Chapter 9: The Secret Path

Got my vision stuck at the blank blue-ish wall, being puzzled all of a sudden. Curiosity lit up within those words. Took a step forward and scanned the wall by knocking. It made a not-so loud tone, trying to knock the wall in the other side it made no sound.

"It is a hollow wall. There should be a passage behind it" Fingers touching my chin while thinking.

"Try to break it." A not so sure answer by the kid from behind.

Turned around, giving him a blank monstrous stare. He shifted his gaze while brows crooked and continued to talk, panting his excuses.

"You see... the weapon of yours is way more powerful than mine, obviously. Just suggesting" Arms locked at his back while whistling.

Concentrated back to the wall, I made my decision. Took a three step backwards and sighed. Raised my trident and prepared for a strike. Quickly, I jumped in along with my heavy trident and swayed it from behind, it successfully landed.

Jumping backwards, as results the impact made the strong wall to crack. The fragments of the wall fell down one after another. Destroyed, it showed another path, it was darker and creepier. Stepping across with full of courage. Lights opened and revealed a super long aisle. It was so long I can’t visualize the end of it.

"Woah! What a long way ahead!" A loud and irritating voice from behind.

I locked my arms, waiting for his face to turn shocked because of my damage output, but not. I expected a long and cheerful compliment from him. Too much expectation may hurt.

Back to reality, the kid walked while head turning from left to right, enough for me to say that he is amazed, but not because I dealt a heavy damage and destroyed the wall. Moving on, I started to walk. Accompanied by the kid while giving my trident the hardest grip I can give. It will be the best being prepared for incoming fights.

With a slow pace, shifting gaze from side to side. No strange thing I felt. Walking on the same blue-ish stone carpet of this dungeon, the same ghastly wind blowing out of nowhere, the same walls from earlier that contains hidden passages.

Stopped from pacing, turning my body 180 degrees to right. Touched and inspected the wall. Did the same thing, hitting it hard with my powerful blow, the wall broke and revealed another aisle leading to nowhere. The atmosphere of the dungeon began and turned creepier and strange in a higher level. Again, turning my body around and gave the wall a heavy slash. It broke and revealed another aisle.

Strange, what kind of dungeon I put myself. Contains dozen of hidden passage leading nowhere, full of deadly and horrifying traps that could easily decrease my level down, generating crazy goblins with shovels is the most weird thing,  a scary aura all over the dungeon made it worst. Obviously, it was a total maze.

Amazing! Got myself stuck in this game for once and now I’m here stuck again. I turned around. “Hey kid! We got a problem here. You know... We got ourselves stuck in this Labyrinth” Crooking my eyebrows.

“...”

The kid gave me a no response and continued to walk. The far away dead end, our footsteps echoing around us became the official soundtrack of our puzzle solving adventure. The wind passing-by showed no change. Lifting my head up, seeing the solid ceiling. It was still the same like before.

...

The dead end stopped us from our pace. A wall loaded with ancient scriptures, golden decorations and a circular puzzle at its middle. Realizing, it was a door. Pulled the kid and spoke in a decent manner “Your turn kid, solve this puzzle.” Arms folded.

A tired sigh let out by the kid and remained silent, eye lids shrunk a little, fingers playing with his chin. The circular puzzle being twisted from left to right, head moving closer and closer. I found a detective. He punched the puzzled before he could straighten his body. Sweat flooded his equipment from head to toe.

"You must be joking! This thing doesn't have a solution." Catching his breath slowly, being pissed off.

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Replied nothing and went ahead to inspect the puzzle. Comparing it from before, it turned into the clueless and unsolvable puzzle ever. I made a wreck decision. Giving the puzzle to the kid was a total wrong idea. Clearing my throat, I decided to work on it. ‘Here goes nothing’ I tried my best to unlock the mystery behind it, made my temper to burst. Clearly, it is not that easy. Now I understand the smarty from behind. The puzzle just continued to eat our time. Giving up, I decided. I raised my trident with full strength. Aiming at the mysterious circular puzzle, I gave it a quick swing.

Cha!

The puzzle cracked a bit, it released a scream of terror, legs and hands sprouted out, shocked while seeing it standing in pain. I realized that it was a total door-monster, I think.

Jumping backwards, preparing my weapon was my only choice. The door just fell down and hit against the floor. The impact cleaned the dust from my tiger skin boot. It all took a single hit in order to solve it. Now, peace can be with me again. Knowing that no one can really solve it, sometimes brute can help.

Dusts carried by the wind, formed into a smoke that blocked our vision. Light pierced the brownish cloud shaped dust and touched my pale skin. Not having second thoughts, I made my way in. I pushed myself against the dirt along with my right arm, protecting my eyes from its dust. A strong wind passing through me joined the challenge. I continued to protect my eyes, even though they were total closed.

After fighting the strong blow of wind, I slowly got my vision back and blurriness from the hard wind continued to disappear. It revealed an aisle but not like the others. Golden walls, golden lamps, golden flooring's and golden ceiling, all I can see was gold. The golden hallway showered us light along our way. My eyes kept and remained in shining. The sudden change of appearance disturbed me, like we were summon and brought into a dimension full of gold. At the end of it was a room, a big room.

The light from the shining decorations of the entrance of the door touched my eyes. Being dazzled by the light, I raised my hand to block the beam. Before I could take another step, the kid interrupted my moment.

"I'll go back. I think I heard something." Turned around. Making his escape.

"Suit yourself"

Ignoring him, I walked across the golden gate and stopped for a moment. Disappointment took cover, the room was conquered by rust and dust. A tik sound made by the water dropping from the ceiling. Strong metal rails all around the room and a treasure chest sitting peacefully on a large pillow-like handle down on the floor.

Curiously, I walked and got nearer with the treasure. Reached out for it, noticed that a lock securing it. I hate situation like this. Raised my weapon, giving the lock a quick blow. My trident landed directly to the lock and broke it. Greed over came me.  Right after my attack, the rails from before multiplied and captured me like a rat. I turned around and returned my gaze to the treasure. It contains a shining scroll. Good to know that it wasn't a bait. And again locked myself, but now in a stinky room. Amazing!

Reached out and grabbed the scroll.

CongratulationsDescription

Scroll of Powers Obtained 1*.

Earthquake made the message alert to disappear. My unstable stance, hands ready to hold on anything, legs shaking trying not to fall. Solid rocks from above fell down along with dirt. Shifting my gaze up, a 4 meter high person from above jumped down. His landing made the whole place to erupt.

He let out an angry roar that stopped the quake. My right hand pushed my knees helping myself stand up. I survived the earthquake! Going back to our topic. The man was not normal. He was huge, armored and full of muscles. A not so well groomed long black hair highlighting his straight scar across his left eye. He took three steps nearer and kept giving me a crazy stare.

“What’s with the look?” I shouted from the distance. Right hand gripping my weapon hard and my left hand slightly raising my strong shield.

Titan Loria Lv.16 (Boss)ATK598-598HP300%SPEED★☆☆☆☆Special Skill50% Chance of landing a 300% Damage Output.