11
It took him nearly ten days to reach the dungeon. As he circled the area, the red arrow moved quickly and kept itself hovering above the large, rocky cave entrance covered with moss and trees. He might have overlooked it if not for the arrow. This ‘gaming’ power was proving to be truly wonderful.
Kek took a step toward the large opening of the cavern. It wasn't the first time he'd been in a cavern entrance, but it was certainly the largest one he'd seen. It was disorienting, because it seemed so much larger from the inside after being hidden from view on the outside.
It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness within after being out in the daylight. The area inside the cavern was dank, and the walls looked slick and slimy.
He went in farther and kept telling himself that Hendrik had faith in him, so he should have faith in himself. He saw lights up ahead. He moved closer to the wall, being careful not to touch it and crept along as quietly as possible, listening for the sounds of voices or footsteps. There were none, and then he noticed that the lights were not flickering like fire did, and they were also only shining on the wall to his right.
He approached a bend, turning the corner carefully. The light source was coming from a group of mushrooms. They glowed blue and yellow and green. The sight of such a lovely thing contrasted with the dank darkness made him feel a little safer.
Kek sniffed the air, and he was certain there were no humans or kobolds there, confident that he could pick up the scent of any other dangerous enemies.
Maybe this wasn't going to be as difficult as he thought. He only needed to go down perhaps one or two levels of this dungeon. He might not even need to leave the cavern area. So, with his knife in his hand, he continued walking. The mushrooms were scattered along the rocky floor of the cave, while some grew from little nooks in the walls where there were nutrients to feed from.
He had assumed this place would be full of death and despair with nothing living and growing, but now he supposed even dungeon minions and monsters needed to live in a place that allowed for natural life. It was strangely humbling and made him feel like his fellow kobolds might not be the demons the humans made them out to be. Maybe they would be like him. Yes, that had to be how it was, otherwise Hendrik would not have bothered trying to get him to save them all, right?
As he moved deeper down the cave, the path began to steadily decline. He wasn’t far underground, but a steady, albeit very slight, drop in temperature confirmed what he thought. The lights of the mushrooms were gradually dimming. He thought that maybe they only grew on the surface area.
As the light from the mushrooms faded, he realized he had not even brought so much as a candle, let alone a lantern or torch. He brought the palm of his hand up to his face and slapped himself on the forehead. Facepalm. He thought that was quite clever and decided he would have to remember that for the next time he saw somebody do the action.
But right now, the more important thing was getting a source of light, and these mushrooms seemed to be placed there most with the divine purpose, assuming he could utilize them. Kek walked up to one of the smaller mushrooms, just big enough for him to fit in one hand. He stooped down beside it and sniffed the area around it to see if he could detect any poisons or toxic substances. Being a druid’s assistant was useful for becoming familiar with things that could kill you. After it passed the sniff test, he very carefully stuck out his tongue and barely scraped along the cusp of its circumference to get just a few molecules of mushroom onto his taste buds. That was all he needed, and after rolling the molecules around his tongue in his mouth and letting his taste buds pick them up, he decided this plant was safe to touch and carry.
They were extremely bitter, though, which meant he shouldn’t eat one. No doubt whatever made them glow made them an unfavorable source of food. As it was, he still had some perfectly roasted porcupine meat wrapped in a large leaf in his leather backpack. Kek dug his fingers under the mushroom and carefully lifted it up out of the—he had expected there to be soil, but there wasn't—viscous liquid in a crevice in the rock. Kek thought it interesting that the mushrooms didn’t grow in soil. Although, he supposed if they could grow on the sides of trees, then they could probably grow just about anywhere.
And he was delighted to find that as he picked it up and removed it from the ground, it continued to glow just as strongly as it had before. He held it out by its stump as though it were a torch and happily used it to light up the area around him as he swung to and fro.
"Careful with that" came a voice from the darkness. It was a tiny voice, high-pitched but not at all shrill. It might have sounded incredibly sweet if not for a layer of rasp.
Kek immediately threw the mushroom away from him and backed away to the darkest area around him, grabbing his knife quickly with his right hand, ready to defend himself.
"Who—" Dammit! Had started to ask who was there before realizing that the whole point of hiding in the shadows and throwing away his light was to remain hidden. He had been in the company of careless and loudmouthed humans for his whole life and consequently lost most of his natural cunning, something which his fellow kobolds would have in spades.
12
“I'm not going to hurt you,” said the voice. “I just wanted to warn you not to get that mushroom near your eyes.” Something moved around, but it wasn't on the floor. It came from on the wall, or perhaps near the ceiling. The voice had strangely fluctuated as though a strong breeze were buffeting the sound waves about.
“I don't want any trouble. If you don't mean me any harm, then please leave me alone. I was just going to use the mushroom as a torch because, well…” Kek was too embarrassed to finish explaining.
“Did you really come to this place without source of light? I find that hard to believe, but I wonder if you'd explain why. Also, please tell me why you're here.”
