These are the first humanoid creatures I’ve seen in this place. It's a party consisting of three people, with different races, hence the ‘humanoid’ part.

The first one that I see was an elven sword wielder, with grey plate armour and a tower shield, both with the same grey colour as his armour. He - I’m pretty sure it is a he - has short black hair, with bluish-grey eyes.

The second one - a beast-kin? Beast-human? I don’t know how they are called here, is an archer, seeing that she has a bow and all. She was clad in a grey leather armour, with small metal plates offering protection in the vital points. She has medium length golden hair and fur, two lion-like ears on her head with a lion-like tail at her rear, and amber eyes, with golden Flecks.

The last one is a regular human, from what [Memories] can tell me. She is holding a staff in her hands, with a shimmering black crystal at the top, wearing leather armour, seemingly lighter than the archer’s, hidden under a brown mage robe - hooded, and with cloth that goes to her knees - and black leather boots She has long reddish-brown hair, braided in a ponytail, with dark blue eyes.

They were fighting against the beast, and they won. Now, I can only see the beast falling towards the ground, its lifeless body bleeding and missing parts.

These guys are strong. Is this what all humanoids are like?

I observe them with more attention. They approach the fallen beast, with some strange device on the archer’s hands, and it shines.

“Eroc a sah ti!" (It has a core!) She exclaims in a language that I, and [Memories], don’t recognize. Figures. A new world tends to have new and different languages, or so [Memories] tell me.

The archer picks a knife from a belt on her armour and starts stabbing the beast, close to -what I presume is- its heart. She cuts, stabs, and shreds the organ, and when she finishes, a big brown crystal falls off from the heart, shaking the land when it falls.

Wow, it’s huge! I wonder what that is. And… Do I have one too? After all, I’m a beast too.

The archer calls the mage. She indicates the core to the mage, she nods and starts to make some gestures. Magic? It seems so, seeing how strange specks lights are converging on her hands. They reach a breaking point, after only some seconds, and the core disappears, without any warning. Huh? What was that?!

The mage says something to the archer, then she nods and talks to the tanker, and they start to walk again, towards some place. Huh, odd. Why are they here? It's not for that beast only, is it?

I decide to follow them. I’m really curious now. I’ll need to be stealthy, however. I don’t know how they would react to me, so I need to be careful.

I follow them through the forest. Stealthy as I can. They walk for a long time, I think? Towards something that I’m sure I saw before. That temple, from before. I had planned to go back here when I had time. I watch them entering the place, walking through mossy stone bricks, fallen pillars and shining sunlight.

Do I follow them? This place seems special, somehow, but I can’t put it into words. They enter an entrance to the underground that is on the place, only a black void indicating what is beyond. Do I follow them? Yes, I think I should.

I hop towards the staircase and enter the dark void.

…

-

Entering...

[Dungeon: Anemoi’s Curse]

-

A message greets my vision.

Huh? Dungeon? I look around. The place I'm in now is very different from the outside, as it looks pristine, the opposite of how the outside looked. It looks like the temple got restored to its peak condition, compared to the ruins outside. I get nervous. I’ve never heard of a dungeon before! [Memories] only has a basic outline of what they are supposed to be, a place of risk and rewards. Only that.

I look for the party, but they don’t seem to be anywhere near me. Huh? How? They went inside only a few moments after me! I look around frantically. Now, where do I go? I was planning on following them, but now…

I look more closely at the place I’m in, it's a corridor, with only one way, forwards. Sigh, forwards then. I start to hop towards the unknown.

It's a rather calm place, the corridor. It's clean, with shining walls and floor seemingly made of grey marble, with some… Lamps? Lights on corners of the ceiling.

I reach a room. It has a blue orb on a pedestal at its centre, with 3 different corridors behind the pedestal. I think, stopping for a bit. What do I do here? Should I just choose a path? Or approach the orb?

I decide to approach the orb first, a way can be chosen after it. I get near it, and a screen appears on my vision.

