It was only a few hours after we had parted ways with Rosalynn and Theo before we had to contact her again. The three of us had skillfully traversed through a good bit of the maze before we were stuck. It wasn’t really a dead end, but it may as well have been. There was yet another huge door in front of us, it was significantly more ornate and had several jewels encrusted into its surface. There were runes and various designs embossed in it as well.

“Wow… Do you think this is like… a boss room or something?” I asked.

“This isn’t a game, or well… I mean it is? Maybe? I don’t know why don’t you ask the gods you have following you around like puppies?”

“Ohhh Reid I’m not sure if I’d be soooo sassy towards them. What if they give me a quest to torment you?” I teased. Surprisingly the Playwright actually played along with me and offered a quest.

~~*~~

Punish the Heretic

Quest

Description: This heretic has insulted the honor and holiness of the gods. He must be punished. Using whatever means you consider fit, convince the heretic to apologize to the gods for his sins.

Rewards: Strawberry Candies

~~*~~

My eyes lit up, I had been eating disgusting, gamy, oily, greasy, filthy rat stew for days. I would kill for some candies right about now. All he has to do is apologize, I can definitely do this quest. This is the best quest I’ve ever gotten! So easy, great rewards, really honestly the best quest possible!

“Reid, seriously though, you should apologize to the gods.” I said in as serious a voice as I could muster.

“Ha ha. Mia, stop messing with me and just help me open this door.”

“I’m not kidding. Apologize.”

“Ugh, whatever, I’ll play your dumb game, oh gods of Mia’s GGC, I have reflected on my transgressions and do hereby apologize for being a wad.” Reid fancily bowed towards my left side where I read a few messages in the GGC.

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” raises a brow at you, but says nothing.]

[“Abandoned Bloodied Sword” complains that he is very insincere.]

[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” disagrees and says that he gave a textbook perfect apology.]

[“Playful Cat Hates Yarn” rolls their eyes at “Seeker of Magic and Knowledge”.]

Hmm… I guess it wasn’t sincere so he won’t accept it? Well, he didn’t say that directly, and the quest is called ‘Punish the Heretic’ so maybe I need to accomplish both requirements.

“Mia! Come on!” Reid whined.

“Fine, but I want a better apology for them later.” I said as I leaned into the door with him.

“Seriously? Why are you being so weird about this?”

Before I could answer, a system screen appeared.

[ Required: 2/4 ]

“Huh. Well. That sucks. Should we call Rosalynn and Theo?” I asked.

“Ugh I’d rather not see that asshole again.” Reid replied with disgust.

“I mean yeah, I don’t want to see him either, but we need to get out of here soon and this is the best lead that we’ve gotten since we arrived.”

“Fine… But I’m not playing nice with him.”

“I mean? You didn’t last time either?”

“Well yeah, but we might have to be around each other for longer this time so I don’t want you to ask me later to just play nice since we have to work together. He looks pretty useless anyways.”

“He did seem scared out of his mind, well I guess she did mention he got attacked early on. Maybe he’s struggling to get over that. Either way I won’t ask anything of you relating to him so I’m just going to call her okay?”

“Fine.”

[ Calling “Dauntless Hammer” … ]

[ Accepted ]

“Hello?” Rosalynn’s voice came through into my mind clearly, and out of habit I replied telepathically as well.

Hi, Rosalynn?

“Yes, I can hear you.”

Oh… Um, well we found something that we thought might interest you. I relayed our current predicament to them and they quickly decided to join us at the door. I offered to send Aureus to lead them to us, but apparently that punk had a tracking skill. My skin crawled at the thought of him following us around.

“Oooooh, Reid, we definitely should have asked if they had soap!” I exclaimed while we awaited their arrival. We had been able to ‘shower’ in the most basic sense for the last few days, but having some soap would be amazing.

“You’re right! Ugh my hair has been so greasy, I would kill for some shampoo.”

I glanced over at Reid and groaned. The Gallaghers were the worst sometimes. They usually looked picture perfect, but even when they didn’t it wasn’t nearly as obvious. There is absolutely no way someone would have looked at Reid, or Caro for that matter, and suggested they were oily and needed to bathe. His hair was slightly unkempt and lost a bit of its shine, and there were occasional stubble that escaped his blade when shaving that stood out on his mostly clean-shaven face.

“Seriously, you could be shooting a survival movie. You look fine. Just a bit dusty.”

“As if.” He moped as he slumped to the ground.

“Oh my god.” My eyes went wide, and panic started to set in. I began to pace back and forth and nearly tripped over Reid.

“What? What is it?!” He asked, annoyed when my foot caught against his knee as I tried to walk past him.

“What about my period? Or Caro’s? Oh my god… it’s going to be the worst…”

He shot up at that question and also joined me in my panic. We paced around for half a minute before he offered a really dumb solution, “Can’t you guys like, sit on the toilet until you’re done?”

“For a whole five or so days?!”

“Well, I mean you don’t have any better ideas do you?”

“Ugh, this is why I should have hopped on that diva cup trend when people wanted to save the earth.”

