-- You have killed a [Nuur Lizard - lvl 8] --

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 4. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 5. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

This was also the time when the pain from her heavily bleeding stomach fully registered, Liz uttering a pained wail. At a hunch she spent her new points like the first 6, and after the high and low of feelings the pain subsided slightly and the wounds closed a bit. After applying a few drops of healing potion, they vanished completely.

'So it's possible to save some health potions. But always pain. And no pain tolerance level? What could be even more painful than an involuntary navel piercing? And why didn't I simply flee? When did I suddenly decide that killing anything in my way is viable?'

She scanned her surroundings for any monsters attracted by the noise or the smell of blood, no longer hindered by the roaring water. But also because Liz knew that her control over her aura had slipped when her stomach had been pierced.

Liz was lucky and after two minutes no attack had come. She relaxed from her battle ready stance and released a breath she hadn't realized she had held.

Instead of returning to the main cavern, Liz decided to go down the side tunnel, her dagger at the ready. After about fifty meters the tunnel went in a curve before ending in a wall made out of rough stone bricks.

'So there definitely is some kind of structure down here. Hopefully with an surface exit and other entrances from the cavern'

In front of the wall were several heaps of bones, all small in size.

'And that would be why the lizard was here. I probably disturbed it while it ate' Liz thought while inspecting the half-eaten carcass of another lizard.

'So they are even cannibalistic. At least they seem to eat all of it, only leaving the bones'

Hopeful to find a way out through these structures, Liz returned to the main cavern and directly entered the next tunnel. After just a few meters the tunnel opened up into another cave. Distracted Liz took in the wonderfully glistering arrangement of star-like crystals in the high ceiling. Until she heard clicking noises from the shadows next to her.

Frightened she quickly scrambled away from the darkness. The shadow however seemed to reach out to her, until a massive spider, at least as high as Liz's shoulder, emerged from the lengthened shadow, it's eight eyes staring at her, unblinking, while its fangs dripped black liquid.

[Shadowweaver - ?]

'Fuck, nope. I hate these caves!'

Swiftly turning and running back the way she came, Liz felt something brush her side. Following the projectile with her gaze, she saw, nothing. Just darkness. The ball of black shadows impacted the ground to her right.

'Shadow magic? If it is called Shadowweaver...'

She increased her speed even further, the clicking of the spider's legs suddenly stopping as soon as she reached the main cavern.

'So it doesn't like the waterfall? Or is there something even more dangerous in here? Hopefully not!'

She sprinted to a small crevice nearby, fortunately empty, and caught her breath. Her stamina had dipped quite considerably during her quick sprint. When her resources had recovered, she relaxed for a bit longer. Eventually she went back to searching for an exit, now much more wary of the shadows around her.

The tunnel was picked accordingly, only big enough for her to enter and too small for a massive spider. Unfortunately it quickly expanded into a small cave again, but this time uninhabited. Instead on one side was another stone-brick wall. This time with a small doorway. At least Liz assumed it was a doorway, as the opening ended just above her hip.

'So no human structure. Maybe dwarven? But Garuna mentioned them to be bigger and supposedly they only build deep underground. And I'm currently only a few hundred meters from the valley floor'

Crawling through the doorway and twisting to fit her hips through, Liz entered a hallway, where she was at least able to crouch. Every few meters were more doorways, leading into rooms where bunks where carved into the walls. Unlike the fort the rooms were cleared except for the occasional lizard bones. The bones became more prominent, the further Liz went into the structure. Too late did she realize that this probably meant that she was invading the lair of some monster.

In the moment she realized this fact, she heard a growl from a side room, shortly before a large cat-like creature, barely fitting through the doorway, emerged. The cat reminded Liz of a leopard from Earth in size and proportions, except for the fur pattern and color being bigger and much darker, perfectly blending in the surrounding caverns. What was more worrying was the way the light seemed to avoid the body of the cat. Instead, despite the light from Liz's orb illuminating the surrounding walls, the cat was covered in shadows.

[Shadownyx - lvl ??]

In the time Liz took to study the predator, it didn't attack, seemingly unwilling to engage this unknown opponent in such an enclosed space, instead its growling intensified and rumbled through Liz's bones. Realizing that the cat was most likely looking for an opening, she slowly drew her dagger and crawled backwards, constantly accompanied by deep rumble from the cats throat.

She had hoped that the cat would stop following her, but when she hit the entrance to the structure the cat was still just three meters in front of her. In panic she drew another dagger and threw her current one at the cat while extracting herself from the structure. This however brought no reprieve, instead causing the cat to become more aggressive in its behavior.

