I take his torch, putting my crowbar down first. Dale steps toward the enemies, dagger held behind him. In a burst of speed he lunges forward swinging his weapon wide, slashing two enemies. At the end of his attack he raises the dagger above his head, plunging it into the neck of a third. They explode as one, showering him thoroughly. Tiene gasps as I look at my crowbar. There are still four copies, and they’re refocused on Dale now, moving towards him with intent. I hand a torch to Tiene, who glares at me. I shrug apologetically as I douse the last torch and pick up my crowbar.

“Duck!”

Dale kneels as a heavy, wet arm swings towards him. I meet it with the business end of my weapon, splashing the copies still advancing. In turn Dale stands up, raising his dagger in a crescent. The dagger bites deep, bursting the monster. Panting, we’re left shoulder to shoulder against the remaining three. We look at each other, and he grins.

“Keep attacking them. I’ll stand my ground and defend.”

He nods, stepping back. Each of the copies take the bait, attacking me. I pull off a two handed block against one of them, suffering two blows in return.

You have been struck for 18% damage.You have been struck for 20% damage.Skill discovered: Parry.

With their attention on me, Dale manages to lay into one of them. After that it was just a matter of cleaning up, leaving the three of us alone in the cave. I look at Dale who dries his dagger before putting it away. He looks back, an innocent look in his eyes.

“Coachman, eh?”

He chuckles.

“Coachman, farmer, highwayman, smuggler. You could call me many things. Right now, I think we have more important things to worry about.”

I glare at him for a moment. Showoff. Then I feel a smack at the back of my head.

“If you two are done posturing, we need to find the exit. Preferably before these things kill us.”

Stopping for a moment, I check my surroundings. Tiene tries to hurry me up, but I gesture for her to stay still. In the innermost part of the cavern I notice a subtle difference, something green.

“Keep an eye on the entrance. Whatever is out there may take offence at this.”

Moving closer, I see it’s the same kind of plant that I saw before. A green vine with a sack or pod with purple veins. This time I manage to inspect it.

Disciple-of-darknessRare(mutated)Known effects: none

Ooh, rare. I carefully harvest the plant, taking care not to puncture the sack. The moment I have it free from the wall, the vine left behind points towards me, spewing a purple mist into my face.

You have been afflicted by Dark Mephitis.Poison resistance failed.Resistance increased: Poison.

I cough twice and turn around to look at the others. Then the ground suddenly rises up, smacking me in the head.

***

“Is he waking up?”

Someone pinches me rather hard, making me groan.

“Yeah, he’s coming too. How are you doing with the creeps?”

I blink a few times as I find myself staring straight into a torch. The light is painful, but at least there’s plenty of darkness around us.

“It’s good so far. They’re slow and fragile. As long as I move I’ll be fine.”

A blinking icon draws my attention.

You are poisoned.Effects:- Aversion to light.- All regeneration reduced when not in complete darkness.- duration 30 minutes.- Notice: duration reset when not in natural light.

Tiene leans over me, a mixture of concern, relief and annoyance on her face. I try smiling at her.

“Hey you.”

She sighs.

“If you’re done touching things you shouldn’t, can we move on now?”

I make an effort not to look at her chest as I nod and she helps me up. The floor here is wetter now, and a puddle is forming against the walls.

“Ah, just give me a moment.”

Before she can stop me, I move back to where I found the plant, scraping a few samples of the poison into a vial. When I turn back, she looks angrier than I’ve ever seen her. I shrug.

“It might be a source of income. We need money, remember?”

She turns back to Dale.

“You were right, he’s still an idiot. Let’s move.”

She leaves the cavern, a chuckling Dale following close. I pick up a torch leaning against the wall and hurry to join them.

In the main chamber, things still look bleak. More than a dozen sources of light are visible across the room, all around the giant pile of slag. Several doppelgangers are moving slowly towards us. Both of my friends look to me.

“So, great and brainless leader, any thoughts on getting us out?”

Sounds like Tiene is going to need some more time to forgive me. Thank goodness for that relationship buffer. Focusing on my sense of smell, I take a deep breath, immediately regretting it. A strong chemical scent mixed with the sulphur feels like a kick up my sinuses. After a minute of this, I catch a whiff of fresh air. I point in the direction as I take a long drink from the waterskin.

