I spent a week recovering from yet another misuse of a skill. It was so hard to know how these skills actually worked without a more thorough guide than just the vague feelings I received from whatever was communicating with my mind. How was I supposed to know my skill would target every ant nearby and give me so many attributes at once? The skill suggested that only enemies that were actively attacking me counted, although the nest must have been alerted to my presence and every single ant could have been coming to attack, so that was why they all counted . . .
I kept telling myself to stop being so reckless, but I swore my young body pumped me so full of adrenaline and hormones it made it hard to think clearly sometimes. And something about this world made it very hard to resist using skills, jumping into dangerous dungeons, or racing over at the first sign of a quest in hopes of completing it. I already knew that certain things could mess with a person’s mind, such as the Merchant skill Constans had received. Could the world also be messing with people’s minds, influencing us to complete quests, run dungeons, and use our abilities? It was clear the world tried to encourage people by enticing them with rewards and power-ups like some kind of Skinner Box dopamine reward system. Would the system also mess with our minds to make us want to play along even more?
Or maybe blaming my body and some mysterious “system” wasn’t fair. Maybe I was just a bit too reckless for my own good. I had come to this world barely prepared and with no knowledge of what I was really getting into. That wasn’t exactly the act of a responsible person.
I sighed. Admitting I had personal flaws wasn’t easy, but the permanent loss of a skill, followed by almost dying from the use of another, was a hard lesson to ignore. It was frustrating not knowing all the rules that my survival depended on and trying to muddle through, but I also needed to take personal responsibility for where I was making mistakes.
I would just have to keep trying to make better decisions and just had to hope I could keep muddling through until I learned everything I could. If you counted my existence in human years, I was actually barely a few years old. Subjectively, I had lived much longer because of how much faster I processed reality in my old life, but maybe I needed to recognize that I was, in many ways, still young and could be too reckless for my own good. I had always pictured myself as firmly in control of myself and my destiny, but this world was showing me I didn’t always think as clearly as I could.
I moved north and west as I recovered, but I didn’t push myself this time. I took the time to hunt and gather materials for my nanobots to repair my clothing and gear. The nanobots could process the energy they needed from external sources; it was just easier and a bit quicker to use my own energy to fuel them. But since I was so drained, I decided to give them the corpses of the monsters I hunted and ate, allowing them to cannibalize what was left to fuel the regrowth of my equipment.
I wiped my sword off on a patch of grass that lay uncovered by snow under a nearby tree. I had found a sloth-like monster in the nearby trees, which made for easy hunting, although its hide was stronger than I had initially thought and the monster could move surprisingly fast when it got angry. Thankfully, my sword, my speed, and a few lucky saves from my Absolute Evasion kept me unharmed in the fight.
I took the time to butcher the beast for dinner later and then allowed my nanobots to use the rest of the organic matter to gather energy for themselves. I had repaired most of my gear by now, my revolver resting comfortably in my holster under my arm. The only thing I hadn’t been able to repair was my armor, sadly. The drake’s scales were made of something that my nanobots couldn’t reproduce, no matter how much energy I fed them. After realizing nothing I did was going to work, I salvaged what I could of the armor, having my nanobots make a crude, patchwork chest piece that at least offered me some protection.
I had done decently well at hunting and cooking, although I hadn’t thought to bring salt or other spices to make the meat more enjoyable. Many of the abandoned homes and farms I passed still had the wild remains of their gardens or fields, which let me scavenge for wild fruits and vegetables. They were still mostly edible, even this late in the season. My body had consumed all of my fat reserves when I was trapped by the ants, so I was eating as many calories as I could each day to rebuild my body. My Monster Hunter perk made hunting easy and helped me avoid the bigger monsters that could pose a danger to me.
I was searching the garden of an old manor house I had seen from the air when I caught sight of myself in the shattered remains of a window. I was shocked by how unhealthy I looked. My Regeneration had essentially eaten me alive, leaving behind nothing but skin on muscle and bone. My eyes were sunken and my skin looked pale and unhealthy. As I stared at myself in the window, I looked for any changes from my Evolution of Leadership, which would make me look more magnetic, but I couldn’t notice a difference. Maybe it would be more obvious when I stopped looking like a corpse.
