After accidentally cutting myself on the razor-sharp edge of the strange item left in the statue's grip, I dismissed the mystical arrow. I made a mental note to re-summon it later, but there was something more important to check before investigating the item.
I looked around the room Sally and I had fled to. It wasn't that big, and like the rest of this underground lake, felt dead. It was circular, barely five metres wide, and my head almost scraped the fossilized tree-trunks that the whole structure had been built with as I paced around.
It only took a minute of pacing around to confirm that there wasn't any food or water, the smell of dust and stagnation so pervasive that I doubted anything left here wasn't stone or that fetid black water.
Though the room seemed to have been built on purpose, despite how it looks from the outside like a pile of washed up logs. The floor is a flat plane of stone, even and flat like the paths outside.
With nothing else to investigate, I sat down and thought about my options.
I…
I don’t think it's possible to escape this prison, at least with my current information and resources. I have inspected every inch of this room, and found nothing. No source of food, or water that’s not black and smelling of rot, and that monster is still hovering outside. I haven’t dared to look, but I know a predator like that wouldn’t give up after a single failure.
Even now, thinking back to what happened made my head hurt, the memory itself ached my mind, the light bleaching it clean. That thing on its head was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever come across. There wasn’t anything that could counter it, overcome it. It was absolute power, unbeatable by anything human.
I looked over at Sally walking around the cave, like a curious cat inspecting a new home, every nook and cranny having something new to explore and stick her head into. Though I already know that there’s nothing to find.
Even without the stale and disgusting smell that permeates every corner of this cavern, it was so constant that there couldn’t be anything that wasn’t petrified or rotting down here. Well, ignoring the obvious predator outside—plus us and the arrow-head.
I summoned it into my hand again, [Barbarika's quiver] holding it just fine even though it couldn’t realistically be used as an arrow. The item itself is peculiar, and at some point—like its previous owner—it must’ve been unpetrified and made of wood, but the glass-like solid at its tip seemed immune to whatever fossilisation that happened here.
I used [Appraisal] on it again, just to double check that I read it right when I picked it up.
[Using [Appraisal – Lvl 1] on: The Hunter’s Anathema]
[The Hunter’s Anathema – Level ??? Tool
The Greatest Wonder Worker’s last miracle, wrought upon ^@#% i-s !e-f]
[Error #013 - corrupted file]
[Enchantments:
-
Sacrifice: Blood must be fed to the stone to use its enchantments. If this in not done for a lengthy period—a month if you satiate it fully before starving it—it shall feed on its user instead.
-
Good Fortune: The keeper of the arrow is blessed, and if they wish to achieve the outcomes they desire, they only need to look into the gem to be given the path to take, given by ^@#%’s g@d-n@#ce @n! #ro$?*%>.
-
C#u!l Ad-#c+!on: B!c@#^e thi! *&^m-]
[Error #013 - corrupted file]
Again the Path failed to make the words appear correctly, something about the item was unable to be properly observed. I dismissed the arrow again, remembering that it wasn’t the first time I’d seen something like this. Back in Solis, I had tried to use [Appraisal] on anything and everything I could look at, and certain things were… forbidden.
Trying to use it on certain artifacts, buildings, or statues, sometimes the Path would cut itself off, and all of the text would be replaced with a [Error #002 - Access Denied].
But corruption… That’s new.
I did feel concerned about the dangerous possibilities hidden by the garbled text, and I didn’t know what an anathema was. But it did have hunter in the name, so… I hope that the missing text had something positive to do with hunting.
I didn’t want to have to use it—relying on an unknown and unreliable tool was something that goes against everything I’ve been trained for. But the situation is… bad.
No food, no water, and I can’t risk using appraisal on that monster, not without that light stunning me again.
Unknown threat, no food, no water.
Sally won’t last long, she needs food. But there’s no food.
Can’t fight it without knowing more. Can’t wait, no food. No water.
No food, no water. I threw up earlier. That’s bad.
No food, no water.
N-no water, no f-food.
N-n-no food n-
A sudden prick on my leg dragged me back to reality, and just by how unexpected it was made it able to drill its way into my awareness, the feeling almost as unpleasant as the situation. I looked down and saw Sally with a claw on my leg, her digits digging into me.
I’m not too sure why she did it, but it did give me a second to observe myself, how my breaths were short and panicked, the fact my leg was bouncing up and down on its own, and that my hand was currently rubbing my shoulder.
I recognised what was happening. I immediately forced myself to stop out of habit, taking practised breaths to calm down. His question already in my head.
What makes a warrior?
Warriors don't bend, don't break.
Warriors don't bend, don't break.
Warriors don't bend, don't break.
I’m a warrior, so I can’t break or bend.
After forcing myself to relax, I turned to look at my companion, and saw her watching me curiously, a slight tilt to her head portraying her confusion. I almost habitually tried to smile at her, to show that she shouldn’t worry. But that would be silly, it’s not like she even understands the cultural significance of it. It's nice to not have to care about that anymore, an animal can’t hold me to human rules.
