Chapter 11:
The door closed with a heavy thump behind me, and I heard the heavy clunky of a lock. I gave the door a quick glance and saw that it had sealed into a single solid slab of metal without visible seam, handle or lock, but while that was deeply concerning, other things had me practically gaping at the scene In front of me. Of all the things I had expected to find this deep underground in the middle of the great divide, it certainly wasn't what was in front of me now.
Where before, when I had first fell into this place, I had seen nothing but cut stone corridors, now when I looked out, I saw instead a single massive cave stretching both off into the distance and high into the air above me.
That alone wouldn't have been too strange, underground, but it was light here - I could see everything to the back walls and the ceiling, but there was no visible source of light, just a sourceless white radiance that lit the grey and white stone…and everything else in the space.
“Boone…there's a jungle in this cave…” I breathed, baffled by the sight before me.
“And a pyramid…” Boone replied, equally as confused by the sound of it. And it was true: A few feet into the cave, tropical trees, thick brush, twisted, curling vines and drifting clouds of mist sprung up and filled the entire massive space of the cave floor, and crawled up the walls. But in the centre of all of that greenery, there was an entire sandstone step pyramid; and on top of that…a dragon. An immense blue serpent was curled, looped end over end, with shimmering rainbow feathered wings the size of a galleon's sails draped over its apparently sleeping form. It was so large I could see scale details from over a mile away.
“We are so screwed.” The phrase from my old life had never seemed so appropriate as it did now. Without thought, I turned and scrambled at the door, looking for a way to get it open and escape, but it was sealed and apparently as tough as nails. Even if I was a herculean hero with dozens of levels in the body attribute, I doubted I'd get it open. As a basic mortal eight year old? I had absolutely no chance.
I swallowed, and realised choosing the intellect trial might have been a very dumb idea, and wished desperately that my family was here to help me. However, as I took in my situation and looked around me, other things began to stand out to me.
The floor under my feet was still cut flagstones that wound its way into the jungle in a distinct path between two massive, knotty trees. To either side of the path the ground transitioned into sandy soil and exposed tree roots, but the path itself was spotless. Also, there was a plinth by the entrance to the jungle made of the same sandstone as the pyramid in the distance.
With eyes in the apparent dragon in the distance, I shimmied my way over to it, seeing that it had engraved writing in Axian standard:
Greetings Aspirant,
Welcome to the Trial of Intellect. Your challenges await beneath the canopy of the Jungle. Each is a feat of intelligence, problem solving, and lateral thinking. Each success will be rewarded and you shall move forward in your quest. Each failure will bring the Jungles’ guardians to you. Each wrong step will bring you closer to your death.
The sign was actually…quite polite. It was odd, and stood out strangely against the rest of the cave.
“I think we’re supposed to head to the pyramid via the path.” Boone said, sniffing around the edge of the flagstones and path. “The jungle plants don't smell right. I mean - they don't smell like the desert so they smell awful. So much rot and soil and water. But I smell bone as well. Lots and lots of bone - and it's moving.”
His comment instantly had my heart racing more than it already was, and my fingers found a round stone from my belt pouch which I placed in my catapult while my eyes scanned the tree line. “Tell me where they are, buddy,” I aimed at the trees and hoped the thick trunks and underbrush would limit how many could push through at once.
“I don't think they're coming towards us. There is movement - I can hear it. But if I'd had to guess it is moving around us at a distance. It's not currently coming closer - and the path seems to be entirely silent.” I felt the fox gather its courage and run onto the path, taking the first corner and disappearing behind a tree before I had the chance to shout for him to stop.
After a moment or two, he reemerged, and hurried his way back to me. “Arcadia, you should see this. I think I have an idea what this Trial is about.”
“Are you sure it's safe?” I asked tentatively, still holding my catapult half cocked and scanning the forest around me, straining to hear whatever Boones’ ears had caught.
“Not in the slightest, but we can't go back - so by rights we have to push forward.” I swallowed, nodded, and knew that he was right. But right then I felt more like an eight year old in truth than at any time in this life. This place was scary, and there were monsters in the dark. Boone gestured me forward, and I followed him onto the path between the trees.
In here, the trees and the brush came up right to the edge of the path and joined together in knotted vines overhead. The light was cut down to a green and misty haze, and the temperature skyrocketed. I felt more like I was in a tunnel than I even had in the hallways before the dungeon had changed. Still, the closeness and the claustrophobia didn't last too long. As we rounded a corner, light opened up, and I came to a clearing. The stone path widened into a perhaps thirty foot square room, with a stone archway opposite me closed off with a metal gate, and ruined stone walls reaching at their highest to about ten feet, closing off most of the path ahead. Close packed trees closed in the rest, but now, I could hear the shuffling of things in the jungle much clearer, though they were still hidden from sight.
