Chapter 24

I entered the final level of the dungeon. This room was not massive but perhaps half the size of a high school auditorium with a stage at the far end. There were stairs in the middle leading up to the stage. I glimmering portal was at the far end of the wall on the stage. I wasn’t sure what to make of anything in here, so I climbed up the stairs to the stage. As I stepped on the stage, I noticed there was a large chain and a manacle on the ground. My first step brought the manacle to life and a form materialized inside of it. The form that materialized had the body of a lion and wings of an eagle. Its head was that of a human. It was difficult to tell whether it was a male or female from the face due to its fine features. It had thick brown wavy hair and as it came into being, it stretched its back like a large cat as if waking up from a nap. It yawned at the same time, and I could see rows of hundreds of sharp pointy teeth inside. Despite being human in appearance, its head was several times larger than a normal person’s.

“Welcome human,” it said in a melodious voice, “I am Sammaru, the keeper of the gate.” The portal simmered as it did a slight bow towards me.

“Nice to meet you Sammaru. My name is Gatsby Lark.”

“Shall we proceed with your trial of riddles?” Sammaru asked.

“Are we in a rush? Perhaps we can talk some more first. I would love to know a little more about you, great Sammaru, the keeper of the gate.” Sammaru’s very human looking face blushed.

It turned its head coyly, “You would like to know more about me. My goodness, I have never had such a request before from anyone about to undergo a trial. No, we are not in a rush. Please, yes you may ask your questions about me. Would you like to know what my favorite food is or how I keep my hair so Volumized and soft? It is not easy you know, in this awful dungeon humidity.”

“Yes, I would love to know all those things but first perhaps you can share where you are from and how you ended up in the dungeon with it’s terrible humidity?” I was laying it on kinda thick I realized but I also knew that a Sphinx could be very vain from what I had heard of them. A Sphinx was a powerful magical creature that primarily existed on a higher plane. It was said that Sphinx were created by powerful magic long ago to guard treasure and paramount places and sometimes they even participated in dungeons such as this.

The Sphinx sighed, “I can imagine why you would be asking such a thing. I would have been astonished as well to find one such as I tied to this place but here I am. I am fulfilling my quest as I am bound to do and that is why you find one such as I in this dungeon without even any decent view. My brother guards a cloud fortress right now of a powerful titan with the most amazing view ever of the Himanas Mountains and the ocean. And I have a wall and a door. My brother was not even the most beautiful of all of us,” Sammaru said while rolling his eyes.

“I can imagine it much be an ordeal for you to be in this place. What was your quest and how were you bound down here?” I asked while pointing down at the manacle on his hand tied down to the ground by a chain.

He laughed loud, “Silly mortal, you think I’m bound here by this?” Sammaru said and then tapped his hand on the ground a couple of times as the manacle fell off it, “this was just for show. I’m bound to my quest for a god and until someone completes this dungeon, I’m unfortunately stuck here. I mistakenly thought that this dungeon would be completed easily but now after a thousand years I have lost hope.” His demeanor changed to one of sadness.

“How many have tried to complete this dungeon in the thousand years?”

“Not many, perhaps a hundred or less but none have succeeded thus far. You are the first who has made it to me.” The sphinx perked up suddenly, “But perhaps you will be the first to succeed as well and I can be free of this place.”

“What would you do if were to finish your quest and you were free?”

“I have thought of this many times. I would go back home and find myself a mate. We are duty bound to not take on a mate until we have finished our quest. Then perhaps I would raise a child and perhaps even come back here and see the Himanas mountains. My brother has mentioned them to me so many times.”

“You still talk to your brother?”

“Most certainly, he is my kin and will forever be as such even if he had immense luck bestowed upon him despite me being far more beautiful. I am able to talk to my family whenever I sleep and unfortunately there is little else to do here but sleep.”

“Sleep would be something fantastic to have along with some food. I have missed some of the foods of my old home.”

