James ran through to the second room as soon as the others were ready. He looked up at the written puzzle and it matched what he had read before. Without any hesitation, he put his hands on the wall and spoke.
“Your poem is not ancient and therefore has affectation which is not interesting.”
He relaxed when he turned and saw the portal forming. The others were a bit more exhausted from the past few floors compared to the last time they had been here, but James made up the difference. Instead of a damaged husk, he was fully ready to tackle the next challenge. As they cleared floor after floor the novice’s courage grew and their worries fell. They were so close to reaching the end.
“Kira should probably return to your soul space,” said James. “We will be regularly climbing, and she could use some rest of her own. We may need her later but not now. I would only summon her back if we have to deal with the eagles.”
“Got it. Kira come here.”
The panthera looked like it was going to frown but followed its master’s instructions. It walked back over to its master and Ian cast the spell sending it back into his soul space for storage. With that taken care of, they stepped through the portal and started jogging.
Their pace was quick as James led them toward the first rock beast. He scanned the horizon and looked for the other non-hostile monsters. Some were more visible than others.
“So, what is the plan this time?” asked Derek.
“Avoid the eagles, scale some rocks, and hope we get lucky. I hope your endurance is decent. I have some rope to help us along the way. This is a floor like the 20th that we can take our time with, but we have to be careful not to endanger ourselves. How does your arm and back feel now?”
“It is all good, especially after waiting in the safe zone,” he said subconsciously stretching his arms. “I know our fight against the frost giants was slow, but it was just the cold. I am all ready for the fight with the drake. I didn’t think we could do it earlier and I never would have thought we could get so far when we first entered.”
“I wouldn’t say that. You entered the dungeon hearing Ian’s boasts and he got you in this dungeon run with himself with the intention of doing what we are doing now.”
“Sure, I half believed him, but I also thought we would do one final floor and fight against the undead before leaving. We had just been doing so well in between our personal fights. Though if I knew we would be stuck here I would have never followed Ian through the portal.”
“I don’t really blame you for running through the portal. At least not anymore. It has been disheartening to fight closer to death than normal but with it have come new experiences I don’t think I would ever have. And those personal fights I hope are behind us. I know we can beat the drake because I have seen each of you fight and now all of us do so together. We can accomplish it together.”
James had a much easier time climbing the rock beast this time around. His fingers gripped the crevasses of the rocks easily and he scaled up it quickly. He headed towards the front of the beast as the rest of the group finished climbing up. Even though he knew what he would find there was a smile on his face as he pried the amethyst from its place.
“One down and three more to go.”
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He found a place to sit and waited for Wes as the last of the group to finish climbing. He bagged the gem for safekeeping and searched for his water. The others gathered around him when they finished their climb.
“We have an amethyst for our first gem. We will head to the next nearest which I believe is that one,” James pointed to a rock beast that was wandering a little closer to them but whose path wouldn’t cross with their current rock beast. “There is by my estimation five minutes before we get the closest we can. We can use the ropes to drop from our current rock beast quickly and we will have to sprint from there.”
After waiting approximately five minutes James tied off the ropes and they all hurried off the rock beast. Once they were off James worked on rerolling the rope back up so that it could be used again. As they approached the new rock beast it seemed very familiar to the last. It stood slightly taller, and the colorations of the rocks were overall darker and had more oranges.
When they were ready all five started to run at a consistent pace and waited for the rock beast to set its foot down next. As soon as the foot was down, and the ground was shaking slightly they grabbed hold with their arms before securing their feet. Their steps had to be quick because it only took a few seconds for the rock beast to start moving its feet again.
The wind blew across their bodies as they climbed higher and higher. James took the climb one step at a time and made sure the others were keeping up. He knew well enough how exhausting it could be. He didn’t want or need the novices to fall and injure themselves. At this point, every setback or failure cost hours and was starting to get mentally exhausting as well.
They continued to climb until they reached the back of the rock beast. They had ended up grabbing one of the back legs of the creature, so they still had a way to go until they reached the head of the creature. While the others finished climbing up James once again scanned the surrounding area for things of interest. For the next rock beast, they would need to travel a bit farther than before and closer to the nest of eagles. In the distance, he spotted them circling in the sky.
Once they were all gathered together again James led the group toward the front of the beast in search of the gem. It was easy to find the thing now that James knew where to look. It was secured in the same spot as the last gem. This time the rock he recovered was an onyx.
“It is a good thing we got onyx this time,” said Naomi.
“But we will likely run into duplicates as we go. The two we have left are jasper and jade. I know that the jasper only shows up once a floor on the fastest and largest moving rock beast which will be troublesome for us. We need to be careful not to be flattened right as we try and hold on. It may require us to split up as well for the sake of safety and efficiency.”
“I would rather not split up if possible,” said Ian.
“I would like that too, but I don’t think that is possible,” said James. “I’ve seen the speed of each of you and I don’t think we can all make it onto the rock beasts. Maybe if we waited here an hour for the perfect time and for us all to be in peak shape but by then the eagles might have noticed us. There is no other food source for them except us. When they see fresh meat running around they will go hunting and won’t stop until we are down their gullets.”
“Then should we risk splitting up?” asked Derek.
“Yes. It should speed the hunt up significantly. Just start with a few rules. Avoid the rock beasts currently nearest the nest. Climb carefully and rest when needed. I don’t want to have any of you falling. Finally, climb where none of the birds can see you. If you haven’t noticed this already we have always climbed on a side of the rock beasts where their legs are the furthest away from the nest and we cannot see it. It isn’t always secure, but it is good practice that all adventurers of this floor follow and learn. We do not want to get into a fight with them.
“Naomi you are with me for this run. Ian, you are the temporary leader of the others. Here is some rope if you need it. I don’t expect you to find anything, but I hope you do find something. Whatever you find on the other surrounding rock beast bring it to the portal. It is distinctive enough that you shouldn’t have trouble finding the entry portal. I will meet each of you in approximately one hour alive and well and hopefully another gem or two.”
“Where do you think we should start,” asked Ian.
“With whichever rock beast is the slowest that we haven’t searched yet I suppose. This part is mostly up to luck until enough rock beasts have been searched. Just stay safe and that is all that matters. We will see you soon,” said James as he finished tying off the rope so he could repel downward. He descended.