We find a hidden cove

We search along the cave wall but can’t find any hidden passageways. Suddenly, Sophie suggests that maybe the secret could be hiden in the water.

"Right, guess we'll have to swim then." Ryul immediately suggests and starts to take his clothes off.

“You can’t be serious.” I tell my elven friend. “What if there is another monster down there? You would get attacked and you’d be without armor. Also, you got trained to fight on land, not in water.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Ryul than admits. “Hey, you got water magic. That means you can push the water aside, right?”

“In theory,” I say hesitantly. “But I am new to magic in general. I would only be able to push away a bit of water and I am already running low on mana.”

“Well, let’s get Shalia to help you.” Ryul suggests.

We turn around to looks for Shalia, but can’t find her immediately. Then Ari points at the far end of the cave. We find Shalia still hugging the wall in search for a secret passage. Except, when she got to the water, she used her earth magic to create a small rocky ledge for her to stand on. The further she walks, the more of a path she creates for herself.

Then Shalia turns to us and yells, “I think I found something!”

She then uses her earth magic on the rocky wall, pushes a hole into it and walks inside.

We all rush towards her, following along the path across the water she made. As I walk along that path, I look down into the water. At first the water is shallow, but the river floor soon makes a steep dive downward. I tap Ryul’s shoulder and show him how deep it is.

“Holy shit.” Ryul says. “I was about to take a swim in that.”

“Always be careful of unknown waters. Better safe than sorry.” I tell Ryul.

When we get to the hole Shalia made, we join her inside. There is another cave there, a big one like where we just came from, also full of water. Fortunately, Shalia has already formed a rock platform for us to stand on. Except, we can’t see much here. This cave is much darker.

“Shalia, can you create a light source here?” Leona asks.

“Sorry, I haven’t learned the [illumination] spell yet.” Shalia apologizes.

Suddenly, the whole room start illuminating. Now that the inside of this cave is visible, we can see just how big this cave is. Big enough for a pirate ship to be hidden inside. Like literally, right in front of us, we see an old abandoned pirate ship just floating on the water.

“Many years ago, there was a pirate captain who used this place as a hideout.” Kiara says from behind us. We turn around and see her there, holding her right hand up and casting an [Illumination] spell. “The captain was an A rank mage with water and fire and air magic and could create large mists to hide his ship when he sailed the river. His first mate was also a mage, B rank, with earth and water magic. It is the first mate who dug this cave’s floor deep enough so their ship could sail in. the captain would use his air magic to sail the ship in the cave, the first mate used his earth magic to open up the false wall, they would then sail in and close the door behind them. That was, until one day the first mate had an accident while inside the cave, and they no longer had an earth mage to get them out. Then the pirate crew died.”

Amazing. I never heard of a story like that. And to think a huge cave of all things was hiding just beneath our noses.

“This is the secret, right?” Ryul asks Kiara. “So, what now?”

“That’s for you to decide.” Kiara replies.

“Come on. Can’t you help out a little?” Ryul complains.

“No, Kiara is right.” I say. “It’s not like we can expect Kiara to be there for us every time we explore a dungeon. We need to be able to do this ourselves.”

“I agree with them.” Leona replies. “We need to learn to stand on our own strength.”

That said, we are starting to think of a way to reach the pirate ship.

It is actually rather hard, now that I start thinking about it. There are no ropes leading towards it. There are no rowing boats nearby. We can’t detach the rock platform Shalia has created for us as it would immediately start sinking.

“Shalia, can’t you create like a stone bridge all the way there?” Sophia asked.

“Don’t think so. I can get us a little further, yes. But the longer I make the bridge, the easier it becomes for it to break. It will also take me a lot of mana.” Shalia explains.

“What about some plants that can sling us along, like liana’s.” Ryul suggests.

“The only thing I have like liana’s is a spell called [Briar Trap]. That one has barbs and is meant to wrap around people’s legs, not cross streams.”

Even though Shalia said it was no good, I still wanted to think a bit more about the [Briar Trap] spell. I remember how Shalia trained in the castle with the seeds she got from Kiara. She had a spell to make them grow. What if she first casts a [Briar Trap] and then uses her nature magic to … I got it.

I explain my idea to Shalia. She’s not too sure about it, but she’s willing to give it a try. We start by going back to the first cave and collect some sand for her to cast her spell in the right place. Then she molds some rock into a stalagmite for the liana to wrap around. After that, Shalia starts creating her plant bridge.

First, she casts the [Briar Trap] at the sand we brough, creating a few thing strings of plant. Then she makes one of those strands grow longer and thicker while wrapping it two times around the stalactite. After that, she sends that string towards the ship. She keeps it thin and light so it can float upon the water. When the vine arrives at the ship, Shalia lets it grow up along the bow. The briars growing from the vine allow it to have a certain grip on the wooden ship. Once the vine is on board, Shalia finds some piece of railing for it to swing around a couple of times. Then Shalia falls on her knees, panting for air. I guess that means she is out of magic.

That is when Kiara pulls 2 vials with a blue liquid in it from her pouch.

“In a normal dungeon, you would have mana potions with you. Because of your training in the castle, you were unable to prepare any, so I will overlook this.” Our mentor says.

