Techhunter_Talon
Cultist
Considering the fact I can't rename the thread and that the "temporary" title has started growing on me. I don't think that title there is ever going to change. I doubt I will be able to come up with a better title even when I finish the project. Till then, enjoy. ^_^
The following is something I have been writing to practice character description, interaction, and characterization. This is the case with most everything I write where not everything in it is mine. Hope you enjoy what I have written so far and be sure to let me know what you think.
Prologue
Chapter 1: Hellborne
Chapter 2: Humble Beginnings
Chapter 3: Risk of Rain
Chapter 4: Dragon’s Maw
Chapter 5: The Lost
Chapter 6: Cave Treasures and Cowards
Chapter 7: Guided Problems
Chapter 8: Within the Depths
Chapter 9: A Hairy Obsession
Chapter 10: The Eye and the Fun Guy
Chapter 11: The Eye’s Demise
Chapter 12: The Dryad
Chapter 13: Home Sweet Home
The following is something I have been writing to practice character description, interaction, and characterization. This is the case with most everything I write where not everything in it is mine. Hope you enjoy what I have written so far and be sure to let me know what you think.
Prologue
Where am I now? Thought Lucidus. Looking around he saw that he was suddenly in the middle of a forest of some sort. Just a few moments ago he was walking through the halls of Fort Lightbringer, the base of operations of sorts for the Order of Light. He was the leader and founder of this Order. His eyes were a bright green and he had somewhat of an elven physique to him. Much of his thin body was covered by blue and fairly ornate armor that reflected the sun a fair bit. From the right angle many would confuse him to be something angelic though they wouldn’t be that far off. Though he often regarded himself as an elf, he was actually only half-elf. The other half was Child of the Light, a race of elementals that controlled the force of light. Physically he bore no sign of being part Child of the Light which contributed to many, including himself, to thinking that he was a pure elf.
“Another brave soul to brave the wilds here? Or another fool who is in over his head?” A voice spoke. As Lucidus was very much deep in thought he jumped slightly and immediately turned to see a man that wore a gray shirt and a pair of blue pants. His eyes were blue and his hair was brown and somewhat unkempt, much like his own though his helmet pretty much hid that from view.
“Who are you?” Lucidus asked upon turning to look at this person that spoke to him.
“Thinking very much the same thing. Also with the added, ‘Where am I?’” Another voice spoke, this one different and much deeper. A fairly large and imposing heavily armored figure came up from behind person that Lucidus was speaking too.
“Another? Interesting. This is something different. I am used to guiding only one hero. I wonder what this bodes?” The man wearing the gray shirt said turning to face this other person.
“So... I guess you first?” The newcomer asked the gray shirted man. This guy easily had a foot over Lucidus. Wearing similarly colored armor but was far less so ornate and darker than his. Also it was far bulkier but he wondered how much of it was truly the armor. It had golden accents around the gauntlets and boots. Also the helmet was vastly different. It looked almost like he took bit of a glass bowl and fitted it into an open faced helmet and dyed the glass a lighter blue than the rest of his armor. On his back was a truly strange looking weapon, one that Lucidus and even the other guy never seen before. At least he was assuming it was a weapon.
“I am Andrew, your Guide in this world. Don’t be like the last guy, you need me if you want to even have a remote possibility of surviving in this world.” Andrew introduced himself. He fell silent and waited for the other two to introduce themselves. He was very much interested in knowing the names of these two new heros.
“Lucidus Lucerna. Grandmaster and Founder of the Order of Light.” Lucidus introduced himself next with a slight bow.
“Xerus. Mercenary of the Renegade.” Xerus said with his arms crossed. “I’m guessing that neither of you know why I am here?”
“If you two are here then you must be the chosen heros to save this world from the Corruption. Though this is an oddity. Typically it’s only one. Either one or both of you are the chosen hero.” Andrew explained. His brown eyes darted between the two, looking at them curiously.
“Figures. Help save one world and get drawn to another.” Lucidus said under his breath. His most recent memory was of that of saving a world from a mechanical monstrosity with the help of three other people. Two of them he regarded as close friends. The other was a former enemy that came to them for help when he found out about this monstrosity.
“This is truly strange though. Another appeared here not too long ago. Looked much stranger than you two.” Andrew added, not hearing what Lucidus had said under his breath.
“Who?” Xerus asked. Another was drawn to this world?
“I don’t know. He didn’t speak really and he wandered off somewhere after I introduced myself.” Andrew answered. That memory was fairly fresh in his mind. This Xerus guy was fairly big but this other guy had him beat by a long shot.
“What did he look like?” Xerus continued asking Andrew questions. From what he gathered, this other person had really large build and looked fairly demonic. He wore armor that a dark red with black accents and his helmet had spiky protrusions that looked a bit like black horns. All he could see of the person’s face was two glowing white eyes. The rest of the face he wasn’t able to make out as it was pitch black. Also, he was around 8 feet tall, which Xerus was around between 6 or 7 feet tall while Lucidus was around 5. He also gathered that this figure had a long slender shadowy tail that contributed a bit to his demonic or at least inhuman appearance. The description seemed very familiar to Xerus.
“A Saermeon? Here?” He seemed very much confused. Typically Saermeon couldn’t live long in the light but this one was fine? Usually they die in mere seconds of venturing out of their shadowy realm. This meant that either this world he was in was different from the one he originally came from or that this world was within the so called Realm of Darkness. He figured it was his first thought that he, and this Lucidus person, are in a whole other world that wasn’t in the Realm of Darkness as both this ‘guide’ and the other guy would be dead or dying right about now as the worlds from that realm have atmospheres that were harmful to non-native beings. This was worrying to be sure.
“What is a Saermeon?” Andrew asked. The look on his face suggested he was a bit worried.
“You took the words right out of my mouth.” Lucidus said. He was also very much curious of these creatures. Based on what Andrew described, they couldn’t be good news.
Xerus explained all that he knew of the Saermeon. From their weakness to the light and to the fact that they could shape-shift. Furthermore they could shape-shift as to avoid death by the light. He also explained that, based on Andrew’s description, this one was still in his natural form which suggested that this world was very different from where he and Lucidus came from.
“Okay. That eliminates him from being the chosen hero. I’m going to guess that he was brought here as an added challenge for the hero.” Andrew concluded, still very much thinking that all of this was apart of some sort of prophecy or something to that effect. Different wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Though it wasn’t a good thing either.
“So where is here? Where are we?” Lucidus asked. Clearly they were in a different world than what they were used to.
“Ah yes, many pardons. Welcome to Terraria.” Andrew answered with a bright smile on his face. He was anxious to see what the coming days might contain. The possibility of two chosen heroes? A creature of darkness? This will be interesting indeed.
“Another brave soul to brave the wilds here? Or another fool who is in over his head?” A voice spoke. As Lucidus was very much deep in thought he jumped slightly and immediately turned to see a man that wore a gray shirt and a pair of blue pants. His eyes were blue and his hair was brown and somewhat unkempt, much like his own though his helmet pretty much hid that from view.
“Who are you?” Lucidus asked upon turning to look at this person that spoke to him.
“Thinking very much the same thing. Also with the added, ‘Where am I?’” Another voice spoke, this one different and much deeper. A fairly large and imposing heavily armored figure came up from behind person that Lucidus was speaking too.
“Another? Interesting. This is something different. I am used to guiding only one hero. I wonder what this bodes?” The man wearing the gray shirt said turning to face this other person.
“So... I guess you first?” The newcomer asked the gray shirted man. This guy easily had a foot over Lucidus. Wearing similarly colored armor but was far less so ornate and darker than his. Also it was far bulkier but he wondered how much of it was truly the armor. It had golden accents around the gauntlets and boots. Also the helmet was vastly different. It looked almost like he took bit of a glass bowl and fitted it into an open faced helmet and dyed the glass a lighter blue than the rest of his armor. On his back was a truly strange looking weapon, one that Lucidus and even the other guy never seen before. At least he was assuming it was a weapon.
“I am Andrew, your Guide in this world. Don’t be like the last guy, you need me if you want to even have a remote possibility of surviving in this world.” Andrew introduced himself. He fell silent and waited for the other two to introduce themselves. He was very much interested in knowing the names of these two new heros.
“Lucidus Lucerna. Grandmaster and Founder of the Order of Light.” Lucidus introduced himself next with a slight bow.
“Xerus. Mercenary of the Renegade.” Xerus said with his arms crossed. “I’m guessing that neither of you know why I am here?”
“If you two are here then you must be the chosen heros to save this world from the Corruption. Though this is an oddity. Typically it’s only one. Either one or both of you are the chosen hero.” Andrew explained. His brown eyes darted between the two, looking at them curiously.
“Figures. Help save one world and get drawn to another.” Lucidus said under his breath. His most recent memory was of that of saving a world from a mechanical monstrosity with the help of three other people. Two of them he regarded as close friends. The other was a former enemy that came to them for help when he found out about this monstrosity.
“This is truly strange though. Another appeared here not too long ago. Looked much stranger than you two.” Andrew added, not hearing what Lucidus had said under his breath.
“Who?” Xerus asked. Another was drawn to this world?
“I don’t know. He didn’t speak really and he wandered off somewhere after I introduced myself.” Andrew answered. That memory was fairly fresh in his mind. This Xerus guy was fairly big but this other guy had him beat by a long shot.
“What did he look like?” Xerus continued asking Andrew questions. From what he gathered, this other person had really large build and looked fairly demonic. He wore armor that a dark red with black accents and his helmet had spiky protrusions that looked a bit like black horns. All he could see of the person’s face was two glowing white eyes. The rest of the face he wasn’t able to make out as it was pitch black. Also, he was around 8 feet tall, which Xerus was around between 6 or 7 feet tall while Lucidus was around 5. He also gathered that this figure had a long slender shadowy tail that contributed a bit to his demonic or at least inhuman appearance. The description seemed very familiar to Xerus.
“A Saermeon? Here?” He seemed very much confused. Typically Saermeon couldn’t live long in the light but this one was fine? Usually they die in mere seconds of venturing out of their shadowy realm. This meant that either this world he was in was different from the one he originally came from or that this world was within the so called Realm of Darkness. He figured it was his first thought that he, and this Lucidus person, are in a whole other world that wasn’t in the Realm of Darkness as both this ‘guide’ and the other guy would be dead or dying right about now as the worlds from that realm have atmospheres that were harmful to non-native beings. This was worrying to be sure.
“What is a Saermeon?” Andrew asked. The look on his face suggested he was a bit worried.
“You took the words right out of my mouth.” Lucidus said. He was also very much curious of these creatures. Based on what Andrew described, they couldn’t be good news.
Xerus explained all that he knew of the Saermeon. From their weakness to the light and to the fact that they could shape-shift. Furthermore they could shape-shift as to avoid death by the light. He also explained that, based on Andrew’s description, this one was still in his natural form which suggested that this world was very different from where he and Lucidus came from.
“Okay. That eliminates him from being the chosen hero. I’m going to guess that he was brought here as an added challenge for the hero.” Andrew concluded, still very much thinking that all of this was apart of some sort of prophecy or something to that effect. Different wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Though it wasn’t a good thing either.
“So where is here? Where are we?” Lucidus asked. Clearly they were in a different world than what they were used to.
“Ah yes, many pardons. Welcome to Terraria.” Andrew answered with a bright smile on his face. He was anxious to see what the coming days might contain. The possibility of two chosen heroes? A creature of darkness? This will be interesting indeed.
Chapter 1: Hellborne
“You said you are our guide right? So where exactly are we going?” Lucidus asked Andrew suddenly.
“Pardon?” He looked momentarily confused by the question.
“You are a guide, correct? That would mean you are bringing us somewhere, right?” Lucidus explaining what he was asking the guide.
“No. I am a guide in the sense that I will be helping you survive out here.” Andrew explained to Lucidus.
“Okay, fine. What are we going to be doing then?” Lucidus asked with his face partially buried in his palm.
“Building a house.” Andrew shrugged and looked at Lucidus as though this was most normal thing to tell a random stranger in the middle of the woods.
Lucidus looked at Andrew as though he had five heads. Building a house? They are not living here. If anything this whole thing is a completely temporary affair. As soon as they are done then they should be returning to where they came or at least hoped that was what would happen when they do what the needed to do here.
All the while the two were talking, Xerus wandered around the area for a bit. He was getting his bearings and exploring the area. He was mentally reviewing the steps of how to survive in the wild. One of which was finding food or water. After which getting supplies to build shelter. With Andrew and Lucidus talking about that, he was free to search for food and clean water. He hoped that at least he’d find a source of water as that would also provide as a source of food. As much he didn’t like the taste of fish there wasn’t much choice in the matter if he couldn’t find anything else.
After much searching he found a massive lake. The water was at least not visually dirty. He knelt by the lake and placed an armored hand in the water. As strange as this might sound, he was testing the water to make sure it wasn’t contaminated by anything. This was extremely unlikely as there was no sign of any settlements so far. The worst the water might contain is slight animal waste which that totally couldn’t just be boiled away anyway. After a few minutes he brought his hand out of the water. Surprisingly there wasn’t much in the terms of animal waste in the water. In fact, it was largely alright to drink as is.
What now? Shelter. It hit almost immediately where to set up. Why not build near the lake? Seemed like the perfect idea. Or at least better than building in the middle of nowhere. With this in mind he returned to where he last saw Lucidus and Andrew.
“Okay. Cut down some trees. With what ax? Hell, even if I knew what happened to my sword I know that wouldn’t be such a good idea for woodcutting.” Lucidus was getting extremely annoyed with Andrew. For the last couple of minutes he was telling him how to survive. What made it annoying was the fact it wasn’t even anything that anyone would think to do first. Get wood to make a shelter? Food and water come first. If you don’t have that then you might not have the strength to make shelter. Unless, of course, you find somewhere to act as shelter.
“If you two ladies are done fighting over there, I found both a clean source of water and a potential source of food!” Xerus yelled at Lucidus and Andrew. The two shrugged and followed him to the lake he found.
“All we need is shelter and we will be good to go. At least for now.” Xerus said happily. This happiness very quickly dissipated with what followed shortly afterward.
“At least one has a brain here.” A voice that was neither Andrew nor Lucidus spoke. A large armored figure literally came out from the shadow of a nearby tree. It was the person that Andrew saw before Lucidus and Xerus. He spoke almost as though he was whispering and his voice sent a chill down their spines. He was almost as imposing as Andrew described him. He was clearly something demonic.
“You.” Andrew said sounding almost fearful of this being.
“So I wasn’t the only one drawn here. Curious world don’t you think?” He was looking at Lucidus and Xerus. He wasn’t even acknowledging that Andrew was even there.
“Who... are you?” Lucidus asked finally. His eyes visibly widened when he got a good look at this figure.
“Reaver Hellborne. Remember it well as I will not repeat myself.” Reaver replied. Although Lucidus once fought a man that could turn himself into a living mass of flame and a machine that was hell bent on destroying worlds, this being that stood before him was something different. Something about him was a fair bit unsettling about him and wasn’t even those piercing eyes that glowed a bright white. The air seemed to have cooled down significantly as he was able to see his breath now. He felt as though he might freeze in place if he stayed still for too long.
“I introduced myself to you. You would do well to offer the same courtesy to me.” He said, his white glowing eyes narrowed slightly.
“Xerus and this is...” Xerus started but was very quickly interrupted by Reaver.
“Only introduce yourself! If the others are so cowardly that they can’t even introduce themselves then so be it. Let them acquire the courage to do so themselves.” Reaver said threateningly at Xerus. He looked at the other two and only nodded his head in agreement.
“Very well. If you wish.” He said simply. He crossed his arms and waited for other two to say something. After a few minutes had passed and no one spoke Reaver grew tired of waiting.
“Fine. If you do not wish to tell me your names then so be it.” He said. He looked as though he was about to leave but was stopped by Andrew speaking up.
“You already know my name.” Andrew finally spoke up when he remembered that he said his name when he first met Reaver.
“I only remember those who are worthy of being remembered. If you are unable tell me your name when asked then you are not worth my time and being remembered.” Reaver said before he vanished into the shadow of a tree. The air returned to normal shortly afterward. The three remained silent for a few minutes afterward before the sound of something rustling in a nearby bush brought them back to reality.
“I can see why you were not too eager to chase him down.” Lucidus was the first to break the silence as the rustling was only that of a rabbit in a bush.
“Pardon?” He looked momentarily confused by the question.
“You are a guide, correct? That would mean you are bringing us somewhere, right?” Lucidus explaining what he was asking the guide.
“No. I am a guide in the sense that I will be helping you survive out here.” Andrew explained to Lucidus.
“Okay, fine. What are we going to be doing then?” Lucidus asked with his face partially buried in his palm.
“Building a house.” Andrew shrugged and looked at Lucidus as though this was most normal thing to tell a random stranger in the middle of the woods.
Lucidus looked at Andrew as though he had five heads. Building a house? They are not living here. If anything this whole thing is a completely temporary affair. As soon as they are done then they should be returning to where they came or at least hoped that was what would happen when they do what the needed to do here.
All the while the two were talking, Xerus wandered around the area for a bit. He was getting his bearings and exploring the area. He was mentally reviewing the steps of how to survive in the wild. One of which was finding food or water. After which getting supplies to build shelter. With Andrew and Lucidus talking about that, he was free to search for food and clean water. He hoped that at least he’d find a source of water as that would also provide as a source of food. As much he didn’t like the taste of fish there wasn’t much choice in the matter if he couldn’t find anything else.
After much searching he found a massive lake. The water was at least not visually dirty. He knelt by the lake and placed an armored hand in the water. As strange as this might sound, he was testing the water to make sure it wasn’t contaminated by anything. This was extremely unlikely as there was no sign of any settlements so far. The worst the water might contain is slight animal waste which that totally couldn’t just be boiled away anyway. After a few minutes he brought his hand out of the water. Surprisingly there wasn’t much in the terms of animal waste in the water. In fact, it was largely alright to drink as is.
What now? Shelter. It hit almost immediately where to set up. Why not build near the lake? Seemed like the perfect idea. Or at least better than building in the middle of nowhere. With this in mind he returned to where he last saw Lucidus and Andrew.
“Okay. Cut down some trees. With what ax? Hell, even if I knew what happened to my sword I know that wouldn’t be such a good idea for woodcutting.” Lucidus was getting extremely annoyed with Andrew. For the last couple of minutes he was telling him how to survive. What made it annoying was the fact it wasn’t even anything that anyone would think to do first. Get wood to make a shelter? Food and water come first. If you don’t have that then you might not have the strength to make shelter. Unless, of course, you find somewhere to act as shelter.
“If you two ladies are done fighting over there, I found both a clean source of water and a potential source of food!” Xerus yelled at Lucidus and Andrew. The two shrugged and followed him to the lake he found.
“All we need is shelter and we will be good to go. At least for now.” Xerus said happily. This happiness very quickly dissipated with what followed shortly afterward.
“At least one has a brain here.” A voice that was neither Andrew nor Lucidus spoke. A large armored figure literally came out from the shadow of a nearby tree. It was the person that Andrew saw before Lucidus and Xerus. He spoke almost as though he was whispering and his voice sent a chill down their spines. He was almost as imposing as Andrew described him. He was clearly something demonic.
