Mike and Astrid are enjoying their skill points and the old man is digging through the pile to retrieve the other loot.

  Smoke and fire made the whole armor set covered in tar, and all the clothing parts were definitely burnt.

  “Careful there!” he shouts and starts throwing pieces of gear.

  Luckily, the knight got burnt to the bone, and the armor is not attached to his body anymore.

  Tall boots with knee-high protection tumble down.

  “You know what to throw first,” I laugh.

  Gauntlets with a shoulder and arm piece attached.

  *Clang* A helmet.

  *Metal clanging while bouncing down* Finally the last item; a cuirass.

  It gongs loudly as it hits the ground.

  Harald climbs back carefully, and I sort the items in the meanwhile with my feet.

  Barely able to pick it up, I hide all the four pieces in my inventory.

  “Do you want the cuirass or helmet? I don’t feel like having all of those, at all,” I ask the old man leaning over his shiny sword like a cane.

  “No, but we won’t be leaving those here.”

  “What’s in that shack?” He asks us all together with a curious tone, pointing his arm.

  This all must be a novelty for him, since he has seen only the desert, forest, and tree branches for the good week or more.

  We look at each other weirdly, like who should start first and what to even tell.

  Mike starts talking as always. “Dangerous grumpy guy with only one arm and no legs.”

  “He tricked us into opening some stupid gate, but in the end we figured out that he used us as bait. Mark died there for the first time.”

  I look at Harald and continue after Mike. “And a while later that same guy killed Mike with a flick of a finger.”

  “We just pass by and that’s it.” I suggest while shaking my head.

  “Understandable.” Nods Harald after a pause.

  A rough rocky road finally reveals the castle up ahead.

  “Let me guess. Another atrocity inside, right?” Harald notes.

  “How do you know?” I look at him with a worried expression.

  “By that.” He points at my crooked face.

  I think it will be best that I explain what happened that night.

  “I’ll keep it simple. Inside that castle is a small courtyard with a statue.”

  “Ehm.” Harald is suspicious.

  “And that statue..?” He looks me in the eyes.

  “Yes, it’s alive and it smashed me like a cockroach. Probably a boss or guardian or whatever. High level, I think it was something around 80, Mike and Astrid kept telling me it was sitting on a golden chest and the legless guy crawled there to retrieve it. No idea how important the boss and his chest are, but the legless guy wasn’t lucky.”

  “He was trying to touch the chest, but it was like a ghost.” Mike steps in.

  “Anyway, we need to move beyond the castle and for that, there is a cave underneath.” I hurry this up and point to the rocky wall with a lot of fissures. One of them is an entrance.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “The last time I was there, there were huge turtle-spider hybrids and I hope they won’t be there anymore; we killed a lot of them.”

  I finish my exhausting brief explanation.

  “Just let me take a peek at the statue first,” says the old man and enters the castle.

  “What do we do?” I ask the rest.

  Mike lets Astrid sit down on the stairs as he stretches.

  “I will go inside and check for the turtles,” says Mike, hungry for the battle.

  Before he even tries to squeeze in, Harald is already back.

  “Terrifying. All those skeletons and..” He stops and picks up Astrid.

  The cave is better lit than before, and I examine again those wide craters on the walls, like from a missile or something.

  Now I think I know what made them.

  “Are we alone?” I ask and look at Mike.

  “Yes.”

  A lot of rotting creatures are lying on the ground, and it smells pretty badly.

  From whatever place these were spawned, they are not disappearing from here after death. Ventilation is terrible, and the place smells so badly we have an urge to leave it as soon as possible.

  Harald stops for a moment and touches the craters, while Astrid is covering her nose.

  “What could’ve done those?” He wonders.

  “I have an idea and Mike won’t like it.” I look at him in dim light.

  “It was the crawling man. He can do this with a flick of his fingers.”

  The old man looks a bit terrified and gulps.

  Continuing on our straightforward path, we approach the fire in the end.

  The moment we cross the invisible barrier around the fire, the smell disappears and so does the urge to leave.

  The well-known effect of the safe spot, calmness, feeling safe and asleep.

  We squeeze all together around the fire and try to save our progress by falling asleep at least for a second.

  *Zzzzzzzzzzz*

  The three of us get awakened by the sound of Harald’s snoring, despite the muffled outer sounds of the fire area, we still hear it.

  Looking at each other, we laugh a bit and wait for him to wake up.

  *Zzzzzzzzzz*

  *Snort*

  His head falls back slowly and makes him twitch while he almost falls on his back over the fire bowl.

  Ignoring everything else, we squeeze through the crack near the heavy door and finally breathe in the fresh air.

  Moist and dark, yet cozy; the bamboo forest spreads widely.

  My hand starts to itch and so does the hammer.

  I secretly want to go all in, complete berserk! Annihilate everything in my way and die in combat like a warrior, finally reset my wounds and most importantly: I cannot wait to uncover more of the Well of Power mystery. The feline spirit companion will be summoned right away, when I kill myself in the realm of the dead.

  Confident more than ever, I only feel bad for the old man.

  Mike is fast, he will manage, Astrid on the other hand wishes to have her legs back and we are both under the acid affliction and about halfway through.

  A man that has nothing to lose will accomplish unimaginable things!

  "Up this way should be the settlement, but first I suggest we go and check for the merchant and potentially level up. What do you say?"

  I look at Mike facing me, Astrid already strapped to his back facing the opposite way. Knowing he is hungry for combat and points, I softly manipulate the group.

  Selfish, I know, but despite Harald's motivational speech I know I will struggle with basic hygiene again and everything will catch up to me in the evening and I might have these intrusive thoughts, rollercoaster of positive and negative emotions which will eventually lead to a suicide and by the words of and old man; "Waste of life."

  So let me not waste it completely.

  Mike nods to my offer, unsheathing his second sabre, ready in an offensive position. The old man is ready as a backup, polishing and blowing into the glock. My arm partially swelled as the thirst for blood auto activates my Focus.

  Good that that one has no cooldown or any side effect, or even simple emotion or a thought would make this unusable at the moment I need it the most.

  Well of power, I will definitely manifest that thing during combat and utilize it all. Hardening combined with Focus with Well as the cherry on top.

  Bring it on!

  Leading the group by myself, I follow the last remembered path.

  “We’re getting close. Eyes wide open.” I warn the group.

  I notice Harald giving Astrid this smirk as they are teasing my sudden enthusiasm, but they have no idea what's on my mind.

  “Mike, inform us about the incoming threat.” I ask him.

  He nods with a spark in his monkey eye. I expect to see more of the eyes like that soon enough.

  After a while, I stop and focus in the distance.

  “What’s going on?” Asks Harald.

  “The temple was there, I.. I mean the foundation at least.” I look back a bit confused, as even the levelled terrain which was there before blended with the environment. Did we go the wrong way? I ask myself.

  Impossible, as I turn back and notice the straight line we went through, despite the ape corpses being gone.

  “I was about to say so..” Adds Astrid.

  “Quickly!"

  "Ready yourselves.” Yells Mike while turning on the spot chaotically with Astrid on his back.

  “Apes?!” I ask him briefly.

  “Yes, not small monkeys! I see tall figures. A lot of them.” He continues.

  "Mike!" Astrid screams aloud.

  *Swoosh*

  One of the last arrows escapes her bowstring.