Octavius knelt on the wet dirt of the riverbank and plunged his hands into the crystalline water. He brought up his hands and splashed water into his face. He blinked from the feel of the cold water and ran his fingers through his hair. Over the past few weeks, his hair had gone from military standard to just long enough to begin to interfere with his vision. He watched his reflection in the calm water of the pool of water and brought a pair of scissors up to his head. He wouldn’t be able to give himself a full haircut, but he could make sure it wouldn’t interfere with his vision. He had pilfered the scissors from his trauma kit and was glad he wouldn’t have to cut his hair with his multitool. He brought the scissors across his bangs and cut.

After finishing, he splashed himself again and looked at his reflection. His beard had grown to maybe a half-inch, and he was starting to like it. He had always thought of himself as decent looking but not handsome. His best qualities were his green eyes and physique from training for hours and hours every day. He had never grown a beard before and decided that he enjoyed the look of it.

He quickly shook himself from his thoughts and looked over the area. He was kneeling on the bank of a calm pool of water that came off a fast-moving river. The water was cool and clean, flowing from the hills he could barely make out in the distance. Vibrant green foliage lined the river, and the morning sun sparkled on the water’s surface.

The river was fast-moving and quite a ways across. Now he had to make a decision. Should he find a way to cross the river, or should he travel parallel to it? He preferred to travel in a straight line; that way, he could easily retrace his steps, but he didn’t want to attempt a risky river crossing. He looked over his status, a habit he had gotten into doing every morning, along with checking the status of the tutorial.

Name

Octavius J. Asher

Race

Human (F)

Level

9 - 11373/40000

Class

None

Titles

Forerunner

Health

500/500

Stamina

600/600

Mana

300/300

Strength

35

Dexterity

37

Agility

33

Constitution

30

Vitality

25

Perception

21

Intelligence

15

Wisdom

19

Will

31

Free Points

0

Status Effects

Skills

Identify (Lvl 11) - Discover information about a being or object. The amount of information is dependent on skill level and the object the skill is used on.

Speech (MAX) - You can speak all common humanoid languages.

It took a significant amount of EXP to level up to level 10, and he had trouble finding creatures at level 14 or above. He noticed that if a beast was five or more levels above him, it doubled the EXP he gained. The problem was that he couldn’t find any. He was hoping to find some across the river. If he could not end up finding any, it would take him another two weeks at his current rate. He had found a good number of level 13 beasts but only one level 14 beast over the past few days since he set off. He then pulled up the status of the tutorial.

Tutorial Status

Survivors : 7018/10000

Time Remaining : 71:03:11:57

It seemed that the rate of people dying had slowed down considerably, and he was thankful for that. He wondered if the Sanctuary he heard about had anything to do with it, or if it was merely a function of the fact that anyone left alive knew how to survive, or they would’ve already died.

He stood and fetched the green camo shirt that hung drying from a branch behind him. He glanced at the scars on his shoulder from the wolf before pulling it over his head. He walked over to his plate carrier and rucksack, carefully putting them on. He moved over to the smoldering fire that he had cooked his breakfast over and began to kick dirt over it to put it out.

He refilled his water bladder before lifting his spear and setting off to the north. He had decided to walk down the river to try to find a ford.

He found it peaceful to walk along the river. It was a comfortable temperature, and the sun shone from the east. The branches of trees swayed on his left in the gentle wind. He smiled slightly and began to sing softly to himself as he broke into a light jog.

“Hi ho, lock and load

The engines are running we’re ready to go

To kill the enemy, take control

So early in the morning

M-1s on the hill

The tank commander is ready to kill

He gives the order “fire at will”

So early in the morning

Bradleys are moving slow

You see him stop and raise the TOW

To hit them with that fatal blow

So early in the morning

Apaches fill the sky

The F-16s go zooming by

The enemy is about to die

So early in the morning

Sniper on the ground

He’s moving in without a sound

He locks and loads a single round

So early in the morning

Tracers flying overhead

While the cooks are in their beds

But they don’t know they’ll soon be dead

So early in the morning” *

As the song ended and he was about to start up a new running cadence, he saw some spray coming from the water in the distance. The river was fast flowing, but it was unobstructed and thus didn’t form waves. The only reason for there to be any spray would be an obstruction.

