Chapter 12:
By the time we hit the next clearing, the skeleton chase had become somewhat surreal. The four skeletons chasing us not only kept pace with use, but were joined by four more. But they did just keep pace. We had sprinted away from the first puzzle as the fur and hide draped skeletons pursued us, but while they charged towards us, they kept a perfect distance of roughly ten feet. If we sped up, they would speed up. If we slowed down, they would slow down. Eventually I had had enough, and, catapult raised, I had turned around and moved towards them. They hadn't stepped back, but they also hadn't attacked.
They had, however, braced their spears and very clearly blocked the path back. “What? What are you waiting for?” They stood silent at attention, blue flame eyes glued to me as I paced between them.
“Arcadia, perhaps antagonising them is not a good idea. They are all around us…” Boones' ears were flat against his skull, with his head low and hunched under his shoulders. My heartbeat was in my throat. I hated this. It felt too familiar. Something from my hidden away past life, maybe, but the idea of being silently followed, watched, and herded tripped all kinds of alarm bells in my head.
“Fine. All we have to do is solve your damn riddles, right? Then I'll solve them all!” I turned on my heel at that point and stalked down the path, Boone on my heels with his bottle brush tail poofed out from his nerves. I felt if I had had a tail like my mothers’ at that point, it would have most likely done the same. The silent guardians were terrifying.
It got even worse when we stepped into the next clearing and two more stepped out to join the four that were already there, but all six stopped at the threshold of the clearing, and didn't take one step further in.
This time, there was a table instead of a gridded plinth, with a number of bottles of different coloured liquid on top. Like the last one and the entrance, there was also a plinth next to the table covered in engraved writing.
The bottles were all different shapes and sizes, but from the left, there was a purple one that smoked slightly, a green one in a square bottle, a bright blue one that shimmered, a clear one with a heavy, thick cork, another purple one in a tall flask that fizzed in it's bottle, another green one on a flask that was a trapezoid, and on the end was a red potion that smoked slightly like the first.
I took one last look at the skeletons, and approached the plinth.
Greetings adventurer. For your second challenge, you must identify and drink the correct potion to proceed. Good luck:
Two bottles sit, both causing strife
They always sit to purples’ right
Three are juice, and one burns with flame
And no two colours taste the same
All seen even flasks hold only pain
And sky blue leaves a horrid stain
Though tasty are the drinks at each end
Neither shall see you pass, my friend
Keen of eye and wise of mind,
Drink up the light, and claim your prize.
When I finished reading, I approached the table to get a better look at the bottles, beginning to turn the puzzle over in my head, when I felt something click under my heel.
I looked down to see that the flagstone right in front of the table and beneath my foot had depressed ever so slightly, and above the gate at the other end of the clearing, the hourglass flipped over.
It appeared I had set off a countermeasure against using a trick like my last one. My heartbeat, that had started to calm as I read, jumped back into my throat and started beating at a mile a minute.
I tried to sort through the clues and figure it out from there. If the ‘blight’ sat to the right of the purple, it meant it was both the green potions. If the potions at the end were tasty but not the right one, they were likely two of the juices. If the even flasks held pain, that would be the second, fourth, and sixth bottles, two of which I already guessed were the blight potions, and the centre potion was the clear one. The bright blue was likely the ‘shade of sky’. If it left a stain, it was likely not the correct one either.
I looked through the bottles and read the clues again, but my bet was on the 5th bottle from the left, the long necked purple one.
Then I saw the last clue - keen of eye. Keen eyes were a factor of perception, not mind in this world, and I realised I literally had a way to tell what each bottle was: [Identify]! Very quickly, I threw the ability at each bottle, dropping my Cores’ essence level with each one. Three read back as [Fruit Juice]. Two came back with an actual identification that surprised me:
Jungle Blight: Acidic Poison. [Wood 5]
More than the fact that it was absolutely poisonous, was the level. A level 5 poison would kill me dead, healing skills or no, near instantly, and there was literally nothing I could do if I drank one.
The clear potion registered as an crafted item too, and if anything that one surprised me more than the poisons:
Liquid Fire: Thrown Explosive. [Wood 3]
I'm this case, what surprised me was that it wasn't a potion at all, but effectively a bomb. I had a feeling if I'd gone to use that one, I would have been in for a nasty shock, and it quite probably would have killed me as well. Without an unlocked Body attribute I was only as sturdy as a regular human being, and this was rated as three times stronger than that, likely putting it on a level with napalm or nitroglycerine from my old world.
The last potion, though, the tall necked purple bottle, was exactly as I hoped it would be:
Liquid Essence: Advanced Concoction. [Wood 5]
I looked at the timer above the door. Roughly 5 minutes had passed, and I felt I had the moment to take a breath. Drinking strange potions was something Papa had always warned me against, as they could do pretty much anything and there were very few ways to tell of they even worked correctly if they hadn't first been identified by a skilled Runesmith. But here, I felt I had little choice. I pulled the cork and knocked the potion back.
