My special ability was coming in very handy as I snuck further into the first cave. It made it possible for me to explore the pitch-black area without giving away my position with a torch. So far the cave consisted of a corridor leading downward at a slight decline. I could see the walls and ceiling, but it was a large enough space that I couldn't touch them if I was standing in the middle. It was roughly a circular tube about twenty feet wide if I had to guess. I continued down for another hundred feet or so and it opened up into a large cavern.

I couldn't see the ceiling so I knew it was fairly expansive. It was also disconcerting as when I looked up there was only darkness. I decided to continue sneaking and work my way along the wall going clockwise to try and map out the area. I stopped to listen for any sound, but it was deathly quiet. I thought about giving up on being sneaky, but everything in me screamed to stay silent.

As I circumnavigated the cavern I pulled up my map every ten paces or so and zoomed in to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I made it all the way around and found myself back at the tunnel leading up and out. To my surprise, there were no passages leading out of this room beside the exit. I decided to make my way around again, but this time circle around moving towards the center of the room.

The closer I got to the center of the room the more my feet sunk into the earthen floor. It wasn't like regular mud, but it wasn't amazingly fun to walk in either. The whole cavern was at least two hundred feet across and the walls were starting to fade from view as I started my third circuit moving tighter into the center. I stepped on something hard and almost fell face-first into the mud as it shifted.

I warily felt the object with my shoe. It felt like a long stick of some sort. I reached down and touched it, bringing it into my inventory.

Iron Spear

Common Quality

This spear is crafted well enough for years of trusty service. It can be thrust or thrown reliably and is great for keeping your enemies at a distance.

I wondered if someone had dropped it while exploring this cave. I continued walking and had the spear out using it to poke around in front of me to avoid another near fall. After a few more steps I did feel something. I used the spear to nudge the object a little out of the mud until I saw a rounded area poking up that looked a little like the top of a skull. I reached down to touch it and realized it had the lootable outline. I selected it and a looting window popped up. Turns out it was a skull but it was attached to the rest of the skeleton. I quickly clicked loot all and let the skeleton return to the mud.

I guess the spear owner didn't just accidentally drop it. I felt a little bad and then reminded myself that this was like a game and this skeleton wasn't from a real person. I continued my circle around the room finding a few more items scattered here and there. Since none of it was over common quality I just put it away to look at later after I could clean it up a little.

On my next smaller loop towards the center, I found more skeletons. I was finding a good amount of common loot that I would definitely have to clean off. I finally made it to the center of the room and was more than a little freaked out about the number of skeletons in that mud. I decided to go straight for the exit to check in with Mr. Snuggles to see if there was any sign of the monster outside.

As I was walking I heard something crash down to the ground beside me. I looked and it was another skeleton this one looked to be an animal of some kind. I looked up and still couldn't see the ceiling, but something was up there. I quietly went back up the passage and got some fresh air outside of the cave. I started by telling Mae everything that happened.

"Mae, do you know what is in that cave?" I asked looking at the disgusting mud that was caked onto my pants and shoes.

"No," she said looking at my current state, "but I don't think that is mud."

I looked down, grabbed off a chunk of the mud-like substance, and added it to my inventory. I couldn't have been more horrified to read the description.

Bat Guano

Common Quality

Guano is often used as a fertilizer for growing crops. It is also highly flammable and can be used to start a campfire in a pinch.

"After I am done with these bats I am burning my outfit and washing everything I found in there. Good thing we were able to locate my original loot and I have a backup set of common clothes," I stated with the most disgusted look my face could muster. "At least we know our enemy now."

"I don't think these are just any bats, Teddy," she said matching my disgust, "Regular-sized bats don't eat human-sized meals and certainly couldn't pick one up and carry it to the cave ceiling."

"Giant bats?" I asked as surprise replaced disgust. It was then that I realized how glad I was I hadn't lit up a torch. I could've easily burned to death if I had accidentally lit that guano on fire. That gave me an idea and I got to work.

I had many good-sized lengths of wood in my inventory that wouldn't have worked for rebuilding a house but would work for my plan. I had plenty of scrap fabric and enough cordage for this plan but would need to stock up when I returned to town or found a trader. I lashed the scrap wood lengths together checking a few times that they would fit snuggly at the bottom of the tunnel where it opened up into the cavern. I also tied some of my spare junk daggers and arrows onto the wood for good measure.

It took me a few hours, but it was still early afternoon so I figured we had a little time yet until the bats would wake up. I went down to the end of the tunnel and started putting my plan into action. After about an hour of pulling pieces out, lashing them together in a grid pattern, and placing some of the small boulders around the bases to help hold the build in place.

I yanked on it in a few spots and it didn't budge. I was pretty proud of my work but I angled some wood on my side to brace it some more just in case. I placed the guano I still had in my inventory in a small pouch of fabric and tied it to the end of a junk arrow. I used a torch to light the pouch and quickly put the torch away and fired to arrow through an opening towards the center of the room. My inventory wasn't lying this crap was highly flammable. The fire quickly spread and soon the entire cavern was burning. As the smoke rose I heard a deafening screech. Soon there was a cacophony of screeches and the giant bat monsters began their escape attempt.

The first few died on impact when they flew into the weaponized grid of death. A few more tried crawling through the openings that were just big enough for them to squeeze through, but I was ready and practiced pulling my spear out of inventory and into monsters. The ones trying to squeeze through that were out of reach of my spear got a couple of arrows for their trouble and soon the monsters were trapped in the burning room with no ability to escape.

I went back up the tunnel as soon as the smoke started escaping along the top of the passage. I made it out into the fresh air before the smoke became an issue. I stood at the entrance to the cave with an arrow knocked ready to shoot anything that managed to escape before the fire or smoke inhalation could finish the task. I only ended up having to shoot one of the giant bats and Mr. Snuggles got one other as it tried to fly away.

After about 15 minutes of quiet, the quest updated to note that one of the caves had been cleared. We relocated a short distance away just in case anything noticed the smoke and set up camp. I started the campfire by burning my guano-covered set of clothes. As far as I was concerned they would never be clean enough to wear again. Found a good area where I could clean off all the equipment I had found in the cave and used the waterball spell to create clean water for rinsing.

The next morning we went back to the cave and I gathered as many arrows and junk quality weapons as I could without stepping in anything I would regret. Some of it was lost to the fire, but it was an acceptable outcome.

I was fairly pleased with my creative solution and that part of the quest was done so some more rewards were waiting back in town as well.

"Onto the next," I said as we were ready to move and it was still early in the morning. "We may be able to finish the rest of the caves today depending on what we have to deal with."

"If we see a stream or something on the way it may be a good idea to freshen up a bit more and I think it would be worth the extra travel time," Mae said in response.

"Are you trying to nicely say I stink still?" I asked her.

"I wasn't really trying to be all that nice, Teddy."