“You.” Andrew said sounding almost fearful of this being.
“So I wasn’t the only one drawn here. Curious world don’t you think?” He was looking at Lucidus and Xerus. He wasn’t even acknowledging that Andrew was even there.
“Who... are you?” Lucidus asked finally. His eyes visibly widened when he got a good look at this figure.
“Reaver Hellborne. Remember it well as I will not repeat myself.” Reaver replied. Although Lucidus once fought a man that could turn himself into a living mass of flame and a machine that was hell bent on destroying worlds, this being that stood before him was something different. Something about him was a fair bit unsettling about him and wasn’t even those piercing eyes that glowed a bright white. The air seemed to have cooled down significantly as he was able to see his breath now. He felt as though he might freeze in place if he stayed still for too long.
“I introduced myself to you. You would do well to offer the same courtesy to me.” He said, his white glowing eyes narrowed slightly.
“Xerus and this is...” Xerus started but was very quickly interrupted by Reaver.
“Only introduce yourself! If the others are so cowardly that they can’t even introduce themselves then so be it. Let them acquire the courage to do so themselves.” Reaver said threateningly at Xerus. He looked at the other two and only nodded his head in agreement.
“Very well. If you wish.” He said simply. He crossed his arms and waited for other two to say something. After a few minutes had passed and no one spoke Reaver grew tired of waiting.
“Fine. If you do not wish to tell me your names then so be it.” He said. He looked as though he was about to leave but was stopped by Andrew speaking up.
“You already know my name.” Andrew finally spoke up when he remembered that he said his name when he first met Reaver.
“I only remember those who are worthy of being remembered. If you are unable tell me your name when asked then you are not worth my time and being remembered.” Reaver said before he vanished into the shadow of a tree. The air returned to normal shortly afterward. The three remained silent for a few minutes afterward before the sound of something rustling in a nearby bush brought them back to reality.
“I can see why you were not too eager to chase him down.” Lucidus was the first to break the silence as the rustling was only that of a rabbit in a bush.
Chapter 2: Humble Beginnings
“So... what are we exactly going to use to get wood?” Lucidus asked. A few minutes had passed since Reaver had left the group to do whatever they wanted.
“I wonder...” Xerus said to himself as he walked up to a nearby tree and what seemed like a beam of energy came from the top part of his wrist. He made two quick cuts that formed a wedge at the tree’s base pointed away from where Lucidus and Andrew stood. After that he made another cut from where his first cut started. The tree creaked loudly and crashed down to the ground. The wood was slightly burned due his blade but it was still good enough to be used for something.
“Uhhh... wow. Nicely done... I think?” Andrew said, thoroughly impressed and surprised at what Xerus had done.
“Can you teach me how to do that?” Lucidus asked, thinking that what Xerus did was a magic spell of some sort. If it was then it would be useful in the case of being disarmed.
“No I can’t and you two have work to do while I get to chopping this tree up further. I’d say a small cabin will suffice for the first few nights here.” Xerus told Lucidus and Andrew.
Over the course of several hours they had a system down and work on the cabin started moving forward smoothly. By time the sun was starting to set they finished. Xerus used the remaining wood to set up a camp fire along with several wood logs for seats. The only issue was food. Lucidus thought of the idea of possibly catching a rabbit or two for food. Andrew was about to say something about this. Something about them lacking anything to hunt rabbits when he and Lucidus quickly found out that weapon on Xerus’ back shot bolts of energy. Tracking and killing some rabbits turned out to take only a few minutes.
“So an energy sword comes from your wrist and bolts of energy shoots out of that thing you have on your back. How much more convenient could this get.” Lucidus said as he was about to eat some cooked rabbit meat.
“Not much as I wasted much of my suit’s energy reserves using my sword as an axe. We’ll need to go looking for resources to make axes so that we won’t have to depend on that blade of mine. That will come tomorrow.” Xerus said before removing his helmet to eat.
Andrew and Lucidus were not sure what they would see under Xerus’ helmet. Clearly him being some sort lizard creature pretty much was not what they expected. While he ate he eyed them curiously as they just stared at him. He didn’t do much more than that. Once he was done he put his helmet back on. Once he did they heard him chuckle a bit.
“Your faces. Sorry but those were priceless.” He laughed at their expressions. He knew they would have been surprised due to the fact that his helmet completely obscured his face. If he still had a tail then they would of figured something out before now.
“You’re... a Lihzahrd?” Andrew asked finally.
“A what?” Xerus asked. This was first he heard that name.
“Lihzahrd. You’re a lizard man and they are a race of lizard men.” Andrew explained.
“First I heard of that. Sorry but that is not what we call ourselves. Would say what we are called... but... nah. Why bother? Not that it’s that important.” Xerus said to Andrew much to his annoyance.
"What are the Lihzahrd?” Lucidus asked Andrew.
“Pretty much they look a bit like your friend here but they were known to be highly technologically advanced. Hundreds of years ago they all just up and vanished. The only thing that remains of their civilization is a temple that is located on this continent but that thing is said to be locked and that no man has ever managed to gain entry.” Andrew explained. This really piqued Lucidus’ curiosity as he loved the idea of lost ancient civilizations and the like. He remembered back from where he came from that the land was dotted with ruins that suggested a civilization once existed there far before anyone settled the land. This civilization was called the Tecarrian Empire. This race had mysteriously vanished thousands or possibly millions of years ago. During his adventures with two of his friends they were brought to a ruin that still had a living member of this race living within it.
Upon thinking of how she looked he quickly came to the realization that Xerus might actually be a Tecarrian himself. It made sense as that Tecarrian he met told him and the others of her race and how they were highly advanced in the terms of technology. Xerus’ armor didn’t look like it was made using any tools or metal that a common armor smith might be familiar with. Even more when he considered that energy blade that came from the wrist of his right gauntlet. When thinking further on this he realized that Xerus lacked a tail like that Tecarrian woman he met. Either this meant it was cut off, likely seeing as he seemed like he seemed like he was a fighter, or that he was something else different.
“Lucidus? Are you going to stay out there for the night or are you coming inside? Not going to stop you if you want to play with the creatures of the night.” Xerus said to Lucidus which brought him back to reality. He wondered what he meant by ‘creatures of the night’ but thought not to find this out the hard way.
“Creatures of the night?” Lucidus asked once he entered the cabin. It was cramped but there was just enough room that they wouldn’t step on each other if they went out in the night to relieve themselves. There was a solitary torch that barely lit up the entire cabin. It was enough to see by and, again, not step on each other as they lacked proper beds at the moment. At least there was a central table with four chairs surrounding it. Come to think of it, he didn’t remember seeing Xerus making furnishings and a source of light when he was chopping up the wood.
“I’m not saying they are demonic eye balls and undead, but they are demonic eye balls and undead. Also I am not saying that we might need to block that door and if you don’t get in here in the next couple of seconds I will hold no regrets of locking you out.” Xerus answered. It didn’t take much more convincing than that considering Lucidus has no idea what happened to his sword and shield he had back where he came from.
“The dead walk here?” Lucidus asked as this sounded fairly farfetched to him. He was willing to possibly believe that there might be demonic eye balls out there as he thought he saw something fly overhead while he was making his way to the cabin that didn’t look like a bird. Undead though? Creatures that were re-animated corpses? That just seemed ridiculous too him.
“Apparently. Personally I think, ‘why take the risk if in the off chance that this turns out to be true?’ Personally would rather play it safe for first couple of nights and not deal with all that.” Xerus answered. Though he was armed with a laser or energy rifle of some sort, he wasn’t too eager to go fighting quite yet. He at least wanted to wait until he had something for close range fighting that didn’t rely on his suit for energy. Also, getting a full night sleep seemed appealing right about now after a long day of physical labor.
Lucidus and Andrew slept on the floor while Xerus leaned on the door and generally kept watch. That is if he had actually stayed up for more than a few minutes and fell asleep with his arms crossed and leaning on the door. Considering how big he was compared to Lucidus and Andrew, it was likely that nothing would be getting through that door without waking Xerus first.
“I wonder...” Xerus said to himself as he walked up to a nearby tree and what seemed like a beam of energy came from the top part of his wrist. He made two quick cuts that formed a wedge at the tree’s base pointed away from where Lucidus and Andrew stood. After that he made another cut from where his first cut started. The tree creaked loudly and crashed down to the ground. The wood was slightly burned due his blade but it was still good enough to be used for something.
“Uhhh... wow. Nicely done... I think?” Andrew said, thoroughly impressed and surprised at what Xerus had done.
“Can you teach me how to do that?” Lucidus asked, thinking that what Xerus did was a magic spell of some sort. If it was then it would be useful in the case of being disarmed.
“No I can’t and you two have work to do while I get to chopping this tree up further. I’d say a small cabin will suffice for the first few nights here.” Xerus told Lucidus and Andrew.
Over the course of several hours they had a system down and work on the cabin started moving forward smoothly. By time the sun was starting to set they finished. Xerus used the remaining wood to set up a camp fire along with several wood logs for seats. The only issue was food. Lucidus thought of the idea of possibly catching a rabbit or two for food. Andrew was about to say something about this. Something about them lacking anything to hunt rabbits when he and Lucidus quickly found out that weapon on Xerus’ back shot bolts of energy. Tracking and killing some rabbits turned out to take only a few minutes.
“So an energy sword comes from your wrist and bolts of energy shoots out of that thing you have on your back. How much more convenient could this get.” Lucidus said as he was about to eat some cooked rabbit meat.
“Not much as I wasted much of my suit’s energy reserves using my sword as an axe. We’ll need to go looking for resources to make axes so that we won’t have to depend on that blade of mine. That will come tomorrow.” Xerus said before removing his helmet to eat.
Andrew and Lucidus were not sure what they would see under Xerus’ helmet. Clearly him being some sort lizard creature pretty much was not what they expected. While he ate he eyed them curiously as they just stared at him. He didn’t do much more than that. Once he was done he put his helmet back on. Once he did they heard him chuckle a bit.
“Your faces. Sorry but those were priceless.” He laughed at their expressions. He knew they would have been surprised due to the fact that his helmet completely obscured his face. If he still had a tail then they would of figured something out before now.
“You’re... a Lihzahrd?” Andrew asked finally.
“A what?” Xerus asked. This was first he heard that name.
“Lihzahrd. You’re a lizard man and they are a race of lizard men.” Andrew explained.
“First I heard of that. Sorry but that is not what we call ourselves. Would say what we are called... but... nah. Why bother? Not that it’s that important.” Xerus said to Andrew much to his annoyance.
"What are the Lihzahrd?” Lucidus asked Andrew.
“Pretty much they look a bit like your friend here but they were known to be highly technologically advanced. Hundreds of years ago they all just up and vanished. The only thing that remains of their civilization is a temple that is located on this continent but that thing is said to be locked and that no man has ever managed to gain entry.” Andrew explained. This really piqued Lucidus’ curiosity as he loved the idea of lost ancient civilizations and the like. He remembered back from where he came from that the land was dotted with ruins that suggested a civilization once existed there far before anyone settled the land. This civilization was called the Tecarrian Empire. This race had mysteriously vanished thousands or possibly millions of years ago. During his adventures with two of his friends they were brought to a ruin that still had a living member of this race living within it.
Upon thinking of how she looked he quickly came to the realization that Xerus might actually be a Tecarrian himself. It made sense as that Tecarrian he met told him and the others of her race and how they were highly advanced in the terms of technology. Xerus’ armor didn’t look like it was made using any tools or metal that a common armor smith might be familiar with. Even more when he considered that energy blade that came from the wrist of his right gauntlet. When thinking further on this he realized that Xerus lacked a tail like that Tecarrian woman he met. Either this meant it was cut off, likely seeing as he seemed like he seemed like he was a fighter, or that he was something else different.
“Lucidus? Are you going to stay out there for the night or are you coming inside? Not going to stop you if you want to play with the creatures of the night.” Xerus said to Lucidus which brought him back to reality. He wondered what he meant by ‘creatures of the night’ but thought not to find this out the hard way.
“Creatures of the night?” Lucidus asked once he entered the cabin. It was cramped but there was just enough room that they wouldn’t step on each other if they went out in the night to relieve themselves. There was a solitary torch that barely lit up the entire cabin. It was enough to see by and, again, not step on each other as they lacked proper beds at the moment. At least there was a central table with four chairs surrounding it. Come to think of it, he didn’t remember seeing Xerus making furnishings and a source of light when he was chopping up the wood.
“I’m not saying they are demonic eye balls and undead, but they are demonic eye balls and undead. Also I am not saying that we might need to block that door and if you don’t get in here in the next couple of seconds I will hold no regrets of locking you out.” Xerus answered. It didn’t take much more convincing than that considering Lucidus has no idea what happened to his sword and shield he had back where he came from.
“The dead walk here?” Lucidus asked as this sounded fairly farfetched to him. He was willing to possibly believe that there might be demonic eye balls out there as he thought he saw something fly overhead while he was making his way to the cabin that didn’t look like a bird. Undead though? Creatures that were re-animated corpses? That just seemed ridiculous too him.
“Apparently. Personally I think, ‘why take the risk if in the off chance that this turns out to be true?’ Personally would rather play it safe for first couple of nights and not deal with all that.” Xerus answered. Though he was armed with a laser or energy rifle of some sort, he wasn’t too eager to go fighting quite yet. He at least wanted to wait until he had something for close range fighting that didn’t rely on his suit for energy. Also, getting a full night sleep seemed appealing right about now after a long day of physical labor.
Lucidus and Andrew slept on the floor while Xerus leaned on the door and generally kept watch. That is if he had actually stayed up for more than a few minutes and fell asleep with his arms crossed and leaning on the door. Considering how big he was compared to Lucidus and Andrew, it was likely that nothing would be getting through that door without waking Xerus first.
Chapter 3: Risk of Rain
The following morning they were awoken by the gentle sound of rain hitting the roof of the cabin. Also, it leaked a fair bit which was how Andrew woke up. A bit of water dripped on his face. Xerus left the cabin shortly after waking up to stretch out after pretty much sleeping standing up throughout the night. Also he went out to check if there was anything around to be worried about, which thankfully there was nothing. At least he thought so at first.
“What the hell!?” He exclaimed suddenly, provoking the others to come out into the rain. What they saw was shocking to say the least. At least it was shocking to Lucidus. Andrew just stood there watching the thing with an expression that suggested he was used to seeing what they were seeing.
“Is... that a fish walking on land?” Lucidus observed. It was a fish, specifically a goldfish, that was walking on the land and not doing what most other fish do when they are on land. That is flopping around on the ground in attempts to return to the water.
“That is what it appears to be. Fascinating.” Xerus replied. “Okay. I can’t wait to show this to Core. He’ll have a field day with this.”
“Core?” Andrew asked, momentarily he looked as though much of the color in his face had vanished. It returned just as quickly as it left.
“Uhhh... just someone I know. Now quiet. I’m recording this. He’ll spend a few hours trying to rationalize this if he ever saw this.” Xerus replied excitedly. Already he was sure that he was going to enjoy a good portion of his time here. He was leaving out that this friend was an artificial intelligence by the name of CORE 011 or Core for short. As a mercenary he had worked close with Core and regards him as something of a friend. This was partially due to the fact that Core was the only other thing he spoke to due to the fact he worked alone most of the time.
“Recording? You have paper on you?” Lucidus asked due to the fact he was somewhat unfamiliar with the technology that the Tecarrians used and what Xerus meant by recording.
“Nah, if I wrote it down somewhere then he could easily dismiss it as something like that I was hallucinating. The best I can explain it is that my helmet is recording what I am currently seeing and hearing. More or less permitting me to watch what I recorded back if I so desire.” Xerus explained the best he could what he was doing. It was alright of an explanation but it wasn’t the best. No doubt that Lucidus might still be a bit confused on this but at least he would be slightly less so.
“Is this at all similar to that tablet thing I saw a female of your species use once? I remember it displayed pictures on it, some of which moved.” Lucidus continued. He was actually starting to get what Xerus was talking about and it was actually giving him a growing interest in the Tecarrians and the technology they had available to them.
“Similar to that. Actually those things can playback these recordings. So... you are from Regnum Lucis then? That is the only planet currently that we had ever tried to build more permanent settlements on. Of course once signs of sentient beings started appearing we had to leave.” Xerus had momentarily taken his attention away from the fish and was looking at Lucidus. Andrew, meanwhile, was still partly in the cabin and looking on curiously at the two. Suddenly he spoke with a bit of alarm in his voice.
“Watch it you two! Flying Fish coming your way!” He yelled at Lucidus and Xerus.
“You know I am starting to like this place more by the minute.” Xerus said with some amount of excitement in his voice. He saw a long silvery fish that was using it’s fins as wings to fly. It dive bombed Xerus and hit with a metallic thump and fell to the ground, unconscious. He barely moved due to the impact. It looked as though the impact hurt the fish much more than him.
“Okay... that... was underwhelming.” Lucidus said with a noticeable amount of amusement in his voice. From how Andrew acted, he thought it was going to be something of a threat, but here it is now. It flew into or more specifically, it dive bombed Xerus and it was the one knocked out by the impact.
“I have to agree with you on that.” Xerus started though he sounded more disappointed than amused. “Hey, Andrew! How you feel about some fish for a morning meal!?”
“How would even go about cooking them?” Andrew asked. He was still very much surprised that the Flying Fish did nothing but knock itself out by dive bombing him. Thinking on it, it made sense considering that he was wearing armor. Actually that was something that was weird. These two and even that Reaver guy. All of them were wearing armor already. He was used to heros that started in normal clothing before working their way up to armor. If there wasn’t past indications that something odd was going on here then this would certainly suggest something odd was going on.
“Don’t you worry about that.” Xerus answered. If he didn’t have his helmet on then they would have seen that he was smiling slightly.
“I thought you said that thing was out of power.” Andrew said a few moments later when Xerus managed to produce a fire in the fire pit. He used that energy blade that came from his the top part of his wrist to dry off the wood. He even used it to start the fire.
“It has to recharge. More or less it’s supposed to be a back up weapon. Why do you think I said that we were going to look for some resources to make axes and the like? Personally don’t feel like relying on this thing and using it for something it really wasn’t intended for.” Xerus answered.
“This land is home to many caves, some of which possess mines. Maybe we can go find one and see if we can find some materials that way?” Andrew proposed to Xerus, who very much liked the idea. Lucidus on the other hand.
“What happened to the whole ‘playing it safe’ thing you were saying just the other day?” Lucidus questioned Xerus. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go but he distinctly remembered Xerus saying that last night actually.
“Playing it safe only works for only so long. As soon as an opportunity presents itself, it is best take advantage of it.” A familiar voice spoke, answering Lucidus. It was Reaver and he was under the same tree that he came out of it’s shadow the other day.
“You again?” Lucidus asked. Once again he was able to see his breath but at least this time there was a fire nearby to keep him warm. Didn’t keep a chill from running down his spine though.
“Yes... ‘me again.’ I’ll be joining you on this expedition. I actually know of one such cave that is nearby.” Reaver answered. “That is if you are actually going to do so. If not then there isn’t much more to discuss here and I’ll leave you three be for the moment.”
“Alright... but can we eat first?” Xerus asked. Reaver stayed silent for a moment before speaking again.