“Huh? What? Diva… oh, well yeah I guess? But … Would? Eh I don’t know there’s no point in asking me questions about this now.”

“Ohhh Doctor Reid feels weird about bodily functions?”

“No, I just feel weird about you and my sister’s bodily functions. That’s not strange. Plus I’m not a doctor, so I have no practice with awkward body stuff.”

“Would it be weird for me to ask Rosalynn about that?” I asked Reid as I fidgeted with my hair.

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“Ask me what?”

Shit, damn it. Ah whatever. It’s the end of the world what’s the point in courtesy

“Ah, well just uhh toiletries and comfort items? You mentioned you’re part of a larger group so I figured you’d know more about that. Honestly we really should have brought more than we did when we came down here. We had time to pack up something but for some reason none of us really brought anything at all. Why… Anyways, sorry. So, soap? Feminine hygiene? Etc?” I asked, I was rambling. God I hated rambling. Why do I always talk too much?

You don’t talk too much. I think you could probably talk more. Everyone else should talk less.

Sigh… thanks darling.

“Oh, well I don’t have good news for you… Yet! Hopefully in the near future we’ll have something we can help you with. Having good products is important for maintaining business connections!” She grinned widely as she added the last bit.

“Well, I guess it would be too good to be true to figure that out so soon. Oh well, I guess I’ll just do an at home hysterectomy.” I said with a chuckle. Rosalynn smiled and patted me on the back, but Theo looked horrified. He never did understand my humor, or when I was joking.

“Alright, so this is the infamous door huh?” she asked.

“Yup, we needed the two of you to open it. If you don’t mind, I'd like to get going.” Reid said curtly. The two men started a glaring match, the fact that Theo even tried to… compete?... with Reid was annoying.

“Stop flirting and just push the doors!” I whined at them, shocked and hurt expressions looked back at me before they turned to the door.

The window appeared again, the number increased as each person began to push on it.

[ Required: 4/4 ]

[ Success ]

[ Welcome to the center of the labyrinth. ]

[ Please enter and complete the challenge. ]

The four of us exchanged wary looks as the huge doors swung forward. An absolutely humongous open area stood before us, but no one stepped forward. The hugeness of the space and vagueness of the challenge was daunting. The first thought that plagued me was, what if the challenge was that we had to fight each other? Would we have to kill them? Could we? Even if we didn’t have to fight them for the challenge, who's to say they wouldn’t take advantage after the challenge and fight us?

“Well, let’s head in.” Reid said, his voice only wavering slightly as he took the first step into the room. I took a deep breath and followed. I pondered the situation as I aimlessly wandered into the room.

[ Required: 3/4 ]

I glanced back to see Theo standing outside of the doorway, he was clearly freaking out. I rolled my eyes at him and beckoned him to come inside. He looked down at the threshold of the doorway, and just stared at it. With a groan I took a step towards him, but Rosalynn reached him first. She yanked him in and the required quantity of people was met.

[ Please select a challenge below: ]

[ Team challenge. Defend together. One large prize. ]

[ Individual challenge. Defend alone. Individuals may surrender. One small prize for each victor. ]

“I think we should do the individual one.” Rosalynn was the first to pipe up. She came to that decision quite quickly.

“What?! How am I supposed to defend against anything?” Theo screamed.

She glared at him, “Then just surrender. It’s not like you’d get the big prize if we did the team one either.”

“Well, what if surrendering doesn’t keep you safe? What’d happen then?” Reid asked.

“I mean I can’t really trust the two of you if there is only one prize. What if we end up fighting for it after? I’d rather just let everyone get whatever they get.” she said with a shrug.

“Hm…” I thought for a moment, “Well, I doubt that people who surrender would die immediately? Probably?”

I looked towards the GGC, they were eerily silent. There were comments before we stepped into the challenge room, but nothing after. I waited for a few moments, maybe they were just waiting on our choice. They might say something if I gave them a moment. Still nothing.

“Hey, Collector? What happens if people surrender?” I asked, still staring at the chat window. Nothing. Damn. “I don’t want to risk anyone’s life by doing individual defense, but it’s hard to believe that the gods would kill you just for surrendering. Plus we don’t know how hard the defense game will be.”

“Still…” Theo said dejectedly.

“Well, let's just vote. I’m assuming this is a vote.” Rosalynn said.

[ Team defense: 0/4 ]

[ Individual defense: 1/4 ]

“Yup, looks like it.” I said as I voted for the individual defense as well.

“Are you sure about this?” Reid asked without looking up.

“Well I already voted, so I guess so?”

[ Team defense: 0/4 ]

[ Individual defense: 3/4 ]

We waited, and waited, and a few more minutes passed. Theo was muttering to himself as he debated making a choice. God, he didn’t seem this annoying when we were dating. What happened to him? He really lost it.

“Jesus, Theodore. Just choose, it won’t matter, the majority already voted!” Rosalynn yelled. He yelped in response and clicked something.

