Chapter 27

The two men began to make their way down the steps of the peculiar hole.

"I gotta say, for something carved out of dirt it's pretty impressive it's still standing."

Tibaut commented after seeing how smooth the dirt walls and ceilings were on his descent.

"I've heard magic was the explanation but the books I read don't really go into detail about it," Ezekiel responded.

As they continued their uneventful descent Tibaut asked a really important question.

"I've been meaning to ask but why did we both have to come here?"

"Oh, that. Well based on the last time anyone came they sighted some monsters."

"Isn't that something to be concerned about?" 

"Thing is, that was fifty years ago and as far as we've heard there hasn't been any trouble in any of the local villages."

"Oh," Tibait responded quite disappointed. He soon continued 

"Honestly if we came all the way here and there was nothing I'm gonna be pissed as hell. Besides, how long do monsters live?"

"Depends."

"What do you mean 'depends'? Don't you have anything more concrete?"

"Well I can be anything from 20 years to 100, and since I don't know what exactly was seen down here I'd just be pulling it out of my ass."

"Where did you even get this info anyway?"

"Oh, the old man told me. Man does he love to ramble."

("The old man? Oh he probably means Mr. Bentley")

The stairway was now becoming noticeably darker.

"Hey kid, can you make a light?" Ezekiel asked.

"Oh, sure."

Tibaut then proceeded to make a candle-sized flame.

"The hell is that little thing? Surely you can do better than that."

Tobaut clicked his tongue and turned into a ball of condensed fire akin to a mini fireball.

"Now that's more like it."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"You know, it is starting to feel a bit hot."

"Shut up and keep walking"

After a longer time than most would guess they finally reached the bottom. At first glance, it was a long hallway that went into darkness with a room on each side visible from where they were positioned. Interestingly enough this structure was also made out of dirt with no bricks or cut stone in sight. 

"I know they were trying to hide, but just dirt? They must have really had faith in their magic." Tibaut remarked.

After a few steps in, the opening to the outside behind them then crumbled separating them from the outside world. It wasn't particularly eventful, in fact, it might have been the calmest cave-in known to man. All it did was block their exit.

"I have a theory." Ezekiel while looking at the former stairway.

"What is it?" Tibaut said while also looking at the pile of dirt.

"There are three possibilities either:

A. That magic conveniently decided to stop working at that moment

B. They set some sort of defence to trap unwary invaders if they didn't have some sort of magic identifier

C. Someone's already here and they decided to trap us in."

"Well, either way, we're gonna have to find a way out."

"I'm honestly surprised you didn't suggest blowing your way out with your fireballs."

"If option A is true I'd pretty sure I'd bury us alive unless you have magic that can turn us into moles."

Ezekiel then searched his pockets and responded "Sorry, I think I left it at home," and proceeded to walk down the hall.

Still unsure about the way this world's magic worked Tibaut wondered, "He was joking, right?"

They checked the two initial rooms they saw and found a whole bag of nothing. They continued down the hallway and noticed a fork in the path.

Ezekiel flipped a coin to decide the direction and went left. While exploring Tibaut was continually amazed by how great of a condition this place was in. The dirt that the walls and rooms were made of was flat and their edges looked as sharp as the day they were made.

It did feel a bit eerie walking around for so long without anything happening. They then soon reached another fork in the path.

"Do you think we got lucky or this place is just gonna be full of these?" Tibaut asked

"Trust me, kid, it's better to just deal with these problems as they come. There is no use worrying about wasting time when it comes to places like this."

They proceeded down the left again as it'd be easy for them to retrace their steps if this continued. Now being stuck underground would probably panic most people.

Tibaut found it somewhat odd Ezekiel wasn't the least concerned but guessed he was probably always like this. The reason Tibaut wasn't concerned was that if it came down to it, it wasn't too unlikely that if he decided to cave in this place they'd be able to dig themselves out.

Granted it'd probably be a pain in the ass to dig that far up however with the punches he has taken recently from a certain someone lately, he felt as though his body could probably withstand some dirt falling on him. After coming much more forked paths they eventually heard something. Ezekiel put his hand to stop Tibaut and he soon stopped his light spell.

Now concealed within they noticed the flicker of a torch heading their way. The creature looked like a wolf except for the important distinction of it being bipedal. 

"Tch, Kobolds," Ezekiel carefully whispered.

The creature then looked their way but quickly became disinterested. Tibaut gave him a look of annoyance in the darkness. What he didn't notice was that Ezekiel had made his way over to the kobold until he was in the creature's radius of light. He then quickly snapped its neck while behind it.

"I'm guessing it isn't sentient?" Tibaut asked.

"I'd normally laugh at that but considering the parish we're in, I do think some of the adventurers here would genuinely ask that."

("I was genuinely asking though…")