Chapter 21

The 2nd level room was narrow and with a short ceiling. If I was just a couple of inches taller, I would have had to duck to walk in. The two side walls were lined with white bricks like subway tiles that is now a huge fad amongst the new home designers these days. They always reminded me of that restaurant with the tiny burgers, white fort. Nothing else was obvious from where I was standing in this room. No explanations or instructions. No puzzles or obvious death traps.

“I kinda feel like I want a burger,” Jimmy said in my mind.

“I would love a burger right now. It has been like a hundred years since I had a burger. Scratch that, two hundred years.”

“My momma used to make the best burgers ever. She would use a thick slab of beef and mix it up with some chopped onions, shredded cheese, an egg and turn it into this fat juicy patty. She would then throw on some of her special seasoning and grill it to medium. Not rare. Not well. Medium! She would use a sesame seed bun warmed up, top the burger with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, bacon, and her special sauce. Now that was a burger.”

“See I always liked my burgers without much on them besides onions, and ketchup. Now that to me was perfection.”

“I’m starting to get really hungry.”

“Yeah, me too. We got a lot of dungeoneering to do, and I don’t think they give us a lunch break.”

“Bastards! We should talk to the management”

“That is exactly what I intend to do when we finish.”

I walked to the mid-point of the long narrow room and felt something. The room seemed to warp slightly. When I looked back, the distance seemed closer than I had walked and in front of me the distance seemed further away than it would have been at midpoint. I ran towards the end of the room, but the same thing happened, the further I got towards the end, the further it seemed to be. When I looked back, I was back to nearly the beginning of the room again.

“Is it me or is this room very whacky?”

“Not you. The room most certainly is very whacky.”

“Fun house mirror effect?”

“Magical illusion I suspect. Though it may be possible to create a room that has the ability to bend space like this but that is less likely.”

“Why is that less likely than magical illusion?”

“Magical illusions are overall easier to create than a space bending room. A space bending room would require a lot of essence to power it and then bind it to one spot. Now those do exist, but they are usually the last room of the dungeon or second to the last. Putting it so early on and on the second level would be a waste of The Essence.”

“What do we do to figure out which one it is?”

I held my Chain of captivation that was still around my neck and cast Revealing light through it. Revealing Light was a spell that could negate all surrounding illusions and mind-altering spells. It was great but you had to know when to cast it. Most people that had their mind controlled or were near an illusion, did not know they were which made it tricky. The spell could also only be used twice a day through the chain.

A blue light hovered for a moment in front of me and got brighter and brighter. Though it was getting brighter, I didn’t feel any type of blinding effects from looking at it. Then once it had reached the peak of its brightness, the light shot out in a circle around me and for a moment, the room had a fluorescent blue color to it. It all faded quickly. I looked around to see if it had done anything or if this was just a waste of a spell.

Nothing seemed obvious from the first look. I started to walk forward but this time the end of the room was not moving further away. I looked back and saw that where I had entered the room had not become closer either as it had previously. The illusion of the distance had been dispelled by the Revealing light. Still, there was no obvious way out. I walked forward and backwards looking for clues or hints but there was nothing.

“Any suggestion Jimmy?”

“You’re asking me? I almost got us killed in the other room remember.”

“That’s in the past. what’s now is now. And we need to figure out how to beat this room, so yeah, got any suggestions because I’m at a loss.”

“I’m not sure. Maybe the tiles on the wall?”

“What about the tiles on the wall, Jimmie?”

“They are different from the first room. Which may be nothing, I don’t know. But I just noticed they are all white. The space between each of the tiles is so tiny that it almost looks like a giant board to write on or something.”

I carefully traced the lines in the middle of the subway tiles. And then it clicked for me. I’m not sure if it was my perception or my wisdom but I felt as if there was something special about a tile and I outlined its dimensions with my finger. Suddenly the tile’s outline took on a faint hue. I felt the same feeling about another tile and then another. Soon, I had outlined several tiles. I realized then that the tiles were set up in way to create an image on the wall.

I laughed and said out loud, “It’s the image from the puzzle” while at the same time Jimmie, also spoke out in my mind, “It’s the image from the puzzle!”

We both had figured it out at the same time. It didn’t take long to outline the remaining tiles to create that same image as the one we saw on the puzzle. The image itself was nothing simple but rather an elaborate design. However, I had no difficulty remembering all the little details that the elaborate design comprised of. As the design image finished on the wall, I was greeted by another message.

Congratulations on Finishing the Second level of Dungeon 621. At this point you may collect your reward and exit the dungeon or move forward to the next level. Warning, if you go forward to the next level, there is no returning to previous level. You also may not leave before the completion of that level.