With a sigh I slowly slid onto the floor, my back resting against one of the fossilized logs, as I stopped thinking about the direness of the situation and tried to focus on the problems I can actually try and fix. Like how to escape this situation alive.
The two biggest issues are the monster, and the exit. The monster I can’t progress on, I don’t even remember what it looked like, just that it was big and… possibly a snake? But the exit… That’s something with promise.
If it’s close, we could make a break for it, using something as a distraction… An intrusive thought immediately entered my mind, my father’s words encouraging me to use the perfect bait that was happily sitting right beside me.
I scowled, my insides greasy at the realisation that I was still capable of thinking like this, hating myself a little bit for it. Sure, it might work. Wouldn’t be worth it.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
But I don’t know where the exit to this portion of the dungeon is, assuming that it’s designed like all the previous rooms. I am quite certain by now, they’re designed, they have to be.
The features, the placements, while everything individually is unique and ‘natural’, they’re arranged in such a strange yet convenient way that there’s really no other possibility. This mountain was made by something.
I do remember this place being described as a prison by the priests, a place where the evils of the world were kept, but… who put them here, who made this place to imprison them? To keep the things like the giant monster outside, or the reanimated corpse of the Deer-woman, imprisoned.
Well, the mystery can wait, knowing won’t change our chances of survival. But I can rely on this being made, and therefore planned. Like the shower and firewood from last night, there should be something I can use, something to exploit and give us a fighting chance, because so far its been rather generous.
Though… It’s probably already given us the way out we need. I glance at Sally to see her halfway across the room investigating the stone skeleton, poking and prodding at it with her talons like it was about to get up and start moving.
I felt… compelled to keep the arrow away from her, the strangeness of it not something I wish to risk on her. I willed the item into my hand and investigated the tip, the edge looking as sharp as it felt a few minutes ago. Without hesitating like before, I stabbed the blade into my thumb fully, digging a few centimetres in and the wound it made was completely bloodless.
I watched closely as inside the gem a droplet of blood formed, trembling as it grew larger and larger, until the gem was full, the liquid sloshing around inside it like the gem was hollow.
Then it vanished, the blood turning transparent along with the gem, the edges the only visible part of the gem. In the void where the gem once existed, a completely different place was showed. It looked like a phone screen in the shape of an arrow-head.
But the place I saw was the outside of the stone mound, a brown shape—blurred and obscured by a misty haze—sitting on the path I took to the checkpoint. The perspective I was watching from then went inside of the stone mound, aimed at the stone skeleton, with Sally and I absent from the picture. I looked up to see her still there, still poking her nose in places she probably shouldn’t.
Back in the Arrow’s vision, the skeleton was pushed aside by an invisible force, the stones tumbling and breaking as it did so. Behind it was a small tunnel, barely big enough for me if I crawled. The perspective sped through the tunnel, emerging on the other side before it moved upwards, eerily similar to drone footage. I watched in mild disbelief as it started to move again, following one of the stone paths on the other side mound from which we entered from.
About eighty metres away, there was an out cropping of rock, rising about a metre above the water, like a mountain's top had been sheared off and placed in the lake. On its peak was a building, a wooden house that'd been fossilized like everything else, and was also connected to the web of paths. Even though I couldn't know for certain if it was another [Checkpoint], I don't see how it could be anything else.
From that [Checkpoint] the vision continued, moving away from it and down another stone route. One of the half a dozen that joined at the [Checkpoint] before splitting again in every direction.
The arrow's 'camera' followed the winding path, at least two hundred metres before it stopped at one of the petrified trees, the trunk it focused on had a hole, showing a hollowness to it. But more importantly there was a sign, the unpetrified metal sheet painted red with white lettering.
My breathing stopped as I read what it said, the words distinctly printed, unmistakable even in the mostly colourless dark.
‘Fire escape’
That’s… English, that’s a fire escape sign written in English, and in that classic blocky style indicative of earth’s road and warning signs. I hadn’t ever seen anything remotely similar in Brekun so far.
And then, as suddenly as the vision started, the arrow resumed its usual look, the pale gem completely clear and devoid of blood. After taking a few seconds to memorise the important crossroads and turns to take, I dismissed the arrow again, and got up to confirm it.
It only took a few seconds to reach sally and the subject of her curiosity, and I gently moved her aside with the back of my hand pushing against her side, Sally at first resisting before letting me guide her away from the skeleton.
Once she was out of the vicinity, I grabbed the statue with both hands, and with a grunt I yanked at it. It took a few jerks, but eventually whatever holding it to the wall gave way, the remains tumbling to the side exactly like the vision showed, and shattering on the floor.
And right where it was meant to be, there was the tunnel and it couldn’t’ve been more than a metre in width. I could slide through it on my stomach, but it would probably be too tight for me to move my arms freely, though it still should work.
I bent down onto my elbows and checked that it went to the other side, which it did. But before I could get back up, Sally stuck her head into the gap beside mine to get a good look at what I was investigating.
It surprised me that she was willing to be so close to me. Especially now, when there was no reason other than her curiosity about the tunnel. Usually she's only near me for food, or a lift. It was a development that I… liked, it made me feel warm.
