Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 5: Nothing to See Here

You hard-headed son of a goat. When are you going to wake up?

Consciousness was both a blessing and a curse. Two tiny teeth pricked the side of my neck.

I know you're awake, idiot.

The problem was, I wasn't sure I was. Eyes open or closed, the view was the same. Darkness.

I remembered searching for Tandy and found her aggressive cloak. I flexed my hand, making sure it still worked. The shock had made me jerk, slamming my head into a rock.

A system indicator blinked in the darkness. Expanding the alert, it helpfully informed me of two statuses I intimately felt: [Bruised] [Concussed].

"Did we make it? Tandy?" The words were thick in my mouth. Everything was dry and caked in dirt. It felt like a magical carriage had run me over at top speed. Nothing seemed broken, but everything was going to be bruised. Carefully, I raised my hand to see if the roof had collapsed further. Gingerly, I traced the new ceiling, sitting up carefully to avoid repeating my mistake.

My mind felt like it was trying to run through water. As the memory of Tandy pulling the column supports drifted forward, I grew more frantic, "Tandy? You here? Richard, can you see? Do you know what happened to Tandy?" Tandy had to be alive. There was no other option.

Before my slug could respond, a soft groan came from the darkness. I crawled towards it, hands outstretched, searching.

"Cole, is that you?" Her voice was groggy, but didn't sound pained.

My fingers found the hem of her cloak. I jerked away, belatedly realizing it hadn’t stung. Had the enchantment broken? I crawled forward along the fabric, finding her prone form.

I brushed the rubble off her body. She was cold, but seemed whole.

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” I mumbled the words, moving a couple of stones. My aches and pains melted away through my gratitude for her survival.

Let me help, but one glow-worm joke and it's lights out. Also, the skill has a long cool down, so don't expect this for every hole you fall in.

What was left of the tunnel was bathed in a soft yellow light.

For a moment, Tandy looked dead. Dried blood from her face and several new cuts had stained her clothes. Her skin was covered in dust and dirt. My heart clenched.

Tandy must have sensed it. She grabbed my hand.

“I am okay.” She held my hand until our eyes met. “I’m here, let me help you." She sat up, the remaining rocks falling to the floor. We patted the dust off of each other slowly, trying not to sully the air too much. It was reassuring just to feel each other.

As the shock of it all receded, I examined the tunnel behind us. It’d collapsed entirely. Maybe I should have felt something for ending the [Raider’s] lives, but I didn’t. They chased us here, some sort of test from the system. Ideally, we could have spared their lives, but nothing about this moment was ideal.

I’d examine what that said about me later.

With Richard's light, we both limped towards the presumed exit. I kept coughing. The quality of air had improved, but the cave-in had kicked up a lot of particles.

As we walked, the tunnel grew larger and deeper, several offshoots joining ours. Arrows had been scratched into the wall, pointing forward. We debated briefly about trying the side tunnels, but ultimately agreed that getting out of town was best. Who knew if there’d been more than one [Raiding Party]?

I found an old torch hanging from one of the nodes in the wall. It lit quickly, allowing Richard to take a break as our sole provider of light.

Footstep after footstep passed. I triggered one of my [Meditation] skills, [Monotonous Calm], and was surprised when it worked. Small mercies.

The skill stopped my mind from spinning out into what-ifs in moments like this. It allowed me to focus on one foot in front of the other. Part of my mind noted how the rough, human-carved tunnel gave way to a more natural cave wall. Dirt and wood support beams became rock and stalagmites.

Markers pointing the way were still present, so I didn't question the change. I was tired, my body ached, and my life narrowed down to taking the next aching step.

"COLE!" Tandy snapped her fingers in front of my nose. I blinked, focusing on her face, "Are you with me?" I nodded, unsure why she'd interrupted our trek. "We're here, we made it." I leaned against the cavern wall, exhausted, looking around for the first time.

When the tunnel had turned into a cave, I’d assumed we’d just walk out into the forest. Everything had melded into the death march to the end of the trail. As I examined our surroundings, there were obvious signs that my foggy brain had missed.

Thankfully, Tandy had been paying attention, as the cavern we were currently in had metal footholds sunk into the wall, leading up to what appeared to be another hatch. The hatch was ten feet off the ground. I stared at it stupidly for a moment. It felt like we’d been trying to escape for hours.

"Are you alright?"

"I don't know." The words came out thick. "I used one of my [Meditation] skills, but it normally doesn't affect me like this."

Tandy was suddenly in my face. It was so quick, I almost jumped out of my skin. She looked nothing like her freckle-covered self. She looked like the victim of a kiln explosion, blood, sweat, and dirt mixed in wiped splotches. Her braids were disheveled.

"You look awful," the words came out before I could stop them.

She looked at me square in the eyes, her expression disapproving. I mimicked her, not knowing what else to do, and stared back. She was lucky none of the wood fragments had hit her eyes. She was fortunate the tunnel hadn’t collapsed on her head.

"And you have a concussion. You know better than to trigger a mind-based skill when you've hit your head. Turn it off."

Commanding the skill to turn off was like mentally wading through molasses. It was slow, and my mind kept getting distracted. When I finally shut it off, the internal click was painfully sharp. A throbbing headache replaced the out-of-body numbness.

Tandy nodded, watching me wince. Her face changed to her typical "I told you so" expression.

"Let's get out of here," I muttered, setting down the torch and grabbing the ladder’s lowest rung. Richard refrained from commenting, thankfully, as what little concentration I had was spent clinging to the side of the wall. At the top, the hatch was bolted into rock.

Every motion caused muscles to ache painfully. And my head kept threatening to churn the world sideways. I looped my left arm firmly around a rung as I tried to figure out how to open the hatch. A rusty bolt had locked into place, the tip disappearing into a bored hole in the stone. I grabbed the knob trying to slide it free. Rusty flakes fell off the mechanism, but it didn’t move.

Let me help.

Richard glided forward, rubbing against the hatch. A gooey slime trail followed in his wake, coating the mechanism thoroughly. I watched in amazement as the goo began to bubble.

“Should I be worried if this drips on me?” I watched, my nose only a few inches away.

Not as long as you stay on my good side. Give it a push.

I grabbed the knob and pulled. It was still frozen, but the effort caused it to shift, which was promising. I wiggled it, watching as rust and goo glooped off. Another shove, and the whole bolt shifted. The hatch was unlocked.

Now was the moment of truth. I wasn't sure what would greet us on the other side, but we couldn't stay in the cave. Our torch was already sputtering. I longed for clean air and a dunk in the creek. At this point, I’d settle for death on the tip of a raider’s sword if it meant fresh air.

I reached down, finding comfort in the fact that my hammer was still looped on my belt. If it came to it, I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

I grabbed the hatch handle and pushed. Nothing happened. I shifted, angling my shoulder, and shoved. The hatch shifted, and a shower of dirt rained down on the two of us.

Spitting grit out of my mouth, I got the first bit of fresh air since we'd entered the tunnel. It smelled of the sweet mossy pine of the Heltentic Forest around Woodsten. Pushing up a few more inches, the hatch groaned, revealing a moonlit patch of forest that could have been around the city.

As I scanned the ground, a pair of boots stood in my limited field of vision.

A deep voice greeted me from the surface, "It's about damn time."