Now that most of my gear was back to normal and I had a good stockpile of food, I was moving quicker and hunting less. I kept heading generally northwest, keeping an eye out for landmarks that would lead me to the monastery. I estimated that I was now around what would be modern Bulgaria back home. This far from the sea, winter was in full effect, and my time on the ground was an unpleasant slog through feet of snow every time I had to land.
The monastery was located in the far west of what would be modern Bulgaria in my world. The area was a mountainous region that had to be completely snowed in at this time of year. I didn’t stop or turn around, though, refusing to give up and waste more time on this excursion than absolutely necessary.
Two weeks passed without anything significant happening, other than the occasional battle with a monster I either couldn’t avoid or wanted to hunt for food. I avoided the biggest of the monsters, spying them from above far enough in advance to avoid going anywhere near their territory. The few flying monsters never saw me, thanks to the invisibility granted to me by my Dash as I flew. I was deep into the snow-covered mountainous region when my mind flashed with another regional quest notification.
Regional Quest Discovered: Meet the Dark Elf Neighbors.
You have discovered a regional quest. Complete this quest to receive additional rewards. Quest requirements: You must become friendly with the dark elf city and solve their spider problem before they are wiped out. Reward: 1000 experience. Further rewards are determined by the dark elf house that you align with.
I stopped in midair, dashing back to the ground as I took in what the quest was saying. First, the fact that there were other races inhabiting this Earth was news to me. Had other, more fantastical races always existed? I was sure someone would have mentioned that to me at some point, or I would have found some reference to them in the books I read at the library.
Second, that I could ally myself with the dark elves or possibly gain rewards from helping them was very interesting. I ran through the mythology of dark elves from my Earth, and it wasn’t good. Most of the mythology about them was that they were evil, untrustworthy, worshiped evil gods, and were generally pests to have around. If the dark elves in this world were similar, that wasn’t ideal.
At the same time, if I helped them, maybe I could get some powerful rewards . . .
I stopped myself, recognizing the urge to drop everything and go complete the quest immediately. It felt almost unnatural, the way my mind had so quickly shifted away from my own plans. Maybe there really was something messing with my mind to get me to complete quests and run dungeons.
I shook my head, pushing the urge to race off to the dark elf city out of my mind. I had a goal. If I achieved my goal or didn’t find anything of interest at the monastery, maybe I would come back to see about the quest. I was genuinely interested in what the existence of a city of dark elves could teach me about the larger world, but if I followed up on the quest, I would do so safely and intelligently, on my own terms.
I looked around, making a mental note of where I was so I could come back to the area if I wanted to, then dashed back up in the air, ignoring the part of me that wanted nothing more than to find the dark elf city immediately and get those sweet quest rewards as soon as possible.
Another few days of travel brought me to the area where the monastery should be, and after scouting around through the air for a few hours, I was able to find it relatively easily.
The reason it was so easy to find was that after cresting a large hill, I spotted several thin trails of smoke rising into the air in the distance. I dashed toward where the smoke was coming from and found myself looking down at the monastery. And the monks that still inhabited it.
The monastery was a large compound, at least four stories tall, set on a hill above a powerful river. It was nestled in the river valley, and the river itself was fed by a wonderful waterfall further up the valley. The top of the waterfall was covered in cascading ice, like something from a winter fairy tale.
The monastery was one large building, with arches leading to a central courtyard where several monks were busy meditating around a beautiful silver tree. Surrounding the single building were large gardens, trees, and bushes, all of it covered in snow. Paths were dug around the compound, and more led to the river from the monastery. I could see several monks swaddled in heavy robes. They moved between the monastery and the river, carrying water in buckets propped over their shoulders.
I landed nearby and made my way on foot to one of the monks who was standing outside of the compound, silently staring off in the distance as if deep in thought.
“Hello,” I called to the monk as I approached.
The monk was a young man, somewhere in his early twenties, if I had to guess. He had a kind-looking face, with a beard and long hair tied back in a ponytail. The young man nodded at me and bowed slightly, seemingly unsurprised by my approach, despite the fact that he hadn’t looked at me once as I walked toward him. He gestured toward the monastery invitingly and then turned and led the way without saying a word.
