Chrysalis

These are absolutely stairs right?

Tiny eyes boggling, I approach the cave entrance in order to closely examine these stairs.

It definitely appears as if these stairs have been carved directly into the rock. Now who exactly would be responsible for carving stairs into solid rock Anthony?

Why humans of course! Human civilisation! This is the first tangible evidence I’ve see that any sort of humanoid creature exists in this new world. Fantastic! I can’t help but be excited and also a little nervous. I wonder what sort of fantasy like people live here? Will I see dwarves? Elves?!

The idea of voluptuous Elf ladies is almost enough to make me giddy!

This is getting more and more interesting. Why would they bother to carve stairs into this tunnel and not the others? The answer is almost self-explanatory, this is a very frequently used tunnel, therefore they have made it more convenient to travel down here. This means it’s likely there may be more stairs nearby, but leading up instead.

Perhaps a path to the surface!

I quickly crawl down the wall and approach the stairs leading downwards. Wow! This is actually the first chance I’ve had to compare my size to an object I can relate to in my previous life! If we can assume that people in this world are roughly the same size as those in my old world then by comparing my size to the stairs I’ll be able to make a rough estimate of how large I am. All I have to do is hop onto these stairs.

Hmmm.

I think I’m a little smaller than perhaps I first thought? Judging by the height and length of each step I can say I’m probably only tall enough to come up to a full grown adults knee, and I’d be roughly as long as a full stride, so perhaps a metre?

But wait! That means all those monsters who looked to terrifying and massive to me, from a human perspective ... would actually be fairly small?! The wolf creature would be almost waist height, the thorny lizard is even smaller than I am, about the size of a badger, and the terrifying, enormous Croca-beast would be less than shoulder height?!

Are all the monsters in this area actually very weak?

Thinking logically it would be a great thing if they were, since I probably would not have been able to survive this long if they were strong. This does raise the possibility of there being much stronger, larger and more powerful monsters elsewhere in these tunnels.

I’ll be doing my best to avoid those then! May our paths never cross.

in games and this world is so strangely game-like I will operate on the assumption that the safer places are closer to the

resolutely turn away from the tunnel and begin to move further into the cavern. Yes! I can see more signs of modification here and there. Every now and again there is a step carved into the floor to make passage more easy and I also notice carved areas at about human head height on

see. The ground is starting to slope upwards more and more as well. Perhaps

even small ones, also the pulsing veins of light along the walls are further apart and thinner, making the space a

stealthy existence like me!

so many questions. What do they look like? What race are they? Do they know magic? Is there some sort of adventuring guild that goes dungeon exploring? Maybe I’ll be able to communicate with them somehow, perhaps sign language or some form of interpretive dance will

breakthrough in human/ant

trapped in a

the slope steeper the further I travel. Actually ... is that? I think it

Sunlight.

get their first taste of dim, reflected

air on this new world. Gradually I can see a source of light

Oooo.

better view, my eyes seem to

of the passage, there are small window slits carved into the stone,

guard room here so they can monitor the entrance to the dungeon and fend off any monsters that approach the surface. There is probably a guard in

that a bright red light suddenly shines through the windows in the wall and I

behind the wall, standing on a raised stone platform perhaps a metre off the tunnel floor. Its humans! Real humans! I’m slightly sad they aren’t elves but hey, people! They appear to be wearing some kind of metal armour with black leather underneath. They both

some sort in her hand that is emitting a bright red light, perhaps that is how they detect monsters approaching? It looks as if they are searching the tunnel, trying to identify the threat. Must be hard to find

incredibly, they begin to glow with a bright, burning light. He appears to close his eyes to concentrate as the light forms into strange shapes or runes that

magic! Real magic! Holy Gandalf, Gandalf! Magic is possible in the world after all! Oh boy, oh boy, oh, boy, I wonder if these

palms forward and the cavern erupts in light. Great flames burst out from the strange sconces in

and the light begins to focus and illuminate

Which is ....

Uh, me.

....

HELL