“So be it. The day is still young.” Reaver concluded. Although his presence made Lucidus and Andrew a bit uncomfortable, they managed to eat. Also as soon as they were done eating, Reaver gestured for them to follow. They did so albeit reluctantly or at least two of them did so reluctantly.
“What the hell!?” He exclaimed suddenly, provoking the others to come out into the rain. What they saw was shocking to say the least. At least it was shocking to Lucidus. Andrew just stood there watching the thing with an expression that suggested he was used to seeing what they were seeing.
“Is... that a fish walking on land?” Lucidus observed. It was a fish, specifically a goldfish, that was walking on the land and not doing what most other fish do when they are on land. That is flopping around on the ground in attempts to return to the water.
“That is what it appears to be. Fascinating.” Xerus replied. “Okay. I can’t wait to show this to Core. He’ll have a field day with this.”
“Core?” Andrew asked, momentarily he looked as though much of the color in his face had vanished. It returned just as quickly as it left.
“Uhhh... just someone I know. Now quiet. I’m recording this. He’ll spend a few hours trying to rationalize this if he ever saw this.” Xerus replied excitedly. Already he was sure that he was going to enjoy a good portion of his time here. He was leaving out that this friend was an artificial intelligence by the name of CORE 011 or Core for short. As a mercenary he had worked close with Core and regards him as something of a friend. This was partially due to the fact that Core was the only other thing he spoke to due to the fact he worked alone most of the time.
“Recording? You have paper on you?” Lucidus asked due to the fact he was somewhat unfamiliar with the technology that the Tecarrians used and what Xerus meant by recording.
“Nah, if I wrote it down somewhere then he could easily dismiss it as something like that I was hallucinating. The best I can explain it is that my helmet is recording what I am currently seeing and hearing. More or less permitting me to watch what I recorded back if I so desire.” Xerus explained the best he could what he was doing. It was alright of an explanation but it wasn’t the best. No doubt that Lucidus might still be a bit confused on this but at least he would be slightly less so.
“Is this at all similar to that tablet thing I saw a female of your species use once? I remember it displayed pictures on it, some of which moved.” Lucidus continued. He was actually starting to get what Xerus was talking about and it was actually giving him a growing interest in the Tecarrians and the technology they had available to them.
“Similar to that. Actually those things can playback these recordings. So... you are from Regnum Lucis then? That is the only planet currently that we had ever tried to build more permanent settlements on. Of course once signs of sentient beings started appearing we had to leave.” Xerus had momentarily taken his attention away from the fish and was looking at Lucidus. Andrew, meanwhile, was still partly in the cabin and looking on curiously at the two. Suddenly he spoke with a bit of alarm in his voice.
“Watch it you two! Flying Fish coming your way!” He yelled at Lucidus and Xerus.
“You know I am starting to like this place more by the minute.” Xerus said with some amount of excitement in his voice. He saw a long silvery fish that was using it’s fins as wings to fly. It dive bombed Xerus and hit with a metallic thump and fell to the ground, unconscious. He barely moved due to the impact. It looked as though the impact hurt the fish much more than him.
“Okay... that... was underwhelming.” Lucidus said with a noticeable amount of amusement in his voice. From how Andrew acted, he thought it was going to be something of a threat, but here it is now. It flew into or more specifically, it dive bombed Xerus and it was the one knocked out by the impact.
“I have to agree with you on that.” Xerus started though he sounded more disappointed than amused. “Hey, Andrew! How you feel about some fish for a morning meal!?”
“How would even go about cooking them?” Andrew asked. He was still very much surprised that the Flying Fish did nothing but knock itself out by dive bombing him. Thinking on it, it made sense considering that he was wearing armor. Actually that was something that was weird. These two and even that Reaver guy. All of them were wearing armor already. He was used to heros that started in normal clothing before working their way up to armor. If there wasn’t past indications that something odd was going on here then this would certainly suggest something odd was going on.
“Don’t you worry about that.” Xerus answered. If he didn’t have his helmet on then they would have seen that he was smiling slightly.
“I thought you said that thing was out of power.” Andrew said a few moments later when Xerus managed to produce a fire in the fire pit. He used that energy blade that came from his the top part of his wrist to dry off the wood. He even used it to start the fire.
“It has to recharge. More or less it’s supposed to be a back up weapon. Why do you think I said that we were going to look for some resources to make axes and the like? Personally don’t feel like relying on this thing and using it for something it really wasn’t intended for.” Xerus answered.
“This land is home to many caves, some of which possess mines. Maybe we can go find one and see if we can find some materials that way?” Andrew proposed to Xerus, who very much liked the idea. Lucidus on the other hand.
“What happened to the whole ‘playing it safe’ thing you were saying just the other day?” Lucidus questioned Xerus. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go but he distinctly remembered Xerus saying that last night actually.
“Playing it safe only works for only so long. As soon as an opportunity presents itself, it is best take advantage of it.” A familiar voice spoke, answering Lucidus. It was Reaver and he was under the same tree that he came out of it’s shadow the other day.
“You again?” Lucidus asked. Once again he was able to see his breath but at least this time there was a fire nearby to keep him warm. Didn’t keep a chill from running down his spine though.
“Yes... ‘me again.’ I’ll be joining you on this expedition. I actually know of one such cave that is nearby.” Reaver answered. “That is if you are actually going to do so. If not then there isn’t much more to discuss here and I’ll leave you three be for the moment.”
“Alright... but can we eat first?” Xerus asked. Reaver stayed silent for a moment before speaking again.
“So be it. The day is still young.” Reaver concluded. Although his presence made Lucidus and Andrew a bit uncomfortable, they managed to eat. Also as soon as they were done eating, Reaver gestured for them to follow. They did so albeit reluctantly or at least two of them did so reluctantly.
Chapter 4: Dragon’s Maw
Following the lake side, the four came upon a massive cave entrance that had a small stream coming from it and emptying into the lake. Possible that a once mighty river flowed from here and has long since started dying down for some reason.
“Looks a bit like a dragon’s head this cave.” Lucidus commented on the cave entrance’s appearance. Lining the cave ceiling and floor were many stalagmites and stalagtites that looked very much teeth, which combined with high the cave’s entrance opened, it did look a bit like a mouth of some creature.
“Had the very same thought. The Dragon’s Maw has a certain ring to it.” Reaver shared in Lucidus’ observation of the cave.
“So I’m guessing this is the cave?” Xerus asked, very much knowing the answer but he only wanted to be sure.
“Yes it would.” Reaver replied. He entered with the other following closely behind. Based on his past behavior he very well might leave them behind if they didn’t keep up.
Further into the cave it started becoming dark. Xerus thought of using his energy blade as a light but Reaver beat him to it, but in a different manner. He brought up his hand and produced what seemed to be a bright blue glowing flame. For a bit it stayed in his palm but a moment later it sprung up and started floating above his head. A faint pattern that looked like a skull could be made out within the flame. As they continued walking forward the ‘wisp’ floated just ahead of Reaver lighting the way for them. Not too far into the cave they found a wooden chest in the middle of the passageway. This struck as being fairly suspicious to Lucidus.
“A chest right in the middle of our path? That seems a bit fishy, doesn’t it?” Lucidus observed. Something about this just didn’t seem right.
“Hmmm...” Reaver walked forward carefully looking at the ground more than the chest. “Ah hah!” He exclaimed which meant he found something.
“Trap?” Xerus asked Reaver as he walked up to him. It was difficult to see but there was a pressure plate of some sort. It nearly perfectly blended in due to the fact it was colored much like the ground.
“Yes... but as for what kind?” He answered as he began searching for where the trap itself might be. “Not good. I don’t see any indication of where it might come from.”
“How about above? Perhaps a boulder drops from above?” Andrew suggested. The group nearly forgot that he was with them for this trip.
“Hmm...” Reaver dared to step on the pressure plate and trigger the trap himself. There was an audible click before he very quickly jumped back. A giant boulder landed right where he was standing and started rolling towards the back of the cave. There was a very distinct crash in the direction that the boulder went.
“That was a bit risky wasn’t it? What if it was linked to explosives?” Andrew asked Reaver.
“You three were well out of the blast radius. As for me? It would take more than that to take me down.” Reaver replied with a slight bit of annoyance at Andrew.
“Fairly certain you wouldn’t survive. You would of been right at the center of the blast.” Andrew told Reaver which only provoked a glare from him.
During this Lucidus and Xerus walked up to the chest, which somehow survived the boulder rolling over it. They opened it only to find some coins, various containers of liquids that were of various different colors, some rope, and a spear. Reaver walked over, looked into the chest, shrugged, and let the two take what they wished from the chest. He wasn’t interested in spears nor anything else in the chest.
“I get the spear. As of right now I have nothing to defend myself.” Lucidus said to Xerus.
“Fine. There wasn’t really anything in that chest I wanted either. Those containers look like potion which are kinda hard to drink when you wear a helmet all the time. Leave the coin though. Doubt we will need money at any point.” Xerus let Lucidus take what he wanted from the chest.
They continued on and found where that boulder went. There was a drop off and the boulder had fallen down the shaft and crumbled into pieces upon impact. Reaver looked back at the rest of the group over his shoulder and jumped off the ledge. They felt the impact of his landing. Looking down they found that he was alright and that he was now waiting for them. He looked up at them with his arms crossed. Unlike him, the rest were understandably reluctant on just jumping down the ledge. Xerus suddenly produced his energy blade and went back to the chest. He came back with rope and draped it over the ledge. He still had a few wooden stakes on him that he made the day before to use as replacement for nails when building the cabin. He used one to fasten the rope in place. After checking the stake, he slid down the rope. After seeing that the rope nor the stake broke Lucidus and Andrew followed shortly after. They continued forward but the cave seemed to go on forever. Along the way they found various chests, some unaccompanied by traps, each of which contained various items. Also, they came across odd looking crystals that grew from the walls and floor that were shaped like hearts. Any attempts to pry them off of the surface they were on was met with little success. After walking for what seemed like an eternity they found an underground structure.
“This is it. One of the abandoned mines here.” Andrew told the group. He opened the door and fell onto his rear due to something startling him. It wasn’t friendly whatever it was or at least it gave their guide a nice fright. When it came into slightly better light it turned out to be a fairly armored skeleton wielding a massive sword that looked like it could easily cut a man in two. It looked as though it was made of bones.
There was a sudden thwack as Xerus had thrown a throwing knife, one of many he found in one of the chests they came across, at the skeleton. It’s head flew off and went into the building it came from but it kept on advancing forward regardless. Andrew scurried out of the way as Reaver ran up and delivered a punch that broke the skeleton into pieces. He grabbed the sword it was holding, which a skeletal hand still attached to it, and nodded as he examined it. He looked amongst the pile of bones that was once a skeleton for the sword’s sheath, if there was one. Upon finding it he returned the sword to it’s sheath, slung it across his back, and entered the building that the skeleton came from. There wasn’t any more hostile creatures within. The rest of the group followed.
“There isn’t much here but it’s enough for us.” Reaver observed as he used the wisp to relight some of torches within the building, which looked like it had been abandoned for many years. In the back was a passage way that looked like it was mined away, possibly by those who were here before them. Mounted on the walls were several pickaxes. All of them seemed to of been made of iron. Also there was a chest full of iron bars and ore. Also there was a furnace and an anvil in the building that functioned as a small smithy for those who were once here. As the picks they found were a bit too small for Reaver and the fact that there was some wood stored away, he made a pick for himself while the other two took two of the picks that were mounted on the wall.
“Looks a bit like a dragon’s head this cave.” Lucidus commented on the cave entrance’s appearance. Lining the cave ceiling and floor were many stalagmites and stalagtites that looked very much teeth, which combined with high the cave’s entrance opened, it did look a bit like a mouth of some creature.
“Had the very same thought. The Dragon’s Maw has a certain ring to it.” Reaver shared in Lucidus’ observation of the cave.
“So I’m guessing this is the cave?” Xerus asked, very much knowing the answer but he only wanted to be sure.
“Yes it would.” Reaver replied. He entered with the other following closely behind. Based on his past behavior he very well might leave them behind if they didn’t keep up.
Further into the cave it started becoming dark. Xerus thought of using his energy blade as a light but Reaver beat him to it, but in a different manner. He brought up his hand and produced what seemed to be a bright blue glowing flame. For a bit it stayed in his palm but a moment later it sprung up and started floating above his head. A faint pattern that looked like a skull could be made out within the flame. As they continued walking forward the ‘wisp’ floated just ahead of Reaver lighting the way for them. Not too far into the cave they found a wooden chest in the middle of the passageway. This struck as being fairly suspicious to Lucidus.
“A chest right in the middle of our path? That seems a bit fishy, doesn’t it?” Lucidus observed. Something about this just didn’t seem right.
“Hmmm...” Reaver walked forward carefully looking at the ground more than the chest. “Ah hah!” He exclaimed which meant he found something.
“Trap?” Xerus asked Reaver as he walked up to him. It was difficult to see but there was a pressure plate of some sort. It nearly perfectly blended in due to the fact it was colored much like the ground.
“Yes... but as for what kind?” He answered as he began searching for where the trap itself might be. “Not good. I don’t see any indication of where it might come from.”
“How about above? Perhaps a boulder drops from above?” Andrew suggested. The group nearly forgot that he was with them for this trip.
“Hmm...” Reaver dared to step on the pressure plate and trigger the trap himself. There was an audible click before he very quickly jumped back. A giant boulder landed right where he was standing and started rolling towards the back of the cave. There was a very distinct crash in the direction that the boulder went.
“That was a bit risky wasn’t it? What if it was linked to explosives?” Andrew asked Reaver.
“You three were well out of the blast radius. As for me? It would take more than that to take me down.” Reaver replied with a slight bit of annoyance at Andrew.
“Fairly certain you wouldn’t survive. You would of been right at the center of the blast.” Andrew told Reaver which only provoked a glare from him.
During this Lucidus and Xerus walked up to the chest, which somehow survived the boulder rolling over it. They opened it only to find some coins, various containers of liquids that were of various different colors, some rope, and a spear. Reaver walked over, looked into the chest, shrugged, and let the two take what they wished from the chest. He wasn’t interested in spears nor anything else in the chest.
“I get the spear. As of right now I have nothing to defend myself.” Lucidus said to Xerus.
“Fine. There wasn’t really anything in that chest I wanted either. Those containers look like potion which are kinda hard to drink when you wear a helmet all the time. Leave the coin though. Doubt we will need money at any point.” Xerus let Lucidus take what he wanted from the chest.
They continued on and found where that boulder went. There was a drop off and the boulder had fallen down the shaft and crumbled into pieces upon impact. Reaver looked back at the rest of the group over his shoulder and jumped off the ledge. They felt the impact of his landing. Looking down they found that he was alright and that he was now waiting for them. He looked up at them with his arms crossed. Unlike him, the rest were understandably reluctant on just jumping down the ledge. Xerus suddenly produced his energy blade and went back to the chest. He came back with rope and draped it over the ledge. He still had a few wooden stakes on him that he made the day before to use as replacement for nails when building the cabin. He used one to fasten the rope in place. After checking the stake, he slid down the rope. After seeing that the rope nor the stake broke Lucidus and Andrew followed shortly after. They continued forward but the cave seemed to go on forever. Along the way they found various chests, some unaccompanied by traps, each of which contained various items. Also, they came across odd looking crystals that grew from the walls and floor that were shaped like hearts. Any attempts to pry them off of the surface they were on was met with little success. After walking for what seemed like an eternity they found an underground structure.
“This is it. One of the abandoned mines here.” Andrew told the group. He opened the door and fell onto his rear due to something startling him. It wasn’t friendly whatever it was or at least it gave their guide a nice fright. When it came into slightly better light it turned out to be a fairly armored skeleton wielding a massive sword that looked like it could easily cut a man in two. It looked as though it was made of bones.
There was a sudden thwack as Xerus had thrown a throwing knife, one of many he found in one of the chests they came across, at the skeleton. It’s head flew off and went into the building it came from but it kept on advancing forward regardless. Andrew scurried out of the way as Reaver ran up and delivered a punch that broke the skeleton into pieces. He grabbed the sword it was holding, which a skeletal hand still attached to it, and nodded as he examined it. He looked amongst the pile of bones that was once a skeleton for the sword’s sheath, if there was one. Upon finding it he returned the sword to it’s sheath, slung it across his back, and entered the building that the skeleton came from. There wasn’t any more hostile creatures within. The rest of the group followed.
“There isn’t much here but it’s enough for us.” Reaver observed as he used the wisp to relight some of torches within the building, which looked like it had been abandoned for many years. In the back was a passage way that looked like it was mined away, possibly by those who were here before them. Mounted on the walls were several pickaxes. All of them seemed to of been made of iron. Also there was a chest full of iron bars and ore. Also there was a furnace and an anvil in the building that functioned as a small smithy for those who were once here. As the picks they found were a bit too small for Reaver and the fact that there was some wood stored away, he made a pick for himself while the other two took two of the picks that were mounted on the wall.
Chapter 5: The Lost
“You guys hear something?” Lucidus asked the group. He was hearing a noise that sounded a lot like someone crying and it seemed to emanate from passageway towards the back of the underground building.
“Happy that I wasn’t the only one.” Andrew replied. Ever since they entered this building he was hearing crying but thought it was the darkness getting to him.
“I’ll check it out. You may follow if you wish.” Reaver said to the group as he drew his Bone Sword and made way to the back passageway. They all followed though Andrew did so reluctantly as he didn’t want to be left alone.
As they moved deeper into the passageway the sound got louder and louder until there was no doubt that it was someone crying. More specifically it was a woman that was crying. Inside another building there was a woman that was... shall we say... lacking in the clothing department sitting in the center of the room crying into her hands. Lucidus was the one to move closer and reach out to this woman.
“Excuse me, ma’am. Are you alright?” He spoke in a soothing and calm tone. She didn’t react and continued crying.
“Ma’am, please get up. I’m sure there is something we can do to help you.” Lucidus drew closer and offered to help the woman up. What happened next... well... no one saw coming. Suddenly she looked up and her appearance changed drastically. She was pale and covered in blood. Also, he nails grew into what looked to be sharp and bloody claws.
“Holy shi...!” Lucidus exclaimed as he jumped back, dodging her swipe with her claws. He grasped his spear firmly and skewered the now demonic looking woman in the stomach. She slumped over on the spear. A faint laugh was heard as Lucidus got the woman’s body off his spear. It was quickly identified as Reaver laughing at the fact that Lucidus seemed as though he was scared half to death by the creature.
“She damned near gave me a heart attack.” Lucidus said as he gave the body a slight nudge with his boot, hoping that whatever she was that she was actually dead and not faking it. Though it’s kind of hard to feign death with a massive hole in your stomach.
“Uhhh... where did Andrew go?” Xerus asked when he looked around. He was sure he was next to him just a few moments ago.
“Ran off the coward.” Reaver answered Xerus, his voice made it clear that he very much looked down upon this action. He vanished into the shadows and left. Along with him the light that wisp provided. At this point Xerus produced his energy blade to provide light.
“Where you think he went?” Lucidus wondered though as soon as he did he figured out the answer. Xerus only confirmed it.