The cat started to circle her in the open cave, Liz rotating with its movement, the dagger, as ineffective as it was against the claws and fangs of a feline predator, held in front of her. After circling her for a few moments the cat suddenly pounced. Liz first instinct was to cower or flee, but unwilling to turn her back to the ambush predator, Liz awkwardly tried to intercept its course with her dagger arm, dropping the light orb in the process and dragging the dagger along the side of the cats fur, eliciting a hiss.

But it didn't aim for her at all. Instead it went for the shadows beside her. At least that was what Liz perceived in the now dim light of the wall crystals, the cats shadow pelt preventing her from seeing much of it.

But even after focusing on the shadow where the cat went, Liz was unable to spot it. Until a impact on her back alerted her to the cats position. The sudden weight caused Liz to stumble forward. The cat's raking claws were prevented from harming her by her leather armor and backpack.

Blindly stabbing back caused the cat to jump away from her and back into the shadow it came from. Now able to focus on it, Liz saw the cat simply vanish and promptly reappear pouncing on her back again. 'It can teleport in the shadows? How am I supposed to fight that?'

Once again removing the cat from herself by trying to stab it, Liz tried to find a way out of the fight. Leaving through the dark crevice would only make her prime target. Before she was able to find anything else, the cat came from the opposite direction it went. This time it found purchase on her side and sank its fangs into her unprotected left upper arm before her right arm with its bracer could intercept it. However, the bracer could dislodge it's jaws from her arm, taking a good chunk of her arm with it.

When it vanished in the shadows again, Liz anticipated its move and whirled around. Only to be outsmarted by the cat, when it attacked from behind her again. This time her scalp received a heavy raking of claws before the cat vanished again. Her blonde hair formerly tied up in a bun at her back, was falling down around her, most of it colored deep red.

With her back pressed against the wall of the structure, Liz finally found some reprieve when the cat turned to stalking in the open in front of her, seemingly growling in annoyance at its resilient prey. 'At least the cat recognizes my daggers as threat otherwise it wouldn't try to wear me down. But with the shadows I can't find any purchase before it vanishes.'

Remembering the hesitation of the cat in the illuminated hallway and its first move outside of it, Liz realized that her best weapon was the light orb. 'With light there are is no darkness to escape to!' Liz managed to form a pained grimace, when a plan started to form in her mind.

When the cat's stalking, seemingly waiting for its cornered prey to bleed out, distanced it enough from the light orb, Liz darted forward. The cat, realizing her intent, intercepted her. It threw itself at her side, causing her to veer off course and fall down, needing to defend her already heavily bleeding side from further bites and claw rakes. Her armor could intercept most of the strikes and when her dagger neared the vulnerable body of her opponent, the cat vanished into the shadows, allowing Liz to grab hold of the orb, instantly illuminating it.

Liz quickly realized her error when the cat materialized even faster than before in her own shadow, raking across her back, now having worn down the armor enough to reach skin, causing Liz to scream and curl up. 'Of course, when there is more light there is more shadow.'

In a last ditch effort Liz used her mana to power the orb, forcing more and more mana into the intricate runes embedded in the glass structure. Her left arm holding the orb blistered and cracked, while the light from the orb increased to incredible levels. The already blinding light, even reflected by the crystals in the ceiling, revealed a yowling cat trying to duck back into cover, unable to find a dark place in the small cave.

When her mana reached its limit, Liz tried to draw in any mana around her, like her aura but in reverse. To her surprise it worked, and some kind of foreign mana went through her into the orb. At first it was only a trickle, but it quickly got more dense. And the crystals in the walls around her started to dim.

With the orb light getting even brighter, the shadows around the cats fur started to sizzle and smoked off. The steps of the now whining cat got more sluggish until it collapsed and after a few more seconds in which Liz managed to sit up and crawl away from the seemingly incapacitated cat, a notification entered her mind.

-- You have killed a [Shadownyx - lvl 56] --

-- [Pain Tolerance] has reached level 9 --

-- [Spell Channeling] has reached level 2 --

-- You have learned the active class skill [Mana Draw]--

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 6. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

....

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 9. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

When the notifications came, Liz fell back onto the ground, dropping the light orb in the process. 'Huh, guess light is still a weakness of a shadow creature...'

