[PP-F21] A new Color... [Complete]

[Aereth 1]

Floor 21, Unknown Dungeon

Spoiler

Aereth

Level 45

Stats:
900 HP
90 Energy
14 Base Damage MA
 

Items:
Crow (Armor) +2 EVA, +1 MIT
Goldcrest MK.2 +1 MIT, +1 Flame Aura, +1EVA
Dexterous Intent (Ring) +3 ACC

Battle Ready Inventory:
Nightingale (Armor) +3 EVA
Sin of Valor (Weapon) +2 PARA, +1 BLEED

Mods:
 

Buffs:
 

Skills:
Rank 5 Material Arts
Rank 3 Charge
Rank 2 Search and Detect
Rank 3 FM:Fighter
Disguise
Survival

For how long had he been here? Some minutes? Some hours? He didn't know. All he currently was thinking was to fight like a Berserker. He had slain so many of the stupid mobs that he had stopped counting them long ago. It has been a long time since he had such an intense training session, only problem here: This was no training session...

One moment of not paying attention and one of the four goblins he was currently fighting landed a heavy blow on the brunette. His body got thrown back and he crashed into the cave wall behind him. Usually such a hit wouldn't have done so much damage to him. But usually he was wearing his best set of armor and not just his casual cloths with a black cloak over it. His health dropped under 50 HP and the sound of a bell notified him that he was closer to death than ever before.

In the background the four goblins he was currently fighting as well as the many other mobs that have gathered around the fight, ready to jump in in case one of their comrades fell, roared after Aereth hit the wall. 

Aereth's hood fell back and revealed a face that was littered with red gashes from the previous combat. It was almost  over....

Aereth: 46/900 HP

@Teion

[Teion 0]

"Twenty-first floor, huh?" Teion was a bit uneasy, but largely unimpressed by the cavernous floor thus far. Despite her level being not quite up to par with the strength of the monsters in the area, she had traversed past Tomoika and was exploring down one of the many dimly-lit tunnels that networked from the main settlement. If she was lucky, she might be able to pick up a few materials while she was out and wouldn't have many excuses left not to continue crafting after she'd gone back to Fortaleza.

The woman's hand ran lightly along the side of the cave to serve as a guide, otherwise relying on the soft florescent glow of mushrooms and moss that were littered about the path. She had the thought of inspecting the fungi and plants to see if they were materials she could claim, but the thought of uprooting her only light source had her quickly decide against doing so. Several minutes later, with no end to the tunnel's path in sight, Teion considered turning back. She continued to walk at a steady pace, giving a glance over her shoulder before she felt something strange beneath her fingers. Her hand had run over something that felt less organic, like a piece of metal or plastic. It prompted her to stop, and she carefully took a couple of steps back to curiously search for the area again.

Her fingertips had found a smooth piece of iron jutting out from the wall in a circular shape. Teion hesitated, giving the object a suspicious look before letting out a sigh. Her curiosity just wouldn't let her be without investigating the strange item. She applied some pressure, lightly at first, before finding that the object pushed cleanly into the cavern wall. A moment passed, and nothing happened. Teion frowned, wondering if she should shrug it off and keep moving. A small clicking sound reached her ears a second later, and as the ground crumbled and fell out from under her she let out a startled scream while the feeling of falling took over her.

The blacksmith crashed into the ground, her legs buckling beneath her with a loud splashing sound. She opened her eyes and felt her breath quicken as only darkness greeted her. "No," She started in a whisper. Her eyes darted around, trying to search for an inkling of light. Her hands pushed against the ground, the tawny gloves soaking up the shallow water that coated half of her clothes and body. " No no no," She repeated the word with growing volume, taking in short breaths as she pushed herself up to her feet. A half-step backwards and her back was met with another cave wall. The woman began to panic, placing her palms against the solid surface behind her before carefully trailing them along the wall, blindly searching for anything that would help her.

The woman had been dropped into a tiny hidden room, in which the wall opposite her would have an identical switch as the one she had stumbled on up above. When her fingers finally found the object, she pressed on it desperately, hoping that the reaction would provide her with a light source. More than that, the cave wall in front of her seemed to collapse, and with her body leaning forward she tumbled out onto the cold concrete floor of a dungeon. Teion pushed herself to her hands and knees, panting as she tried to recover from her fear as the torch-lit surrounding allowed her to see again.