“I’d say he went to look for Andrew.” Xerus answered, confirming what Lucidus thought.
“So... now what? Wait for him to return.” Lucidus suggested.
“No. I think he would want us to move on without him.” Xerus advised against what Lucidus said. He felt certain that Reaver wouldn’t be very happy if they just stood there and waited for him. He seemed the type that would do so to them if they broke off from the group.
Lucidus shrugged and the two continued onward. The cave continued and now that they had picks they started collecting those weird hear shaped crystals that had been seeing. They broke off easily with the picks they now had. Also, they found more chests, some of which were golden. Within one they found a rather curious item. It was a mirror.
“What the hell? Who would put a mirror in a chest?” Lucidus said as he grabbed the mirror. He brought it up to his face to examine it but suddenly he felt the sensation of being somewhere else. As soon as he realized he was hearing birds that he realized that he was in the middle of a forest, the same one that he and Xerus first appeared in this world. Confused he looked at his hands again only to realize that the mirror was gone.
“What... the hell just happened? How did I get back here?” Lucidus asked himself as he started making way where he thought the cabin should be.
“Lucidus? What the...?” Xerus looked around and saw no trace of Lucidus anywhere.
“Joy... well... I suppose nothing to do now but go on without him. Worst comes to worst that mirror was cursed and it wiped him from this plane of existence.” Xerus said as he continued onward. “Actually I hope that isn’t what happened.” He would prefer that Reaver and Andrew were not the only company he would have here. Reaver was well... Reaver and Andrew just... just something about him felt off.
“Happy that I wasn’t the only one.” Andrew replied. Ever since they entered this building he was hearing crying but thought it was the darkness getting to him.
“I’ll check it out. You may follow if you wish.” Reaver said to the group as he drew his Bone Sword and made way to the back passageway. They all followed though Andrew did so reluctantly as he didn’t want to be left alone.
As they moved deeper into the passageway the sound got louder and louder until there was no doubt that it was someone crying. More specifically it was a woman that was crying. Inside another building there was a woman that was... shall we say... lacking in the clothing department sitting in the center of the room crying into her hands. Lucidus was the one to move closer and reach out to this woman.
“Excuse me, ma’am. Are you alright?” He spoke in a soothing and calm tone. She didn’t react and continued crying.
“Ma’am, please get up. I’m sure there is something we can do to help you.” Lucidus drew closer and offered to help the woman up. What happened next... well... no one saw coming. Suddenly she looked up and her appearance changed drastically. She was pale and covered in blood. Also, he nails grew into what looked to be sharp and bloody claws.
“Holy shi...!” Lucidus exclaimed as he jumped back, dodging her swipe with her claws. He grasped his spear firmly and skewered the now demonic looking woman in the stomach. She slumped over on the spear. A faint laugh was heard as Lucidus got the woman’s body off his spear. It was quickly identified as Reaver laughing at the fact that Lucidus seemed as though he was scared half to death by the creature.
“She damned near gave me a heart attack.” Lucidus said as he gave the body a slight nudge with his boot, hoping that whatever she was that she was actually dead and not faking it. Though it’s kind of hard to feign death with a massive hole in your stomach.
“Uhhh... where did Andrew go?” Xerus asked when he looked around. He was sure he was next to him just a few moments ago.
“Ran off the coward.” Reaver answered Xerus, his voice made it clear that he very much looked down upon this action. He vanished into the shadows and left. Along with him the light that wisp provided. At this point Xerus produced his energy blade to provide light.
“Where you think he went?” Lucidus wondered though as soon as he did he figured out the answer. Xerus only confirmed it.
“I’d say he went to look for Andrew.” Xerus answered, confirming what Lucidus thought.
“So... now what? Wait for him to return.” Lucidus suggested.
“No. I think he would want us to move on without him.” Xerus advised against what Lucidus said. He felt certain that Reaver wouldn’t be very happy if they just stood there and waited for him. He seemed the type that would do so to them if they broke off from the group.
Lucidus shrugged and the two continued onward. The cave continued and now that they had picks they started collecting those weird hear shaped crystals that had been seeing. They broke off easily with the picks they now had. Also, they found more chests, some of which were golden. Within one they found a rather curious item. It was a mirror.
“What the hell? Who would put a mirror in a chest?” Lucidus said as he grabbed the mirror. He brought it up to his face to examine it but suddenly he felt the sensation of being somewhere else. As soon as he realized he was hearing birds that he realized that he was in the middle of a forest, the same one that he and Xerus first appeared in this world. Confused he looked at his hands again only to realize that the mirror was gone.
“What... the hell just happened? How did I get back here?” Lucidus asked himself as he started making way where he thought the cabin should be.
“Lucidus? What the...?” Xerus looked around and saw no trace of Lucidus anywhere.
“Joy... well... I suppose nothing to do now but go on without him. Worst comes to worst that mirror was cursed and it wiped him from this plane of existence.” Xerus said as he continued onward. “Actually I hope that isn’t what happened.” He would prefer that Reaver and Andrew were not the only company he would have here. Reaver was well... Reaver and Andrew just... just something about him felt off.
Chapter 6: Cave Treasures and Cowards
While the group, or well just Lucidus, dealt with that Nymph, Andrew fled partly due to being bit of a coward. Though can we blame him? If you saw what happened in the last chapter I think you would get the hell out of there too. Though some might be slightly less so inclined to do so as there were three people in armor and slowly arming themselves reasonably well. As for Andrew, he was about half-way to where Xerus had set up that rope before he was stopped.
“Where do you think you are going?” Reaver demanded as he came out of the shadows in front of Andrew. The wisp was one of the first things to pop up and it brightly lit the cave. Amazing that he hadn’t tripped at all during that run in pitch black darkness.
“Oh... uhh... hi there Reaver... uhh... what’s going on?” Andrew asked nervously. He was slowly backing up from Reaver. He could feel the anger emanating from Reaver.
“Nothing much. Can’t help but notice you ran off. Why would that be? Especially with what you had for company. If you didn’t want to be on this expedition I wouldn’t of stopped you. It was your choice after all.” Reaver told him. In fact, he wasn’t sure why he was with them to begin with. He knew that he had no real physical prowess or anything like that. The only thing he had was being intelligent but that could only help for so long. As soon as the other two learned enough he wouldn’t have much use anymore.
“Well... after that skeleton back there... I didn’t want to take my chances.” Andrew answered nervously. Though Reaver caught on to that one quickly.
“But the closest person to that creature was Lucidus. If anyone were to die then it would of been him, but he killed it quick enough. Your life wasn’t under threat in the slightest. If Lucidus died then there was Xerus and if he somehow died then there is me. It would have to go through three other people before it would have gotten to you.” Reaver explained to Andrew. Before he could say anything in his defense, Reaver continued speaking.
“But I am willing to forgive this. Only once. Next time... well... there won’t be a next time. Let’s leave it at that.” Reaver threatened Andrew. He walked past Andrew leaving him in the dark. Rather than risk invoking Reaver’s wrath, he decided to return to the surface and the cabin. There he would wait till they got back in relative safety.
Upon returning to the abandoned building on the other end of the tunnel, Reaver noticed that Xerus and Lucidus had wandered off somewhere. This didn’t bother him as much as Andrew running off like he did. Looking back, he saw that the guy didn’t follow him which would mean he returned to that cabin that they built the other day. He wasn’t going to pursue him as it was his choice on whether to continue with group or not at this point. The only thing that bothered him was the fact that why he even came to begin with if he was going to run off at the slightest bit of trouble. He put this out of his mind for now while he searched for Lucidus and Xerus.
Xerus, meanwhile, was looting anything he came across, from chests to even random pots that there scattered about. Actually he questioned why there were all these random pots and chests scattered about. It did certainly suggest previous inhabitation, much more so than that abandoned building and passageway. From his perspective that was more of an entrance to this place as he started finding what appeared to be more underground structures that were possibly used for housing. As for what happened to the inhabitants. He wasn’t sure.
Eventually he came upon a rather strange looking building. It was built out of dull gray bricks, unlike the other buildings he went through where they were made of wood mostly. It looked like a temple of some sort. Once he entered the ‘temple’ he was even further convinced that it was a temple of some sort. There were large pillars that reached all the way to ceiling and stained glass windows. In in the middle, towards the back of this temple was an altar of some sort. Getting closer to this altar revealed there was a sword resting upon it.
“What do we have here?” Xerus asked himself as he drew closer to the altar. With his free hand he grabbed the sword and examined it. The hilt had what looked to be a bright red gem embedded in it. The rest of the hilt was a dull blue and so was fair portion of the blade itself. The rest of the sword was silver. Xerus turned suddenly when he heard something shuffling in the darkness.
“Someone there?” Xerus asked. There was no response. He knew that Reaver might return sooner or later but it couldn’t be him as he actually moved fairly quietly for someone so big. If it wasn’t him then who? The answer came shortly as whoever was in the darkness came into the light that his energy sword produced. It was another skeleton. He heard more noise and soon found that more were lurking in the darkness.
“Ah crap. Uhh... hi...” Xerus started. He glanced at the sword that he was holding in his hand. Did these creatures come because he took this sword from it’s altar. If so, then would they leave him be if he returns it? Made sense but he didn’t have much time to do so as one of the skeletons ran up on him. He ducked as a sword came within inches of his head.
“Ok ok! Give me time to put the damn sword back before going ballistic on me!” Xerus yelled at the skeletons as they started advancing on him. Alternating between his energy sword and the sword he grabbed from the altar he ‘killed’ a few of the skeletons that were right in front of him. Something he noticed about the sword that almost made him a bit too giddy.
“By the Archive! It shoots energy!” He exclaimed. He looked at a skeleton that was coming up on his side. He turned and slashed at the air. Sure enough a bolt of energy went flying out of the tip of the sword and took off the skeleton’s head. It continued advancing regardless.
“Ok... I was considering returning this thing to it’s rightful place but screw that! This thing is awesome!” Xerus started with almost a disturbing amount of excitement in his usually deep voice. “Alright. Hey! Down in front! CATCH!”
He hucked the Enchanted Sword as though it was an overly large throwing knife at a skeleton that was directly in front of him. It pierced the skeleton’s armor and pinned it to the ground. With his energy blade at the ready he ran forward, grabbed the sword he threw, and began cutting a path through the horde of skeletons.
At this time Reaver had found his way to the temple. Wasn’t hard really considering all the skeletons that making their way into there and the yelling. He and Xerus nearly bumped each other in the middle of the skeleton mob.
“Oh... hi Reaver. Having as much fun as I am?” Xerus asked as he neatly cut a skeleton down the middle with his energy sword.
“Where’s Lucidus?” Reaver asked, ignoring Xerus’ question. It partly surprised him that he even knew Lucidus’ name as he never got around to saying it when they first met.
“Don’t know. I think he got teleported away by a mirror. Either that or he got wiped from this plane of existence by a cursed mirror.” Xerus answered as he dodged a skeleton’s attempts at grabbing him. He rewarded it with a... shall we say... splitting headache? No...? Fine. He cut it’s skull in two. Better?
“I think we should get out of here. I think these foes are undying.” Reaver observed as he noticed that the mob seemed endless and he thought he saw one reform. “Any idea why there was a sudden appearance of all these skeletons?”
“Don’t know. Didn’t appear until I took this awesome sword that shoots beams of energy off of an altar back there.” Xerus answered. “You have no idea of how much fun this is. I haven’t had this much fun since that one time I tripped an alarm in a military base. The carnage that ensued afterward was amazing. I still have that recording somewhere I think.”
“You... took a sword that was on an altar. Not only that, you did so without checking to see if there were any traps?” Reaver asked as he took out several skeletons with a giant sweep of his sword.
“Pretty much, yeah.” Xerus answered simply. At this point he was focusing on cutting a path through the skeletons with Reaver’s help. Until he showed up, he wasn’t sure of whether he would be able to do so alone. These skeletons were really into the whole mobbing thing.
Reaver stayed silent and started focusing on helping Xerus cut a path through the horde. It was tempting to leave him seeing as this was his mess but he decided against it for the moment. Eventually the two found their way to the building that had that demon girl thing that Lucidus killed. Once there they shut the door. Suddenly a few skeletal hands poked through holes in the door that the skeletons made. Xerus produced a few grenades, something he found in one of the chests here, and rolled them towards the door and ran like hell. Seeing this, Reaver disappeared into the ground and became a shadow. The grenades exploded and caused a cave in, sealing the skeletons behind a giant pile of rock and dirt.
“I regret nothing!” Xerus exclaimed as Reaver reappeared beside him.
“Instead of returning the sword. You are honestly going to keep it?” Reaver seemed a fair bit irritated at Xerus’ choice of keeping the sword. Clearly these skeletons appeared due to the removal of the sword. Why hadn’t Xerus returned it as it seemed that the reward didn’t outweigh the risk? Actually the better question was why did he even help him make an escape?
“Pretty much, yeah.” Xerus replied. The air seemed to of changed a bit. Before it was the usual feeling of gloom that he felt when near Reaver but right now something felt different.
“You fool! I had my reasons for coming with you two on this expedition, but I think I’ll take my leave now. Have fun with your mess.” Reaver seemed fairly angry. Just as he disappeared the rubble that piled up because of a few grenades started shifting. Shortly after that the pile crumbled away and the skeletons were once again charging at Xerus.
“That’s not good!” He exclaimed. He began running back to where he last remembered setting up that rope.
Coming to the cliff that he set up that rope he found it to be gone. Looking up he saw a figure that looked remarkably like Reaver. It took him a moment to realize that this was Reaver. Did he take down the rope? If so. Why?
“Reaver! Where’s the rope? I can’t stay down here!” Xerus yelled at him. Reaver stayed silent and vanished. Xerus looked over his shoulder to see the skeletons advancing on him by the hundreds.
“Reaver this isn’t funny.” He said sounding a bit worried. This wasn’t good but he had no plans on dieing now. There had to be some way he could get out of here. Looking around he saw another passage and decided to go that way. Normally he wasn’t a religious sort of person, but he couldn’t help but to pray that it didn’t lead to a dead end.
Lucidus and Andrew returned to the cabin at around the same time. Predictably Andrew was surprised to see him again so soon. Also there was the fact of how did he arrive here at the same time as him.
“Wait... what? How did you beat me here? Weren’t you in Dragon’s Maw with Reaver and Xerus?” Andrew asked. He didn’t recall Lucidus passing him by on the way out. Then again that wouldn’t of been that hard as the cave was practically pitch black with no light. Though he didn’t hear or feel anything pass him by on the way out. The only thing he remembered was that bat that flew into his face on the way out but that was about it.
“Long or short version?” Lucidus asked, sounding a bit tired. Along the way he got a bit lost and went in circles before finding his way to the lake they built near.
“I’d prefer the long version.” A voice that wasn’t Andrew replied. Three guesses of who this is and first two don’t count.
“I looked at a mirror that I found in a chest and I was teleported back where we first appeared in this world.” Lucidus answered.
“What was the short version?” Reaver asked. That was a shorter explanation than he expected.
“I teleported.” Lucidus answered before he walked into the cabin. There was a distinct sound that sounded a bit like he just collapsed on the floor.
“Where is Xerus?” Andrew asked when he noticed that he wasn’t with Reaver.
“If you want to go looking for him then go right ahead. He could use company when he inevitably gets torn to pieces by skeletons.” Reaver answered. He left before Andrew could inquire any further.
“Happy that I left when I did.” Andrew said to himself as he made way into the cabin.
“Where do you think you are going?” Reaver demanded as he came out of the shadows in front of Andrew. The wisp was one of the first things to pop up and it brightly lit the cave. Amazing that he hadn’t tripped at all during that run in pitch black darkness.
“Oh... uhh... hi there Reaver... uhh... what’s going on?” Andrew asked nervously. He was slowly backing up from Reaver. He could feel the anger emanating from Reaver.
“Nothing much. Can’t help but notice you ran off. Why would that be? Especially with what you had for company. If you didn’t want to be on this expedition I wouldn’t of stopped you. It was your choice after all.” Reaver told him. In fact, he wasn’t sure why he was with them to begin with. He knew that he had no real physical prowess or anything like that. The only thing he had was being intelligent but that could only help for so long. As soon as the other two learned enough he wouldn’t have much use anymore.
“Well... after that skeleton back there... I didn’t want to take my chances.” Andrew answered nervously. Though Reaver caught on to that one quickly.
“But the closest person to that creature was Lucidus. If anyone were to die then it would of been him, but he killed it quick enough. Your life wasn’t under threat in the slightest. If Lucidus died then there was Xerus and if he somehow died then there is me. It would have to go through three other people before it would have gotten to you.” Reaver explained to Andrew. Before he could say anything in his defense, Reaver continued speaking.
“But I am willing to forgive this. Only once. Next time... well... there won’t be a next time. Let’s leave it at that.” Reaver threatened Andrew. He walked past Andrew leaving him in the dark. Rather than risk invoking Reaver’s wrath, he decided to return to the surface and the cabin. There he would wait till they got back in relative safety.
Upon returning to the abandoned building on the other end of the tunnel, Reaver noticed that Xerus and Lucidus had wandered off somewhere. This didn’t bother him as much as Andrew running off like he did. Looking back, he saw that the guy didn’t follow him which would mean he returned to that cabin that they built the other day. He wasn’t going to pursue him as it was his choice on whether to continue with group or not at this point. The only thing that bothered him was the fact that why he even came to begin with if he was going to run off at the slightest bit of trouble. He put this out of his mind for now while he searched for Lucidus and Xerus.
Xerus, meanwhile, was looting anything he came across, from chests to even random pots that there scattered about. Actually he questioned why there were all these random pots and chests scattered about. It did certainly suggest previous inhabitation, much more so than that abandoned building and passageway. From his perspective that was more of an entrance to this place as he started finding what appeared to be more underground structures that were possibly used for housing. As for what happened to the inhabitants. He wasn’t sure.
Eventually he came upon a rather strange looking building. It was built out of dull gray bricks, unlike the other buildings he went through where they were made of wood mostly. It looked like a temple of some sort. Once he entered the ‘temple’ he was even further convinced that it was a temple of some sort. There were large pillars that reached all the way to ceiling and stained glass windows. In in the middle, towards the back of this temple was an altar of some sort. Getting closer to this altar revealed there was a sword resting upon it.
“What do we have here?” Xerus asked himself as he drew closer to the altar. With his free hand he grabbed the sword and examined it. The hilt had what looked to be a bright red gem embedded in it. The rest of the hilt was a dull blue and so was fair portion of the blade itself. The rest of the sword was silver. Xerus turned suddenly when he heard something shuffling in the darkness.
“Someone there?” Xerus asked. There was no response. He knew that Reaver might return sooner or later but it couldn’t be him as he actually moved fairly quietly for someone so big. If it wasn’t him then who? The answer came shortly as whoever was in the darkness came into the light that his energy sword produced. It was another skeleton. He heard more noise and soon found that more were lurking in the darkness.
“Ah crap. Uhh... hi...” Xerus started. He glanced at the sword that he was holding in his hand. Did these creatures come because he took this sword from it’s altar. If so, then would they leave him be if he returns it? Made sense but he didn’t have much time to do so as one of the skeletons ran up on him. He ducked as a sword came within inches of his head.