Kiara then gives one of the vials to Shalia who drinks it immediately. The other is given to me. I did spend quite some mana, but I still have some to spend. I will use it later, when it is more pressing.

After a short break Shalia is back on her feet and continues working on the vine. She has the vine tighten so that it forms a neat bridge, then she has it gradually grow thicker. Slowly, we see the vine grow in thickness until it is big enough for us to crawl across, but that is as far as Shalia can go.

It is really quite amazing. The vine feels strong and wooden enough to hold the weight of a person while the briars on it are thick enough for us to hold on to. I do suggest Leona and Ari to leave their armor behind. In the event the vine breaks and they fall into the water, we want them light enough to be able to swim. They agree, though Leona insists the takes her shield with her. As an A rank, she should be strong enough to swim even with her shield weighing her down, so I make no objections.

One by one, we crawl along the vine bridge to the pirate ship. Except for Kiara. She creates some shadowy wings for herself and flies across. I wish she had been a party member instead of a mentor. Then she could fly us over one by one.

It is only when we are actually on the pirate ship that we truly realize what kind of a ghost ship it is. The wooden planks which make up the deck creak as we step on them, the sails are all rotten away, doors that are leading to the lower decks are off the hinges, there are skeletons in sailor garb lying around and Kiara had once again disappeared. At least her illumination spell remains active.

Our group heads into the ship with Leona in front. The first place we come across is the captain’s quarters. A few more skeletons are there, some of them with swords through their chests. But there is one skeleton at a table, sitting in a chair, which looks like it might be the captain. Mainly because in front of him there is a little box which he is holding with a skeletal hand. In the middle of the table is a large pile of golden coins.

“Gold!” Ryul yells and grabs some of the coins like they are the most valuable thing he has ever seen.

“Fools gold.” Kiara says, having suddenly appeared again.

She picks up one of the coins and holds it up for all to see.

“Coins made of pyrite. Left here by the royal guard to trick anyone who doesn’t come here with a mentor in tow. The real treasure is in that box over there.” Kiara says as she pointed at the box in front of the captain.

“Wait, the royal guard?” I ask.

“This is a training dungeon. We can’t exactly have our trainees die on their first dungeon, after all.”

So even now they are still testing us. Can’t exactly blame them, we are still in training. But still.

Sophia tries to grab the box by lifting the captain’s hand. Suddenly, the captain starts moving his skull, causing Sophia to scream at the top of her lungs.

The skeletons around start moving as well and they all draw their swords. Darn it, a necromancer must have awoken them and ordered them to remain still until we disturb that box. Was it Kiara? No, she can’t use **** magic, but she did disappear again.

Ari was the first to react and cut the Captain’s arm off. Leona pulled out her sword and shield and fought off another skeleton. I tell Sophie to grab the box and for all of us to move out, we can’t stay here any longer. We need to leave.

When we get back to the deck my fears were confirmed. The skeletons there have risen as well. On top of that, skeletons from the cargo hold have started crawling out of there and are coming for us with their swords drawn and there are many of them.

We rush to the liana Shalia had created for us and send Sophie across first. Soon after I tell Shalia to get across the bridge. She has spent way more mana than me so she can cast the fewest spells. One my one we send another one of our team across until only I and Leona remain. The hardest part about these undead is when you cut a part off of them, they still continue moving.

I use some water from my ring to create a big swirl around me and push the skeletons away, then I tell Leona to start going down the liana. I wait a bit so we won’t overstress the vine bridge with our weight. But just as I am about to get on the bridge, I see it crack right where Leona stands. Leona stops moving, hoping that this is the worst it’ll get. Then she starts moving extra slowly. It works, but if I get on that bridge now it’ll definitely break. I have to wait until Leona is on the other side. In the meanwhile, the skeletons are coming for me again and my mana is running low.

I use the last of my mana to create a path for myself away from the bridge. Once I’ve escaped encirclement, I grab the mana potion Kiara had given me. But just as I am about to drink it, I feel something grab my legs. It is the upper torso of a pirate skeleton. I succeed in kicking it off me, but not without losing my balance and dropping the potion. Fuck, I’ll have to do this without magic.

I use my sword to try and take them down one by one. It goes well first, when they are still divided. But they soon get too close together. I need to use my [Dual Slash] a few times but they just keep coming. I am close to exhaustion, but I don’t want to give up. I refuse. I use [Dual Slash] again. Time slows down and I slash one skeleton, then a second and I even have enough time for once to slice a third. All of a sudden, I feel a burst of energy, similar as to how I ranked up from D to C. Not only is my exhaustion gone, but my mana is also at full power.

I use my ring to summon water and push the skeletons away from me. Then I rush towards the vine bridge. Leona is about to reach the other side. It should be good enough now. I get o the bridge and start heading down. It goes well at first, especially since the skeletons can’t follow. When I reach the part where Leona cracked it, I get careful too. But my weight makes it crack even more. I fall to the side, but can at least grab hold of one of the barbs. If only the bridge holds, I might be able to pull myself back up again. But the bridge breaks and I fall into the water.

If only I fell. At least then I would be able to swim. It would be heavy with my leather armor soaking up so much water, but I could manage. But the fine bridge fell on top of me and it’s weight is causing it to sink, pushing me down in the process.