Spelunking

"Okay, 6 zombies, one treasure, easy, just head straight for it, I can top up the zombie count from back here if I need to, no need to waste my MP"

He walked quietly into the fog. He avoided the scuffling he heard and decided to only attack the zombies if they noticed him. He was starting to get the idea they would only sense him from a distance if they smelt his blood or magic. Noise and their fellows dying seemed to make a difference too of course but their perception did not seem all that formidable.

He was over halfway through the fog bank before he had to fight his first zombie, it was clearly dumb luck that it had been facing his direction aimlessly as he approached, this first once again had the domino effect however and he was soon left with just 2 more to collect to get his hands on the blessed potatoes.

[11 exp]

[14 exp]

[10 exp]

[12 exp]

Retrieving the bouquet garni which dropped from the last zombie he nodded in satisfaction. It only took a couple of swings to dispatch a zombie now, he had found a good rhythm for fighting them and was completely comfortable with the process, of course knowing he could outrun them easily should a horde form helped with this.

As he got closer to the treasure location the mountains loomed nearer and huge jutting rocks became more and more frequent. As he continued he had to make detours around these more frequently until he was basically walking alongside a cliff face looking for a way through.

"This really is the mountain now, I might have to climb a part of it to reach the treasure"

This was not an appealing thought and one he wouldn't entertain, he was no climber and with no gear it wouldn't matter how strong his physique was. As he was contemplating turning around and kicking himself for almost dying to get this useless map he rounded a corner to find the entrance to a cave waiting for him.

The entrance was an apparently natural crack in the cliff face and easily big enough to accommodate him walking up right.

"Well this can't be a coincidence right?"

Studying the map he could tell the treasure was about 100 metres away but not the height. This cave was certainly close enough to reasonably lead to the treasure but he would have no way of knowing how long he'd be inside before finding it.

"I should have brought more torches"

The single torch in his inventory married up with the few sticks and branches he had would have to be enough but for now, he would try to walk some way into the cave before using them first though.

As he snuck into the cave, watchful for what might be living there he tried not to imagine a magically enhanced bear or some sleeping basilisk waiting for him to enter. As he progressed he'd expected the light to fade out quickly but instead could see slight orange illumination ahead and hear faint noises within the cave walls.

"It's a dragon isn't it"

As he moved forward towards the light he arrived at a bend as the way led further to the left, the opposite direction to the treasure. Peeking around the corner he could identify a sound he'd been hearing in the background as he saw clearly the way ahead.

"Torches spluttering, who lit these?"

Torches lined the cave walls and although the passage was not straight he could see them interspersed at regular intervals.

As he continued forward he found a crude stone pickaxe laying on the floor, it was the right size for a human which was unsettling.

"Whatever's down here can use tools and is as big as me, unless these are all just generated by the mission as some kind of scenery? This world is strange, I don't feel like I'm the first person walking on it"

He kept moving forwards with a spear equipped and his axe and wooden sword hanging on his hips, as he kept moving forward he began to hear a rhythmical tapping, the sound getting louder the deeper he went.

Arriving at a crossroads he was also aware of the sound of rushing water faintly coming from the left most path, the tapping coming from the right.

The treasure was to the right along with the tapping but he decided to head left to at least know what would be at his back when he went for the treasure.

He had only intended to move a short distance down this path but found himself fascinated by the green glow ahead; this path had no torches on the walls and it was beginning to get difficult to walk along with the green glow giving just enough light to see by. Eventually reaching the source of the glow and the rushing water he looked out over a large natural cavern with a large rushing river in the centre, the underground river was rushing down through the rock where it had clearly made its own path.

Most of the cavern was unreachable from where he was as were most of the mushrooms but he could see small creatures moving between them across the water, less than 2 foot tall the creatures were hunched and grey, whatever they were they were clearly being very attentive of the glowing mushrooms. He couldn't see them clearly enough to make out what they were but was fairly certain they wouldn't use human sized pickaxes even if they were the type to mine.

Backing out from the room he considered the potential value of the mushrooms and thought about grabbing the few on this side of the river but thought better of it, he didn't need such unknowns right now, he didn't want to have to fight these creatures.

Instead he crept back down to the cross roads and closer to the continual tapping.

A large crash rumbled through the passage ahead and drowned out the tapping sound, the slight feeling of displaced air pushed past him and the torches flickered before steading. As the torches steadied the tapping continued in the same perfect monotonous rhythm.

Creeping forward again he found he could make out other sounds amongst the rising volume of the tapping. An occasional scratching of stone, the clear sound of rocks being picked up and then a voice.

"Diggggggg"

"Of course they were here, whoever had the map knew about this place well before me, why wouldn't they come looking"

Peeking around the corner he saw a group of six skeletons with crude mining supplies chipping away at a clearly fresh opening in the cave wall, the chamber they were digging into was slightly higher than this one and they were widening the gap they'd made upwards. He could see from the rubble they were moving that this new chamber was lined with bricks and slabs rather than the natural formation they were in.

The map showed clearly that the treasure was within this new chamber no more than a metre from the wall the skeletons had picked though and it was clear that whoever controlled these skeletons had had the same thought as him to simply follow the interface and take the shortest route.

"The implications of this are too scary, I'm going to assume this is just part of a narrative quest"

He looked to his weapons and decided that, given all the skeletons were equipped with pickaxes, he would use his spear and the reach it provided to take them down rather than his axe.

"If this doesn't work I can always drop it and switch"