-

Choose one of the 3 ways, and a path shall be revealed

-

This… a riddle? A challenge? Doesn’t look like it. So, I only need to choose a path then? Easy enough. I choose the middle path, for no reason. No clue what I was supposed to choose, I start to hop again, through the grey corridor.

This corridor has a similar design to the one I came from, grey and cold, with blue lights on the ceiling. It feels… comforting, in a way. It's calm, no sounds other than my own. Quiet. I rather like it, to be honest…

...

I reach the end of the corridor. Already? I’ve only been in this for, what, some minutes? Or more? Oh well. There is a gate in here, at the very end of the corridor. It is the same colour as its surroundings, grey, with the only thing differentiating it from the walls being the strange marks on the gate and its handles. A grey gate, cold as everything that came before.

I open the gate, extending my flames to form a hand made from the element and push the door open, quite easily. I’ve learned some things from my time in the forest, and this is only one of them.

I enter the room that was revealed after opening the gate and frown at the sight. I find myself in a completely grey room, like all that came before, with chandeliers shining with weak blue lights, hanging from the ceiling. Other than that, the room looks pretty barren. Three strange figures stand in the middle of the room, lifelessly looking at nothing. What are they? I make my way to them, to try to see more of these figures, when they suddenly turn their… heads... towards me.

I open my eyes wide, looking at the soulless eyes of the monsters. They don’t have mouths, noses, nor any of the usual features on a face, only eyes. They look at me, and silently start to run towards me.

Wha- What the hell?! I stare at them with wide eyes, and without a thought, my flames start to get ready. I compose myself quickly, the warmth soothing me. Ok, no panicking. I start to move and order my flames to get hotter. Time to show these monsters that I’m not prey!

I approach the beasts, and [Charge], ordering my flames to form a drill-like shape at my front. One of the monsters runs straight up into it, and gets impaled by my fire, getting burnt as well. Quite badly, I might add. It cries and struggles, and eventually frees itself.

I focus on the other two that are now circling me. They saw what happened, and are cautious now. I discovered an interesting property of my flames, these past days. I can make it solid, or as solid as fire can be, which gives me skills so that I can control its shape, and… Throw it!

I throw arrow-shaped fire towards the monsters, and they dodge it, mostly. Some scratches and burns here and there are only what I see. Tch, let's see this then!

I force my flames into the ground, scorching the ground and creating a hellish landscape. The floor is covered in my star coloured flames, the monster burning, and moving. I focus on the one most close to me, and [Charge] at it, using the same strategy as before.

I hit, and the monster is pierced from the front to its back. I know that I killed it, seeing that I received experience, and probably reached the level cap for now. That was.. way too quick. But I don’t have much time to think more about it, there are still the other two.

I turn my head towards them, still alert that they are going to attack me, and stop after seeing the odd scene before me. They are on the ground, struggling, writhing, their eyes wide but with the same soulless gaze as before. They are taking damage from my flames, way too much damage, but not enough to kill them.

I decide to kill them the same way as the other, and as I do so, they lunge at me. Still alert, and slightly panicking, I make a spear-shaped flame and throw it at them, instantly killing them.

I look around and retract all of my flames to myself again. The ground is scorched and burnt, the only evidence of the battle, the bodies turning into ashes. Whew.. I used a lot of mana to this, it seems. I’m quite sleepy now, though… but I can’t stop, I’m in the middle of a dungeon, and [Memories] tell me I need to be alert every time here, for some reason. Dangers, I’d guess?

I look around at the room, searching for another way, a corridor, or something. But I see nothing, only the gate I came from is here… Wrong way then? Well, nothing much to do then.

I walk to the gate again, taking the way back through the cold and grey corridors.

...

The orb changed after coming back. It now shows a simple map of the three corridors behind it, with the middle one, the one I went to, having a huge ‘X’ on it, with the same message as before still there on the top. Another way, then. I look at the other corridors, left and right. Both have the same appearance from before, grey in colour, but the right way seems a little more… lighter? While the right one is a bit darker.

