Crystal Grove

After half a day of walking with Kleek and many wolf kills we finnally reached the first of the dungeons. I looked over the rewards of the hunting and saw that i had raked in quite the haul of rare and uncommon hides now. In total 342 uncommon and 113 rare was now my new total. Very nice. I did however notice i didnt even earn a single drop of XP.

"System, do animals not provide XP?"

"Lower end animals like deer wolves and the like do not provide XP, you must defeat animals classed equal to or higher than a bear."

'Ahh… that makes sense i guess… maybe even the average person can take down a wolf then… plus it's probably common to hunt for a living so maybe thats why…'

I slowly entered the dungeon, its entrance a crack in a rock pile near a mountain cliff. Once inside i saw a long path down into the ground. It was incredibly long. There seemed to be nothing in the immediate area so i pushed onwards. After what seemed like an hour of walking the path leveled out, leading to a wide open chamber. Inside were hundreds, if not thousands of crystals.

I carefully walked to the center as Kleek spoke up. "This… this is the crystal grove… long thought to be… lost… a person will only ever visit it once in their entire life and may select a crystal that calls to them. After which a challenge will appear and if they fail to pass the challenge they become part of the grove, whereas if they succeed they can absorb their crystal into their body and receive an ability or other unique ability…"

"Well then…" i glanced around as she bent down and grasped hold of a fist sized crystal that looked like a murky white to me.

"Its so pretty… and colorful… its like a rainbow…"

I was about to tell her it was plain when something shined in my eye. I turned and saw a crystal, at first it glowed a bright red until it faded to a purple and then finally pitch black… i could sense the raw power coming from it, like it was a star radiating heat directly into my body when it glowed red, but then i felt the chill of death as it glowed purpler, the same chill i felt when i crashed. And finally i felt the absence of everything, as if the whole world was sucked away into darkness.

I slowly stepped towards the crystal… one foot then the next. My heart pounded in my chest and ears. I could hear each breath i took over the sound of my beating heart. My throat tightened as i drew near. With a trembling hand i reached out and grasped the crystal… and then everything went dark…

When my vision came back i found myself facing my crystal on a podium. It spoke with a thunderous voice.

"What is not alive yet grows, it has no lungs yet needs air to thrive, has no mouth yet water kills it…"

"Uhhh… is this a children's riddle…? The answer is fire…"

With my answer came a circle of flames surrounding me and the crystal.

"I am always around, but never seen. I am often avoided, but I always catch up. I will come when your old and grey, or maybe even the very next day. I will come with cold embrace, and give you rest with a chill kiss on your face. I am everyone's finale fate."

"Easy… death…"

The fire around was then changed, as instead of warmth it chilled me to the bone. Going of what I experienced when i saw the crystal for the first time i guessed the answer to the final riddle would be darkness.

"The more there is of me the less you see. What Am I?"

"Darkness"

The flames cut out and disappeared. Leaving only the crystal glowing in front of me.

"What now…" i waited for a response before a heavy pressure assaulted me weighing me down. I was unable to move now…

"Touch me before you die if you can…"

I struggled… even with my monster stats i could my body being crushed. I had to make it out… i needed to survive to live again. To protect Kleek. Slowly, i pushed my arm across the ground towards the crystal. I dug my fingers into what felt like stone and cracked it. Giving myself a handhold i pulled myself forwards as i reached out my other hand.

I felt my ribs crack under the intense gravity as I continued my slow crawl. Slowly but surely i made my way towards it. My nose bleeding, chest heaving barely able to breathe and legs feeling useless i clawed my way up the podium… at last I finally brushed my finger upon the crystal and felt all the pressure release. I closed my eyes as i relaxed. The feeling under my hand went from a cold hard stone and jagged crystal to a warm soft and squishy feeling. I opened my eyes to find i had grasped onto Kleeks thigh. She was still as she kneeled looking down upon me.

"We… we did it…" i panted as i still felt the pain and pressure from before yet i physically didn't experience anything, it was all mental."

"Y-yes… we did…" her face blushed as if remembering something embarrassing which is when i realized she wasn't wearing her armour, she was wearing simple clothes, the same ones she wore previously when we first met and left the dungeon, a plain white shirt, and simple skirt that fell to her mid thigh but was now hiked up a little and from my angle hid absolutely nothing that it was supposed to cover. I sat up slowly.

"Well… how do we know it it worked…? How do we know what powers we got?" I asked her but she stared blankly at me.

"Im… not sure… i just know i saw the crystal sink into your skin…"

"Ahh… i guess we will find out later then maybe…"

I wouldn't need to really wait but how would i explain the system to a goblin girl…

'System, did absorbing the crystal provide any benefits?'

"Yes, but the effects are unknown right now, your body is still absorbing the abilities hidden within the crystal and will take some time to refine into power. Predicted effects are that it will enhance your 4 affinities for the elements of fire, gravity, darkness, and death… other results are possible but unknown at this time.. please give your body time to sort it out…"

'Ahhh… so the system isn't a know all be all… but it is definitely helpful…'

"I guess we should head out… but what happened to your armour?" I asked Kleek as i stood up.

"I took it off while i waited after i sat there for 20 minutes… and im glad i did, you were stuck there for at least a few hours before you crawled to me and started reaching to touch me… i figured i would wear something easier to remove if thats what you were after…"

"I uhh… no… thats not what i was after at all, I'm not like that, i just saw a vision and had to crawl under intense gravity pressure to reach my crystal. Im sorry if i made you feel uncomfortable at all…"

"Its fine… but yes.. lets get out of here then…" she quickly undressed before donning the armour and stood ready to go. "Come on lets go…"

We made our way back to the surface and the trip out was faster than the trip down. Once we stepped back out into the sun light of the setting sun I noticed it had been a day since we left the village. I looked back at Kleek only to see the crack had disappeared and was replaced by a smoothed over rock face…

"To the next dungeon then…?"