Lore/Story Ætheria’a Fate: Cataclysm Chapters 1 & 2

Just a story I’m working on, and looking for some feedback.

Spoiler: “Chapter 1”

DANIEL - WHITEFALL

Altan 8, Year 3250 AFK

"Fire!" Daniel released the string of his bow, launching the arrow strung to it forward. It flew through the air and struck his target, a wooden block painted with a red-and-white bullseye. The arrow buried itself into the block, almost in the direct center of the bullseye. He was one of the best archers in the class, and almost never missed his target.

"Ready!" Currently, Daniel was at school, in the middle of archery training. Archery and bows had always been his strong point, and he showed it here during class. He almost never missed his target.

"Aim!" In addition, Daniel had received special training from the archery teacher, and was often directly praised for his skills. He waited as the archery teacher began to walk down the line of students and correct them. "Liam, stand straighter! Kyler, hold the bowstring tighter! Cilan, hold your bow higher!"

The teacher paused as he came to Daniel, then patted him on the shoulder. "Excellent posture, Daniel! Keep up the good work, my boy!"

Of course, the archery teacher was also Daniel's father. Not that the added skill in archery helped Daniel in any way. Everyone else saw Daniel as a teacher's pet, someone who got special attention just because he was the teacher's son. To the students in this school, the only thing that mattered was how good you were at pigball or not. Archery didn't matter, and some of the students even called it "girly".

Daniel's father continued down the line of students, correcting each one individually. After passing by the last student in this class, he turned around and called out one last time, "Fire!"

Once again, Daniel's arrow made a satisfying thunk in the center circle of the bullseye. He walked forward and carefully pulled each arrow out of the wood, and returned them to a quiver hanging on the wall. He hung the practice bow he had been using against the wall next to the quiver, for the next class of archery to use. Well, tomorrow's class of archery, that was. School was over for the day.

As the students funneled out of the archery ranges, one of the students, began to run and shouted, "Pigball game!" for the whole group of students to hear. The whole group of students began to run towards the pigball field, an open grassy area near the school. Although Daniel was no good at the sport, he still followed, hoping that maybe this time he could actually score a goal.

The group of students turned the corner around the school, and Daniel looked upon the large grass field. It was large and rectangular, over 50 blocks in length and 20 in width. It bordered the road on both short sides and one of the long sides, and on the last side, the wall of the school building served as a boundary. In the center on each of the short sides was a large net that served as a goal.

Breon, the student who had shouted earlier, climbed on top of a large wooden crate. He waited for a few moments as the crowd of students gathered around the crate. He cleared his throat and announced, "Rough rules pigball today! No wimps allowed! Me and Cilan will be team captains!"

The group of students cheered. Breon and Cilan began to discuss who would pick their team first as Daniel thought over the rules of pigball. Most of the time, the game was relatively simple. There were two teams, playing with a ball made of pigskin, hence the name pigball. The goal of the game was to get the ball into the opposing team's net. Usually, this was done by kicking or throwing said ball to your teammates, making your way down the field before launching the ball into the net. Those were the "wimp rules", however. In rough rules pigball, the game was very different.

As one might expect, the game of pigball using rough rules was significantly more physical than regular rules. In rough pigball, you could run and carry the ball, which seems like a great advantage, but it really isn't. While in regular pigball you cannot hit or tackle the opposing team, almost no form of physicality was disallowed in rough rules. One moment, you could be running the ball down the field, and the next, find yourself sprawled out unconscious on the ground.

Daniel looked back at the crate, and it seemed Breon and Cilan had agreed on who would pick first. Judging from Cilan's brand new black eye, it appeared that Breon was going to choose first. He stepped forward and pointed to a single member of the crowd. "I choose Nessa."

That was a no-brainer. Nessa was always picked first. She was likely the best at pigball in the entire village of Whitefall. She played rougher than anyone else, and often played as a one-person team. Many of the players avoided going near her entirely for fear of ending up with a broken bone, quite possibly multiple. While the town healers could fix it in a few days, most students avoided her entirely when it came to anything physical.

Additionally, she was well-known for being one of, if not the hottest girl in the entire village. Most of the teenage boys were in love with her, including Daniel, as well as several of the girls. She had chest-long red hair and a perfect figure, as well as piercing brown eyes that seemed to burn your soul out of your body. She was also hot in a less physical way, as she often worked alongside her father in his forge.

The crowd parted for Nessa as she made her way to the left side of the crate, by Breon. For a moment, there was silence as Cilan made his choice. Finally, he announced, "I choose Mich!"

Mich was another good pigball player. He walked towards the right side of the stage, and Breon took his turn in selecting a student. This process continued until there were no more students left to choose. Fortunately, Daniel had not been chosen last, and ended up on Breon's team.

With the teams chosen, they made their way onto the pigball field. Cilan's team took the far side of the field, while Breon's stayed on the near side. Breon opened a barrel by the side of the field and pulled out the pigball, a small ball of meat wrapped in pigskin. Flies buzzed around the ball as the scent of rotting meat was released to the whole field. Daniel gagged in disgust as Breon brought the ball onto the field, a grin on his face that could only be described as sadistic.

