Richard dropped over the edge of the cliff eyes still closed tight. So he was surprised to find he didn't fall for more than a couple of feet before hitting something hard. Sadly this wasn't the end of his ride. Hitting whatever he had changed his current trajectory, causing him to start rolling backward, head over feet. Where ever his new destination was, the journey there was a rough trip. He banked off of a couple of walls before dropping again and free-falling several feet, landing in a messy lump on what he hoped was solid ground.
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Fall damage taken! 30 HP Lost.
Blunt Force Damage taken! 10 HP Lost.
Blunt Force Damage taken! 10 HP Lost.
Blunt Force Damage taken! 10 HP Lost.
Blunt Force Damage taken! 10 HP Lost.
Blunt Force Damage taken! 10 HP Lost.
Fall damage taken! 30 HP Lost.
Shoulder Dislocated! You will be unable to use your arm until this injury is healed.
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Richard was in an insane amount of pain as he dismissed the alert and began unfolding himself from the position he had landed in. He couldn't move his sword arm and as he opened his eyes his immediate fear was that he had gone blind. He quickly realized that he had simply fallen into a cave and sighed in relief. Standing was the most painful thing he had ever experienced. Richard took a deep breath focusing on his bundt fruit, calming and dissociating himself from the pain he was in. Thanks to his training he was able to control his mana to create a fire in his shield hand without it turning into a raging inferno.
Richards first instinct was to do what he could to fix his sword arm. He needed to be able to defend himself if anything came after him down here. Richard focused on his healing abilities and a wave of cold washed over him. He felt smaller wounds that were overlooked due to the pain in his shoulder mend, including a kink in his right ankle. He regained almost half of his lost HP as a result, but his shoulder was unaffected. His healing magic wasn't strong enough to deal with that particular injury. He knew of only one other thing to do.
He sat his fire down on a small boulder and walked over to the wall taking his belt off. Folding it over he stuck it between his teeth. 'Ok, I can do this. I've seen it enough times on TV and in movies.' He did his best to align the shoulder with its socket and pushed hard against the wall. There was a pop and a new wave of pain was almost enough to overwhelm his focused mind. He sat back down on the floor of the cave waiting for the pain to relax some.
It was several long minutes before Richard no longer felt like throwing up. Standing on unsteady feet he tested his arm. It was stiff and uncomfortable, but he could use it. He looped his belt back around his waist and collected his fire. Looking around once more with a clearer head he took in his surroundings. It was a small cavern filled with stalactites and stalagmites. Richard now felt lucky he hadn't landed on of the latter, impaling himself. There was a single passage leading out of the cavern, his light not going far enough to see what lay further down it. Sheer sides climbed to the ceiling where he could see the hole he dropped through. It was much too high for him to reach, and even if he did he couldn't imagine going back out that way would help much. If only his Earth magic was strong enough to work stone he could just create himself an exit. Of course, if that were the case he would have just widened and strengthened the pathways, to begin with, avoiding this whole mess.
As it was he couldn't see anything he could do except check the passage and hope it went somewhere he could find an exit. He held his fire a short distance in front of him to try and stop any further fun surprises. Richard followed the winding passage slowly, this mountain was obviously not the most stable and he was terrified he'd fall again. As he walked the fire caused the rock formations to cast odd flickering shadows on the walls and his footsteps made loud echoing crunches. More than once he half drew his sword before realizing he was jumping at shadows.
Richard wasn't sure how long he walked before the tunnel started to take on a different shape. Before the walls had looked natural, if somewhat sheer. Now he was starting to noticing small marks on the walls. Only a few feet further on, the walls were now chiseled flat, and a few feet later they were chiseled even further creating long, shallow indentations like someone was making shelves.
'This is great!' Richard thought to himself. 'If people were here doing this, then that must mean that there's an exit somewhere.' He continued along the passage, the shelves getting deeper and deeper until Richard would have been able to put the majority of his arm in the hole before touching the back. He peeked in a few, the fire illuminating space after empty space. Then he came to the first one that had something in it and he froze.
'No. NO. Nonononononono! This is NOT gonna happen.' Laying on the newest set of shelves were mummies. Richard had no idea if the undead were a thing in this world, and he had no desire to find out. Falling being a slightly distant second concern at this point, he pushed forward at a much faster pace. The walls were filled with dead bodies now. Four or five holes per side of the passage every couple feet or so. If all of them woke and came after him, he was as good as dead.
Richards nerves calmed some the longer he walked. It had been about ten minutes since he had encountered the first set of mummies and so far nothing had happened. He guessed that they weren't worried about someone being in their place of rest. Even so, he wanted out of this cave even more now.
