Haeros Dungeon - Chapter 35 preview (Patreon)

Finishing up the last of the quick rations I had helped settle my stomach a little, making it so that it felt less like a gnawing hole within me. It was not perfect, of course, and I would need to cook or warm up some of the other meals later, but it would do for now. Worst case, I would just eat the food cold – it didn’t make it any less nutritious, just less palatable.

The small rock cave that I was in was barely large enough to fit me, a tiny jutting ledge helping to shield me from view. The way up had required some finagling and careful climbing and I was sure I left my scent all over, but it had a few advantages. One of which was that I could, if I was cornered, climb up further to a nearby outcropping and another was that a low-hanging hoodoo was nearby within easy jumping distance. Neither were my preference, but both would allow me to escape the tarzaks or any other monsters who closed in on me.

In the meantime, I was resting, letting my healing vault do its work. I was at the point where patching the major problems had ended, and I was edging towards the general overall healing needs of everything: spot-fixing areas mostly, so that I could speed up the process.

Momentum, on the other hand, was working in the opposite direction, drawing in the slight amounts of motion that my body created. I wondered, briefly, if I was drawing in energy from the motion of the earth, if the momentum of the entire planet locked onto me was being stored a tiny amount, or if it was only relative momentum.

No way to tell, not then, but it was something I kept in the back of my mind.

In the meantime, I drank greedily from the water flask, shaking it out as I realized I’d emptied the thing. It would need a few hours to refill, but I still required liquid refreshment. That moved itself up the top of the list, though from what I recalled there were pools that could be utilized on this floor.

Problem was, that was where a lot of predators lurked.

Also, occasional parties.

That left the question of what to do. I could look for help. Lone adventurers – survivors or those who chose to attempt the run alone – were not uncommon. Asking for help was not unusual, though many would decline to aid an individual beyond walking them to the nearest exit, if they were even that charitable.

There was also the chance that said adventuring team was on the blacker side. A lone adventurer was prey for those kinds, and even if my equipment might be somewhat unique, the excuse of finding my corpse and taking it was hard to rebut. Dead men told no tales after all.

Rather than hunting around for help, moving across the plains, I could just sit here and wait. I had enough food for a few days on me. A body that was still healing and probably could use at least a day more of rest before I was up to decent fighting potential. There was nothing stopping me from taking the time to heal up further, work on my mental engine and soak in the potential of this floor.

I already knew that I was low on energy, the forcible shifting around hurting me more and putting me in the negative for a while. It had recovered enough that it didn’t feel like using my skills was a strain, but it was clear that I was still far away from fixed.

Allowing more time to rest was probably the best move. It would give my team a chance to get down and find me, while I healed, recuperated and calmed down. My body still occasionally let out shivers and my heartbeat would spike as the memory of my fall and the flashes of pain reappeared. If not for the tarzaks coming after me, I probably would have stayed put. But they were coming, so while I might have had a decent place to rest, I needed to move.

I would rest and make some pinwheels to leave as indicators I was around, and figure out how to get out. Maybe leave word with whatever groups I could, and next time, set up a series of recommendations of what we as a party should do. As it stood, luckily, the team knew what the academy’s protocol was, and would not spend longer than a few days looking for me.

Which meant, I would either find them in that time or hopefully, find my way out.

Till I was forced to move though, I figured I better rest and recuperate.