“There’s fresh air in that direction. It’s the best I can do.”

They look at me sceptically for a moment before we make a push to get to the target location, a long stretch of wall between two sources of light. As we get closer, I can see the stream of water leading through the rockface. We have to fight a few more clones before we get there, but soon we’re close enough to touch the wall. Tiene goes first, putting her hand up against it. With no discernible effort she pushes through, falling across the boundary. Dale and I are left behind to keep away the copies. Soon, Tiene sticks her head back out.

“It’s the right place. Come on, hurry.”

Dale stabs another monster and turns to run. I retreat slowly, until my back is against the barrier. Finally, the room is completely dark. I sigh in relief from the harsh light as I hear a large splash somewhere in front of me.

“I told you not to touch that. But listening isn’t something your kind does well, is it?”

Sounds of fighting come from behind me. Steel on rock. I guess the golem respawned. I close my eyes, inhaling. The smell of brackish, decaying water surrounds me, and I know I should retreat, but the darkness is so comfortable.

“Will you stay here with me then? Forever under the soil, guarding the slag for our master?”

I can sense something close to me. It’s cold and soft, dead and vibrant. I can smell it. Underneath all the chemicals and dross is a source of clear, fresh water. I open my eyes to stare into the void.

“No, but thank you for your hospitality. I think I’ll leave now.”

Throwing myself backwards, I hope for the best. An angry shout follows me as I sail halfway through the illusionary wall into the painful light. On the other side I see Dale limping badly, and another golem downed. Tiene is by the wrong wall, hammering against it. When she sees me, she yelps. I reach out to her, and she helps pull me fully into the light.

“What happened?”

She pants from the exertion as I get to my feet.

“Later. It’s coming for us. I don’t think it’s illusions can reach us out here, but the husks can.”

Hurrying to Dales side, I put his arm across my shoulder as we hobble towards the exit chamber.

By the time we get there, their wounds have healed. Tiene starts climbing immediately while I try to escape from the burning light as my debuff starts counting down. With some coaxing from the others I finally make my way up to the light, suffering withdrawals and seepage for the thirty minutes the affliction lasts. Afterwards we make our way back to the campfire to rest and eat. When we get there I catch a few crows picking at my crops. The others help me chase them away before we finally get to sit down and rest.

“There’s still another four hours until I can finish threshing the emgrass.”

I slowly turn a stick covered in dough over the fire, cooking a simple dinner.

“We can always head back to the mine. There’s two more paths we didn’t take, remember?”

Dale seems casual about the experience. Tiene just sighs.

“I think we’ve had quite enough of spelunking for the day. But I’d like to analyse this core. Can I have the one you picked up earlier?”

Tiene is holding the broken core from the second golem. I look at Dale, who nods in agreement, and hand it over to her.

“Do you think you can do something with it?”

She’s turning it around in her hands, holding it up against the light and shaking it gently.

“I don’t know. A golem core is magical in nature, and that’s not really my wheelhouse. With the right tools I might be able to convert it into a construct core, but we’d have to find a way to repair it first. Or we could sell them. They might be worth a few silver to the right person.”

I sigh as I retrieve the food from the fire.

Skill increased: Cooking

“So not exactly a source of unlimited income. If we farmed the things for long enough I guess we’d get a pile of these, but flooding the market would reduce the price severely.”

I consider the problem while the others chow down.

“What if we managed to get the cores intact? Would that increase the resale value? What would you need to convert them into something you can use? And what can you to with a construct core?”

She looks at me indignantly, her teeth just sunk into a piece of bread. I wait patiently while she chews and swallows.

“If we got the core intact it would be worth more, but I doubt it would be a particularly powerful core. I’d need a construct workshop to convert them, which would cost a lot more than we have right now. And if we get a lesser construct core from the process, I’d be able to create a small construct. A walking alarm, ratchaser or a noisemaker for the scarecrow. At that size they’re more like toys than tools.”

Again, not a gamechanger.