The Sphinx smiled, “Yes, I must say I also agree with the delicious food of my home and my city. Each thing was so flavorful. In this dungeon, I’m suffering from the wasting of my taste buds.”

“I thought Sphinx only ate people?” I said jokingly.

“Hah never, people taste all bitter. We love meat of all sorts, but I say that the cooked meat of a garthian goat is some of the best.”

I had no idea what a garthian goat was let alone how it tasted so I just nodded. I was just glad he didn’t agree when I said he only ate people.

Have you any family mortal? What leads you to traverse this path of an adventurer?”

I talked to him about my family. The ones from the old earth. I even talked to him about how I had been around for a couple of hundred years and now found myself in the predicament that I was in. I am not sure but something about him made me trust him. And that feeling was odd because I knew at the same time that I would have to go through his test at some point and I may not survive it. Was it a special power that he had or perhaps high charisma? I wasn’t certain. During the middle of our conversation, he brought out two glasses and a drink of some sort that was sweet and tasted like a combination of coconut, orange, and bananas. He told me it was a delight from his home. I was thinking it tasted an awful lot like a smoothie I use to make but without the ice. We continued to talk for a while as if we were just old friends catching up. A strange phenomenon because I originally intended to just converse with him to get some information.

Before I could ask another thing, I was interrupted by, Sammaru “Enough! I am becoming charmed by your ways. I have no doubt my loneliness plays a part in it, but I cannot continue this way. I would not want to feel conflicted about eating you if you fail to answer the questions.”

“I would prefer not to be eaten if it makes a difference. Perhaps, you can help me in some way to finish this level?” I knew I was reaching by asking for help, but I figured why not ask, what’s the worst that could happen.

Sammaru tilted its head in a sympathetic gesture, “I find myself being fond of you but No, I cannot help you in any way to complete this trial, it would be against my honor and my quest. You must do it all on your own. However, if you were to be able to finish this trial and complete this dungeon, you would also help me finish my quest. For that I will owe you a boon within my power.”

I nodded, “Thank you. I will do what I can to help you finish your quest.”

` “Here are the rules. Three riddles,” Sammaru raised its paw to show three, “if you fail to answer all three riddles, I will eat you. For the first correctly answered riddle, you will receive this coin.” He showed me a gold coin with the number 1 on it.

He continued, “The second riddle answered correctly will be rewarded with this coin.” He held out a slightly larger second gold coin with number 2 on it. “The third riddle answered correctly will be rewarded with this coin.” This time he held a larger coin with number 3 on it.

“Do you understand what I have told you thus far?” Sammaru asked.

“Yes.”

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He continued with the rules, “You cannot leave before answering the riddles. You cannot leave with more than the 3 coin. You have one minute to answer the first riddle, two minutes to answer the second and three minutes to answer the third. You must do the riddles on your own.”

I nodded again in understanding.

“Are you ready for the riddles?”

I wondered to myself, If I really had a choice in this. I couldn’t go back or leave the dungeon and I couldn’t go forward without answering the riddles.

Before I could even answer him, he started asking the first riddle.

“I am something people love or hate. I change people’s appearances and thoughts. If a person takes care of themselves, I will go up even higher. To some people, I will fool them. To others, I am a mystery. Some people might want to try and hide me, but I will show. No matter how hard people try, I will never go down. What am I?”

I had only a minute to answer this riddle. I continued to think of the riddle while looking at the sphinx. It was a majestic creature. A creature that had been trapped here for a thousand years. Was it a child when it was brought here or do, they just live for a long time. I wondered how much it had changed over time and then the answer hit me.

“Age is the answer. Some people love it, and others hate it. It changes people’s appearances and thoughts. If a person takes care of themselves, it goes higher as they live longer. It shows eventually even when people try to hide it and it never goes down.”

