheduling Desk
Item
Traits
n/a
n/a
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 1:52]
Isabelle was thrilled to have that map. She had no idea how to get out of the prison, and it might give her the advantage she needed to escape now that her special ability’s duration was approaching its end. Isabelle opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 7.5/50
Item
Traits
Map of Prison grounds
+ 0.5 carry weight
Steel Gloves
+1 str, +3 damage, +1 carry weight
Steel Dagger
+5 damage, +1 carry weight
Longbow
+3 damage, +1 carry weight
Standard Arrows x12
+8 damage
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Steel Mace
+7 damage, +4 carry weight
Gold (10)
n/a
Isabelle figured she had a lot of equipping to do.
[Steel gloves equipped]
[+1 str]
[+3 damage]
[Steel Dagger equipped]
[+5 damage]
[Map of Prison ground equipped]
Isabelle paused. She’d equipped the map, but it wasn’t in her hands. What was going on?
[Clarification: When you have a map equipped, you can receive realtime location updates in your vision through the system. You can have these updates based on either general awareness, or on accomplishing an objective. You can also use the map to get a list of rooms through the system.]
Interesting. So Isabelle could do a lot with this map, but she couldn’t just look at it.
[Clarification: You can just look at the map, but it may be more time efficient for you to use the system to point you in the right direction. For example, if you’d like to escape the prison, you can think ‘Set Map Objective Escape Prison’ and the system will point you in the direction you need to go. There are more advanced things you can do with maps, but, as time is of the essence with your special ability wearing off soon, this is the system’s best estimate of what you ought to do with the map.]
Wow. The system was being awfully helpful this time around.
[Clarification: The system does not like having cancelled/inactive quests.]
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 0:42]
Clearly. Isabelle figured she might as well try listening to the system and see how it did. She had less than a minute of invisibility left, and she shuddered to think what the Cloud Reach guards might do to her if they found her. She wasn’t sure using her special ability would work to escape two times in a row.
Isabelle thought ‘Set Map Objective Escape Prison.’
A glowing green arrow, kind of like a compass, appeared above Isabelle’s vision. Confusingly enough, it was not pointing towards the doorway all the guards had rushed out of. It was pointing back towards the room of cells. Isabelle wasn’t super comfortable going back there, but she figured worst case scenario she could come up with some lie, like maybe that they’d locked her in a different cell than they thought or something, if her invisibility wore off and the guards came in to find her.
Isabelle darted into the the room of cells, looking to follow the direction of the system’s compass arrow. It pointed to walking down the hall, so Isabelle did. Isabelle reached her old cell. She shuddered as she looked at it. The arrow shot around, pointing at the cell across from hers. The cell that Grul, the orc she’d met when she first got imprisoned, had been locked in. Isabelle approached the cell.
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 0:22]
[Prison Cell Door - Locked]
Isabelle thought ‘Unlock.’
[Prison Cell Door - Unlocked]
Isabelle walked into the cell. Immediately, she noticed that it smelled even worse than her own cell had. What exactly had Grul been doing in there?
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 0:13]
Isabelle needed to hurry up and get out of here. What was the system doing, leading her back into a prison cell? Was it in cahoots with the Cloud Reach guard or something?
No, that was ridiculous. Isabelle looked to the compass arrow. It pointed forward, so Isabelle kept walking forward, until she reached a wall. What the hell was this? It was a wall! There was nowhere to go from here!
[Become Invisible duration remaining: 0:05]
Shit. What an awful waste. All that effort and now the guard was going to be super suspicious of her. And she’d still be stuck! It was so awful Isabelle wanted to scream, but she still held out hope that she’d escape, so instead she settled for punching at the wall.
Only, when she tried to punch at the wall, her fist only went… through the wall. Isabelle did a double take. Was there really a wall there? Isabelle pushed her arm forward. It seemed to be phasing into the wall. She stepped forward. She felt no wall at all. After a few more steps, Isabelle was in complete darkness, and had walked right through the wall.
[Become Invisible has expired]
“What the hell?” said Isabelle in the darkness, her voice reverberating through what sounded to be a deep, dark cavern. “Where am I?”
[Clarification: You do not have to speak out loud to ask the system questions. You can just think them.]
Isabelle rolled her eyes. Didn’t the system realize she knew that by now? She’d just cried out in shock and surprise, it wasn’t due to ignorance or anything.
[Clarification: You actually cried out due to a failed constitution check, at least in system terms.]
Isabelle should’ve known the system would tell her that. Isabelle then thought, ‘Explain Location on Map.’
[Invalid Syntax]
Isabelle rolled her eyes again.
[Attempting to parse query]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[Query parsed]
[Clarification: The correct system command is ‘Get Map Location Information.’]
Isabelle almost rolled her eyes again at that. She thought, ‘Get Map Location Information.’
[Map location information: This section of the prison was being built during a series of law enforcement budget cuts by the Cloud Reach government. This resulted in there being not enough stone to build a wall in this cell. It was decided by the construction team of Cloud Reach Prison that the easiest way to fix this issue was to hire a wizard to cast a permanent illusion spell on this section of the cell wall, estimating that the number of prisoners that would notice it was statistically insignificant and in the long run it would be almost as effective as an actual wall. The path you’re in currently leads to the outside world, though it will also take you through a dungeon.]