Minutes later, Teion's footsteps echoed lightly down the length of the cave. She pulled the damp gloves from her hands, returning the unenhanced clothing to her inventory to rid herself of the uncomfortable feeling. Just as she had down so, the blacksmith stopped in her tracks as the sound of an intimidating roar carried itself along the tunnels. She tensed up, now with confirmation that she was not alone in this dungeon. With wary steps, her pace quickened in an attempt to find a way back to Tomoika.

When Teion cautiously turned a sharp corner, a terrifying scene stood before her. A mass of several monsters of varying sizes and strengths stood, as if they had gathered for a common goal. The woman was about to run back the way she came, but her cobalt eyes then fell upon the target of their attacks. A man, with his back pressed up against the wall and his frame littered with bright red gashes. In the short time that she had to take in the situation, her eyes scanned the man. An orange cursor hung above his head. A look of exhaustion had overtaken him. Covering his body, underneath the glowing damage markers, the 'gear' that protected him looked akin to beginner's clothing. And yet he wasn't running away. Teion's eyes widened at the scene that was playing out before her. A knot formed in her stomach at the thought of the lone figure shattering into pixels in front of her.

She ran towards Aereth, only hoping she wouldn't be too late. As she closed the gap between them, her outraged voice cut through the air. "What the hell are you doing?!" She hissed. Her hand reached out, grasping hold of the brunette's before she pulled him along behind her. The woman ran back down the empty tunnel, Aereth in tow as she tried to escape the chase of the monsters that began to pursue them.

[Aereth 1]

Slowly getting back up to his feet, the brunette adjusted the grip on his sword and readied himself for the next barrage of attacks. It was almost over. The end of his suffering, the end of the nightmare called Sword Art Online seemed to be so close, but suddenly Aereth felt something pulling away on his arm. He lost the grip on his sword, and with a high pitched voice, the blade hit the ground.

The force grew steadily stronger until he noticed that he was already running. But why was he running? He was supposed to fight. Supposed to lose... Suddenly an angry sounding voice snapped him out of his trance like status. 

The brunette looked up and noticed that a female player was trying her best to flee from a seriously far too big number of mobs. His clouded mind cleared up a little bit and he answered in a low voice. "Two times left, and middle way of the bifurcation afterwards leads to a small safe area..." 

As much as he wanted to go back, he needed to make sure the other player was safe. The thought made him chuckle. How ironic. Even when he just wants to finally rest, his over the top urge of not wanting others to die as well, wins....

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion couldn't help herself from scowling, but she didn't look back towards the man she pulled behind her as she ran. She heard his voice reach her ears, simply listing off a set of directions. 'At least I don't have to waste time getting us lost.' She kept the thought in her mind as she followed the paths he described.

The last path they ran down was more narrow, and didn't stretch far until a small cleared cave was presented in front of them, dimly illuminated by a variety of florescent plant life similar to what grew in the tunnels leading from Tomoika. Teion could no longer hear the roars and rumbles of the monsters following behind them, and so her pace slowed until they came to a stop at the mouth of the clearing. Teion panted as she came to a stop and tried to catch her breath. It took her a moment to realize the hold she still had on the brunette's hand, but rather than drop it she pulled forward, yanking the man past her and forcing him farther into the clearing before she released him. She was still breathing heavily, but with the man in front of her she ran her eyes over his figure and the myriad of red gashes displayed on his avatar.

"Y'know," She spoke between heavy breaths for a few moments. "As well equipped, as you look for this place," She spoke with sarcasm dripping from her words, "Why don't we find the way out of here?" Her tone was sharp, and although she had a strong suspicion of the man's intentions during that fight, she had no better ideas on how to address the topic.

[Aereth 1]

Slowly but surely the sounds of their followers grew quieter with every step. Honestly? He didn't care. It seemed like cruel fate didn't want him to meet his creator today. Not that he was a religious person who believed in such things, but anyways. 

