Moss...

As he walked, Alonn tried to find something to help him to tunnel if necessary. After all, he doesn't know if there's another way out.

Unfortunately for him, the mine was abandoned for a long time and everything that could be useful was probably stolen.

The moonlight moss gave the tunnels of the mine an otherworldly aspect with it's faint light.

Over time, Alonn adapted to the darkness and could see easily within the tunnel. This is one of the advantages of being an elf, the night vision is much better than that of the other races. He also think the fact he is a cultivator is helping him.

Alonn hears nothing but his own steps and breathing, and slowly a sense of danger enveloped his heart.

'Damn it, the fact that I still didn't find anything is good and bad at the same time'

The mine has many tunnels intersections, and even after walking a lot in a way to not get lost... he got lost.

'Damn it, the moss seems to grow where I leave the marks, it grows incredibly fast,' Alonn thought and then checked something.

'The moss I colected is still growing! If I let it be I will be soon covered with moss.'

Alone knew there was something abnormal about the mine, moonlight moss is supposed to have a normal growth rate. But here, it's growing too fast!

"Is it a coincidence? Could it be that the White Horned Tiger stay here because of the moss?" Alonn mumured and looked to the moss.

Without thinking about it too much, Alonn took a bite.

'Well... The taste is not something otherworldly as it's light,' Alonn thought and swallowed.

The elf then took another bite, and another... and another.

Without realizing it, all the moss he had was consumed.

'Something's wrong with this Moss...' Alonn thought with a frown as he looked to the walls of the tunnel.

'It all should be in my belly!'

And then, the elf was consumed by the desire of eating the weird moss.

First, he ate all the moss in the tunnel he was in, then he left for other tunnels in search of his now favorite food.

"Damn it! It's all mine! My precious..." He said with a full mouth.

Suddenly, he felt a belly pain...

"Fuck, my shit is photoluminescent too!?" After shitting until almost rupturing IT, Alonn came to his senses. He was afraid of the strange moss and decided never to touch it again.

It seemed to seize his mind when he ate it just one time.

"What a damn shame, I will never tell it to anyone!" Alonn said with clenched teeth. He never felt such a shame, his face and ears turned red.

As there was no toilet paper available, Alonn had to endure his own stench.

Slowly, time passed. He wondered about the outside world, about the moon-, no, about the sunlight.

"How are they doing? Does the damn tiger have another way to get into this mine?" Alonn murmured to himself.

His True Qi has already been recovered, and he think it was already a day since he got in the mine.

'Well, if the tiger managed to get into the mine after me it probably would have attacked me already.'

'The fact I am still okay means that there are no other being in this mine, or at least that it's sense of smell isn't good.'

Alonn started to mark the tunnels floor instead of wall, he noticed that the moss doesn't grown on the floor. He almost got a hold of the mine estructure.

"It seems this is the last tunnel I need to mark, or at least I hope it is."

As he walked, Alonn didn't relax his guard and attention.

'It's always like this, the last part is always the most important,' Alonn clicked his tongue.

'What would it be? A secret boss, a hidden treasure or perhaps a lake with a naked lady?' Alonn briefly thought about the books he had read in his entire life and doubled his attention.

After walking for a while, Alonn realized that the tunnel walls were getting further and further apart, and the ceiling was also getting higher and higher. The floor was getting very irregular as well.

'Tsk, it doesn't look good. If it was a naked lady I would first be met with a surprise slap and a "You pervert"...'

After walking for some minutes, Alonn found the end of the tunnel, it was a huge natural cave.

The moss was everywhere, and the stalactites were dripping with water.

"I bet all my savings that it is the true tiger den" Alonn murmured with the look 'I'm really smart'.

"What will I encounter? it's cubs? a treasure? bones of it's victims? Or perhaps the beast itself?"

While trying to control his excitement and fear, Alonn continued to explore the cave.

After a while, he found a intersection with another cave's tunnels.

As Alonn is right-handed, he chose the right tunnel first.

Now Alonn heard the sound of water dripping from the stalagctites along his own steps and breathing.

'Is it just a misconception or is the temperature here rising?' Alonn thought as he wiped the sweat of his forehead.

It wasn't a misconception, after walking for some time Alonn found a shining lava chamber.

"I know this kingdom is doomed to fall a day or another because of the volcanos and earthquakes, but to think I would find something so exciting like this in my first trip!" Alonn murmured.

The lava chamber was enormous, Alonn couldn't see the end of it because of the visual distortion caused by the lava and heat.

'What should I do? Go back? No, if I do it I will probably encounter an enemy and be forced to run to this place again, it's always like this in the books.'

Alonn knows that there's no sense in using the books as reference, but there's nothing he could do anyway.

After watching for a while, Alonn found a path of stone bridges that seemed to lead to the other side.

'Let me guess, no matter what I do I will still encounter an enemy,' Alonn thought bitterly.

After convincing himself and gathering courage, Alonn started walking.

Fortunately, the lava flow was not violent and the temperature was somewhat bearable for the abnormal elf.

"It is also strange, the lava should be emanating much more heat... I shouldn't be able to walk here so close to it here, there's no wind here."

It's all too strange. The mutated moonlight moss, the natural cave, the lava chamber...

Alonn was slowly getting tired from the excessive heat, and the sweat was even blocking his view sometimes.

'Damn, I need to get out of here,' Alonn thought and used his True Qi.