It didn't seem to be any malice in the voice. It was so slight and small that Kek was having trouble deciphering whether it came from a male or female creature. After a brief bout of dark in silence, the tiny voice spoke again.
“What? Does a cat have your tongue?” said the tiny voice, letting out a tiny laugh. “What? You don't get it? Because kobolds are very similar to dogs and those are considered the polar opposite of cats. Hmm, I guess you're not much in the mood for laughter at the moment, given that you seem to be willing to come down to this place without even bringing a torch—or maybe even an entire army to back you up. Like those blasted humans who came down here some years back.”
“Were they mercenaries?” asked Kek, suddenly realizing that this creature might be able to help him if it didn't mean him any harm. “Did they take anyone from the dungeon with them?”
“Why yes, I recall them taking quite a lot of loot, and also meat in the form of a creature they killed. And I'm sure you know what else they took, since it was you, I'm assuming.” This creature sounded like a young child, yet they were old enough to remember this happening.
Kek knew this creature might be a lot wiser than him, although he couldn't see any of its statistics in such darkness. “The other kobolds are still here?” asked Kek. He wanted to find out as much as possible. while giving up as little information as possible. If the dungeon lord were to find out he was there and that he had come to steal away his minions—this simple little excursion to the surface levels of the dungeon could prove to become quite the ordeal.
“I assume somebody told you they used to live around here,” said the creature from the darkness.
Kek swore he could feel slight breeze moving around, which he now believed was caused by wings. He still had his knife out in front of him. "Where are they now? Are they still alive?"
“I'm sorry to tell you that many of the kobolds who were in your kin group lost their lives during the mercenary raid on this dungeon. I hope you are already aware of that and that you didn't come looking for your mom and dad.”
“Yes, I'm aware of that. Thank you for telling me all the
same. I wish I knew if I could trust you,” he said.
With a small laugh again, the creature responded. Believe me, I understand exactly what you mean. You are far from the first creature who's come down into these caverns looking for something. And you can guess how many of them have good intentions. You'll excuse me if I don't entirely believe you either.”
“Why would I lie? What could I possibly gain from coming down here with far too little equipment? I just want my people to be free, I want to be with them and be free too, together with my own kind.” Kek tried to stop himself from becoming too impassioned, but it was difficult. Something about this creature made him feel quite comfortable with sharing his feelings.
“Well,” said the creature, “I do want to believe you, but you'll understand that I have to play it safe.”
“Oh, don't be a meanie,” came another voice from somewhere nearby.
There was another one of those creatures, which meant that there could be any number of them. Kek began backing away slowly and preparing himself to fight or flee if a mob of unseen creatures rushed him in the darkness. The fact that they were small meant nothing to him because he knew just how deadly small creatures could be.
Then another voice spoke. The second one had sounded more female compared to the first, but this third voice sounded deeper and possibly a lot older. “Let him take a test, a little side quest of his own. Perhaps he can be the one to finally deal with the horrid thing that torments us.”
“Are you sure?” asked the first voice. There was a period of brief silence. Wing flutter was so apparent now that Kek felt stupid for not realizing he was surrounded from the very beginning. These things must have been tiny to be able to hide in plain sight like that, especially from a kobold.
The first creature began to speak again. “Kobold, are you willing to help us? I think you can already guess that it might be very dangerous, but you seem like you should have a fairly good chance of surviving.”
That didn't exactly feel him with enthusiasm. But did he have any alternative? He needed to find out where is people were before going to get them. Besides, getting these creatures on his side might prove diplomatic and useful. “What are you?” he asked. “If I'm going to help you, I would at least like to know who I'm dealing with.” Something came in to his field of vision as it moved toward one of the large mushrooms perhaps ten feet from him. It fluttered down like a little hummingbird. Or, more accurately, it was like a very large hummingbird.
“A fairy,” Kek said with amazement. He had only heard about them in legends. Up until this moment, he had doubted that they existed. But this didn't look like the kind of fairies he had seen in some of Hendrik’s books. Those were simple illustrations that made them seem childlike and dainty. These creatures looked more like they could be related to goblins, or like the half-breed of a normal fairy and a goblin.
“Well, we are fairies. More accurately, however, we are muck fairies. Hence why we prefer to live in nature instead of tra-la-la-ing around in rainbows and star drops and shit like that.”
Somewhat taken aback, because he had honestly never thought he would ever meet a fairy, let alone hear one curse. Kek shut his mouth, which had been hanging open in amazement. It was like he had gone from the real world and was now entering a strange dream.
The fairy continued, “Anyway, if you want to help us, I think it's in all of our best interests if you get started immediately. Otherwise, I suppose you should be on your way before somebody else finds out you're here. No, don't worry, we are not going to tell that fucking tyrant of a dungeon lord a single thing.”
“And not his stupid minions either,” said one of the voices from the surrounding area. All the other muck fairies had remained hidden.