Heavily panting, the two players reached the safe area, and Aereth stumbled forward as the the purple haired player forced him to enter the clearing. After two steps Aereth regained control over his body and turned around to face his 'savior'.

He took a few moments to take in her appearance. Her eyes radiated an intense heat as she spoke to him, and her words were filled with obvious sarcasm, as she mentioned his choice of armor for this floor. But at the same time there was something lingering in the back. It was a glint of fear... No. It wasn't fear, it was... worry. But why the hell would somebody worry about him? He was just a stranger with an orange cursor... Excluded from society, a killer and a monster.

As the moments of silence stretched out for a tad bit longer than it was comfortable Aereth averted his gaze. "Maybe... You are right..." He answered completely ignoring the sarcastic remark about his armor. "Just give me some time to catch my breath..." His words were empty and shallow as he took a seat. And he didn't fight her about leaving him behind since he knew that she wouldn't do that..

It didn't matter if today or tomorrow...

@Teion

[Teion 0]

With the brunette's submissive response, Teion watched as he sat down in the clearing. Her protective instinct subsided as he didn't seem to resist her, and she took a couple of steps back to press her shoulderblades against the cave wall, no longer feeling the need to diligently guard the cave's exit. She leaned back against the uneven surface and slowly caught her breath. Once the panting that had filled the air between them had lessened, she cast a sideways glance towards the man. His face and body was still covered in wounds that glowed bright red, and his expression lacked emotion. Not fear, not pain, not even sadness. Just empty, hopeless eyes.

"What's your name?" She asked simply to break the silence. With a swipe of her hand, the woman summoned her menus as she awaited his reply, navigating to her inventory and retrieving the tawny gloves that she normally wore. The fabric appeared around her skin with a brief glow. After hearing his name, a bit of her tension ebbed, willing herself to believe that the man across from her wasn't the cause of her past misery. Before she dismissed the floating menus, she tapped on another item and a small crystal vial appeared in her free hand. She tossed the healing potion over to him with a curt instruction to, "Drink it."

Once the two had exchanged their rough introductions, Teion turned her head to look back down the tunnel they had come through with a slight frown. "Well I got here by accident. If you know a way out, be my guest and lead the way."

[Aereth 1]

Just now he finally realized how exhausted he really was. "For how long have I been doing this?" he silently asked himself and glanced into the upper corner of the HUD. 18:13. That means that he was almost nine hours today into that dungeon. Aereth frowned.

Initially he only came here for some tier three materials and some Col farming, but somehow one thing lead to the other and he found himself dismissing his armor and starting to dive head first into the mob groups. Finally all the bottled up mental stress and pressure was getting to him. And there were days where he just couldn't bear it anymore. Today was such a day...

"Huh..." Aereth replied, after the purple haired woman asked him for his name. "I'm Aer..." he stopped for a brief moment. Oh how he hated this name. A constant remeinder of who he was in this game. He grunted. "You can call me Max. Yours?" Aereth finally answered, giving away his real name and asking for hers in return.

After that not much interesting happened. Teion gave him a health potion and asked for the way out. Aereth stood up again and pulled out his map from the inventory, showing her the way he took to get to this particular place. "By the way, which level are you?" he added nonchalantly.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion cocked an eyebrow when he seemed to correct himself. He had given her the name Max, and somehow she doubted that was the name of his avatar. Still, she wasn't given any pieces of information to confirm her fears, and so she shrugged it off. "Teion." She answered curtly when he turned the question back to her. The brunette stood, retrieved a map from his inventory, and briefly detailed the path he had taken up to this point. Teion leaned in to hover over the man's shoulder and studied the details for a few moments while she memorized a short set of directions in order for them to start backtracking towards the exit.

She pushed off the wall, beginning to walk back down the tunnel when Aereth's question reached the air between them. Teion used to think a level meant a variety of things: a goal, a marker of progress, or a means to gauge power. Now it was little more than a troublesome reminder that numbers governed this world that they lived in. "...Twenty-nine." She answered just loudly enough for him to hear without turning around to face him.

[Aereth 1]

"Teion...." Aereth thought. That name was ringing a bell somewhere in his head, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it. Back in the real world he would have easily remembered a girl with such a striking hair color, but inside of Aincrad fancy hair colors were nothing out of the ordinary.