Status:

Health: 10/204

Stamina: 34/165

Mana: 14/400

Looking at herself and her status, Liz realized how close the fight was. In the now slightly brighter light of the crystals, she inspected herself. Her arm had fortunately stopped bleeding after being cauterized by the mana flow, the rest of her body however was marred in scratches and bleeding and even severe burns from the light orb supernova adorned her skin. The adrenaline in her blood was still blocking the pain, but quickly wearing off.

'Guess that was really bright!'

As the pain returned, Liz dumped 3 points into Vitality. After a skipped beat of her heart and an incredible headache, the wounds began to close and her health refilled at an increased pace. But quickly stopped. Now at least able to move, she crawled to her bag, which was the first victim of the cat. In between the tatters that used to be a leather backpack, she found a healing potion and more water. Drinking the water to get rid of the taste of blood in her mouth, Liz used the healing potion to close her deepest remaining wounds and her scarred arm. Drinking the rest of the healing potion for the smaller cuts and possible inner injuries, Liz approached the body of the cat.

Besides a few nicks and cuts the body was mostly unmarred by any injuries.

'Oh, light seems to not only be a weakness but deadly. Let's hope I never run into any more of them, but if I do I now know what to do, as painful as it is'

Dragging the body into the walled structure to not attract any more predators, Liz collected her meager belongings and made camp in one of the foremost sleeping rooms.

She spent the remaining 9 points on Endurance, Strength and Dexterity, investing 3 in each. Applying the changes, the headache and intermittent heartbeat were missing and the rest of feelings were also more subtle than the first time around.

Using the sewing supplies for repairing her leather armor, she spent some time repairing her armor where possible and even managed to transform the tatters into another primitive bag. One of the carry straps was no longer salvageable, making the new bag a sling bag.

While she was eating another meal while further studying the room, her eyes caught something familiar from one of the skeletons. Trying to find out what she had seen she approached the skeleton. She realized that the tips of the spikes on the head glittered ever so slightly in a metallic fashion in the orbs light. 'Wait, is that Quicksilver?'. Breaking off one spike she identified it

[Quicksilver-infused horn]

'Yes finally something going right! And this place is full of these skeletons! Thank you, Shadownyx!'

And so, Liz spent her time going from room to room and salvaging the skeletons littering the floor. She quickly realized, that only the bigger of the lizard bones contained the metal. The bigger the more they seemed to contain. After an hour she was back at the place where she had first encountered the Shadownyx. The room the cat had emerged from proved to be the biggest one so far, filled to the brim with skeletons and carcasses.

But after rounding one of the piles of lizard remains, Liz found a big surprise. In between the piles was a nest made of moss and inside were four little sleeping Shadownyx cubs. Liz gasped at the sight.

'Oh no, the adult one wasn't attacking me as prey, it was just defending its litter. And I, the idiot engaged it in combat. Completely unnecessarily. I am a murderer! Senselessly killing anything in my way just because it gives nice levels! And they are so cute, I could never ever harm them! And still I murdered their mother without reason!'

Her earlier sound seemed too have woken the kittens, as one stirred awake, its movement waking the others. In seconds Liz had 4 adorable kittens looking at her and meowing softly. Tears welled in her eyes, a product of the constant turmoil of the past days and the cubs in front of her.

Almost on instinct Liz's hand reached out, with the goal of petting the bundles of cuteness. To her surprise the foremost cub only briefly sniffed at her hand before allowing it to reach behind its ears. After a few scratches, the cub even started to purr, causing the other three to investigate what caused the visible satisfaction.

Ten minutes later Liz had calmed down and was covered in cubs, all wanting to get more scratches and belly rubs, one trying to groom her bloody hair. She also realized what would now most likely happen to them now.

'I've killed their mother, without her they are either gonna starve or get eaten by other predators. I am a monster. I really fit in with this whole cavern. Can I do anything to make it up to them? Can I take them with me?'

'No, they probably won't come with me and four more mouths to feed is too hard. At least they look old enough to be weaned. And judging by the carcasses next to their nest, they were already eating the lizards. Wait a moment, I've killed one of these lizards in the tunnel, the body should still be there. I can at least bring them this meal and get myself more Quicksilver'

And so, after carefully removing the cubs from herself and placing them back in their nest, she went back out. The body was fortunately undisturbed and in just twenty minutes Liz reentered the walled-structure, lizard dragging behind her. Unfortunately it didn't contain any Quicksilver.

Panting from exertion she dragged the body over the threshold to the room with the cubs, only to be assaulted by four purring cubs landing on her.