Very much like when I ate an Ability Crystal, the liquid flowers into my throat and started burning its way to my core, bypassing my stomach entirely. Unlike the crystals, with this potion a light lit up beneath my skin, and I could feel it suffuse my entire body with it's energy. I literally glowed with light as the potion flowed into my core and towards one of my receptacles:
Advanced Potion of Distilled Essence Consumed. Potion with be applied to one Ability. Applying Upgrades: Inborn Talent Travelers’ Bag Level Increased: [Wood 1 0/3] > [Wood 2 0/5].
Travellers’ Bag. Level: Wood 2 (0/5)
* A 2m x 2m x 2m extra dimensional storage space that may be accessed with a thought. Items stored within do not perish, and are held in the exact state in which they entered. Weight of stored items is reduced by 52%.
I could have cursed as I felt the Travellers’ Bag Talent expand to twice it's spiritual size, and become a little lighter, but there would have been little point. Travellers' Bag was an amazingly convenient Talent and I could see it being immeasurably useful in the future. However, here and now, it was probably my least useful talent other than Field of Illusions. I didn't really have a need for more or lighter storage while I had little to fill the space with. Though I did notice a subtle lightening of the spiritual ‘pressure’ the talent put on my mind and body and felt myself stand a little bit taller because of it. Also, the Talent had only needed three levels of essence and the essence potion was worth five. Those overflow levels were wasted and would spill back into the world and, I guessed, go wherever loose essence went when it wasn't being generated or channelled by a mortal Core.
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The glow began to fade from my skin as the Gate opposite unlocked and swung open. Making sure there was nothing wrong with my balance or anything else due to the potion and its effects, before I began making my way to the open doorway before the sand ran out.
However, something caused me to look back at the skeletons, now six of them, and grimace. I was going to flip them the bird out of frustration at them when I saw the other bottles still laying on the table. Three bottles of fruit juice, two poisons and an explosive. None of the glass had Runed engraving. It gave me an idea.
“Boone, get ready to hold the gate telekinetically if something goes wrong. I might be doing something stupid here.” Boone stood in the gateway and cocked his head quizzically at me, while he let out a slight whine of impatience, as I rushed back to the table and grabbed all of the bottles, stuffing each into my extra dimensional bag. Free resources were free resources after all.
The gate didn't try to close and the skeletons didn't immediately rush at me, so I smirked at them, turned on my heel, and dashed through the gate.
Immediately as I did so, the skeletons began to march, and just like before, they moved quickly to cut off any way of retreating.
Just like before, we were herded forward at an unhurried pace, as I noticed four more skeletons join the procession pushing us down the jungle path towards what was inevitably another puzzle. I also noticed, through brief gaps in the foliage, that whole the path meandered around, we were getting steadily closer to the step pyramid with its enormous occupant.
I didn't have an honest clue what we would do or be expected to do when - and if - we got there, but it didn't help my building anxiety.
Regardless of the massive serpent, though, the quickly enlarging ranks of undead spearmen were definitely the more immediate threat. As my heart beat and the sweat from the temperature under the canopy rolled down and mixed with the drying remains of my own blood coating my arms and torso, a plan began to form in my mind. But it would all depend on what the next challenge looked like, and how far we could push the rules when we got there.
The flagstone path wound around far longer than the last two, until we eventually did arrive at the next clearing. As soon as Boone and I cleared the archway entrance, our skeleton parade also stopped dead in their tracks, and moved to surround the entrance with their spears stood at parade rest.
“Boone, don't move from this spot. I want to test something.” I asked my friend, and stood there, at the entrance to the room, with the skeletons figuratively breathing down my neck. It was terrifying, but I forced myself to stand there and count my way through five minutes. Nothing happened. I spent those five minutes examining the room in front of me but I didn't get any closer than I was.
This time, in the centre, was a circular wooden board at an angle, with five sections one inside the other, and channels cut into the wood throughout. In the centre was a hole and at the edge was a wooden ball in a metal cage. I could guess the idea here. When the timer started, move the various wheels to guide the ball through a maze and drop it in the centre.
But I refused to interact with it just yet, and nothing happened. The timer didn't start counting down, the skeletons didn't move forward. All there was was the rustle of leaves in the jungle and the occasional bony tap from a shifting skeleton.
A small smile appeared on my face as I was vindicated. The test couldn't progress if I didn't interact with it, so that gave me time to make something, although I didn't want to push my luck too far. There was every chance I was being observed by Kintsuji or whoever was running this challenge, and I didn't want to screw it all up.
However, for now, I lowered myself to the flagstones, and pulled from my Travellers’ Bag my Rune engraving tool, a bag of roughly one hundred round stones for my catapult, and the liquid Fire potion from the last room.
I then pulled out my Rune Journals and started planning a new Rune sequence for a custom item. This would be a much quicker and easier process than the healing bottle, however. After all, I only needed to make it work once.
“What are you making, Arcadia?” Boone asked, curious about my actions and my materials of choice.
