I survived my first day.

Before I tell you how I survived my first day, here’s some things you should know about me.

I’m an 18 year old female elf. I look exactly the way you think I should. I have light skin, pointed ears, and piercing blue eyes. I’m evil. Ok, not exactly evil, but my moral compass is pointed to the south. I have no problem with stealing or killing, so I’ve been pretty much alone most of my life. Even my teachers were a little intimidated by me.  I have been training for this as long as I can remember. Most of my studies were in magic, but I also trained with the Rangers whenever they came through town. I also studied maps extensively, and can now remember the layout of a house after just walking through it once.

I left town with a excited determination. This is what I was born to do. Aurora was beside me, brave as could be. She’s the kitten I mentioned last time. I was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a tight white sweatshirt covered my modest breasts, cradled by a sports bra. On my feet I had pair of white ankle socks, and cheap sneakers. I had already put on the cloak of magic resistance the town had given to me. In my hands was another gift. The solid yew quarterstaff, blessed by the priest at great cost. The only other item he had been able to bless for me was one of the spellbooks, force bolt.

I had no idea how long I would have to walk through the forest to find the entrance. I still don’t. Time was a bit strange, The time on the phone went out, and still hasn’t come back on. When I finally found something, it wasn’t what I had expected.

There was a huge clearing. I couldn’t see the other side. I wondered if I had walked through the whole forest, and missed it. I turned around, and looked through the trees for some kind of answer.

Nothing jumped out at me, so I turned back to the clearing. I took a step forward, and was suddenly in the middle. I looked around in shock, I could just make out trees all around me, off in the distance.

I turned back to the middle. What I first thought had been a stone shed was actually a set of stairs going down. I stumbled when I walked over, and scraped my arm. I quickly regained my composure, took a deep breath and made sure Aurora was still with me before I descended.

The first thing I saw when we got down there was a fox. I was immediately worried about Aurora. They were going to go at it like cats and dogs. I stepped forward, pushing her out of the way. I was preparing to blast it with magic when I realized it was just a statue. A newt the had been hiding in the corner ran out toward me. It had glowing red eyes, but otherwise looked like what I had seen in the forests around town when I was younger. I kept perfectly still, and time froze. The newt stopped moving, Aurora wasn’t moving either. I felt like I could look through my bag without anything happening, but as soon as I took a step time would resume. I decided to wait where I was, and something must have read my mind. Time started back up, and the newt kept coming at me, as if nothing had happened. I knew it wanted me dead. As soon as it got close enough, I crushed it with my staff.

I turned back to the statue and finished my spell. I had heard that statues down here could come to life. After seeing how extremely lifelike this one looked I could believe it.

The bolt of magic hit the statue, went through it and splashed harmlessly against the wall. The statue crumbled into a pile of rocks. I scooped them up and put them into my bag. While I was putting them in, I noticed my rings. I pulled out shock resistance and slipped it on.

Feeling drained from the magic use, but satisfied that things were safe for the moment, I took a break to get my bearings. I realized that I felt different since coming down the stairs. I was healthier, somehow. I looked at my arm, and saw the scrape heal before my eyes. The room was medium sized, light by magic fires on the walls and ceiling. I went over to the stairs and look up. Instead of seeing a blue sky, there was a shimmering grey portal. I had no idea where it went, but I knew I would never return if I went through it.

Convinced that there was nothing left for me, I left the room. My footsteps sounded loud in the empty halls outside. I briefly wondered if I should take off my sneakers.

Choosing a direction at random, I went down it. The room at the end was empty, except for a wand that matched the one I had brought with me. Another wand of striking, nice.

I kept up my exploring, and found a boomerang. A few experimental throws and I caught it expertly as it came back each time. This will be handy. Further on, a huge boulder was blocking the tunnel. I put my shoulder up to it and pushed. It rolled forward a little, and I came up to try again. This time it didn’t move, but I heard sounds behind it. I quickly looked back, making sure Aurora was behind me before I blasted it with magic.

