Pov - Umbra

Staring out blankly, I see the third team today that fails to get past the kobolds, with one of their team either being injured or unable to cope with living thinking creatures like the kobolds. Sure, the kobolds aren't the smartest tool in the shed, but they're not as dumb as animals, they're not going to just blindingly fall into some trap like a killing corridor. That one team might have set up two stone walls like that before, but it's not going to work against the kobolds, it might have worked against something like a rabid animal, but not the kobolds. After that, their teamwork just kinda fell apart after the first kobold walked around the trapped and ambushed them, though can you really call that an ambush? It seems like most of these people only trained against dummies or just fought against non-thinking beasts, or maybe they did and with their arrogance, they viewed the kobolds as just regular beasts. I don’t know how their minds work, though sometimes you just want to pluck them open and know what's going on inside.

Though from all of that I realized one thing, the people that are coming in are the newest of newbies, did the adventurers guild give out a notice of some kind that a new dungeon has opened and offered people money to come and live here? I would have thought that people who got the lay of the land from their starting villages would have come out here, but no, there aren't really any experienced people coming out here. Sure every now and again someone with some skill comes out here, but I have not seen them yet, the people that come into mind are the Priestess team and the now dead team, with one of them being eaten by the Abyssal thing, that only leaves the Priestess team. Why am I talking about this, you may ask, because they are finally entering. I swear they were coming in later with all those people in the line, but maybe those people just gave up after finding out how hard it is. Who knows? I do need to work on my habit of talking to myself like I’m a narrator of some kind, is it because I’m a book or could it be that I’m just slowly becoming insane… probably it's just a mix of the two if I were, to be honest.

Thinking about that for a little bit, my attention focuses back on the group, as they finally grab the book to enter the mines. They're about to open where they stand when they look back at the Priestess for some kind of go-ahead, but that just doesn't seem to come as she hesitates for a time that is so long I've begun thinking about forcing them to open it. It’s like one of those big cliffhangers in a show and when the next episode finally comes you have to wait through the opening you saw like a hundred times, no one cares about the damn opening! Just get to the story already... Sorry, I don’t know what came over me, let's just get back because they're opening the book.

Like all other people, they enter the Demi-plane, with a whoosh, there is no whoosh, but it just sounds better in my head if I add a whoosh because it is just instantaneous with no real impact. Though I’m being sidetracked because the interesting bit of their adventure has not come yet. Though instead of dilly-dallying like all the other people, they're headed straight for the mines, which is another point for liking this team. Maybe if I like them enough I might learn their names, no promises though, I was never good with names in the first place. That's also kinda why I always chose umbra as my name in D&D and video games, and I might also have chosen that name on pure reflex without thinking about it or its consequences. Though I probably can’t change that, so it's time just to get back to the real star of the show… The Priestess I might not know her background, but she survived that abyssal creature while everyone else died, and gained some mysterious power. If that does not scream main character to you, then you’re probably into a different genre to me.

Though the Priestess’s team might also be some major side character with them weirdly not coming in with the Priestess when the other team going off and dying with the Priestess in toe. Though if one of the major side characters were to die, I would say that it would be the Paladin, mostly because of the fact that he just seems to be the closest to the Priestess out of their team. After his death in a rainy field full of blood, he would forever live in the memory of the Priestess, after saying a solid line for the Priestess to reflect on when she is in a dangerous area for some immediate power boost. Now that I’m thinking about it, how strong is the Paladin anyway because he just seems to be more skilled than everyone else in the party… I cough into my mental fist. If you were looking for a place to suddenly show that I could have read the status of people who entered my dungeon, that was it. Still no status, I thought after the comedic pause you would show it, but maybe I just don’t have that ability to see another status while in my domain or dungeon as you call it. I thought with my apparent absolute clarity I would see another status but no, it might be some sort of unlock, but then the question is, how am I supposed to unlock it?

With a side ‘eye’ I still look if I can see their status, but still don't see anything and finally let out a sigh. Did I at least stall myself long enough for them to be at the mines yet, no, what a shame. Snap out of it!.. Alright now that I’m out of depressed umbra mode, I can focus on something else. For example, how the Paladin in the Priestess team is over fixating on the Priestess, causing an opening that would not usually happen in their dynamic. More on that, their whole team is acting weird, messing with their whole flow, and all, one of the most notable moments that show this is when the Mage got charged by a boar and nobody noticed it until it was far too late to do anything about it, wait that not the worst yet, that comes when the Priestess froze up after she saw all the blood. This caused them several minutes of the Mage bleeding out until the Swords women woke the Priestess up after slapping her, but these actions caused her to start arguing with the Paladin about his newfound overprotection.

So coming into their exploration of the Mines, my expectation is super low. I wouldn’t lie, but I contemplated sending the darkness wolf, but with my newly made then imminently forgotten rule of not interfering, I barely stopped myself. The walk is not that long only being a few hours, even I could do it back in my old world where I used to hike along several-mile-long trails, and with them being a lot stronger than I back in that world, I expect them to take less time and so far I have been pretty accurate. Though their argument is starting to heat up, the funny part is that the two people they're arguing about are actually being pretty friendly with each other just watching this conversation go by.

I’m just going to zone out for a bit, I've never really been a fan of people arguing, they just say the same thing over and over again with them only changing their words slightly, though there are funny fantasy swears to come in every now and again. Wait why am I trying to convince myself that I’m doing this for a specific reason, I’m just going to do it because I want to not because of some ethereal watcher or in other words myself. So I’m out, and with that, I just stare at the weasel and whatever it is going to do…

… Yawning for no reason, I flicker my sight at the Priestess team and almost immediately stand up as if I were just realized that I missed the bus laying down in bed for too long, because the team is already inside the mines, not even a short way in there all the way down with the high kobolds. Luckily they're not at the Drakekin area just yet, but they're getting close. I was just distracted by the ever-coming closer event of the weasel evolving, it still hasn't evolved yet, but I swear that it's coming close, trust me. Speaking of which, they're about to encounter their first Drakekin. The anticipation is turning, ah, a rip ripping to me… I may need to come up with a better idiom. I have been working on idioms since well, I was bored which happens a lot recently, and I’m not really human, so I thought I could come up with some better idioms, it is still a work in progress though, so don't judge what I just said, if you can call that speaking. I’m getting off track here. So I’ll be honest, I barely thought they could get past the high kobolds with their higher intelligence, and I did not even consider them going up against the robust Drakekin. So my expectation is low on their chances to pass the Drakekin, the only thing that is on their side is that it is only one Drakekin and three high kobolds. That is why I give them a 70, 30 chance because we have not really seen the other abilities of the Paladin, just his shield work and swordsmanship, which are pretty good in my eyes but what do I know? I'm kind of like an artisan judging a soldier, I know my craft, but I don't know there's.