He shrugged and both of them were walking in silence. Only broken by the small exchange of words that came from time to time. But as Teion mentioned that she was only level 29 inside a dungeon on the frontlines. "Seriously? Then what the actual hell are you doing here? Alone in a dungeon on the highest floor available. Are you crazy?" Aereth asked in disbelief, his empty shell slowly getting replaced by the only thing that kept him alive until now. His will to protect.

Finally Aereth activated the items on his Battle ready slots and his body got engulfed in light. His casual clothes instantly got replaced by his sturdy unique armor under the same cloak as before. "Let's get you out of here..."

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion's jaw clenched as her admittance was met with an expected outburst. The more words that streamed from the man's mouth, the shorter her patience ran. As he ended his slew of rhetorical questions, the blacksmith's foot planted into the ground on her next step. She turned to face him, an expression of irritation and judgement written on her features as she glared him down. "I wouldn't call myself the crazy one here!" She hissed at him, the majority of her rage releasing itself in the initial retaliation. "If you have to know, I got here by accident." For a split second she had thought about pressing on the man's own intentions further, but she held her tongue and turned back around to continue walking.

A few moments later and Teion gave a short glance over her shoulder to see Aereth equipping a much more impressive set of armor. The woman let out a tiny scoff under her breath, turning her eyes back forward as she muttered another small sarcastic comment. "Go figure, you have armor with actual stats after all."

The pair reached the end of the tunnel quickly, and despite her earlier outburst Teion didn't hesitate as she recalled the first few turns from Aereth's map that they would take to escape.

[Aereth 1]

Purple turned around and looked at him with an angry expression. "Now she's p*ssed. Well done, great job." he thought as she implied that he was the crazy one of the two and explained that she only got here by accident. But he wouldn't back down now. Even as the pathetic little piece of trash he was right now, he still had his pride.

"Hey! I knew exactly what I was doing. I was just getting some mob grinding done. And you can't tell me that you just teleported on this floor and left the safe zone just because of an accident." Aereth lied, still fueled by the fact that a level 29 player was solo exploring the front line floor.

He picked up some speed and walked up right besides her. "What was that?" Arereth asked as the purple haired female muttered something under her breath that Aereth wasn't able to hear clearly. He could guess that it was another remark about his armor, but he wanted to be sure. 

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion felt her jaw clench again. This guy just wasn't going to let up. Was he so suicidal that he wanted her to sink her axe into him right there? The gap between their figures shrank until he was walking alongside her. Seeing the man out of the corner of her eye after he asked her to repeat herself set off another spark to the blacksmith's terribly short fuse. She stopped short and her hand moved to Aereth's collar. She took a firm grip on the leather armor that now decorated the man's chest, pushing against him to shove him against the wall. She leaned into him, maintaining her grip and pinning him to the smooth stone of the dungeon's walls. Her cobalt eyes met his brown, staring daggers while she looked up at him.

"I think you do know exactly what you were doing." She wasn't shouting this time, but her tone was more accusatory than before as she held her face inches from his. "And it sure as hell wasn't 'just mob grinding.' Is that what frontliners do nowadays? Put on the most basic gear they can find and then aggro everything in the dungeon? I bet that rusty sword isn't worth the materials it was made from." She glowered at him the whole time she spoke. Teion leaned her head back just slightly, giving the man a quick glance over before locking her eyes with his once more. "Or do you mean to tell me you're just trying to edge on getting yourself killed?"

[Aereth 1]

Thud.

His back hit the wall and Teion was throwing harsh words directly into his face. For the first few moments Aereth was stunned. His body didn't know how to react, and his brain refused to come up with a proper response. "I... I..." he mumbled, trying to buy himself some time, but to no avail. And as he was about to respond that he didn't even needed that sword since he was using mainly material arts in serious combat, she finally said it. 

"Or do you mean to tell me you're just trying to edge on getting yourself killed?"

Then something inside of Aereth broke and his mind went blank. Yes. He was trying to kill himself. He had nothing to live for anymore. No reason to fight. All he wanted was finally some peace... And suddenly his body started to move. With one hand he broke Teions hold and held it tight. The other one went to her own collar and with one swift movement the two of them switched places.

