Chapter 151: The Red River

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Darkshot asked as Aegis lead the others through the giant mushrooms of Reltrak Forest. They were deep into the wilderness now, far from any of the cavern walls. The light green fog that was usually settled above the mossy cavern floor was absent, however.

“Yup, should be around here somewhere.” Aegis replied as he looked down at the Underrealm map. He was holding it in his hands while walking in front of the others, Snowflake strutting behind him while Rakkan and Lina flanked Aegis, curiously trying to peer at the map a bit themselves.

“I would’ve thought the next location was at the edge of the forest cavern, not in the middle of it.” Pyri commented.

“Same.” Rakkan nodded.

“There, that’s the pillar of stone mentioned on the map. The path to the Red River should be there.” Aegis pointed out a stack of round dark stones that were stacked on top of each other in the form of a pillar. It looked simultaneously sturdy, and about ready to topple over at any given moment. Aegis and the others continued towards it, avoiding any Mosstrappers and Fishers that were lurking about, until they got close enough to see the large hole in the ground a few meters away from it.

The moss on the cavern floor stopped growing a few centimeters away from the jagged edges of the hole, and a winding ramp went around the walls of the circular hole as it dropped straight down several meters. The hole itself was about 5 meters in diameter.

As the party approached and walked around the hole to look down it from above, they all felt a wave of hot air rising up from it.

“Oh yeah, that’s definitely the right way.” Darkshot pulled his head back to get out of the path of the wafting heat.

“That’s where we’ve got to go.” Aegis rolled up the map and put it back into his inventory. “Ok, listen up. According to Oopik, this place has the strongest monsters in all of Kalmoore. We’re talking super high level enemies here.” Aegis explained to the others.

“Should we really be going down there, then?” Rakkan asked worriedly.

“According to this map, the only thing on our side of the Red River is the Reltrak Forest and Pakro’Vielle. The river cuts off this western section of Kalmoore’s underrealm from the rest of it. There are some really interesting looking locations to explore on the other side of the river, including the Dark Elf City.” Aegis replied as he alternated who he was talking to of his group, all of them listening intently.

“I’m not so full of ourselves that I think we can fight the monsters in the river yet, but Luryala and her tribe were able to cross it safely, so I think we oughta be able to as well. The other option is we look for another entrance into the underrealm on the opposite side of the river, but that could take awhile.” Aegis explained. “It’s up to you guys, though. We’re a group, so this should be a group decision.”

“I mean, the path to the river is right here…” Pyri motioned to the hole with a shrug.

“I’ll do what you want to do.” Lina smiled at Aegis.

“I… think we should look for another way across. Dying in a magma river will mean our gear is toast. And we’ve got Darkwing and Snowflake with us.” Darkshot replied.

“I…” Rakkan paused, looking between everyone. “I’ve watched some streamers do high level content… Above level 100, it seems like monsters become very deadly. If some high level enemy down there wants to kill us, it's going to kill us.” Rakkan crossed his arms. “It’d be safer to avoid the place for now, until we’re stronger.” Rakkan replied.

“Hm, that leaves the deciding vote to you, Aegis.” Pyri said as all eyes turned on him. Aegis looked between his companions, considering all the facts. Pyri had a portal spell to help them escape if it got bad, Aegis had level 30 fire resistance, and they all just got very powerful equipment upgrades. It was just a river - how hard could it be to cross stealthily, if a tribe of weak and sick Dark Elves could do it?

“Alright, then I say we cross the river. Carefully.” Aegis decided. He got a pair of reluctant shrugs from Rakkan and Darkshot, but he had faith in his party members and himself. He briefly glanced at his viewership of 75,000 and took a deep breath before stepping forward onto the ramp leading down the hole.

He descended first, and the others followed behind him. The deeper into the hole they went, the hotter it got, until they reached the bottom and saw it opened up into a small dome-shaped cavern with a wide tunnel leading forward.

The group continued down the sloping tunnel as it curved around a bend, then another, and after a third bend they saw a bright red glow coming from the other end of the tunnel ahead of them as it began to open up. The heat intensified, and Aegis and the others felt droplets of sweat begin to form on their faces thanks to the simulation's immersion.