“Ok ok! Give me time to put the damn sword back before going ballistic on me!” Xerus yelled at the skeletons as they started advancing on him. Alternating between his energy sword and the sword he grabbed from the altar he ‘killed’ a few of the skeletons that were right in front of him. Something he noticed about the sword that almost made him a bit too giddy.
“By the Archive! It shoots energy!” He exclaimed. He looked at a skeleton that was coming up on his side. He turned and slashed at the air. Sure enough a bolt of energy went flying out of the tip of the sword and took off the skeleton’s head. It continued advancing regardless.
“Ok... I was considering returning this thing to it’s rightful place but screw that! This thing is awesome!” Xerus started with almost a disturbing amount of excitement in his usually deep voice. “Alright. Hey! Down in front! CATCH!”
He hucked the Enchanted Sword as though it was an overly large throwing knife at a skeleton that was directly in front of him. It pierced the skeleton’s armor and pinned it to the ground. With his energy blade at the ready he ran forward, grabbed the sword he threw, and began cutting a path through the horde of skeletons.
At this time Reaver had found his way to the temple. Wasn’t hard really considering all the skeletons that making their way into there and the yelling. He and Xerus nearly bumped each other in the middle of the skeleton mob.
“Oh... hi Reaver. Having as much fun as I am?” Xerus asked as he neatly cut a skeleton down the middle with his energy sword.
“Where’s Lucidus?” Reaver asked, ignoring Xerus’ question. It partly surprised him that he even knew Lucidus’ name as he never got around to saying it when they first met.
“Don’t know. I think he got teleported away by a mirror. Either that or he got wiped from this plane of existence by a cursed mirror.” Xerus answered as he dodged a skeleton’s attempts at grabbing him. He rewarded it with a... shall we say... splitting headache? No...? Fine. He cut it’s skull in two. Better?
“I think we should get out of here. I think these foes are undying.” Reaver observed as he noticed that the mob seemed endless and he thought he saw one reform. “Any idea why there was a sudden appearance of all these skeletons?”
“Don’t know. Didn’t appear until I took this awesome sword that shoots beams of energy off of an altar back there.” Xerus answered. “You have no idea of how much fun this is. I haven’t had this much fun since that one time I tripped an alarm in a military base. The carnage that ensued afterward was amazing. I still have that recording somewhere I think.”
“You... took a sword that was on an altar. Not only that, you did so without checking to see if there were any traps?” Reaver asked as he took out several skeletons with a giant sweep of his sword.
“Pretty much, yeah.” Xerus answered simply. At this point he was focusing on cutting a path through the skeletons with Reaver’s help. Until he showed up, he wasn’t sure of whether he would be able to do so alone. These skeletons were really into the whole mobbing thing.
Reaver stayed silent and started focusing on helping Xerus cut a path through the horde. It was tempting to leave him seeing as this was his mess but he decided against it for the moment. Eventually the two found their way to the building that had that demon girl thing that Lucidus killed. Once there they shut the door. Suddenly a few skeletal hands poked through holes in the door that the skeletons made. Xerus produced a few grenades, something he found in one of the chests here, and rolled them towards the door and ran like hell. Seeing this, Reaver disappeared into the ground and became a shadow. The grenades exploded and caused a cave in, sealing the skeletons behind a giant pile of rock and dirt.
“I regret nothing!” Xerus exclaimed as Reaver reappeared beside him.
“Instead of returning the sword. You are honestly going to keep it?” Reaver seemed a fair bit irritated at Xerus’ choice of keeping the sword. Clearly these skeletons appeared due to the removal of the sword. Why hadn’t Xerus returned it as it seemed that the reward didn’t outweigh the risk? Actually the better question was why did he even help him make an escape?
“Pretty much, yeah.” Xerus replied. The air seemed to of changed a bit. Before it was the usual feeling of gloom that he felt when near Reaver but right now something felt different.
“You fool! I had my reasons for coming with you two on this expedition, but I think I’ll take my leave now. Have fun with your mess.” Reaver seemed fairly angry. Just as he disappeared the rubble that piled up because of a few grenades started shifting. Shortly after that the pile crumbled away and the skeletons were once again charging at Xerus.
“That’s not good!” He exclaimed. He began running back to where he last remembered setting up that rope.
Coming to the cliff that he set up that rope he found it to be gone. Looking up he saw a figure that looked remarkably like Reaver. It took him a moment to realize that this was Reaver. Did he take down the rope? If so. Why?
“Reaver! Where’s the rope? I can’t stay down here!” Xerus yelled at him. Reaver stayed silent and vanished. Xerus looked over his shoulder to see the skeletons advancing on him by the hundreds.
“Reaver this isn’t funny.” He said sounding a bit worried. This wasn’t good but he had no plans on dieing now. There had to be some way he could get out of here. Looking around he saw another passage and decided to go that way. Normally he wasn’t a religious sort of person, but he couldn’t help but to pray that it didn’t lead to a dead end.
Lucidus and Andrew returned to the cabin at around the same time. Predictably Andrew was surprised to see him again so soon. Also there was the fact of how did he arrive here at the same time as him.
“Wait... what? How did you beat me here? Weren’t you in Dragon’s Maw with Reaver and Xerus?” Andrew asked. He didn’t recall Lucidus passing him by on the way out. Then again that wouldn’t of been that hard as the cave was practically pitch black with no light. Though he didn’t hear or feel anything pass him by on the way out. The only thing he remembered was that bat that flew into his face on the way out but that was about it.
“Long or short version?” Lucidus asked, sounding a bit tired. Along the way he got a bit lost and went in circles before finding his way to the lake they built near.
“I’d prefer the long version.” A voice that wasn’t Andrew replied. Three guesses of who this is and first two don’t count.
“I looked at a mirror that I found in a chest and I was teleported back where we first appeared in this world.” Lucidus answered.
“What was the short version?” Reaver asked. That was a shorter explanation than he expected.
“I teleported.” Lucidus answered before he walked into the cabin. There was a distinct sound that sounded a bit like he just collapsed on the floor.
“Where is Xerus?” Andrew asked when he noticed that he wasn’t with Reaver.
“If you want to go looking for him then go right ahead. He could use company when he inevitably gets torn to pieces by skeletons.” Reaver answered. He left before Andrew could inquire any further.
“Happy that I left when I did.” Andrew said to himself as he made way into the cabin.
Chapter 7: Guided Problems
“So... he is still in that cave? Is that what you are telling me?” Lucidus asked Andrew after he woke up. He had just been filled in on what happened while he was asleep on a cold wooden floor. They really need to get around to making beds or something. Anything would beat sleeping on the floor.
“Pretty much, yeah.” Andrew answered. “Don’t know about you but I am not going back there. Screw that. Would rather keep my intestines and my current amount of blood inside my body.”
“Fine by me. Night is about to fall but I am not going to force you into this. If you want to stay here and get maimed by the undead when they inevitably bust down this door then go right ahead.” Lucidus shrugged and gave bit of a smile. A few moments later he and Andrew were making their way back to Dragon’s Maw. That didn’t take much persuasion but if you had a choice between death or death I think you take the one that seemed like it was the lesser of the two evils. In which case was the one that seemed less likely to happen because you be in the company of someone that was wearing armor. By time they arrived night had fallen. Now that was one problem. Uhh... light anyone?
“You have anything we can use for light?” Lucidus asked Andrew. He could see just fine outside but the cave itself would be pitch black which no amount eyes adjusting to the dark would help with.
“Did you ever kill any slimes? If so did you collect their gel? Their gel is known to be highly flammable and commonly used in the making of torches... and most healing potions.” Andrew suggested.
“Uhhh... I haven’t seen any since I got here. Even if I had and killed one then the last thing that would go through my mind is to stuff it’s slime in my non-existent pockets.” Lucidus said to Andrew. Here we go again with the suggestions that made no sense. Lucky you. You get to see banter between these two that was implied to of happened in a previous chapter when Xerus was out scouting the area.
“Usually everything here just flies into you when you grab or get near it.” Andrew said as though it was the most normal thing in the world for random objects to literally fly into you when you draw near to them.
“Uhhh... okay... if that is the case then why haven’t the trees or random bits of rock flown into me if this is true?” Lucidus asked skeptically. This made no sense to him in the slightest.
“Well... that would because you didn’t break it down or anything. Such as using a pick on some stone or an ax on a tree.” Andrew replied. This made some slight amount of sense but there was still something to Lucidus that made no sense.
“But Xerus chopped down that tree using a sword made of energy. I didn’t see bits and pieces of the tree fly into him when he did so.” Lucidus was at this point thinking that this guy had gone mad long before they arrived here.
“He didn’t use the proper tool for the job.” Andrew said to Lucidus. This comment didn’t help in disproving the whole being crazy theory.
“Why are we even having this argument?” Lucidus asked under his breath with his face buried in his palm.
“Because you had the idea of bringing me with you by telling me that being at the cabin wasn’t any more safer than if I join you on this expedition back to this cave.” Andrew reminded Lucidus of what he said when they were still at the cabin.
“No... that isn’t it. I just remembered something.” Lucidus said. Suddenly there was bright ball of light floating just above his hand. Also his general appearance changed a bit. His armor took on a much more angelic look than what it had before and his helmet now covered his entire face, leaving only a slit that formed what looked to be a cross for him to see through. Also the color was vastly different. The bluish color that his armor once had was replaced with white with golden accents.
“What the...?” Andrew looked fairly surprised at this transformation.
“Now that we got that sorted out. Let’s go find us a lizard.” Lucidus started making his way into the cave, leaving Andrew to ponder what the hell just happened.
“So... what they hell are you? I know that Xerus is some sort of lizard creature but what are you?” Andrew asked when he caught up.
“I am a Child of the Light, or at least part Child of Light. I tend to forget from time to time.” Lucidus answered. “To put it simply, I are pretty much part light elemental. Though light is more of a force than anything.”
“So... you can produce light whenever you want?” Andrew asked but received no response from Lucidus.
“Wasn’t there a rope here?” He asked when they came upon a cliff. He was certain that this was the one that they climbed down but the rope was missing.
“Explains why Reaver didn’t want to go back for him. Someone or something must of taken down the rope on them.” Andrew said looking down the cliff. He saw a mark where Xerus had driven in that wooden stake.
“I wouldn’t say he didn’t want to go back. We are talking about a guy that told us a few days ago that he doesn’t bother remembering people if they don’t have the quote ‘courage’ to introduce themselves to him when asked. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just left him down there because he did something that he didn’t approve of.” Lucidus corrected Andrew, almost hitting the nail on the head with what he said.
“So you are saying that Reaver might have taken down the rope just to be an jerk to Xerus due to something that he didn’t approve of?” Andrew pondered. This made some sense to him after hearing what Reaver had said to him earlier that day before he left. As for what Xerus had done? Didn’t really matter much at this point.
“Something like that.” Lucidus confirmed Andrew’s thinking. “So... how much you like short drops?”
“You’re going to push me down the cliff if I answer, aren’t you?” Andrew inquired nervously. He knew the answer... or at least he thought.
“No. Why would I do that when we would have no way of getting back up ourselves?” Lucidus sounded shocked that Andrew even thought he would do that. A fall like that might injure him fairly badly and he wasn’t too interested in treating broken bones or digging graves at this moment.
Before Andrew was about to say something, they started hearing what sounded like a low rumbling sound. A brief moment later the entire cave was shaking and bits of rock and dirt were coming off the cave roof. After a bunch of dust raced down from the passageway that led to the entrance and the rumbling subsided, the two went to investigate. They found that the entrance had been sealed off. By what? They were not sure.
“Well... that’s not good. So... how about that whole thing of jumping down that cliff seeing as we have no escape either way?” Lucidus asked Andrew. He shrugged and followed Lucidus back to the cliff.
“You know that this is a stupid idea, right?” Andrew told Lucidus, once again he was looking down the cliff and judging the distance on whether it would be survivable or not.
“Pretty much it is, but I have one comfort for you.” Lucidus agreed with Andrew’s thinking on this. Xerus had all the rope and finding him would provide the best bet of escape at this point. There was no way of safely getting down the cliff.
“And what would that be?” Andrew asked, looking a bit nervous.
“Why worry about bodily harm when you know how to heal wounds with magic?” Lucidus said to Andrew before doing what the guide thought he was going to do the last time he brought up something about whether he liked small drops. There was a short scream before the sound of someone landing onto the hard ground and cursing in pain.
“I’ll admit though. Healing does have no real effect on the dead but I’m sure your just fine.” Lucidus said as he jumped down and gently landed on his feet. The guide on the other hand was the ground clutching his leg. A few minutes later, and snapping a bone back into place, the guide was back on his feet and able to walk just fine... enough. He still had a slight limp.
“I hate you so much.” Andrew said angrily to Lucidus and understandably so. Thankfully Lucidus’ helmet hid his face as he was smiling a bit at this comment. As much as he hated to admit it but it was tempting to push him off when he was looking over the cliff the first time. Even more so that he could just heal his injuries afterward, providing the fall didn’t kill him. Doing so was misusing his power a fair bit and was kind of against his race’s nature but it was worth it in the end. He may be a noble paladin but that didn’t necessarily mean he had to act like one all the time.
“Pretty much, yeah.” Andrew answered. “Don’t know about you but I am not going back there. Screw that. Would rather keep my intestines and my current amount of blood inside my body.”
“Fine by me. Night is about to fall but I am not going to force you into this. If you want to stay here and get maimed by the undead when they inevitably bust down this door then go right ahead.” Lucidus shrugged and gave bit of a smile. A few moments later he and Andrew were making their way back to Dragon’s Maw. That didn’t take much persuasion but if you had a choice between death or death I think you take the one that seemed like it was the lesser of the two evils. In which case was the one that seemed less likely to happen because you be in the company of someone that was wearing armor. By time they arrived night had fallen. Now that was one problem. Uhh... light anyone?
“You have anything we can use for light?” Lucidus asked Andrew. He could see just fine outside but the cave itself would be pitch black which no amount eyes adjusting to the dark would help with.
“Did you ever kill any slimes? If so did you collect their gel? Their gel is known to be highly flammable and commonly used in the making of torches... and most healing potions.” Andrew suggested.
“Uhhh... I haven’t seen any since I got here. Even if I had and killed one then the last thing that would go through my mind is to stuff it’s slime in my non-existent pockets.” Lucidus said to Andrew. Here we go again with the suggestions that made no sense. Lucky you. You get to see banter between these two that was implied to of happened in a previous chapter when Xerus was out scouting the area.
“Usually everything here just flies into you when you grab or get near it.” Andrew said as though it was the most normal thing in the world for random objects to literally fly into you when you draw near to them.
“Uhhh... okay... if that is the case then why haven’t the trees or random bits of rock flown into me if this is true?” Lucidus asked skeptically. This made no sense to him in the slightest.
“Well... that would because you didn’t break it down or anything. Such as using a pick on some stone or an ax on a tree.” Andrew replied. This made some slight amount of sense but there was still something to Lucidus that made no sense.
“But Xerus chopped down that tree using a sword made of energy. I didn’t see bits and pieces of the tree fly into him when he did so.” Lucidus was at this point thinking that this guy had gone mad long before they arrived here.
“He didn’t use the proper tool for the job.” Andrew said to Lucidus. This comment didn’t help in disproving the whole being crazy theory.
“Why are we even having this argument?” Lucidus asked under his breath with his face buried in his palm.
“Because you had the idea of bringing me with you by telling me that being at the cabin wasn’t any more safer than if I join you on this expedition back to this cave.” Andrew reminded Lucidus of what he said when they were still at the cabin.
“No... that isn’t it. I just remembered something.” Lucidus said. Suddenly there was bright ball of light floating just above his hand. Also his general appearance changed a bit. His armor took on a much more angelic look than what it had before and his helmet now covered his entire face, leaving only a slit that formed what looked to be a cross for him to see through. Also the color was vastly different. The bluish color that his armor once had was replaced with white with golden accents.
“What the...?” Andrew looked fairly surprised at this transformation.
“Now that we got that sorted out. Let’s go find us a lizard.” Lucidus started making his way into the cave, leaving Andrew to ponder what the hell just happened.
“So... what they hell are you? I know that Xerus is some sort of lizard creature but what are you?” Andrew asked when he caught up.
“I am a Child of the Light, or at least part Child of Light. I tend to forget from time to time.” Lucidus answered. “To put it simply, I are pretty much part light elemental. Though light is more of a force than anything.”
“So... you can produce light whenever you want?” Andrew asked but received no response from Lucidus.
“Wasn’t there a rope here?” He asked when they came upon a cliff. He was certain that this was the one that they climbed down but the rope was missing.
“Explains why Reaver didn’t want to go back for him. Someone or something must of taken down the rope on them.” Andrew said looking down the cliff. He saw a mark where Xerus had driven in that wooden stake.
“I wouldn’t say he didn’t want to go back. We are talking about a guy that told us a few days ago that he doesn’t bother remembering people if they don’t have the quote ‘courage’ to introduce themselves to him when asked. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just left him down there because he did something that he didn’t approve of.” Lucidus corrected Andrew, almost hitting the nail on the head with what he said.
“So you are saying that Reaver might have taken down the rope just to be an jerk to Xerus due to something that he didn’t approve of?” Andrew pondered. This made some sense to him after hearing what Reaver had said to him earlier that day before he left. As for what Xerus had done? Didn’t really matter much at this point.
“Something like that.” Lucidus confirmed Andrew’s thinking. “So... how much you like short drops?”
“You’re going to push me down the cliff if I answer, aren’t you?” Andrew inquired nervously. He knew the answer... or at least he thought.
“No. Why would I do that when we would have no way of getting back up ourselves?” Lucidus sounded shocked that Andrew even thought he would do that. A fall like that might injure him fairly badly and he wasn’t too interested in treating broken bones or digging graves at this moment.
Before Andrew was about to say something, they started hearing what sounded like a low rumbling sound. A brief moment later the entire cave was shaking and bits of rock and dirt were coming off the cave roof. After a bunch of dust raced down from the passageway that led to the entrance and the rumbling subsided, the two went to investigate. They found that the entrance had been sealed off. By what? They were not sure.
“Well... that’s not good. So... how about that whole thing of jumping down that cliff seeing as we have no escape either way?” Lucidus asked Andrew. He shrugged and followed Lucidus back to the cliff.
“You know that this is a stupid idea, right?” Andrew told Lucidus, once again he was looking down the cliff and judging the distance on whether it would be survivable or not.
“Pretty much it is, but I have one comfort for you.” Lucidus agreed with Andrew’s thinking on this. Xerus had all the rope and finding him would provide the best bet of escape at this point. There was no way of safely getting down the cliff.
“And what would that be?” Andrew asked, looking a bit nervous.
“Why worry about bodily harm when you know how to heal wounds with magic?” Lucidus said to Andrew before doing what the guide thought he was going to do the last time he brought up something about whether he liked small drops. There was a short scream before the sound of someone landing onto the hard ground and cursing in pain.
“I’ll admit though. Healing does have no real effect on the dead but I’m sure your just fine.” Lucidus said as he jumped down and gently landed on his feet. The guide on the other hand was the ground clutching his leg. A few minutes later, and snapping a bone back into place, the guide was back on his feet and able to walk just fine... enough. He still had a slight limp.
