Healing Dungeon

"There she is!" One of the men shouted while Yue shot through one of the side alleys in the slums of Cyntha. With a throbbing heart and out of breath, she had leaned against one of the shabby houses found in the slums that she called her home for years now. Since her parents died, she had worked and lived day to day simply to survive in Cyntha, until a few months ago, she finally could join the adventurers guild. You had to be at least eighteen to get permission to join. The first quests she had finished alone until both of her childhood friends, Nia and Jane, reached the age of eighteen, too. They had been moderately successful until last month, where they accepted the goblin infestation quest together with the other adventurer team, they had met in front of the quest board. And then everything went down the drain. Back then, she had a hunch that something didn't match but had ignored it, to her chagrin.

After being rescued by a stranger who had introduced himself as Avan, she was back in Cyntha and had informed the Adventurers guild about the goblins demise and her findings there. Stifled a sob, she continued her running after they found her again.

She was hunted for more than a week out of nowhere by some dark-hooded figures. They first had tried to lure her into an empty alley beside an inn, where she had drunk lonely for herself in memory of her dead friends after informing their families of their passing. They were friendly at first and had tried to get her drunker slowly, but she already had an eerie impression about them and tried to sneak away with an excuse she had to pee quickly. They were, of course, following her not soon after she had left, and since then, she was on the run. They had people stationed near the adventurer's guild and near the guard's office to intercept every attempt she could make for safety.

Dashing through the night and past night active slum residents, with soon nowhere to hide, she mused about her chances and what options she had left. Nearly stumbling over a misplaced stone on the ground, she quickly rebalanced herself and continued running around another corner into a narrower alley. Cursing her bad luck, she had run into a dead-end. Freaked out, she hastily looked around for an escape route but found none. Left only the over two meters tall stone wall at the end of the narrow street. With a running attempt, she closely missed the upper edge of the wall with her first try. Shouting at the entrance to the side alley, she panicked more and more while making her second running attempt with her heart beating from her chest and the pulse of her blood rushing in her ears. Nearly missing the edge again, her fingers cramped at the top of the wall while her body dangled uncontrolled after her running collision with the wall's stone. With all her strength and nearing running steps, she fought against gravity and heaved herself on top of the wall to instantly roll down on the other side.

Her impact took the remaining air out of her lungs. Breathing heavily, Yue braced herself with her hands on her knees and began to run again. Maybe... She gasped for air. Perhaps, he is still engaged with the dungeon ... And could help me. If he's still alive, that is. Do I have another option left? No. I hope I don't doom both of us with my decision. At least I am sure he will help me after he saved me once. She decided with a sigh.

Nothing else to lose, she ran to one of the opened night gates.

With a quick lie and explanation about collecting nocturnal herbs, the two guards waved her through. She strolled for a while to not alarm any guards that may be watching her until out of sight and began running again, through the woods.

Yue took more than thirty minutes to reach the cave, where she promptly entered the tunnels to seek out Avan.

Adrian raged through the room. "HOW could you possibly lose an eighteen-year-old girl?! You imbeciles! Go, bribe the guards, but find her. NOW!" He shouted at his incompetent lackeys running to complete their new mission. "I swear, I will kill them all if they can't find this clumsy, filthy little fox girl!"

Sometimes later, one of his inferiors came back running. Huffing, Adrian waited impatiently for him, finally opening his mouth at last.

"Master, one of the bribed guards at the east gate confirmed a fox girl was moving out of town a few minutes ago. We immediately sent out five of our best hunters to track her down!" The messenger told Adrian, stricken with fear in his eyes.

"Idiots, losing the girl in the first place. If they come back with empty hands, I will make sure that they will no longer need any hands in the future. Or any other body part, that's for sure." The master beast-tamer threatens at no one in particular.

Upon remembering the layout of the tunnels, Yue soon found herself in front of wide-open dungeon doors. He did it! Please, Avan, be safe! I need your help once more... She said and sent a silent prayer to one of the many known gods. Quickly moving forward, she found herself inside a long and slightly blue-lighted corridor with murals of fighting monks left and right on the walls.

