I felt a shiver through my body as I began to stir.
"Thomas! You're awake!" Erol said in a relieved voice. I could feel his presence near me, but my vision was still blurry. It took a moment for me to realize that I wasn't in the same room as I had been in before.
"Where am I?" I asked as my vision began to clear up. I could see that I was lying on a stone slab in what looked like an ancient temple.
"You're in the next room. Thankfully, this room has no sentient demons only a few grunt." Erol replied as he moved closer to me. He helped me to stand up and then he explained the situation.
"After you passed out, I carried you through the door and found myself in this room. I was able to fight off the enemies in here and I laid you down on this slab so that you could rest. It's been about two hours." he continued.
"I thought you were about to die but Will happened to grow bright near your pocket. He pulled out a vial from it." He said and handed me the vial.
The vial was the one that I had gotten from the chest earlier, but I never bothered to use it. "It must've been an elixir or healing potion that the Great Tree had created for itself or its demons." Erol added.
"It was a bit difficult since I had to use my hooves to pull out the stopper and pour the contents into your mouth. You're lucky to be alive." He said with a sigh of relief.
I was feeling a bit better now. "Thank you for saving me, Erol." I said as I patted the unicorn on the head. He nickered happily.
"Will is so awesome! I'm glad I created you, buddy." I said as I petted Will on his...head? It was hard to tell where his head was but I tried nonetheless.
I got up and asked, "So what kind of room is this?"
"Well," Erol replied. "This room is a bit different than the others. It's a lot darker and it's filled with ancient looking statues. There are a lot of enemies here, but they're not that strong. They're just mindless drones." he continued.
I looked around the room. There were indeed a lot of statues in this room. Some of them were of animals, while others were of elves or demons. One in particular stood out to me the most. It was a statue of me and out of all the statues I had seen, this one looked glorious and well kept.
"Erol, is that... me?" I asked with a puzzled look.
He nodded and replied, "yes, that is you. It seems that the Great Tree has made a statue of you in order to mock you or show you how much it hates you. Who knows what it was thinking when it made that." he finished.
I was a bit confused as to why the Great Tree would make a statue of me. I had no idea why it would do such a thing. That didn't explain though why it looked well kept.
If the Great Tree hated me so much, wouldn't the statue paint me in a negative light?
I shook off the feeling and asked Erol, "so how do we get out of here?"
He replied, "well, there are four doors in this room and only one of them leads to the next room."
"Okay, then let's go through each one and see where they take us." I replied "Unless you have any idea?"
"This part of the dungeon is unfamiliar to me," Erol said and shook his head. "I don't know where the doors lead to."
I thought for a moment. "Alright, then we'll just have to try each one until we find the right one." I walked over to one of the doors, opened it, and stepped inside. As I walked, I noticed that the room was dark and cold. There was a strange smell in the air and it made me feel uneasy.
I continued walking and soon found myself in a room that had a lot of dead bodies on the ground. Some were fresh while others were old and decayed.
"Oh, fuck!" I yelled as I quickly ran out of the room and slammed the door shut. Before I bolted out of the room, a pair of eyes the color green bore into mines. I knew instantly that the demon was a lich so I quickly exited the room.
I am definitely not stepping foot in that room again. Undead monsters give me the creeps. Especially ones with magic.
Erol and Will looked at me with concern.
"Are you okay?" Erol asked. "What did you see?"
I replied, "nothing, nothing at all!" I took a deep breath to calm myself down. "Let's just move on to the next room." I continued as I opened another door and walked through. This room was a lot brighter and there were no dead bodies on the ground which was a relief.
I noticed that at the far end of the room there was a lever sticking out of a hole in the floor. I walked over to it and pulled on it reluctantly. 'Well, here goes nothing.'
A door on one side of the room opened and I saw that it led to a corridor. I walked through the doorway and followed the corridor until I came to another door. I opened it and stepped through into the next room. I saw that this room was also empty except for a chest.
I walked up to it, but before I could touch it a pair of razor sharp teeth nearly clamped on my hands. I pulled my hands back just in time to see that the treasure chest had transformed into a monster with sharp teeth.
I unsheathed my sword and slashed at the monster. It tried to bite me, but I was able to dodge its attack and then stabbed my sword through its mouth and out the back of its head. The monster stopped moving and then turned back into a chest.
A mimic. Of course there'd be a mimic at some point in the dungeon. I sighed and opened the now deceased chest and in it was a golden key. I pulled it out and pocketed it. I left the room and went to the third door in the main room. I opened it, walked through, and found myself in a small room that had nothing in it except for a large statue of a demon holding a shield in front of itself.
I approached the statue cautiously and touched its shield. Suddenly the statue came to life and swung its shield at me. I managed to block the attack with my sword.
"Erol! Use your beam," I yelled as I kept blocking the statue's attacks. It was a lot stronger than I thought. I could barely keep up with it.
Erol shot a beam from his horn, but it bounced off the demon's shield.
"Damn it! We need to get around its shield," I yelled.
"How do we do that?" Erol asked.
"Get behind it! I'll distract it." I yelled.
"Alright." Erol replied.
I charged at the demon and swung my sword at it. It blocked my attack and then swung its shield at me again. I managed to dodge the attack and then I heard a rainbow-colored beam hit the demon from behind. It fell to the ground and stopped moving.
I panted heavily as I sheathed my sword. The statue crumbled into a million pieces.
"Thank you, Erol," I said as I patted his neck.
"You're welcome," he said.
"Let's get out of here." I said as we left the room.
We went to the last door in the main room, opened it, and went through. We were in a hallway. We walked down the hallway until we reached the end. There was a door at the end of the hallway with a keyhole that matched the key from the mimic I had killed.
I pulled out the key and inserted it into the keyhole. The door unlocked, and I opened it. We went through the doorway and were in a circular room that had a large stairway leading upwards in the center.
"Looks like this is our way forward." I said. "But it's probably full of traps and monsters."
"Most likely," Erol said.