Chapter 166: The Cooler Portal
A full first day had been enough to establish important portal locations for the entirety of the explored mausoleum.
There was a small adventurer village set up outside the mausoleum, where some adventurers retreated to rest every not. Not everyone had accommodations appropriate for a monster and bandit infested mausoleum, and many adventurers didn’t want to take shifts, especially if they could just portal around the mausoleum instead.
While rank and small ranks determined attributes and maximum health, mana and stamina, they were never fixed values, rather, general ‘suggestions’ of values. A well-rested adventurer of Bronze 2 pushed to the higher end of the Bronze 2 range, while a sleep-deprived, irritable, only eating battery acid spirit coins adventurer had reduced attributes.
Nara’s Nebula House, now bronze rank, had enough room for all twelve (thirteen with Lawrence) people. She had never used the full capacity of the house, and she hadn’t used it yet here either. The house always adapted itself her intentions upon formation, connected as it was to her soul. For thirteen people, it created thirteen rooms.
Nara collected the Nebula House, but did not transform it into its carriage form. They’d travel from portal to portal now, while Nara would teleport ahead of them by astral jumping. Sen had an excuse—he always had one prepared for her—that she would be scouting ahead with her own methods. Roscoe was concerned about the traps, but he’d smartened up last night, as did Ceri. For both of them, as long as Sen’s odd decision wasn’t born of stupidity, both were willing to trust.
It was about the portals, and it wasn’t something they could help.
They approached their first trial room.
“I figured we should have a go with an appropriate room, a bronze rank trial,” Roscoe began. “Since you are the ones paying me and not these buggers.” He gestured to the iron rankers, who held back their complaints.
“Make sure to allocate the adequate time for them,” Sen said. They had their own guide they were paying, but were required to go along with another party because of rank. Sen wouldn’t leave them out.
“Aye aye, boss. Your wish is my command.” Roscoe saluted. “This trial room, it’s a type that’s been seen before, a Kallidian Classic. Kill all the monsters in the room before time runs out. One person, bronze rank, a free for all of monster slaying.”
“What happens if time runs out?”
“The door opens, but no prize. It’s a safe one.”
“How do they get the monsters in there?” Aliyah asked, her researcher’s curiosity piqued.
“Ahhh,” Roscoe said. It was a common question. “A combination of effects. Artifacts and arrays that lure monsters to the room and encourage manifestation direction in them. Once the room has detected enough monsters have manifested, it is accessible for the trial.”
“It’s our best guess,” clarified Ceri. “It is inconceivable if the Manistrengja had the capabilities to control the manifestations of monsters. Nobody has that capability. It is theorized that the mausoleum possesses a lure of some kind, which encourages monsters to the challenge room and the Mausoleum. The surroundings do see less monster manifestations overall.”
Roscoe withheld a look that said he disagreed with her—that artifacts that lured monsters and encouraged biased manifestations were not ‘inconceivable’. He grimaced briefly, and kept on.
The trail of survival of the Celestial Book had nightly monster waves, but that was a result of a hyper-short daily monster wave cycle, a property of the astral space, and not direct manipulation of monster manifestations. Although, whether the cult had the capabilities to manipulate the magical flux of the astral space was a real possibility.
He tapped the wall outside the room, scrawled in ancient Manistrengja script.
“The room detects what’s inside, and interprets it onto the plaque outside of the room. I read it, and reference it with our records to figure out the most likely type, or perhaps any quirks of the room left unsaid.”
“Quirks?”
“Each hall has its own effect,” Roscoe said. “It influences the trial of the room. These stone rooms are the most basic. What’s on the label is what’s in the box. Basic, reliable, trustworthy.”
“Is there any point to challenging the harder rooms?”
“Oh, there are many reasons. Stone rooms get challenged the fastest. You won’t find many of them. We’re lucky we have this one at all. It’s just become re-available recently. All thanks to my skills,” he said, shameless.
That was the necessity of a guide—he was there to find the rooms before others challenged them and sealed them off.
“The other reason—now this is more speculation than anything reliable—is two-fold.”
He held up a finger demonstratively, enjoying the explanation part of his job. He was a guide, through and through.
“The first is that we suspect that the hall influences the types of equipment and artifacts that show up. What the hall forces upon you is more likely to be reflected upon the equipment.” He paused, thinking briefly of an example. “Aha! A room that inflicts Inescapable on anything within in has a higher chance of providing an equipment that either inflicts it on others, or prevents it for yourself, or other dimension or restriction effects. Those are tricky rooms—dangerous to have abilities sealed, but the equipment is curated.”
