Jason slowly crawled his way into the dank tunnel, a circur pipe of wet and slimy brickwork. It was wide enough to push himself along, but tight enough that he ressed against the cmmy sides. The darkness engulfed him as he moved away from what meagre light reached the bottom of the well. Edging dowuouch was the only seh which he could navigate. With the ubiquitous smell of wet rot, he wished his nose was as useless as his eyes.

  “This is not what I po do with my day.”

  If it turned out to be a dead end, he would be forced to shimmy backwards, the tunnel far too tight to turn around.

  “Admittedly, my pns for the day were fairly loose, but ibals and spelunking aren’t things you just casually slide into the schedule.”

  Talking to himself didn’t help much, but any distra was a wele bulwark against the encroag custrophobia. The gloom of the well had seemed stifling, but the dark of the tunnel was much deeper. He felt panic’s icy fingers crawl over his flesh as the tunnel closed in on him. He k wasn’t actually getting smaller, but his rationality seemed powerless in the cold, wet oblivion.

  His unravelling nerves were reag their limit . He was ready to start pushing his way bad risk the ibals when his hand came down on slimy, wet wood instead of slimy, wet brick. There was still no light, so he probed with his hands. He had reached the end of the tunnel, but had no idea what kind of space it opened into. He had a feeling of open space, but in plete darkness it could well have been his imagination.

  His hands felt out some kind of ptform made of wooden pnks. It was wet and a little slimy, although it felt reliably solid under Jason’s hands. The surface of the wood was rough, like sandpaper. Some kind of long-enduring adhesive had beeo apply sand or something simir, improving fri o pnks. Jason had seen something simir on bushwalking tracks. Feeling around as he crawled free of the tunnel, he felt the pnks were lined up to make a walkway, a metre and a half wide.

  It felt like there was enough room to stand, but even with the sand coating he didn’t trust the slick wooden path in the dark. He tinued forward as he had iunnel, hands expl in pce of his eyes. Just a short way dowh he found a vertical metal rod stig out the walkway, at the edge to his left. His hands traced the shaft upwards to a hooked end, from which was hanging some kind of metal box with a loop on top.

  Item: [Crude Magic Lamp] (iron rank, on)

  A simple lighting device fuelled by low-level magic. (tool).

  Effect: Casts light.Current charge: 00%. Requires a [Lesser Spirit ] to replenish.Jason tried using the glowing window as a light source, but even hard up against the mp it failed to produuch as a murky outline. Jason fumbled about to unhook the mp from the pole.

  You have acquired [Crude Magic Lamp].Current charge: 00%. Requires a [Lesser Spirit ] to activate.Expend 1 [Lesser Spirit ] Y/N?“Please and thank you.”

  As the mp lit up, Jason discovered the hard way that he had been holding the front of it pointed directly into his face. He screamed as light bsted into his eyes, dropping the mp from his hands. It cttered away as he fell bato the wooden pathway, moaning with hands over his eyes.

  “Good job, genius,” he croaked, waiting to recover. “Light a mp right in front of your face. Real smart idea.”

  He tentatively opened his eyes and saw the space around him illuminated from somewhere below. The light was rgely obscured, but pared to plete darkness, even some shadowy outlines were bliss. It was at least enough that he was in a natural cavern. It didn’t have the vely smooth floors of a video game cave, which resumably why someone had put in the walkway, raised on thick wooden posts. Jason was already ying on the walkway, so he rolled over to reach down ach the mp from where it had fallen. The as only about an arm’s length above the cave floor, so he fetched it up easily enough.

  Jason pushed himself to a sitting position and examihe mp, careful not to blind himself again. As the name suggested, the crude magic mp was a simple affair, looking rather like a miner’s tin mp. It had three boxy, metal sides, a gss front in a loop handle oop. Dropping it didn’t seem to have harmed the gss at all. Ihe light came from what looked like a round stone, glowing like a light bulb. Using the mp to get a better look at the cave, it ookier than Jason would have liked, with plenty of dark crevices and ominous shadows.

