ShanDeRad
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Chapter 7
🕑 Added 2024-04-20 17:15:34 +0000 UTCProceeding through the tunnel, they had decided to change the way they structured the group, rather than all of the warriors at the front they had split the group so that Michael, Trevor, Shaun and the mage that worked with Trevor, his name being Ian, Shaun learnt, were at the front, the rest of the group mixed into the middle and a warrior was protecting their back. Rather than walking without reason though everyone had their weapons out, testing their skills and always on alert for another spider on the ceiling, as well as any other monster that may be lurking in the shadows.
Shaun was now being used as a scout, he would enter stealth and move ahead of the group and was to report back to the others if he found something out of the ordinary. He used this time to train up his skills, no longer ignoring his detections skill he was continually flexing the skill on and off as he walked through the dark. At the beginning when he used the skill he couldn’t figure out what he was feeling, he would only get a vague understanding of what was within the 3 feet around him, but nothing that he could pinpoint with any precision. When he kept the skill on for longer than 10 seconds he would start to get a headache and would have to stop using it. He quickly realised the skill wasn’t supposed to be used constantly and was only meant for short bursts to help give him get a quick snapshot of his surroundings. As he kept using the skill it slowly levelled up, once it hit level 2 he felt that the radius of the skill was a little bigger, every time he now sent out a burst he tried to focus the skill in front of him, trying to encompass the tunnel. Eventually he found he could manipulate the skill so that it wasn’t spread out in a circle but instead sent in a specific direction. With this discovery he was able to level up the skill to level 3.
This is how the first day in the tunnels continued, he would train his skills, slowly levelling them up, report back to the group and then continue on scouting. Twice they came across a fork in the tunnel where they would have to make a choice of which way to go and both times they chose right. Everyone had become thirsty after hours of non-stop walking, hunger had set in and the group became irritable with each other, for the majority of the group they had stopped training what skills they could with only Michael, Trevor and Gabriel still on alert. Not even a full day ago they had been attacked and one of them killed, but it seemed that hours of walking with no sign of another monster had lulled them into a false sense of safety.
Travelling through the tunnels continued with no signs of anything changing until even Shaun felt like he was ready to collapse. A while later as he was moving ahead, the tunnel seemed to get lighter until he turned a bend and could see an opening. Staying as still and as silent as he could he listened to see if he could hear anything coming from within the opening, straining his perception as much as he could, he could make out that there was something inside but not who or what it was. Debating on whether he should sneak further forward and peak around so he could get a full view of the cavern opening or whether he should turn back and warn the others, he made his decision when he realised if there was a monster like the spiderling inside, or even multiple monsters he would be dead if they saw him. Turning around he made his way back to the group to let them know what he had discovered.
The reaction from the group was as expected, although everyone was tired, they had quickly adjusted upon hearing the news. “We can’t go in there without a plan, we need to think this through. We don’t know what’s there, it could be monsters or even other people.”
“So you think we should what? Turn around and find another tunnel to follow in the hope we find food and water? That is ridiculous, this is the first time something has changed in these forsaken tunnels in hours, I say we go in and deal with whatever is inside.” There was arguing back and forth, some wanting to turn around, not wanting to risk having to fight after walking non stop for an entire day, while the others wanted to go in, weapons drawn and launch an attack before whatever was in there knew what was happening.
Thinking over the situation Shaun could see why the group was split, he himself could see the pros and cons of both choices, but in the end they couldn’t keep going like they had been, if they did they would die from dehydration before any other monster could get to them. “We play it smart” he said over the top of the arguing, “There is a bend in the tunnel before you get to the opening, I can go ahead in stealth and check what’s inside, if it’s a monster and they see me I can retreat back where everyone can be lying around the bend ready to attack. If there are people inside I can go in, I will talk loud enough that you should be able to hear what I’m saying through the tunnel and then we can decide what we should do next.” Everyone thought over the proposal and in the end agreed that it was the best way forward. They slowly made their way forward and just at the bend before the opening everyone stopped and got into position.
“Are you sure about this? It’s not too late to change your mind.” A hand on his shoulder made him turn around and he looked back at Michael. Nodding back at him he steadied himself and continued going around the corner.
He could feel his heart beginning to beat faster the closer he got to the opening, trying to calm himself, he took a slow breath and gave himself a once over. Dagger in hand, check. Crouched along the side of the wall in stealth, check. Every few seconds he would send another burst of his detection skill out towards the opening ahead of him, with the recent level gains in the skill he was now able to push the skill completely out to the direction in front of him and reached around 8 feet ahead. He continued creeping forward slowly, so as not to alert whatever was in the room in front of him to his presence. The area around him started to get lighter the closer he got to the entrance, he wasn’t sure how his stealth skill would work in a lighter space but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. With another burst of his skill he could now make out part of the area in front of him, from what he could tell it was large enough to fit his entire group comfortably with room to spare, he detected a living presence on the ground inside along one of the walls. There's no going back now, I agreed to do this, this was my plan, I have to see it through.