“The second reason is that we theorize that a harder room has a better chance of rarer equipment and artifacts.”
“Rarer?” Eufemia scoffed, “Aren’t they all growth weapons anyways?”
“Not all of them. Others are tokens you can use for a permanent effect. Let me tell you, it’s interesting stuff. Some are rumored to evolve racial abilities. If you can’t find an equipment you like, those are a good choice to exchange your token for.”
The team had seen a few example of external effects triggering racial ability evolutions. Nara had experienced two—John’s ability had offered one up to her, and another was an altered evolution offered by a Great Astral Being of one she had originally triggered herself.
“It should be a pretty small room,” Roscoe added. “So? Who is our first brave challenger?”
Sen would take this room. Small rooms weren’t good for Encio, who needed distance to safely charge his best attacks for speed kills, while Sen could output consistently high damage enough to clear the challenge.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The entrance of the room was covered in a silver fog that reminded Nara of boss rooms in video games. Once he stepped through it, the fog changed to a red color indicative of the slaughter inside. Nara stepped forwards to press on the fog wall, but it was impermeable. Even with her aura senses, she couldn’t penetrate the other side, which meant she couldn’t intervene with node teleportation. It was, as Roscoe promised, completely sealed off until the challenge ended. Aliyah found its dimensional isolation incredibly compelling, but the strength of its protective arrays prevented her from seeing anything, like how the Nebula Flask prevented its own investigation.
No sound escaped. Not even muffled sounds of death screams, nor the roar and shake of Sen’s high damage abilities. No cracking stone, no flashes of light. It was unnerving to be without the sounds of violence Nara had grown so used to. Except for the first strike, unless it was the only strike, combat was never quiet.
They waited, the seconds ticking down from a timer Roscoe kept on him.
The timer rang, and the wall shifted from blood red to silver. Nara pressed, but she could not enter.
“We can’t enter until he leaves,” Roscoe said.
“I’m not saying he is,” John preemptively clarified, “but what if he’s too injured to move to the door?”
“Then you use the plaque and take the weapon if you’re close enough,” Roscoe said, “The room will open up then. Better off with something you don’t need than dead. Just sell the growth weapon for coin, and keep your life. It’ll fetch a fortune.”
“And if you’re not close enough to the pedestal or the entrance?”
Roscoe shrugged. The meaning was clear.
“Keep a healing potion on you so you can.”
Eventually, Sen strolled out, nonchalant despite being covered in blood and spatters of pulverized flesh and bone. He frowned at the blood that covered him—if he used crystal wash every battle, he’d run out. He’d have to bear with it for now and use crystal wash at the end of the day.
“No luck?” Nara asked.
Sen shook his head. “Not for me, not for anyone else here. It was a zweihander sword. Vallis may have liked it,” he added.
The next room was in the crimson hall, according to Roscoe. The portal had a raised touch panel on the floor, where he entered a combination of runes that determined the code for the exit path. He’d already memorized the book, but he showed them the source material for the codes of the mausoleum.
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-[Mausoleum Manual] has been added to the [Archive].
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Nara stood a ways away from the portal. Most of the others had already crossed through, except Roscoe, who would not go through until everyone else had (except the last person, a practice to make sure the guide was trustworthy—that they would not abandon the team). It was his responsibility as a guide. He wouldn’t let anyone else touch the portal panel, not until they were done with it, else the party would be separated. If that did happen, he was the one who knew the combinations, and he could put the team back together again.
Nara hadn’t a problem just seeing a portal. It was any intention to go through that parched her lips, froze her blood, and destabilized her balance, even as she just stood still, eyeing it like two cats in a standoff. When she tried to look at the portal, her vision blurred, hot and stinging, as if the portal itself rejected her.
She couldn’t wrench her feet forward, not a single step. Her covenant, her promise with Chrome that she’d use her own portal had carved the base necessity of safety for herself, but while she could use her own portal, she still couldn’t use anyone else’s.
Repeat after me.
She heard Lina, no, Lieke’s voice.
I will not go through any portal, ever.
She wondered if she had already broken that promise, the promise Lieke made at the cost of her life.
She knew that there shouldn’t be a difference between her portals and other portals, that she had already broken her promise, yet her feet would not move. She knew logically, yet her soul would not capitulate. Even if she could approach that portal free of her frozen limbs and press her hand against the surface, she could not push through.
When Encio wiped a tear from her face, she realized she had been crying. Such dramatics, she chastised herself.
“It’s alright,” he said softly, like soothing a skittish horse. “What’s this portal when the world is your portal?”
She couldn’t help but laugh.
