No one hesitated in following Faysal’s instructions, they all ran. Faysal just had no idea where they should run to. Do I run towards the explosion or away from it? Well the more sane thing to do I assume would be to run from an unknown potential danger, so given that I am tied to some ‘Order of Chaos’ I guess I should do the opposite of that? Faysal really had no idea but all of those thoughts raced through his head at once and he went with his gut, running deeper into the dungeon towards the loud noise. It was a lot easier to navigate with the map in the corner of his vision, even with little to no light he was able to tell where turns and other obstacles were. Shortly after starting to run, Jasper whispered out “Lux,” illuminating the area around them. Just a few moments after that Jasper again whispered out, this time saying, “Armis,” giving everyone a faint glow. From spending so much time surviving and fighting in the dungeon with him, Faysal knew that it was a protection spell to make them harder to hit.

  Faysal stopped dead in his tracks as they approached an area they have not explored as well as the others and whispered to his team, “Myra, hide us, I have an uneasy feeling, where are all the monsters?” Without another word Myra traced a line and whispered, “ Occulta apparentia,” the hiding spell that Faysal was very familiar with at this point. Faysal motioned for them to follow closely as he continued moving, slower than a run but still quickly, through the dungeon. As they continued on first came the smell, a mix of smoke, gun powder, and gore, then all of them lost their sight as the smoke engulfed their vision. Faysal, however, noticed something on the map, there was an opening that he did not remember seeing before, and on both sides of the opening were dozens of red X’s. Faysal was pretty certain he knew what that meant but bent down to the closest one to check, the red X’s were dead creatures. “Be careful walking, there are dead monsters all over.” Faysal whispered back to everyone and continued leading them. Despite the smoke as they reached the opening the got assaulted with a bright light, even through the haze it was the first time any of them had seen the sun in many, many years.

  Their vision took a few minutes to adjust from being in the dark so long, then in the smoke, to now being in daylight. After looking around they were definitely outside, they could see different monsters and creatures running around, fleeing any direction they could. It’s almost as if they were trapped in there with us and we are all now free, Faysal thought as he saw them run away, not paying attention to his team at all. Looking around, both at the map and what was in front of him, Faysal then decided to just speak his mind, “Where in the Abyss are we?” Happy responded right away, pointing up from where they just entered, “MY MOUNTAIN!” Happy went and gave Fayal a hug, “Faysal found my mountain! Thank you! Thank you!” It took a moment for Faysal to get free of Happy’s hug, when he did he was even more confused. Ryse was not close to any mountains, not close enough that they should be coming out of the side of one. “Controlled Chaos… they planned all of this chaos?” Faysal whispered to himself but drew looks from Myra, Jasper and Paline, Faysal just shook his head as it was not the time to talk about it.

  While they have talked a bit about their pasts not many went into great detail, but Faysal had to assume that Happy’s ‘Mountain’ was one of the ones to the west of Ryse, Faysal looked but was too far to quite see anything, “Paline, can you increase my sight or just your own?” Paline replied, “Just my own for now.” Faysal assumed as much, but was still hopeful, “Can you increase your sight and look around, look for a river, lake, buildings, any landmark to confirm where we are.” She nodded and traced a line saying, “Magnificāre.” Her eyes got a slight silver glow to them and she looked over, then pointed in the distance, “I, I think Ryse is all the way over there! We are in the Sagitta Mountains!” Almost everyone quietly stared at her as she confirmed what they were assuming, Happy just smiled and nodded, “That is what I said, My Mountain.”

  The smoke was mostly cleared from the area and Faysal thought it would be a good idea to look where they came from and maybe seal off the new entrance to the dungeon, but after looking he realized there was no need for that, “Oh no. I wasn’t told to run because there was a time limit, or because there was danger behind us… WE NEED TO KEEP RUNNING!” Faysal didn’t waste any time, Happy! You know these Mountains, can you take us to your home?” Happy nodded gleefully and led the way as they started to run from where they exited the dungeon, but they were not quick enough. A small vortex opened where they exited out from, “Abyss,” Faysal, Myra and Paline said in unison.