“There it is…” Darkshot mumbled in an ominous tone. Darkwing lowered his head, while Snowflake had his beak open to help keep himself cool.

“Let me go first with invisibility.” Pyri suggested as she moved to the front of the group. “I’ll make sure there’s nothing waiting for us around the entrance.”

“Good idea.” Aegis nodded. Pyri tapped her own shoulder to cast greater invisibility on herself, vanishing from their sight as she walked forward. They could still hear and see her footsteps, but the sound was somewhat muffled by a deep low rumbling, bubbling sound coming from the bright red cavern ahead of them.

A few moments later Pyri returned and removed her invisibility spell, looking at the group with wide eyes.

“That is some river.” She shook her head. “When most people say river, you think, like, maybe a little bridge, and you can cross it. That thing is huge. Didn’t see any enemies though.” Pyri shrugged.

“Ok, good. I’ll go check it out and see if I can find a way across.” Aegis replied, motioning the others to hang back as this time he stepped forward, by himself. He took out his shield and walked cautiously towards the red glow.

With each step down the tunnel towards the red cavern ahead he felt the temperature rising higher and higher, until finally he reached the end of the tunnel and stepped out into the cavern.

In front of him was a small strip of land that grew out from the cavern walls on his left and right several meters until it dropped off a small ledge. Below that ledge was the Red River, aptly named. It was a thick, bright burning red river of flowing magma, bubbling up in spots, shooting up flickers and small pillars of flames at random locations all along its surface.

The stone in this cavern was all dark black - all of it was obsidian on the ground and the lower walls, and most of the upper walls and roof were obsidian as well, with a few pockets of other dark gray stone mixed in. Looking across the river, it was at least roughly 20 meters to the other side, significantly further than Aegis was hoping. And the heat was intense, almost unbearable. Aegis felt himself dripping with sweat, and his stamina slowly began to drop on its own from a heat exhaustion debuff that appeared on his interface.

The only positive was how well lit the cavern was. The river stretched down a curving cavern wide enough to contain the river and its shores in both directions. He couldn’t see far down the tunnel to the north, or the south, but the ceiling of the cavern was relatively high, about 15 meters up as well. He saw high ledges and walkways on the upper walls of the cavern on both sides of the river, and several tiny cavern entrances on the upper and lower ledges intermittently.

He couldn’t tell without checking manually if the caverns dotting the walls were natural, manmade, or creature made, and he felt an overwhelming desire to explore them. Luckily, he came to his senses when he reminded himself that the enemies in this area were extremely high level. But as he thought this, he spotted a snail on the wall on the opposite side of the river.

It was hard to see it at first, as its shell was black to match the obsidian around it, but it was the same level range as the snails in Reltrak Forest, giving Aegis the impression that it had just wandered in here accidentally.

He continued to watch the snail for a few moments as it was slinking its way down the wall towards the lowest level of the cavern, opposite the river to Aegis. Just as it was about to get to the bottom, though, Aegis watched as suddenly a large red lizard shot its head out of the edge of the magma river and glared in the direction of the snail. The snail immediately froze in place while Aegis eyed the lizard-creature, barely visible. Above its head stood [Flame Salamander - Level 135].

It was hesitating, as if it wasn’t sure the snail was really a snail, and couldn’t decide if it wanted to bother hunting it. Sure enough though, the Salamander made up its mind and darted out of the magma river with incredible speed, making it across the few meters of land between the river and the cavern wall, while streaming out flames from its mouth at the snail like a flamethrower.

Aegis couldn’t see the fire damage numbers, but the snail appeared to die from the attack instantly. It let go of the wall and it’s shell rolled down to the cavern floor where the Salamander quickly grabbed at the slug body and ripped it from the shell, then dragged it back towards the river in its mouth before disappearing back below the slow flowing magma.

Aegis took a few steps backwards into the tunnel from whence he came and pondered while pulling out the map he had received, looking at the section on the red river more closely. He traced his finger along it to find the path suggested by the Plashrim’s to traverse it, though most of the map around the Red River was filled with warning signs.

According to the map, there was a large obsidian bridge built at the edge of a ruined city, used by an ancient civilization to cross the river long before Kalmoore was risen up into the sky. If they were to travel north along the shore of the Red River for less than half a kilometer, they’d reach the bridge and be able to cross it and enter the ruined city, a presumably lower level area where they’d be able to continue on towards the Dark Elf city.

