Discovery is the name of the game

The minimap had already proved its usefulness for exploring, even when just approaching the already known location of the grey blotch. It was like having a GPS system that could be interacted with, but was entirely independent of any other tech or magic, a fact which greatly helped navigate on the small journey. Like the skill text indicated, John could open up a larger version of the map, place markers, make notes, and even had a small button that seemed to allow him to create a physical map of what he saw as long as he had the right materials. There were even multiple map types, although a good few of them were locked at the moment. For now he could at least open up a height map as well. Once he told Orianna of this, she said a few words about his powers that John expected would continue to follow him.

“Your powers are bullshit,” she said, her tone only light but not hurtful, as they had finally exited the forests surrounding the cabin and began heading towards the hilly area that made up the unexplored territory.

“That’s not the first time I’ve heard that.”

“I’m not surprised, getting free stuff with so little effort isn’t very common in the Abyss, even for Late Bloomers.” Her light tone had turned into a genuine chuckle. They continued to venture through the now completely hilly countryside, while engaging in light small talk and looking around everywhere in the hopes of finding their goal. The area was quite a bit more welcoming than expected, as no animals or any other objects of note were in sight,

“So what did you do before you came here?” John asked, interested in exploring his, at least temporary, companion’s backstory.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” she responded, her tone unusually solemn.

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to pry, just wanted to understand where you’re coming from. Haven’t had the opportunity to seriously get to know anybody from the Abyss yet.”

“It’s fine… My past brings up some memories I don’t want to revisit. It cost me a lot to come here…” John felt there was something more she wanted to say, but she seemingly became lost in thought. They kept walking in silence for a few more minutes before the biomancer broke it, seemingly having gotten back to reality.

“Anyways, if you think you’re gonna get away with just an apology, you have a nasty surprise coming.”

“Huh? But you said it was fine...”

“Yeah, and now I’m gonna return the favor. You wanna talk about what happened yesterday?” she said, her tone serious but her face holding a large grin.

“Not really…” John soon replied. It was a touchy subject to him, and he wasn't quite sure he should trust Orianna with the information required to understand it.

“I won't press you on it. No reason to, your business is your own, but if you ever wanna talk, I'm here.” Orianna's tone expressed her honesty. If she had any reaction to John's actions that were not understanding, she didn't show it.

After that, they walked without talking once again, both having their issues brought to the surface. The silence was far more than awkward, but neither side wanted to break it. Despite their wishes, that quiet was shattered half an hour later, when they came upon a specific part of the hilly area.

“This is where I lost my powers last time, so be careful,” Orianna informed John. Soon, her words came true, as a popup appeared in John’s view.

Magic dampening field entered: All active skills cannot be used until field is disabled, destroyed or exited

An attempt by John to use Arcane Bolts a moment later revealed the popup was indeed correct, he was stuck without magic for the foreseeable future. They quickly began searching the area. Without magic, John’s location on the minimap had disappeared, and they spent most of the day looking around, finding nothing of much interest.

When the sun began going down, Orianna took John back towards the hut. Checking a few traps she had set earlier, they found two rabbits captured in them. John didn’t have the courage to look at the corpses, but nonetheless he helped the biomancer prepare a meal from them. When they were cooked, they tasted almost like chicken. With the ever-present silence continuing for the rest of the night, the atmosphere felt awkward, but they were both ready to check the area again the next day.

They returned to the magic dampening field as quickly as they could, walking completely silently once again. Eventually, they found a small outcropping on the other side of the hill they had been looking on before. John hoped there was nothing too dangerous to handle inside the now growing cave entrance. Once she saw the cave, Orianna once again pulled her knife out, as if prepared for some encounter. She quickly handed it over to John, however.

“You’re going to need a weapon if you don’t have your powers. Don’t worry about me, I have my own.” That was the last thing that either of them said before their environment became entirely too quiet as they entered the large and eerily dark cave system that the entrance opened to reveal. John was awkwardly holding the knife, it was one made much more for hunting than actual combat, and he was also entirely unfamiliar with it’s design. The handle had a curved shape to it, making it much easier to handle, but also quite a bit less practical in a real fight. The young man was still hoping there wouldn’t be one.

In the time they had begun exploring the dank caverns the area contained, John’s minimap had added them, creating a new cave layer on the map which was currently the most visible. They continued travelling the caverns for quite some time before anything more happened. There was something of interest about them, however, something quite unusual. He thought he could recognize the system. It had been from a long time ago. A school trip to Germany that had taken him to a small set of caves near the black forest. That in itself was strange, but could have been just his memory playing tricks on him. When he headed deeper into the cave based on his memory of the layout, he discovered he was wrong. He was able to guide Orianna with hushed words and signs through the cave successfully. The stone floor was dotted with stalagmites.They weaved between them deeper into the cave slowly.

That revelation explained a lot. Why some of the berries seemed familiar to him as ones of european variety and why most weren’t. Being on another continent and with presumably untamed evolution. It seems they were in Europe, or what Europe would have been if met with no human civilization for some unknown period of time. Though it also made John question why they had not encountered any beasts yet, given how untamed the ecosystem had really ought to be.

That question was dispelled a moment later as an army of bat like creatures screeching at far above normal capacity stormed out of the cave through the air. The swarm blinded them both for a few seconds, though the cave remained quite the same when they could see again. John looked over and noticed Orianna had killed a few of the bats during their flight, she picked up their corpses, proceeded to stuff them inside the pocket space and continued to advance into the cave.