“A little present for our bony friends when we need it most. Something from my last life we called a Claymore.” I grinned savagely, and started linking runes together using Field of Illusions to properly visualise it. It would need several amplification runes, and a reflective shield angled in from the back, as well as a lot of acceleration Runes…this was going to be hell on my Essence…
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It took almost two hours of excessively carefully running the engraver over the surface of the bottle to make the main enchantment, and I had had to drop almost 80% of my essence reserves into the construction, but it worked…more or less. On three sides of the bottle I had engraved a linked series of attraction and repulsion runes that were currently set to attract the fifty stone balls I had managed to fit all over the glass. On the other, there were a series of if/when runes and linkages, and a single reflection Rune that I had inverted. It should act like a funnel, and stop any shrapnel from flying backwards at where we would likely be standing. There was also a. Energy conversion rune that should be able to soak the heat energy of some of the explosion and power the repulsion runes with it.
If I was more experienced, or had more time and better tools, I could have made a stable device, but with the highly volatile magical fire making up the main propulsion and energy source of the bomb, I could have most likely done a better job - but this was as fragile as it could be a d still remain in one piece, and honestly just working on it had near given me an anxiety attack. It would work, but the resultant essence feedback would absolutely ruin any part of it that otherwise might survive. Not that I expected any of it to do so - being a bomb and all.
Still, while I had been busy with the claymore, Boone had been busy deciphering the maze, and had a probable pathway ready for me.
The skeletons still stood behind the entrance, but now rather than ten, there were twenty, and I couldn't help feeling that the escalation was because I had taken my time. Still, Boone had the solution, and when I had last seen through the canopy, I felt we were getting very close to the base of the pyramid. I didn’t know what would happen when I got there, but I was at least planning to be ready for the skeletons to try something.
“Come on then, Arcadia. Let's not keep the nice dragon waiting.” Boone sighed and slumped. Neither of us were enjoying this challenge at all, and I was getting a little desperate to get out of here. The looming giant serpent was just the cherry on the cake.
I approached the circular maze and saw that, like the last two puzzles, the engraved plinth stated that the timer would start when I started moving the dials.
I followed Boones’ advice and twisted the different wheels back and forth while the wooden ball slipped and slid around. The hourglass began to count down, but it was a relatively easy time to get the puzzle completed by following Boones’ advice.
The crystal I was hoping for slid out of the slot in the wooden puzzle, and I quickly snatched it as the gate unlocked. The puzzle had been relatively simple, with the preparation we had had the time to enact, but even I couldn't doubt that it felt like we were cheating; and it seemed someone agreed.
As we left the clearing, and before I could jam the Ability Crystal down my throat, Boone and I were pulled up short by someone we had never seen standing in the path in front of us. A tall and blue scaled serpent woman with a crown of rainbow feathers, dressed in an Aztec style robe, looked at Boone and myself with an expression somewhere between anger and disappointment. I felt myself come to a stop, and Boone pulled up beside me. Behind us, the Skeleton parade came to a halt as well, an apparently respectful ten feet back.
“Aspirant, I find myself frustrated. You have so far failed to live up to the spirit of these challenges at all, though I cannot fault your methods entirely. Intelligence is more than rote learning, after all, and thinking outside of the box should be rewarded appropriately. But you must understand this is quite boring for me,” the serpent woman had a rich, cultured accent that nevertheless lisped and hissed on certain words and phrases. Her tongue would occasionally pop out of her mouth to taste the air.
“Who are you? Are you a part of the dungeons?” I asked, perhaps a little forcefully, as I eyed the woman with a hand on my catapult and a stone already loaded. I had thrown - I mean very carefully placed - the magical IED into my Travellers Bag as soon as I'd seen our way was blocked.
“Oh, you've already seen me, Aspirant - and you walk towards me even now.” She smiled a snake-like grin, and I looked ahead through a gap in the trees, where the giant feathered serpent was still coiled atop the pyramid. It was no longer asleep though. One gigantic yellow slit eye stared right at us over the shoulder of the humanoid snake: she winked at us.
“But, if you are there, then how..?” I asked dumbly, suddenly realising the probable power of someone I was facing down with a catapult, while her own personal army stood behind me with spears.
“The Goddess Kintsuji has gifted me this realm. It is mine to administer until such a time as she wishes me elsewhere. In this cave, this jungle, I am the only god here.” She smiled again and I swallowed deeply, my mouth suddenly dry and cottony as anxiety twitched up my spine.
“Are you a dragon?” The question slipped out of me before I could think about it, and I immediately regretted it when the creatures’ expression soured - both of them.
“Do not compare me to some River Parasite, Aspirant" the woman before me practically spat. "I am the Rainbow Serpent, a proud celestial creature, and you may address me as such.” It snorted and smoke emerged from her nostrils. “Given your unique circumstances, I shall forgive you just this once. However, for the cheating you have already performed, and the insult now, I fear you consider this challenge too easy. The next challenge is a half mile down this path. And your timer starts…now.” She smiled viciously, and in a puff of mist and green light, she was gone, and her words finally registered in my mind. Boone and I looked at each other in panic, and we started running. The skeletons followed silently behind.