[ Team defense: 0/4 ]

[ Individual defense: 4/4 ]

[ Selection made: Individual defense ]

[ Preparing zones ]

The ground beneath us started to shake, and unfortunately for me, Aureus latched himself onto my torso. I lost my balance between the dragon and the tremors and started to fall forward. I tried to throw my hands out in front of me, but they struggled ineffectually since they were pinned to my sides by Aureus. I face planted into an invisible wall.

Aureus, let go!

I’m sorry Master! I just, I didn’t know if I was going to get stuck in an individual battle too…

Oh, Aureus I doubt that would ever happen. You’re a part of my class that would be extremely unfair to me.

Are you sure?

I mean it said 4 out of 4 earlier when we voted. Did you get a vote?

No…

Then it’s fine so let go.

He uncurled from around me and I pushed myself off of the wall. Looking around there were similarly confused looks from Reid and Rosalynn, but Theo looked like he’d just shat his pants. The four of us were being moved closer to the center, but still different areas of the huge square room we were in. The floor beneath us moved as we were relocated. I just realized at that moment there were four doors, the one we went through and three more on each wall. Each of us was placed between a door and the middle of the room, though we were much closer to the center than the door.

The noise in the room heightened more, it was deafening. Creaks and groans of stone and metal scraping across each other and a slam as walls emerged from the ground, separating me from the others. Dust and pebbles fell down from the ornate ceiling clattering lightly as the noise finally ceased. I tensed, expecting a wave of those wommi things to appear and swarm us, but nothing was happening.

I reached out expecting the invisible wall not to be there, but it still was. I turned in a circle examining my surroundings. My section of the room was triangular, the corner behind me stretched back to what I assumed was the center of the original room. The door I had in my section wasn’t the one we had come through.

“Hello?” I waited, “What’s going on?” A few more seconds passed, “Seriou-”

[ Calculations completed ]

The roaring of machinery returned. My triangular space began changing, sections of the wall and floor raising up and lowering to create a new and more convoluted topography. The whole area was raised and lowered in cubic shapes. Columns and veritable mountains and valleys taking shape around me, manifested out of the same dark rock.

“Fucking blockcrafting labyrinth.”

Several small arches formed in various walls around me, some as close as a couple feet away and others as far as on the far wall. The invisible prison I was in finally disappeared, as did the noise from the surroundings adjusting. I did a quick spin, analyzing the area and looking for each and every entrance point so I wouldn’t get ambushed. I groaned, how was I supposed to memorize the locations of all of these? I started looking for places that would be easier to defend. High ground sounded good, but they might throw rocks at me. I might end up falling the whole way down, but staying in a valley with various higher structures on all sides felt like a significantly worse option.

I groaned, I didn’t have many choices, and it was time to be decisive. I shouldn’t stay on flat ground though because I could get surrounded and it would be difficult to protect myself. Or should I just try to back myself against a wall to prevent an attack from behind? I hadn’t struggled too much with these creatures before. A handful of wommi monsters started pouring out of the arches. I had to make a decision, I just ran out of time.

“Ugh, god fuck it. Aureus, take me up to the second tallest tower thingy over there.” I said pointing towards a tall pillar not too far from where we were. I was promptly scooped up and placed on the top as I requested.

A lump started forming in my throat as I looked down on the various colored wommi climbing up towards my position. Aureus quickly swept over the terrain raining down wind based attacks. I smiled to myself, he remembered I wanted to use other attacks to preserve the fur.

Of course I can remember something that simple, Master you have so little faith in me!

I’m sorry, I should have more faith in you. You always do a very good job, so I am always so happy with everything you do.

A small burble of happiness flitted through our connection as he continued to destroy the tiny monsters. It was fun to watch, both Aureus and the creatures looked so small from my position atop the column. Glancing around at my perch I realized it was a bit smaller than I had originally thought. It was a rectangle with about three and a half feet or so on one side and five feet on the other. There wasn’t much maneuverability to be had here.

A loud and foreign screech ripped through the air behind me, and a sinking feeling permeated my chest. Slowly I turned around, as if turning quickly would catch the attention of whatever just made that deafening noise. My breath was coming in a bit shaky as I caught sight of them. Huge bats. There was one of them emerging from holes in each corner of the room. I hadn’t noticed the one directly in front of me at first because it blended in with the wall. My fear briefly subsided as I wondered if the wommi were related to these bat things. They looked vaguely similar.

The bats were too far from me to tell the exact size, but I could tell they were at the very least taller than I was. Two of them were similar shades of black or dark gray while the other was a warm dark brown. One of the black bats had white ears, while the other had a white starburst on its chest. The brown one had a white line trailing along its nose bridge, and all three of them had pink noses that were a strange mix of the shape of a bat’s nose and a Wommi’s.

A second loud shriek snapped me back into reality as the one that emerged behind me leapt from the wall and started flying towards me. I would have lost track of it almost immediately if it weren’t for its white ears. The winds around me slapped my hair into my face as it flew around my column. I was bracing myself for an attack, but nothing. I turned quickly, scanning for where it had disappeared to.

“Aureus!”