But I ignored her brush against my shoulder and began to crawl, leaving her behind in the main room.
Ignoring the stabbing of the jagged stones on my stomach, I made my way along the cramped path until I could see the stone path above the lake’s water leading to the exit. While making sure to keep myself a metre from the end of the tunnel—I didn’t know how far the [checkpoint]’s protection would go—I examined the familiar path and linked its forks with the ones I saw in my vision.
If I squinted and used my intuition and experience to fill in the gaps of what I couldn’t see, I’m fairly confident I could see the tree that’d lead us out of this wasteland. But between us and the exit, I could see the next [Checkpoint], the stone house closer to us than it was to the exit.
[Using [Appraisal – Lvl 1] on: [Checkpoint]]
[Checkpoint - Path Artifact]
I had hoped that looking at the route with my own eyes would give me some sort of revelation, something that I could use to figure out a solution to our steadily worsening situation. But all I could do was confirm that it was another [Checkpoint].
To test our hunter, I grabbed a piece of loose stone that’d been digging into my shoulder, and threw it as well as I could from my cramped position in a direction far away from the one we needed to take. As soon as it left my hand, I closed my eyes and began to shuffle backwards, making sure that the ghostly light didn’t have any way to hurt me as I retreated back into the safety of the cave.
The pebble let out a relatively loud clack as it hit the path I was aiming for, one separate from the one we needed, the sound starting a count down in my head.
After seven seconds of silence, a loud crunch of stone being eviscerated under the weight of the monster’s body and force of its bite. I couldn’t even hear the water splash from the creature's movement before it struck, there was no audible warning I could take advantage of.
I listened to it continue to crunch the stone before sliding back into the water, and I finally got back into the [checkpoint]’s main room just after it audibly disappeared. I happily realised that [Hunter’s Senses] helped greatly when it comes to figuring out what’s it doing with only hearing being available to me, though still not enough to track it.
But the discovery quickly soured as I thought about the data I just gathered. Seven seconds was nowhere near enough time to make the run to the exit. It might be enough to get to the next [Checkpoint], but not from that [Checkpoint] to the exit
A small noise from Sally reminded me to open my eyes, and I saw her still in the same position as before, looking at me with… a look. It wasn’t too hard to figure out feelings from her body language and vocalisations, but I couldn’t read the facial expressions of reptiles.
Though it seemed that a drake’s face was much more tactile and expressive than any other lizard I’d come across.
I wasn’t certain how long it’d been now since her last full meal, but it gave me a deadline to figuring out how to escape.
I didn’t have enough pieces to make a plan that might work, and no matter how I leveraged my current information, it just wasn’t enough to overcome the impossible barrier that the creature posed. Knowing where the exit is didn’t matter when it can kill me easily on every path I could take to reach it.
Instead of letting myself get into a spiralling state of overwhelming emotion again, I forced myself to not think about the worsening situation. Instead I tried to relax and hope that something occurs to me, ideas came easier to me when I'm doing something unrelated, and I don’t think about the problem directly.
Though, in the back of my mind, there was a scratchy demand to take out the [Hunter’s Anathema] again, and ask it for the answer. I know that it could give me an answer with only a small sacrifice, but… I don’t think it’s a good idea to trust it. At least not before figuring out what that hidden part of its description says.
With nothing immediately coming to mind, I sat down, and tried to distract myself with something.
After I spent a couple of minutes trying to do something to distract myself and failing, Sally eventually circled around me. It reminded me that she was struggling as well, her body was slow and sluggish, stumbling instead of her usual feline grace. The cold was starting to debilitate her already.
It struck me how fragile she was, how small she was, my hands were almost big enough to wrap around her whole torso. Her head, neck and winding tail would be the only things able to escape my hand.
Such a tiny thing had already changed my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined a couple of days ago, saving it as well. I don’t want to imagine what could’ve happened if she wasn’t immune to the serpent’s light.
That’s it! She’s immune to its light. She can see it without getting disabled.
Her warnings had already saved me once from the serpentine monster, if she could do that consistently, then I’d have a reliable way to know if the monster was about to attack.
The most reliable way to get that warning would be to… train her to warn me about the beast.
I was still watching her, and a safe distance away from me she'd curled up on the floor. She noticed me staring at her, and tilted her head in confusion, a cautious growling leaving her mouth a few seconds after I initiated the eye contact.
Training her would be the best solution. But not the easiest. I don't even want to think about how much she'll bite me through this process.
Apologies for the late upload! Got a bit distracted playing the Minos Demo last night and ended up staying up until 1-2 AM playing it. I must admit that I'm a sucker for rougelikes (Especially once my ADHD medication wears off).
But also the end of my Uni semester is around the corner, and that's come with 2 Lab reports, an assignment, and a test all due next week, and then exams are all happening before the end of the term.
But! I do still have a backlog of 11 chapters, so don't expect me to stop uploading anytime soon. It is just that I want to maintain the promises I've made on patreon, so there might be a week break in the next couple of weeks, or chapter uploads will be reduced to once a week for less than a month.
However I'm not even sure that I'll need to change anything at all, yet but I'll let you all know on Wednesday.