Breon took the ball in front of his team and held the ball in one hand. Then, he threw the ball towards Cilan's team, high into the air. The two teams ran towards each other as soon as the ball was released, like two opposing armies clashing. The ball hit the ground just before the two teams met in the middle, and the game begun.

Almost instantly, the ball was snagged out of the air. Breon had gotten his hands back on it, and pulled it tightly to his chest as he collided with Cilan. The force knocked both of them to the ground, and the ball popped free onto the ground. It wasn't even there for half a second before it was scooped up by Mich. He began to carry it down the field, barreling through several students who just didn't have the strength to oppose him. Daniel ran to catch up with Mich and attempted to wrench the ball free, but Mich just shrugged him off like he was a bothersome fly.

Daniel fell onto the ground, and by the time he got back up, Nessa had the ball and was running in the opposite direction. As he watched, she shoved several players away before throwing the ball as hard as she could at the net, over 20 blocks away from her. Her aim was true, and the ball struck the net.

The ball was retrieved by Cilan, who began to rush down the field. A group of players from Breon's team met him in the middle of the field, but Cilan was prepared. He threw the ball just over the group to one of his teammates and braced for impact. The force knocked both parties to the turf, but Cilan's teammate was already moving. Daniel tried to stop him, but was once again pushed away easily. His agility and dexterity were useful in situations requiring speed or accuracy, but here, they were no use at all.

Really, in pigball, there was only one stat that was more useless, that being Intelligence, which gave Daniel some hope, as at least he wasn't cowering in one of the corners of the field. Of course, that was probably the smart thing to do in a situation like this, seeing how much Daniel was getting beaten up.

Daniel struggled to get up, and watched as once again, the ball-carrier was decked by Nessa before she ran down the field and scored easily. The game continued in this fashion for several minutes, and it was clear who the better team was. Unfortunately for Daniel, that meant that everyone one Cilan's team began to play even rougher. After a particularly nasty hit from Cilan, Daniel got up dizzily, only to suffer yet another hit at the hands of Mich. Daniel was knocked away like a rag doll, unconscious before he hit the ground.

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Daniel woke up in the medical tent, lying on one of the beds. He sat up and found he was the only one in the tent, all the other beds were empty, and not even a healer was present. There was a blinking icon in the corner of his vision, and he focused on it, bringing up a small screen which informed him that he was currently concussed, and featured an image of a hammer being taken to someone's forehead. The debuff timer still had several minutes, but Daniel felt that he could make it out of the tent just fine.

He scooted off the bed and stood up, one hand holding the nearby table. He took a step forward... and promptly face planted onto the ground with a loud thump. Fortunately, he only landed on the tent cloth, and not a block of stone, which was what he would have hit had he been inside a building and not the medical tent. He scrambled to get back up and fell again, this time with a curse. Finally, he managed to find his balance the third time, although he was more than a little dizzy.

Daniel made his way out of the tent, somehow able to not stumble and fall again. Outside of the tent, he leaned against a small stone wall and closed his eyes. His head was pounding even from the short walk, without a doubt an effect of his concussion. He took a few deep breaths to clear away the worst of the pain, then opened his eyes. His father was standing by the tent, arms crossed and looking disappointedly at Daniel.

It was clear he had witnessed all of Daniel’s failed attempts to stand, and had likely been waiting while Daniel had been unconscious. Daniel opened his mouth to speak, but his father cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Daniel, we need to talk about something."

Daniel let out a small, barely hearable sigh. "If it's about pigball, I-"

His father cut him off before he could finish his sentence. "Daniel, you really need to stop playing pigball."

Well, that was new. His father usually only told him to "try not to get hurt". If he had progressed to this, that meant he really didn't like Daniel playing pigball. "I enjoy it. It gives me something to do wh-"

Once again, he was cut off. "I don't know how much you enjoy it, but I can say for certain that your body doesn't."

Daniel opened his mouth to object, but his father once again interrupted, and this time what he said shocked Daniel to his core. "I'm going to have to stop you from playing pigball."

Daniel had no words for this, except "Why?"

"First of all, it is physically hurting you. This is the third time in the last seven days that you've ended up in the medical tent. In addition, it's getting in the way of your duties as a village hunter."

As much as Daniel didn't want to admit it, he knew his father was right. His repeated injuries and time playing pigball took up time that could be better spent hunting and bringing resources to Whitefall. His father seemed to sense his acceptance and said, "Just remember, most of those brutes who play pigball haven't ever contributed to the village. They could very likely depend on the meat you bring from hunting."

Daniel thought about that. He had spent so much time trying to get better at pigball that he never took the time to think about that possibility. He nodded, and turned to go to the barracks to pick up his bow and arrows, but his father stopped him to say one last thing. "No matter what, Daniel, your life will be infinitely more interesting that any of them."