Finally, Richard came upon a set of large stone doors. They looked like they had been worked and created directly from the stone around them. Richard pushed on the stonework handle expecting loud grinding at the least, an immobile door at the worst. He was pleasantly surprised to find the door swung out quickly and quietly. Slipping through the door he pushed it shut behind him breathing a sigh of relief. Finally, something hadn't completely screwed him over.
He was in a great empty hall that was filled with cobwebs. 'I'll take a giant spider over a horde of mummies any day.' Richard thought to himself. 'Still... better safe than sorry.' Channeling his fire he spread it throughout the room, cobwebs burning to nothing the instant they were touched. As the fires spread Richard heard squealing and popping. His nose was assaulted by the acrid smell of something burning. When the flames reached the ceiling the squealing and popping intensified and smoking cat-sized spider carcasses started falling to the floor.
Richard stood in front of the door and burned every surface and corner of the room he could see. In the end, he must have killed two dozen of the large arachnids. He was a little disappointed he hadn't gained another level from that. Still better no level here than death behind the door. Once everything was clear he could see several tables with tools scattered around, there were also carvings along the wall. Richard was reminded of similar things he had seen in school or documentaries. This must be where the bodies he had passed were prepared for the journey to whatever afterlife they believed in.
There was only one other exit from this room so Richard headed towards it. Through another set of doors was a flight of steps going up. The stairway was wide enough that several people could have passed by each other without touching. Since he didn't see any cobwebs here Richard just continued forward. He had barely started climbing the steps when he discovered his next problem. The stairs had collapsed. A chasm had appeared across the stairwell and continued off into the walls. Richard kicked a small piece of stone into the chasm but never heard it hit the bottom. Sighing he extended his fire as far as he could, just on the edge of his light source he could see the steps continue.
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The gap was much too far for him to cross in any way. Maybe if he had brought some kind of climbing supplies. Even if he had brought that stuff he had no idea how to use it properly. Richard sat a few steps down from the edge of the chasm. The passage was a straight shot, meandering, but no branches. The room he had passed through had only had two exits. He couldn't reach the hole he had fallen through, even if he thought he could make his way back to however he had fallen into it. He went over his options again and again, getting more and more frustrated that he couldn't think his way out of this. Frustrated with himself he slammed his fist into the wall, not caring if he caused a further collapse at this point.
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Blunt Force Damage taken! 5 HP Lost.
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"SHUT UP!" Richard yelled at the alert dismissing it as forcefully as you could dismiss an intangible object that only appeared in your head. This did nothing to make him feel better and he lashed out with his Kinetic mana lifting every loose rock he could find, launching them down the stairwell. He heard them clatter and skitter across the ground as they landed. He was ashamed of his outburst as soon as it was over. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply until his emotions were again calm and he was thinking clearly.
If only he could lift himself like he had those stones. He briefly imagined himself flying up the stairwell. Kinetic magics mana leakage was so bad though. After all his training he knew that was only a fantasy, even in this world. The amount of mana needed to lift a person was just too...
Richard felt like the biggest idiot in all the multiverse. Yelxidor had been the only reason he wasn't imprisoned or worse, so he had wanted to be the best pupil possible. He had spent six months doing his best to act by-the-book. He stopping when Yelxidor had told him to stop, and never trying anything on his own. But he was on his own now, and he didn't need to hold back. He could use as much magic as he wanted.
Richard would need to experiment first. He traveled back down to the embalming room, as he had decided to call it. He split his fire up into five parts and spread them throughout the corners and center of the room. Holding them there he could see every part of the room lit up.
"Ok. Let's do this." Reaching out Richard pushed against the floor of the room with Kinetic magic. Nothing happened. He fed more mana into his push. Still nothing. Richard opened himself to his mana like never before. Not drawing just enough to cast whatever spell he was attempting, he let it flow through him like a raging river, and pushed against the floor of the room with everything he could. Richard shot up like a rocket slamming into the ceiling of the room and came crashing back down just as hard.
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Blunt Force Damage taken! 500 HP Lost.
Fall damage taken! 30 HP Lost.
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Richard whimpered in pain as he lay on the ground dazed. He healed himself as soon as he could. This really was going to take some trial and error.
It took Richard much longer than he would like to admit to figure out a good way to stabilized himself. In the end, he ended up going with an Iron Man approach. Rather than pushing against the floor with his entire body, he boosted his own strength with a buff and pushed against his feet and hands. He added an extra push to his waist as well to help steady himself further. It was awkward but after playing with it for an hour he felt he had a good idea of what he was doing.