“Level 135…” Aegis said to himself out loud as he considered it. It was high level, and he wasn’t really sure if his party couldn’t handle it or not. Every time he’d received a warning on how hard something was, he managed to handle it regardless. Anything this game had thrown at him, he was able to figure out thus far. He was feeling confident in his own abilities. With that in mind, he turned around and rejoined his waiting party members.

“According to the map, if we travel along the river north a bit, there’s an obsidian bridge that’ll let us cross it. We could cross it right away with Snowflake, or maybe rope, but there’s no point if there isn’t a way out of the river’s cavern on the opposite side anyway. The bridge will lead to some ruins outside of the Red River which should be a lower level area, so if we can make it there it’ll be business as usual.” Aegis explained as he held the map out for everyone to see.

“Oh, a ruined city?” Rakkan looked excitedly at the map.

“You’re forgetting that the river is supposedly filled with really strong enemies, aren’t you?” Darkshot crossed his arms disapprovingly.

“I saw one, it popped out of the river. Level 135 Salamander.” Aegis replied.

“135? That’s more than 40 levels higher than us.” Lina replied with apprehension in her voice.

“As long as we stay away from the river, we should be able to avoid them. They weren’t elite, so if it gets bad I can always use challenging roar, then lead them away from the group and Pyri can portal everyone out.” Aegis explained.

“Okay.” Pyri replied back while pulling her lips in.

“Remember, quiet and stealthy.” Aegis said to the others and they all gave him understanding nods, including Snowflake. With that, Aegis turned and made his way back towards the cavern of the Red River, his party members following behind him.

When he got back to the cavern, he gave a moment for Lina, Rakkan, Darkshot, Darkwing and Snowflake to look over the river for the first time. He saw their eyes widen and their jaws drop, sweat dripping down their faces from the intense heat. They all had the same heat exhaustion debuff applied to them, and their stamina slowly began to drop.

“We oughta move quickly too, and eat some stamina food to keep it from getting too low.” Aegis whispered as he pulled out some kebabs and handed one out to everyone, including one for Darkwing and Snowflake. They bit into it without response, all of them tense and quiet.

Aegis took the lead, making the first steps northward through the cavern. He was sure to stay as close to the cavern walls and as far from the river’s edge as possible. The obsidian was hard beneath their feet, with indentations and swirly markings on the floor and walls, giving the impression that it was recently dried over magma itself.

Due to that, there wasn’t a loose stone in sight, nor was there any stalactites or stalagmites whatsoever. There was, however curiously, some plants growing intermittently along the edge of the river, and the base of the cavern walls.

The plants that Aegis began seeing along the cavern walls were growing out of a dark red stem that curled up the obsidian like a vine until ending in a bright glowing red flower with several layers of luminescent petals. In the center was a pyramid of tiny black balls that looked like berries.

It took all of Aegis’ willpower to resist the urge to pick the berries out of the plant, but he did. He made a mental checklist of things he wanted to do in this cavern once they were higher level, and this was added to the top of the list.

Similarly, the plants growing at the edge of the river looked interesting, but were much less eye-catching. They resembled dark gray, thin ferns that grew nearly flat across the obsidian edges of the flowing magma. Some of their leaves hung low over the side of the ledge, dipping into the magma itself, but were completely unaffected by the heat and didn’t burn away.

Aegis imagined they must have some fire resistance properties he could use in some elixirs, but again, resisted the temptation to approach the river and pick them. He knew he was one wrong step away from causing a Salamander head to poke out of the magma and blast him with its flamethrower breath attack like the snail.

The further out they got from the tunnel they’d enter from, the more tension Aegis felt in the air. Every single one of his party members was on edge, glancing around at every single sign of movement around them - which was a lot, given that the magna river was continuously shooting up puffs of flames at random. Despite this, though, they all continued forward together in a tightly knit group, moving silently. That was until they all heard a loud, booming stomping sound coming from the tunnel behind them.