“Did you say side quest before? Well, I mean somebody said it. Who told you a term like that?” asked Kek.
“Don't you know fairies are magical? We can tell that you've done something to gain a very unique power. It doesn't seem particularly potent on first inspection, but in the right hands and with someone who is smart enough to know how to use it, we’re competent you will be quite effective. Let me explain.”
The fairy told Kek how he could be given quests, or they would just appear when he was confronted with things that must be done.
“Okay,” Kek said. “I think I'm ready to do this. Oh, one more thing. What is this monster of yours?”
“Here, I'll give you the side quests now. Remember, fairy magic, you know?” And just like that another arrow popped up, and this one led him deeper into the cavern. It was green instead of red.
“Well, what kind of monster is it?” asked Kek again.
13
“A Slime,” said the fairy.
“What?”
"A slime!” shouted the fairy. For such a dainty creature, he sure had a way of commanding respect by the way he held. He stood up straight and tall as he hovered there in the air with a graceful easiness that was hard to believe. His wings were almost invisible for the speed that they fluttered. "Surely you know what a slime is."
"Of course, I know what a slime is." Kek had heard tales from the mercenaries, when they’d sit by the fire at night at drunkenly talk. But he knew almost nothing about them. “Are there more of them living here?”
“Not that I know of. This one just moved in here from the jungle, and it's been making our life hell for the past few months. And don't worry, this certainly isn't the type of slime you have seen in your little children's books and fairy tales. This is a variation we had never heard of before, big too. I think it's some sort of mutant. I suppose that's why the dungeon lord hasn't had anybody take care of it yet. He's probably waiting to see if it proves powerful enough to be useful. If it is, he can try to get it to reproduce. You had better watch out for this thing. It might just look like a big slime, but it has a few tricks up its, uh, sleeves.”
“So, it’s a giant slime,” said Kek in a very unimpressed manner. “Can you give me any tips about how I can beat it?”
“I gave you the subquest,” answered the muck fairy with impatience in his voice. “Oh, you don't understand what that implies. When I gave you the subquest, I gave you the information you would need about this thing. Just remember that I don't know everything, so there might be some facts that are left out. Watch yourself if you want to stay alive long enough to help your people.”
And with that, Kek left the fairies and headed toward the green arrow down into the darker depths of the cavern. As it became cooler while he walked, he felt relieved to be out of the stifling dankness of the jungle. He walked for what he guessed was maybe ten more minutes and nothing else showed itself to him. The mushrooms became sparser, so he picked several more of the hand sized ones and put them in his backpack for later. He still held one in his hand and was using it to light his way. It only gave a moderate glow that stop him from tripping or walking directly into anything, and the light did not go much farther than ten feet before it disappeared quickly.
The green arrow shifted away from the direct path leading down, and he came to an intersection. This is when he realized there were different pathways going through this large passageway. There had probably been some of them back the way he'd come. He hoped this would not end up being a maze-like structure underneath the ground. He veered to the side and walked down the corridor where the green arrow pointed. There were almost no mushrooms here, and the ones that were there were tiny and gave off almost no light. He held his with his left hand and held his knife out in front of him with the right. He got ready to stab at anything that might try to reach for him from the darkness.
Then Kek saw information appear about his side quest:
This is an unknown variant of the common slime—possibly a mutant. It might have been created with a spell, or perhaps it is a natural abomination. That might explain why it's here all by itself instead of with other slimes. Where a regular slime will try to latch onto its victims, this one can produce tendrils of its own body that shoo
t out like limbs and can stretch as much is ten feet. It can also turn the front of his body into a giant maw and quickly engulf an entire creature if they are small enough. It has consumed things like goblins, snakes, and lizards… and of course kobolds.
Kek was sure the inclusion of his own species was dark humor on the part of the muck fairy, but he didn’t find it very amusing. As he walked down the corridor, it seemed like he was going to hit a dead end at any moment or have the ground fall out beneath him into a pit. Maybe this had all been a trap and that muck fairies were just trying to do away with him so that he would not be any danger to them.
Then he heard the sound: slopping, like a bucket of pig lard being thrown over a pack of ravenous dogs. It was disgusting, and it made Kek's stomach churn, even though he had been living off nothing but strange jungle creatures, insects, and snakes for the last few days.
And then he realized that he didn't have a plan of how to deal with this thing. All he had was a knife, and that would not do much against the slime. He knew they had a weak spot inside them, a large viscous sac that held almost all of its organs rolled up into one disgusting ball that was surrounded by the weird slime that made up its larger body. Destroying that in a regular-sized slime was meant to be easy, even for a kobold or other small creature if they had any idea how to handle themselves at all.
He would just have to have faith in himself and rely on his high dexterity. He crouched down so that he could edge along without making as much noise. His knees absorbed some of the vibrations from his legs and feet pounding on the stone floor. He used his hearing to guide him as he moved closer. If the thing was eating, this would be the best time to catch it unawares.
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