[You have entered the Dungeon: Tower of Akkalon]

At the end of the hallway, she saw some makeshift things made out of wooden logs and sticks, tied together with intertwined plant fibers ropes. Surprised, Yue took a moment to look at all the different stuff Avan had made in only a few weeks. There was a big table with two benches left and right, all assembled with large logs where two of them crossed above to give the whole thing better stability. It looked similar to a bivvy, only lacking a tarp. Near a crack in the wall, on the side of the hallway, was a meter-wide campfire, surrounded by some rocks and besides a self-built shelf with wooden cutlery and dishes stacked neatly together. The campfire wasn't used for some days now if you took a closer look at the ashes. Wood chips covered the whole floor near the camping table.

Yue found a small patch of unearthed grass near the two-meter high and wide corridor exit on the other side with a circular and seemingly comfortable cavity in the middle. She guessed it was the white rabbit's sleeping area. Head shaking, she continued running down an earthen slope until she found herself at a point where the road led downwards into a vast, lush forest. The lookout was terrific, and Yue couldn't help herself to stop for a few seconds and marvel at the scene before her eyes. Taking a deep and refreshing breath, she moved onward, down into the dimly lit forest, and followed the trampled road in between. On the side of the path, she saw surely a hundred skinned wolfhound corpses. Are all of these killed by Avans's hands?! Scary and... creepy... Yue murmured and almost stumbled.

About an hour later, she found herself in front of another passage, leading left around more deeply into the dungeon. Hopefully, it led to wherever Avan stayed at the moment.

With cautiously, steady steps, she descended, glad for the tiny shiny crystals inlaid into the ceiling everywhere.

The air got thicker and more humid with moisture each step she took downwards. Glad for the dim light all around, she had no difficulties finding firm ground.

A few hundred meters downhill, Yue abruptly found herself in front of a wall of hanging vines. Carefully, she pushed the plant wall aside to create a passage. This level apparently consisted of a jungle biome with huge and gigantic trees that reached up to the cave's ceiling. Yue could already see more corpses from a distance, which were probably also left behind by Avan. She walked briskly along the path, always seeing dead creatures from afar. Upon inspecting one of these creatures, her identify skill told her they were [Kobold] s, not related to the taller goblins. A few moments later, she found herself in front of a burned-down village, enclosed with a wooden wall with sharpened logs. Traveling along the path, it led straight into the town and between destroyed small huts. Everywhere she looked, she could see scattered [Kobold] remains. With agitation by seeing all the carnage around her, Yue left the village on the other side, still on the path, until she came to a staircase leading further downwards made out of stone.

Sighing, She descended again into another unknown level. Reaching the third floor, she came out into a spacious tunnel, the ceiling still littered with shiny crystals. She instantly could make out triggered traps left and right and the whole tunnel down as far as her sight reached. Cautiously, she walked through and between the different trap remains. Some pitfalls, boulder traps, sharpened spikes, arrow slits every so often, and even some metal saw blades sticking out of the walls. Dangerous traps. And he survived all of them without dying? I had a misconception about Avan when we first met, or how did he manage to survive, killing all these creatures and disarming all these traps?! The last time we had seen each other, he had NO class, at least according to my Identify skill. So HOW? Yue whispers to nobody.

Following the destruction and disabled trap path, she soon reached another staircase and a similar scenario on the fourth floor. Upon entering the fifth level, a cool and steady breeze hit her. She found herself in a vast meadow with scattered trees in the distance from time to time, while a stone path led to a well in the middle and a stone house behind it. She just stood there and watched as a small white creature chased after a yellow floating ball. At that moment, a tall, slightly bearded man with a tied white, nearly translucent, ponytail stepped out of the house and shouted something indistinctly in the direction of the white creature, then laughed loudly.

Holy gods... is this... gigantic man... Avan? Yue mumbled, confused and slowly, to herself.