The Sphinx smiles and its sharp teeth showed from the corner of its mouth, “Correct. Although I suppose it can go down as I do know some ways to make a person younger. None the less. It was a correct answer to the first riddle.” The Sphinx showed me the coin with 1 on it and tossed it to me. I grabbed it in midair. I looked at the gold coin. It seemed to weigh almost nothing and had an unnatural sheen to it. I placed in my pocket.

The Sphinx looked up as he was thinking, “Here is the second. It cannot be seen. It cannot be felt. It cannot be heard, and it cannot be smelt. It lies under hills and empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, ends life, and kills laughter. What is it?”

Was it evil? The only thing that did not make sense was it being under hills and filling holes. I could not waste too much time getting caught up in other thoughts. It had to be something intangible, and evil did not fit. Could it be darkness? But does darkness ends life?

“You have 15 seconds left”, Sammaru said.

“Darkness,” I was uncertain, but I had not much time left to think of something else that would fit the answer better. I saw the Sphinx’s mouth starting to open and readied myself. I was not going to be somebody’s snack without a fight. I liked this Sammaru but if he was going to try and eat me, I was going to be breaking some teeth. Or at the very least, do my best to cause indigestion.

“That is, correct,” he said and tossed the second coin to me with the 2 on it which was also easily caught.

The Sphinx, Sammaru continued, “What is it that give one, will have either two or none?”

I smiled, “Same thing I was given before I entered this dungeon and not before I started these riddles, a choice.”

The Sphinx smiled and broke into a grin and then a laugh. He then tossed me the third coin with the 3 on it, “That is also correct. I am glad I will not have to eat you not matter what a tasty treat you may have been.”

“I’m glad too. I suspect I would have caused you a bad tummy ache.”

“Tummy ache? What is a tummy ache?”

I didn’t explain the bad joke, “I am glad to have met you. I wish you the best of life in your future with your future mate, Honorable Sammaru. Look me up if you are ever back around these parts. Maybe we can even grab a beer. I know a bar where the beers are ugly and the management even uglier.”

“I am glad to have met you as well. Once I am freed of this place and back home, I will think of you fondly, friend Gatsby Lark. And yes, perhaps one day, we will share an ugly beer, whatever that might be.”

I walked to the portal and walked in. Or rather I tried to walk in; in actuality, I was pushed back from an invisible force right outside the gate. I looked back at the Sphinx, “That is not of my doing Gatsby Lark,” he said.

I tried to enter through the portal a few more times without any success. I used my mana sight to look at the gate. It shone with a tremendous amount of mana having hundreds of little tentacles. But nothing with it made me think it was a fake or an illusion of some sort.

“Why are we not able to go through, you answered all the riddles correctly. Didn’t you? You think you got something wrong broski? I even stayed quiet during that time because I didn’t want it to make it seem like we were cheating.”

“No. he gave us the coin as a reward, so I believe I answered all the riddles correctly. Plus, he didn’t try and eat me so that was also a big sign,” I whispered back to Jimmy.

“Maybe the gate is broken.”

I doubted the gate was broken. There was something missing that I was not seeing. Something we had not done.

“Are you able to tell me why I cannot enter the portal?” I asked the Sphinx.

“I cannot.”

“Can you tell me if I am forgetting something or is there something else, I need to do?”

“I cannot,” The sphinx took in a deep breath through its nose and had a visage of sadness again. Its face seemed to exaggerate emotions so much more than most humanoid creatures.

I knew Sammaru was not lying to me. I honestly believed that the Sphinx wanted me to succeed and to also escape this dungeon, but it could not tell me anything due to the rules it had to follow. The fact that Sammaru could not tell me anything and that I was still stuck in this room, unable to enter the portal, only meant that there was a part I did not complete. Perhaps there was another puzzle in this room that I had missed.

There was no timer to make me think I was under a time constraint in figuring this out nor a change in the temperature or pressure in the air to make me think I was at the risk of being poisoned again. I had the time. I just needed to figure out what I missed and complete that part of the puzzle that might be this room. I wasn’t sure if there was another illusion in here. Maybe this portal was an illusion, and I couldn’t see the actual portal until this one was removed. I regretted having used both my charges and not being able to cast revealing light.

