Chapter 4: 4

The many winding streets of the city all blur together into a vivid collage of colors, sounds and smells. Wooden booths and bright, decorative banners dot the many ways, which are filled with high-spirited people, who move about them in all directions. The streets of the city are flush and flowing with life, as if they were the off-shooting branches of a landscape-nurturing river. Winded, sweaty, but determined, she breaches the final street and enters into the plaza on the far side.

There, before her, stands a large, ominous stone gate. It looks much like the one that lead into the city. A blueish, cloudy aura seems to wave and sway around inside of it, contained by the construction’s frame. This has to be it, there’s no mistake.

All around the circular plaza are run-down houses and tents, it looks far more dirty and worn down than the front market square of the city. This quarter appears to be a lot less prosperous in general, she notes with some surprise, watching as people move down towards the entrance to the dungeon, passing through the blue mist in groups; or sometimes, more rarely, alone. Others would walk past them and back out, carrying large sacks filled with items and grisly trophies. Some of those people look a little worn and worse for the wear, but satisfied. She wants that look too.

A dungeon, huh? She ponders for a second, but still walks towards it, still a bit flustered. She doesn’t have any equipment. She doesn’t have any money for any and she doesn’t know anything about this world at all. But if this is anything like any of the dungeon-fantasy worlds that she was familiar with, from the stories she had known in her old life, then she could maybe just go inside? There should be a first floor, right? Something easy, something for beginner adventurers like herself to sharpen their teeth. A ’tutorial’ area, for a lack of better terms, right?

Maybe there would be some ridiculously easy monster types that she could… uh… she looks at her hands. Pummel? Punch? Kick? She doesn’t feel very strong, but… she is fairly confident that she could maybe take down something small, like… uh… what kind of monsters are there here? She looks around at the many people walking by, with their bags full of stuff and listens to the voices of those exiting the dungeon. Small globs of green goo held in glass jars and giant mushroom-caps are the most common thing that she sees. So… slimes and… some kind of mushroom creatures? Judging from old tropes, those seem like low-level beginner monsters. She’s pretty sure that even she could take down something like a tiny slime.

Even if she had never fought anything or anyone ever before. A tiny mushroom monster? She’d just grab a rock and smash it. Yeah! The plan seems simple enough. It’s too easy, too classic. It can’t go wrong. She steps towards the blue mist, having crossed most of the plaza now.

“Did you hear, there was another murder-“ whispers a hushed voice from a group walking past her.

“Another one?” asks a man quietly.

“Yeah… apparently, people are saying tha…” the voices trail off, becoming indistinct as they distance themselves, vanishing into the noisy crowd.

She stares over her shoulder for a moment, hoping to catch another word, supposing that things like that could even happen in a world like this. Some things never change. But some things will. She looks towards the blue mist. Behind this obstruction, just barely visible, is a single, gigantically large staircase which heads straight down into the world. She places a foot inside of the barrier. She’ll make sure of it. She’ll change it herself, swears the girl quietly under her breath. She will. Her heart beats hard and fast, her arms shaking in nervous determination as the strange, soft feeling of the mist envelops her. It’s damp.

Her vision goes entirely blue, before fading to a white that then lets out slowly, as she now stands beyond the wall of blue mist. Looking around herself, she doesn’t see anybody. The dozens of people that had entered here together with her are now no longer anywhere to be seen. It’s just her; just her and the slowly whirling mist behind herself, which leads back to the city outside. The staircase is extremely wide, easily wide enough for ten people to stand side by side at arm’s length. Burning torches line the way down towards a single, flat floor, that she can already see from up here.