In the centre of the room were two raised pedestals. One bore engraved writing, like the one at the entrance. The other was larger and square, and divided into a three by three grid, with nine rotating polygons suspended in recesses, one to a square. Currently, they had all shared a face with a gray square of colour showing upward, but I could see other squares of colour on different sides just poking out from the recess.
There was also what looked like a small hourglass suspended above the gate that looked like it could turn. There was a small amount of sand in the bottom. However long the seeming timer was meant to last long, it didn't look like a whole lot of time. Maybe fifteen minutes at most. I approached the pedestals carefully.
On the engraved one was another message.
Welcome to the first challenge of your trial. Solving this puzzle in a timely fashion will grant rewards and open the way forward. Failure will draw the guardians of the Jungle that even now gather around you. The timer will start as soon as you lay a hand on the first block. Each square can only show one colour, and no two colours can match:
Green and Orange are on opposite corners
Orange is in the bottom row
Blue is directly above Yellow
Purple is directly above Brown
Yellow is directly to the left of Purple
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Purple is not the centre square
Pink is adjacent to Orange
Gray is directly above Red.
Good luck, Aspirant.
It was a Sudoku. Sure, it was with colours instead of numbers, but it was still a Sudoku puzzle. I had clear memories of my previous life - a rarity it seemed with so much being foggy, of enjoying them on trains between work and home, or on sunny days in a park somewhere. It was very strange to see something so familiar in a place so unlike any I had been before.
“What is it, Arcadia? I can't see!” Boone whined from the base of the pillar, and with a slight slap to my forehead at the realisation that he was too short to see over the pillars, I picked him up to look at the writing. “So, we have to turn the shapes till they show the colours needed, in the right order, to unlock the door? This seems like a puzzle for a child.”
“In my last life, the practice was called Sudoku, and people used it as a mental exercise, or just for fun - to keep the mind sharp. They can be particularly challenging, especially when you start increasing the grid size.”
“Can you solve it?” He asked, looking between the clues and the grid.
“I think so, but possibly not in the time limit - and that starts as soon as I touch a piece. I'd need something to work on to solve it, and normally I do these using numbers and maths sequences, not colours. I'm not very good at visual imaging…” my words gave me the strangest idea, and I looked at my Soul Card, and specifically at one particular ability that I was told would be useless in this dungeon:
Field of Illusions: Wood 1 (2/ 3)
* You may hijack the vision of a visible, non mindless opponent and apply a visual illusion over parts of their current eyeline. At its most basic level, this illusion will not stand up to detailed analysis. Higher levels in this ability can create more convincing illusions and fool higher level perception stats. You may also project simple illusions in the air, though these are very easy to see through and disbelieve at low levels.
I grinned as I realised how I could game this particular challenge. “I think I've got this one, Boone. Can you keep your eyes out for anything sneaking up on me while I work?” he grunted and began to pace around the clearing, his ears twitching at every sound.
For myself, I reached inside and looked for the other essence receptacle currently branches off from my Core and the Perception attribute attached to it. Where my Foxfire Imbuement ability felt like an optic bottle full of powerful spirits, this one felt more like a large jar with a spigot tap, designed to let a small but constant flow out.
The awakening of the abilities had let me know roughly how to use them and what I could expect to do with them at a basic level of proficiency, and this seemed like a perfect use to me.
Fixing an image of the grid in my mind, I let a cloud of my essence spread from my fingertips, enough to fill the image I had in mind, before I mentally ‘grabbed’ at a tendril of the misty substance that was both real and ephemeral and forced my image into it.
With an electric jolt, the whole cloud snapped like a sheet being caught in a wind, and rearranged into a flat plane with nine grey squares on it.
Concentrating on the image, I found I could make minor edits as I needed them, as long as it didn't require complicated movements or extreme detail. As changing the colour of a square within the image was neither complicated or detailed, it became a simple matter of mental effort to begin rearranging the squares into different patterns.
Normally when I worked on a Sudoku, it would take me a while simply with having to write out the sequence again and again, but here I could flash through the colours at a breakneck pace, pausing only to look at the clues and rearrange tiles.
