"Damn, think, think," Shirou glanced around his stony prison. The room felt impossibly hot, like he was in some sort of oven, and virtual sweat clung to his body. He immediately regretted that analogy as he hoped he really wasn't in an oven, slowly being cooked to a crisp brown to be eaten by some mob. Or maybe he would dissolve into polygons before that happen?

Shaking those useless thoughts aside he forced himself back to his feet as he walked towards the connected stalactites and stalagmites. The space they provided at the center was enough for him to poke his hand through but anything past his elbow would be too tight a squeeze. He tried to break himself out but immediately blanched when after a hit from his fist the rocks durability dropped by one point...from seventeen thousand.

What utter madness!

He glanced warily at the hole in the ceiling, wondering if Arturia was okay. The sounds of fighting had disappeared and he found nothing to give him even a semblance of a clear mind since the intervening time. Thoughts about Arturia's death plagued him and for some odd reason he couldn't open his map to see her location. As the cave was a unique quest area maps were disabled to prevent cheating. Shirou snorted, does cheating matter in a death game?

After a moment to only his thoughts he gripped the rocky bars of his cell and shouted at the top of his lungs. "Hey! Anybody there!" He pulled back, listening as his voice bounced off the digital walls and disappear to parts unknown. He waited, a lump in his throat as nothing happened.

"Hey! I'm trapped in here, in a cell made of rock! Is anybody there? An NPC! Arturia! I'll take a squirrel even!" He paused, still nothing. He sighed as he crumpled to his knees and waited.

"You shouldn't be shouting." Shirou froze in his spot. His fingers dug themselves deep into the dirt beneath him at the innocent sound. He screwed his eyes to slits, the sound reminding him of his adoptive sister Illya.

He glanced up and saw a partial copy of her standing in front of him. She had pure snow white skin like his younger (I know she is technically Shirou's older sister) sister but unlike her this one had black hair. The eyes too were different as the girl in front of him had startling jade colored eyes. She wore a white dress with a strange cloth crown fixed onto her head. (Imagine the Dress of Heaven except without the rings)

She looked Shirou up and down and he was able to see that she had no name. So that made her an NPC but one far too advanced for Shirou to understand. She smiled at him as she tilted her head but Shirou noticed how her eyes turned blank. It seemed she wasn't fully sentient and was awaiting for the system to register the scenario and provide her dialogue options.

"Please it would be in your best interest to exercise silence for the duration of your stay." She smiled as she neatly folded her hands in front of her.

Shirou glanced around him and looked at the girl pointedly. She was still smiling at him with her head tilted, the resemblance to Illya was as well creepy. Deciding that silence was something his mother would never agree to Shirou asked a question. "Who...are you?" Shirou thought what was a better question.

The girl's smile vanish and she seemed to be waiting for the system to devise an appropriate response. "I am child, caretaker and daughter." She curtsied in front of him and smiled, this time politely.

"Daughter?" He blinked and looked around him, what was a child doing in a cave of monsters even if she was an NPC.

"...My father owns this cave. I would prefer it if you do not cause trouble for him." Huh? Who? What?

"Wait a minute! Monsters own this cave, you can't seriously say- hey I'm talking to you!" The girl turned around and began walking deeper into the cave. He watched her go, covered his head with his fingers and beyond his better judgement- he headbutted the cell. His head rung from the blow, and swirls filled his vision but at least he allowed a few moments of peace from his own thoughts as he skidded onto his butt.

"I need to get out of here," he muttered, "at least before Arturia comes." He looked back up at the hole on top of him and thought about climbing up again, but he decided that was a lost cause. Though, lost cause or not, that didn't stop him from preparing his muscles to try and climb up the hole again.

But just before he could, two pieces of rock behind him crumbled to the ground. Shirou whirled around, jerking his hands up to his face in search of an enemy or that little girl again. He saw nothing but still his senses were on alert. He didn't have his sword anymore and the vulnerability sent his paranoia rocketing to points unknown.

"Hello?" He called out. He got no reply. Cautiously he proceeded out into the open and looked around him. Strangely he spotted several skeletons nearby, their structure signifying them as human. It looked like they were victims of the same trap, except these ones had probably been able to escape seeing as they were in the hallways in front of his exit.

Shirou glanced at the various bodies and suddenly spotted an unusual sight. A rope came into view, its length extending throughout the room and stopping just outside his reach in the cell. It looked to have been moved, probably by the monsters or something else, but Shirou traced the rope all the way to a lever on the wall.

He blinked when he noticed the rope was tied loosely around the rope. Or more accurately it looked like it had been tossed from the cell onto the lever for someone to pull down. Oddly enough the lever was still down but there was no dust on it to show that it had been that way for long. Shirou was a little bit amazed at the level of detail in this quest, as he guessed that the bodies in the cave were from members of the village that used to exist in the base of the mountain, and quietly he pushed the lever back up.

He jumped slightly when the two rocky bars that had retracted to allow Shirou to escape returned to close up the cell. The blacksmith scratched his head as he stared at the bars and back at the lever.

What the?

Strange things are floating in the air. Can anybody guess at what's going to happen in the quest? (And no I will not steal your ideas) Tune in next time as we see our protagonists bumble in a cave system for half an hour!