Gar awoke early with anticipation because it was the day he would try to escape. He put on his armour as he ate a light breakfast of a few pods and nuts. His nerves where making him feel sick and he didn’t really want to eat anything. He forced some down anyway he knew he had a long and busy day ahead of him he couldn’t afford to be hungry he needed the energy. He carefully filled all his water bottles and his bucket with most of what was left of the slumbering vine sap. The bottles then went into his bag while the bucket was carried in one hand with his spear in the other. Other than that Gar had a rope and his map in his bag and nothing else he was minimising weight so he could move quickly.
Going over to where he had left B2 he removed the rocks blocking the cave entrance. Gar looked into the cave and waited, he waited longer than he needed to he had long since concluded nothing was waiting for him but he was scared. When he went in he would be alone, for the first time he was going to leave the badgers behind, he didn’t want to but speed was going to be more important if something came up he doubted he would be able to fight in which case the badgers would only slow him down. Pulling all his courage together Gar set off, he was through the short tunnel and into the snail cavern before he could stop and think about it.
He moved through the cavern at a fast walk going wide around any snail he saw. With a bucket full of slumbering vine sap in his hand he wasn’t going to hang around to find out how the snails reacted to it he just got through there as quick as he could without spilling any sap. He had suspected some of the snails where coming towards him but between giving them a wide berth and there literal snail’s pace Gar was able to get away with no trouble. Once through the snails and a reasonable distance away he slowed his pace as he had a long way to go.
There was no sign of and zombies or norkers on his journey so he kept up a normal walking pace until he was getting close to where he needed to climb up. He put down his bucket and bag and took hold of his spear in two hands as he crept forwards to take a look. He was stood right under where he needed to climb looking up for any norkers or ogre slugs waiting for him. Gar could see no sign of any lookout or anyone waiting for him. He was aware that didn’t mean they weren’t there and the climb would potentially be the most dangerous part of that trip, he went back and brought up his bag and bucket. The rope was tied to the bucket handle then to the bag before the other end went around his waist. Pressing his back against the wall and lifting his legs against the other he climbed. In his armour the climbing wasn’t quiet so he went for speed instead getting up as fast as he could in the hopes that he would be up before anyone that heard had the time to react.
Once at the top he spent a minute stood on the edge listening and looking for anyone about or who was coming. There was no one as far as he could tell not that he fully trusted his own senses. Not wanting to hang around he gently pulled up the bucket and his bag. Spear in hand again he felt a little more comfortable and crept onwards. Gently he placed the bucket and bag down at the hole while he moved forwards again he just wanted to make sure there was nothing watching him from round the next corner. He crept forwards slowly trying to feel and activate his sneak skill, he didn’t know if it worked but he was still going to try. He took the corner wide hugging the wall only to be relieved when he found nothing round the corner.
Able to relax a bit more he walked to the hole and reclaimed his bag and bucket. Then going back to the corner he started judging distance, he wanted the sap close enough to the corner that anything hiding behind the corner would smell it while not being so close as to being right in top of it. Settling for about five meters from the corner he emptied the bucket onto the floor then poured the sap from his bottles around it. Gar could feel the sweet scent of the sap filling his head calling him to have a taste as he spread it across the tunnel floor. Gar backed off to the hole once he had finished empty the sap onto the floor and he leant out a little to take a few deep breaths of fresh air, clearing his head.
With that done he turned and made his way back to camp much more relaxed no longer carrying monster attracting sap. At his camp Gar washed out his bucket and all the bottles very thoroughly including taking the time to go to the river to fill the bottles with sand then wash them out with the rivers current. He would not risk drugging himself with slumbering vine sap when he got a drink because he didn’t clean them well enough. When the bottles where finally cleaned to Gars satisfaction he filled them all up with water and sealed them. Then he was rushing back to camp it was already later in the day than he would have liked he had no idea how long his climb out was going to take and he wanted it done before night fell.
