….ok, first off sorry for the wait, I only intended to take a week off, but some shit happened on the second and I basically spent that week going through my data, going through all sorts of websites to sign back in, and THAT few weeks turned to months

And then I had a few ideas and stories I wanted to get out and put out prologues for, and had a few of them further written and posted, but enough with the excuses!

the 6 month wait is over, but I hope you enjoy it.

Also, I think I quite literally skipped the Fighter's skill selection on chapter 1, it's Survival and Athletics.

And Fighting Style which is Dueling

Plz Review and Comment!

Chapter 7 - The Silk Road

I did not know what was worse, the fact we were walking in monster territory, or the fact I had to walk in there blind with rope tied to my waist which was tied to Prince Derendel to make sure I didn't fall to my death…be that by the height or the spiders themselves.

From what has been explained to me, they currently had a 15% percent chance of crossing paths with monsters, which would normally be spiders.

But with a torch light, it would raise that chance all the way up to freaking 50 percent, and since only I really desperately needed light, as a group it was decided it was best to just have me blind for the next few days, which absolutely sucks, as there's nothing illuminated for thousands of feet.

It does not help that once they finished explaining and gestured to the road that we should follow, they took up their payment of a shiny iron sword, took out a bottle filled with some sort of liquid and jumped into the web as if they were skating on ice.

The entire first day was uneventful, it did not help that I was nervous when walking through the darkness, but nothing seemed to show up.

Today was the second day of the journey through the Silken Path, and by the time around half our waking hours I was bored out of my mind. That only lasted until I froze when I heard the large amount of hissing, where I just assumed there was a…pack? of spiders.

To be honest, I was not at all sure what the hell was happening at that whole minute, because at that point The Prince simply picked me up and placed me at his back, and started thrashing his arms around while running.

All throughout the battle, all I could do was listen, as well as feel movement with Derendil, to the battle going on around me, where there were war cries, teeth being sunk in, and shouts and grunts of pain being very vocal.

At the end, "we" managed to kill 5 Giant Spiders, with quotation marks seeing as all I did was lay on someone's back, although I still got the exp, so I guess being Allies is all that matters to whoever is the operator.

The next day was boring, while I was pleasantly surprised that nothing attacked us, I did leave me quite bored, as I had nothing to do.

"…how does your night vision work? Do you all just see normally in the dark?" I asked after what must've been at least 8 hours, our break not even being 30 minutes ago.

I was also absently noting that for the past 2 days. We have already crossed countless web bridges that slope up, down, and some that simply went on straight.

There was a eerie silence, which almost made me believe they were ignoring me, before the drow, Sarith, spoke, " well first of all, to enlighten you, it is usually referred to as Darkvision, and no, it isn't like when a torch is out, it's more like it's constantly in low amounts of light, and there are no colors visible in our vision, all we can see are shades of grey,".

That caused me to blink, as I can see some issues with that, "but wait…would that mean you're leaving yourselfs color blind? What if you need to determine the colors of what's in front of you,".

I can practically hear the Dark Elf rubbing his constantly aching head as he sighed, "like I said we can only see in shades of grey, while it would be preferable to have color vision alongside our darkvision that simply isn't in the cards for us, if we at any point need to distinguish colors we would need an alternate source of light".

…I see, Darkvision might have its advantages, but there are obvious downsides to it, although there isn't much a person can take advantage of of limited color vision.

"Eh, we might not see much in the dark, but to be honest there isn't much to look at in the first place since anything that is worth looking at is usually attacking or is already producing its own light," Topsy commented somewhere ahead of me, she paused for a bit though before she continued.

"I mean, come on, I would've expect-

Before she could finish what sounded like a complaint I heard distinct multiple sounds of loud snapping and a sudden shift of gravity.

I also absently noted the surprised and worried gasps and screams my group was producing, and while Prince Derendil managed to grab the edge, sadly not knowing exactly what was happening in the confusion, caused me to slip off off the Quaggoth's back.

"Kiiid!" I heard several people shout to me, and to be honest I was panicking really badly, as my one and only light source was currently buried deep in my bag.

I fell for a few seconds before hitting something soft and sticky, which I was assuming was another silky web road.