“I think we need to go back down and finish exploring the cave. Before we do, however, lets move the scarecrow up here first. I’m done feeding these damn freeloading crows.”

Dale straightens up as a plaintive caw comes from the woodlands.

“I’m not opposed to going back down, but you’re going to have to pay me for my time. I’m thinking one core for the first trip and one for the second.”

Tiene’s eyes go angry, and I can tell she’s about to start shouting. I hold up a hand to stop her, which serves to piss her off more.

“Sure, not a problem. You take the two cores in exchange for coming with us. We keep any loot we find on the second trip.”

He grimaces a little, then extends his hand.

“Deal. You’d better not find wild riches down there, or I’m going to be very annoyed.”

I laugh.

Skill increased: Trading

“If we find wild riches down there I’ll buy out your farm, and you can roam the land without your brother nagging you.”

Tiene harrumphs as she stands up, grumbling all the way to the field to retrieve the scarecrow. She’s in the middle of a rant when she gets back, ignoring us completely.

The skill increase reminds me of the social perception notification. I pull it up to check it out.

You are now a Beginner in the skill Social Perception.Specialisations available: Spoken language, body language, interpersonal relations, species: insectoid.

When I discovered the Social Perception skill I thought it was a bit nebulous, but it seems to be a pretty fundamental skill to have. As it’s increased, I’ve found it much easier to interact with people and respond to social cues. It’s interesting that I can select insectoid as a specialty, but I don’t think that’s going to come up very often. Spoken language and body language have both been important in my game so far. Interpersonal relations is the only one I’m not sure what means. It could be invaluable or nearly useless.

After a few more minutes of consideration I pick Body Language.

You have chosen the specialisation Body Language under the skill Social Perception.

***

Climbing back down the ladder feels weird. I’m more aware of everything my companions do. Every move Dale does seems to be made in an effort to impress Tiene or somehow gain a position of domination over me. Tiene is spending a lot of effort to neutralise her body language, which int turn results in a lot of little slipups showing her frustration with herself. I’m forced to tune down the impressions after a while, as it’s becoming impossible to focus on what I’m doing. Finally back underground, we take stock of the situation.

“I think we should head towards the woods.”

Tiene points to the passage away from the stream. Dale shrugs his shoulders.

“I’m just a mercenary on this run. I’ll go where you tell me.”

I nod in agreement, and we start moving. Me in front with Dale watching our back. The passage continues for a few steps beyond the entrance when it ends in a wall of roots. Moving closer, I put my hand on them.

“I think I can guess who’s behind this.”

Tiene takes a step back, a look of worry on her face. Dale just looks confused.

“Who? Isn’t this just some roots? Let’s chop them down and continue.”

I turn around in alarm, blocking him from the barricade.

“Shut your damn mouth man! Look, let’s skip this one for now. Just trust me when I say that cutting down those roots will cause more trouble than you can imagine.”

He sighs and turns around, and I let out a breath of relief. Tiene is already in the centre chamber, staying far away from anything to do with Leona.

“Right, only one more option then, straight ahead.”

Dale takes lead this time and I can sense annoyance in his attitude. I guess he doesn’t like to be bossed around. This time we come to a passage which is clearly man made. The sides are smoother and supported by thick wooden beams. Hooks for lanterns are spaced out along the walls, a few of them including rusty scrap lanterns for the ambiance. The path is declining towards the end of the hallway, with a entrance halfway down on the left hand side. We move carefully towards it, with me and Tiene holding torches so Dale can focus on his dagger. He stands up next to the opening, carefully glancing inside before entering fully. Before we’re able to catch up with him, he pops his head back out.

“All clear. Kinda. Come on in.”

We follow him in, Tiene clearly angry at his casual attitude.

“Nothing much in here but some old mouldy wood.”

Surveying the scene I’m happy to disagree with him. The room is a bonanza of mushrooms.

“I wonder what this place used to be?”

Tiene is wandering around looking at the broken furniture.

“Either storage or an office I’m guessing, but I know what I’m going to use it for.”

They both look at me.

“This is going to be our mushroom cave.”

The silence is palpable for a moment, until Dale barks out a laugh. Tiene follows suit, leaving me blushing and annoyed.