Back at camp everything was packed into bundles, the cart was taken apart into its pieces carried up the narrow tunnel to the cave snail’s cavern and reassembled into the cart again. Then each of the bundles where brought through and either loaded into the cart or into his backpack. With the last bundle loaded Gar took one last trip back to the camp, he did a final look around checking nothing was getting left behind and then with no fanfare no final goodbye he left without looking back.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
The cart did not make traveling along the tunnels easy, it did not turn well the floor was uneven making it hard to pull the cart over. Twice when there where sections of tunnels that got too narrow he had to unload and disassemble the cart then make several trips to carry everything past the narrow section before reassembling and reloading the cart and he had deliberately taken a longer route to minimise the number of times he would have to do that. With that being the case Gar didn’t know how many hours it had taken him to get everything to where he only needed to get it up the narrow climb before he was at the hole.
Gar fitted both badgers into their harness before tying a rope round himself and the other end to Bodger’s harness. The cart was already in pieces, too wide for the narrow passage, with the rest of Gars stuff piled in bundles next to it. Gar climbed again nervously awaiting a minute at the top for any ambushers, with none showing themselves he pulled up the rope bringing up Bodger who was holding the strap of B2’s harness in its mouth while B2 held Gars spear. Gar untied the rope leaving the harness on the badgers, with weapon in hand and badgers at his side he advanced to check the hole and the sap. Gar was surprised when he got to the puddle of sap to see a norker lying face down in it. He had laid it out in hope not really expecting it to work, even more surprised when he got close.
“Traps levelled up Traps level 6”
It seemed laying out the puddle of slumbering vine sap counted as a trap, Gar was still wary of the norker as he approached. He had observe on and it brought up the norkers level.
“Norker level 15”
So it was defiantly still alive observe didn’t label dead things and with a level that high if it awoke there was no way Gar was winning. Gar approached carefully not trusting the norker not to be playing some kind of trick. Gar used his spear to flip the norker over. Its face was covered in the sap Gar was pretty certain it was out for a while, wanting to make sure there were no others before he decided what to do with it he left B2 with the unconscious norker to warn him in case it started to wake up while Gar and Bodger moved onto the corner.
It didn’t take long to check round the corner and find that there was only the unconscious norker. Gar didn’t know what to do with the unconscious norker he hadn’t expected the sap to work so hadn’t planned what he would do if it did. Gar stood over the norker looking down at the ugly goblin like thing. He felt emotions build up in him anger, hate, he wanted vengeance there was only one thing to do with the norker, it had to go. He raised his spear up high and with both hands brought the blade straight down onto the neck of the sleeping norker. The blade split the rock like skin with ease as its throat was laid open, it was a matter of moments before he got the message.
“You have killed a level 15 norker 103 experience awarded”
Gar had wanted to feel some sort of validation or satisfaction. Instead all he felt was a cold numbness as the heat of his anger left him, that hadn’t felt right. He tried not to dwell on it because it did have to be done he wasn’t foolish enough to think otherwise. Melancholically he dragged the body to the hole and dropped it out he did not want it putting off any other norkers that came by from investigating the sap. He then spent a couple of minutes kicking what little dirt was in the tunnel over the pool of blood then using his spear to splash some sap over it to disguise it as much as possible. He just had to hope that the norker he killed wasn’t missed to soon. Returning to the edge above his gear Gar retied Bodger to the rope and lowered it down. Once down Bodger grabbed the prepared handles of the closest bundle Gar hauled them up. Like this Gar was able to bring all his gear up.
“Hauling levelled up hauling level 6”
It took a long time and was surprisingly tiring Gar was not looking forward to repeating the process from the top of the pit he was in. Gar sat and removed his armour then arranged it with his spear into a bundle. It would be the first one he brought up when he got to the top. Then he just sat, it was time for a rest and something to eat and drink. He had a long way to go and he needed to be in the best possible condition when he went.
He just sat and relaxed for about half an hour and when he couldn’t take it anymore he started his final bits of setup. He tied himself into his harness. A wedge was hammered into a crack in the wall then the rope threaded through the hole before being threaded through the rest of the safety wedges and attaching the rope to his harness. The final step was to tie two knots the first was a large strong knot at the very end of his slumbering vine fibre rope. For the next one he pulled a bit over fifteen meters of rope through the first wedge then he tied a knot he had been practising just behind the safety wedge. The knot was special because if pulled from above, such as if he fell, it held firm, where as if it was pulled from below it came undone. Gar had to tie the knot twice as the first time he had Bodger pull on the rope undoing the knot just to make sure it was working how he wanted.
