Chapter 53: Down the Shaft

Aliyah placed the platform over the abyss, where it floated in the air, free of the shackles of gravity. They all hopped on before the platform. It held in place, suspended above the abyssal chasm with no visible bottom. Only the specks of light from other adventurers illuminated the infinite darkness. Aliyah tapped the ritual which had applied itself onto the metal slab, and it activated a different part of its effect, moving downwards with a slow and controlled descent.

Nara stared as the entrance above faded into an ever-smaller circle of light. She tossed a glowstone light in the air. Many slowly descending lights glowed in the cavern, other teams above and below them.

With a glowing edge, Sen’s Staff of Duality, now more of a glaive, chopped through a weak monster bat in one swing. He kept alert, staff conjured and resting against his shoulder.

“Yeah,” Nara concluded after they had drifted down for a minute, “There’s no way this is some normal hole.”

“For what purpose did they warp the space of this shaft?” Aliyah wondered, “Did it serve to hide the cult’s location?”

“Maybe it’s part of this trial of theirs,” Eufemia suggested.

“That’s improbable. The trial is intended for those within the cult, is it not?”

“Trial them for what?”

“Maybe it’s some sort of coming-of-age ceremony. To prove they are prepared to serve the cult,” Nara said. She shuddered at the thought—a trial to prove your worth to a cult.

“The Celestial Book…” Aliyah said, “It is a Great Astral Being that some researchers venerate.”

“You mean in the Magic Society?”

“Yes.”

“That’s…okay? Worshipping or venerating this being?”

“It is not widely known. I have acquaintances that venerate the being. They are some of the best researchers, dedicated in their pursuit of discovery. If you are concerned about their motivations, there is no need. They may venerate the being, but they do not serve it.”

“Not like the cult?”

Aliyah nodded.

“Do you venerate it?”

“Oh, I do not. My stance towards gods and other beings are that of cautious respect,” Aliyah said, “There is recognition to be hand to stand with pride in the presence of a god, but that sort of attention is troublesome.”

“So you kneel but don’t mean it?”

“I can’t say I don’t mean it entirely,” Aliyah said. “No matter my feelings on their existence or role, their power is real. Their influence on the world is undeniable. Should kneeling cause them to turn their gaze, then I quietly oblige.”

“Don’t be the nail that sticks out,” Nara muttered.

Aliyah held wisdom more than most members of the team, due to her slightly older age and long-term experience with the Magic Society, which was stricter and businesslike than the Adventure Society was. Nara hadn’t even intentionally tried to stick out, and she got hammered. For those that intentionally distinguished themselves, what sort of wild event were they involved in?

For those that sought the peak of power and the conclusion of their abilities, they would inevitably become the standout nail. She had seen standout nails herself, already, and they hadn’t seemed to have been hammered down. She wondered what Sezan’s attitude towards gods were, or even Encio’s.

Nara had a feeling gods didn’t dislike those that stood out, but the opposite. If what she had done made her stand out, why call it a ‘gift’? Shouldn’t it have been divine punishment? The gods were happy with the discovery, not wrathful, although she didn’t appreciate how they demonstrated their satisfaction.

In the future, Nara’s opinion may change on the event. She had never been one that fixed her mind—except on one thing, one value she could never compromise on.

The platform finally descended to the bottom, landing down with a thump in a large circular plaza at the edge of a city.

The empty city was built within an enormous cavern. Lights flickered above at the distant cavern roof, like constellations within the night sky. The architecture was immaculate yet simple, the precision of the Inca with the mathematics of the Athenians. Everything appeared perfectly calculated, and Nara had the unnerving feeling it was a to-scale model of a city. It was as if it was built with such unfeasible perfection that it ceased to be physically possible.

Some adventurers peeled off to explore the city. But if this was a bi-yearly trial, the city has likely already been picked clean and combed over. Aliyah would normally be excited about an abandoned city of a magic cult, but she was indifferent. She had reached the same conclusion—the outside city held nothing of interest left.

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A paved path of white marble led straight into the heart of the city like a red carpet that had been bleached of all color. They followed the other adventurers who either walked, rode, or ran down the path. The team took it easy, taking in the mysterious underground city as the headed towards everyone’s destination—a portal arch at the opposite side of the city.

The empty city was quiet except for the footsteps of adventurers echoing through eerie streets. For a ruin, it was in great condition. The marble material was strong enough to withstand the primary low rank monsters that spawned in the area. The roads should have been dusted with age, but they were clean and polished, like maids had gotten on their knees to clean and polish each tile by hand. Whatever magic maintained the city, it had been built to last.

They arrived at the portal, situated in the center of another plaza, evidently the centerpiece on display. The portal arch was pure white, made of the same material as the rest of the city. Within it, a white membrane was pulled over, like unblemished parchment paper.

When Nara stepped through, she though the portal surface would rip, like a football star jumping through paper.

She stepped into a large room where other adventurers milled about in small groups. It was a clean auditorium, almost sterile, but flat. A single portal was inlaid at the far end of the wall, with a strange floating robe of shimmering silver beside it.