“I hate you so much.” Andrew said angrily to Lucidus and understandably so. Thankfully Lucidus’ helmet hid his face as he was smiling a bit at this comment. As much as he hated to admit it but it was tempting to push him off when he was looking over the cliff the first time. Even more so that he could just heal his injuries afterward, providing the fall didn’t kill him. Doing so was misusing his power a fair bit and was kind of against his race’s nature but it was worth it in the end. He may be a noble paladin but that didn’t necessarily mean he had to act like one all the time.
Chapter 8: Within the Depths
It was almost an hour before Lucidus and Andrew came upon the underground town that Xerus had found when he continued without Lucidus. It would have been quicker if someone wasn’t still walking with a slight limp.
“You have to faking at this point. I got put through a tree by someone I know and I was alright afterward.” Lucidus said, commenting on the fact that Andrew was still walking with a slight limp.
“You do know you are wearing armor, right? Meanwhile I only have normal clothing.” Andrew
“Yeah... but I don’t know how much armor would protect from being put through a tree. Still surprised that I am even alive.” Lucidus said. Candidate for the oddest circumstance to meet someone new. He thought to himself.
“You’d be amazed.” Andrew said under his breath.
Their conversation was interrupted when they came across the temple that contained that Enchanted Sword that Xerus took of it’s altar. Walking around they found that it, like many of the buildings here, was abandoned and likely had been for some time. Unlike Xerus, who saw it in relative good condition, they saw it as being as ruined as the other buildings they came across. Bits of the wall were gone and some pillars were lying on the ground. Also, skeletons littered the floor and most of the stained glass windows were shattered. The fragments of glass still could be found littering the floors just as much as these skeletons. Andrew prayed that none would get up and attack.
“I wonder what happened to this place. Almost sad to see a place like this in this state.” Lucidus said sadly as he looked around the temple.
“Underground, ever encroaching darkness, creatures that desire to paint the nearest wall with your blood? Likely a place like this killed itself off more than anything. Being underground for too long has certain... effects on people. Especially when it’s a group that is secluded from the rest of the world.” Andrew theorized as he followed Lucidus around, still he was cautiously eyeing the skeletons that littered the ground.
“I can only imagine what sort of deities these people worshiped here.” Lucidus pondered. Some of the stained glass windows were still mostly intact but he couldn’t make anything out in them. The most was something thar looked as though it was some sort of symbol. One that looked a bit like a head with what looked to be tentacles coming from it.
“To be this deep down? Likely they worshiped one of the Old Ones. Based on this symbol you found. It’s likely it was Cthulhu.” Andrew said darkly, looking at the stained glass window that Lucidus was looking at.
“Cthulhu?” Lucidus never heard the name before. Though based on he was acting. Likely this thing was something like The Deep One that lived deep in the oceans of the world he came from. A monstrous creature that attacked any that dared to venture too close to an island chain that was to the south east of the continent of Minar. Some worshiped the creature as though it was a god of some sort. They were not far off from the truth.
“One of the Old Ones. Once upon a time it had been brought into this world by cultists that worshiped it but was stopped before it could do any major harm by ancient heros. The Corruption is said to been caused by it’s influence and another more dangerous form of Corruption is said to be what remains of it’s body.” Andrew explained. Something about it caused a chill to go down his spine.
“So what do you think happened here?” Lucidus asked but dreading the answer.
“Likely they could have started sacrificing themselves to their god when people left this continent.” Andrew answered.
“I think I had enough of this place. Likely that Xerus had gone off to somewhere else within this cave.” Lucidus said as he started leaving the temple with Andrew still following closely behind. They returned to where the rope once was and found another passage that they hadn’t explored yet.
“You have to faking at this point. I got put through a tree by someone I know and I was alright afterward.” Lucidus said, commenting on the fact that Andrew was still walking with a slight limp.
“You do know you are wearing armor, right? Meanwhile I only have normal clothing.” Andrew
“Yeah... but I don’t know how much armor would protect from being put through a tree. Still surprised that I am even alive.” Lucidus said. Candidate for the oddest circumstance to meet someone new. He thought to himself.
“You’d be amazed.” Andrew said under his breath.
Their conversation was interrupted when they came across the temple that contained that Enchanted Sword that Xerus took of it’s altar. Walking around they found that it, like many of the buildings here, was abandoned and likely had been for some time. Unlike Xerus, who saw it in relative good condition, they saw it as being as ruined as the other buildings they came across. Bits of the wall were gone and some pillars were lying on the ground. Also, skeletons littered the floor and most of the stained glass windows were shattered. The fragments of glass still could be found littering the floors just as much as these skeletons. Andrew prayed that none would get up and attack.
“I wonder what happened to this place. Almost sad to see a place like this in this state.” Lucidus said sadly as he looked around the temple.
“Underground, ever encroaching darkness, creatures that desire to paint the nearest wall with your blood? Likely a place like this killed itself off more than anything. Being underground for too long has certain... effects on people. Especially when it’s a group that is secluded from the rest of the world.” Andrew theorized as he followed Lucidus around, still he was cautiously eyeing the skeletons that littered the ground.
“I can only imagine what sort of deities these people worshiped here.” Lucidus pondered. Some of the stained glass windows were still mostly intact but he couldn’t make anything out in them. The most was something thar looked as though it was some sort of symbol. One that looked a bit like a head with what looked to be tentacles coming from it.
“To be this deep down? Likely they worshiped one of the Old Ones. Based on this symbol you found. It’s likely it was Cthulhu.” Andrew said darkly, looking at the stained glass window that Lucidus was looking at.
“Cthulhu?” Lucidus never heard the name before. Though based on he was acting. Likely this thing was something like The Deep One that lived deep in the oceans of the world he came from. A monstrous creature that attacked any that dared to venture too close to an island chain that was to the south east of the continent of Minar. Some worshiped the creature as though it was a god of some sort. They were not far off from the truth.
“One of the Old Ones. Once upon a time it had been brought into this world by cultists that worshiped it but was stopped before it could do any major harm by ancient heros. The Corruption is said to been caused by it’s influence and another more dangerous form of Corruption is said to be what remains of it’s body.” Andrew explained. Something about it caused a chill to go down his spine.
“So what do you think happened here?” Lucidus asked but dreading the answer.
“Likely they could have started sacrificing themselves to their god when people left this continent.” Andrew answered.
“I think I had enough of this place. Likely that Xerus had gone off to somewhere else within this cave.” Lucidus said as he started leaving the temple with Andrew still following closely behind. They returned to where the rope once was and found another passage that they hadn’t explored yet.
Chapter 9: A Hairy Obsession
Down this other passage they started finding more skeletal remains, some of which were strangely charred, littering the ground. Lucidus hadn’t seen charred remains in quite a while but he knew that person couldn’t be here. Even more when he and his friends were convinced that he was dead after he sacrificed himself to destroy a being that was hell bent on destroying the world. If it wasn’t him then it likely it was something else. As for what? He didn’t want to know.
Along the way, they found chests that were looted which suggested that someone has been this way. Likely it was Xerus as he was the only other person, aside from Reaver, that was in this world with them. The passage just kept on going until they came across something that Lucidus never thought to be possible. The chamber glowed blue brightly, which caused Lucidus to dispel the ball of light that he was using to light the way. Doing this reverted his armor to it’s original appearance. Large growths of mushrooms reached towards the ceiling of the chamber and even the grass that was there glowed an eerie blue.
When walking past a giant glowing mushroom an arrow suddenly embedded itself into the stalk of the mushroom. It missed Lucidus’ head by mere inches.
“What? You gotta be kidding me! If you were walking just a bit slower that would nailed you in the head!” A familiar voice complained before realizing who he nearly hit. “Wait... Lucidus? Is that you?”
“Nice to see you too...” Lucidus nervously said. He really didn’t want to think how close he was to being killed. Even more because he actually felt the wind on that one.
“Sorry about that. I thought you were another one of those skeletons from that temple. Ever since I took that sword they have been chasing me down. Was starting to become more annoying than fun at this point.” Xerus apologized to Lucidus as he retrieved his arrow and, after checking to see if it was still good, he returned it to the quiver that was slung across his back.
“So... where did you get the bow and the quiver?” Lucidus asked when he noticed the bow that Xerus was using. It looked as though it was made of silver or some other metal of a similar color.
“I made the bow using some fibers that I made out some cobwebs. Believe it or not but the cobwebs down here are fairly strong. All you need to do is get it to not be incredibly sticky and then you got the perfect bow string. Also the bow is made of silver that I mined down here.” Xerus answered while letting Lucidus examine the bow. He gave him an arrow to use the bow for himself. After doing so he nodded in approval and gave the bow back.
“The quiver on the other hand I found off of the remains of some dead adventurer. It came with a few arrows in it already.” Xerus finished explaining.
“That can’t be it. Every chest we came across on our way here were empty.” Lucidus told Xerus.
“Don’t remind me. Half of them had boomerangs and the other half had boots that I figured out that make you run fast.” Xerus said with a touch of annoyance on his voice.
“What did you do with them?” Lucidus asked.
“I still have a pair of boots back at Enoki’s place along with a single boomerang that had similar designs on it like my new sword.” Xerus explained. He showed Lucidus the sword he had taken from the temple and caused a legion of skeletons to attempt to chase him down.
“Who’s Enoki?” Andrew asked. Once again the two had forgotten that he was even there.
“One of my new friends that I met down here. Follow me, I’m sure you’ll like him. He’s a pretty fun guy to be around.” Xerus answered. He gestured for them to follow him.
He led them to the center of the underground mushroom forest. In the center was a giant mushroom that dwarfed all the rest. It looked as though someone had hollowed out the stalk as there were windows here and there all over it. Also, there was a door that seemed as though it was made of same mushrooms that they crushing under their feet with every step. Xerus knocked and then opened the door and let them inside.
“A truly odd place to live.” Lucidus observed as he looked around the room. Even the furniture was made of glowing mushrooms. There even some that used for lighting.
“Enoki? Petra? Got some people here I want you two to meet.” Xerus called as he started walking up some stairs. Once again, made of mushrooms. Whoever here had a mushroom obsession but, then again, you couldn’t blame them for using the fungus. What else are you going to use to build with if you don’t have easy access to wood?
“Oh... Xerus. Did come back to take me up on my offer of a hair cut for rescuing me?” A woman’s voice asked.
“Urg... for the last time. You can’t cut my hair as I don’t have any. Where’s Enoki? I have some people downstairs for you two to meet.” They heard Xerus’ voice reply.
“He left a few moments ago. I think he was looking for you. Now about that haircut.” Petra said ignoring the fact that Xerus said he didn’t even have hair to cut.
“What’s with you and hair? It’s definitely getting borderline creepy at this point.” Xerus said as he and a woman wearing a purple apron walked down the stairs. As soon as she saw Andrew and Lucidus, but mostly Andrew, her green eyes visibly widened. Lucidus noticed this and shifted to the side a bit just in case. The last thing he wanted was to be plowed over by a woman whose hair was colored magenta. Unless that was pink. Couldn’t quite tell because of the blue light that everything in this place seems to produce.
“Oh Xerus. You are so sweet. You brought me some heads to trim!” She said excitedly. Her eyes were darting between Lucidus and Andrew. She was especially eyeing Andrew’s rather unkempt head.
“Uhhh... no. They were just some friends I wanted you and Enoki to meet.” Xerus said sounding a bit worried for Lucidus and Andrew’s safety.
“Is she normally like this?” Lucidus asked. She was truly a strange woman.
“No. At least I don’t think so. Bare in mind we had nothing to eat but mushrooms and they glow. For all I know my internal organs are liquefying as we speak because of the damn things.” Xerus replied.
“So... who exactly is this Enoki guy?” Andrew asked.
“Told you already. Someone I met down here but seeing as he isn’t in here then he must be somewhere in the forest.” Xerus replied while walking over to the door. The group, now with an added woman with a hair obsession, followed him out into the mushroom forest. Hopefully he wouldn’t be as weird as Petra.
Along the way, they found chests that were looted which suggested that someone has been this way. Likely it was Xerus as he was the only other person, aside from Reaver, that was in this world with them. The passage just kept on going until they came across something that Lucidus never thought to be possible. The chamber glowed blue brightly, which caused Lucidus to dispel the ball of light that he was using to light the way. Doing this reverted his armor to it’s original appearance. Large growths of mushrooms reached towards the ceiling of the chamber and even the grass that was there glowed an eerie blue.
When walking past a giant glowing mushroom an arrow suddenly embedded itself into the stalk of the mushroom. It missed Lucidus’ head by mere inches.
“What? You gotta be kidding me! If you were walking just a bit slower that would nailed you in the head!” A familiar voice complained before realizing who he nearly hit. “Wait... Lucidus? Is that you?”
“Nice to see you too...” Lucidus nervously said. He really didn’t want to think how close he was to being killed. Even more because he actually felt the wind on that one.
“Sorry about that. I thought you were another one of those skeletons from that temple. Ever since I took that sword they have been chasing me down. Was starting to become more annoying than fun at this point.” Xerus apologized to Lucidus as he retrieved his arrow and, after checking to see if it was still good, he returned it to the quiver that was slung across his back.
“So... where did you get the bow and the quiver?” Lucidus asked when he noticed the bow that Xerus was using. It looked as though it was made of silver or some other metal of a similar color.
“I made the bow using some fibers that I made out some cobwebs. Believe it or not but the cobwebs down here are fairly strong. All you need to do is get it to not be incredibly sticky and then you got the perfect bow string. Also the bow is made of silver that I mined down here.” Xerus answered while letting Lucidus examine the bow. He gave him an arrow to use the bow for himself. After doing so he nodded in approval and gave the bow back.
“The quiver on the other hand I found off of the remains of some dead adventurer. It came with a few arrows in it already.” Xerus finished explaining.
“That can’t be it. Every chest we came across on our way here were empty.” Lucidus told Xerus.
“Don’t remind me. Half of them had boomerangs and the other half had boots that I figured out that make you run fast.” Xerus said with a touch of annoyance on his voice.
“What did you do with them?” Lucidus asked.
“I still have a pair of boots back at Enoki’s place along with a single boomerang that had similar designs on it like my new sword.” Xerus explained. He showed Lucidus the sword he had taken from the temple and caused a legion of skeletons to attempt to chase him down.
“Who’s Enoki?” Andrew asked. Once again the two had forgotten that he was even there.
“One of my new friends that I met down here. Follow me, I’m sure you’ll like him. He’s a pretty fun guy to be around.” Xerus answered. He gestured for them to follow him.
He led them to the center of the underground mushroom forest. In the center was a giant mushroom that dwarfed all the rest. It looked as though someone had hollowed out the stalk as there were windows here and there all over it. Also, there was a door that seemed as though it was made of same mushrooms that they crushing under their feet with every step. Xerus knocked and then opened the door and let them inside.
“A truly odd place to live.” Lucidus observed as he looked around the room. Even the furniture was made of glowing mushrooms. There even some that used for lighting.
“Enoki? Petra? Got some people here I want you two to meet.” Xerus called as he started walking up some stairs. Once again, made of mushrooms. Whoever here had a mushroom obsession but, then again, you couldn’t blame them for using the fungus. What else are you going to use to build with if you don’t have easy access to wood?
“Oh... Xerus. Did come back to take me up on my offer of a hair cut for rescuing me?” A woman’s voice asked.
“Urg... for the last time. You can’t cut my hair as I don’t have any. Where’s Enoki? I have some people downstairs for you two to meet.” They heard Xerus’ voice reply.
“He left a few moments ago. I think he was looking for you. Now about that haircut.” Petra said ignoring the fact that Xerus said he didn’t even have hair to cut.
“What’s with you and hair? It’s definitely getting borderline creepy at this point.” Xerus said as he and a woman wearing a purple apron walked down the stairs. As soon as she saw Andrew and Lucidus, but mostly Andrew, her green eyes visibly widened. Lucidus noticed this and shifted to the side a bit just in case. The last thing he wanted was to be plowed over by a woman whose hair was colored magenta. Unless that was pink. Couldn’t quite tell because of the blue light that everything in this place seems to produce.
“Oh Xerus. You are so sweet. You brought me some heads to trim!” She said excitedly. Her eyes were darting between Lucidus and Andrew. She was especially eyeing Andrew’s rather unkempt head.
“Uhhh... no. They were just some friends I wanted you and Enoki to meet.” Xerus said sounding a bit worried for Lucidus and Andrew’s safety.
“Is she normally like this?” Lucidus asked. She was truly a strange woman.
“No. At least I don’t think so. Bare in mind we had nothing to eat but mushrooms and they glow. For all I know my internal organs are liquefying as we speak because of the damn things.” Xerus replied.
“So... who exactly is this Enoki guy?” Andrew asked.
“Told you already. Someone I met down here but seeing as he isn’t in here then he must be somewhere in the forest.” Xerus replied while walking over to the door. The group, now with an added woman with a hair obsession, followed him out into the mushroom forest. Hopefully he wouldn’t be as weird as Petra.
Chapter 10: The Eye and the Fun Guy
It didn’t take very long before they came across Enoki who, at first glance, looked a lot like a large glowing mushroom with arms and legs. If it wasn’t for Xerus pointing him out Andrew and Lucidus would have completely missed him as he blended in well with his surroundings. Who they found with him was a complete surprise. Petra screeched but it wasn’t out of fear. What she would say shortly afterward would baffle everyone present.
“Oh my god! He’s so handsome!” Petra exclaimed. Everyone share a collective “Huh?” at Petra’s remark. Everyone, including Reaver, cast confused glances at each other and Petra. There was a minute of awkward silence before everyone was done processing what just happened.
“Where was I? Right.” Reaver started after recollecting what he was doing here. “Where is it? I was told it was slumbering somewhere within these caves. As you live here you must know something about it.”
“The Eye? I have seen it, yes, but I don’t know where it sleeps.” Enoki replied fearfully, his back to the stalk of a giant mushroom.
“Then where does it come from? What direction?” Reaver demanded to know. He wouldn’t get his answer.
“Reaver!” Xerus yelled to get Reaver’s attention. He was taking aim with his bow. The memory of being unable to escape due the rope being taken down was still very much fresh in his mind.
“Hmmm... what is this? You threatening me with a bow? Something about that amuses me greatly but I can’t...” Reaver was cut off by the sound of an arrow hitting his head. He reached up, pulled it out, and continued speaking. “...just seem to place my finger on it.”
“How?” Lucidus looked very much confused. The arrow should of killed him but he still was standing there as though nothing happened.
“‘How?’ Good question. One that he should know very well. Unless someone’s anger got the best of him and he forgot. Though by all means continue pelting me with arrows if that helps with your anger.” Reaver said, looking at Xerus. He lowered his bow and drew his sword instead.
“Right.” He said, remembering that most weapons had no effect on Saermeon. Though anything energy based or magic in nature could do one great harm.
“He said something about ‘The Eye.’ You’re looking for the Eye of Cthulhu?” Andrew asked, stepping in front of Xerus.
“That would be correct. At least one of you has the decency to ask instead of doing what he tried to do.” Reaver confirmed while briefly looking over Andrew at Xerus.
“So... you are planning on stopping the spread of the Corruption? Killing The Eye is the first step on that path.” Andrew asked though very much knowing the answer. There couldn’t of been another reason.