And to be honest I was glad we were currently walking on the upward slope at the time of the conversation, because I didn't want to find out if there were any roads below any of the downward bridges from before, although it seemed a new problem was upon me.

I was stuck, as in the bridge was restraining me with its sticky substance, so after relaxing, I calmed down my breathing and in one go attempted to break myself free.

…

…

… Rolled: 4 (12)

Apparently I was pulling it wrong, as I didn't feel the web being pulled at much, so instead of pushing myself upwards, I will try to pull myself to the side instead.

…

…

…Save Rolled: 19 (12)

That seemed to be the correct solution as I managed to snap the web from one side, which made snapping the other side not that big of a deal.

Not wasting anytime, I pulled my bag that was securely fastened to my bag and dug through it before finding my glowing mushroom and bringing it out.

And seeing my surroundings, I practically felt myself both pale and get a chill down my spine.

I was only a few feet off the Cavern floor, if there wasn't a bridge where I fell in,..I looked up, and as far as I'm concerned there wasn't a bridge for several hundred feet.

That would've been the end, I was lucky, I do not presume to think I can survive a fall from that high up.

Sighing, I took the time to calm my racing heart and tried to find a web bridge that would lead me back to the group, or at the very least in the same direction as they were last heading.

What I found instead was what looked like a tiny man, who was around 3 feet in height, and was bundled up on the web, pretty much from all around.

From what I can tell, he was alive, based on the fact he was currently staring at me and practically begged me to help.

Deciding to help him, I walked over, and attempted to pull him out.

…

…

…Skill Rolled: 22 (12)

And seemingly with no effort managed to pull him out with no problem whatsoever, other than finding the initial grip.

Although when I let go, I dropped down to the floor. I was worried that he was dead after all, but after turning his body over I saw relief in the small man's eyes, so it was safe to assume he was paralyzed and, based on the green veins, poisoned as well.

I wasn't particularly sure what to do, it didn't seem like the man was in any pain, so perhaps the poison wasn't life threatening? But what about the paralysis?

…I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea if I waited for the party to come to me, they had the goblins leading them that claimed they knew the place the best, so knowing where he fell it shouldn't be a problem for them to track me down.

I sat down next to the paralyzed man, who was currently in the process of drooling out of hit gaping mouth. I placed the mushroom back in my pouch.

There wasn't much to do, I was essentially sitting in one place hoping that my fellow escapees would come for me, if they came for me, since as far as I can see. I might not want to risk finding me when our slavers might be right at our heels.

It might not even come to that, perhaps they have believed I had died, not a bad assumption based on the height I had fallen.

I, on the other hand, do not know how to feel about this.

My emotions were in turmoil despite my passive expression.

On one hand, I felt scared that they actually left me behind, where the chance of my pursuers finding me rose quite a bit, though perhaps not by that much since the bigger group was ahead of me.

On another hand, if they indeed left me, then that just welcomed a growing anger, as that would mean I was left abandoned in the dark.

On the third hand…I do not know if I should feel accepting or happy of that fate, because while my situation has grown worse and with a horrific possible event, it also meant that the chances of them being safe has indeed increased.

…It was probably not healthy that he was dealing with this with cold logic, as he tried to sort through his emotions, but it indeed help pass the time.

…until something voiced out…although not out loud

A Soft Femine Voice Sounded out in my mind, Suddenly, Faint, and Distant from me.

"Hello? Is someone there…? Oh please, I need your help! I have been trapped in the dark for so long…so very long. Please, won't you help to free me?"

I just stood there with a blank expression, as I was clueless on what to do, especially since the female voice came straight from my mind, although pointing me in a certain direction.

…from what I can tell that voice was not in distress, but more lonely than anything else.

So while that is the case, it would not hurt to wait a bit longer for the tiny man to start moving, which seemed to be evident based on the fact the fingers and shoulders were twitching.

40 minutes later

By the time the hour I fell down was over, the Halfling, which was what he said his kind were called, was fully capable of moving.

"I really do thank you kindly for your help, you had no need to help me when I was in a bad situation and had not needed to stay with me," said a nervous man, who introduced himself as Fargass Rumblefoot.