Richard was pretty tired after all his testing. They had been getting ready to bed down for the night before he fell after all and healing his wounds through magic didn't negate the energy he had expended. Richard floated three of the tables over to the door leading back to the mummies and stacked them. Even if they decided to come after him now they shouldn't be able to get past the tables. He lay down against a section of the wall and exhaustion overtook him.
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Richard awoke still tired but better than he had been. Thankfully nothing seemed to have happened while he rested. He ate the last of his split beak meat, allowing himself to fully wake up before attempting his plan. He once more left the embalming room, not bothering to move the tables back, and quickly climbed the steps back to the chasm. Double-checking to make sure his pack, helmet, sword, and shield were all secure he lifted himself into the air once more. Leaning forward slightly he pushed himself slowly, he wanted to be safe for now.
He approached the chasm and quietly slipped out over the edge. He was now floating high above nothing. Pushing himself a little harder he gained some speed and traversed the gap, reaching the edge of the stairs he had seen last night. Instead of landing on the new steps, he continued up the stairwell using his newfound ability. Richard couldn't help it as a smile overcame his face. He floated until the steps let out into a new hall with doorways lining each side. He peeked in a few, long tables were in some while others held tools and supplies for mummification. Nothing looked like it had been touched in a very long time though.
Reaching the end of the hallway a large ornate arch lead into a new room. Richard slowly entered the new room, his fire lighting the way. The new room was absolutely massive. Richards apartment back on Earth could have fit in this room several times over. There were stone benches carved into the walls. More relief carvings covered the floor, walls, and ceiling. He didn't see an inch that didn't have some kind of pattern or depiction. It all looked rather religious in theme though. Suddenly he remembered Cremia saying something about the path they took being an old pilgrimage path, and it all clicked. He had fallen into the catacombs of whatever religious sect had been in this mountain.
Richard had panicked so much at the thought of all those mummies coming to life that he hadn't stopped to consider what they were doing there. Setting himself down he explored the cavernous room he was in. There were many exits from it. One was another large stairway lead up even further but most were simple passages carved into the mountain. Richard wondered how long it had taken to carve this whole place out. He could imagine it being done slowly over centuries. He understood why Cremia might have wanted to come this way. It was an impressive sight.
One of the first hallways he checked turned out to be small personal quarters. Richard could touch two walls without fully extending his arms. Each one had a bed, desk, and set of shelves all carved directly out of the mountain stone. After looking into a couple of similar rooms he headed back to the main room and checked a couple more halls. Each hall he checked had the same rooms. Some even still had personal items in them. Dry rotted clothes that were stacked on shelves. Small labeled tins. Richard even found one room that held a sketching of a family in it. Apparently, this had once been a very lively place.
Returning to the main room once more Richard decided to just climb the next set of stairs. They were in slightly better shape than the ones going to the catacombs. As he traveled up the stairs he started smelling much fresher air. He was getting closer to an exit. Climbing higher and higher he could feel a light breeze now. He breached the top of the stairs coming to another large room. Nowhere near as large as the one below, but still large. Ahead of him, he could see an exit. A small cliff by what he could make out, with light pouring through another archway. Richard had never before been so happy to see the sky.
The new room was wider than it was long. And for the first time, Richard saw something not made from stone. A large wooden table coming about chest high was placed along one wall. There were reliefs along the wall with the desk, but they had been defaced. Long gouges had been carved over them. Richard couldn't even make out what they had been. 'Maybe that's why this place was abandoned.' There were some oddly misshapen stalactites hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room as well. Probably more defacement.
Richard moved to the desk stepping over small piles of sharp rocks, looking for any information as to what this place was. 'Was this some kind of temple? Maybe just somewhere to bring your dead? What?' All Richard found though was a tattered book that held names and times. The last entry was from well over a century ago. 'Maybe Cremia knows.' If he could find them again. He had no idea where he was in relation to where they had been.
A sound echoed through the room. It sounded like a giant cloth being ripped in half. Looking up from the book he couldn't see what had made the sound. Drawing his sword and shield he moved out from behind the desk peering into corners and dark areas. As his flame revealed one corner he discovered it was full of bones. Dozens upon dozens of bones with large gouges ripped into them, all picked clean of meat. The sound came from behind Richard again and several things fell into place in his head. He turned again fear gripping his heart. He moved his flame ever so slowly to the stalactites in the center of the room. Light spilled over the shapes and Richard cursed his luck. Hanging from the ceiling like large bats were the Wyverns they had been sent to kill.