"Seems like you guys have missed me. Look, I brought some food" Liz carefully pried one of them out of her hair and placed it in front of the to be meal.

This started the others to also abandon her and lunge at the feast. While the cubs were eating the lizard, she went to the nearest pile and filled her bag with as dense Quicksilver horns as possible.

When her bag was full she left the cubs to eat and went back to her camp. Unable to look at the body of the mother without feeling deep regret and self-hatred, she dragged it into another room before settling down.

Her body was still exhausted from the fights and after the fight with the mother and the encounter with the cubs she was emotionally exhausted as well. As the structure was most likely clear of any predators thanks to the mother, she barricaded the small doorway, by pilling bones and her bag in it, and went to sleep.

Still drowsy after waking up, she was reluctant to let go of the warm fur blanket on her arms. With a start she realized that she wasn't in the tower suite with a fur blanket, only to relax after seeing the four cubs nestled around her.

"Oh, you couldn't let go of me? You do realize that I am not your mom?" Liz cooed to the stirring cubs.

Extracting herself from the four sleepy cubs she went to her backpack and took out one of her last meals, wondering how the cubs entered the barricaded room.

'Probably with the same shadow teleport as their mother used'

While eating she looked around the room and realized that the cubs left a piece of raw lizard right in front of her sleeping spot.

'Did they try to share the lizard with me? Or is it just a snack they brought for themselves?'

The cubs were awake and lounged around her, waiting for her to finish her meal.

Giving each of the cubs a scratch, eliciting content purrs, she prepared her departure.

Soon she was on her way to explore the rest of the structure, in hopes of finding a secondary exit, followed by a procession of four Shadownyx cubs.

"Guess you really adopted me? Can you even go out in the sun? Because if you want to come with me, you will see the sun" Liz asked the cubs, only getting a purr in response.

"Not very helpful if one doesn't speak purr" With a shrug, she continued. The deeper in she got the more diverse the rooms got. A lot of them reminded her of downsized variants of similar ones in the fort. There was a kitchen with pantry, multiple dining halls, a training hall and after climbing some small stairs, an empty library.

But sadly no exit to the surface.

And so Liz returned to the main cavern, the four feline predators still in tow.

She went to another tunnel, eventually ending in another dead end. Along the way she encountered another lizard. Thanks to her increase in level and familiarity with the lizards, as insignificant as both may be, she was able to defeat the lizard without injuring herself. The cats just watched the fight from the sidelines.

-- You have killed a [Nuur Lizard - lvl 9] --

-- [Arcane Mage] has reached level 10. 2 stats points distributed. 3 additional stat points awarded. --

After catching her breath, she dragged the body without its horns, also without Quicksilver, to the side in front of the mewling felines.

While they ate, she assigned her new stat points. Two of the points went into Strength, the other one into Endurance. The muscle cramping was now the most pronounced of the effects.

'I definitely like the effects of increasing strength best. The headache from the mental attributes is the worst. Worse than studying runes. Oh how I wish, I were simply studying runes right now. Except, I am weirdly comfortable with this wild cavern. I would have expected at least a full panic attack. I guess even I can still surprise myself! I just would have never guessed how cold-blooded I seem to have become! On the other hand this is the most dangerous environment I was ever in. Definitely not comparable to anything in my life back on Earth. And still I am still totally calm with this fact? What is wrong with me?'

While she was questioning her sanity, the cubs had finished the meal. Again they left a piece and dragged it to Liz.

"So you want me eat that? Sorry, but I will likely get sick from that!" Liz spoke, while getting herself a meal from her backpack to demonstrate to the cats that she was taken care of.

When they still just lounged around her, Liz shrugged and ate some of her fruit and berry mix. The smoked meat was all gone, the fruit would also only last her for about another 2 meals.

Unwilling to starve in this cave, Liz rationed her current meal and only ate a part of the pre-packed meal.

When she was finished, the raw lizard meat was still on the floor in front of her. Now slightly rested and with at least something in her stomach, Liz continued searching the tunnels.

When she encountered the next lizard, the cats surprisingly took charge, leaving Liz on the sidelines of the fight.

She was enraptured by the cats. While the same size as the lizard, they darted around the reptile with grace, only one or two attacking while the others distracted their prey. They regularly switched positions, wearing down their opponent, all the while making their movements look effortless.

Unfortunately Liz was too enraptured by the fighting cats that she didn't notice the shadows deepening until a sudden piercing pain erupted in her shoulder.

She whirled around, only to see 8 eyes staring back at her, before everything went dark.