No, it doesn't. The naiad's warning wasn't unfounded, after all.

You make your way through the twisting tunnels of the cavern, knowing it'd be quite easy to get lost with all the forks and offshoots of the path you're on you see in passing. Luckily, you know where you are going, thanks to the naiad's memories, so you know which paths to bypass and which to take. As such, you know you could be out of these caverns in little more than two hours, if your travel is undisturbed. But, knowing this dangerous land you are in and the fact that you have been cursed with the dark artifact that's now bound to you, you know that the likelihood of a completely peaceful trek is low.

Still, the first hour you walk through the tunnels IS relatively quiet. You sometimes hear scuttling and movement from the tunnels you pass by, but, fortunately, none of those are tunnels you need to travel and whatever creatures reside in the darkness either don't have the courage or the inclination to come out of their hiding spots to confront you. So that first hour of travel is peaceful and gives you time to think on the things you've learned and the things that have happened to you thus far.

Betrayed. Nearly murdered. Left for dead. Cursed with a dark artifact. These were not things you had expected when you'd come on this quest with your allies. But, in truth, all of those things paled in comparison to the fact that, back in your homeland, your sister had more than likely been seized by the prince you'd sworn to serve faithfully in order to sate his lusts. Your little sister, who you'd raised yourself, was probably being ravished and used by that bastard prince even now and the thought boiled your blood. It also made you think deeply on what you had believed to be so before now.

You'd believed in justice and doing what was right. You'd believed in heroism and doing good. Moreover, you'd been a devout follower of the goddess of light, as most in the human lands were. The paladin, Acacia, was sworn to the goddess as well as the crown and she'd shown divine powers during your travel together. Divine powers, gifted by a goddess, even as she planned your **** and to give your sister, an innocent young girl, to a prince that was supposed to belong to a royal bloodline blessed by the goddess herself. And, if that was so, did that mean that what the paladin and the rest of your allies had done under the orders of the prince were judged as right by the goddess herself? Was that what good and justice was?

The thought shook something in you to your very core and you could feel a burning smoldering anger inside of you at the thought...and you found that that anger was not yours alone. It was a feeling that seemed to be mirrored and amplified by the Artifact on your hand, rage seeming to seethe from it as though it were a living thing. But, of course, it WAS, wasn't it? According to the naiad, it was alive, if only in part. It was alive and had also been betrayed and harmed by the goddess and her followers. And, dark and evil though the Artifact may be, did that not make it your...ally?

These were the thoughts you were pondering as your steps led you from a cramped tunnel into a more open and large chamber. This caused you to stop in your tracks as, according to the naiad's information, there was no such chamber in your path. Your brow furrowed as you looked around, moving more slowly and guardedly as you studied your surroundings. The chamber resembled that in which you'd met the naiad, but without a spring within it. Also, the nature of the stone and earth around you was different. While that glowing obsidian stone that illuminated the caverns was still present, it seemed mixed in with rich brown earth and craggy rocks that looked similar to those of your homeland. And, while that was strange, it was not the most strange thing.

No, the most strange thing was that this cavern seemed to have been freshly carved out. You can tell from the looseness of the earth and the strange uniform smoothness of the walls and ceiling. Something had MADE this cavern and you feel the hair on the back of your neck stand on end as you realize whatever had done so had done so quite recently...and was, therefore, probably still VERY close.

Almost as if to prove your thoughts correct, you hear a sound behind you and you whirl around, dropping the chest you'd been hauling and lifting your gauntleted hand in order to defend yourself!