I followed him, equally silent. I hadn’t thought the monks of this era took vows of silence, but maybe I was wrong. Either way, the monk remained completely silent so I didn’t pester him with questions, although I was dying to know how he and his people had survived out here for so long.
As we approached the monastery, the other monks noticed us and began to gather around. None of them spoke, but they began to walk with us in a silent group. I had a moment of paranoia, worried the monks might attack me or sacrifice me in some devilish ritual, but I had to trust I could escape with my skills if needed. And none of the monks seemed unfriendly; their faces were generally kind-looking, and many smiled at me as I looked their way. Still, I was a bit on edge after being in the wilderness for so long, so I felt tense as the group of us walked together,
Inside, an older man was waiting in the center of the courtyard. The tree that I had seen from above was even more beautiful up close. It had silver-white leaves and was in full bloom, even during the height of winter. Slow, lazy snowflakes fell around us, making the courtyard and the tree look almost surreal, like a painting brought to life.
The older monk bowed to me, and I returned the bow.
“Welcome, traveler,” the older man said. I blinked, a bit surprised that the monk had spoken after the rest had been so silent.
“Hello,” I replied neutrally. “Thank you for welcoming me.”
“What brings a stranger such as yourself to travel during the winter seasons?” the monk asked. The other monks watched us, but none of them seemed to be intent on violence. They were just curious about a visitor—I hoped.
“I had read about your monastery,” I told him, deciding to just be honest from the start, “and I came to see if anything of it remained. I’m looking for a class, and yours was one that fit what I needed. I read about it in a book in the Emperor’s Library in the city that used to be called Nova Roma, or Constantinople.”
“Ah,” the older monk said, a sad look overcoming his face. “Yes, a great shame about the fall of that city. We are happy to welcome you and share our winter repast with you as you stay. We can discuss our class over dinner tonight. Will you join us?”
“Thank you, that would be wonderful,” I said, “and I can contribute some food if you would welcome it. I have had some success hunting recently.”
“Oh?” the monk said, seemingly surprised. “We wouldn’t say no to sharing during the lean winter months, though normally we would decline since you are our guest. But during winter, any food would be greatly appreciated.”
At my willingness to share food, some of the other monks broke their silence and talked quietly among themselves. Food must be very scarce during the winter here, and having a stranger suddenly come to stay might have worried some of them.
“Julius,” the older monk said, gesturing to the young man that had first escorted me inside, “show him to a place to sleep and help him get settled. We will all talk more over dinner.”
The older monk bowed to me again, and I returned the bow before following Julius. The young man led me through a wooden door and then through a small hallway to a dormitory on the bottom floor of the monastery. The windows were all sealed tightly with cloth pinned around the windowsills, and a large fireplace on the far side of the room kept the space warm. The rest of the space was filled with cots, and various pieces of clothing, blankets, and books were strewn around the room.
Julius led me toward an unused cot near the center of the room.
“You can stay here,” he said to me, “and I will bring you a blanket and a small pillow. We apologize. We don’t sleep in individual rooms during the winter. It’s too hard to heat the whole monastery, so we all sleep in here at night.”
“That’s no problem,” I told him. I sat down on the cot and opened my backpack, pulling out the meat and other food I had scavenged while traveling. I still had a good pound or more of monster meat and a fair amount of vegetables I had found in snow-covered gardens and fallow fields. I gave everything I had to the monks as a show of goodwill.
Julius seemed surprised by the amount of food I handed him, but he took it gratefully and bowed before leaving me. I tucked my backpack under the cot but kept my sword and revolver on me. The monks seemed nice enough, but I could never truly be sure in this world. I was surprised to find them still here and alive, so they must have some pretty powerful skills to keep themselves safe. Better to be safe and keep my weapons on me, just in case.
Once I had dropped off my backpack, I left the dormitory and went back to the central courtyard. There, the monks ignored me or smiled politely as they passed. Hearing no objections, I explored the courtyard. I admired the silver tree for several minutes, marveling at its beauty. I was sure that if I had any magical ability at all, I would have sensed something from the tree; it was clearly magical and seemed to radiate peace to even my non-magical senses.