The moment they heard it, they all froze in place and looked back from where they’d come. Several loud thunderous booms followed, one after the next, like footsteps. The only good thing was that the sound was getting quieter. After listening for a bit, the sound faded, but not before the group saw ripples and small waves in the magma river coming from the direction of the stomps.

Despite the thickness of the magma, and how wide the river was and how far away the stomps sounded, the party still was able to visibly see the resulting ripples from whatever it was that was apparently stomping around in the river some distance from them. With this in mind, they all nervously glanced between one another to view each other's reactions.

Aegis simply raised his eyebrows and widened his eyes, followed by a shrug, then motioned everyone to keep moving forward. They didn’t need to be told twice - everyone was now eager to get as far away from whatever caused the ripples in the river as possible.

The next obstacle they encountered was nearly halfway through their journey to the bridge. They couldn’t see the bridge yet, due to the curving nature of the tunnel, but in the wall on their left side they spotted an opening.

As they came up on it, Aegis held his hand out in front of the group to signal the group to stop. Not waiting to walk in front of the cave recklessly, he motioned at Rakkan and Rakkan nodded.

Rakkan silently waved his hands to create an echo of himself, then sent it forward to walk past the front of the cave while everyone else took a few steps back away from it. Once Rakkan’s echo was in front of the cavern they all held their breath and waited anxiously to see if something would come out of it and attack, but nothing happened.

Just to be sure, he walked by it a few times, back and forth, but still nothing.

“One at a time.” Aegis whispered to the group and they all nodded back at him. Aegis went first, walking past the cave entrance carefully, quickly, and quietly. Nothing happened. Lina went next, then Snowflake, followed by Darkshot, Pyri, and lastly Rakkan.

They moved quickly beyond the cave, eager to get away from it despite nothing having happened in front of it.

“This place is really bad for Shadow Dancers.” Lina commented in a whisper to Aegis as they continued forward. Looking around, Aegis couldn’t help but agree. The bright light from the glowing red hot magma river made it so that there was hardly a shadow in sight, save for the one cast by their own bodies.

“Don’t worry, we should be out of here soon. There, I think I see the bridge.” Aegis motioned around a bend in the tunnel ahead. Sure enough, it was slowly coming into view.

A large black stone bridge built from blocks of cut obsidian. The bridge had clearly seen better days, the railings and the pillars holding up the bridge were cracked, and some were broken and had chunks completely missing. It was clear the bridge had long since been abandoned, but it appeared it would still serve its purpose.

The bridge was big, even from a distance Aegis could tell it was roughly 6 meters wide and stood high above the magma river by about 5 meters. It was held up by large black obsidian pillars built on either end of the river, as well as several that settled down in the river itself, the magma flowing smoothly around them.

On the other side of the river the bridge continued into a large cavern, leading out of the Red River and into a new section of the underrealm. Aegis and his party unfortunately couldn’t see much beyond where the bridge led from their point of view, but seeing a way out of the Red River encouraged them to hasten their movement.

Covered in sweat, their stamina was continuously dropping and recovering thanks to the exhaustion debuff and Aegis’ kebab food buff on them. Snowflake seemed to be suffering the most.

“Hang in there lil guy, we’re almost out.” Aegis said encouragingly in a quiet whisper. Snowflake gave Aegis a knowing nod and quiet screech as Aegis ruffled the feathers on his head. pointing towards the bridge ahead of them.

“There’s a staircase to get up onto the bridge on our side of the river, over there.” Rakkan said as he pointed out a jagged, broken apart obsidian block staircase built into the cavern wall. The bridge on their side of the river continued into the cavern wall on their side as well, but wherever it had once led appeared to have been completely caved in - large chunks of black obsidian rubble could be seen collapsed chaotically across the surface of the bridge. The staircase was barely still accessible due to this.

Aegis took the lead again once they arrived at the base of the stairs and began descending up them. They were extremely steep, each step requiring very big leg movements to climb up, and some stairs were missing completely which meant Aegis had to use his hands to climb up.

The moment he touched the obsidian with his gloves to start climbing, he felt the immense heat emanating from it. It didn’t deal damage, but he felt an immediate urge to pull his hands away, as if he’d accidentally touched a hot stove-top.

“Ah, shit. It’s hot as hell.” Aegis winced as he shook his hands, the pain fading 2 seconds later.