"What if I told you that I was trying to get myself killed? You have absolutely no idea who I am..." his grip on her arm tightened, and his voice grew louder. "You have no idea what I have lost... No. What was taken from me..." his grip tightened even more, and he was almost shouting by now. "And you have have absolutely no idea what I have seen, done and endured inside of this game."  Tears started to roll down his cheeks. Aereth was actually crying. The last time he cried was when he had to watch his girlfriend die. And here he was, standing in front of a stranger and he couldn't control himself anymore. "So Why do you care so much about my life? You. Know. NOTHING!" His grip grew so tight that it was starting to drain health points from the female.

Then his brain started to work again and he finally began to realize what he had done. He had lost it... Immediately breaking the hold on Teion, Aereth looked at her with a pained expression and said in a shaky voice. "Leave... Sorry..." The last word was almost a whisper as tears still streamed down his face and hit the dusty ground beneath him...

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion's own back crashed against the wall with as much, if not more, force than what she had shoved him back with. She was stunned by the sudden motion, and the tight grip on her wrist almost had her wince. Almost. Her jaw grew rigid, refusing to shrink beneath him despite the spark of fear that ran through her. She pulled her front up even higher, unwilling to show anyone--especially the player standing over her--any form of weakness. He reprimanded her, growing louder and holding her tighter with every word. For a split second after his words, Teion felt a sharp breath of air fill her lungs. She wanted to shout right back at him. As if she were so naive. As if she didn't know the bitter taste of loss when it's forced down one's throat.

But then something changed. Teion's eyes widened just slightly as she stared back at him. She watched as the tears streamed down his cheeks. His shouts only grew louder, but they no longer made her angry. She barely registered the tingling sensation that flared up in her arm when Cardinal triggered his tightening grip to inflict damage to her. After one last outburst, he seemed to have regained himself. His grip on her disappeared, and he told her to leave with a weak apology. Teion simply stared back at the man, as if his tears had quelled the fire in her eyes. She didn't look upon him with pity or sadness. But rather, among the odd mixture of emotions she was feeling behind her blank expression, there was a hint of understanding in her eyes.

She was brought back to the first day that Shield had visited her smithy a few weeks ago. How he stayed with her through the tears, anger, fear, and uncertainty. How he came back to make sure she wasn't skipping meals, and how he tried to introduce some form of normalcy back into her life bit by bit. It occured to her now just how lucky she was. Just how much his support had kept her sane. Looking back into Aereth's eyes, she wondered if the man standing in front of her ever had any such comfort in this hell.

"Then tell me."

The words left her without thought, but she didn't feel any regret after her mind caught up with her. She leaned back into the wall again, this time sliding down until she sat with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her arms wrapped around them loosely, and she glanced back up at the brunette before staring over her the tops of her knees at the dungeon wall opposite her. "You don't have to." She added, suddenly feeling uneasy in the situation. Anger and confrontation was something she had become more and more prone to as of late, and so conversation was even less of her forte than it had been months prior. "But I'm staying." She offered no explanation, her expression deadpan as she awaited the brunette's response.

[Aereth 1]

Aereth's head hung low. His messy brown hair slowly falling and covering his face. Oh how much he wanted this all this pain to be gone. To finally have some peace...

Expecting that the woman would leave, Aereth was surprised to hear her voice. She wanted to know. She wanted to understand. But why, why on earth did she care? He attacked her, and shouted at her. He was a stranger... Aereth didn't understand. The few persons that knew about his misery never asked. It was always Aereth who told them, because he felt like he owned it to them. And he never showed emotion. Keeping up a strong facade was always the most important to him. And yet, today that girl witnessed him break, and instead of running away like everybody else would have, she stayed. Asking him to tell her. To help her understand...

"Why?"

Was all he managed to get out in between his heavy breaths. He was exhausted, tired and drained. Not even a whole day worth of fighting and grinding made him tired like the way he currently felt. It seemed like all of his energy left him as he lost his calmness a couple of minutes ago.

"Why do you care so much about a stranger?"

