“A good beginning is half done”

As we started to drag further into the cave I could not help but anxiously check how much time was remaining before this instance dungeon would finish. Just a little over fourteen hours. Confirming some of my thoughts I openly questioned Baihe. “So what happened, why did you have to run away from Anton and the others?”. I could feel her hesitate, cautious, not that I blamed her, after all we were still strangers.

“We each have our own secrets. I won’t ask you about yours and I hope you understand that I won’t tell you mine. But after all we are in the same boat, I will just remind you for your own good, Anton is not a good person and neither is Meera, you should be careful.” Having said her piece the atmosphere dwindled back into silence. The mood was awkward, there was not much I could ask her without raising her suspicions. In the end I could only shuffle forwards, slowly making a small gain in the distance as she followed behind. Still at one point I could not help think if I was naïve for trusting her too easily, who knew who was in the right. At the end of the day the only reason I had ran was because I wanted to survive, she was right, it was just a glimpse but I could tell Anton was dangerous.

Moving forwards I could hear a rumbling sound. Surprised I asked Baihe if she could hear that. Only, before she even replied I realised with embarrassment the sound had repeated itself and I felt like it was the dumbest question I could have asked: the sound came from her stomach. It didn’t take a genius to figure what it meant. If the silence could have weight, I could have sworn the air must have gotten heavier because even as I tried to walk forwards while ignoring what I said earlier, I knew I’d only moved a step. ‘DONG’ that step rang eerily loud, it felt like there was a loss of feeling below my feet, yelling I could feel Baihe close by in the air.

We were in the air! It was a trapped floor. Out of all the passages we could have took. How unbelievable! Fiercely struggling I could only grope in the air hoping I would catch a ledge, anything that would stop the fall, in a moment of ingenuity I summoned Big Nose, I choose you, Big Nose! The impact of my full body weight hanging on a ledge caused excruciating pain across my shoulders, steeling myself to cling on I could only clench in there. But unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be, I felt something soft crash into my face. Strange, why was this so round, and so those were the last thoughts in my head and I crashed out.

I was dreaming, in my dream I was ten and it was a blazing summer day, laying in my bed, I could not move a muscle. I had a fever, my temperature had slowly risen higher and higher. I could only lay there sweating. The feeling of something cold pressed against my face, it was soft like holding clouds. Half-conscious I knew someone was taking care of me, although I couldn’t see her face but I could tell she was wiping my forehead with a damp towel. It was like being stranded in a desert and encountering an oasis , water, so comfortable. ‘Drip drip’ my body was hurting all over, I couldn’t move but there was feeling of something dropping onto my body, a cold feeling. I couldn’t help but crave for ice cream, wondering if I would ever have the chance to taste this again.

“Don’t try to move” I could hear a voice from my side. “We are lucky to survive falling down from that height, actually I should thank you, if you hadn’t cushioned my fall and extended yourself like that earlier I am sure we might have ended up far far worse”. It was her, why did she sound so much different than before, her tone was far from soft, a commandeering voice: a woman who was used to be in charge. I could only whisper in my head.

It seemed she was in a much better condition than me, she could at least still move her body. Coming closer I could smell a faint fragrant smell, her body moved closer to mine, blinking my eyes, the only part I could still control: I imagined her in her transformed form. My own impression of her earlier remained fuzzy there was not much I could remember apart from her being smaller.

Why did it seem that out of all the times anything happened when I was with her, she always ended up fine whereas I ended up with a far worse deal, without being able to talk I could only remind myself to keep my distance away from here if I made it out of here alive.

“Drink this, it seems to be some kind of water, there is a pool of it deeper in the cave.” I could hear some faint sounds of a small cloth being wrung out and water dripping lightly on my face. As if anticipating what I was about to say, “you don’t need to ask, I think we might be stuck here for some time at least till this instance dungeon ends, I have tried moving from this place but it doesn’t feel like there is any other passage or way to go out, I’m pretty sure we are stuck here”.

“I’m tired, I’m going to rest first, let’s continue again later, there’s plenty of time”. Having said her piece I could feel her moving closer to me and something small drop near my side. Without much to do and having lost control of my body, all I could do at this point was to check my status:

INGEL ???

Occupation: -

Abilities: Slow Metabolism

Modifiers: impaired hearing, temporary paralysis, Oread’s Blessing

Equipment: Poleaxe

Spirit Summon: Night Spider – BLOOD RESTRAINT

Youngling: ‘a successful summon’, a Night Spider in its growth phase, using its ability to detect movement through the sensitive nails on its limbs, its ability to run in the dark and sense prey puts it at the forefront as a hunter of the night: this spider has the ability to produce a mild poison which can numb its prey.

Looking at my status screen I could see several changes. It seemed modifiers was related to my body’s condition as I could see under this was listed two different status conditions which reflected my current body’s situation. It didn’t take me long to work out some of the changes that had appeared on my status screen and link it to my condition now. It seemed that the earlier damage done to one of my ears was anything from minor, although the loss of any actual flesh extending where a normal ear would be already made this more than obvious. On the other hand I was happy to see that it was not all bad; temporary paralysis, reading the word temporary I could not help to raise my own hopes, the fall must have been more severe than I thought. Without being able to talk, as I could not ask her, I could only guess that she must have used part of her ability as she seemed much smaller, not forgetting her restorative powers of healing I could only hope she didn’t indeed forget me. It was unrealistic to expect more, I knew in fact she could only cast a small form of healing, it was far from a miracle cure, as my right ear remained missing. But I still kept my spirits up my chances of surviving remained strong. I knew this instance dungeon would not last much longer.

Going further through the list it seems I had gained another partial ability, Oread’s Blessing, there was not much to go by, I could only remain positive and wait till later. There was not much I could do at this point.

Looking at my spirit summon I could see that there was one major change to this part of that status screen. Under some faint wording I could see that this had now been affixed by an additional status ‘blood restraint’: the words carried an ominous feeling, thinking about it, I could only just faintly recall when I first summoned Jaws, it felt like he had siphoned some of my blood at that time. Linking this to Jaws current state and how I could not reach it, I could only think that a spirit summon was not all that I had first thought it to be. While my choice in picking the totem was not one I would have changed, knowing how this worked would have more than given me second thoughts. Still without Jaws I am sure I wouldn’t have made it so far.

Closing my eyes I could only let these thoughts run through my mind as laid to rest the ants that were crawling like many questions inside.