  “Hello?” he called out. Between the racket he had made and the light of the mp, there was little point trying to hide from any denizens occupying the cave. The quest drove him down into the cavern, rather than bato the ibal maze. He was hoping that meant whatever was at the end of the cave was worthwhile. A pirate ship filled with enough treasure to stop the local try club from foreclosing on the family home would be ideal. He would be willing to accept someone who does people.

  “Is anyone down here?” he asked. “If you wao kill ten goblins iurn for an unon spear, I’m only really equipped fht gardening.”

  He thought about the evil trowel, now ready at hand in case of sudden attack.

  “It could be evil gardening.”

  Sihe beam of the mp lit up the cave like a lighthouse on a dark night, there was no point being stealthy. His hope was that he could bait out whatever creatures were lurking into the light. They would probably be adapted to darkness and if he could dazzle them it would at least be some advantage.

  The idea of sneaking through in pitch bess gave him the feeling that he wouldn’t even know how he died. And ‘don’t die’ was the bonus objective after all. In video games, Jason was the kind of pyer who could take it or leave it with sedary goals. In this one instance, his motivation levels had reached a previously unseeh.

  He started following the walkway, taking care with his steps. The sand coating had worn away in a lot of pces, leaving patches of the wood slid friless, from years in the bleak, damp cavern. The cave turned out to be something of a natural tunnel, rough speaking, through which the walkway followed.

  He made his way slowly and carefully until it came to an end at a brick wall, set into the side of the cave. In the middle of the wall was a hefty metal door with a big wheel set into it, like a bulkhead door on a submarine. Both door and wheel were rusty and didn’t look to have been opened in some time.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  Setting down the mp, Jason grabbed the wheel with both hands and pulled, but it didn’t budge.

  “Oh, e on.”

  He yanked on it harder and harder, until his feet were braced against the door as he hauled sideways with his full body weight. He felt a little give, then a little more, each apanied by an unwillial groan. Finally the wheel jerked loose and Jason could turn the relut meism with heavy jerks.

  Panting from the exertion, Jason shouldered open the door. Like the wheel it resisted, and he had to shove it open in fits and starts. His shoulder grew sore as he repeatedly rammed it into the door. Finally, the dave way with a shriek aumbled through the door.

  Quest: [Secrets of the Well]

  Objective plete: Explore the well 1/1.[Awakening Stone of the Stars] has been added to your iory.Bonus quest objective (don’t die) still avaible.“Awakening stone of the stars? Is that like magic version of those celebrity house maps?”

  He went arieved the mp from where he had set it down, pulling the object from his iory. It looked kind of like a fist-sized marble, bck, but taining what looked like tiny stars.

  Item: [Awakening Stone of the Stars] (unranked, epic)

  An awakening stohat unlocks the power of the stars. (able, awakening stone).

  Requirements: Unawakened essence ability.Effect: Awakens an essence ability.You have 0 unawakened essence abilities.You do not meet the requirements to use this item.That seemed more plicated than Jason wao get to when there was a dht in front of him with the promise of (hopefully non-ibal) civilisation. The interior was dark, so he stepped inside and started panning the light beam of the mp. It was a room, thankfully, not just more cave. It was like a rge parlour from a stately home, but after a tornado passed through. Furniture eapestries and paintings ripped down from the walls. Bookshelves had been toppled, their tents tossed around the room. There was an ornate delier that had crashed down from the ceiling, scattering shattered crystal across the polished floor.

  Searg through the mess by the light of the mp, there was aurned cou the middle of the room. U, Jason found a man unscious. Heaving the couch off of him revealed that he rawled in the middle of an eborate pentagram, set into the floor in brass or copper. The man was youngish, maybe thirty, shaven with an olive plexion and a handsome face. To Jason’s eyes he looked rather Mediterranean. The good-looking kind with the dark wavy hair. Oddly, he was wearing what looked like hoo-goodness wizard robes.

  Jaso down the mp to examihe man. He had a strong pulse and regur breathing, but was showing early signs of extensive bruising and his body temperature felt way too high. As Jason was examining him, his eyes flickered open.