As the winter sun began to set early, Julius found me looking out over the river valley.
“Food is ready,” Julius said. I nodded and followed him to an open room filled with wooden benches and another fireplace that only managed to keep the spacious room marginally warm. The monks wore their heavy robes the entire time, even inside, to keep themselves warm. I had noticed several glances at my cloak and the lighter clothing I wore underneath; some of the monks were clearly curious how I had survived the cold winter with so little protection.
Julius led me to a seat next to the older monk that had met me in the courtyard. Several monks served us as we sat down, placing a large pitcher of clear water on the table and a wooden bowl full of a hearty-looking stew in front of each of us. The older monk began to eat immediately, so I joined him, enjoying the flavors of the stew after weeks of eating bland, self-cooked meat.
After eating in silence for several minutes, the older monk wiped his mouth and turned to me. “Thank you for your generous gift of food. We have hunters, but most monsters leave our valley alone, so meat is getting rarer and rarer. It is a pleasant surprise for my brothers to have meat again in the middle of winter.”
“I’m glad I could contribute,” I said, pouring myself a cup of water.
“My name is Brother Mikael,” the monk said, “and I run the monastery these days, although that is a loose term. Can you tell me more about your journey here? We are very curious about the outside world. We haven’t had a visitor from so far away in a long time.”
I told him about the state of Nova Roma and what I had observed in my travels. I told him how surprised I was to find them still here, since most people in the city believed the rest of the world had succumbed to the monsters many years ago.
“Ah,” Mikael said, “I am not sure why your city might think that. While it is true that the world is much reduced, pockets of civilization do still exist. We trade with many small cities and one larger city just in this area alone. And through them we hear of thriving cities to the west as well.”
“Oh really?” I said, genuinely surprised. “I really didn’t think there would be that many people still living safely out here. Where do you trade with, if I may ask? I may want to stop there on my way back.”
“We mostly trade beer and honey to Sredets, in the central part of this land,” he replied. “It is a large city that has managed to do well against the monsters.” He told me more about the city as I reviewed what I knew of the name Sredets from my Earth. I recognized the name as one of the older terms for what would be the modern-day city of Sofia in Bulgaria. It had been a heavily fortified city that was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire before being conquered by the Byzantine Empire in 1018 AD. Either this region was never conquered in this world or something else had occurred so the city had kept its original Bulgarian name.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“That’s very interesting,” I told the monk. “I will have to visit there at some point.”
“They may know more about why nobody has any contact with your city any longer,” Mikael said. “I will write you a letter of introduction to a brother of ours that runs a small library in the city and he may be able to answer your questions.”
“Thank you,” I replied. “That is very generous of you.”
“So now,” Mikael said, “you came here in search of our class, you said. You know a bit about the Monk of the Pristine Mind class, then, I take it?”
“Just a bit,” I said. “I know it’s both a combat and non-combat class and that it can help me learn ways to resist spells and mental intrusions, I was told.”
“Hmm,” Mikael replied, “that is true. It does offer mental strength capable of resisting such things. And yes, it is both a combat and non-combat class. We prefer to think of it as a way of life, though, rather than just a class to be learned. The class encompasses both combat and non-combat because it encompasses everything in life. To properly learn the class, you must be dedicated to learning our way of life. The class cannot level without the discipline required from meditation and isolation, which takes true dedication to master.”
I wasn’t sure if I had the time to truly dedicate myself to mastering a class that sounded so complicated, although I had time at night to dedicate to meditating, if that was what was required to level the class. I could try to take care of my business during the day and then meditate all night to level the class.
“I see that you are considering ways to fit the class into your busy life,” the monk said, smiling at me kindly, “and that is the first roadblock if you truly wish to learn the class. I am sorry to say that for us to teach you our class, you would need to commit to learning our way of life. That would require you to devote yourself to a life of meditation here at the monastery for at least a year or longer before we could teach you the class, to show that you are prepared properly.”
“A year?” I said, dismayed. I had hoped to find an easy class book or something in the ruins of a destroyed monastery, not spend a year here meditating. I probably could pass their tests if I was willing to spend the time here, but I also had goals and plans that couldn’t be put on hold for a year. Life was too busy right now, and I still had too many things to accomplish back in the city.
