Pressed-Dirt

“So, my men tell me the bandit that attacked you last night escaped? And you heard nothing after? No screams in the forest?” Sullivan folded his hands under his chin, glancing at Anya.

“No, father, I focused on the wounded soldier. However, ‘escape’ is not accurate. He retreated from Jay’s grotesque skeleton creatures.” Anya took a bite of her muffin as she looked out the window by Sullivan’s side, sighing and shaking her head after remembering Jay naming one of his creatures ‘Muffin’. She found it harder to swallow today.

Seems like we may have found the source of these attacks. Perhaps I’ll need to question Jay. He thought, before deciding to send Anya instead.

“Anya, head to Jay’s place. He lives above the butchery… Tell him to withdraw his skeletons from the forest or there will be consequences.”

Anya looked at her father with a confused and concerned expression. “What do you mean, consequences? What are you going to do with him? You think he is the one behind the dead animals, don’t you?”

“We shall see. Go.” Sullivan waved his hand as the door opened by itself.

Sighing, Anya leaves the room “See you later”.

—

The sound of loud knocking jolted Jay awake, coming from his front door.

[72 Exp]

Jay waved away the notification with a smug half-smile before responding to the door-knocking.

“Hold on, I’m coming!” He put on some pants before heading downstairs, almost stumbling as he opened the front door.

“You live here?” Anya asked, standing there with a slightly concerned look on her face.

“I gotta live somewhere. Why are you here?” he said bluntly, skipping the small talk as he reminded himself she wasn’t worth the effort - he was merely a tool to her.

“The guild master has a message for you. Can we talk inside?” Anya said, as she looked around for anyone listening.

Sighing, Jay stood back and gestured her in. After shutting the door, Anya was the first to speak.

“Sullivan thinks you have skeletons running around killing things in the forest and he wants you to stop.” She got straight to the point.

Jay was walking to the next room with Anya following behind as he grabbed some water and splashed it on his face.

“What?” he asked, not really listening.

“Stop killing creatures in the forest.”

Jay paused for a moment as he put the pieces together. “Is this what the meant by the ‘situation’ happening in the forest? The animals dying?” He asked, trying to stop himself from chuckling at how much they were over-reacting.

“Jay, they’re not just dying, they’re being brutally disemboweled. They found one animal with its ribs caved in after being beaten to death by a glade deer’s head. The villagers would be fearful if they found out, even some veterans come back to the guild looking white as ghosts because of the sheer brutality. If it’s your skeletons, it needs to stop. Someone much worse than the guards may come investigating. Someone who could tie your ‘friends’ to you.”

Shocked for a moment, Jay willed his feeble creature Muffin to stop hunting and go into stealth. Well, as stealthy as it could be, and to wait near the wolf’s quarry dungeon.

“Ok. If it is me, it will stop… so the strange things happening in the forest have only been brutal animal deaths?”

Anya nodded, as if it was obvious. Ah, Duh! she thought, but didn’t say aloud.

Jay lightly chuckled as he took a sip of water. “Well, is that all?”

Surprised at Jay’s lack of hospitality, she made her way to the front door again. “No… I’ll see you next time.”

Anya didn’t show it, but she was a little disappointed at how distant Jay seemed, though she hid her internal frown as she left.

Well, since I’m up, I may as well get started, Jay thought, finishing his water.

Making his way back upstairs to put on the rest of his clothes, including the Molodus coat, which seemed to almost slide itself onto Jay, he began thinking about how he would sneak off into the woods. He packed a shirt, pants and a hooded cloak, which he would use to dress up one of his feeble creatures to cause a distraction if need be. Of course, that would be a last resort.

Losla village wasn’t a walled settlement. It had 3 main roads with a gentle stream running around the north-west side of the village, which went under a bridge on the north road.

Jay thought the guards probably wouldn’t stop him, but he played it safe and snuck out anyway, heading towards the north-west side of town. He crossed the stream and headed into the forest.

Normally, the forest was thick enough to conceal someone after going a few meters into it, however, this was winter and the only thing with any leaves were the evergreens, which forced Jay to walk an extra few minutes into the spindly, cold forest.

He soon came across a bird corpse. Something smashed its body into a paste, and he wondered if this was his skeletons doing.

Making his way to Wolf’s Quarry dungeon, he waited until he was inside before summoning the rest of his skeletons. It wasn’t long before he came across Muffin.

Wow, you’re quite bloody. Jay thought, seeing Muffin’s entire knife was crimson red, along with its bottom jaw.