I moved forward and was once again offered the reward for finishing this level.

For completing this level, you have been rewarded with one of the two options in front of you. Once you touch the chosen reward, you may not opt to choose the other.

Both options were thin cylinders that were normally used for holding scrolls and other parchments. I selected the one on the left. As I touched the one on the left, the one on the right disappeared. I opened the cylinder and inside was a scroll.

Scroll

Item Type: Spell Scroll - very rare.

Alignment: Any caster classes

Material: papyrus

Durability: 1/1

I opened the scroll and looked at the spell.

Dash

Level: 2

Cost: 10 MP 25 Stamina

Cast time: Instant

Duration: n/a

Cooldown Period: 2 seconds

Effect: This spell allows the caster to move a large distance with a single step. The distance travelled can be up to 15 feet for each point in Speed. The caster may not travel through barriers and will stop in front of the barrier. The travel is in a straight line and the traveler does not need to be touching ground during the movement.

This was an amazing movement spell. I had heard of something like this in the past. This was the first spell I had that used stamina in addition to mana as a cost. This was also new because it used speed attribute instead of the intelligence attribute. As of right now, this spell turned me into a comic book speedster where even now I could go at about ¾ the speed of sound. Some more points in speed and I will be breaking the sound barrier. I wonder what the other spell was in the other cylinder.

The Level 3 room was enormous. It was almost the size of a stadium and about as high as one too. There were free floating stairs leading down to the room. The only other exceptional thing that stood about this massive room was the giant double doors at the very end. The doors were easily fifty feet high and thirty feet wide. This room gave me a very bad feeling. This was supposed to be a puzzle dungeon and I should not have to be fighting a monster to complete the level but this whole room yelled big giant skyscraper climbing ape. If I had seen a bunch of natives about to sacrifice a woman at the end of a cliff, I would have been certain it was. Nevertheless, there was a high chance this was gonna be some type of a battle.

I got my gear ready in preparation. I still have a few dozen metal beads and I had acquired a few dozen pebbles on the way here for my projectiles. The beads, though slightly heavier for the size, were considerably smaller than the pebbles and much easier to carry. I really needed to find a better alternative to this. It was just getting too hard to replace my supply of projectiles, especially when I was away from the city. Silent storm check, magical short sword check. I was glad that my mana, health, and stamina had been completely repleted since last level. That didn’t happen in most dungeons. This dungeon was obviously different in the sense that it was a puzzle dungeon but also because there was nowhere to rest. Dungeons with multiple levels or large dungeons often had a place for the person to rest and heal up.

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“Is it me or does it seem like there may be a big monster behind those doors?” Jimmy said to me.

“Exactly what I was thinking Jimmy just a second ago.” It was crazy to think that Jimmie was in my mind, and I could hear him talking to me in my head, but he couldn’t hear my thoughts and if I needed to talk to him, I would have to talk out loud.

“I thought this was a puzzle dungeon and there were no monsters to fight in puzzle dungeons?”

“That’s not exactly right. In puzzle dungeons there are usually no monsters but there can be monsters. However, it’s never a necessity to beat the monster in order to complete the level or the dungeon. Usually there is another way around it. Infact, the dungeon wants you to complete the level without killing the monster.”

The stairway that led down to the big room, retracted back into the wall and became part of it. Next the side walls, started to come out and divided into several levels in a stepwise fashion creating like a sitting area or bleachers. The bleachers were all about Fifteen or so feet high creating a more of a colosseum effect. In the middle, a podium rose up just slightly and a man was standing there. He was a thin tall man with a glass monocle and a long handlebar mustache. He wore a long red coat and a top hat making me think of one of those carnival lion tamers. He continued to smirk at me with the corner of his mouth until I walked a little closer to him. He raised his hands towards the bleachers which were suddenly now filled with several hundred people. He started screaming at the audience:

“WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMAN TO OUR FINE ESTABLISHMENT TONIGHT. WE WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME YOU ALL TO OUR SPECIAL EVENT OF THE NIGHT. WE KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN WANTING THIS!! WE SEE YOU HAVE BEEN NEEDING THIS!! WE ARE HERE TO GIVE YOU, AS YOU DESIRE!!!” He paused while grinning and nodding at the audience.

A huge cheer and applause broke out in the crowd. The noise was incredibly loud filled up the entire stadium. The man just stood there nodding and keeping his hands up goading them on even further to keep cheering. When he put his hands down, the cheers also subsided, and he continued.

“IN THIS CORNER,” he raised one hand in my direction to wave at me,” WE HAVE THE CHALLENGER, THE ONE, THE ONLY GATSBY, THE LOST AVATAR. A lot of boos were sounding off after he called me out. I simply waited for the theatrics to end to see what I was facing.

