Is That a Good Thing

[You have slain a Husk-born beast, Lucent Drone Swarm.]

[The Fiend's experiences left an Imprint: Luminescent Helper]

Lauri froze as the voice's whisper slowly disappeared, the silence returned, accompanied by the sound of Lauri's heart beating in his ears.

'What,' the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as Lauri slowly turned his head to look behind him. Nothing but empty stone met his gaze, 'What was that.'

'What did it say?' Raising his glowing dagger above his head, the light reflected in Lauri's eyes. 'Those things were called, Lucent Drone Swarm? Lucent Drone… Drone? If these were only drones, then that would mean these things are a part of a colony, or maybe a hive. Could there be Lucent Warriors?' A shiver ran down Lauri's spine. 'Or a queen.' Shaking his head, Lauri turned back to where the cave split down two paths. His eyes flicked between right and left. 'There was one more thing, what did that voice say?'

'The Fiend left an Imprint? I've heard this name before,' closing his eyes, Lauri squatted on the floor trying to remember this name. After a few moments, it dawned on him. One of the first lessons with Laurence went over this, plus other things, biting his lip Lauri couldn't recall, but what Lauri could recall was the word, Imprint.

'Every time a Fiend dies, there is a small chance the one who slays it can receive an item that is made from the remnants of a Fiend's life force, creating an Imprint.'

Squeezing his eyes shut, Lauri grumbled before standing up.

'I feel if Laurence was here, he'd be giving me such a hard time for not remembering the rest of his lessons.' Lauri scratched the back of his head, 'I'm such a bad student. But at least I remember one thing. One of the lessons his master had said when the trial began. Focus on yourself, focus on what it means to be a Postulant.'

Focusing on the space in front of him, Lauri furrowed his brow in concentration. The next second, something happened that Lauri almost couldn't fathom. Strings of light emerged from his chest, moving into the space in front of his face, the strings broke off in different places, forming into letters.

Lauri looked at the surrounding space, although the strings gave off a dazzling light, this light did not affect the space around him in the slightest. Lauri was still left standing in near darkness, his only source of light being the dim glow of his now-enlightened blade. Its glow offered less of a light than that of the Lucent Drone Swarm that had died to give the blade it's glow.

The letters were like the voice that had spoken no language Lauri understood, not that it mattered. As Lauri viewed the text, just like the voice, it was as if the meaning was put directly into his mind.

Name: Lauri

Rank: Postulant

Soul: Dormant

Imprint: [Luminescent Helper]

Hollow: --

Trait: [Adopted by a Lady]

Title: [Seraph Aspirant]

Title Description: [One of a few remaining who wish to remember brighter days. The Seraph Aspirant is one chosen by the Lady, their power lays dormant until they prove they can outshine the darkness.]

Lauri studied the words, his master hadn't mentioned anything about this. Whenever Lauri had asked what he would find after summoning the strings, Laurence always changed the conversation.

Looking at the Trait, Lauri focused on the text next to it and as his mind focused, the strings responded. Changing, they moved and separated to form another line of text in front of the Trait.

[Adopted by a Lady] Trait Description: "Her children can recognise the mark of their mother."

Lauri cocked his head to the side, although he couldn't make sense of what the words meant. That didn't mean they made any sense to him.

Lauri shook his clenched fist, 'When I make it out of this mess, you've got so many things to explain, Laurence.' Sighing, Lauri shifted his gaze to the thing he had been wanting to check since the start. The Imprint he had received from squashing the Lucent Drone Swarm.

[Luminescent Helper: Born in the dark, this little critter only hopes to see the light. It will follow you in the hopes of seeing a brighter tomorrow]

Rubbing his brow, Lauri grumbled. 'Is it too much to ask for something that makes sense?'

Rolling his eyes, Lauri turned away from the text. The strings of light that made up the text disappeared as Lauri's attention went elsewhere. Opened his empty hand, holding it palm up. Now focusing on Luminescent Helper Lauri watched in awe as the same strings of light moved from his body to his palm.