I was about to ask if there was anything else I could do to unlock the class, but before I could, Mikael raised his hand and stopped me.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Not many are willing to make the commitment we ask. There is no way around it, I must say. The class itself requires such dedication or you would just end up with a useless class that you couldn’t even get to level 1. Trust me, this is the only way.”
“Ah,” I said, disappointed. “Well, that’s bad news, then.”
“I am sorry you came so far to be disappointed,” he replied. “Stay with us for a while longer and enjoy the peace of our monastery. We can talk more when time allows.”
We spent the rest of dinner discussing smaller topics such as their beer and other goods they produced at the monastery. At one point, a monk brought us both some of their famous beer. It was enjoyable, better than what I had tried back in the city, for sure.
I spent the night in the dormitory, enjoying the luxury of a bed, a blanket, and a warm room for the first time in weeks. The next morning, the monks and I ate a thin breakfast of oatmeal, and then I spent the day with Julian, seeing how the monks lived during the winter months. Their life mostly consisted of meditation, tending to a few livestock they kept in barns—which I hadn’t noticed before because they were almost entirely built into the nearby hillside—clearing paths and hauling water, and more meditation. I didn’t see any signs of their class skills. All of the monks instead took their time and worked with a sense of dedication and deliberateness, never once taking a shortcut or rushing through what they were doing.
I stayed another night but left early the next morning, figuring since I couldn’t unlock the class here at this point, I’d better move on. I was drawn to the monastery since it gave me a sense of peace I hadn’t felt since coming to this world. Maybe someday I would have the luxury to stay here and spend some time living a simpler life, but for now, I had too much to do.
As I left the monastery, I tried to decide where I should go next. I was curious about Sredets, but I also felt like the quest for the dark elves was time-sensitive. Now that the monastery couldn’t give me a class that could help me deal with spellcasters better, the dark elves’ rewards might. The quest had said there could be further rewards depending on what “house” I aligned myself with. Maybe I could talk them into providing me with a powerful dark elf class that could help me shore up some of my weaknesses against magic.
I dashed through the day and night, pushing myself to go as fast as I could. I quickly reached the area where I had received the quest. The quest hadn’t given me exact instructions on how to find the dark elves, so I began to search the area as best as I could. Night had begun to set when I first arrived, but I didn’t sense any monsters nearby, so I searched even during the night. After fruitless hours of flying over the area, I found no sign on the surface of a dark elf city, but eventually I discovered a fissure in the ground. I landed and inspected the fissure, finding that it continued downward for longer than my sight could penetrate. I climbed down carefully, spotting an unnaturally dark corner where a dungeon had formed inside the fissure, but I shook my head and moved past it, determined not to get distracted by every little thing I encountered.
I checked ahead but didn’t sense anything nearby. I entered Stealth and began to head deeper underground, hoping this path would lead to the dark elf city. The mythology from my world said most dark elves lived underground, so I was hopeful this was the right direction.
Hours passed as the single tunnel I had originally followed branched into ten, twenty, and then hundreds of tunnels. The tunnel I followed was the largest one, so I continued to follow it downward, but I marveled at the fact that there was an entire world down here. With my Monster Hunter sense, I could feel monsters passing near me several times, but I managed to avoid most of them. The few I couldn’t avoid were stronger than the monsters on the surface, but they were nothing my revolver couldn’t handle now that it was fully repaired once again. I sensed the monsters before I got too close to them, and the ones I fought all seemed to rely on ambushing prey, so when I was the one doing the ambushing, they weren’t too dangerous.
Eventually, I sensed a large concentration of thousands of monsters in the distance. At first, I panicked that I was walking into some nest of powerful monsters that dominated this part of the underground, but after a moment, I realized I might be sensing the dark elves themselves. If the dark elves technically counted as monsters, it would make sense that my perk could detect them.
Unfortunately, the tunnel that led toward the concentration of monsters was completely blocked off by thick spiderwebs. The webs were unnatural, each string as thick as a finger or wrist. They crisscrossed the tunnel, completely blocking the path forward. I could sense several monsters hiding in the webs directly in front of me, presumably guarding the tunnel. I considered what to do, but if the monsters I was sensing were the dark elves, I didn’t have much of a choice but to proceed. I just had to hope I wasn’t walking into a nest of thousands of spiders. If the webs didn’t end in front of me, I could turn back before I got too close to the thousands of monsters I sensed in the distance, hopefully.