A dungeon? That seemed a little nerve-racking, but Isabelle did have some weapons courtesy of the Cloud Reach guard, and pretty much anything was better than being locked in a cell to eat underwatered oatmeal once a day.
Isabelle walked forward in the darkness, following the small green compass arrow that pointed ever forward. It jerked a little to the left, as the cavern snaked to the left, and Isabelle went left.
After walking a little further down the cavern, Isabelle began seeing a soft, blue glow. She looked more closely and noticed that some sort of glowing fungus appeared to be growing on the cavern walls, and the further she walked the more this fungus lit her path. She noticed that it must have been generating the musty odor that she’d smelled in the cell when she entered it.
Isabelle focused on the fungus, she wanted to learn more about it.
[Identifying flora]
[…]
[Flora identified]
Idlungie
Type: Fungi
Traits: +1 poison, +1 bioluminescence
Description: The Idlungie is a beautiful yet not necessarily pleasant-smelling fungi that most often grows in the caves of dungeons.
Found: All over Beaubinte
Rare: No
Wow, that was a lot of info for a bunch of fungus. Isabelle figured she could probably craft with the Idlungie. She noticed Idlungie had the poison property that she was so fond of, and also that it had bioluminescence. Isabelle wasn’t sure what bioluminescene could do for her in the crafting menu, but she did think it was cool. Isabelle also wondered if she could take some of the Idlungie and add it to her inventory.
[Clarification: Yes. Just focus on some Idlungie, or any other fungus or identified plant, like you would any other miscellaneous item.]
Great. Isabell focused on some Idlungie.
[Forage ‘Idlungie’?]
Isabelle thought yes.
[2 Idlungie added to inventory]
Isabelle watched as a small cluster of the idlungie disappeared from the cavern wall, and it got slightly darker. She’d have to control her tendencies and make sure not to forage all the Idlungie away or she’d be back in the dark!
Isabelle walked further down the cavern tunnel, following the system’s green arrow with comfort. She was relieved to have it there, because otherwise she would’ve gotten quite nervous.
Isabelle approached a fork in the tunnel. Two cavern entrances before her. Fortunately enough, the system’s arrow pointed her to the right. Isabelle decided she would have to try and get ahold of more maps in the future, this was too convenient to ignore.
As Isabelle walked down the new cavern tunnel, she found herself growing a little anxious. Something seemed off. Every time she stepped and it echoed, she got a little more nervous.
A horrible screech rung through Isabelle’s ears.
[Combat mode activated]
Isabelle could see nothing but eight beady, red eyes that were far to large. Another hiss rattled her head, but Isabelle felt more focus than fear now that combat mode was activated. Isabelle darted back quickly, aiming to draw this creature into some of the fungi light so that she could get a better look, and a better shot, at it.
[Stamina 85%]
Isabelle figured now was as good as any time to try out that longbow she took from the guards. She opened her inventory.
Inventory: Isabelle
Carrying capacity: 7.5/50
Item
Traits
Map of Prison grounds
+ 0.5 carry weight
Steel Gloves
+1 str, +3 damage, +1 carry weight
Steel Dagger
+5 damage, +1 carry weight
Longbow
+3 damage, +1 carry weight
Standard Arrows x12
+8 damage
Steel Mace
+7 damage, +4 carry weight
Gold (10)
n/a
[Longbow equipped]
[+3 damage]
[Standard Arrows x12 equipped]
[+8 damage]
Isabelle hadn’t ever practiced archery before, but the longbow felt fairly comfortable in her hands, and she almost felt her body guided to assume the correct position to draw and arrow and aim towards her rapidly approaching foe.
As the beast walked closer, into the light of the fungi, Isabelle saw that it was a huge spider with enormous fangs. Green liquid seemed to be dripping from its mouth, Isabelle assumed it was poison. She readied her arrow and squinted at the spider. Isabelle fired the arrow.
[45 damage dealt]
[Stamina 97%]
The spider squealed in agony, twitching and jumping back a little. Then, it started walking towards her again. It spat a bubble of green pus at Isabelle.
[-3 hp]
[You’ve been poisoned]
Ugh. Nasty. Isabelle readied another arrow and fired it.
[Critical hit]
This one landed right in the middle of what ought to have been the spider’s forehead. Its eyes immediately went dark, and the creature went limp.
[‘Poison Spider’ is dead]
Nice. Isabelle unequipped her longbow and took a deep breath as her stamina recharged.
[Stamina 100%]
Wait a second. Why was she still in combat mode? Isabelle had killed the poison spider already!
Isabelle heard footsteps from ahead. Someone, or something, was coming her way. Worse still, she could hear the whatever or whoever it was controlling some sort of flaming weapon. Isabelle crouched down.
[Current Visibility: 200/200]
“Hah! Nice try, but it’s a little late for that!” said a familiar voice.
Isabelle gasped as Grul, the orc who’d been in the cell across from her a few days ago and had said he was going to get let out, emerged from the shadows. He held a ball of fire in his hands.
“Hello there, Isabelle,” said Grul. “Any last words?”