Chapter 34: Dungeon

With Sharp Eye’s assistance, Ki Jung is able to find bigger and more dangerous beasts. This is thanks to Sharp Eye’s ability to fly off and search ahead of her. She still picks up specimens of smaller creatures, but her goal is beasts of a greater size with possible magical and alchemical uses.

As the days pass, Ki Jung and Sharp Eyes range farther away than the last day. Then, one day, through Sharpies’ eyes, she notices something different. The bird doesn’t take note of it until Ki Jung asks it to take a closer look. When Sharpie flies closer to examine it, Ki Jung can clearly see that the energy from the surrounding area is being drawn into an into the ground. This intrigues her, which in turn leads to her making a beeline towards this anomaly.

When she gets closer, there is a feeling of menace and hunger emanating from the opening. It’s not very strong, but it should be enough to scare off the weak.

With a mixture of curiosity and determination, Ki Jung heads into the cave to see what is within. Sharp Eyes is torn between staying with Ki Jung and avoiding the enclosed space. In the end, Ki Jung tells him to wait outside and hunt until she returned. And, that’s precisely what Sharpie does.

The cave is enormous, and with the feeling of hunger and menace pervading, it reminds her of past RPG sessions with friends when they would enter a dungeon based on the GM’s descriptions. With that in mind, Ki Jung swaps out her spear for her sword as she moves into the cave. Her Qi senses seem to be confused. The entire cave appears to be alive, according to her enhanced senses.

Slowly moving deeper into the cave, the light from the entrance dims until it no longer provides her with sufficient illumination. For a moment, she considers using Qi to give her the ability to see in the dark but quickly puts that idea out of her mind. Something like that should be worked on in a safe environment, not where danger lurked.

Ki Jung gathers a few fist-sized stones, which she infuses with Qi and the intent to provide illumination. The basic idea works, but it needs some work. Thus, she takes the time to make the stones radiate with enough light to banish shadows in a two-meter radius. Further tinkering provides a warm, easy on the eyes, type of illumination similar to an incandescent bulb’s. In this manner, she creates a new enchantment.

~~~~~~ Congratulations! ~~~~~~

You have discovered the enchantment Illumination. This can be used on any non-living object and some that are living. The color and level of illumination is dependent on the caster.

~~~~~~ Congratulations! ~~~~~~

Ki Jung smiles and closes the notice once she’s read it. Next, she attempts to move the rocks with Qi and intent. It takes some work, but through trial and error, she begins to move them. At first, she is only able to move them a few centimeters at a time. Eventually, she is causing them to move a full decimeter. An hour later, Ki Jung is moving a single stone a full meter. Unfortunately, this is quite taxing so, she just picks them up and throws them ahead of herself using Qi to guide their trajectory to the intended space.

The cave appears to have enough room to accommodate a full raiding company. This causes Ki Jung to wonder if she is making a mistake going in alone. Pushing such thoughts aside, she begins to explore the cave’s walls.

If someone were to ask her why she was taking such chances, she wouldn’t be able to answer it in a meaningful way. She is driven, or maybe pulled? It’s difficult to describe. Whatever the reason, there seems to be a force that guides her forward. Not into this cave specifically, but into areas with greater dangers and better rewards. The desire to explore this cave is no different. She is filled with a need to investigate it. She is driven to do so.

Once she finishes making a full circuit of the cave, she moves toward the lone passageway leading away from the main cave. It is positioned at the two o’clock position, with the cave’s entrance being at six o’clock, and is about three meters high and wide.

Tossing one of her glow-stones ahead, she moves forward. While the place seems deserted, and there are no sounds of life that she can detect, the feeling of hunger and menace continues to press down on her. Still, she presses on.

As she traverses the passage, she starts to feel as if she is being watched. But, no matter how much effort she exerts, she cannot sense anything near her. The cave’s essence makes it seem as if she is inside some living thing.

While her attention is momentarily diverted, Ki Jung is attacked. Something hard and fast shoots out of the ground beneath and slightly to her rear. At that same instant, she receives a warning from her senses. The thrust of the attack throws her up and forward. She impacts the ceiling with jarring force. With her years of practice and experience fighting various monsters, she reacts instinctively. She flings out a hand to reduce the impact against the ceiling and redirect her direction of movement. As she rebounds, she reorients herself and lands on her feet so that she facing the direction the attack came from.

Though she doesn’t know what to expect, it is a surprise to discover that she is facing some kind of giant worm, or is it a snake? Its head is at least two meters in diameter. An unknown portion of it is still in the ground. All she sees is a few meters of the body and a flower-like mouth lined with jagged rock formations for teeth.