He moved closer and saw that on his side of the river was a series of rocks peeking out from above the surface. They were in such a formation that he guessed they were the eroded remains of a natural outcropping. He carefully waded into the water to his thighs before coming to the first boulder. He shifted his spear to his right hand and got behind the sheltered side of the boulder.

He looked along the river and judged the distances involved. He had some water training, but he wasn’t a SEAL. He was in the Army. Even beyond that, he had gone to freefall school instead of scuba when given a chance. From his limited experience, he guessed that he could make it from the edge of the calmer waters behind the boulders to the opposite bank, even with his rucksack. His problem was his spear.

He considered the problem for a moment before removing the paracord that held the spear together, then used a rock as a hammer to knock the knife blade free. He rewrapped the knife’s handle and sheathed it on his plate carrier. He then removed most of his paracord and a carabiner from his rucksack before checking to ensure everything on his person was secure. He went over everything, from his pockets to the pouches on his belt. Once he was satisfied, he tied the paracord around a sturdy tree. He then clipped the paracord to the carabiner he attached to his belt.

He moved back through the water to the edge of the cover provided by the boulders. He guessed he had about three times the length in paracord as the distance across the river. That meant that he would have to either swim against the current and risk getting tired, or swim as quickly as he could straight across and risk running out of line and getting slammed back into the riverbank.

He decided for the slow and steady approach and dunked his head. After psyching himself up, he dove into the water and began to swim. He made slow progress but was able to keep himself even with his starting point.

By the time he was halfway across, even his extreme stamina had begun to drop to levels where he had regained the fatigued status effect. He continued until he was three-quarters of the way when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A large tree limb, a dozen feet long and covered with branches pointing out in all directions. His eyes widened as he watched the green and brown blur race towards him.

No, no, no! He screamed in his mind as he began to swim backward, trying to get past it so that it would miss his safety line. He made it twenty feet when he realized that he wouldn’t make it. He stopped and reached for his knife. He needed to cut himself free.

The moment he stopped paddling, he was pulled under. He was unprepared for the lack of oxygen and quickly breached the surface, taking a deep breath and going for his knife again. His hands desperately scrambled along with his chest harness for it. His fingers closed around the handle when he was violently jerked backward. He grunted, losing a bit of air before clamping his jaw shut.

He was pulled through the water backward until he felt the pull instantly change directions. He had lost his frame of reference for directions and could only focus on holding his breath as he swam for the surface as hard as he could. The paracord held him and the tree branch against the current for a long second before it snapped, and the current retook him.

Now he was being pulled by the tree branch. His chest burned as he got a hold of himself. He calmly reached for his knife, this time drawing it in a smooth motion, before reaching behind himself and swiping at the paracord. As soon as he felt the knife make contact, he sawed the blade back and forth for a moment before the force pulling him released.

He slammed the knife home into his chest harness and tried to figure out which direction was up. He was deep enough that it took him a moment to discover which direction the light was coming from. His vision began to turn black around the edges as he kicked upwards. He moved with the current, trying to get to the surface as fast as he could. His head began to get fuzzy, but he kept going. Rangers never quit! he screamed at himself in his mind.

At that moment, he broke the surface. His lungs burned as he greedily gulped down air. The current carried him downstream as he fought to remain above water. He looked around and found himself to be about in the middle of the stream. He began to swim to the left, this time swimming with the current. He was far enough from his starting point that it wasn’t worth risking running out of stamina to stay in a straight line.

He swam, his hands passing overhead with every stroke. After a few minutes, his arms burned, but he could see the rocky floor under the water. He continued for another dozen feet before standing. He let out a breath in relief and started to wade forward. He made it three steps before he slipped on the algae cover stones. He inhaled as he fell and moved to recover.

As he pushed against the stone ground, he felt the undertow grab onto him and pull him back out into the river. He was really beginning to regret trying to cross the damned river. It seemed like everything was going wrong.