The duration on his debuff having elapsed, and on his way to the weapons storage of the barracks, he thought that over in his head and realized just how true that was. Just a few weeks ago, before his craze over pigball had started, he had stumbled upon a young cave full of low-level spiders. It had taken a few hours, but he cleared the cave without much difficulty, scoring himself several ingredients that he still had in his pouch, and intended to get some armor crafted from them. He had also sold a few of the alchemy ingredients to Rayiel, Whitefall's alchemist.

On the way to the barracks, he was joined by Kyler, his best friend. Kyler was known for being a jokester and a prankster, and there was never a day where he wouldn't prank someone. Usually, Daniel was the victim of said pranks, mostly because he never learned from Kyler's previous tricks. He had just turned 16 a few days ago, making him eligible to join the town guards or hunters.

"I presume your conversation went well?" Kyler asked, clearly having watched the exchange between Daniel and his father.

"More or less." Daniel said. "I'm not allowed to play pigball anymore, which to be honest is probably for the best."

Kyler snorted. "It was bound to happen eventually."

The two friends walked in silence for a few moments before Kyler added, "And if you don't mind, I think I'll join you on your hunting trip."

"As long as you don't scare my targets off with your breath."

"My breath? It's yours that'll drive them away. I'm surprised that you even manage to catch anything."

"I could smell your breath from a mile away, Kyler. The whole village probably knows what it smells like."

A few people gave Daniel and Kyler questioning looks as they walked past, but they didn't seem to notice. The two kept walking and messing around on their way to the barracks and weapons storage. When they finally got there, a few of the guards were milling about in front of the barracks, just sitting and talking. To Daniel's surprise, he spied a familiar face in the small crowd, and quickly looked away.

"There's Nessa!" Kyler whispered. "Now's your chance, go talk to her!"

"No!" Daniel hissed. "Now is not the right time for that."

Kyler sighed. "You always say that."

Daniel pretended to ignore him and made his way around the crowd to a small hatch by the building. He opened it with a soft creak, revealing a ladder leading underneath the barracks. He hopped down the ladder into an underground room full of weapons and armor, all hung on nice racks or armor stands. About midway down the room was a rack neatly labeled "Stormwind" with three bows hung on it.

Daniel neared the rack and inspected the three bows. The first one was his father's, and the second his mother's, and finally the third bow was his own. Both his father's and mother's glowed with the sheen of enchantments, and were clearly stronger and sturdier than Daniel's, despite seeing more wear than his.

=====[Forceful Bow of Crippling]=====

Quality: Well-Crafted Rare

Damage: 18-22

Durability: 203/254

Enchantment: Increase Ranged Damage I

Identification: +2 Dexterity

Identification: +2 Perception

=====[Slender Bow of Aiming]=====

Quality: Well-Crafted Rare

Damage: 17-22

Durability: 192/252

Enchantment: Increase Ranged Damage I

Identification: +3 Perception

Identification: +10% Accuracy

=====[Simple Bow of the Hunt]=====

Quality: Above-Average Common

Damage: 14-17

Durability: 146/161

Identification: +1 Dexterity

==========

Daniel took his bow and slung it onto his back, along with a quiver of arrows hanging on the side of the rack. In addition, he took the armor of off an armor stand labeled "Daniel" and put it on. He felt himself become faster and nimbler from the stat boosts, although small, that the armor gave. He turned around and saw Kyler putting on the last of his armor, then sheathing his weapons, two iron katanas.

Daniel climbed out of the weapons storage, followed quickly by Kyler, and closed the hatch. "So, where are we hunting?" Kyler asked once he was fully standing up.

Daniel thought about it. "We'll go hunting to the west. Not many hunters go that direction, so we might find something."

Kyler nodded. "West it is."

The two of them made their way through the village to the west gate. The guards let them through without any trouble once they were told they were going hunting, and Daniel and Kyler went out into the forest to being their hunting.

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Daniel slowly pulled back the string of his bow, careful to be as quiet as possible to not scare the deer in front of him. He made eye contact with Kyler, who was hiding in a bush opposite him. The deer stood between them, chewing on some grass and completely oblivious to Daniel and Kyler. Daniel nodded to Kyler, and raised his bow to eye level, sighting along the arrow. After a brief moment of silence, Daniel released. The arrow flew right where he wanted it to, into the throat of the deer. It collapsed with a strangled cry, which was interrupted by Kyler leaping out of the bushed and plunging his katanas into the deer's chest.

There was no struggle, and soon the deer lay still. Grimacing in preparation of what he was about to do next, Daniel stepped out of the bush and knelt next to the deer, pulling out a small dagger. He began to skin the deer and carve up its carcass. The task was bloody and Daniel had to repress the urge to vomit, but after a few minutes the deed was done. Daniel picked up the pile of pelts and meat he had carved up and placed them into his pouch, and they magically shrunk to fit inside it. Daniel knew from experience that the bag would keep the meat fresh until he could get it back to the storehouse.