Coiling into the small form of an oval that easily fit into Lauri's palm. Squinting, Lauri couldn't make out anything special about the Luminescent Helper. 

"What do you do?"

As Lauri thought about it, the oval began rocking side to side and a second later the top of the Luminescent Helper moved. One side of it moved to the left slightly, the other side slightly moved to the right. From under this, two small insect wings emerged. Rapidly fluttering, it wasn't long until Lauri could barely make out the wings of the Luminescent Helper as they turned into a blur.

Its wings lifting Luminescent Helper fluttered into the air. The main body of Luminescent Helper began to glow, emitting a glow of the same intensity as the Lucent Drone Swarm.

Lauri stared at his Imprint for a moment before chewing on his cheek as a thought crossed his mind.

'So I have a source of light,' He glanced down at his blade. 'I have 2 sources of light, but is that a good thing? As much as I wish I could brighten up the path… The more light means, the higher the chance is I'll have to deal with something, something bad.' Shuddering at the very thought, Lauri dismissed Luminescent Helper.

The next second the fluttering light came apart into the strings of light that had formed it. The strings didn't last long whatever light that formed them vanished.

Lauri blinked his eyes taking a second to adapt to the drop in light. Raising his blade Lauri's eye twitched as he stared into the darkness immediately regretting his decision.

'Back to it then.'

Lauri had come to a decision. Finally, with a light to guide him, even if it was admittedly a very dim light, Lauri could continue his trial.

He wouldn't be going down the right path, even if there was a chance it might be the correct path. The odds of running into the 'rhino' were too high. Lauri looked into the cave where the 'rhino' had disappeared down minutes ago.

It felt wrong, something within Lauri told him if he went down that path, he would never find the Goddess' altar and he would never see the light of day again.

Lauri shook his head to rid his mind of that thought. 

'Okay,' he took a step forward. The left led into a dark unknown, but at least this unknown wasn't occupied by a creature that crushed stone every time it took a step, Lauri paused. 

'At least I hope, there can't be many creatures like the 'rhino' maybe it's the apex predator of these caves. Which realistically would mean it wouldn't coexist with anything that could rival it.' Reassured by this thought, Lauri continued forward.

Stopping one more time Lauri held his blade up, it illuminated nothing. Peering into the dark Lauri took a deep breath. Stepping into the path, Lauri suddenly felt cold. No, it wasn't that, a light gust of wind blew from out of the tunnel. 

'I wonder,' continuing his journey Lauri kept walking. 'Is this wind coming from a hole leading to the surface, or could a creature be making it.' Lauri grit his teeth, 'Stop scaring yourself, idiot.'

The cave was uneventful, Lauri made sure to keep his noise-making to a minimum. No kicking stones, no talking to himself. It was a bad habit anyway.

After a few minutes, or could it be hours, the cave began sloping down. The sound of wind echoed from somewhere far down the path. Feeling boredom begin to set in, at first Lauri had thought to summon the strings of light to try and see if he could make any sense of the words it showed him, but he thought better of it.

'I'm sure the moment I lower my guard something will jump out and tear me into pieces.' Sticking his tongue out, Lauri froze.

The sound of chittering alerted Lauri to the presence of something in his vicinity.

'Dammit, how did I not notice that.'

His grip on the blade tightened, spinning around Lauri brought the knife up preparing to fight how his master had taught him. Lauri frowned, the cave was as empty as it had been a moment ago. Whilst this was a fact, Lauri still could not let his guard down as the sound of chittering was still present. Lightly breathing Lauri held his blade up, looking over his shoulder. He stared down the path he had yet to traverse.

Lauri squinted, yet nothing magically appeared. The chittering began to bound around inside Lauri's head. Lauri's eye twitched.

'I am not going mad from spending a bit of time in the dark.'

Although he said this, was his hearing playing tricks on him?

'So, if it's not behind me, and it's not in front of me, and there's no way I'm hearing it through the walls, and I refuse to believe going mad is that easy… Then,' With a shudder Lauri raised his head.

A beetle-like creature hung from the ceiling, two beady eyes stared down at Lauri from two eye stalks sticking out the side of its head.