Chapter 57: Can’t Turn Away
When Simon arrived at the next level, he could still hear the golem thundering and crashing impotently beneath him. The thing was bigger than the portal, so he doubted it could even make it across to follow him even if it could get up here, but out of curiosity, he shut the door, and the rumbling instantly ceased. When he reopened the door, though, the stairs he’d come up were replaced by a different set that looked much less precarious.
The way he’d just come up had obviously belonged to some castle basement, dungeon, or something similar. This one just led down to an unremarkable root cellar. He supposed he could go back down and scavenge some supplies, but he wasn’t really going anywhere where he needed more food. He was only a few floors left from his main goal now, and he hadn’t been hungry since he’d last camped on the wyvern level hours ago. Or was it days? It felt like lifetimes, and just thinking about that sweet little chapter of his life filled him with so much pain, he trembled and leaned heavily against the door frame.
“Just keep it together, Simon. You’re almost there. Almost. You can do this,” he told himself, breathing deeply.
He looked down at the book he was holding and tried to find some joy in that. This was a victory he would have killed for on any other day, but unless it had a resurrection spell, he wasn’t going to get too excited. Still, he’d have to find some time to study it before he got too much deeper.
“The plague level seemed pretty quiet,” he said to himself. “Maybe I could do some research there for a few days.”
Knowledge was the only thing that stayed with him between deaths, so he needed to make the most of this ugly black book which meant that maybe he would need supplies, he realized. He started to think about what he might want for a short study session when he heard the first scream.
“Oh, that’s right. This place was under attack, wasn’t it.” Simon said, finally recalling where he was. “Was it goblins? Or orcs? Did I fight them once already?”
Simon racked his brain as he walked to the front door and looked down at the village that was on fire. When he saw the ice doorway, though, he finally remembered the last time he’d been here.
“Oh yeah,” he muttered unhappily. “I skipped the whole thing, didn’t I?”