Daniel stood up and watched Kyler dry his swords of blood with the remains of the deer's pelt. Once they were cleaned, Kyler looked up at Daniel, who nodded and gestured to keep going. They crept back into the bushes to find the next animal to kill.

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long. They came across another deer within a minute of searching. Once again, Daniel readied his bow and prepared to fire a shot. This time, however, before he could fire, a grey streak shot out of the bushes and into the deer, which fell over dead instantly. Daniel tightened his grip on the bowstring and ran over the the deer's body. A small, gray blob about the size of Daniel's hand was burrowing into the flesh of the deer. Daniel fired his arrow directly into the creature, which lay still like the deer.

=====[+42 Experience][+84 Archer Experience]=====

Two small green bars at the bottom of Daniel's vision filled a little bit, the bottom one more than the top. Each represented his experience level, for his own level and his class level. Once the bar was full, he would level up for it. Every regular level would grant attribute and skill points, and class levels would unlock special abilities and class spells. For example, Daniel was Archer level 7, and had access to a multishot ability.

He reached his hand down, grabbed the thing and held it out in front of him. Now that he had a closer look at it, he realized it looked like a large scorpion, but gray. It had scales with what appeared to be flecks of ore imbedded into them. He brought it closer and Inspected the scorpion, giving him info on the creature.

=====[Silverfish]=====

-Stonefish are burrowers that live in caves and tunnels underground. To make their dens, they eat through the rocks and ores that make up that location, sometimes giving special bonuses to specific stonefish. This particular stonefish has eaten a vein of silver.

==========

These creatures ate stone? Daniel looked at the small stonefish in amazement. He looked over at Kyler, who had now stepped out of the bush, and relayed this information to him. Kyler's eyes widened as he heard the description. Once Daniel finished, he eagerly said, "We need to find where this creature came from. If it found a vein of silver, that means there must be a cave of silver nearby!"

Daniel nodded. "Yeah, but how are we going to find i-" His sentence stopped as he saw a small droplet of goo on the bush where the silverfish had leapt out. "I guess we follow the goo, then."

The trail of goo led quite a ways away, and eventually led to a large tunnel on a cliffside. Large boulders covered the entrance, but there were a few gaps between them that allowed Daniel to see into the cave. Daniel peeked through one of these holes into the cave. It was rather dark inside, with only some light from outside to brighten it. Although he couldn't see much, Daniel spotted a quick gleam on the wall, indicating that there were some ores here.

He moved away from the hole and looked at Kyler, who instantly knew what he was trying to convey. "We need to be the first ones to explore this cave. Who knows what kind of treasure is inside?"

Kyler agreed immediately. "We should go back to the village, and pick up some pickaxes and maybe more arrows for you." Daniel's quiver was mostly empty, and when he felt inside it he only felt one arrow. Kyler pulled out his map and looked at it for a few seconds before making a small mark where they were. He pocketed the map again, and looked up at Daniel.

"So," he said. "Back to the village?"

"Yep. Back to the village."

With that, the two of them turned and made their way into the forest in the direction of the village.

Spoiler: “Chapter 2”

DANIEL - WHITEFALL

Atlan 8, Year 3250 AFK

Daniel and Kyler made it though the forest and back to the village without incident. When they arrived, the first thing they did was drop off the meats and pelts at the butcher's for him to deal with, then made their way to the mining shack. The shack was a small wooden house in which pickaxes and ores were stored. Every pickaxe was identical, so there was no need for anyone to own a specific one, so Daniel and Kyler each grabbed one. The weight surprised Daniel and he nearly dropped his, but he managed to attach it to his belt.

Next, they stopped at the barracks again, to grab another quiver of arrows for Daniel. He placed his empty one in a pile near the back, where empty quivers were placed when they needed a refill, and slung the new one over his shoulder. Once again, they went back into the forest and headed in the direction of the cave.

More than once, Kyler got lost and ended up going around in circles, but after a walk significantly farther than that back to the village, they arrived at the cave. It looked exactly like before, meaning no one else had found it while they were gone. Daniel unhooked his pickaxe from his belt and nearly collapsed under its weight. He managed to keep his balance, but it took all of his strength to keep himself steady. He slowly trudged up to the rocks and swung the pickaxe into one. Despite his incredibly low Strength, the pickaxe managed to sink into the rock, if just barely.

Daniel yanked the pickaxe out of the rock, or at least, he tried to. The pickaxe refused to budge, as if it was stuck in the rock. Daniel let go of the handle and investigated where the pickaxe had struck. To his surprise, the area where the pickaxe had hit had reformed over the pickaxe, leaving it stuck in the rock. "Kyler," he called. "There's something strange about this rock."

"Yeah, I know." Daniel looked up at the sound of Kyler's voice to see him attempting to pull out his own pickaxe, which had also managed to get stuck within the rock.

"Well." Daniel moved away from the rock. "The miners are going to be pissed if they find out we got their pickaxes stuck inside some rocks. We should probably find a way to get them out."