He followed his training and swam with the undertow, knowing that it would be useless to fight it. The water carried him deeper and deeper, and he began to worry. This wasn’t how undertows usually worked. Normally, they were parallel to the surface, and he knew how to escape that. In this case, however, the water was rushing downwards. He swam harder, but it was no use.

His best guess was that there was an underwater cave that part of the river flowed through. A moment later, he was proven correct as the light was cut out. The water pulled him forward, and he hoped that there was a pocket of air coming up.

Suddenly, the water around him was illuminated from above. He swam as fast as he could upwards. He broke the surface and inhaled, coughed, and inhaled again. He looked around and found that the light was not tinted blue from the water but came from a glowing blue moss. There was a ledge a few feet to his right that if he could get to, he could catch his breath. He quickly paddled over and hauled himself up the slick stones.

He rolled over a few times so that he was a few feet from the water and got to his hands and knee. The sounds of coughs and dry heaves echoed through the cave. His arms shook from the effort it took even to survive the disastrous attempt to cross the river.

After a few moments, he looked around. The blue bioluminescent moss covered the far wall and ceiling, with patches around the whole cave. He used identify on it.

Lotheam (Common) - This moss glows a soft blue and grows in dark, wet environments.

After discovering nothing new from the window, he walked unsteadily over to a patch of the moss. Tearing a piece from the wall, he watched in disappointment as the light from it faded at a visible rate; it wouldn't make a very good portable light source.

As rested against the solid wall of the cavern for nearly a quarter-hour, he looked for an exit that didn’t involve the water. He noticed an offshoot of the cave behind him, hidden in the shadows cast by the moss.

Once he had refilled his water bladder and deemed himself as having rested enough, he stood and walked over towards it. His first few steps were unsteady but grew more confident quickly.

He walked into the smaller cave. It was a half dozen feet across, with the roof a couple of yards above. Stalactites hung from the ceiling and dripped water onto him from above. The ground was bowed inward, forming a gentle channel within which a trickle of water flowed towards the rushing river.

The lotheam illuminated his path as he followed the cave, feeling relief when it started to slope upwards. The cave twisted and turned in wide arcs as he walked for two miles before the cave changed significantly.

In front of Octavius, the cave opened into a wider cavern. The ceiling rose ten yards above him, and the walls gradually spread to the same distance across before the cavern ended abruptly with a wall. What truly caught Octavius’s attention was the massive two-story-tall statue that was embedded into the far wall.

His jaw dropped open slightly as he inspected the piece of art. It was in the form of an armored warrior holding a double-sided axe. The axe in the statue’s hands was upside down with the top of the blade against the ground. An expertly carved braided beard ran from under the figure’s helmet. If Octavius had to describe the figure, he would say it looked like a dwarf from a Tolkien book.

He approached the statue in awe. It was the most magnificent piece of art that he had ever laid eye upon. Each individual hair of the dwarf’s beard looked to be carved with precision, the armor appeared to have dents from combat of some sort, and even while pitted and eroded, the knot pattern carved into the axehead was beautiful. He ran his fingers down the stone of the axe and moved to view the statue from the side.

As he walked to its side, he noticed a space behind the axe and under the statue’s arms. He walked into the space and saw a carving on the stone wall between the dwarf’s legs. It looked similar to an arched door in shape. After inspecting it for a moment, he reached out and pushed.

You have discovered The Lost Catacombs

An ancient race once interred their dead in a sacred cave from which their god was said to have molded them from clay and stone. It has been said that after it was abandoned by the ancient race, dark creatures took up residence in the caverns within.

Requirements:

-User is below Level 10 Complete

-User is not a member of a party Complete

-User has at least one (1) title Complete

Would you like to enter The Lost Catacombs? (Yes/No)

*The running cadence is called “Hi Ho, Lock and Load” and is a real cadence used in the US Army. I couldn’t find someone online to accredit it to. There are a dozen variations as well, so I assume that nobody recorded who wrote the original, and even if someone did, the song has changed so much that it is very different.