Her sword Isn’t going to do any good with its short-range against something this size. Swapping the sword for her spear, Ki Jung thrusts at the beast. Instead of doing any harm, the spear is deflected off of its body. All of this happens in under two seconds.

As she tries to determine how to fight the creature, it is slowly drawing back into the hole it had emerged from. It isn’t retreating or giving up. It has to reposition itself before it can move forward. Realizing it isn’t advancing, Ki Jung rushes up and stabs it again. This time she focuses Qi into the weapon to make it sharper. Unfortunately, this does next to no damage, barely leaving a mark on the hide.

The monster’s hide appears to be near impervious to physical attacks with edged weapons. To give herself some time, Ki Jung turns and dashes down the narrow passageway. Shortly, she enters into an open area that is close to 50 meters in diameter and ten meters high. It is mostly a space devoid of obstacles. Throwing glow-stones in all directions provides her with enough light to see that this is a dead-end. She will have to kill the worm if she is going to get out.

A moment later, the beast comes crashing into the room. Acting without conscious thought, Ki Jung changes from using her Qi to make the spear sharper to encasing it in elemental fire. The fire doesn’t actually touch the spear but instead surrounds it. The flames are fed by her Qi and can be directed to burn hotter than any natural flame.

If she had time to think about it, Ki Jung would realize that the local Qi density is allowing her to draw on it with each breath. This constant intake of Qi keeps her filled to the brim even as she is using more Qi at one time than ever before as she powers the glow-stones, her enhanced senses, and the elemental flame on the end of her spear, which is so hot she can feel it causing burns on her exposed flesh.

As the worm comes within range, Ki Jung lunges forward, plunging her spear into the lower jaw like flap. There are three in all. At that same instant, she causes the elemental flame to flare so hotly that it temporarily blinds her and singes her eyebrows.

Guided by the spear, the flame burns through the jaw flap creating a fist-sized hole in the flesh. It also punches through the skin, and the spear becomes lodged in the ground, which turns molten for a moment before Ki Jung releases the elemental fire from the spear. This action pins the beast in place while causing more damage to the worm, at least for a moment. In a couple of seconds, the flames die out as she withdraws her Qi from it. Then, with a quick and well-practiced motion, she releases the spear and draws out her sword.

Ki Jung encases the sword in elemental ice as she steps forward and strikes at the closest undamaged jaw flap. This attack is aimed to impact against the more vulnerable inside portion of the mouth with the hope that cold damage will be even more effective than fire.

The impact freezes an area twenty centimeters wide as she pushes the Qi empowered elemental ice into the flesh surrounding her sword as it slices into the fleshy mass. She follows the slash with a twist of the sword, shattering the frozen portion. This leaves a significant wound behind as the mandible like appendage is partially severed. It is as if the worm’s flesh has been dipped in liquid nitrogen and then hit with a hammer. The worm utters horrendous sounds from deep within as it flails about and attempts to free itself.

Seeing that her gamble is working so well, Ki Jung picks up a handful of pebbles. Connecting a tether of Qi to them, she tosses the rocks into the worm’s exposed gullet. At the same time, she imbues them with elemental ice so cold it flash freezes the very air around each stone. At the moment of impact, the creature thrashes about more frantically than before. The beast breaks loose from the spear and blindly slams against her, throwing her against a wall.

The sounds coming from the creature become intolerable, but the fight isn’t over. As it continues thrashing about, Ki Jung is struck multiple times. She is repeatedly crushed by the flailing beast. Through all of this, she manages to keep the stones powered with Qi and methodically pushes them ever deeper into the worm’s body. Everything they touch is flash frozen. The worm’s body is shattering from the inside.

Finally, it ends. The beast’s body falls limply to the floor. The stench of burning worm meat fills the room, even though the elemental flames are already out. Realizing that the fight is over, Ki Jung withdraws her Qi and takes a moment to check herself for damage. Having suppressed her awareness of any pain and injury during the fight, she is not aware of the extent of her injuries. Now the knot on the top of her head is throbbing, and blood is trickling down her face. She soon discovers that she’s bleeding from multiple wounds, both internal and external. Her spleen is ruptured, as is her pancreas, and her kidneys are bleeding. She also suffers from numerous fractures. Some of the fractures are compression, and a few are simple fractures. Broken ribs make breathing painful. Thankfully, none of them are compound. She also suffers damage to her spine.

Taking out a HOT potion, she drinks it. Then she carefully applies her directed healing spell on the knot on her head to prevent the problems associated with concussion. She then stops the bleeding and repairs her ruptured organs. The pain and extended effort finally take their toll, and she passes out. The HOT potion works with her healing efforts. The potion repairs a lot of the damage to her soft tissues and organs while she lays there unconscious.