Chapter 17

  Things That Go Bump!

  New Evolution Class E?v?o?l?u?t?i?o?n? C???l???a???s???s??? E???v????o?????l????u????t????i????o?????n??? C??????l???????a???????s????s??????? … Unlocked!

  New Class Trait Unlocked!

  New Class Trait unlocked:

  The Taste of Treasure: B

  As a Treasure Taster, you have gained the Trait: That Taste of Treasure. This Trait allows you to detect items that can be considered treasures by tasting the air. The taste will get stronger as you approach treasures.

  You have reached Level 1 in T????r????e????a????s?????u????r????e????? ???T????a????s????t?????e???r?????!????

  +4 Perception

  +2 Wisdom

  For a goodly while after being engulfed by the darkness that waited between worlds, nothing happened. Elijah had already chosen the rank: B Class from the list, received a new Trait, and spent the Xp he had saved up to get the first level, and still, nothing had happened; he was completely surrounded by a pitch-black void.

  He was beginning to think something had gone wrong; was he finally going to be sent home?

  No, of course not.

  Usually, Elijah was unable to move in the darkness between worlds, trapped in place by the absence of anything to move against, but when he tried to lean forward, he found himself tumbling over.

  Gravity had reappeared, and he hadn’t even noticed. His head cracked against something hard as he folded over. His hands grasped in the darkness, finding jagged rocks all around. It felt like he was in some kind of cave, though there was no light to see by, so he couldn’t be sure.

  No notification had appeared when he entered this new Trial, and try as he might, he couldn’t get one to appear. Whatever monster he was supposed to face was somehow able to stop him from seeing his System windows. Or perhaps he just couldn’t see it in the dark? Elijah hadn’t spent long enough in these System-controlled Trials to know for sure.

  It didn’t really matter, not in truth. The next Trial had already begun, and the young man knew he should expect a fight.

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  The rudeness of the rock floor as it rose to kiss his tender nose startled Elijah, and after flailing around for a moment, he was able to get back to his feet. When his hands were done rubbing at his sore spots, he began to grope about, intent on discovering where exactly he was.

  Pebbles skittered about under his feet as they shuffled about cautiously. He found uneven, natural-feeling cavern walls, too close on either side. He was in some kind of tight cave.

  The distant sound of water dripping periodically somewhere off in the unknown, only able to be heard thanks to Elijah’s recent increase in Perception, was drowned out by rapid and shallow breaths that began to overwhelm the young man.

  The darkness, the smell of rock dust, the tight, claustrophobic caves. It was all too much!

  Elijah began to hyperventilate and was forced to lean heavily on the crumbly tunnel wall as memories, long repressed, came flooding to the surface.

  When anyone ever asked him about it, he would just say that he was fine. They were just kids messing about; no real harm was done.

  Elijah had told that lie so many times that he believed it himself, but now that he found himself back here, in the place that haunted his nightmares, there was no hiding from the truth.

  As the teen began to lose himself and curl up, images came flashing back, and he tried to ward them off with logic.

  This was not the same cave. There was not the sound of rising water. The sound of two other twelve-year-olds bickering wasn’t subduing the darkness. His phone was not out of battery; he didn’t even have a phone anymore. This was not the same as back then.

  Logic, however, cannot combat fear, and Elijah’s hard-won phobia won out.

  A notification appeared, though Elijah was unable to see it.

  Status Effect:

  You have been afflicted by the Status Effect: Fear. Fear decreases one’s ability to reason, causes one to make rash decisions, may cause paralysis, and, in extreme cases, can cause hallucinations.

  He was standing there, once more a preteen. Waves chased them up the beach until they found the hidden cove. The three of them looked up at the crack in the rock, once used by smugglers to hide their goods.

  “We’ve gotta go inside!” Noah insisted. He was a short lad with too much energy who always seemed to get the group into trouble. Today was no exception.

  “I don’t know about this,” Boaz interjected; he was the tallest of the three; just by resting a hand on Noah’s shoulder, he was able to stop the whippet-like boy from bolting off ahead of them.

  Noah looked back at Boaz in annoyance before the pair of them turned to Elijah. As usual, the decision lay with him. He looked over his shoulder at the sun that was even now beginning to set into the encroaching sea.

  It had taken the trio more than an hour to find this remote stretch of beach, and it felt like a waste to turn back now. A part of him wanted to leave without ever setting foot in the spooky cave, but he was the group’s leader; he couldn’t show fear.

  “We’ll just have a quick look around, then head back,” Elijah said with conviction. Noah was elated by this, and the second Boaz released his restraining hand with a sigh far too weary for a twelve-year-old, the little blond zipped across the sand and into the darkness.

  The other two had barely taken a step into the opening in the earth before Noah returned, looking slightly embarrassed.

  “Do either of you have a torch?”

  “Don’t you have your phone on you?” Elijah asked, somewhat exasperated.

  “No, I broke the screen last week, remember?” Noah replied impatiently.

  Attention shifted to Boaz.

  “I can’t have one until I’m sixteen; my parents are super strict,” he reminded.

  Elijah dug out his phone from his pocket and pressed the button on the side. The screen lit up.

  “It’s at ten percent,” he said, hesitantly.

  “That’s fine; it won’t take long for me to run around this place,” Noah said, making a grabbing motion for the phone. Elijah shook his head. If you wanna see anything, you’ll have to stick with us. I don’t want you running off with our only means of communication.

  Noah was huffy about it, but he did relent. Elijah pulled down from the top of the screen and pressed the button that turned on the light.

  Instantly, the first chamber was revealed to them. The opening in the cliff was small, so none of them were expecting the scale of the cave before them.

  “Great Scott!” Boaz exclaimed.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Noah said, pointing with excitement at something on the far side of the chamber.

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