Jana and I walked through a dirt path towards the mountains, during the walk we passed by a small artificial lake with some creatures inside it. They were like if a pig and a squid had a baby, body of a pig, beak instead of a mouth and tentacles as members. My skill told me they were the Inkligs and that their ink was useful as both normal writing and magical inscription because of its high magicule conductivity.

After thirty minutes of walking with the only thing suspicious was the total lack of animals even though we are somewhat far from the village we arrived in a stone house that looked like it was carved by a stonemason with years of expertise and near it was another stone structure on the side of the mountain. It looked like the entrance to somewhere and the markings on the walls seemed to be created with the wall, not carved on the stone, almost as if that place grew on its own.

Jana approached the door and knocked on the metal ring that was in the middle of the door for that specific purpose.

“Old sage, it’s Jana. I’ve come here wit…-” Jana started talking but was interrupted by a raspy masculine voice coming from inside of the house.

“Jana, I'm busy. Go home” the voice  said, clearly annoyed by her presence.

“But old sage, I…-” She tried to talk again, but was interrupted yet again.

“I said I'm busy. Go home now before I make Osgood come here to get you” he said, his anger clearly increasing in his voice.

Before Jana did anything else something hit me in my head, and hit hard. i’ve been sent rolling on the floor before i stopped and got back on my feet and looked in the direction i’ve been hit.

On the entrance to somewhere there was a creature? No, it doesn’t seem like a creature, it’s standing on two legs and holding a stone on one of its hands. It looked like if a human and a black panther fused into one being. Humanoid, biped, two arms, two legs, he was fully covered in a black fur with emerald green stripes with dark blue borders.

The moment I looked at him he seemed surprised, dropped the stone and ran deeper inside, outside of my vision. My head was still hurting and a little dizzy from the stone he threw at me just now, so I began to run after him. leaving Jana and the old sage discussing.

I entered the entrance and saw stairs leading downwards and at the end of it I saw him running and again leaving my vision when the ceiling blocked my sight. I began to run down the stairs and when I got to the end of it the light coming from outside was tiny. I was sure if I were still human this place would be completely dark, but now I had new eyes and with them the darkness was no different from a dimly lit place. I still could see quite clearly, and so I saw a long corridor with a wooden door on the end. The dizziness in my head finally passed and I stopped before I continued and looked back.

What was I doing? Why would I suddenly run and enter somewhere potentially dangerous to pursue someone who threw a rock at me? Something wasn’t right here and I wouldn't stay here longer to find out what was happening.

I turned towards the stairs and took a step to climb them back up, but the ceiling suddenly dropped and almost caught me. I had to jump back to get out of the way of the stones falling on the ground. I looked at the now blocked path and sighed.

“I walked into a trap, haven’t I?” I said, but no one answered.

“Why did I ask that aloud? it isn’t like someone will answer… Well, that person(?) could very well answer me, as he threw that rock on my head…Sigh I guess the only path is to keep going” I said as I turned around and began to walk again towards the only path I now had.

I prepared myself mentally and approached the first door. Looking at it, it was obviously put in place after this place was built, and the person who put it there used a lot of force to put it in place, considering the walls next to it are cracked by the door hinges.

I built courage and deactivated my [True Mimic] skill, immediately I felt heat running through my body and the pain that accompanies it. I could feel my bones breaking and being rebuilt and my muscles and organs liquefying and resolidifying. After a few seconds the heat turned cold and my vision got higher and a myriad of colors invaded my vision as the dimly lit corridor turned as bright as if the sun was directly above me.

I pushed the door as it opened to reveal a small room with scarlet stones scattered all over the place, an opening on the other side and there were also stone arrows on the floor too big for a normal bow. looking at the walls i saw small holes on them, perfectly for the stone arrows on the floor right now.

“So, I guess this room was really a trap, but is it already activated? How? The person from before. It 's probably him. But why?” I wondered.

I began to walk across the room to the opening on the other side. As I walked, I accidentally kicked one of the stones on the floor and my mind became dizzy yet again. i looked over the stone and kept looking for a few moments

[ Proficiency points have reached the threshold. Skill [Abnormal Mental Condition Resistance] achieved Lv. 6 ]

My mind snapped back as the realization of why I came running without thinking. i looked over at the stone again, but with me knowing that it can keep my mind locked thinking about it as well my skill leveling up kept me from becoming too much focused. I quickly pulled the rock on my skills to see what I was dealing with.

[Taunt stone]

[A taunt stone generates a weak psionic pulse whenever a creature touches it, causing the creature to become lured by the stone. It is created by infusing blood on a ruby during 400 years]

Oh, ok. It was what I imagined it would be. ok, I just need to be carefull.

I continued walking to the next room, this time keeping moving carefully to avoid the taunt stones and possible traps I hadn't thought about until now.

Leaving the room there was another set of stairs descending even further. If I couldn't see in darkness as if it was daytime I would be completely horrified as it got even darker below there.

Looking back I could see the collapsed ceiling over the stairs and with a sigh I walked down the stairs, again.

At the end of the stairs there was another room, this time without a door. Inside of it there were five pedestals, four of them destroyed with shards of emerald green crystals in the middle. On the other side there was a stone bridge above a gap too far for me to jump over.

Looking at the pedestal it had a button over it and pressing it didn't do anything, so I looked over the bridge and the abyss underneath it. It wasn't endless, that's good, but it was too far down for me to safely get there as I still don't know how to use my wings properly. Well, even birds can't use their wings for a few weeks after they're born, at least I know how to move them, I just need train my coordination to use them.

The only way I had, again, was the bridge which I crossed very quickly to avoid risking myself falling. On the other side of the bridge there was nothing, no door, no entrance, no pedestals, it was completely empty. As I thought about turning back to see if I missed something a part of the wall began to move up and revealed the passage.

Going through the opening on the wall revealed, not surprisingly, another corridor, but this time it was full of the emerald green crystals that shone like lamps in the night. They were everywhere, in the ground, ceiling and walls, there were just a lot of them.

Down the corridor there were a cave like room full of the crystals and judging by some marks on the walls they have been mined already and somehow are regrowing on the walls like they have never been mined.

A purple light caught my attention and I turned towards it. It was coming from behind one of the walls almost hidden in plain sight. I walked over and turned around the corner.

In front of me was another door, but this time it was a stone door. Completely blended with its surroundings, almost grown from the walls. The light was coming from behind that door and leaking into this room by a small opening underneath the door.

I built up the courage and opened the door.

"It's you" said a voice behind the door that shocked me.