I paced back and forth trying to think of a solution. I looked through the entire room again slowly to see if my perception would pick up any clues. The room was dull as Sammaru had described and there was nothing here, not on the walls, the ceiling, or the floors. I checked the stairs and there was nothing. I knocked on various areas to listen for a hidden area. I looked through the room several times in different ways but still nothing.

“Any suggestions Jimmy? I’m drawing a blank here.”

“No. I mean you did the riddles. And that scary dude there, did say you can cross when you have all three coins.”

“What?”

“I said, he said you can cross when you have all three coins.”

I paused. I was such a boob.

“No, he didn’t Jimmie. Actually, he said I couldn’t leave with more than the 3 coin. I thought the same thing that you did. I thought he meant all three coins, but he was just talking about the coin with the 3 on it.”

I promptly dropped the coins with the 1 and the 2 on it holding now just the single coin with the 3 on it. I walked to the portal but was denied entrance again. Confusion came upon and I looked back noticing that the two coins I had dropped on the ground were gone. I looked in my pocket and found the two coins. “Dammit, these coins are either soul bound, or they can’t just be dropped.”

“Maybe we need to wait the day out and see if the curse from your other coin would take them away.”

“I don’t think that would work. It removes the coins randomly and only if there are more than a handful. I need to figure out a way to get rid of them.”

“Too bad we can’t just hand them back to LionO back there.”

“Jimmy, that may not be such a bad idea actually.” I looked back at Sammaru. He was relaxing on the ground looking half asleep. Or maybe this was full asleep for him. Probably hanging out with his sphinx buddies right now talking about how stupid human can be.

“Sammaru,” I asked the Sphinx, who opened one of his eyes to look at me, “Are you ready for the riddles?”

Sammaru lifted his head, got up and gave a half smile, “About time, human. Yes, I am.”

“What is one plus one?” I asked the great Sphinx, one of the most basic math equations. I couldn’t think of any simple riddles at this time plus I did not want to take the chance of Sammaru not being able to figure them out. Hopefully, he won’t be insulted by this.

“Really, Gatsby Lark,” He had his hands folded in front of him, “this is how little you think of me? The answer is two.”

I tossed him back the coin with the 1 on it, “I didn’t ask that to insult you. I hope you will understand. Next riddle, what is two plus two?”

He dropped his hands, “I understand. You are merely giving yourself the best chance to succeed. The answer is four.”

Sammaru caught the second coin with the 2 on it with similar ease as his last. I checked my pockets, and the two coins were no longer back in my possession as they were previously. I walked towards the portal again but looked back for a moment at him.

“Wait, Gatsby Lark, I owe you a boon,” said Sammaru to me.

I was not going to refuse a gift. Sammaru tapped the manacle that he was fake wearing earlier and it changed into a thin wrist band. “This is for you, my friend. This will bind any one individual you decide to put it on, to the ground. It can only be used once, so use it wisely. Furthermore, I have another gift for you. Lean forward. I got closer to him and his giant mouth that could pretty much eat my head in one shot if he wanted without taking a step considering how close I was to him. Thankfully, he didn’t. Instead, he put a claw to my head and suddenly there was a light and I felt transfer of a skill. I focused on the skill and its description popped up.

Wards

Can detect magical and nonmagical wards and traps within 50 feet.

Skill Type: Intrinsic Upgradeable

Requirements: Intelligence 50 Wisdom 50

Cost: 50 mana

Cooldown period: 5 minutes

It was a nice utility skill. I can see it being helpful for future dungeons that had traps and wards in them.

I placed the manacle bracelet on my arm. “Thank you, Sammaru. I meant it when I said that if you are ever back around here, you should look me up. I know a place where they sell really terrible but extremely potent beer.”

“Terrible and ugly beer. Sounds delightful. I will hold you to that and now I bid you farewell as well.”

I walked through the portal.