“Once again, correct. Though, killing The Eye is more along the lines part of the first step. I had been told that The Eye dwells with in this cave system somewhere and I figured that he might know something about it as this cave is his home.” Reaver replied while briefly gesturing back towards Enoki.
“The abandoned town... it typically comes from the direction of the abandoned town.” Enoki suddenly told Reaver.
“Really now? You have my thanks.” Reaver said. Before making way to leave the immediate area he cast a quick glance over his shoulder at the group.
“Reaver! Wait!” Xerus yelled but he was too late. Reaver faded into the shadows and vanished. He then angrily returned his sword to a sheath that he picked off that same dead adventurer that he got the quiver from and punched a nearby giant mushroom, hard. The mushroom toppled over from the force of his punch.
“So... what was that all about?” Lucidus asked Andrew.
“He seeks to reforge the Night’s Edge. A blade that is rumored to be the key in stopping the Corruption once and for all. Killing The Eye is one step towards re-forging the blade.” Andrew answered.
“Handsome and adventurous? I think I am in love.” Petra said, sounding a bit infatuated.
“She worries me.” Enoki said after a brief silence that had once again befallen the group after Petra speaking.
“Anyway, how would killing an eye be a step in re-forging a sword?” Lucidus asked. This sword seemed interesting. Even more so that it was the key to saving this world.
“Killing it would let loose a power that would be vital to locating the components of the Night’s Edge. As I said once before. There was a time that Cthulhu threatened the world. The ancient heroes that defeated it long ago used the Night’s Edge to do so. After it’s defeat, the sword was shattered into four pieces by it’s power. The pieces were lost and it was said that there was something in this world that might be able to help relocate the missing pieces. The Eye maintains a seal that keeps that power out of the reach of mortal hands.” Andrew explained to Lucidus while the rest listened to what he said. All except Petra, who left without anyone noticing.
“So... kill The Eye and we get the ability to locate the pieces of the Night’s Edge?” Xerus asked after calming down a bit.
“Yes and, thanks to Enoki here, we know where The Eye is.” Andrew answered while casting a brief glance towards Enoki who was merely listening curiously. He may of heard of their existence but he always figured they were a myth. It never seemed all that possible to him that there were mushroom people living within the depths of Terraria.
“So... I guess we should make our way over there now?” Lucidus suggested.
“But what of Enoki and... uhhh... ” Xerus started but then noticed someone was missing. “Where’s Petra?”
“Thank god, she’s gone.” Andrew said under his breath after noticing it himself. She seemed to have disappeared on them.
“You don’t think she went to go look for Reaver?” Lucidus wondered. She did seem as though that she had a fairly obvious crush on Reaver, but was she crazy enough to go out on her own to look for him? Who was he kidding? She seemed like the type to do that.
“Seems to be the case.” Xerus replied. “C’mon. We have an old friend to look for anyway.”
The group, now accompanied and guided by Enoki, went to the chamber’s entrance to return to the abandoned town. All the while there was an air of apprehension as their possible first major battle drew closer.
“Oh my god! He’s so handsome!” Petra exclaimed. Everyone share a collective “Huh?” at Petra’s remark. Everyone, including Reaver, cast confused glances at each other and Petra. There was a minute of awkward silence before everyone was done processing what just happened.
“Where was I? Right.” Reaver started after recollecting what he was doing here. “Where is it? I was told it was slumbering somewhere within these caves. As you live here you must know something about it.”
“The Eye? I have seen it, yes, but I don’t know where it sleeps.” Enoki replied fearfully, his back to the stalk of a giant mushroom.
“Then where does it come from? What direction?” Reaver demanded to know. He wouldn’t get his answer.
“Reaver!” Xerus yelled to get Reaver’s attention. He was taking aim with his bow. The memory of being unable to escape due the rope being taken down was still very much fresh in his mind.
“Hmmm... what is this? You threatening me with a bow? Something about that amuses me greatly but I can’t...” Reaver was cut off by the sound of an arrow hitting his head. He reached up, pulled it out, and continued speaking. “...just seem to place my finger on it.”
“How?” Lucidus looked very much confused. The arrow should of killed him but he still was standing there as though nothing happened.
“‘How?’ Good question. One that he should know very well. Unless someone’s anger got the best of him and he forgot. Though by all means continue pelting me with arrows if that helps with your anger.” Reaver said, looking at Xerus. He lowered his bow and drew his sword instead.
“Right.” He said, remembering that most weapons had no effect on Saermeon. Though anything energy based or magic in nature could do one great harm.
“He said something about ‘The Eye.’ You’re looking for the Eye of Cthulhu?” Andrew asked, stepping in front of Xerus.
“That would be correct. At least one of you has the decency to ask instead of doing what he tried to do.” Reaver confirmed while briefly looking over Andrew at Xerus.
“So... you are planning on stopping the spread of the Corruption? Killing The Eye is the first step on that path.” Andrew asked though very much knowing the answer. There couldn’t of been another reason.
“Once again, correct. Though, killing The Eye is more along the lines part of the first step. I had been told that The Eye dwells with in this cave system somewhere and I figured that he might know something about it as this cave is his home.” Reaver replied while briefly gesturing back towards Enoki.
“The abandoned town... it typically comes from the direction of the abandoned town.” Enoki suddenly told Reaver.
“Really now? You have my thanks.” Reaver said. Before making way to leave the immediate area he cast a quick glance over his shoulder at the group.
“Reaver! Wait!” Xerus yelled but he was too late. Reaver faded into the shadows and vanished. He then angrily returned his sword to a sheath that he picked off that same dead adventurer that he got the quiver from and punched a nearby giant mushroom, hard. The mushroom toppled over from the force of his punch.
“So... what was that all about?” Lucidus asked Andrew.
“He seeks to reforge the Night’s Edge. A blade that is rumored to be the key in stopping the Corruption once and for all. Killing The Eye is one step towards re-forging the blade.” Andrew answered.
“Handsome and adventurous? I think I am in love.” Petra said, sounding a bit infatuated.
“She worries me.” Enoki said after a brief silence that had once again befallen the group after Petra speaking.
“Anyway, how would killing an eye be a step in re-forging a sword?” Lucidus asked. This sword seemed interesting. Even more so that it was the key to saving this world.
“Killing it would let loose a power that would be vital to locating the components of the Night’s Edge. As I said once before. There was a time that Cthulhu threatened the world. The ancient heroes that defeated it long ago used the Night’s Edge to do so. After it’s defeat, the sword was shattered into four pieces by it’s power. The pieces were lost and it was said that there was something in this world that might be able to help relocate the missing pieces. The Eye maintains a seal that keeps that power out of the reach of mortal hands.” Andrew explained to Lucidus while the rest listened to what he said. All except Petra, who left without anyone noticing.
“So... kill The Eye and we get the ability to locate the pieces of the Night’s Edge?” Xerus asked after calming down a bit.
“Yes and, thanks to Enoki here, we know where The Eye is.” Andrew answered while casting a brief glance towards Enoki who was merely listening curiously. He may of heard of their existence but he always figured they were a myth. It never seemed all that possible to him that there were mushroom people living within the depths of Terraria.
“So... I guess we should make our way over there now?” Lucidus suggested.
“But what of Enoki and... uhhh... ” Xerus started but then noticed someone was missing. “Where’s Petra?”
“Thank god, she’s gone.” Andrew said under his breath after noticing it himself. She seemed to have disappeared on them.
“You don’t think she went to go look for Reaver?” Lucidus wondered. She did seem as though that she had a fairly obvious crush on Reaver, but was she crazy enough to go out on her own to look for him? Who was he kidding? She seemed like the type to do that.
“Seems to be the case.” Xerus replied. “C’mon. We have an old friend to look for anyway.”
The group, now accompanied and guided by Enoki, went to the chamber’s entrance to return to the abandoned town. All the while there was an air of apprehension as their possible first major battle drew closer.
Chapter 11: The Eye’s Demise
The trip back to the abandoned town was relatively uneventful and boring. If it wasn’t for some small conversation the entire trip would of been unbearable but would of been a nice change in pace. One could only handle so much fighting at one time and they felt that would need their strength for the coming battle.
“Xerus, you had anything to do with these charred skeletons?” Lucidus asked as they passed one bit of charred skeletal remains.
“I’ll answer that with a question of my own.” Xerus started. “Do you think it’s ever a good idea to breathe fire when your mouth and tongue lack the membrane to handle said fire?”
“You can breathe fire?” Lucidus asked, very much surprised. Xerus chuckled a bit at this response.
“My mother was Draconic. More or less I’m part dragon. I can’t fly or anything but then again nor could she as she didn’t have wings either. She was possibly part of one of those tribes that lacked the ability to fly.” Xerus explained. Thinking on it, he remembered something that she was from the mountain range to the south of the Duskall Desert on the Minar continent. Which the tribes that lived there were flightless but still bore many dragon-like characteristics, such as that whole fire breath thing though that wasn’t the only element that many of them could expel from their mouths.
“So there won’t be a chance that you’ll do that again unless you absolutely need to?” Lucidus asked, already knowing the answer but he just wanted to be sure.
“More than likely, yes.” Xerus answered but then added, “Let’s stop that conversation right there as I really want to forget those damned skeletons. At first it was fun killing them but then it turned annoying when they just wouldn’t stay dead. It wasn’t until sealed the lot of them somewhere before many of them stopped getting back up.”
Lucidus shrugged and stopped asking questions.
Once within the town and just outside the temple where Xerus had taken his sword they heard a monstrous roar. A mere second later a gigantic eyeball had crashed through the temple with Reaver being chased by it. He slid to a halt when he noticed the group.
“Not surprised that you came.” He said before slicing a smaller floating eye in half. It seemed as though they came from the giant eye that they figured to be The Eye of Cthulhu. He added, “Unless you were planning on just standing there and watching you might want to do your part in this.”
Andrew and Enoki decided to take refuge in the building that they entered the town from while Lucidus and Xerus drew their weapons. Once again Lucidus’ armor changed into it’s more angelic form but this time with a pair wings that seemed as though they were made of light. After this transformation he ran his hand down his spear and it started glowing in holy light.
“Show off...” Xerus said under his breath as he and Lucidus rushed forward to aid Reaver. There would be time later to get even with Reaver for leaving him to die in this cave. Revenge would be better off done after the much more pressing matter was attended to.
With the addition of Lucidus and Xerus, the Eye of Cthulhu started spawning smaller demon eyes to compensate for their being in the battle. Despite this they were not very effective at killing or even harming them. After Lucidus stabbed the Eye with his light spear that it revealed it’s true form. It no longer appeared to be a giant floating eye but rather a giant gaping maw full razor sharp teeth.
“I swear if you start breathing fire that there will be an immediate death sentence for you.” Xerus said under his breath upon seeing this transformation. Bad enough that the last creature he had faced that breathed fire burned his tail off. That was not a fun experience.
It let loose a monstrous roar as it charged at Lucidus, who hurriedly flew out of the way, and then it charged at Xerus, who barely was able to roll out of the way in time. At this point it seemed as though it was ignoring Reaver and only focusing on just Lucidus and Xerus.
Aside from the occasional charging, the Eye didn’t seem all that threatening. While, yes, if the creature actually got them with a charge that their entrails might end up being painted onto the nearby wall or cave floor but it seemed as though it did it in a set pattern. One that Xerus and Lucidus very quickly picked up on and had started making way to cause it to ram itself into a wall. Upon doing so the creature had knocked itself out and they took advantage of this by having Xerus toss a few grenades into it’s mouth. Unfortunately this did not kill the creature but rather only angered it further.
“Damn... what does it take to kill this thing? Last time I threw explosives into a creature’s mouth it took a week to clean the blood off my armor.” Xerus commented as he rolled out of the way of another charge. Lucidus was flying high above the town, observing the creature and trying to think of something that would kill it. It wasn’t until he noticed a few stalagmites that were the roof of the chamber that the town was built in, or were they called stalagtites? A few of these cave formations were massive and, if knocked loose, could kill a creature as big as the Eye.
“Xerus! You still have a few grenades left?! I have an idea!” Lucidus yelled down at Xerus. When he noticed that Xerus had looked up he used his spear to gesture at one of the stalagmites.
“Might work! C’mon down here!” He yelled in reply. He hoped that this creature couldn’t hear or at least understand them. If it did then this would have no hope of working. Of course if he was interpreting Lucidus’ intent correctly.
“Okay... is there any way of getting these things to stick in one of those things?” Lucidus suddenly asked after he flew down to catch up with Xerus, who still had the Eye chasing him, and be handed a few grenades.
“Your plan. You figure it out.” Xerus said as he was more focusing on the whole not getting eaten by a giant monster thing right now. After Lucidus flew off, Xerus started every so often pelting the creature with a few arrows or bolts of energy from his sword. Though this only angered and/or annoyed the Eye but at least it was keeping it busy.
He didn’t need to keep it busy for long as the cave floor started vibrating and soon the entire cave was shaking violently. Lucidus didn’t feel it but he certainly heard it and nearly was hit by it’s effects. Namely a few stalagmites started falling from the cave roof. Shortly after one of the larger ones came loose, fell, and impaled the Eye of Cthulhu. For a few brief moments it struggled to move before finally the cold embrace of death made it cease living any longer.
“Well... that was sure convenient. Thank you Mother Nature, I guess.” Lucidus said as he flew back down to Xerus. The cave still shook slightly but the worst of it was done. Looking around, many of the houses, and even the temple, looked even more ruined than they already were between the Eye bulldozing them or the quake that just happened.
“I’ll take what I get honestly.” Xerus said to Lucidus. What he was planning would of dislodged the stalagmite anyway, quake or not. Albeit, he was thankful he didn‘t need to keep the Eye busy for long. Personally he wasn‘t looking forward a long fight after what he has been through down here.
“You seen Reaver anywhere?” Lucidus asked while he continued looking around the area. It was strange that as soon as they entered the fray that the creature started focusing on them and completely ignoring Reaver. It wasn’t until now that he was nowhere to be found.
“What? You don’t think he...? Uhhh....” Xerus started but stopped short as he noticed something weird going on with the now dead Eye of Cthulhu. It’s body was pretty much fading into nothingness and a bright light had come forth from it’s body. “Please tell me this thing doesn’t have another form. I hate things that don’t die when they were supposed to.”
“Xerus, you had anything to do with these charred skeletons?” Lucidus asked as they passed one bit of charred skeletal remains.
“I’ll answer that with a question of my own.” Xerus started. “Do you think it’s ever a good idea to breathe fire when your mouth and tongue lack the membrane to handle said fire?”
“You can breathe fire?” Lucidus asked, very much surprised. Xerus chuckled a bit at this response.
“My mother was Draconic. More or less I’m part dragon. I can’t fly or anything but then again nor could she as she didn’t have wings either. She was possibly part of one of those tribes that lacked the ability to fly.” Xerus explained. Thinking on it, he remembered something that she was from the mountain range to the south of the Duskall Desert on the Minar continent. Which the tribes that lived there were flightless but still bore many dragon-like characteristics, such as that whole fire breath thing though that wasn’t the only element that many of them could expel from their mouths.
“So there won’t be a chance that you’ll do that again unless you absolutely need to?” Lucidus asked, already knowing the answer but he just wanted to be sure.
“More than likely, yes.” Xerus answered but then added, “Let’s stop that conversation right there as I really want to forget those damned skeletons. At first it was fun killing them but then it turned annoying when they just wouldn’t stay dead. It wasn’t until sealed the lot of them somewhere before many of them stopped getting back up.”
Lucidus shrugged and stopped asking questions.
Once within the town and just outside the temple where Xerus had taken his sword they heard a monstrous roar. A mere second later a gigantic eyeball had crashed through the temple with Reaver being chased by it. He slid to a halt when he noticed the group.
“Not surprised that you came.” He said before slicing a smaller floating eye in half. It seemed as though they came from the giant eye that they figured to be The Eye of Cthulhu. He added, “Unless you were planning on just standing there and watching you might want to do your part in this.”
Andrew and Enoki decided to take refuge in the building that they entered the town from while Lucidus and Xerus drew their weapons. Once again Lucidus’ armor changed into it’s more angelic form but this time with a pair wings that seemed as though they were made of light. After this transformation he ran his hand down his spear and it started glowing in holy light.
“Show off...” Xerus said under his breath as he and Lucidus rushed forward to aid Reaver. There would be time later to get even with Reaver for leaving him to die in this cave. Revenge would be better off done after the much more pressing matter was attended to.
With the addition of Lucidus and Xerus, the Eye of Cthulhu started spawning smaller demon eyes to compensate for their being in the battle. Despite this they were not very effective at killing or even harming them. After Lucidus stabbed the Eye with his light spear that it revealed it’s true form. It no longer appeared to be a giant floating eye but rather a giant gaping maw full razor sharp teeth.
“I swear if you start breathing fire that there will be an immediate death sentence for you.” Xerus said under his breath upon seeing this transformation. Bad enough that the last creature he had faced that breathed fire burned his tail off. That was not a fun experience.
It let loose a monstrous roar as it charged at Lucidus, who hurriedly flew out of the way, and then it charged at Xerus, who barely was able to roll out of the way in time. At this point it seemed as though it was ignoring Reaver and only focusing on just Lucidus and Xerus.
Aside from the occasional charging, the Eye didn’t seem all that threatening. While, yes, if the creature actually got them with a charge that their entrails might end up being painted onto the nearby wall or cave floor but it seemed as though it did it in a set pattern. One that Xerus and Lucidus very quickly picked up on and had started making way to cause it to ram itself into a wall. Upon doing so the creature had knocked itself out and they took advantage of this by having Xerus toss a few grenades into it’s mouth. Unfortunately this did not kill the creature but rather only angered it further.
“Damn... what does it take to kill this thing? Last time I threw explosives into a creature’s mouth it took a week to clean the blood off my armor.” Xerus commented as he rolled out of the way of another charge. Lucidus was flying high above the town, observing the creature and trying to think of something that would kill it. It wasn’t until he noticed a few stalagmites that were the roof of the chamber that the town was built in, or were they called stalagtites? A few of these cave formations were massive and, if knocked loose, could kill a creature as big as the Eye.
“Xerus! You still have a few grenades left?! I have an idea!” Lucidus yelled down at Xerus. When he noticed that Xerus had looked up he used his spear to gesture at one of the stalagmites.
“Might work! C’mon down here!” He yelled in reply. He hoped that this creature couldn’t hear or at least understand them. If it did then this would have no hope of working. Of course if he was interpreting Lucidus’ intent correctly.
“Okay... is there any way of getting these things to stick in one of those things?” Lucidus suddenly asked after he flew down to catch up with Xerus, who still had the Eye chasing him, and be handed a few grenades.
“Your plan. You figure it out.” Xerus said as he was more focusing on the whole not getting eaten by a giant monster thing right now. After Lucidus flew off, Xerus started every so often pelting the creature with a few arrows or bolts of energy from his sword. Though this only angered and/or annoyed the Eye but at least it was keeping it busy.