  I should have known when we were brought out so far, and all of the dead and running monsters, they were not killed from an explosion, they were absorbed by a newly spawning monster lair. The explosion sound was the catalyst, creating a temporary portal to the mountains. Faysal has heard about events like this, one thing Adventurers spent most of their time doing was clearing Monster Lairs, but he has never heard what happened to people who witness the creation of a lair, That’s probably because none of them have lived to tell the tale. Faysal could only think to himself for the moment, as none of them were able to move, they could just stare at the black, white and crimson vortex in front of them.

  What seemed like an eternity was passing as they were just stuck there, but Faysal learned that he could still see his character sheet and manipulate it while stuck here, so he did just that, but before he could really look at his information though he had two popup messages.

  Having 6 points to spend on abilities, Faysal split them between what seemed like 2 of his most important spots, Intelligence and Wisdom. After applying the points he looked over his Character sheet.

  CHARACTER SHEET

  Faysal figured he could not do much else so he pulled up the contribution store while he was at it as well. Before more crazy things could happen, Faysal quickly bought the Cooldown and Health bar in display. In the top middle of his vision one red bar labeled as health appeared at full for Faysal. In the top left of his display it said ‘Current cool downs: None’. There is two hundred more contribution down, let me get the map details for this area and stop there. I don’t know what would happen if I activated the tutorial while stuck in place here. A message popped up asking Faysal to ‘Confirm’ or ‘Cancel’. CANCEL, CANCEL, CANCEL! I have to stop doing that. Town and area details added to the mini-map. This time Faysal was more intentional with his thoughts and was ready to confirm when a different popup that Faysal was half expecting came. Due to the size of the current area five times contribution required. Confirm or Cancel?’ Five times! That is a lot of points, is it counting the whole mountain range, I guess I do not have many options, it is information that may save us soon. CONFIRM. His contribution dropped to 6,400 and his mini-map flooded with information about their surroundings. First he could now confirm they were in the Sagitta Mountains, and he could confirm that there was a lair arriving, in under one minute now, and it was a Troll lair.

  Faysal had to think quickly now, they were going to have to move fast in the fifty seconds until they would be freed. Faysal tried to think if there was anything he could do to prepare more but without spending more contribution he was kind of stuck. He did look at the map and found an area they could try to run without much climbing but it would not get them far. If only I could see more and zoom out on this map. Responding to his thoughts the map zoomed out allowing him to see more. I really need to do the tu… the two turtles to learn more about how all of this works. 30 seconds remained while Faysal studied the map. There was in fact an area they would be able to escape upwards with minimal to no climbing, but they would need someone to stay and cause a distraction, they are the only living targets in the area that Faysal could see, the trolls would come right for them, but staying would be a suicide mission. 10 seconds left I will offer to stay back, the others won’t let me but maybe if I say I am right behind them they will still go. 3, 2, 1 Monster Lair: Trolls now spawned.

  Faysal started speaking the second they were able to move, “Happy, lead everyone up the mountain there! Keep going up and go to your village, I will be right behind you!” Faysal tried to speak with confidence and certainty, Happy nodded but right before he started to move, they all watched as 3 trolls of different sizes stepped out of the vortex which was still shades of black, white and red but was no longer a swirling vortex but a hole in the side of the mountain shaped as such. Happy let out a low growl, facing the trolls, “Happy no like smelly cousins, smelly cousins leave now!” The trolls growled back at Happy in return. Faysal now knew a fight was at starting so barked out his plan B, “Jasper, Buff Happy, Myra, hide yourself and Paline, Myra go around and flank with Happy, Paline long shot from behind! Happy, take down the SMALLEST one.” There were two smaller trolls, and Faysal did not care which of the two smaller ones Happy attacked but he had to stress the word Smallest so that hopefully Happy would listen. Everyone acted swiftly, Multiple words of power could be heard as Myra and Paline seemed to disappear, Happy started glowing and charged one of the small trolls. Faysal jumped into action too, tracing a line on his palm and shouting, “SOMNUS!” focusing on the biggest troll. Faysal has cast this spell many times and it has rarely failed him, he did not know the exact formula used when casting it until he got access to the Character sheet but now that he knew he was hopeful it would succeed, especially with his increased Wisdom. He was hopeful, that is, until he got a message, ‘SOMNUS FAILED, COOLDOWN FIVE MINUTES’. “Abyss!” While tracing a different line Faysal then said, “CHIRURGIA: Scalpel!” A glowing blue scalpel appeared in his hand as he rushed in shouting more commands, “Paline, target the big one!”