I drew my sword and revolver and then began hacking through the webs with my sword. The sword was magically sharp, so it cut through the thick webs without a problem. When the strands fell to the ground, I brushed them to the side with my sword, which seemed immune to the stickiness of the webs.
After the first few cuts, a loud hiss erupted from the tunnel in front of me. I sensed one of the monsters that had been hiding in the webs surge toward me. I stepped away from the webs, waiting. After a moment, a large spider parted the webs with ease and looked out at me, its multifaceted eyes glimmering in the dark of the tunnel. It had parted the webs carefully and seemed to stare at me with disturbing intelligence, like a human holding open curtains to see who had knocked on their door.
Not waiting for the spider to attack first, I shot it. My bullet pierced through its head. The spider screeched in fury as the bullet penetrated deep into its cranium, carving a hole the size of my fist through its eyes.
Instead of charging me, as I had expected, it retreated behind its webs. I frowned, surprised it hadn’t attacked and doubly surprised I hadn’t killed it with a shot like that. These things were going to be a problem. Sensing the spider retreating down the webbed tunnel, I stepped forward and began to clear the webs again.
I took my time, making absolutely sure the path forward was safe before moving any deeper into the spiders’ territory. I had the patience to do this right and I wasn’t going to run in halfcocked this time. I kept my senses on the spider that had approached me earlier with my Monster Hunter perk. After its initial retreat, it had stopped about thirty feet down the tunnel and hadn’t moved since. Either it was waiting to ambush me once I got that far into the tunnel or it had eventually succumbed to its wounds. I hadn’t received a notice of experience gain yet, but that could be because entering the spiders’ tunnels could still be considered combat and the announcements didn’t usually appear until I had settled down after a fight ended.
I cleared the spiderwebs until I reached the spider. I cut down a large portion of the webs and saw the spider slumped in its webs, dead. The wound in its head leaked viscous ichor down the webs, showing it had eventually died from my bullet; it had just taken some time for the creature to succumb to the injury.
I cut the spider down from the webs and continued forward, carefully stepping around the body to avoid touching it. I encountered several more spiders, each trying to ambush me from the cover of their webs, but my sense always revealed them to me and their ambushes failed. I continued forward until I reached an intersection in the tunnels. Forward led to where the concentration of monsters was, but if I pushed in that direction, I would be leaving several web-filled tunnels at my back.
It couldn’t be helped, though; I didn’t have the time to clear every tunnel I came to. I would just have to risk advancing with the web-filled passageways behind me. At first, there was no issue as I continued forward, carefully cutting through the thick spiderwebs and brushing them to the side so I could walk forward without being entangled. A moment later, though, I felt several monsters rapidly approaching, both from behind me, where the side tunnels were, and in front of me. It seemed the spiders had seen their opportunity and were trying to swarm me from multiple directions.
I took out an Explosive Grenade and waited, crouching down in Stealth several feet back from the uncleared webs in front of me.
When I sensed two monsters reaching the intersection behind me, I turned and tossed the grenade at them. The two spiders were creeping silently along the tunnel, one perched on the side of the tunnel and the other crawling along the ceiling. The explosion rocked me forward; the concentrated blast in the narrow tunnel was enough to send me stumbling forward. As I tried to recover, I felt the spiders in front of me surge forward, somehow sensing my distraction.
I wasn’t as surprised as the spiders had hoped, though, having anticipated how dangerous the explosion would be in such a confined space. Unfortunately for the spiders, I had learned that lesson already from fighting in so many close-packed dungeons that punished me for using explosives several times over. I recovered from my stumble and unloaded all six shots into the narrow tunnel in front of me, not waiting for the spiders to get close enough to be seen through their webs. Even though I couldn’t see the spiders, I felt them stumble and slow as my bullets ripped through the tunnel. I waited to see if they continued forward, reloading, but they stopped moving soon after they finished stumbling away.