I myself shrugged, "it was not that big of deal, I myself needed to stay in place in hopes that my group would be able to track me down," although I still had my doubts, it wouldn't hurt to wait till the end of the day, which meant sleep.

"Still, while nothing did attack it was not entirely out of the possibilities for something to come here with my vulnerable self,…say as thanks for rescuing me, how would you like to go with me to an Ancient Tomb?" He asked after a minute in silence over a glowing mushroom.

I blinked, "…what for?" I didn't particularly see a reason why I would want to go to a dead person's personal graveyard.

The Halfling scratched the back of his neck, "well it's a tomb that was said to be untouched, in fact for the past century it has been lost, but me and my companions managed to uncover the trail leading to it…until they were killed by a swarm of spiders, I…am the remaining one that survived," as he looked down in sadness.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable at that, I decided to shift the conversation, "not to come up as rude…but what could I possibly get for-"

Just before I could finish my sentence I started to hear the distant voices of people, every few seconds, they would start calling out, it would be a few moments until I recognized the word "Kid", they were calling out.

Suddenly I felt a weight drop from my shoulders and a massive amount of relief fell upon me, hell, I could feel a smile coming to my face, as I stood up and lifted up my mushroom to the sky, as high as I could.

Soon enough, I heard several sounds of running coming closer, and sure enough, it was the fellow escapees, they thankfully found me.

Topsy jumped at me, "THERE you are! Do you HAVE ANY IDEA what kind of fright you have us?!," as she took a hold of my leather armor and started to shake me up and down.

"Pfft, you can say that again, you nearly gave me a heart attack when you fell off the edge like that," said the Dwarven Warrior, as she herself looked quite relieved.

Stool quickly caught up and jumped at my feet as I was down, until I heard a Familiar voice in my head "I am happy we found you!, I was so scared, when you fell it was like my spore's connection suddenly disappeared," I was so scared!" As he echoed in my head, sounding relieved beyond measure, and if it was possible I was sure he? would've been crying.

But that wasn't the issue here

…I felt stupid that I didn't even attempt to call out through the telepathic link, not that it would've mattered anyway since apparently it wasn't even an option, but he should've at least tried.

I felt my left eye twitch heavily, I felt so annoyed at myself at what was a obvious solution, to take my mind off I looked towards the others.

The drow looked annoyed, not at me though, the Gambler though looked quite smug as he looked at the drow, there was a pause of…expectancy?

Drow let out an annoyed sigh before pulling out a singular gold coin and handing it to Jimjar who had a very large grin on his face.

…did they bet about if they would find me?…I don't know how to feel about that, offended or amused? Perhaps a mixture of both will do.

I attempted to do a mock glare, based on the fact Jimjar was laughing with his head back and that Sarith just snorted at my attempt, I might've had a success though this could also be classified as a failure.

"And who might you be?" Said the old voice of Buppido, I turned to him and saw that he aimed his question to the Halfling who had been awkwardly standing in place.

"While I am bewildered at a Dwarf being so far down here, at the very least her kind are known to position themselves on mountains and undergrounds, you however are severely out of place," Buppido questioned with bewilderment.

…but I also noticed that he seemed strangely happy about this as well, and it wasn't only me, others gave the old Derro narrowed glances.

"…sigh, I suppose I am a bit out of place, like I told your recently lost companion, I was down here with a group of my own in search of a lost Tomb from an Ancient empire, and for saving my life, I was offering to follow me to the location that we managed to locate,…with the equal loot splitting of course," he added the last part in nervously.

We all gave each other a look, Jimjar, Eldeth, and Topsy, looked quite intrigued by the news.

While on the other side Buppido, Turvy, and Sarith looked uninterested, although in Sarith's case that might be that he was busy rubbing his head again, as he hissed in pain.

Stool, Shuushar, and Derendil on the side just looked unsure at this, they were evenly split.

I looked back to the Halfling, "while I don't know about the Tomb, I did however hear some sort of telepathic message from a girl who sounded abandoned, so if it is from the same direction as the tomb, I don't see why not.

I could feel a few blinking at me, before I heard Jimjar chuckling and tell me in a teasing tone, "my, my, not even a day and you already are looking to save a damsel?,".