In a moment, his senses improved by several folds and he felt much better. He started to run to the other side, ignoring the risk of falling to his death.

After running for a brief period of time, Alonn finally reached the other side of the lava chamber, it wasn't very special.

'It's just another natural cave...' Alonn thought disappointed.

The cave was filled with numerous stalagmites and stalactites, with even a small stream descending to the depths of the earth.

But what most caught Alonn's attention was the moss growing on the cave walls.

"This... sunlight moss?" Alonn was surprised, he never thought he would see this moss in a cave.

'Something is wrong, sunlight moss is supposed to grow in the top of threes, not im caves,' Alonn thought and examined the moss, it emanated a faint yellow light.

"I think I should avoid touching it, I don't want a new accident here," Alonn murmured and snorted.

After exploring the cave for a long time, Alonne found another intersection.

One of the tunnels seemed to lead to the surface, but there's no guarantee.

"There's a gush of wind coming from it..." Alonn murmured with narrowed eyes.

'Whatever, a lost person just needs to walk,' he thought and chose to go through this tunnel.

As he walked, Alonn never forgot to mark the floor to avoid getting lost at a later time.

The cave's tunnel did not seem to end, Alonn walked for a whole day and felt the wind getting stronger and stronger. Moreover, the wind sometimes had a suction force.

"Oh no, don't tell me!!" Alonn reached a conclusion that was too frightening for him to accept.

The tunnel slowly expanded and Alonn found itself in a huge empty chamber, with only sunlight moss and rocks.

However, the wind was now strong enough to make Alonn uncomfortable.

There are several tunnels leading to this cave chamber, and two of them are the sources of the winds. One was the source of the wind with suction force, and the other was the source of the normal gush of wind.

Still, both seemed to have an intermittent cycle like a breath.

"It's getting more and more boring... But I think I should be happy about it," Alonn murmured.

He decided to enter the tunnel with the suction force, hoping to find the exit to the surface.

Still, fate played with Alonn. The tunnel had no way out, a wall was the end of it.

"Wtf, it doesn't make sense!" Alonn said very confused, he was still feeling the suction force coming from the wall.

While he swallowed his own saliva, he tried to touch the wall.

"Woah, my hand get through this!" Alonn exclaimed and tried to cross the wall.

'Is it a illusion?'

At the other side of the fake wall, three things shocked Alonn.

In the large cave chamber there are a big water lake with crystal clear water and a naked wom- a statue of a naked woman in the center of the lake.

At the west side of the lake there are several opened chests with nothing within them. At the east side of the lake there are a giant skeleton with rusted iron armor.

Swish

The suction force woke Alonn out of his trance.

"All right, it seems that I almost hit the mark," Alonn nodded and walked to the source of the suction force, it was a giant hole in the chamber ceiling, the light of the surface was finally reaching the poor elf.

"It's day outside, huh," Alonn murmured and calculated the depth he was right now.

"It seems I am at least a hundred meters away from the surface," Alonn then began to think of a way to climb.

'If I could at least reache the ceiling... the hole seems to be fit for me, and I can use only my body to climb.'

After a while, Alonn started to rummage everything in the chamber.

He was serching for anything that could be useful for him, or a hidden treasure.

Unfortunately, the poor elf found nothing useful. But there was still a place he hadn't looked for, the statue and the lake.

'First of all, it's all very convenient' Alonn started to play 'Sherlok, the half-elf'

"First a illusion, second a mysterious chamber, third a way to the surface. Not to mention the rest..."

"If I were in a book... then there would certainly be a hidden treasure here. And the moment I found it, that skeleton would attack me or the statue would open its eyes and attack me. After that, I would try to escape through the hole to the surface..."

"Or perhaps I am crazy and nothing of this will happen, lets start the search."

First Alonn tested the water, he put a finger in the water to test the acidity, since je was next to a lava chamber. After that, he tasted a bit of the water.

"It seems the water is pure..."

He then jumped in the lake and started to clean himself and his clothes and armor first.

"I Finally got rid of that horrible smell..."

After finishing cleaning, Alonn swam to the bottom of the lake, which was strangely illuminated.

The source of the light seemed to be several photoluminescent blue rocks.

'It's a deepriver stone... 'Alonn thought while diving closer to the bottom.

'It's really... a great experience,' he thought as he looked around. Sometimes he wondered if he was still in the same world.

The blue light was enough for him to search across the lake floor, and he found something interesting.

'A pair of pearls...' He looked to the two white pearls in his hand, both had the size of a coin.

Splash

After leaving the lake and taking a rest, Alonn looked at the statue.

'Now it's your turn...'

The statue was very beautiful, and even the rigid elf was fascinated by it. The woman portrayed was a human with a very gorgeous body and long hair, she had a heroic expression and a hand in her chest.

Alonn swam to the statue and examined every bit of it... really, he was pretty curious. Poor elf.

"What a pity, it seems I won't be getting anything useful. I don't know what those pearls..." Suddenly, Alonn had a inspiration.

"Now that I think more about it, those pearls seems to fit perfectly in the woman's eye sockets."

Alonn looked between the pearls and the eyes sockets of the statue.

"Nop, I won't do it," Alonn laughed with the face 'I'm not stupid' but his hand already placed the pearls in the eyes sockets.

"Oh fuck, damn it" He cursed and swam to the edge of the lake in a panic.

However, nothing happened.

"Well, was I wrong? After all, it isn't a book."

Bang

Suddenly, the statue crashed.

"Or maybe not."