“Maybe there’s a tutorial area…” she mutters to herself, stepping down the first steps, wondering if this is that kind of ‘gamified’ fantasy world. She supposes this will be the moment that she finds out. With any luck, there would be some sort of starting equipment waiting for her here. An old, rusty dagger, maybe some stale bread and an ugly hat? That was the typical trope and she’d be happy with any of it. At least she has some boots that she likes. The sleeveless robe-dress-thing isn’t ideal, though. Oh well, one problem at a time.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she looks around the perfectly flat, roundish room. It is entirely unremarkable. The walls are made out of an ancient stone brick-work and the floor is simply flattened, compacted dirt, from which grow some old roots out of sparse nooks on the walls. She looks around, a little confused. There’s nothing here? It’s just a room and the staircase that leads back up. Wait.

No. There! On the far wall, there is another aura, like the first one up-top, but it isn’t blue. It is a faint, warning-toned red. She steps towards it. Something presses against her front, stopping her from going further.

“Is this way blocked…?” she looks around, maybe there’s something she has to do first, before the red fog would let her go deeper into the dungeon. Maybe there’s a lever or a secret switch, or a block puzzle or something cliché like that? She probably has to ’beat’ the first floor before she can go to the second one and so on.

Something rustles behind her. She turns around to look at the source of the noise.

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The source of the noise crawls out of a dark crevice, from beneath one of the large, gnarled roots covering a hole in the wall. A strange, shifting mass. It’s… a tiny mushroom creature. She looks at it, as its small, beady, black eyes focus on her from the distance across the room. It’s minuscule, only maybe reaching her knees at best, though it is a little wide. The brim of its cap is easily thicker than her whole body is. That’s fine though. She nods to herself, taking a deep breath. A low-level monster. It’s exactly as she had expected. Everything is going to plan!

Looking around, she grabs one of the torches from next to herself from the wall. Suddenly, something appears before her. “Huh?”

+1 DMG

+1 FIRE DMG

Apparently, there are menus after all. Good to know! But not the most important detail right now. Touching it, she notices it feels like a piece of cold glass. She swipes it away. The mushroom-creature has already almost reached her now, as it hops forward with rather silly looking bounces. Its eyes are sparkling. Its small, pouting mouth makes tiny squeaking noises. Its cheeks are flush and pink and puff in and out with every strained bounce towards her. Holding the torch ready as her weapon, she looks at the little monster, feeling a little sympathy for the small creature. It looks as winded and exhausted as she had felt running just a few meters before. It is kind of cute though, it makes her feel warm to look at.

She narrows her eyes. She’s going to kill it.

Does that bother her? No. Not really. The fire of the torch burns in front of her eyes. She has never killed anything before, apart from the odd mosquito or fly. But nothing like this, nothing… ‘real’. But -

She plants her foot back behind herself to get ready, preparing her body to swing the torch as hard as she can in her first strike towards the future. The little mushroom is almost upon her now. Its adorable eyes are wide with the most fury that they can muster. Enough to maybe spook a small turtledove.

- But she’s going to do it. She’s going to do this and she’s going to work hard, to earn the life that she has always wanted!

*NYAH!* squeaks the mushroom, with a comically high tone as it lunges with delightful anger at the intruder. With her heel planted firmly behind herself, with her eyes shining brightly, glowing with the same light as the fire in her hands, with her soul ready to run straight towards her destiny, she swings the torch to strike the creature in mid-air, with everything that she has, with all of the feelings that are inside of herself, burning so bright like this flame she wields.

It trails through the air, leaving a streak of light as it thwacks against the face of the mushroom, who falls back down to the ground from the impact, squeaking in terror as the fire singes its face.

*NYAAAAAaaaaah~…*? The dramatic squeal fades off rather quickly and the mushroom looks a little confused, staring around itself, not sure what just happened. It looks up to the new window that has appeared next to the girl. They both pause for a second to stare at it.

“What...?” she eyes it up and down, not sure if she is reading this right. Only one damage? It has twenty health-points though and she only has three. Did something go wrong? Her eyes nervously dart back towards the mushroom that is now staring back straight at her.

Their eyes meet. It lunges.

*NYAH!*

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