Light became sparse as they entered the deeper parts of the cave slowly but surely. Orianna, however, was prepared for this eventuality and so she soon pulled out a torch out of the same pocket space that John learned of earlier. A moment later she took her flint and steel and used it to light the torch, which now allowed them to continue onwards under the cover of its light. Before they continued, John found himself wondering how much that pocket space could store, seemingly holding some untold number of useful tools and supplies. It was a question for another day, perhaps.

The ever present silence that accompanied their tense journey deeper into the cave eventually proved useful, as they began to hear a sound from somewhere further in. Counter to usual procedure, this only made Orianna’s determination to advance more concrete, and she increased her pace to a brisk run soon after. The sound was one of howling. Howling that John was soon able to see the source of.

A mass of eyes could be seen gathered just beyond the light cast by their torch. They weaved in and out of the light, clearly examining the pair standing before them.

’Wolves,’ John quickly noticed. It was quite obvious when he saw them, however, that they were not entirely the beasts he was familiar with. The few he was able to get a decent look at were bigger than normal and had significantly thicker fur that appeared much more black than the usual grey. Soon enough, they were encircled on all sides by the wolves, slowly inching closer. That was all the information John could collect before being violently pushed through a hole in the circle by Orianna. The large cavernous room that could barely be seen by the torch’s light contained one other thing of some note, a large arch at the far edge of it.

“Leave them to me,” The biomancer told him, and his own task was all but spoken. It was immediately obvious to him what the arch was, another gate, and very likely their goal. The trouble was attempting to figure out why it was closed in total darkness, a problem which was soon solved when Orianna threw the torch over the wolves and towards John. Rushing straight into the pack a moment later with seemingly no concern for her own safety.

John blocked out the sounds coming from the obvious scene of battle and picked up the torch. There was no likely way to outrun or beat the wolves without magic, and even if there was he was not willing to bet their lives on it. Thus, the gate in front of him seemed the best possible option. An option he soon rushed to exploit.

He quickly noticed carvings on the gate’s body, which was made of marble, just like the other gates. They were completely indecipherable to John, except for one small detail, there was clearly something more in the room than just the arch. The carvings continued onto the wall and towards some small alcove in one of the sides of the cavern. What John found there was quite a bit more discernible than the carvings. It was a drawing, one of what he believed to be energy flowing into the gate and activating the runes placed on it. Soon enough something distracted him from continuing to examine the drawing, however.

Even through his attempts to block out the sounds of battle, he did hear a couple of things. There was some howls of pain, a single short scream, and the sound of bone striking against bone. A single sound of feet swiftly striking against the hard rock of the cavern was also heard, one that was quickly approaching John in his alcove. The young man was scared beyond belief, just the thought of a living creature coming to attempt to kill him made him both sick to his stomach and utterly devoid of will. His every fibre screamed for him to run, and his mind did just the same, but he knew that there was nowhere to go and that if he ran he would leave Orianna to her ****.

Seeing no other option, the Gamer turned around to face it, drawing the knife to the ready as his last line of defense, and the thing quickly lunged at him. It ignored the torch completely and knocked it out of his hand, but John managed to stab it once in its head as it was lunging. John wasn’t sure where exactly he hit, but the amount of blood was enormous. The giant wolf was on him in seconds, attempting to tear out John’s throat. He was barely able to hold it off, grabbing its head in an attempt to stop the wolf from biting him, needing to repeat this every time the wolf tried getting out of his grasp and only barely succeeding each time. His mind was focused only on preventing the beast from killing him. During the struggle he had been pinned on the ground, a state even more dangerous with the wolf attempting to tear out his throat. That was until he remembered he had a knife, which was luckily still in his hand, and given his lack of options he began stabbing it into the large body of the wolf with as much gusto as he could manage, frantically attempting to hold the jaws of the beast at bay while doing so. As he stabbed it more and more blood began pooling on his clothes and on the ground. But the wolf, feeling its **** slowly approaching, only became more ferocious, attempting to bite the hand that John was using to block his jaw.

Damage taken: 15 HP lost

It almost succeeded, taking a large chunk of John’s skin in its dying throes. Luckily, it quickly began regenerating, and he rushed to throw the beast off his body. The pain in his hand didn't feel real, as if all his nerves were working to keep him as disconnected from the situation as possible. The stench of blood and **** was terrible, making him wish he could get out of there. He felt a deep pit in his stomach, he had killed a living being; he wanted to puke, but there was no time.

Quickly, he began to head towards the gate. If it needed energy in order to activate, he would need to provide it. Touching the arch, he focused slowly on his mana leaving his body and entering the gate itself, something that was initially met with some resistance, seemingly from the air around him, but eventually succeeded. The carvings lit up suddenly in a purple glow, and the indigo he had seen before appeared inside the portal.

“Orianna! Are you still there?” He soon shouted. They needed to make their escape quickly.

Her form slowly appeared under the light of the torch, staggering, a couple more figures trailing behind her. She soon leapt at John, her legs glowing slightly with the familiar gold tinted green, and pushed him along with her own body through the arch. In the final moments before his vision turned to black as he entered the portal he noticed the severe injuries she had taken. Her top was torn up in multiple spots, revealing deep gashes and bite marks; her right leg was even worse, John was sure he could see muscle.