Water surrounded us while we followed the wisps. They danced through the night, softly glowing, guiding our way, everchanging in color. At first there were only a few, barely enough to light the way. Slowly more came into view, clustering in one group before flying apart, glowing like stars in the sky.

“It’s beautiful.” Alice slowly stepped beside me, watching the spectacle with bated breath. She held her hand outwards, a wisp slowly coming near, hovering above it before returning to his kind. “Why aren’t they attacking us?

“Not everything inside the dungeon is an enemy. One could even say they are just like us, struggling to survive. Watch out.” I pulled Alice aside, stopping her from stepping into the water. “Be careful to stay on the path. We don’t want to attract attention.”

“Thanks.”

As we went on the path got smaller and smaller while the fog only got denser. Only the light of the wisps, dispersing the fog around them, allowed us to trade safely. But even then only a few were left visible, while others only shone through the fog.

The path ended, water surrounding us on all sides.

“Did we go wrong somewhere?”

“The direction should be correct.” I held my hand outwards, waiting for a wisp to come near.

“What are you doing?”

I grinned. “Just wait and see.” A wisp came near, its light flickering in the darkness. I released some of my mana, feeding it to the wisp, which then started to glow even brighter.

“These are creatures born from mana. As such they get stronger if they collect more of it.”

With the growing light the fog around us receded, making another path visible.

“Seems like we need to jump over there.” I took a few steps backward, reaffirming my hold on the girl, before dashing forward and jumping towards the other side. I landed at the ground, followed by Alice jumping after me.

Our landing resounded in the dark, echoing over the water which rippled under the small tremors. I watched it, waiting for it to calm down, before releasing my breath that I unknowingly held when it calmed down.

“We should be…” Just as I wanted to release words of relief the water started to ripple again. “Fucked. Run!” I started to sprint along the path as bigger and bigger splashes of water came, the still water turning into a waving sea, beginning to cover the rest of the path.

We ran forwards, the wisps disappearing, leaving us alone in the dark. Only my own flames gave us some light, sparing us from being completely unable to see. The path twisted and turned, making us step into water more often than not. Behind us a roar shot us, drowning out most of the surrounding noises. But there was one noise, though quiet, still audible. The fluttering of wings.

As the path twisted once more I decided to make a gamble. I grabbed Alice before jumping once more, putting all my strength into it. When we left the ground, we heard something crashing down on the path behind us.

Then gravitation began to pull on us once more, making us fall towards unknown ground, covered in fog. I felt my feet splashing into water, before suddenly stopping when the made contact with something else. I tensed my muscles, strained from the sudden landing, once more and pushed us forward, landing on wet earth.

I turned around, prepared to fight against the one lingering in the water. A glistening tentacle, covered in sharp spikes shot out of the fog, impaling the spot we just landed at, before disappearing once more. We backed away, Alice carrying the girl while I faced the bog, waiting for the creature to strike once more, before we finally had a good few dozens foot between us. God, I hate these things.

I let myself fall to the floor, covered in sweat from the exhausting escape. Alice sat down beside me, breathing as hard as me while shivering from fear. Can’t blame her for it, these things are just like that. She didn’t even ask me what it was, only wanting to forget this thing.

As we recovered our breath we started to move again. The fog began to lift, showing the landscape. While it looked small from afar, we now had a clear view on it, as the sky was undisturbed by the storm brewing in the distance, its stars lighting up the surroundings.

Blades of grass covered the ground, growing waist-high, while bushed filled with purple berries grew few in between. Here and there elevations shot upward, creating small hills. But it all couldn’t block the view on the one distinguishing mark of this island.

Above a hill stood a giant tree, comparable to skyscrapers in height. It had reddish brown bark, covered in giant vines, rising tall to a towering crown with dark green leaves, rustling in the wind.

The air was eerily silent. Only a few creatures flew through the night, glistening in the dark, but nearly invisible. “We should seek shelter for the night. Don’t want to fight a flying opponent in the dark.” I took hold of the girl again before walking towards a nearby hill.

Monsters also needed to eat something. And before humans came here there should have been something else as a food source. Given the thing in the water they probably didn’t catch fishes, leaving it with something found here, on this island.

As we looked around the hill, we soon found a small tunnel, leading down into the earth. “Still better than sleeping outside I guess.” I stopped outside, blasting a fireball into the depths to make part of it collapse. Wouldn’t want anything to creep up on us from down under.

“We need to take shifts in sleeping. It was one thing when we were inside the city, but we can never know when something tries to ambush us.”

“Okay.”

I started to talk about the course of action for tomorrow. But while Alice agreed with me her eyelids soon fell down when we crawled inside, exhausted from fighting all day long, her chest heaving up and down, as she fell asleep completely. Can’t blame her for it though. Everything was still normal for her a few days ago.

Guess the first watch is on me then.