As if on cue, both of the rocks exploded in a shower of grey goo, which covered Daniel, Kyler, and the ground around them. Daniel fell backwards, stunned by the sudden explosion, and landed against a tree. He wiped the goo off his face and stood up, more than a little dazed. In the place of each rock were several of the stonefish they had encountered earlier. On the ground next to them were their respective pickaxes. They each let out a high-pitched squeak, and then the stonefish from the rock Daniel had struck leapt towards him.

Fortunately, they were all smaller than Daniel's hand, and he swatted each one away from him. Their bodies twisted in mid-air to right themselves, and they landed ready to leap again. In this short window of time, Daniel pulled his bow off his back, pulled an arrow back on the string, and fired. The arrow hit its small target and killed it instantly, the arrow piercing the stonefish before burying itself in the ground.

The other two stonefish paid no attention to the death of their comrade, and leapt at Daniel again. This time, Daniel dodged the attack, and skewered another stonefish with his arrow mid-leap. The last one had no time to react before Daniel killed it as well. Daniel turned from the carnage towards Kyler to see if he needed help, but Kyler had already dealt with his stonefish. Grey goo covered one of his katanas, and he wiped it on the grass to return it to its usual iron gleam.

Daniel carefully stepped through the grey goo of the exploding rocks, and picked up his pickaxe, also covered in a layer of the odd substance. Kyler did the same, but before they swung their pickaxes, Daniel paused. "Kyler," he said. "If we try to mine these stones, the same thing will probably happen as last time."

Kyler stopped before bringing his pickaxe down. "Yeah." He thought for a second before saying. "What if we backed up after swinging and attacked the stonefish right after they jump out?"

"Sounds like a plan." Daniel said. He readied his pickaxe with his right hand, his bow in his left. With a count of three, he and Kyler swung their pickaxes into a rock and backed away. Just as Daniel predicted, the stones exploded in a shower of goo, but they were way out of the range of the goo. Wasting no time, Daniel fired arrows as fast as he could at the six stonefish. Within a few seconds, they all lay dead in piles of goo.

Daniel walked over and plucked his arrows out of the goo and placed them back in his quiver. He retrieved his pickaxe once again, with Kyler not far behind. He readied himself again, and swung at the rocks. After a few minutes, almost all of the rocks and stonefish were cleared, enough to be able to walk into the cave.

=====[+802 Experience][+1604 Archer Experience]=====

Daniel made his way through the goo-covered grass, noticing his experience bars nearly fill up from the massive experience gain. He reached down and picked up his pickaxe, the whole blade covered in stonefish goo. He wiped it on the nearest grass patch he could see, then stood up straight again. Kyler followed, picking up his own pickaxe. He looked into the cave, which to his surprise already had a torch on one wall. He moved into the cave, sheathed his bow, and pulled the torch off the wall. He held it up in his left hand, illuminating the darkness of the cave.

Kyler was just behind Daniel, pickaxe in one hand and one of his katanas in the other. They travelled through the cave, which twisted and turned while heading downwards. Eventually, they entered into a small room-like part of the cavern, thicker than the rest of the tunnel. Several tunnels branched off from it, leading in various directions. Daniel held out his torch in front of him and faced it towards each of the tunnels, but couldn't discern any notable differences.

Kyler studied each of the tunnels. "From what I can tell, these tunnels are sort of like ant nests. Everything will eventually lead to the center of the nest."

"So we should just choose a tunnel and go?" Daniel asked, skeptical that it could be that easy.

"Or only one of the tunnels will lead all the way, and the rest will just be dead ends and traps."

"Of course they are." Daniel sighed. "Let's start with the leftmost one and go right through the tunnels until we find the one that leads to the middle of the nest."

"Sounds like a plan."

Daniel squeezed himself into the narrow tunnel. He held the torch in his extended right hand, illuminating the twisting tunnel. More than once he was cut by a sharp piece of stone, causing him to lose a few points of health. After about a minute, the tunnel opened into a larger room. Daniel was excited that they had found the center first try, but his happiness was ruined when he saw three other passages on the opposite side of the room, blocked by large boulders.

Kyler behind him also had a moment of excitedness, although he hid it well when he realized the same thing Daniel did. "So it's a maze, then. Excellent," Daniel said unenthusiastically. "What next?"

"If it really is a maze, we should probably just explore random tunnels until we get to the center. Of course, there's also the problem with those boulders." Kyler answered.

"What if we just used the same strategy as earlier, where we hit the boulder and then backed away?"

"We don't have a lot of room in here," Kyler gestured to the walls around them, "So your bow won't be very useful. I'll have to be the one killing the stonefish."

"Alright." Daniel walked close to the boulders on the very left. He watched as Kyler put his pickaxe down and unsheathed his other katana, then nodded to Daniel. Daniel plunged his pickaxe into the rock as hard as he could with one hand, then scampered away behind Kyler. As expected, the boulder exploded into goo, revealing several stonefish. Unlike the other silverfish, these ones had what looked like iron scales. Kyler struck one with his sword, skewering it and killing it. His other sword, however, was a little off and clinked off of its scales.