It was my turn to blink, before I gave him a deadpan, "why did you have to make it weird," I told him in a monotone voice.

All he did was shrug, "hey, all I'm saying is what I heard, it's only been an hour and apparently you already found a quest to save a lonely girl, HnhnhnHn, oh well at least your not that Dense or shy, seriously these days if I even mention such a thing boys like you would start blushing and start denying or look dumbly at me," as he laughed behind his hand with his head all the way rolled back.

The Twins looked confused and annoyed at Jimjar alongside me, Sarith and Buppido didn't look like they gave a shit, stool was just standing there looking back and forth between me and Jimjar, giving me a confused impression.

Shuushar, Derendil, and Eldeth on the side were laughing alongside Fargas.

…it was actually really strange, I felt the atmosphere actually lighten up a bit,..which was a bit much for a simple joke like that.

…perhaps I should keep a closer eye on the resident gambler.

I released a heavy sigh and turned to Fargas who had calmed down from his laughing fit, "well anyway, for your proposal, I accept it, who knows we may actually find something useful in there,".

Fargas, looking delighted, motioned them to follow him, "good, good, luckily the tomb itself is not all that far, I would've probably made it a long time today if the spider hadn't managed to get me,".

While it did take about 30 minutes or so, that wasn't exactly far, they had arrived at the location the Halfling wanted to be at.

As they passed through the narrow side passageway, they arrived at a dirty marble wall with a deep-set door made of bronze-encased stone, the deep green telling it's age.

"We...have arrived," said Rumblefoot, who was shaking in excitement along with a wide smile to match.

Walking up to the door, noticing no handle of any sort I assumed that it was meant to be pushed open, holding up one hand I attempted to push it.

I noticed the problem immediately when the door refused to budge, turning back. I looked at the cursed prince, "Derendil, could you help me with this," as I turned back as I placed both hands on the door in preparation.

"Hm? Oh yes, why of course" Derendil quickly made his way over to me and assisted me in pushing at the goddamn heavy door.

While I had failed to push it, Derendil managed to fill in the slack and managed to fully push open the entrance to the tomb.

The first thing I noticed once the thing was open was the fact there was a talk room with stairs at the other side we were going in, ...as well as the ungodly amount of dust that fell on the two of us.

Another thing I noticed was that it was dark, there was no light source other than my mushroom that I was wearing like a necklace.

Once inside I took a closer look at the room, and noticed it wasn't as blank as it appeared to be from the outside.

First off, on the walls to my right was a masterfully made diorama, depicting a woman holding some sort of energy on both hands, where she was surrounded by what looks like servants and slaves.

As well as a army at the ready looking up at her, as well as a mountain of gold coins behind her, however wat was on my left was what managed to grab my interest.

It was once again a Diorama, but this time, it was depicting a multitude of floating islands in the sky that had cities on top of them covering the entirety of the left wall.

Halfling however seemed a lot more excited than me on any day.

"This is EXTRAORDINARY! I knew that this city was from an ancient empire, but I didn't even consider the fact that it would've been from that empire!" exclaimed the eager Halfling who took out a notebook and quickly started sketching.

I on the other hand raised an eyebrow, "and what makes that empire different from any other ancient civilization, ...although I will admit the flying islands are amazing,".

Rumblefoot, not stopping for even a moment in his sketching answered back with no less eagerness as before, "what makes this so special boy, is the fact it's from the Ancient Rule of the Netherese, an- Gasp," quickly forgetting to finish his sentence he quickly made his way down the stairs and found a stone tablet of some sort.

"A calendar, an actually fully intact stone calendar," as he spoke the last word a bit too aggressively in my opinion, as made an empty note to leave him to do his own thing for now.

Although apparently Netherese was an important name, something he will keep a note of, just in case in the future.

Once the group finished looking through the art on the wall, we started to make our way down the long flight of stairs.

Although the Halfling expressed interest in staying behind for now, being just as happy to fully record everything in the room above.

Though strangely enough, Buppido, expressed the same interest in staying behind to gaze upon the Diorama in the room,…it was weird as I didn't really get an impression that he was a type to stare at art.

Making our way down, all the way down the 100 foot staircase, until we had arrived at the second chamber of the tomb.