The lost avatar? Don’t ever recall having that title.

“IN THE OPPOSITE CORNER,” he pointed at the colossal doors at the opposite end which started to open with the sound of a hiss like dissipation of steam though I couldn’t see any. “WE HAVE THE CURRENT REIGNING CHAMPION. THE TOWER OF POWER! THE MUSCLED MONOLITH! my PREECCCIOOUUUSSS, the RING GOLEM!!!!!”

Loud boom and bursts sounded like shotgun blasted into the sky. The crowd went wild with cheer. I looked at the open doors now and two lights turned on inside side by side. The colossal golem was standing there as more lights lit up on its arms and chest. It stood unmoving still and the cheer of the crowd got wilder and wilder. Now I saw steam coming out of its sides where ears would be. The thing was a good 45-50 feet tall behemoth. On its chest, torso and appendages were giant rings that started spinning. As they spun, he moved forward. The spin was slow, and the creature moved forward. The announcer and the podium disappeared as soon as it had appeared to take its first step out.

I wasn’t taking any chances and shot a chain lightning bolt at the spinning ring. Unfortunately for me the bolt bounced off after doing minimal damage. It started walking a little faster in my direction and I fired a magic projectile at the lights coming from where its eyes would have been. As it moved forward, the doors shut behind it with a large boom. My magic projectiles hit it but I suspected that they either did not do much damage or his health points were just way too high for them to have made an impact. I was finding myself quickly out of options. Those two were my main offensive spells and I did not have much else to tackle this behemoth with.

With the next step, the golem, smashed its fist down where I was. The fist came down at an incredible speed and I was barely able to roll away to dodge it. The fist hit the ground so hard that it left an imprint on the ground. As it was standing back up to put the smack down on me, I ran towards its left side. It tried to do a sweep motion with its giant arm, but I was able to jump over it and avoid that killing blow. I circled around to the back but found no vulnerable areas.

I realized that although it swung its arms quickly and could move forward quickly, it was slow to turn around. I needed to find its soft spot. A place that I could hit and bring it down but nothing I tried worked. At this point I was feeling like a fly trying to avoid the big swatter.

The crowd continued to cheer as I ran around trying to keep from getting trampled or crushed but the golem. It stopped in front of me, and I looked back at it for a moment before I saw its mouth open and suddenly a stream of fire spilled out like a flamethrower. Great, a giant golem that can crush me without trying that I can’t harm in the least now can also spew out a flame like a damned dragon. I cast Dash at the last second and evaded it. Unfortunately, it was the first time I cast the spell, and I ended up at the very end of the grounds. Well, not completely unfortunate as it gave me a second to think about the situation, I was in.

I ran around the giant closed doors to see if I could spot any clues and I found nothing. The doors were plain, no etching, or really anything on them. When they were completely closed, they didn’t even look like doors but rather just huge plain rectangular structures standing next to each other.

I avoided another strike by the giant golem. I got to where the podium was and found nothing there either. Not a sign of it on the ground. There was nothing in this field that my perception picked up as a clue of any sort.

There has to be something here. Something that’s a clue or part of a puzzle that I needed to solve to get out of this room. I looked at the golem and the only thing that stood out were the rings that circled the appendages and the lights where the eyes should have been.

The giant golem tried to step on me again and I dodged it easily. I circled back and got ready to fire another burst of my magic projectiles, once again aiming for the eyes hoping that it was the weak spot. Just as I was firing though, the golem also threw out a fireball at me. I dodged and while I was able to cast my spell, half of the projectiles completely missed the golem and flew towards the audience in the bleachers. None of the crowd was hurt by the projectiles surprisingly. Wherever the projectiles hit, the person that was there, disappeared and a light went out.

“I think that crowd is all fake. Illusions maybe like the other room,” Jimmie said to me.

“I think you are right. I’m not sure if it will help but let’s see…” and I cast revealing light through my chain. This was the second time I was using this spell in the same day so I wouldn’t have it available for another day and I really hoped that I would not need it in another situation.

The blue orb got brighter and suddenly light from it exploded out in a circle. I could see the golem moving towards me and would be on top of me in another second. The spell removed the enchantment that was there which was the illusion of the crowd in the bleachers. Sadly, the golem was still there and about to smash me to pulp. The bleachers were empty now except for the lights that hovered where the crowd of people were. The lights were white orbs the size of a basketball and seemed to hover in the same spot.

“Any ideas broski? We are seriously outmatched. You said that this was a puzzle room so where is the puzzle?”