The stonefish, or rather, ironfish, tried to react, but their heavy iron scales weighed them down and Kyler was faster. Both stonefish found themselves dead in less than a second. Kyler knelt down and inspected the fish, and found that all three had dropped some of their scales. In total, he found ten of the iron scales, which amounted to probably about half an ingot. He stood up again and walked over to the tunnel, which's opening was now large enough for them to squeeze through.

Daniel walked forward and did so, forcing himself through the opening. Kyler once again followed, although both lost a few points of health from the scratching rocks. They squeezed themselves through this narrow tunnel, which opened into yet another small room. Unlike the last room however, this one contained a wooden chest into center of the room. "I don't know how these stonefish got ahold of a chest," Daniel said excitedly, running up to it. "But I'm sure not complaining!"

Daniel knelt down and opened the chest with little resistance, excited about what treasure could lay within. What he got, though, was certainly not treasure. A stonefish leapt out of the chest and scratched Daniel in the face, causing him to shout and recoil back from the pain. The stonefish landed, and leapt almost as soon as it hit the ground, attempting to scratch Daniel again, who managed to dodge out of the way in time.

He dropped the torch on the ground, which fortunately kept burning, and attempted to hit the stonefish with his pickaxe, but missed and took another hit. As the stonefish whizzed by him, Daniel noticed that its scales had the glint of silver. He took another swing, in an odd position as he lay awkwardly on the ground. The second swing caught the stonefish and hurled it across the room, killing it.

Kyler peered into the chest, and discovered that it contained absolutely nothing. He relayed this info to Daniel, who cursed. "That silverfish hit me twice, which hurt, and I get nothing to show for it but some scales," he muttered, looking over at where the silverfish landed. All of its scales had reverted to the same color as the stonefish. He cursed again and stood up. He walked over to the chest and looked inside to confirm Kyler's information, and his eyes glimmered with one last spark of hope.

"That chest isn't empty," he said excitedly.

Kyler stared at him, incredibly confused. He looked inside again. "There's nothing inside," he said. "It's completely empty."

Daniel just smiled and reached inside the chest. He grabbed the fabric at the bottom and began to pull. Slowly, but surely, the fabric tore off from the bottom of the chest. Or rather, the top of the secret compartment it had been hiding. Daniel stopped pulling for a moment to look up at Kyler smugly. "This chest has a false bottom. If you had Perception as high as mine you might have seen it."

He resumed ripping up the fabric until it had come free, then threw it to the side and picked up the treasure within. It wasn't much, just a single bar of iron, but that was enough for Daniel, who put it into his pouch. Kyler looked at him in amazement, first at the pouch, then at Daniel's face. "How did you do that?"

Daniel's smirk grew even more smug. "It's a pouch of holding. It can hold a few items larger than it, and is designed for me to use while hunting, but it has other uses as well."

Kyler scowled. "Lucky bastard."

"You're just jealous."

Kyler muttered something under his breath, which Daniel decided to ignore. He looked around the cavern for anything else and saw nothing of importance. There was a small vein of coal in one of the corners, but it was so small and coal so worthless that he moved past it. There was a single tunnel leading out, which fortunately did not have rocks blocking it. Daniel and Kyler squeezed through this tunnel, and made their way up to a room that seemed strikingly familiar.

Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "We're back in the entrance room, aren't we?"

"Yep." Kyler said.

Daniel turned around and chose another tunnel, already exhausted. He and Kyler continued to squeeze themselves through tunnel after tunnel, never seeming to find the center. At one point, they even ended up back in the room with the chest. They fought stonefish after stonefish with various concentrations of ore within their bodies. Over two hours later, there was only one tunnel left to explore.

Daniel looked at the last tunnel and sighed. "Of course it has to be the last tunnel. Why is it always the lasttunnel?" Nevertheless, he made his way into the tunnel, which seemed noticeably larger than the others. He mentally facepalmed himself for not noticing this earlier. They continued through the tunnel, which seemed to go for miles. Every corner they turned just revealed another.

As they went, the tunnel seemed to get wider, which was good news for Kyler and Daniel. Finally, it opened up into an incredibly large room. From what Daniel could see, there were no stonefish, just a bunch of large boulders scattered across the room. "As long as we don't disturb them," he whispered to Kyler. "we should be fine."

Daniel crept out into the large room. He looked around carefully, ready to pull out his bow and arrow if anything went wrong. He set the torch down on the ground, noticing several of the same torch set into the walls of the cavern. As he bent down, he noticed a thin string out of the corner of his eye. He carefully stepped over it so as to not disturb it, and turned around the warn Kyler, but it was already too late.

Daniel could only watch as Kyler stepped on the string, which made a loud twang. Kyler froze, trying not to make any more sound, but the damage had already been done. The rock in the center of the room began to shake violently, rumbling the entire cavern like an earthquake. Then, the rock began to stand up, revealing the body of a massive stonefish. It had enormous scales the size of plates, and stood upon six short legs. Its face was covered in smaller scales, and had huge buggy eyes and sharp pincers.