The two spiders behind me were very dead, having been splattered and burned across the ceiling and floor of the tunnel by the grenade. The webs that had been carefully placed on the sides of the tunnel were burning, filling the tunnel with an acrid smoke that stung my lungs when I breathed in. I ducked, took several deep breaths, and then stood up and began to clear the tunnel once again.
I cleared webs for almost twenty more minutes before I finally broke through to a clear part of the tunnel. The webs continued up until I reached a ledge of stone that overlooked a massive cavern that stretched for miles in front of me. In the middle of the cavern was a city carved of stone, lit very faintly by glowing purple lights.
The city was surrounded by high stone walls, and from this high up, I could see the makeup of the city inside. There was a mix of large walled villas, massive temples that stretched higher than the walls by several stories, and then what looked like slums full of ramshackle homes of loose stone or mere clothing that provided nothing but a roof for people to sleep under. I could see thousands of dark elves in the city, the streets and buildings illuminated by faint purple lights that adorned the buildings and walls of the city.
The dark elves looked graceful and dangerous. They were taller than the mythology from my world had led me to believe they would be, some appearing to be nearly as tall as me. Some of them had pure white hair, but many others had black, brown, and even purple hair. I could also see a number of smaller beings in the city, many of which were hard to identify from a distance but appeared to be intelligent monsters of some kind. They were just as busy, or busier, than the dark elves I could see, and most of them came up to waist height on the dark elves.
I checked around me but couldn’t sense any monsters nearby. I was a bit puzzled that nobody was guarding this entrance to their cavern, but maybe the spiders were their guards. The quest had mentioned needing to save the dark elves from the spiders, though, so that seemed unlikely. Maybe it was too dangerous to guard the outskirts of the city with so many spiders nearby.
I found a narrow path to my right that led down from the ledge. I followed it down to the floor of the cavern and carefully approached the city. I kept my Stealth active and paid very careful attention to my Monster Hunter sense to make sure I didn’t run into any of the dark elves or other monsters. The floor of the cavern was covered in boulders and jagged stalagmites, making the area treacherous to walk through.
As I got closer to the walls, I saw there were pens carved into the stone of the floor. They looked like they had once housed livestock of some kind but were now abandoned. I also saw giant mushrooms behind stone fences. They grew like orchards would on the surface. For some reason, though, there were no dark elves tending to the mushrooms or harvesting them now; the area was completely empty and the mushrooms had been left to grow by themselves. The more I saw, the more it seemed like everything outside of the walls had been abandoned, possibly because of the spiders.
Faint spiderwebs, no more than a single strand at a time, were strung here and there across the cavern. They were hard to detect at first, but after I walked through a few, I realized they covered a large portion of the cavern. I tried to trace one briefly, and it led upward to the ceiling and then back toward one of the other tunnels in and out of the area. That tunnel was webbed closed, as were all the rest of the tunnels I could see, I realized, just like the one I had come from.
I knew spiders could detect when something touched their webs. Were these faint threads some kind of detection system used by the spiders to catch anyone who left the city? If so, it was deviously intelligent. Despite my contact with several of the threads, nothing came out of the many webbed-over tunnel entrances along the outside of the cavern to attack me, but I couldn’t tell if something was watching me from the tunnels or not. I shuddered slightly at the thought as I continued forward.
I circled the city, not wanting to get too close just yet. A number of guards patrolled the walls, diligently watching the cavern around the city. The guards all wore matching armor and carried crossbows, magical staves, and other ranged weapons. They looked professional and competent. I didn’t see any of them slacking off or joking around as they patrolled the walls.
As I circled the city, I was surprised to sense a collection of monsters outside of the walls in front of me. I picked up speed and approached carefully. When I got closer, I ducked behind a boulder and watched from a distance as a number of dark elves and the smaller monsters frantically harvested the large mushrooms. The dark elves and other creatures chopped into the mushrooms with axes, as if the towering mushrooms were trees in a forest. Whenever a mushroom fell, other workers ran forward and hurriedly piled the mushroom onto one of several waiting wagons that were hitched to monstrous beetles the size of oxen. The dark elves wore no armor or weapons and appeared poor, their clothing in tatters or barely mended. The smaller creatures were a mix of monsters I had come to recognize as brownies, goblins, and kobolds. There were also other monsters I didn’t recognize, but they all appeared to be intelligent beings able to work together. The dark elves and the smaller monsters all seemed to be on the verge of panic, staring at the surrounding walls of the cavern as if expecting an attack at any moment.
