It didn't take long for Elias to regain his bearings and he secured his knife, elixir and ring with some of the leathers of the ruined leathers he was wearing. One full leg was intact and the other went down to where his stump was and was covered in dried blood. He had no armour on his top half and for the first time in a while—he felt cold.

  "Uthred?" He called out, "UTHRED?!"

  His voice echoed out in the room and not even a whisper returned to him. He shrugged, "Either that twin loving bastard is still sat against that tree, eagerly awaiting my return, or… or he thinks i'm dead, which would make sense."

  He moved slowly through the room—he'd picked it clear before entering and knew that there was nothing else for him. He walked gleefully on his barefoot towards the exit.

  As he neared the threshold—he felt something, an intense power. It felt like the pressure of a higher tiered being. His hopes lifted and he pranced through. He stopped in his tracks immediately upon seeing a blue crystal levitating in the air at around his chest height. It eminated the same power as Uthred did. "What is this?" He said as he neared it, he got no sense of danger—and his own sense of danger was something that he had begun to rely on.

  The crystal was twirling in a circle slowly, but other than that, it seemed inactive. "Why stop the fun now?" he said as he reached out. As he neared a few inches of the Crystal it flashed with intense light and pulled towards his hand, Elias grasped it and Mana burst out from it, all directed into him.

  He gasped in shock as he expected a flurry of pain—none came. Only an array of thoughts and images.

  "If I survive, that'll make you happy. Wait for me in Levanse…It's this way?" Elias said aloud as he tried to parse the concepts flooding his mind.

  As his words fell upon 'this way' a birds eye view of the Plains of Thedras came into his mind, it was labelled—like a map. Plains of Thedras, Catacombs, 'Comfy relaxation spot' and to the north, roughly a day away—Levanse. A medium sized Town which he recalled Uthred mentioning before he'd set out on his mission. On the spot marked catacombs and with a little concentration, Elias could see a small humanoid like token—it had his name on it.

  "OK, now that is a skill!" He said in amazement—whatever skill it was that allowed him to view his current location like a map, incredible, and definitely a skill he was going to be asking Uthred for when they met up again. "That stingy-Twin-loving oaf. Well, I think it'll be a just deserved recompense after my little adventure."

  With another thought, he could dismiss the map like image from his mind and see clearly ahead of him. He tried a few times to bring it into his view and dismiss it—all succesfully. The glow from the crystal had faded to almost nothing and Elias swiped it from the air. He wasn't sure if it was necessary to allow the Skill to work and if it was, he needed it.

  Then, without any further delay, he moved. His pace significantly faster than he had been last time he was in the Catacombs.

  It didn't take long and he had removed himself from the underground labrynth, back through the maze of traps—his raised attributes allowing him to traverse with ease, adding a dash of Mana Barrier to mitigate any errant flames and Mana Manipulation to redirect their momentum. It was effective.

  On exiting the catacombs and feeling the warmth of the sun embrace his body—feeling the warm breeze gliding across him. He took a moment to truly relax, he took a deep breath and smiled. For the first time since the attack, he felt a sense of both joy and accomplishment. He didn't think that he would truly experience those emotions again, maybe it was just relief from the intensity that brought on his surge of positive thoughts—even so. His feelings were real and he embraced them. "I did it, Mum, Tess. Just wait a little longer—hopefully…" he paused and ran his hands through his hair as he looked up, "Well, hopefully a lot longer, keep watching. I will do this."

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  The moment turned into several minutes, but he did finally begin his journey to Levanse. It took him a small while to work out which direction north was—and he'd ended up walking for five minutes or so in a direction and then calling up the mental map. Twice more and he'd found that he was roughly travelling north and he set out.

  Traversing the plains was easy, especially compared to the Dungeon biome and he made short work of the journey. He would stop for food and water when he arrived at the Town and saw no reason to delay by searching for a stream or otherwise.

  His thoughts now free of peril began to decompress his experience within the Dungeon. He knew he'd need longer than a day to fully explore what had happened, but he wanted to get the important parts summarised for when he met up with Uthred. He hoped that Uthred could fill in the rest and give him some much needed guidance. He also wanted to make sure his list of complaints for the man was well thought through—and long, very long.