Hmm… Right or left, lighter or darker… I feel that the right side would be better. No real reason, only feelings.

I enter it, walking through a similar grey corridor, but it changes quickly after some time. Its walls, ceiling and floor turn into a marble white colour, with lanterns with soft white lights, while the feeling of the corridor changed, no longer cold but rather a gentle warmth.

This is rather nice… I hop through the corridors without thinking much. I finally reach the end of it, however. The warmth that I got used to disappearing, and the now unfamiliar cold substituting it. I blink. This was rather quick… anyway, the gate. It is completely white, covered in maks and ineligible inscriptions, other than that, it is the same as the other one.

Creating another hand of flames, I open and enter it. I analyze the room I find myself in now, it is different from the last one, with actual furniture being present on this one. Chandeliers with white lights at the ceiling, a huge carpet covered the entire floor, with random wardrobes, tables, chairs and more above it. In the middle of the room, like the one before, are three translucent humanoid figures floating through the room; one levitating in the middle, motionless, the others are aimlessly levitating around the room.

Ghosts? Or something similar to it, anyway? Seems so… I guess my flames can kill them easily, as they are incorporeal monsters. I spread my flames through the ground, burning the carpet, and everything else in the room. The beings notice it, and after some seconds, they see me.

I don’t give much time to them, however, and create hands of fire below them. They try to dodge it, but I don’t give them the chance, and pin them down on the scorching ground. Ghostly wails, and unnatural screams, are the sounds that they make while they die. I kill all of them in seconds, much easier than the last battle.

This was easy… again, I don’t put much thought into it, not something to consider now, after all.

I look through the room and don't find anything, no loot nor a way other than the one I came from. Huh, strange. The other way then. I turn and make my way again towards the orb.

I walk through the corridor and think. I have a lot of notifications, don't I? And an evolution as well… I don't think I should evolve now, though, there are some things I want to do first before that. I'll look through them once I get nearer to the orb, I'm a bit tired, after all.

I eventually reach the room with the orb, with its interface having changed again, now with an 'X' mark on the right corridor.

Yawn, quite tired… I look for a place to rest and decide on the pedestal that the orb is on. Under the orb, of course, it is far more comfortable there.

I lay down and look through my notifications. Many of them.

-

[Mana Manipulation V] upgraded!

[Dodge V] upgraded!

[Charge V] upgraded!

[Bash V upgraded!]

[Stealth III] upgraded!

[Meditation V] upgraded!

[Pain Resistance III] upgraded!

[Danger Sense V] learned!

[Mana Control IV] learned!

[Mana Shaping IV] learned!

[Mana Efficiency II] leaned!

-

Many skills… and some of them reached the ‘V’ mark. Mana manipulation isn’t upgrading more either, I noticed that a few days ago… A cap, it seems.

I look at my full status, taking mental notes on what changed and what hadn't.

-

Status:

Name:

Race: [Starlit Infant Phoenix]

Level: 10[I](+)

Stats:

Strength: 6

Agility: 11

Recovery: 21

Mind:13

Will: 9

Soul: 12

Stat points: 14

Skills: [Dodge V], [Charge V], [Bash V], [Poison Resistance I], [Stealth III], [Meditation V], [Mana Resistance I], [Pain Resistance III], [Mana Manipulation V], [Danger Sense V], [Mana Control IV], [Mana Shaping IV], [Mana Efficiency II]

Abilities: [Phoenix Heart], [Starlit Flames], [Lesser Elemental], [Emotional Telepathy], [Memories]

-

I think I can still upgrade more skills, before evolving. At least the mana ones, for now? I have a feeling that they will be important.

I yawn. I did so many things today… or is it tomorrow already? Time here seems to pass differently… Anyways, sleep sounds good for now.

I make myself more comfortable and rest, going into the land of dreams.