The massive stonefish let out a roar that Daniel didn't think possible from such an insectlike creature. A bright red bar appeared over the head of the stonefish, along with the name of the abomination. It was a Stonefish Queen, the center of each colony of stonefish, and was level 12, the same as Daniel and Kyler. The bright red bar indicated its health, as well as the fact that this was a boss monster, the final fight of a dungeon.

Daniel quickly attached his pickaxe back on his belt and pulled his bow off of his shoulder and drew and arrow. He fired just as the queen began to charge. The arrow flew exactly how he wanted it to, straight towards the stonefish... and off of one of its scales. The stonefish didn't even register the attack and continued its charge towards Daniel. Kyler tried to reach out with his swords to hit the stonefish before it struck Daniel, but suffered the same fate. His swords only scratched the scales they hit, knocking off only a single point of health, which was regenerated quickly.

The queen rammed into Daniel, sending him flying across the room and onto the ground behind the string, dealing much more damage than both Kyler and Daniel had dealt to the stonefish. He landed hard, and he felt his leather chest plate tear upon hitting the rocky ground. The queen turned around towards Kyler, who danced away from the massive insect. As Daniel lay on the ground, he caught a glimpse of the stonefish's underbelly, which had no scales, revealing its soft pink flesh.

He stood up sharply and called to Kyler, who was busy running away from the monster. "Try to get it to go over the tripwire! I have a plan!" Kyler didn't respond, as he was busy trying not to get rammed by the queen, but he registered Daniel's idea and began to run in the direction of the tripwire. He leapt over it and tried to draw the queen across, but it stopped just before going over the string.

"Looks like it doesn't even want to go over the tripwire!" Kyler called.

Daniel cursed. "Then we'll have to enrage it!"

"Why would we want to enrage it?"

"It's the only way to defeat it!"

Kyler sighed, but still followed Daniel's advice. He hurdled over one of the rocks nearby him and began to run. He jabbed at the stonefish as he ran, trying to taunt it. He ran as fast as he could, trying to get it enraged, but nothing helped. Finally, when Kyler's sword scratched one of the rocks near the wall, that was all it took.

The stonefish queen rushed at Kyler with reckless abandon, trying to ram him with all of its strength. Kyler barely managed to get away in time and bolted towards the tripwire. He leapt over and straight towards the entrance tunnel. With no time to react, the queen's short, stubby legs tripped over the wire and it flipped over onto its shell. Just as Daniel had hoped, that revealed the soft underbelly of the insect.

Unfortunately, Kyler's foot was now trapped underneath the shell of the stonefish, and was unable to get it free. Both of his swords were unable to be drawn due to his location in such a cramped space. On the other side of the cavern, Daniel was able to draw back his bowstring and fire an arrow directly towards the stonefish, piercing its skin and dealing massive damage to the immobilized enemy. He continued firing, each arrow taking off chunks of health form the queen.

After several arrows, the queen lay still, and its legs stopped flailing around. Kyler was able to get his foot free and climb over the stonefish's body. There were probably several rare ingredients or materials that could be found in its scales, but what intrigued the two friends more was the chest buried in the center of the room. With help from their pickaxes, they were able to get the chest free from the stone, and Daniel opened the chest to uncover the spoils inside. Fortunately, this time there was no stonefish to jump out at them. Instead, there were several metal items and a few ingots inside. Daniel pulled them out one by one and inspected them.

The first item was a small compass with a needle that pointed around randomly until Daniel held it out flat in his palm, where it then instantly pointed in another direction. Daniel fished out his compass from his pouch and held it out alongside the new compass. They clearly didn't point in the same direction, and the new compass pointed about northwest instead of straight north. After studying the compass for a few moments, he realized that it was pointed towards the village. He inspected the compass, wondering what it did, and once he did he realized what it was doing.

=====[Compass of Heart's Desire]=====

Item Quality: Well-Crafted Rare

Durability: 45/53

This compass will point towards what that the user desires the most, instead of pointing north or in a specific direction. This will occur until the user has obtained what they desire most, when it will point randomly until obtained by someone with another heart's desire.

==========

Kyler investigated it as well, and when he realized where it was pointing he had to hold in his laughter. Daniel took a few deep breaths, trying to keep himself from getting angry. "It's pointing towards Nessa, isn't it?"

"Probably." Kyler said, doubling over in laughter. Daniel's face was turning beet red, so he thrust the compass into Kyler's hands. "Here, you take it."

Kyler held the compass out in front of him, and the needle swiveled around until it pointed almost directly east. Kyler shook the compass a bit, positive that it couldn't be pointing east, but it remained pointing that way. "What could possibly be in the east that I want?"

"It's probably something you don't realize you want," Daniel commented, also curious about the direction of the needle. Kyler walked around the room, and was even more surprised to see the needle move around as he walked. Eventually, he realized it was pointing towards the chest. "Looks like there's something in the chest I want," he said, kneeling down in front of it. There were only a few items in the chest, so Kyler simply pulled each one out and inspected it.

