[Cass]
The tunnels grew narrow, jagged, the stone pressing close. His torch painted shadows that crawled across walls like living things. Rilka followed, chalk clutched tight, eyes flicking from crack to curve as if the stone itself whispered secrets only she could hear.
Karrek brought up the rear, spear balanced across his shoulders. His breathing was steady, but his eyes moved sharp, every shadow weighed.
The wounded Warble guard's moans still echoed in Cass's ears. The infection was spreading fast. Without herbs the healer had little left but resin and prayer. Cass had seen this before—whole villages crumbling because Lords waited too long to treat a single wound.
He would not let it happen again.
The air shifted as they climbed, turning cooler, thinner. Then Rilka stopped, pressing her chalk against the wall. She scribbled fast, her hand moving without pause, sketching lines like a river branching.
"Here," she whispered. "Air splits. One way stale. One way fresh."
Cass crouched beside her. He placed his palm near the stone. She was right. One current dragged damp and lifeless. The other carried faint hints of growth, of green.
"Fresh," Cass said.
Karrek grunted. "Or death that smells sweet."
Cass smiled faintly. "Then we'll take it carefully."
The tunnel opened into a chamber where roots broke through the ceiling, dangling in curtains. Small herbs clung to the damp soil around them, thin leaves trembling in the draft.
Cass knelt and plucked one. The smell was sharp, clean, almost mint. His heart eased.
[System]:Herb Acquired – Silverroot (Medicinal: Infection resistance). Usable by Healers. Shelf life: 3 days.
"Perfect," Cass murmured.
Rilka bent beside him, nose wrinkled. "It smells like lightning."
"It smells like life," Cass said.
Karrek was already cutting roots for samples. "We fill packs and return."
Cass nodded. "Quickly. We don't linger."
But the river below hadn't forgotten.
On the way back through the tunnels, the sound reached them first. A low hum, growing louder, vibrating in the soles of their feet. Then came the rush of water echoing upward.
Cass froze. "It's here."
Karrek raised his spear. Rilka clutched her slate, eyes wide.
The eelbeast surged into the chamber from below, its body glistening wet, scales catching torchlight in a hundred jagged glimmers. Its head swung side to side, blind eyes rolling, mouth opening wide enough to swallow a man whole.
It hissed, the sound a boiling scream.
[System]:Rootwater Predator engaged – Eelbeast (Rare).
Status: Enraged. Spawn detected nearby.
Spawn.
Cass's stomach dropped.
The first spawn hit like a whip, small eel-things bursting from cracks in the stone, teeth snapping. Rilka screamed as one latched onto her arm. Cass slashed fast, dagger biting deep, and flung the thing away.
"Karrek! Hold front!"
Karrek planted his spear and braced. The beast lunged, teeth clashing against stone where his head had been a breath earlier. Karrek drove the spear into its jaw hinge, straining, muscles shaking.
Cass grabbed a fungus-lantern and hurled it into the beast's face. The glow splattered across its scales, burning faint smoke. The eel screamed, thrashing.
"Light!" Cass shouted. "It hates the light!"
Rilka, pale and trembling, lifted her chalk and scratched lines onto stone, hands moving frantic. The lines formed a circle. The shrine's faint glow through the Dawn Hole pulsed inside Cass's chest as if answering.
He pressed his palm against the lines. The torchlight bent, focused, flaring bright.
The eel screamed again, pulling back, scales smoking under the glow.
But the spawn kept coming, wriggling from cracks, biting at ankles and wrists. Cass fought like a man drowning, dagger flashing, each strike small but precise. He had no room for waste.
Karrek roared, spear snapping one spawn in half, then bracing again as the main eel lunged once more. The shaft cracked under the force.
"Breaks!" Karrek shouted.
Cass's eyes scanned the chamber. Roots, soil, stone. He grabbed a thick root and shoved it into the eel's mouth as it lunged again. The beast bit down, splinters exploding, jaw locking for a heartbeat.
"Now!" Cass shouted.
Karrek drove the broken spearhead into its gills. Rilka, sobbing, scratched another line on the wall, and the chalk burst in a flare of pale light. The eel thrashed, blinded, screaming, its body smashing against the stone until cracks spidered.
At last it pulled back, bleeding dark ichor, and vanished into the river below. The spawn hissed, then fled after it.
Silence fell. Only their breaths filled the chamber.
[System]:Predator repelled. Rootwater status: Risk contained (temporary).
Cass sank to his knees, chest heaving, dagger dripping ichor. His arms trembled with exhaustion. He could still hear the beast's hiss echoing in the water below.
Karrek leaned on his shattered spear, sweat streaming. "It will come again."
Cass nodded. "Then we'll be ready next time."
Rilka clutched her slate to her chest, chalk smeared across her face, tears cutting lines in the dust. "I don't… I don't want to draw anymore."
Cass placed a hand on her shoulder. "You saved us. Without your lines, we'd be meat in its belly."
She sniffed. "But I was scared."
"So was I," Cass said softly. "That's why it mattered."
[Forum – Global Noise]
[IronFist88]: "Lost 20 men to a swamp beast wave. Game balance is trash."
[GlassRush]: "Ashen furnaces finally patched. Production back up."
[GreenwardGrrl]: "Fungus plague confirmed in southern farms. Quarantine zones forming."
[Skeptik]: "Underdark rumors again. Stop with mole goblin hoaxes."
[Nocti]: "Screenshots show something in water caverns. Not fake."
[TravelerClipz]: "Arena stream highlight: BloodPrince one-shots three players. LOL."
[Carto]: "Map fragments pointing to Rootwater caverns are real. Who's hiding them?"
The Ghost Lord name flickered in a few posts, then drowned in complaints and memes.
[Cass]
They staggered back into the hamlet with herbs and roots. The healer took the silverroot without a word, grinding it into paste and packing it into the guard's wounds. The man's groans eased.
Children gathered, whispering about the blood on Cass's arms, the cracked spear, the chalk still glowing faintly on Rilka's slate.
The elder studied him from the shrine's edge. "The Stone tested you."
Cass laughed once, bitter. "Then the Stone wants me dead."
The elder tapped his staff. "Or wants to see if you can live."
Cass sank against the wall, closing his eyes. He could still feel the eel's teeth snapping inches from his throat.
Five years, he reminded himself. I only need five years.
[Media – World's Dawn Chronicles, evening]
"…Rivermere lords struggle with food shortages, blight spreading. Greenward quarantines new plague sites. Ashenfolk trade rises after furnace repairs.
And in lighter news: rumors of an 'Underdark Ghost Lord' continue despite lack of proof. Analysts dismiss claims, calling them distraction from real crises.
Our final segment tonight: BloodPrince's arena match sets new records…"
[Cass]
Night fell. He sat at the shrine, hands still trembling, staring at the light. The hamlet lived another day. Rootwater fed them. Rootwater hunted them. The balance was razor thin.
But he knew this much: fear broke faster than hunger. If he could keep the tribe believing in him, even eelbeasts couldn't swallow them whole.
He whispered to the shrine: "I'll blind every monster the dark throws at us. Even if I go blind myself."
The shrine pulsed once, faint and steady.