  As he approached the Town known as Levanse he nodded to himself in satisfaction—contrary to him initial estimation, the journey had taken less than a day and in fact only around half a day had passed—it wasn't even dark out. He estimated he had an hour or so of daylight to find his bearings, and Uthred. Looking out at the hundreds of buildings ahead of him he realised he had completely forgotten to think how he would find Uthred in this town. It wasn't as though he'd be standing at the main gates with a sign. "All Dungeon delvers this way!" he said aloud as his thoughts merged with his voice in an attempt at entertaining himself. It worked, the poor imitation of Uthred only satisfied his own frustrations with the man.

  He travelled the final kilometer with a bounce in his step as he approached the main gates, this was also the first time in a while that he'd seen other people. Plenty of Humans, a couple of beast-kin and a—a Dwarf? "Wow." He said, Dwarves were rare in the Empire and he had only ever seen one before, especially being on the edge of the Empire itself, it was normal to go through your entire life without seeing one.

  "Hello!" He called out as he saw a queue forming at the entrance.

  A number of people turned to look at him and he only frowned when their curiousity turned to disgust. He even saw a mother shield her childrens eyes. "Well, that's pretty rude," he muttered.

  More and more people began to turn their heads at him as he approached the gates, whispering to each other and he was taken aback. Why are they being so rude? Is it not normal to greet someone this far into the Empire? No. that's stupid, of course it is, we've done it the whole journey.

  He raised his arms in the air questioningly—a few flinched. He looked at his arms and then down at his torso. Then he sighed. "Shit…" he cursed.

  He was covered from head to toe in dried blood, ichor, his own fleshy entrails—now regrown through his partially awakened natural healing and the magical properties of Dungeon flora—dirt, a few feathers and shards of bone. That was to say, along with his dagger strapped to his ripped apart leather trousers and single boot. Elias looked like a raging lunatic that had just gone on a killing spree.

  As he processed his own disgusting appearance—a guard had finally caught glimpse of him and was approaching quickly.

  "Look, I know what it loo—" he began.

  "In the name of the Empire—who the fuck are you? And what do you want?!" The guard gruffly responded as he came within speaking distance, his one hand firmly on the hilt of a small axe strapped to his waist.

  "I can—I can explain!" he said.

  The guard looked him over from his maintained distance and grunted, "Go on then, quickly now."

  He quickly wracked his brain to try and come up with a short, logical explanation to how he ended up this way—in his desperation, three words came out:

  "Uthred", "Quest", and "Monsters".

  The guard stared blankly at him for a few moments before his eyes opened wide, "Uthred…? You don't mean—"

  Latching on quickly he regained control over his words, "I do, Uthred Gorgos. The one and only" he said before finishing in his own mind, Twin-loving bastard.

  "By the Gods, look. Whatever you and the order are up to, try and have a little decorum! No need to arrive here looking like…" The guard responded, gesturing wildly in his direction, "That…"

  "Er-yeah. You're right. That's—that's my fault." Elias said.

  "Bah, damn Order, ever since the attacks they've been nothing but a pain" the guard muttered, loud enough for him to hear his words clearly.

  "I'll just… um, get going?"

  "Yeah, you'd better had, get washed up quickly. You can't go around town like that, you'll be arrested for disturbance in minutes. Come with me." The guard sighed.

  He followed with a nod. He caught the sense that the guard had no want for further conversation and he tried to keep his eyes forwards, he could feel almost everyone they passed staring at him—likely in disgust. One other important thing to note, He stank.

  They reached the threshold for the main gate and approached a small door at its side. The guard gestured for him to wait and then went inside. A few moments later he returned with a linen sheet, "Cover yourself up with that" the guard said, "Now go on, get out of here."

  "Got it. Thanks" He responded as he wrapped the dusty linen around his shoulders, it covered to his knees, he turned to walk through before pausing and turning back to the guard.

  "Do you er—do you know where he is right now?" He asked.

  "How in the Twins name should I know—most likely drowning in mead in the Guild, that sounds like the Gorgos I know," The guard let out in frustration before turning away from him.

  "Thank you—and which way is that?!" he continued.

  His question was met with only an exasperated shrug of the guards shoulders as he blanked him.

  "Right… In I go." He said as he turned to the cobbled streets of Levanse—orange slated rooves, pale stone brickwork and large oak beams decorated the houses either side of the street, tall 'L' shaped posts with oil bowls dangling a few feet beneath were placed evenly along the edge of the carriageways and dozens of people moved in various directions as they lived their lives in the busy town.