Breakneck didn't mean instant, though, and five minutes passed, then ten, as I went through iterations or second guessed myself. “Arcadia, you might want to hurry. We have company!” I paused my work long enough to look over at Boone, to see he stood at the entrance we came through - right in front of four skeletons wearing leather and first and carrying spears. I jumped back instantly, losing concentration on the image, and raising my catapult, before I realised they weren't moving.
All four were standing perfectly at attention, spear butts planted on the ground, and staring right at me with burning blue eyes.
“They're not attacking?” I asked Boone, catapult at the ready. I didn't know why they weren't rushing at us - we didn't exactly have a defensive position - but I also didn't want to provoke them into it by attacking first.
“They walked out of the trees and just stopped, standing there. They appeared very quickly though. I think they might be higher level than the last two.” Boones' hackles were raised, and his tail switched back and forth between his splayed and braced legs. Thin wisps of blue fire flickered from his fur and the smell of burnt cinnamon filled the air.
Quickly, I gathered some essence and threw an [Identity] at them, seeing what results it would pass back to me, having not used it on an opponent yet:
Jungle Guardian, Skeleton: Wood 3
Jungle Guardian, Skeleton: Wood 3
Jungle Guardian, Skeleton: Wood 3
Jungle Guardian, Skeleton: Wood 4
I didn't like any of those numbers - the levels or the number of skeletons. I had struggled against two, and if it wasn't for my Repletion and Resilience talents, I would likely still be heavily injured from fighting them. I didn't want to tackle these four, at all, if I could. “I think these are the Guardians the plinths spoke of, Boone. I think they're waiting for us to fail the puzzle.”
“Then perhaps don't fail it. I am not strong enough yet to fight all of them, and neither are you.”
Taking his words to heart, I brought the illusion of the grid backup before me.
Five minutes later, I thought I had the answer. On the top row, left to right, I had grey, blue, and green. On the middle row, I had red, yellow, and purple. Then on the bottom row I had orange, pink and brown. I double and triple checked the clues, but thought I was most likely correct.
“Okay Boone, I think I have the answer. Are you ready for me to start putting it in?” I brought the static illusion over to the real grid and hung it before me, so that I didn't mix one up and completely screw our chances, hand now hovering over the top left polygon.
“Go ahead, but be ready to run to the gate. I don't trust these things to stay here, successful or not. And I still hear a lot more moving about in the jungle.” I gulped; I really didn't like this test.
Still, I quickly started twisting the polygons into the right alignment to complete the puzzle. As I did so, the hourglass above the gate flipped over in its socket, and sand began to run quite quickly into the base. I imagine if I'd chosen to try and solve the puzzle using only the pedestal, it would have been a real rush against the sand, but as it was, I had the colours lined up in under a minute.
There was a click, and the gate opposite me opened up. I saw Boone start running towards it and quickly followed, but something made me stop. As I was leaving the grid pedestal, a slot opened near the bottom end of the square, and something began to rise from within. The black luster of an ability crystal wrapped in a wire cage rose slowly into the air as the time ticked down.
This was mostly likely the reward for completing the challenge, but with its slow rise, I imagined that if I had been closer on time I would have had to risk time running out to claim it. After two minutes, the cage fully emerged and split down the middle. I snatched it and jammed it in my mouth as I ran for the gate. Running with a giant mouthful of magic water was not advised, and I nearly threw it back up again before I could swallow and felt the rush of energy to my core. I didn't even know what level the stone was, but I couldn't risk losing out when every level might help right now.
Ability Crystal Detected. Applying upgrades. Perception Attribute Level Increased: [Wood 1 0/3] > [Wood 2 0/5].
I felt my consciousness expand, and nearly tripped over my own feet as the world became clearer. Sounds became both louder and crisper. I could smell the leaf mould and the hot wet stretch of the jungle to an even greater degree. I could even taste the few morsels of food still stuck to my teeth where my mouth had been ignoring it till now.
I raced through the gate with wide eyes and stumbling legs, suddenly gasping for breath as my heart raced. Upgrading my Resilience Talent hadn't felt like this. This felt like, suddenly, I was just More. More solid, more real, more tied to the world. It felt Amazing. I stopped to place both hands on my knees and just started gasping until the feeling started to calm down.
Only, that was probably a mistake, as I suddenly Heard the bony scrape of the skeletons beginning to match.
I looked back to see them in lock step begin to make their way toward us across the clearing, splitting into two pairs and moving to either side of the grid pedestal before coming back together again. Boone grabbed me with a telekinetic fist and hauled me down the path. Within a couple of steps I even began to run myself.