Chapter 7: Chapter 7 – Delving in the Dark (Oriwynn Ruins I)

The steps led me four stories below ground level. The stonework here was less weathered, and the flora that had reclaimed the ground level above had all but vanished as the darkness here engulfed everything. Not even a speck of light from the entrance made its way down. An eerie feeling overtook my body, and I suddenly felt like there was some creepy magic at work here. But the feeling of being some kind of tomb raider kept me going, although the nature of this structure was still yet to be determined. But the feeling motivated me to go further, so I stuck with it.

I reached the bottom, where an archway opened to a larger chamber, where darkness swallowed me completely. The torch provided only enough viable light to see about five meters in every direction. It wasn’t much, but just enough for me to notice various other torches had been placed along the walls and some dug into the ground in the centre of the chamber. With darkness being the main enemy here, I went around lighting them all. The room looked far less scary now, and I could actually take a good look around without the feeling something was going to stab me in the back.

The remains of old crates littered the cobbled ground, they had almost rotted away into dust along with their contents. Not a good sign for my hopes of getting some loot. If no humans had made it out this far, then who did all this stuff belong to? Was that merchant’s information wrong?

In the far corner of the chamber, I discovered a small chest resting on the ground. Surprisingly, the wood was still intact and had only suffered from being a sleeping spot for dust and cobwebs alike. I gave it a good wipe with my cloak before a notification appeared on the system to examine it.

Fine Wood Chest: [A chest crafted from the finest Elven wood and imbued with magic to self-repair. This chest can also be magically locked to the user.]

[Open Chest]

Elven wood? … not going to question that. It didn’t appear locked, so I pressed the command and opened it.

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