He pulled her into a hug, and soothingly rubbed her back.
“I can go with you through your portal, or I can leave first. Whichever you like.”
A cosmic portal extended up from the ground, an archway into the universe.
“Don’t I have the cooler portal?”
He grinned. “Between a starry portal and an ordinary stone arch, I think there’s no comparison. Roscoe,” Encio said, “Don’t worry about what Nara does. Worry about the rest of us.”
“Alright,” he said, otherwise keeping quiet. He felt a sickness in his stomach that punched his ever present leonid hunger into temporary submission. He had stray thoughts he knew he shouldn’t have, yet he could not help but speculate. What has to happen to make someone never want to enter a portal again?
The two crossed into their portal, and Roscoe entered through his.
*****
“The next room,” Roscoe said, transitioning seamlessly into upbeat and professional, whisking his mind away from pointless speculation, “is a group room. Multiple people, one challenge. The greater the number, the greater the danger—for us,” Roscoe said, patting his chest, “for us, the ones left outside.”
“It would be the greatest opportunity for thieves to strike,” Sen postulated, “if a significant portion of our fighting force is trapped within the challenge room.”
“That’s the ins and outs of it,” Roscoe said. “You want to be careful of any other unknown parties. The local parties may be safe, but other outsiders—they’re dangerous. I can’t tell you if I recognize them or not. So generally, we want to avoid everyone else. No exceptions.”
He gestured to the red stone architecture around them, the vaulting ceilings and arches, laced with gold and bronze details.
“Crimson hall. You cannot receive external healing.”
“The stone absorbs the ambient healing energy,” added Ceri. “Unless you heal through something as close as physical touch, almost nothing works. We think. We’re not entirely sure…since we can’t collect any of the stone.”
“Potions still work,” added Roscoe. “And boon based healing should work. Cleansing magic is also a-okay.”
John would suffer, but not entirely. Based on Roscoe’s information, Vigor Wellspring may still be effective.
This time, three members would go in: Sen, Nara, and Eufemia. The room was perpetually slick with blood that drained their health on contact, and most of the monsters were flying enemies or crawling enemies. The ones that were not flying had all eventually died, de-manifesting inside the room after their bodies degraded into magic smoke.
It was adequately challenging—requiring decent skill and focus, but not the ability to flirt with death. The Einvaldi had balanced most of the rooms such that they expected competency, not overwhelming skill.
It was enough to advance their essence abilities. The monsters were slain, bodies obscured by the floor of crimson blood. Their health was still being drained, even now, but Nara conjured a block for Eufemia to stand on. Sen and Nara had their passive healing abilities, and sustained through the constant drain—it was good training.
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Item: [Blood-Forged Challenger’s Gauntlets] (bronze [growth], legendary)
Classification: Weapon, gauntlets
Description: Gauntlets crafted of the blood of diamond rank monsters. Their lifeforce has been taken, and shaped. They long to once again draw the blood of those great beasts, to surpass from which they were borne.
Challenge death, surpass death, bring death.
Effect: Deal increased damage against wounded targets.
Effect (Iron): Attacks inflict [Bleeding] and refresh all wounding effects. Wounding effects refreshed by Blood-Forged require more healing than normal to negate.
Effect (Bronze): When refreshing any wounding effects, drain a burst of health from the target per wounding effect refreshed. Health drained in this way ignores the effect of your own wounding affliction or afflictions that block, negate, or reduce healing.
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It was another dud—a pair of spiked red, black, and gold gauntlets that drained health from Bleeding targets. All growth items started at iron rank in the mausoleum. The plaque to the right detailed their upgrade, up to the rank of the room.
It was definitely a great pair of gauntlets, with a variety of effects that would make any physical unarmed melee fighter with the barest of synergies extremely self-sustaining.
“This really will take a while,” Nara concluded.
Her voice chat worked within the room, but could not cross the threshold.
“Seems so,” Eufemia said with a sigh. “Are we going to spend the entirely to bronze rank here?”
Sen seemed unsatisfied with that prospect as well.
“We’ll establish a timeline,” Sen said. “If we cannot find anything in that time, we exchange all remaining plaques at the Adventure Society.”
They were adventurers. They wanted different experiences, not to languish in the same location.
Afterwards, Roscoe located various rooms. The iron rank rooms were reserved for iron rankers, according to Kallid’s regulations. The whole team of iron rankers could enter the rooms since they were insignificant to their fighting force.
Their second day was fruitless. Nothing even tempted them.
The third day was the same. And the final fourth.
The week passed, and the team took a break from the mausoleum to return to Kallid.