Like the statue, the boulder simply broke apart, and fell into pieces. A dead jackal lay on the other side, missing a large part of it’s head. Another jackal was off in a side corridor, and came at me. I gave it a whack on the head with my staff and it crumpled to the ground dead. There was a leash among the corpses that I picked up without thinking.

I briefly wondered what had happened to the newt when I killed it. It must have vanished, because it didn’t leave a corpse or anything behind.

Taking a breath, I looked down at the remains. They looked disgusting, but I knew I needed to eat whenever I could. I could use magic to cook them, a little bit at least. Enough so that I wouldn’t die from eating raw meat, but not enough to make them taste good. It was terrible. As I was eating, Aurora picked up a rock from the pile with her teeth, then dropped it a few feet away. I don’t know if she was hinting at something, so I tossed her the other corpse. She leapt on it, and greedily gulped it down. As we dropped the bones, they disappeared when they hit the floor. This explains why the dungeon looks so clean. Garbage magically goes away.

I found a set of stairs going down. I quickly ran down them, grabbed the lamp I saw when I got to the bottom, then came back up again. At the top, Aurora came into the room, meowing at me. Probably wondering where I had gone. I looked at the lamp, still in my hand, and thought of Aladdin. I gave it an experimental rub with my sleeve but nothing happened. I put it in my bag, and looked at what else was in there.

I had two spellbooks, the other one was lock. I didn’t know how useful it would be, but it had taken the town 40 years of looking to get even two of them. They were artifacts of the dungeon, and nobody was quite sure how they made it out.

I had a few potions, sickness and restore ability. I also had a bottle of fruit juice. I had a couple scrolls of magic mapping. I had learned how to write those while studying map making. Blank scrolls were just as hard to find as books though, so I only had two of them. I also had a scroll of punishment, I had no idea how that would ever be useful, but I took it anyway.

There was also a ring of increase accuracy, and a beautiful tooled horn. I took out the horn and played a few notes experimentally. The result was a frightful, grave sound. Aurora turned and ran off.

I continued exploring. There were a few rocks lying on their own in the halls. I wondered if Aurora had been moving them around. At times I heard the thick, heavy footsteps of a guard on patrol but never saw him. I found piles of some very thin gold coins laying in a few of the rooms. I blasted a lichen, and found a pair of slime molds it had been protecting. Killing a goblin gave me a dagger and helmet. I slipped the helmet over my short blonde hair and felt a slight magic resistance. I thought about the spells I knew, and could tell they would be harder to cast. I decided it was worth it, for now. I stowed my quarterstaff in my pack, and wielded the crude dagger. Still not my weapon of choice, but I felt comfortable with it.

In one room, I was walking along and out of nowhere got hit by an arrow. I looked over and saw the trap. I had tried learning how to disable traps during my training but I wasn’t very good at it. I decided to give it a try. I got hit by another arrow my first try, but managed to get it on my second. I got a big bundle of arrows from my efforts.

I triggered another trap. Darts this time. Again I tried to dismantle it. I got hit by a dozen darts before I finally succeeded. One of the darts had been poisoned. At first I was worried it might have infected me, or made me weaker, but there were no lasting effects. Thankfully. I got a pile of 43 darts as a reward. They will come in handy for killing things from a distance. I can only cast my force bolt once before I need to rest, and I know I can’t survive hand to hand combat for very long.

It wasn’t long before I was sure I had fully explored this level of the dungeon. I still had not found the guard, just his echoing footsteps every now and then. I resolved to come back later and find out just what he was guarding.

I made my way to the stairs, and once Aurora decided to join me, I went down them.

That’s it for today. The room at the bottom of the stairs has a closed door, so it’s safe enough for me to write this, and maybe get a nap in. It seems that as I’ve been writing this, time has been stopped. Tomorrow I will write things as they happen so I don’t forget anything.

Goodnight for now, wish me luck for tomorrow, and as always, keep reminding Anhur that I’m down here.