“I don’t think there is puzzle in here Jimmy. What we do have is a giant golem trying to kill us. And we have no weapon that could put a scratch on it. But at the same time, I don’t think we need to kill this golem. We just need to figure out a way to open those doors or get us out of this level somehow.”

The golem let out another blast of fire in our direction. Once again, I was able to dash away within a moment. As I was behind it now, having dashed in between its legs, I realized something.

“Jimmy, why would the illusions need lights up in the bleachers? They are illusions and illusions are just creations of magic that don’t exist in the real world.”

Before he could answer, I fired my projectiles at the light. I used one projectile for each of the light destroying over a dozen with each spell. The robot lifted its leg and with extreme quickness brought it down to try and squash me. I dashed away but not too far. As the robot turned towards me, I let loose another volley of projectiles destroying a bunch more of the lights in the bleachers. I really hoped my hunch was right because I was firing my last bit of offensive ammo towards just some lights.

Then I noticed that the robot was turning slower now. Even more so than it had just moments before.

This time the Golem, stood straight for a moment and then in an arc shot its next attack. The attack was a stun blast and it hit me dead center. I was knocked back about 20 feet and completely dazed. I tried to stand but fell to the ground. The golem started to move towards me again but even its walking speed had diminished. I was beyond glad for that because I was still trying to stand but finding myself on my hand and knees vomiting what little was in my belly. The golem made a fist and suddenly its hand fired out of its forearm towards me like a rocket the size of an elevator. I forced myself up and raised my mana shield just in time. The mana shield shattered but prevented any further damage from hitting me.

It made another move towards me but I had recovered enough where I was able to dash away between its legs. I didn’t waste any time. As soon as my dash ended, I shot forth more and more projectiles towards the lights. I was out of my small iron beads and now was shooting forth pebbles I had found. The golem continued to come after me but seemed more and more slower the more lights that were destroyed.

It was on top of me again and tried to stomp me with its giant foot. This time however, I was able to avoid it with little effort. Unfortunately, I was nearly all out of my pebbles as well. I let out my final chain lightning, but this one was aimed at an array of lights hanging in a sequence. My hope was that it would bounce off some of the lights and then I would have to worry about the ones that were left. Surprisingly, the chain lightning performed much better than I could have expected, and the lightning bolt bounced around and destroyed a couple dozen more bulbs. The golem was near stopped now. I had only 5 more pebbles left which I fired at the remaining lights.

The golem stopped in the middle of lifting its leg to stomp me, but the momentum however carried it forward and it came crashing down. There was still a half dozen lights left but apparently me destroying over a hundred lights was enough to keep this thing from moving. The large doors started to open slowly, and I dashed away to the other end. I was not thinking there would be another monster in there, but you never know with dungeons, and I was not ready to chance it. Luckily nothing came out of it. The doors stayed open, so I felt I was likely supposed to walk through them. I dashed again but stopped at the golem that was still collapsed unmoving on the ground.

“Maybe one day, you and I can duke it out again on a more even field” I said to the golem. I looked at it. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t loot the creatures inside dungeons. Not that I could have taken this thing anywhere just because of its size and my ridiculous curse but it would have been nice to have such a towering creature guide your backyard when you were not home. Or maybe just beat people up for you.

I dashed forward again. I loved this spell so much!! I ended up between the doors as they were wide open, and I got that much desired message.

Congratulations on Finishing the Third level of Dungeon 621. At this point you may collect your reward and exit the dungeon or move forward to the next level. Warning, if you go forward to the next level, there is no returning to previous level. You also may not leave before the completion of that level.

Before I could walk forward towards the darkness beyond leading to the next level, Jimmie spoke up to me in my mind, “Do you think maybe we should call it a day?”

“Call it a day?” I asked.

“Yeah, it means like to end the workday and go home.”

“I know what it means, Jimmy. I meant, why do you want to ‘call it a day’?”

“Well, we just barely survived this thing. I was certain we were not getting out of here alive. And the other level, where I almost got us killed, well that was a gift of life on its own. I just think that maybe we shouldn’t push our luck anymore.”

I stood for a moment thinking of what to say back, “Jimmy, if we stop now and turn back, we will not be finishing what we came here to do. We are going to finish this dungeon because that IS why we came here. It was not luck that helped us survive this and previous levels. It was skill and determination. We made it happen through our sheer will and power. That is what is needed to survive and thrive in this world. And I will take determination and skill over luck any day of the week and twice on Sundays.”

“Determination and skill it is then,” Jimmie said sounding still not convinced, “What is it that we are here to do again?”

“To claim this dungeon as a win. To get a title and there is something even more important than both of those.”

“What?”

“We are here to have a conversation with a mad god.”