The first item was a small ruby gem, which Daniel snatched from Kyler before he could even inspect it. There was no doubt as to why he had taken it, and who it was for, and it wasn't what the compass was pointing to anyway, so Kyler ignored it. The second item was a small sack of coins. Kyler opened it and found that there was only a few silvers and some copper coins inside, nothing worth desiring.

The third item was a small schematic for some kind of gauntlet. Kyle had no idea how the stonefish had obtained such an item, but it would probably be useful. He passed it behind him to Daniel, who picked it up and looked at it, despite having no knowledge of crafting or smithing whatsoever. With those three items out of the way, it was the final item that was what the compass was pointing to. At the very bottom of the chest was a small golden ring.

This time, it was Daniel's turn to laugh. "Your heart's desire is a small ring?"

"I don't get it," Kyler said, studying the small piece of jewelry. "This isn't anything close to what I desire. I want better weapons, not a wedding ring."

This just made Daniel laugh even harder. Furious, Kyler launched the ring across the room and into the wall as hard as he could. Midway through the air, the ring became a blur and transformed into a golden dagger, which buried itself in the stone like cutting through butter. Both Daniel and Kyler stared at the sword in shock.

"What. Just. Happened," Kyler said, staring at the hilt of the sword sticking out of the wall.

"That's actually pretty cool," Daniel said at the same time, probably more surprised than Kyler was. Kyler walked up to the wall and retrieved the dagger, holding it out in front of him. He inspected it carefully, looking for any sort of way that it could transform back into the ring. Finally, he just spun the golden blade around, and it shrunk back into a wearable piece of jewelry. "Huh. That is cool."

"Just make sure you don't spin it around on your hand and cut your fingers off."

Kyler snorted, and put the ring onto his finger. It glinted in the light of the torches, and looked extremely out of place on the rogue's finger. Kyler knelt down and picked up the sack of coins and tied it to his belt, as well as grabbing his katanas and sheathing them. Then, he shrugged and just picked up the whole chest and carried it in front of him. Daniel placed both of his compasses into his pouch of holding.

He looked around the cavern to assure that there was nothing else, and realized what they had been missing the entire time. "Kyler," he said, pulling his pickaxe off of his belt. "There are ores in the walls here."

Kyler stopped and his mouth morphed into a sort of twisted grin. He set the chest down and grabbed his own pickaxe. Without any words he rushed over to the nearest cave wall and began inspecting it for ores. It wasn't long before Daniel spotted a small bit of tan ore poking through the stone. Preparing himself for the work that would follow, he gritted his teeth and began to swing his pickaxe. He chipped at the stone with swing after swing, and slowly the ore was revealed.

Finally, after several minutes, and Daniel's stamina nearly bottoming out, a chunk of iron ore was separated from the wall and fell onto the ground. It was only about the size of his fist, but weighed several pounds. Daniel struggled to pick it up, and he placed it inside the chest on the ground. A prompt appeared in the corner of his vision, indicating he had learned the mining skill.

=====[You have learned the skill: Mining! This is a Gathering skill.]=====

=====[Mining Level 1: +1% Mining speed. +1% Chance of finding rare ores.]=====

Kyler, following Daniel's example, placed his own chunk of iron ore into the chest, then returned to mining. Both of them only found some small veins of iron ore, until Daniel found some silver-colored ore. He attempted to mine it, only to discover that he and his pickaxe were not meant for the job. It took many minutes of swinging before the silver ore fell out of the wall, and only a small amount of it. Despite that, it had done wonders for his mining skill.

=====[You are now level 4 in Mining!]=====

=====[Mining Level 4: +4% Mining speed. +4% Chance of finding rare ores.]=====

Once the chest was full of ores, Daniel closed the lid and Kyler attempted to pick it up. He was barely able to lift it, and Daniel needed to assist after he sheathed his pickaxe. They slowly carried it through the tunnel up to the surface. Carrying the chest quickly drained their stamina, and they had to rest multiple times before they were out of the cave. As soon as Daniel was on the grass, he let the chest drop to the ground and fell into the grass, exhausted.

"I never... want to go... in a cave... again," Daniel said, breathing heavily as he lay in the grass. He probably would have fallen asleep right then and there if Kyler hadn't told him what he already knew.

"You do realize... we have... to carry... this chest... all the way... back to... the village, right?"

Daniel groaned loudly, but reluctantly stood up and picked up the chest again. Kyler followed, and the two began the trek back to the village with their loot.

 

That's a nice story although I'm not sure how much it's related to Wynncraft. The items and the xp is, I know.
It's more on the violent side but all Wynncraft stories are.

What do these mean?
And when will the main conflict be introduced?
Cool ideas though.

 

It isn't Wynncraft related, but there's no other section to put this in.

 

what kind of feedback are you looking for? i might come back and attack your writing if i can be bothered

 

Nice!10char

 

oh hi there