Nara’s instincts told her it was an astral being. It should be someone’s familiar, but it was not one of any of the adventurers here.

Nara walked down to the far end of the room, inspecting the portal. She pressed on the same parchment surface, unable to push through. Beside the portal was a plaque in a language she had never seen on Erras yet.

“Offer new knowledge, receive new opportunities,” she read.

She turned reflexively to the astral being and asked a question, a remnant of her interactions with Chrome, “The portal wants unique information to open. Can it be about anything?”

“Yes, examinee. In exchange for its boons, the trial requests an offer of information. It can be anything so long as it is factual and has not been offered before.”

“I am Nara Edea. You are?”

“My apologies, Miss Edea, I have been negligent in my decorum. You may refer to me as Specter.”

So the being said, but Nara heard dreary monotony in her voice. This was a role she had performed many, many times before. She exuded the same hopeless energy as an office worker condemned to overtime for the fourth week in a row, unimpressed with their superior’s new email of record profits and insultingly low raises.

An odd thought wormed its way into Nara’s mind. She was familiar with being trapped; she saw that same despair within this being here.

“Specter, do you want to be here? Are you here willingly?” she asked.

Specter was an astral being in the shape of a silver, full length, full body robe. The top of the robe had a large hood which obscured where a face would have been, like a Sith hood. What should have been a face was a cloud of shimmering dust, like light passing through a dusty room.

“I am not, Miss Edea,” Specter said, her voice containing twinges of surprise.

“Is there a way to resolve it?”

“If you are true in this want, Miss Edea, then I will speak of it at a later time. The opportunity shall present itself only further within.”

Before Nara left Specter at her vigil, she looked at the plaque and placed a paper over it. Using a dry ink, she made a rubbing of the plaque, and stored it away in her inventory.

Nara returned to her party, discussing what she had found out from the familiar.

“So we just have to give new information to pass?” Eufemia said, “That doesn’t seem hard.”

“I think that I can give this team a bit of an advantage. Me and John both.”

“We should offer outworlder knowledge. It is unlikely to have been offered before,” Sen concluded.

“Yup. Which is why I’m going to give each one of you a list. Some extras, in case one doesn’t work or there’s a few more doors like this down the line.”

Nara wrote down a few facts on four different papers.

“John, you can handle yourself, yeah?”

“I’ve got a few fun facts up my sleeve. I happen to know a thing or two about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”

The team looked at what she handed them.

“Cows may produce more milk when they listen to quiet music? What is a cow?” Sen asked curiously.

“The Konami Code is up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A? What is this nonsense?”

“You don’t understand up, down, left, and right?”

“I understand that part!”

“It is the code of life of death. In my world, that sequence awakened secret magic that produced miracles. Remember it.”

“What sort of miracles?” Aliyah asked curiously. “I thought your world didn’t have magic?”

Eufemia’s gaze was the distrust of cat staring at a handsy toddler that insisted on approaching.

A few other teams made their passes at the door. Some members managed to pass the door with the knowledge they offered, but others were stuck like children left behind on a cruise ship while the parents explored new and exciting foreign countries.

“So it isn’t that easy,” Eufemia observed.

“After hundreds, even thousands of years of trails, a wealth of information must have been offered to the door,” said Aliyah. “The trial will only become more difficult for those that want its benefits as time progresses. Not only that, but if the information offered to the world is added to an information repository of the cult of the Celestial Book, then it may span several different worlds.”

“Researchers will have an easier time with it,” Nara said.

“For the ones that are adventurers, that would prove likely.”

“Their team is split now too because of it,” said Sen, “That’s dangerous. There is no guarantee we will all portal together to the same place. We should make our final preparations. Those without dimensional inventories should retrieve important supplies and keep them on person.”

The team shuffled items around. Potions, spirit coins, quintessence, food, water, and other supplies passing from those with personal inventories to those without. Out of the party, only Sen and Eufemia had no personal inventories, although Eufemia could access John’s as long as she was near to him. Sen stored most of his stuff with Aliyah, and kept a small dimensional pouch attached to high waist for necessities. Eufemia did the same with John, although she normally did not need a dimensional pouch at all, nor could they afford them at first.

There was an abnormal number of people with dimensional inventories on their team. Two was accounted for by the outworlders, who usually had inventories. Of the other two, one was a one with a Dimension Essence, Encio; Conversely, it would be abnormal if he didn’t have one.

“Miss Edea, have you prepared your offering of information?”

“Do I say it to you or to the portal door?”

“I am extraneous to the functions of the trial; I serve as a guide.”

“An unwilling guide.”

“I am not one to shun my duty, as unwilling as I serve.”

Nara stood before the paper parchment portal; the surface as hard as slapping the surface of water at terminal velocity in a belly flop.

“The highest grossing media franchise on Earth is Pokémon.”

If Chrome was here, he would have complained that she was feeding useless, nonsensical information into a trial built to seek unique information.

“That isn’t the sort of ‘unique’ they were looking for, but I expect no less from such a ‘unique’ person,” he would say.

Shaking the thought, she dispelled the ghost of her friend’s likeness.

The surface rippled like milk, and she passed through.