He didn’t need to keep it busy for long as the cave floor started vibrating and soon the entire cave was shaking violently. Lucidus didn’t feel it but he certainly heard it and nearly was hit by it’s effects. Namely a few stalagmites started falling from the cave roof. Shortly after one of the larger ones came loose, fell, and impaled the Eye of Cthulhu. For a few brief moments it struggled to move before finally the cold embrace of death made it cease living any longer.
“Well... that was sure convenient. Thank you Mother Nature, I guess.” Lucidus said as he flew back down to Xerus. The cave still shook slightly but the worst of it was done. Looking around, many of the houses, and even the temple, looked even more ruined than they already were between the Eye bulldozing them or the quake that just happened.
“I’ll take what I get honestly.” Xerus said to Lucidus. What he was planning would of dislodged the stalagmite anyway, quake or not. Albeit, he was thankful he didn‘t need to keep the Eye busy for long. Personally he wasn‘t looking forward a long fight after what he has been through down here.
“You seen Reaver anywhere?” Lucidus asked while he continued looking around the area. It was strange that as soon as they entered the fray that the creature started focusing on them and completely ignoring Reaver. It wasn’t until now that he was nowhere to be found.
“What? You don’t think he...? Uhhh....” Xerus started but stopped short as he noticed something weird going on with the now dead Eye of Cthulhu. It’s body was pretty much fading into nothingness and a bright light had come forth from it’s body. “Please tell me this thing doesn’t have another form. I hate things that don’t die when they were supposed to.”
Chapter 12: The Dryad
After a few minutes the light started forming what looked to the shape of a person. As the figure became more distinct it looked a lot like a woman. A moment later it started fading and the image of the woman started becoming clearer. She looked human but something felt different about her. Aside from the fact that she was completely covered in vines. That was something that struck Xerus as a very odd thing to wear. It wasn’t until she opened her eyes, which were purple, that it hit him of what she might be. If she wasn’t then at least she was something similar to Lucidus due to the slightly longer and pointed ears.
“I assume you two are the heroes that have freed me?” She asked as soon as she noticed Xerus and Lucidus. Her voice almost had a mystic sort of sound to it and almost calming.
“In a manner of speaking...” Lucidus started but Xerus finished what he was going to say. He nearly had plummeted to the ground when he saw her. Thankfully he caught himself just in time and landed just for his sake.
“If you count having a quake shake a stalagmite loose and impaled the thing that you were fighting then, yes, I think we are the heroes that freed you.” Xerus said, pretty much cutting off and finishing what Lucidus was about to say. “Mind you that was the plan to knock one of those loose. Just so happened that nature agreed with that plan.”
“The world itself must of marked you as the chosen for it to aid you as it did.” She said after hearing what Xerus had said. Suddenly she looked confused. “Wasn’t there another? I remember hearing a third voice. The one that awoke the creature that I was sealed within.”
“Don’t know.” Xerus replied. He too was curious as to where Reaver went but was also somewhat angered that he left them to fight that creature by themselves. First leaving him behind in the cave to fend off a mob of skeletons, then stranding him down here by removing the rope he had set up to get down here in the first place, and now he abandoned them in the middle of a fight that he started. Personally, he knew that the Saermeon were not an evil people, despite the fact a lot of them tend to have fairly evil sounding names. Though right now he was wondering what was up with this particular one that was causing him to act as he has been lately.
“No matter. We have much to discuss as I am sure you are curious as to who I am and how I can help you in your quest.” She said looking as though she was a bit disappointed in the fact that this other person who awoke the Eye had vanished.
“First off: What are you, or more specifically, who are you?” Xerus asked. It was odd that a vine wearing woman had materialized out of a giant eye/mouth creature. Safe to say that he hadn’t seen that before in his time being a mercenary and he had once been cursed on some fringe world that caused him to become a re-animate skeleton. Was fun while that one lasted when it happened.
“I am Elysia, the last of the Dryad.” She answered. “Now what about you two?”
“Xerus.” He answered simply but then, upon noticing that Lucidus seemed a bit occupied looking at something currently, he added, “...and he is Lucidus.”
“You two are not human, are you?” She asked looking between Xerus and Lucidus. The most obvious indication was the fact that Lucidus currently had an angelic look to him along with the wings that were folded at his back.
“A better question is: Does it matter whether we are or not?” Xerus answered with his own question but then added, “Not to be rude or anything.”
“So that is a ‘yes’ I assume?” She asked him. She smiled slightly when he shrugged his shoulders and then nodded in reply. “Then you two might have a better chance then those who came before you.”
“What do you mean by that?” Xerus asked. He remembered something about Andrew being used to guiding only one hero which certainly suggested they were not the first people to be brought here.
“You are right that you were not the first. Every time one dies then the cycle resets. I return to being sealed within the Eye and he awaits for a new one to appear. All the while the Corruption continues spreading.” She answered almost as though she could read his mind. Actually, he figured that she was reading mind as that was structured in a such a way that it would indicate that she somehow ‘heard’ his thoughts.
“So then you would know what we seek? Where is the first one?” He asked her. He figured that he didn’t need to be specific if she had been through this whole thing before and with the possibility that she could read minds. He only hoped that she couldn’t delve that deep into minds and be able to access other people’s memories.
“I’ll answer that once we return to your dwelling in this world.” She replied.
“Fine.” He answered before calling Lucidus’ name. “Lucidus...”
He didn’t even reply and just kept staring. This was bordering creepy at this point and it wasn’t until Xerus had hit him in the head that he came back to reality. He stumbled slightly from the hit and looked slightly agitated at Xerus.
“Was that really necessary!? I could still hear you two!” He yelled with a hand on the side of his head.
“Yes actually.” Xerus answered, sounding a bit amused.
After meeting up with Enoki and Andrew, they left the cave... or they would of if it wasn’t for a small detail. Take a wild guess of what that is. If you said either ‘cave in’ or ‘cliff’ then you would be right both ways.
“I assume you two are the heroes that have freed me?” She asked as soon as she noticed Xerus and Lucidus. Her voice almost had a mystic sort of sound to it and almost calming.
“In a manner of speaking...” Lucidus started but Xerus finished what he was going to say. He nearly had plummeted to the ground when he saw her. Thankfully he caught himself just in time and landed just for his sake.
“If you count having a quake shake a stalagmite loose and impaled the thing that you were fighting then, yes, I think we are the heroes that freed you.” Xerus said, pretty much cutting off and finishing what Lucidus was about to say. “Mind you that was the plan to knock one of those loose. Just so happened that nature agreed with that plan.”
“The world itself must of marked you as the chosen for it to aid you as it did.” She said after hearing what Xerus had said. Suddenly she looked confused. “Wasn’t there another? I remember hearing a third voice. The one that awoke the creature that I was sealed within.”
“Don’t know.” Xerus replied. He too was curious as to where Reaver went but was also somewhat angered that he left them to fight that creature by themselves. First leaving him behind in the cave to fend off a mob of skeletons, then stranding him down here by removing the rope he had set up to get down here in the first place, and now he abandoned them in the middle of a fight that he started. Personally, he knew that the Saermeon were not an evil people, despite the fact a lot of them tend to have fairly evil sounding names. Though right now he was wondering what was up with this particular one that was causing him to act as he has been lately.
“No matter. We have much to discuss as I am sure you are curious as to who I am and how I can help you in your quest.” She said looking as though she was a bit disappointed in the fact that this other person who awoke the Eye had vanished.
“First off: What are you, or more specifically, who are you?” Xerus asked. It was odd that a vine wearing woman had materialized out of a giant eye/mouth creature. Safe to say that he hadn’t seen that before in his time being a mercenary and he had once been cursed on some fringe world that caused him to become a re-animate skeleton. Was fun while that one lasted when it happened.
“I am Elysia, the last of the Dryad.” She answered. “Now what about you two?”
“Xerus.” He answered simply but then, upon noticing that Lucidus seemed a bit occupied looking at something currently, he added, “...and he is Lucidus.”
“You two are not human, are you?” She asked looking between Xerus and Lucidus. The most obvious indication was the fact that Lucidus currently had an angelic look to him along with the wings that were folded at his back.
“A better question is: Does it matter whether we are or not?” Xerus answered with his own question but then added, “Not to be rude or anything.”
“So that is a ‘yes’ I assume?” She asked him. She smiled slightly when he shrugged his shoulders and then nodded in reply. “Then you two might have a better chance then those who came before you.”
“What do you mean by that?” Xerus asked. He remembered something about Andrew being used to guiding only one hero which certainly suggested they were not the first people to be brought here.
“You are right that you were not the first. Every time one dies then the cycle resets. I return to being sealed within the Eye and he awaits for a new one to appear. All the while the Corruption continues spreading.” She answered almost as though she could read his mind. Actually, he figured that she was reading mind as that was structured in a such a way that it would indicate that she somehow ‘heard’ his thoughts.
“So then you would know what we seek? Where is the first one?” He asked her. He figured that he didn’t need to be specific if she had been through this whole thing before and with the possibility that she could read minds. He only hoped that she couldn’t delve that deep into minds and be able to access other people’s memories.
“I’ll answer that once we return to your dwelling in this world.” She replied.
“Fine.” He answered before calling Lucidus’ name. “Lucidus...”
He didn’t even reply and just kept staring. This was bordering creepy at this point and it wasn’t until Xerus had hit him in the head that he came back to reality. He stumbled slightly from the hit and looked slightly agitated at Xerus.
“Was that really necessary!? I could still hear you two!” He yelled with a hand on the side of his head.
“Yes actually.” Xerus answered, sounding a bit amused.
After meeting up with Enoki and Andrew, they left the cave... or they would of if it wasn’t for a small detail. Take a wild guess of what that is. If you said either ‘cave in’ or ‘cliff’ then you would be right both ways.
Chapter 13: Home Sweet Home
“You know... I had completely forgotten about this.” Xerus said once they came upon the cliff that he formerly had a rope set up so that they could climb out.
“This shouldn’t be a problem for you two.” Elysia said as she walked up beside Xerus.
“How so?” He asked. From his standpoint they were still stuck.
“He holds the key to getting us out of here.” She replied as she turned to look at Lucidus.
“I have no idea what she means by that.” Lucidus said, very much confused.
“You still have that mirror?” Xerus asked now getting what Elysia was hinting at. Seeing as he found his way back down here then that would mean that mirror teleported the user to... somewhere. At least where ever it would take them then it would be much better than staying in this dark cave for the rest of their lives.
“Uhhhhh...” Lucidus wasn’t sure what happened to it. After he had picked it up to examine it and he had disappeared that the thing vanished into thin air on him.
“You still have it. Just not on the material plane.” She told him, leaving him perplexed by these words.
“Meaning?” He asked as he wasn’t sure what she meant by this.
“The mirror’s effects have imprinted upon your mind. You can use it’s effects whenever you want to.” She answered.
“So what? I just think about using it and I’ll be teleported back?” He asked. She merely nodded.
“Before you do.” She started saying, “You might want think about more than just yourself returning to where you came. If you don’t then we will still be here.”
Lucidus then started thinking about the spot in which he, Xerus, and Reaver had first appeared in this world. He also thought of him and everyone in their group being brought to that spot too. Almost as soon as he thought this they all vanished. While thinking he remembered that Petra was still missing and that she wasn’t with Reaver nor at the town. Unfortunate that she would be left behind but he thought it was better off that she stayed down here for obvious reasons. When they all reappeared in the exact spot that he and Xerus had appeared in this world that it was noticed that Enoki was also missing.
“Where’s Enoki?” Xerus wondered, sounding a bit worried.
“He must have desired to remain behind in the cave. Whatever the case it was his choice to remain.” Elysia answered. Where they appeared wasn’t exactly what she thought they would appear but at least they were now out of the cave. It was nice to see the bright sun again after so long being sealed within a demonic eye.
“Xerus, I think we shouldn’t worry about him. He’s lived down there for what looks to be a while. He can take care of himself.” Lucidus said to Xerus as he knew that the two seemed as though they were becoming friends.
He chose not to speak and walked off in the direction of where their cabin was. Now that it seemed likely that Elysia was going to live with them then it was time to get working on expanding that place. Though even without her presence he was thinking of working on that cabin anyway. The way it was now wasn’t exactly good for them if they were going to be here for a while.
Expanding upon the cabin took a better part of the day. Now it actually had rooms, four that were bedrooms and one that acted a mix between a common area and a work area. Somehow Xerus had gotten his hands on sand, where he was keeping it was anyone’s guess, and turned it into glass. On doing so, he had made windows that were surprisingly study as when Lucidus tested one of them with a kick he had injured his leg. Afterward, he had to use his own healing magic to treat the injury. Also it was curious as to where Xerus had been keeping all these materials to expand upon this place when he had been stuck in a cave for the amount of time he was down there.
“You seem to already have a grasp on how things work around here.” Elysia said as she looked around the newly remade cabin. Something of this size would normally take a few days to build if it wasn’t for how things worked in this world.
“There wasn’t much to comprehend. Him on the other hand...” Xerus replied before glancing over at Lucidus, who was going outside to light another camp fire to cook on.
“You have any plans in the case that others show up?” Elysia asked which sounded a fair bit odd to Xerus.
“Others?” Xerus said, sounding perplexed.
“Petra and Enoki were only a few other inhabitants here. You have what is the beginnings of inhabitation on this continent. It won’t be long before others notice this and come along.” She explained. This didn’t help much.
“We’ll cross that bridge when, or if, it comes.” Xerus said. It seemed unlikely that others would show up out of nowhere. Aside from that town that was under their feet, it looked as though this place hasn’t seen inhabitation in years. Even more if there was something called “Corruption” here. That there would drive anyone away and keep them away.
“Ah yes. The Corruption. Within the deepest chasm is what you seek.” Elysia suddenly told Xerus. As if he needed more confirmation that she could apparently read minds. At least she wasn’t cutting him off mid-sentence unlike someone else he knew. Hard to keep a conversation with someone who already knew what you were going to say before you were going to say it.
“Before you ask. I am not going to talk about it. That is one can of worms you don’t want to open, trust me.” Xerus said when it looked as though Elysia was going to say something.
“If that is what you wish then so be it.” She said simply. Guess it was a little too obvious now that she could read their minds. Sometimes it couldn’t be helped. Though at least, thankfully, it was only limited to what they were thinking and not their memories or any mental images their minds contain. That would get awfully awkward and uncomfortable with Lucidus after the things she heard from his mind.
“You two going to stay in there and talk the night away or are you going to eat?” They heard Lucidus call from outside. Once they heard this they then noticed the nice pleasant smell of cooked fish in the air. They then left the interior of the cabin to eat and then, later, they turned in for the night.
“This shouldn’t be a problem for you two.” Elysia said as she walked up beside Xerus.
“How so?” He asked. From his standpoint they were still stuck.
“He holds the key to getting us out of here.” She replied as she turned to look at Lucidus.
“I have no idea what she means by that.” Lucidus said, very much confused.
“You still have that mirror?” Xerus asked now getting what Elysia was hinting at. Seeing as he found his way back down here then that would mean that mirror teleported the user to... somewhere. At least where ever it would take them then it would be much better than staying in this dark cave for the rest of their lives.
“Uhhhhh...” Lucidus wasn’t sure what happened to it. After he had picked it up to examine it and he had disappeared that the thing vanished into thin air on him.
“You still have it. Just not on the material plane.” She told him, leaving him perplexed by these words.
“Meaning?” He asked as he wasn’t sure what she meant by this.
“The mirror’s effects have imprinted upon your mind. You can use it’s effects whenever you want to.” She answered.
“So what? I just think about using it and I’ll be teleported back?” He asked. She merely nodded.
“Before you do.” She started saying, “You might want think about more than just yourself returning to where you came. If you don’t then we will still be here.”
Lucidus then started thinking about the spot in which he, Xerus, and Reaver had first appeared in this world. He also thought of him and everyone in their group being brought to that spot too. Almost as soon as he thought this they all vanished. While thinking he remembered that Petra was still missing and that she wasn’t with Reaver nor at the town. Unfortunate that she would be left behind but he thought it was better off that she stayed down here for obvious reasons. When they all reappeared in the exact spot that he and Xerus had appeared in this world that it was noticed that Enoki was also missing.
“Where’s Enoki?” Xerus wondered, sounding a bit worried.
“He must have desired to remain behind in the cave. Whatever the case it was his choice to remain.” Elysia answered. Where they appeared wasn’t exactly what she thought they would appear but at least they were now out of the cave. It was nice to see the bright sun again after so long being sealed within a demonic eye.
“Xerus, I think we shouldn’t worry about him. He’s lived down there for what looks to be a while. He can take care of himself.” Lucidus said to Xerus as he knew that the two seemed as though they were becoming friends.
He chose not to speak and walked off in the direction of where their cabin was. Now that it seemed likely that Elysia was going to live with them then it was time to get working on expanding that place. Though even without her presence he was thinking of working on that cabin anyway. The way it was now wasn’t exactly good for them if they were going to be here for a while.
Expanding upon the cabin took a better part of the day. Now it actually had rooms, four that were bedrooms and one that acted a mix between a common area and a work area. Somehow Xerus had gotten his hands on sand, where he was keeping it was anyone’s guess, and turned it into glass. On doing so, he had made windows that were surprisingly study as when Lucidus tested one of them with a kick he had injured his leg. Afterward, he had to use his own healing magic to treat the injury. Also it was curious as to where Xerus had been keeping all these materials to expand upon this place when he had been stuck in a cave for the amount of time he was down there.
“You seem to already have a grasp on how things work around here.” Elysia said as she looked around the newly remade cabin. Something of this size would normally take a few days to build if it wasn’t for how things worked in this world.
“There wasn’t much to comprehend. Him on the other hand...” Xerus replied before glancing over at Lucidus, who was going outside to light another camp fire to cook on.
“You have any plans in the case that others show up?” Elysia asked which sounded a fair bit odd to Xerus.
“Others?” Xerus said, sounding perplexed.
“Petra and Enoki were only a few other inhabitants here. You have what is the beginnings of inhabitation on this continent. It won’t be long before others notice this and come along.” She explained. This didn’t help much.
“We’ll cross that bridge when, or if, it comes.” Xerus said. It seemed unlikely that others would show up out of nowhere. Aside from that town that was under their feet, it looked as though this place hasn’t seen inhabitation in years. Even more if there was something called “Corruption” here. That there would drive anyone away and keep them away.
“Ah yes. The Corruption. Within the deepest chasm is what you seek.” Elysia suddenly told Xerus. As if he needed more confirmation that she could apparently read minds. At least she wasn’t cutting him off mid-sentence unlike someone else he knew. Hard to keep a conversation with someone who already knew what you were going to say before you were going to say it.
“Before you ask. I am not going to talk about it. That is one can of worms you don’t want to open, trust me.” Xerus said when it looked as though Elysia was going to say something.
“If that is what you wish then so be it.” She said simply. Guess it was a little too obvious now that she could read their minds. Sometimes it couldn’t be helped. Though at least, thankfully, it was only limited to what they were thinking and not their memories or any mental images their minds contain. That would get awfully awkward and uncomfortable with Lucidus after the things she heard from his mind.
“You two going to stay in there and talk the night away or are you going to eat?” They heard Lucidus call from outside. Once they heard this they then noticed the nice pleasant smell of cooked fish in the air. They then left the interior of the cabin to eat and then, later, they turned in for the night.
Last edited:
