Chereads / An Adventurer’s World (old) / Chapter 4 - Fumbling in the Dark.

Chapter 4 - Fumbling in the Dark.

Pain, that was the first thing that hit Daylor when he came too. An agonising, gut wrenching torment from his back. When he finally braved it enough to look at the injury his mind instantly switched to panic; he no longer had a pair of wings, instead there were just two bleeding nubs. It was only when he was pulling himself up again that he realised he must have fainted from the shock, he groaned as the waves of agony rolled over his back. However Daylor managed to resist the urge to throw up from pain, using his hand to cover his mouth as he then focused his mind to pull the stump's back into his body, allowing them to fix over time. He sighed heavily, knowing it would be a long time before he could fly again.

Once the pain faded enough to move he forced his aching body onto his feet, Happy to find no breaks or anymore missing limbs he started to look around the area as he leant against a wall. He looked around the cave with his demonic eyes, once again happy that he was able to see in the dark, unlike some other races. He noticed past his mangled and crushed wings what looked to be an inclining cave that he hoped headed towards his party members or at least away out, with a deep sigh he started to limp up the ramp.

Daylor travelled the cave for what seemed like hours, however he would stop to lean against the wall whenever the pain got too much and then would start limping again a short while after. He felt like he had been walking forever before he noticed the opening of a cave. He smiled to himself as he walked up to the entrance, But before he looked inside his eyes were drawn to the entrance. It seemed to be a well made archway which did not suit the rest of the dungeon.

Upon the black marble archway were silver engravings of figures riding giant winged beasts which seemed to breathe elements against masses of what appeared to be abominations, the only engravings were the breath that seemed to spew from the winged beasts. They seemed to be breathing gold, red, white, blue or black energys that destroyed their targets. The abominations they attacked were varying monstrusties, some covered in mouths filled with what appeared to be rows of sharp teeth, or spikes much bigger than the humanoids carved or tentacles ending in sharp blades.

While he tried to make sense of the carvings his eyes wandered into the cave. It was there that he realised the word cave did not do it justice, it was a stone room the size of a castle's Great Hall, where the stone walls were covered in carvings of a war against the abominations. The thing that pulled to his attention the most however was the fact that the room had a bridge to a pedestal in the centre of the room, and on the lower platform under the bridge was gold. There was more gold than Daylor could estimate and definitely more than he had seen in a long time.

Daylor had to resist the urge to drool as he nearly walked into the room, however he stopped himself and first looked around for any traps. When he started to look, a weird red light pulsed from the entrance, along the bridge to the pedestal in the centre. But he found no traps, and after the light faded he waited a little longer while thinking about what to do. Daylor knew that he had no choice but to go forwards as this was the only possible way out of the cave.

As he started to walk along the bridge the demon's eyes darted around as he checked for any traps, or enemies hiding within the gold. When he approached the pedestal he noticed there were only three things upon it. The first was a pouch that he picked up and cast an identification spell upon through his ring, Identifying it as the warped bag of the sun, the name meant little to him but the message that appeared told him that it was a bag of never ending space which was unable to take damage from any heat.

He then looked at the second item, it was a silver coin the size of his hand, upon which was carved a dragon's head. When he tried to identify the coin nothing happened, suggesting there was nothing magical about it. The last item was what appeared to be an egg around the size of his head, and blacker than a starless night sky.

Daylor cast the spell once more to identify the egg from his ring but only question marks came up on the identifying screen, he looked at it confused but figured that the ring may not be able to identify living creatures. The only thing that gave away that it was alive was the fact a slight heat was radiating from within the egg, that seemed to grow warmer as he held it. Unloading the contents of his bag onto the side he got ready to place the bag inside his backpack, using the clothes that had been inside his bag to wrap the egg up safe and warm. He then looked at all the gold and had a content sigh.

He sat down and grabbed the warped bag, placing it onto his lap as he started to meditate while focusing on the item. An hour later and he was connected to the magic item, opening his mouth he spoke out in a guttural tongue "Ash kadara Tschuc" while holding the bag towards the gold. And then as if a giant vacuum was pulling upon them the coins and other items started to get sucked into his bag,the weapons and gold managed to fit in the small pouch even though it looked as if it could barely hold a hundred coins.

There was a ding as a screen popped up just above the bag listing the items within. 56800 golden suns, Rapier of Lighting Grace, necklace of High intelligence, Thieves Tools third Tier.

Greed passed through his mind for a few moments before he shook his head "No they are my team I will split it with them, even if Amber wouldn't do the same."

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Deeper in the underground a few hours later

"We should go back and try to find him," Inarus' voice echoed from under his helmet as the group moved deeper into the dungeon.

"We don't have any rope, besides I'm sure with his luck he would have found some way to survive that." Umla replied with a joyous tone, the only response was Amber's annoyed grunt.

"You can't know that, he might be injured" Inarus repeated in his distorted voice, concern was a weird sound to come from such a horrifying voice.

"I could only be so lucky" Amber muttered to herself, in a voice so low no one else heard.

"'e will be fine lad, let's be 'onest if any of us 'ave the luck to survive t'at it's t'at 'ot 'ead." The dwarfs gruff voice said from under his beard. And with what sounded like an attempt at a sigh Inarus dropped his protest.

They carried on deeper into the caves looking around with confusion at the entire area that wasn't meant to exist. The weirder part was the lack of any enemies or even any noise at all from within the cave system. In a dungeon other than set safe rooms it was weird for there not to be things trying to attack you. They kept moving down twisting corridors trying to find another room or a way out.

"We could always go back and try and find a way across some'ow." Khurda said as he turned to Aiko "Couldn't you summon a bridge or somet'ing."

She shook her head and her almost angelic voice spoke from under her mask "I haven't gotten to the level where I could make something that large yet." she said with a shrug that betrayed her voice. Then she once again moved the mask slightly to allow her to bring a flask to her lips.

The dwarf sniffed the air before he turned to the Kitsune with a grin "God's Love that's stronger than my uncle's brew." However Aiko just answered with another shrug as she took a large swig from the flask and replaced it on her belt, moving her mask once more. She had somehow not revealed her face while doing that.

The party stopped in a circular room that opened up from the tunnel they had been walking through, another passageway being their only chance to move forwards. Inarus, who had been at the front, stopped as he looked around the clearing and nodded.

"This seems like a good place to set up for now, let's take a small break before we carry on." Inarus said to the party, the rest of them nodded and sighed as they sat down other than Amber who glared at the armoured figure.

"Who the hell made you the boss of the group?" She said in a heated tone as she walked towards Inarus. "Why should I listen to an undead freak like you!"

"Humm makes me wonder, is that the angel or the demon talking?" Inarus asked in an almost amused tone as he looked down at the assassin. Who seemed to grow angerier at the comment, her hands balled into fists.

"How dare you!" she yelled as he turned to fully look at her.

"You may call me a freak, but let's be honest that's just hypocritical coming from a spoiled child who does not even accept half of themselves." Inarus said back, his calm tone seeming to only anger her more.

"At least I can show my face without being lynched, even by those I used to love!" she shot back, which made Umla wince as the party watched the confrontation.

"Oi lass, t'at was bit far!" Khurda snapped but the two seemed to ignore the dwarf.

"Let's be honest while we are at it, why not open up why you hate our friend to the fact you would try and kill him. You are torn and try to pretend you're just an angel, and therefore 'better' than us." Inarus said bitterly with air quotations. "Yet half of you is a demon, which you try to ignore. And you see Daylor, who is a full blooded demon and you are jealous about the fact he can embrace it and not let it define him."

Amber reeled back as if he had just struck her, and the rest of the party looked at the two of them in shock, it was possibly the most any of them had heard Inarus say in one go.

"And the reason you are at the bottom of the group when it comes to who people listen to is because you act like we are all below you, when you are just an assassin with an identity crisis." Inarus carried on not giving her the time to retaliate. "And Daylor actually cares about the rest of the team unlike you, hell's last week he still tried to invite you out with the rest of us, even though you tried to poison him only two days prior. Just because he did not want you to feel left out of the group."

"Oh come on he does not try that hard!, and in combat he is useless anyway!" Amber snapped. "Seriously what could he do tha-"

Amber was cut off by the sound of movement from behind them from a tunnel they hadn't noticed due to the fact the rock was placed in a way to hide it. They all turned and drew their weapons to a very awkward, tired and bruised Daylor with his hands above his head as he walked towards them on swaying feet.

"Hey guys I found some treasure." he said and then everyone's eyes fell to the golden hilted rapier now resting on his left side. The silver one that had originally been there is now resting on his right side. "I have an item for Aiko and Amber, along with a small mountain of gold for each of us."

Amber's originally hostile attitude went a full hundred and eighty to a friendly one as she smiled at Daylor under her mask.