“We’re almost there, c’mon.” Darkshot urged Aegis forward. Aegis nodded and took a deep breath, then gritted his teeth as he grabbed the higher stairs and quickly pulled himself up, fighting through the burning sensation as he did until he managed to get up and all the way on top of the bridge.

One by one, each member of the party did the same, save for Snowflake who decided to fly up instead, but as Aegis watched Snowflake land barefoot on the obsidian bridge, he saw him wincing.

“Hang on.” Aegis said as he quickly went into his inventory.

“What are you doing?” Pyri asked him curiously.

“This obsidian bridge is really hot on bareskin, that means it's gonna be a pain for Snowflake.” Aegis said as he pulled out some left over basilisk leather scraps he’d brought for repairs. He quickly wrapped the leather around Snowflake’s front talons and back paws so he was no longer barefoot. “How’s that?” Aegis asked.

Snowflake gave a playful nudge in Aegis’ stomach and let out a soft happy screech.

“Good, hang in there, the exit's just across this bridge.” Aegis motioned over the bridge to the large open tunnel opposite - the light from the Red River traveled a bit into the tunnel ahead of them, but not far enough to reveal anything of interest before it transitioned into pure darkness. “Final stretch guys. Easy does it, no loud noises or sudden movements and we’ll be home free.” Aegis said.

“Don’t say stuff like that, that’s how you jinx these things.” Darkshot shook his head disapprovingly at Aegis. Aegis just smirked back while Lina and Rakkan giggled. Aegis took the lead again, making the first steps forward across the bridge.

He held his shield up high, extremely on edge and glancing around continuously for anything suspicious. The moment they got on the portions of the bridge above the magma, the heat from below them rising up under the bridge got extremely intense, so much so that it felt difficult to even breathe.

Still, nothing happened. So Aegis continued forward. The bridge was long as the river was wide, and they moved slowly. But when Aegis reached the center of the bridge, he and his party saw the silhouette of a humanoid figure appear out of the darkness of the tunnel on the other end of the bridge.

The person approached with purpose, staring directly at them. He wore a white hooded cloak that was up over the top of his head, hiding his face. The cloak was bound by a golden string around his shoulders, holding it closed, but as the figure walked forward Aegis caught glimpses of white leather leggings and boots, and two dagger hilts on his waist.

“Yo, Aegis.” The male figure waved jovially, speaking abnormally loud without any care for attracting enemies nearby. Aegis immediately stopped moving forward, as did his party members behind him. The figure continued to walk towards them.

“Is that an NPC or a player?” Aegis asked in a whisper.

“Can’t tell, he’s hiding his name and level with that cloak.” Lina replied as she grabbed the hilts of her dagger.

“I’m a player.” He replied cheerfully.

“Good hearing. Bunny demihuman?” Rakkan suggested in a whisper.

“Bingo.” He gave a playful thumbs up as he stopped walking forward. “I’d say you’re a hard person to track down, but, c’mon, we know that’s a lie.” He chuckled as he put his hands on his waist.

“What do you want? This isn’t really the best place to talk.” Aegis asked.

“Oh, well I was just thinking, that stuff you just crafted with tier 3 voidsilk looked pretty interesting.” He replied as he pulled his daggers out of their hilts. Immediately Pyri materialized four cinderbolts, Rakkan created two echoes and drew his weapons, Lina drew her daggers, and Darkshot pulled out his longbow and nocked an arrow.

“Even in Kalmoore, they exist. PKer.” Darkshot sighed nervously.

“It’s not just the gear...” He added. “I’ve got a bet with some buddies of mine…” He took a few more steps forward.

“Most likely an Assassin class player. Be careful, they’re very fast. Daggers and wires are their main weapons.” Lina informed the group, ignoring his monologue. He was still a good 12 meters away from the party, but he carried about him a great aura of confidence.

“A bet with some buddies?” Aegis asked while cracking his neck, preparing for the fight. He took a moment to glance over the sides of the bridge to make sure no NPC enemies were drawn to their voices - luckily it remained peaceful in the magma river below.

“Yeah, you see, they don’t believe I can take you all on by myself. I'm gonna prove otherwise.” He said before suddenly dashing forward towards Aegis with incredible speed.