Chapter 5 - A Hunger for Fear!

Looking down the dark corridor, Doric used his monocle to try and make out anything that might be dangerous but he could not see anything pop up with his spell. "Huh looks like we are going to have to find some light source and be careful. Wish we had some kind or protection spells."

"What about the book, maybe there's something in there!" Nyssa pointed out with a hopeful look in her eyes.

"Worth a shot, it has not let us down so far." Opening the book it seemed to go to Chapter 3 but instead of seeing words for the next chapter he saw instead a request from the book.

UNLOCK CHAPTER 3

Requirements- Face your fears and make it to the other side of the dark corridor.

Reward- 50 magic points, one symbol of your choice, and the next chapter of the book.

"Wait what, why is it giving me a quest all of a sudden…" Doric closed the book and looked to Nyssa. "Looks like the book is not going to help us out in this one. Quick look for anything that produces a decent amount of light and let's get this over with."

Nyssa shook her head. "I can't all the light in this room is powered by magic I think. There is no natural light sources in here at all!"

Looking around Doric noticed it as well. All the light in this room was unnatural upon further inspection he saw that the areas with the most light had a center point that he could focus on. 

Magic Power 10

Symbols- Fire -= Water

Tags- Immovable, Heatless

Looking at the tags of the spell confused him for a moment, "Huh tags, so it has elements and then functions. I wonder if the book has more info on this. Well can't rely on it right now. It's decided to give me a middle school courage test…"

Staying here was not going to do them any good and nothing seemed to be coming at them from the corridor the only thing left to do was traverse the darkness and make it to the other side. Walking to the door, Doric grabbed Nyssa's hand and looked her in the eye.

"Don't let go no matter what, we need to get to the other side and this darkness will easily get us lost if we stay in it. She nodded and they took their first step into the darkness. It was all consuming the moment they passed through the doorway everything went black. They could no longer see the entrance to the room nor the one at the other side. 

"Doric?" Nessa asked with fear in her throat. "Doric I can't see anything!"

"Calm down Nessa, take it one step at a time. It might be another spell or something causing this." He was worried as well he wanted to take a step back and see if the light would come back but he did not know what he would do if he found it did not. 

Shivering at the sudden cold chill that flew by him he straightened his back and felt the squeeze on his hand as Nyssa grabbed it tighter.

"What was that?" She asked with a quiver in her voice.

"Don't worry about it freeze up now and we aren't going to make it. Just take it one step at a time. Breathe and walk with me." They each took one step at a time. Stumbling as they walked. Not in sync at all. He paused and she hit his back with her head.

"Hey, let me know when you are stopping! My nose hurts now." She wined a little as she rubbed her nose with her free hand.

"This isn't working we need to step at the same time if we are going to get through this. For now, every time I say 'step' we take a step. Sound good?" 

She tugged on his hand as if to nod. They started moving.

"Step…Step…Step…Step" 

"It's going well, we are making progress, I think." he said half confident in his answer. They continued the pattern four steps at a time. Eventually they hit a wall.

"Crap, this is not good."

"What's wrong this time?" she said waiting for him to continue moving.

"We hit a wall, I am not entirely certain which direction we should take. I believe its to our right but we might have also gotten turned around so I am not certain…" His mind began to race as he contemplated what this meant. He could not go back the way he came, it would not guarantee he made it back to the room. 

If we went the wrong way he could end up deeper in the cave. This was a lose, lose situation for him. He had one chance to choose the right option and if he did not it could mean the death of both of them. 

Paralyzed with the decision he felt his legs lock up. He could not move from his location. His hands were getting clammy and his mind would not stop racing. Nyssa could tell by the silence that he was thinking hard and she did not want to stop his train of thought but she could tell by his hands that he was stuck in a terrible loop.

"Doric!" she said with a firm snap of her voice. He snapped out of his trance and realized he had not been breathing this whole time. A cold chill was surround him but once she snapped him out of it the chill dissipated and he felt like he could think clearly.

"What the hell was that just now. I think something was controlling my thoughts just now." Doric said shaking his head to regain his composure. "I don't think we are alone in this cave Nyssa."

He stopped and looked around. It was still pitch black but he saw a faint glow to the left of the him he could see something with his monocle. A faint glow off in the distance. It had a power level of 267 and a symbol of a wisp or a blue flame. 

"I see something off in the distance but I don't think we should go that way." He had made a decision. Taking the right path he continued the process.

"Step…Step…Step…Step…" Eventually, they made it to the light he had seen earlier.

"The light!" Nyssa sighed with relief as they seemed to start running towards it. The smell of the outside air was exhilarating. Much better than the stuffy suffocating air of the dark cave. They both looked at each other for the first time since entering the cave and were still adjusting to the light but when they finally had a good look Nyssa was worried.

"Doric, you're covered in ice. What happened!" Looking at himself he was surprised as well. He had felt a cold chill multiple times in that cave but he was so focused on getting out that he did not check himself.

"I don't know I think something was trying to kill us…" Looking back at the cave Doric was startled. What he saw was unbelievable. The cave was not that deep and he could see all the way inside it. The room they exited from was maybe 30 feet away from them.

"But it seemed like we were walking for at least an hour." What caught his attention even more was the wispy figment that floated around the inside of the cave occasionally looking his way but not leaving the cave.

"Doric you see it too. That looks like a ghost, maybe someone who died there." She seemed sad, thinking about the torment the creature must have felt stuck there. "Do you think she was drawn to our body heat?" 

"That or feeding off our fear either way I would not want to return." As he turned to head away from the cave he remembered something.

"Oh right the book wanted me to get past here lets check out the new chapter!" Pulling out the book he opened it and it began to glow a red hue. Before the ink chains broke on the page. 

CONGRATULATIONS DORIC.

+50 spell power

Choose a symbol!

He felt a little stronger all of a sudden and thought about it. "I had been thinking about it pretty hard and I think I will choose fire. It seems to be the most versatile and useful in our predicaments not to mention casting fire would be really neat." He laughed to himself a little thinking about throwing fireballs around.

CALCULATING THE REWARD!

"Completing a mission of this caliber rewards you a fire token of F rank. Big bro!" A voice called out in his mind. It was the voice of a young girl, which surprised him since he had not heard anything from the book until now.

Before his eyes appeared a glowing orb it descended down to his hands and he grab ahold of the light before pulling out something.

REWARD- Basic Torch!

"Are you kidding me!"