Before Teion could answer, the sound of players or mobs coming towards them interrupted her. Aereth frowned. He wanted to find out her motivation, but he didn't want to find out who or what was coming for them. Most probably his little outburst attracted every mob in the near area sooooo...

"We need to get you out of here." Aereth said in a low voice, and extended his arm to help Teion to her feet. The paths where his tears went down his face were still visibly wet, but at least no new ones were coming out. "And I want to hear an answer... But not here..."

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion contemplated the word for a long while. Why did she care? She never bothered to invest herself in others before. Everyone had their demons, their struggles, and she hadn't stopped to take the time to understand a stranger's pains in past. So why now? Her brow narrowed slightly as she absorbed his simple words, trying to determine an answer for herself.

Before she had gotten the chance to break the long silence, sounds echoing from off in the distance reminded them that they were not alone in this dungeon. Aereth's hand hovered in front of her face, catching the woman off-guard as she looked up to his tear-stained face. A tiny wry smile formed on her lips and she accepted his help up, placing her gloved hand in his.

The pair hurried to backtrack Aereth's initial path through the dungeon, with the brunette leading the way this time. Teion gave cautious glances along the way as they walked briskly, keeping an eye out for any immediate threats. They had traveled a few short minutes when a light clicking sound reached Teion's ears among their footsteps, one that sounded eerily familiar. Just as a spark of panic surged through her at the memory of the trap she had fallen into earlier, the cavern floor crumbling beneath their feet promptly confirmed her fears. Teion didn't have the chance to stifle a short scream as the feeling of falling took over her yet again. Although she couldn't see how much of the dungeon floor around them had caved in, the players would be dropped in a much larger room than the crawlspace Teion had found herself in some time before. The cavern room they were dropped into was just as dark, pitch-black as if the floor had been sealed up above them to cut off the dim glow of torches that was previously lighting their way.

Teion crashed into a figure beneath her, only stopping herself from panicking completely when she hurriedly convinced herself that the body she had landed on top of belonged to Aereth. Her hand moved blindly, gliding over his shoulder before finding the solid floor beneath him to push herself up and hastily off of the man. Her breathing was hard from their earlier trek up to the crash landing, but grew shakier as she felt her eyes dart around as if to desperately search for something--anything--that she could see. She had pushed off from Aereth's frame, sitting beside him and scooting a few inches away before she couldn't will herself to move anymore. 'No no no, not again,' She wanted to mumbled the words aloud, but the constant reminder of the man's presence had her holding her tongue. 'Why, why now?' She wanted to run her hands along the ground, pick herself up and force herself to take the same approach as her escape from the tiny room she had found herself in before, but she found herself paralyzed with fear.

[Aereth 1]

One wrong set and one clicking noise later, and the two of them found each other in free fall. There was no time to react, no time to scream. With a dull thud Aereth was the first to hit the floor, shortly followed by Teion who crashed directly into him. 

A deep "Urgh." escaped the brunette and after he managed to sit up, he asked. "Hey, Teion... You ok?" as she hastily and without any words pushed herself away from him.

As he didn't get an answer, Aereth finally activated his Flame Aura enhancement on his armor, to bring some light into the dark hole. White flames erupted from his armor which filled the dark pit with some light.

Now he could finally see her. He let his brown eyes wander over his purple haired partner and didn't like what he saw. There was fear and terror written all over her face and she seemed to be frozen in place. Slowly he pushed himself away from the ground, and slowly walked over to her before he crouched down right in front of her. "Teion. Teion. Talk with me. What's going on?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

A tightness like no other resided in her chest as her anxiety built. This was worse than the little dark room with close walls--a lot worse. Her heart nearly jumped when Aereth's voiced asked if she was okay. She couldn't remember how many times she had reminded herself in the incredibly short time since they had fallen that she wasn't alone, but it was alright.

A tiny roar of flames signaled the fiery enhancement of Aereth's armor, providing a dim light that just barely illuminated the man's features. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the source, the smallest wave of relief washing over her. It was not enough to still the fear that was causing the woman to lightly tremble as she failed to suppress the emotions that displayed on her face. He knelt in front of her so that his face was level with her own, but as his hand extended from the shadows and rested on her shoulder, Teion gave a small start until the realization that it was, again, simply Aereth sunk in.