  Faysal rushed in trying to jab at the other small one that Happy was not targeting, that is when Faysal found out the hard way, a scalpel does almost nothing to a monster with such thick skin. Faysal did his best to dodge each attack that the troll sent his way but a few of the small trolls club swings made contact with him. The extra screens were useful, but taking up some of his vision will take some getting used to. Faysal noticed that his health bar was down to about half after taking two hits from just the small troll. Happy seemed to be making some ground against the one he was fighting though, currently in a grapple match with it while Myra made multiple strikes from behind with one of the daggers they received from the resistance. Paline used one of her spells, ‘Paralyticus offa’ which was a beam of light that paralyzed an enemy. Luckily where Faysal’s spell failed, hers succeeded, at least allowing them to focus on the small targets for now. Faysal noticed Paline started to help him by shooting some of her basic magic shots out at his target. Faysal knew she was limited on those per hour but he was grateful to have some help. It seemed to distract the troll more than anything which gave Faysal an Idea.

  “Paline, on my command send a shot!” Faysal then maneuvered himself to the side of the troll, as he did the troll slammed down his club and crushed Faysal’s left arm, “Aaaahhhhh.” Faysal cried out in pain as he ignored a message that popped up, I need to focus. He was facing the troll again and the troll was right where Faysal wanted him, “Now Paline!” Like clockwork Faysal saw two shots hit the troll, as it was distracted Faysal jumped in the air and did his best imitation of a double front kick. It was messy, but it got the job done. Between being startled from the magic shots and the kick, the troll stumbled back, and tripped, falling right over the side of the mountain. “One down, two to go!” Faysal gritted out, holding his arm in pain before tracing a line on his palm saying, “CURATIO!” His health bar increased to about three fourths full, but his arm still felt broken. I will have to look at it more later. Faysal thought as he focused back on the fight. Happy was crushing the life out of the small troll he was facing, that fight should be over soon, now just the big guy, who was, of course, just recovering from being paralyzed.

  “Paline, I don’t suppose you can do that again?” Faysal asked, hopefully. After a moment Paline replied, “Not even halfway recovered.” The large troll grabbed its club, which was the size of a small sized human, and swung in down right where Myra was at. “MYRA!” Faysal shouted out, not realizing that she was already out of the way of the club. “Happy finish your fight and take the lead against this beast! We will all support you.” Happy smiled and effortlessly tossed the troll to the side, and it too rolled down the side of the mountain. Happy went up to the big troll, where the smaller ones were about Happy’s size, this one stood a few feet taller. That did not stop Happy from trying to grapple him though. Happy was locked in a struggle with the troll for a few seconds, Myra attacking from behind while Faysal healed Happy, Jasper sending buffs when he could and Paline sending what shots she could get out. A lot of the team was running out of their tricks.

  Faysal took a look at his sleep spell cooldown, it is his longest, but this fight seemed to be going on forever. There was still a little more than one minute left. “Abyss, try to buy me some time!” Faysal shouted as he took a few steps back, he could feel Jasper and Paline come near him for added protection while he opened the contribution store. Ten contribution is one experience, so for level four I need one hundred experience, so I need 1,000 total. Ten Contribution for One experience one hundred times. Faysal thought and then confirmed the next screen without even looking. Not wanting to cloud his vision with a whole character sheet he tried thinking, Just show my level. To his surprise, it worked.

  SECTION OF CHARACTER SHEET

  Great, just what I needed to know, 200 more, so 2000 contribution to get me to level five, done. Ten Contribution for One experience two hundred times! Faysal thought again and then, like last time, confirmed the next screen without even looking. He could feel power rushing through his veins. He still had about 45 seconds left for his cool down, but he had not paid attention to the fight, Happy was on his back getting attacked by the trolls giant Club, “Noooo!” Was all that Faysal could let out before thinking, ALL AVAILABLE POINTS INTO WISDOM! He started running towards Happy and the troll when he noticed out of the corner of his eye ‘Cooldown complete, Somnus now available.'

  Faysal continued rushing forward, traced the line on his palm and confidently shouted “Somnus!” The troll swayed back and forth for a moment before falling flat on his face, snoring like a baby.