Looking at Muffin, Jay realized that it probably was his skeletons causing all the trouble; he could only imagine what Muffin did to become so bloody. All the skeleton’s bones had at least a few splatters of blood on them; They left none undefiled and blood-free.

Approaching the entrance of the dungeon slowly, Jay hid behind trees and rocks. Keeping low to the ground and quiet, there appeared to be no one nearby, so he didn’t un-summon Muffin, simply sending Muffin to the dungeon entrance.

Someone would scream, shout or attack if they saw Muffin, he thought, scanning the wood patiently for frightened.

It seemed like the coast was clear, so Jay did a crouch-run to the dungeon entrance.

The entrance was what Jay expected - a makeshift mining site with a few tools and a rope-pulley going into a dark hole. An enormous wolf's skull was inside a slanted mining tent next to some tools.

Trying to grab one shovel lying around, it seemed like it was stuck to the soil somehow. An immovable part of the terrain.

“Odd...” Jay raised an eyebrow as he bent down.

He gripped the shovel with all his might and tried to pick it up, yet it wouldn’t even budge.

“Seems like these are a part of the dungeon’s entrance.”

Jay tried to pick up different objects a few more times, including the wolf’s skull - yet to no effect. He pursed his lips and scratched his head as he moved towards the darkened mining shaft, and received a notification as he glanced into the abyss.

[Wolf’s Quarry - Level 5 Dungeon]

[Instanced] [Unlocked]

[Enter Wolf’s Quarry?]

{Yes/No}

Jay braced himself as he hit yes - he guessed that he would have to go into the hole somehow and he was correct. A strange gravitational force dragged him into the hole. He didn’t resist it, after seeing something in the dirt - some other adventurers left finger marks on the ground from trying to stop themselves being dragged in.

After Jay’s head was below ground level, he was suddenly in total darkness, as if a large boulder had blocked the entrance.

Jay and Muffin began falling, the wind whistling past them. Soon they slowed down and levitated, while a gentle glowing light appeared, flickering below them like a beacon in the darkness.

It dropped them off by the side of a slow-moving underground river. It was so slow that it produced no sound at all, neither were there lapping waves against the rocks.

The water must be deep here.

It was incredibly quiet in this huge, cavernous dungeon. Every pebble movement created a tiny echo - however, this was quickly drowned out by the clanking bones of Muffin.

An abandoned slanted mining tent with a lamp hung on a pole was nearby - the lamp being the only source of light in the cave, the one which they saw when they were falling. Jay summarily grabbed the lamp and was glad to find that it wasn’t ‘stuck’ to the tent like the tools around the dungeon’s entrance.

A single pressed-dirt path led along the side of the river and into the darkness.

I’ll summon the others before I move on.

He shifted his ring into its orbital form, summoning the other two feeble creatures - both of them level two. The creatures waited patiently as Jay pulled out the bone daggers and tossed them on the ground for them to pick up.

Jay enjoyed feeling like a noble brat as he could’ve easily handed the daggers to them, but decided this slight gesture wasn’t even worth the energy. Besides, they weren’t truly alive, so it would’ve been unappreciated, anyway.

“Here.” he handed Muffin the lamp, commanding Muffin to walk by his side.

He had the level two feeble creatures act as a vanguard, walking a few yards ahead of him on the dirt path - just far enough ahead that the level two skeletons were slightly enshrouded in the darkness.

Only Jay needed the lamp’s light, as the skeletons could see in the dark, giving him an enormous advantage compared to other adventurers.

The path curved along the river, against a wall, and the feeble creature’s bones all created echoes as they walked. It wasn’t long before a golden pair of eyes greeted the four of them from the water before causing a small splash and disappearing again. Seeing glowing eyes while all four of them paused and assumed a fighting stance.

Deciding to walk on the very edge of the path that was further from the water, Jay had Muffin acting as a barrier between him and the water while equipping his buckler in case something attacked from the darkness on the other side of the path; though nothing happened. Soon, the path turned away from the river and descended into a crevasse in the wall.

A little more helpful for me, thought Jay as he squinted, beginning to walk downhill into the narrow cavern. He could now see the walls on each side, but not the ceiling. It could’ve been twenty feet above or hundreds of feet. There was no way to tell.

Jay equipped his own bone dagger with his buckler ready in his right hand; Muffin on his left side was holding the lamp high in his right hand with a bone dagger in the left hand. Level two feeble creatures at the front, each dual-wielding daggers of their own, were ready to pounce at the slightest movement.

“Here we go.” Jay whispered, squinting into the darkness with a smile.