He got himself into a position that if he extended himself out towards the opening a foot in front of him he would be able to see inside the open cavern but would also be ready to turn around at a moments notice in case whatever was inside saw him and went on the attack. Without anything further to do except to take that final step forward he learned around into the opening, inside was a cavern, circular in shape and bigger than he expected, the light that had been coming out of the cavern was off to one side, it was being emitted by a body of water that had some plants growing around it. What he had sensed with his detection skill was a person hunched over on the ground with their head in their hands looking to be quietly crying. Looking closer Shaun recognised who it was, Danielle, the healer who had run away when the spider had attacked. How she had made it here he had no idea, something to ask about later. He couldn’t believe that after all the splits in the tunnels they had followed the same direction, they did just keep going to the right at every intersection but still, they had found her.
Sighing with relief that he wouldn’t have to run for his life, he walked into the cavern while yelling back to the others that it was safe to come in. This caused Danielle to jerk her head up, not expecting to hear someone there with her. She immediately got to her feet and launched herself across the cavern at him, she threw her arms around his shoulders and started crying louder, “Thank god you’re here, you found me, I have been all alone! I thought I was going to die!” she continued holding on to him. Not knowing what to do, and uncomfortable with the situation, he just stood there, waiting for the others to come in and hopefully get him out of this situation. He didn’t know Danielle that well, and being hugged by her while she was babbling about being alone, after she was the one that ran away from the rest of them, wasn’t exactly Shaun’s idea of a good time.
“Danielle?!?!” Finally coming into the cavern, Michael rushed up to take hold of her leaving Shaun to get a better look around him. Walking towards the water he peered down into its depths, seeing that the light wasn’t actually coming from the water itself but instead there was a collection of the blue rocks that had lit the tunnels up collected at the bottom. It didn’t look too deep but there was plenty for them to stay hydrated for the foreseeable future. As the others rushed over to where he was standing they dropped to their knees and started collecting water in their hand to drink, not even considering whether it could make them sick, or even if it had been poisoned by the glowing rocks.
Mana Infused Water –After having been in contact with naturally occurring Mana Stones for extended periods of time the water has taken on some of their qualities. Consuming will boost Mana recovery for a short period of time. Poisonous if consumed in large quantities*
“You may want to slow down, the water is poisonous.” Looking around at everyone drinking as much of the water as they could handle, several of them stopped and backed away from the water while a few just looked at him with shocked expressions on their faces. “Identify the water, you could get really sick if you drink too much at once.” Bending down to the water, Shaun started cupping small handfuls of the water and drank slowly, not wanting to risk getting poisoned, he decided a little at a time was safest. After a few mouthfuls he looked around at the plants, nothing useful came back from his identify, they were just normal plants that were growing in the cave system.
Once everyone had had their fill of water, now a lot more cautious with how much they drank at once, there were decisions that needed to be made on what to do next. It was decided that they would stay in the cavern, let everyone get some rest after the day of walking, but they all agreed that there needed to be people on guard, both at the entrance that they had come in and also the tunnel leading out at the opposite side. There were 11 of them all together now that they had found Danielle again, they decided with four people per watch while the others slept and recovered, two in each tunnel with the last watch only having three people with one of them going between both tunnels. Once they split into three groups it was decided that Shaun would be in the last watch in one tunnel with Eric, the warrior, in the other, Gabriel would act as the go between.
“Before everyone goes to sleep and heads on first watch, Danielle we all shared our skills with each other so that everyone knows what we each different class can do, do you mind sharing with everyone what your skills are?” Although putting her on the spot with his question Michael had asked loud enough to make sure that everyone heard him ask her, probably to avoid others asking her the question individually, as everyone wanted to know what a healer's skills were and how they could benefit the group.
“Oh, yes, of course. I have three skills, Basic Heal which lets me heal others as long as I have Mana, Basic Body Boost which says that I can increase a person’s stats that relate to their body by 10% for 30 seconds and Basic Soul Boost where I can increase a person’s Soul stat by 10% once every hour. I have never used them before though, I don’t even know how they would work.”
“Some of us got hurt when we battled the Spider monster, you know the one you decided to run away from. Think you could use your healing skill to see if you can help with any of our wounds?” Trevor jumped into the conversation and although he phrased it as a question it was clear he wasn’t asking, “It’s the least you can do for us. Besides, who is going to be left to protect you if we are all hurt?” Walking right up to Danielle, he stood in front of her, towering over her smaller frame, “Lets see what you can do, heal me.”
“I…I…I can try,” She stammered out “but I don’t know how this works, give me a minute to try and figure this out.” Slowly she placed her hands on Trevor’s chest, closing her eyes she stood there for a full minute before her hand started to glow, after about 30 seconds the glowing started to dim until finally she dropped her hands and looked up at Trevor, “That’s all I can do, I’m out of Mana.”.
“That….felt incredible.” Taking a step back Trevor eyed her up and down for a few seconds then smiled in a way that could only be described as predatory. “Who knew you would be so useful, I will definitely be keeping an eye on you, to keep you safe of course.”
“Do you think you could heal the rest of us once your Mana is back up?” Moving between the two, Michael had effectively cut off the look Trevor was giving her by putting himself in the middle.
“Of course, I am happy to try, anything for you. I got a notification that the skill is now level 2, isn’t that exciting! Hopefully it makes healing you easier.”
After Danielle had finished healing everyone that needed it, those chosen to keep look out first went into the tunnels while the rest of them split up in the cavern to get some sleep before their own shifts. Shaun chose the wall furthest away from Trevor and his goons and sat down with his back against the wall. He was alone, but that was how he preferred it. The last thing he thought about before falling asleep was about the gains he had made throughout the day. If he could manage this on day one, what could he achieve before this tutorial came to end.