I snuck close enough to overhear the workers as they spoke. The language the dark elves used was one I was unfamiliar with. I listened closely to the words, trying to get a feel for what they were saying, but before I could, I sensed several monsters approaching. I glanced in the direction of the monsters and saw several spiders scuttling through the rocky terrain, rapidly approaching the workers. The spiders were even more hideous in the open than they had been in their webs. Their legs were twice as big as their bodies, arching upward above them as they ran. They nimbly climbed and jumped over the many boulders and stalagmites, their many legs propelling them forward surprisingly fast.
A cry rang out as the workers spotted the spiders, and everyone dropped what they were doing and began to run toward the city, the beetles and the mushrooms quickly forgotten. I paralleled the workers as they raced to the walls, staying nearby in case I could help them somehow.
The retreating dark elves rapidly outpaced the smaller monsters that worked alongside them, not bothering to try helping their smaller brethren in the slightest. The dark elves were the first to reach the walls, but it did them no good, as no door was opened for them to retreat into the city. They piled up against the wooden gate, screaming and pounding on it, begging to be let back into the safety of the city. The guards above them watched dispassionately, refusing to move to open the gate. The smaller monsters finally arrived and began to add their cries to those of the dark elf workers, but they were also summarily ignored by the guards on the wall.
It was clear these dark elves were not good people. I almost considered leaving them to their fate, but the draw of the rewards for completing the quest kept me from leaving. And I was still curious what it meant that there were intelligent monsters in the world. If I just turned around and left, I might never get answers to my many questions about the dark elves and how they came to be here.
As the spiders approached some of the smaller workers that had lagged behind the others, I took aim and shot the two lead spiders. My bullets cut through the thorax of both spiders, causing them to stumble and slow. There were three other spiders behind those, and they immediately slowed and took cover, their legs turning their bodies back and forth so they could see what had attacked them. The two I had shot tried to turn and find a place to hide as well, but they stumbled more and eventually stopped, slumping to the ground, limbs twitching as they leaked ichor from their wounds.
The other three spiders didn’t seem able to find me, frantically turning to look all around themselves. One of them had chosen to hide behind a nearby boulder, putting the boulder between itself and the wall, thinking the attack had come from the dark elves above. I snuck forward until I had a good angle and killed it with two shots to its torso.
The other two spiders gave up trying to find what was attacking them and began to retreat. I activated my Trickster’s Dash, launching myself at an angle above the two spiders, and fired down into the back of each spider. My bullets tore through them, throwing them forward to the rocky ground. They tried to stand but eventually gave up as their strength left them.
I landed on a boulder, balancing easily on the unsteady surface, and reloaded quickly. The rest of the workers had paid no attention to what had happened, and the stragglers still running through the cavern floor arrived safely at the wall, unaware the spiders that were chasing them were dead.
I activated my Stealth again. Several minutes passed before the gate was slowly lifted and the frantic workers shoved each other to get inside. I waited, but no guards came to investigate what had happened and nobody came to retrieve the beetles or the harvested mushrooms.
I retreated from the area, moving further away from the city and finding a ledge on the outer wall that had a view of the mushrooms but wasn’t too close to any of the webbed tunnels. An hour or more passed before the gate opened again. I watched as more dark elf workers and smaller monsters were forcibly pushed out of the city by a group of guards. Once the workers were outside, the gate was slammed closed, and one of the guards on top of the wall yelled something down at the workers. The workers, after a frozen moment, ran to where the beetles waited, still hitched to the wagons, and began to finish the work of the earlier workers.
I watched as terrified workers finished loading the wagons with mushrooms and then led the beetles back to the city. Only when the workers arrived with the mushrooms did the guards open the gate, allowing them back inside the city.
Shaking my head in disgust, I jumped down from my ledge and set off to explore the rest of the cavern. Every tunnel I found was webbed over, with no visible way for the inhabitants of the city to leave the cavern without having to cut their way through.