His voice repeating her name caused her cobalt eyes to drift up to his dimly-lit face, and she was able to make out an expression of concern over his features. "I-I'm fine." She lied through a stammer.

[Aereth 1]

"Do you think you can stand up?" Aereth asked, trying his best to keep his voice warm and low. Even though he might seem direct and dumb at times, it wasn't hard to notice that Purple was afraid of something. He just couldn't pin what it was exactly. "Maybe the shock from falling... Maybe the fear of mobs spawning here..." he thought while opening his inventory and changing his battle ring for his scouting equipment.

Still not getting up on her own, he gently let his hand slide down from the shoulder of her until he reached Teions hand. "Hey, it's alright. I'm gonna get us out of here." Carefully taking a hold of her hand he started to pull her to his feet. "Traps like these always have some kind of mechanic to escape. Maybe we'll even find some treasure." he joked weakly as his eyes flickered for a brief moment, indicating that he triggered his searching skill. For some minutes the duo was slowly walking along the walls of the trap room trying to find some kind of hint how he could get them out of here. 

Suddenly he saw something like an odd handle sticking out of the wall. It was almost too obvious, but they didn't find anything else that might lead to an exit. "What do you think? Exit, or just another trap?" he asked, still holding her hand and pointing at the handle in front of them.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Her eyes strained as if they were trying to adjust to the low-light provided by Aereth's armor. His question registered in her mind at the same time as she felt the careful movement of his hand sliding down the length of her arm. Rather than force more words out, the woman gave a small nod to answer him, hoping he could see her response by the glow of his armor. The trembling in her body gradually lessened as she felt his hand wrap around hers and gingerly pull her upwards. Teion accepted his aid to push herself up to her feet.

As the man led her forward, Teion slowly regained a bit of control over herself. The darkness that continued to loom around them still held a tight grip on her chest, but the uneasiness was not as prominent in her face, and she was beginning to mentally kick herself for her impressive display of weakness minutes ago. With some effort her breathing began to steady by the time they had stopped in front of a peculiar handle jutting out from the cave wall. The blacksmith studied it for a moment and was about to reach out to the polished metal before she realized the persisted grasp Aereth had taken of it. She pulled her hand away in order to run her fingers over the out-of-place contraption. She swallowed before speaking again, the terror in her voice subsided when she spoke up. "I fell into something similar that dropped me in the dungeon," She explained, forcing her voice to remain even. "But both triggers were different from this. They were like round buttons embedded in the walls."

She took in a breath, thinking for a moment if they should give in to the curious handle. Her bottom lip tightened slightly, coming to the conclusion that they didn't have much of a choice. "Who knows?" She muttered, wrapping her fingers around the polished metal and giving a pull. When she did so, one end of the handle pulled out and away from the wall a few inches, akin to some kind of lever, and another series of clicking noises sounded as if some mechanism had been activated. A slight rumbling sounded and the cave floor under their feet began to shudder. Teion felt every muscle in her body tense, as if the ground might very well collapse from underneath them again. She let go of the handle, her other gloved hand pressing against the cave wall to help her keep her balance. The tremors persisted for a solid minute while the anxiety gripped tighter at Teion's chest all the while.

When the quake gradually subsided, Teion was finally able to release the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Above them, stretching along the entire cavern's ceiling, a florescent glow began to shine from various plantlife--moss, mushrooms, and algae that clung to the rocky surface illuminated the room in various tints of green and blue. The light provided overhead was still dim, but was bright enough to shed a bit of light on the large room they had been dropped into. Teion's eyes scanned over the structure standing in the middle of the room, unable to determine if it had always been there. Standing a bit taller than the brunette was a stone statue in the shape of a robed angel. Its sculpted features displayed an expressionless face staring back at them, with the angel's right hand raised to its ear. A matching stone plaque sat on the ground in front of the statue, and if the players moved closer they would be able to read the words etched upon it:

Quote

Only a pure of heart and mind may pass.
Confess what darkens your heart, what haunts your dreams, and what regret falters your step.

Teion blinked, her composure slowly returning to her as she stared anxiously at the statue staring back at them from the center of the dimly-lit room. "What...the hell is this?" She muttered out.