Exploration

Yulia wakes and listens to the voices, Cherchiel wakes up shortly after and hugs her from behind as they listen. "Mm... Sorry, I admit entering the pond without checking first was probably foolish, but... Well this area feels safe... I mean it seems to be a rest area and aside from the floor's wandering monster, those are supposed to be safe, right?" Yulia asks.

"I can't say I'm unhappy that Dreg is gone, but it is... concerning. I hope that doesn't mean this area is completely unprotected," she mumbles as she carefully looks towards the sun, trying not to look directly at it, "I don't think the sun seems to have moved since we arrived here and at least an hour or so must have passed while we slept," she states and then carefully stands up, trying not to disturb Cherchiel, as Cherchiel releases her and stands up as well.

The two venture over to the torches and Yulia takes hold of one and tries to pull it free. The torch is embedded in the ground and doesn't seem to want to move. Yulia continues trying for a bit then gives up, "they seem to be anchored to something underneath the ground, but I'd have to dig to find out what," she sighs and heads over to the unbloomed flower instead. She's cautious as she approaches and does indeed inspect the dirt around the flower, before examining the flower itself.

"There doesn't seem to be anything untoward around it and it appears at least for the moment like just a flower. It seems dry, I don't think it's gotten much water," she says as she looks it over and then glances over to the pond, "the pond did seem like freshwater, I'm not sure if it's drinkable, I suppose I can try, but regardless it would definitely work to water the flower if we wanted to do that," she heads over to the pond and hesitates wondering if she should try drinking from it, "At worst I get sick and I can cure that probably," she reasons to herself before slipping her mask off, cupping her hands and taking some water. She lifts it to her lips and sips some. She waits for a few moments before speaking, "It... Tastes... Well earthy... There's definitely contamination in the water, but nothing dangerous, just the dirt the pond is pooled in, I've had to survive off worse tasting water in the past, probably some mineral contaminants in the water as well, but still nothing to worry about... I'll take some it's probably fine," she explains and takes a few more sips before starting to refill her waterskins.

Once that's done she glances at the flower, but decides to leave off watering it for right now and let the voices decide on that. Instead she and Cherchiel start to head down the torch path. As they start down the path, the sun vanishes from the sky, the bright blue changes to inky black with twinkling stars overhead. The stars match no known Constellations on earth or on Yulia's world and she stops moving, staring at them for the moment. The torches slowly light, one by one with vibrant orange flames that cast a fiery glow over the path, keeping it well lit even without the sun, but the fiery glow is just a little more ominous. The two hesitate, but continue after a bit and eventually reach a cavern entrance that goes down, seemingly deep into the ground, past the cavern entrance there is no path, just a dense enclosure of trees, there are more torches in the cavern lighting the way deeper inside, but these torches are different, smaller and more simple, just sticks and rags set aflame and crudely jammed into cracks in the cavern's walls. Yulia and Cherchiel decide to ignore the cave for the moment and try the other idea that was suggested. They examine the edges of the path, the trees are packed extremely densely, letting almost no light illuminate the forest outside the path and Yulia can just barely squeeze through the trees lining the path, but Cherchiel can't.

The two return to the camp and as soon as they set foot back in the camp, the stars begin to blink out, one by one, but at a rapid pace. Once the last star is gone the sky returns to it's blue colour, the sun reappears and the torches all blow out at once.

"Very dramatic..." Cherchiel muses and Yulia nods in agreement.

(Health: 200%

Mana: 100%

Equipment: Ceramic Beaked Mask, Monastic Scapular, standard bra, Standard Panties, 3 poison gas grenades, 3 healing kits, 1 syringe of poison, 1 syringe of adrenaline, 1 syringe of poison antidote, 1 sewing kit, 1 vial of unknown liquid, 9 days worth of rations, 4 two liter water jug, 1 health potion, 1 mana potion, A boar mask, 2 vials of sticky white liquid, Ornate Rapier, 4 arrows, Quiver, God's Favour (Halo).

Spells known: Great Heal (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 25%)

Great Cure (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 15%)

Energize (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 25%)

Icicle (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 15%)

Unlock (Lvl 1, Unmastered, Cost: 15%)

Repair (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 5%-20% depending on factors).

Fetish: Bondage Rank: 1, Masochism Rank: 1,

Status Effect: Permanent increase to physical attribute. Combat level raised to medium

Psychosexual Break: In order to deal with her trauma, Yulia has begun to subconsciously fetishize her experiences.

Deflowered: Virginity Lost, sexual experience changed to: Inexperienced, non-virgin.

Companion: Cherchiel

https://forum.chyoa.com/threads/the-tower-of-voices-voting-thread.3460/ )