This one...was a but more disappointing seeing that the tapestries that were probably on the wall were now in ruins laying on the floor, alongside deeply defaced friezes, now unrecognizable, as well as a cracked altar against one side of the wall.

Shuushar sighed sadly, "such a shame that the art in the room had not managed to survive the toll now like the ones upstairs, truly a shame,".

There were some like Stool who simply could not really appreciate these things and then there were others who simply didn't care, although Eldeth and Derendil seemed to share the same sentiment.

Me on the other hand?

Looking around the room, I noticed a very distinct feature in all of this, these damages weren't very old, in fact, they were recent...very recent, however, they didn't seem to leave any sort of tracks behind.

And it seemed I wasn't the only one

"You noticed it as well boy? Sore Loser?" said the narrowed eyed gambler lowly, although he grinned teasingly at the drow, who obviously gritted his teeth in annoyance.

Although he ignored it for the sake of the situation, "yes, ...someone has been here, but no one obviously has opened the door to the outside for a long while based on the sheer amount of dust that came out of it when opened,...something or someone is in here with us," he whispered out loud for the party to hear.

Suddenly the group was a lot more tense, Shuushar and Stool looking a lot more nervous than before, while the rest readied their weapons and claws while the non-fighters stood back.

Eyeing the two doors, I chose the door on the other end away from the stairs and prepared to push with Derendil already with me and nervously helping me push.

…

…

...Skill Rolled: 23 (15)

And with no effort whatsoever, with adrenaline pumping in me from the eerie atmosphereI found myself in, I managed to push open the door alongside the Quaggoth.

Looking into the room, we quietly entered the 3rd room, it was a little smaller than the room we were previously at, but had four sarcophagus in it.

Each one had a unique face carved for each fancy Coffins, of a robed human figure in repose.

We looked around the room for a moment, before the quaggoth looked at me and the Drow and Deep Gnome with a weird look.

"Are you three sure that there is someone in here with us? This room is as empty as the other two?" he quietly questioned as he looked around annoyed.

"Yes, quite sure, my furry friend," answered Jimjar who was holding a crossbow, as he looked around for anything hidden.

"Well it all seems to be these creepy boxes people use to bury people in the dirt, seriously " said the cursed prince as he tapped on one one of the sarcophagus on the right side of the room.

However, as soon as he had touched the coffin, suddenly a purple hand slammed right next to his claw, bringing out a high pitch yelp out of the Quaggoth as he pulled back his arm.

The purple ghostly arm pulled itself out through the lid of the box and out came out a purple, transparent, figure that glowed purple.

But what was the most horrific part was the high pitch screech it let out after looking at each of us, I was not afraid to say that I was scared.

Looking at it, it's face looked vaguely like a skull, that had sharp teeth, eye sockets that simply glowed white, and ethereal hair that stood up straight, and seemed to have no legs as they simply hovered in place.

What was worse was the fact it wasn't the only one there

As soon as the monster pulled itself out of its coffin three more, each from their own coffins, came out.

At the very least, they now knew what had made the mess in the other room.

I took the smallest amount of comfort in that as we all prepared for the inevitable battle.

Upstairs at the Entrance

Fargas Rumblefoot POV

The Halfling couldn't be any happier having finally reached this location, and that was a fact.

Although it was slightly dampened that he had lost his fellow colleagues and friends, at the very least he would carry on their memories and be able to bring back to the surface what they had discovered.

At the very least, he had managed to make new friends with the one who had rescued him from the web Cocoon, he didn't particularly mind that he would have to split the monetary things here.

The REAL reward was what he was currently doing, he has only now managed to finish his sketches of the absolutely beautiful Dioramas art on the wall.

It didn't hurt that he had company who appreciated it as well, although he wasn't all that talkative, at least not to him and any question he had asked him while they were here.

Just as he was about to head on down to the rest of the group, suddenly he froze as heard a distant screech down below that sent chills down his spine and fear into his soul.

On the other side of the room, Buppido, turned back to the Halfling who was near the top of the stairs, and let out a small, cold smile, his eyes gleaming with slight eagerness, as he slowly made his way up to the Halfling who was preoccupied with what he had heard.