Clue Scramble!
Pairing checking...
With a ding!, the correct pairings lighted up in blue light. Thankfully, all of her answers were right. If so, that means that she’ll be getting some good rewards, right?
Layla Remains
In order to find out more about the ancients rites, Layla came all the way down here.
Scribbled Notes
As sanity slipped, less and less could be retained.
Silver Brooch
If it was Layla’s, she would’ve worn it.
Difference between the Emblems
The array wasn’t correctly activated.
Messy Bloodstains
A heavy focus in one place most probably meant that something unexpected happened and she was taken by surprise.
Missing Gems
Whether the magic or the flesh, the Corruption seems to consume it all.
Scratch Marks
It was a struggle to break the mechanism.
Cracked Amulet
Unusual Coin
As at least 60% completion was reached during the Investigation stage, you can get a glimpse of what has come past.
Static noises could be heard, as an holographic image of what Tacha assumed to be Layla appeared crouched on the ground, appearing busy examining the emblems.
The woman had long straight dark brown hair, her blue eyes glinting with excitement as she scribbled something on her notebook. With a smile she turned around and pointed to the mechanism she had been observing.
Tacha followed her line of sight, but she could see no one. The granny had no time to ponder, as the scene soon changed to a bleeding Layla on the ground at the center of the room. Her face was twisted in panic and bewilderment as she used all her strenght to drag herself towards one of the emblems. It was strange, as her legs didn’t seem broken at all.
Once she reached the contraption with the colorful gems, she tried to remove the biggest gem. It seemed painful as Tacha could see her nails breaking, however she didn’t stop until she took it out. Tears streamed down her face as the gem rolled back by inertia. When the crystal clear gem was almost stopping, it dropped down.
Confused, Tacha got closer to where it disappeared and she could only glimpse a puff of dark smoke coming from below, before the scene changed again.
Now Layla was crouched in a corner, her eyes blankly staring to a small object on the ground as she nibbled on her left thumb. She stood up and took a few steps before going back to the same place and position as before.
This scene repeated a few times before the granny got bored and took a look to the object on the ground. It was the silver brooch she had found earlier on the ground. As she turned around, she saw purple markings flash past on Layla’s face, her expression turning crazed for a split second.
For a moment Tacha thought she had locked eyes with her, however she quickly shrugged off that thought. The system was simply showing her a video. It was either a coincidence, or it was programmed to look in the player’s direction. Nothing more, nothing less.
The scene shifted, as now Layla hiding the notebook under a stone slate. Her appearence was vastly different now, compared to before. Half of her body was covered in foul slime, while the other half was covered in blinking purple markings.
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Once done, she dragged her tired body towards the center of the room. She sat down and closed her eyes. A couple of minutes after, a fleeble white halo covered her completely. The halo trembled before seeping into the purple markings.
Then, the markings moved, as if convulsing before slowly disappearing. Layla exhaled a sigh, but not a moment later her expression distorted in pain. Black ooze flooded out of her skin. She was in panic. Her eyes were full of regret as they changed from their bright blue appearance, to an eerie golden color.
Tacha watched as the humanity in Layla eyes slowly left. She felt a mix of emotions come over to her, but she forcefully supressed them. She might have never met the woman, but she felt some kind of connection with her. Maybe it was the fact that they were both mothers and those fears she saw in her eyes were the same she had felt oh, so long ago.
Or maybe it was simply the fact that she saw her future. Both affected by what might be the same ailment. If the degeneration of the voidblight’s symptoms were the ones she had just observed, then that would mean a slow and painful death for her character.
And even though the pain settings were fixed at a lower rate, she wasn’t willing to die in such a lame way.
The surroundings returned to their normal color as the holograms faded into nothingness. This quest had left a bitter taste in her mouth. If she had done things differently, would have the results changed?
As she brooded over what happened to Layla, a new notification appeared in front of her eyes.
The quest ‘Corruption Runs Deep’ has been completed!
Now calculating the final score...
Final score: A+
You have received 1300 exp, 3 stat points
Reward for achieving B rank: 3 Medium Potions
Reward for achieving A rank: Static Compass
Tacha looked at the new items she received as rewards. The potions were a nice thing to have, since she had been eating up her food reserves. As for the compass…
Static Compass
A must have item for those that don’t want to lose their way, however the needle is stuck in place. No matter how much you wish for it to move, it will never point north.
This is the only landmark you’ll ever need.
Maybe it was a collector item? She wasn’t even that happy that it was a rank A reward, it didn’t even look like it would fetch that much if she sold it. Tsk, even the B rank rewards were more useful than that.
Shouldn’t she get a valuable item if she gets a higher score? Maybe she could get something useful if she could get a S rank next time.
Grandma Tacha sighed. Setting the rewards aside, now she only had to get out of this place. However she was not that worried anymore. It seemed clear enough that she had to activate the last few emblems.
However one of them had a section removed, she looked through her inventory to see if there was something useful, and found the Midnight Eye, a gem that she had picked up from the boss’ spoils. Would this be a good substitute?
Midnight Eye
A dark blue tanzanite gem with violet hues. If it’s put in backlight you can faintly see a crescent moon reflection.
A few marks on one side of the gem indicates that it used to be inlaid somewhere else.
The reflection of the moon shines brightly even while shrouded in darkness.
She wanted to check immediately, however a new quest appearing had her stop in her tracks.
Corruption Runs Deep II
You have successfully discovered what happened to Kirio’s missing mother.
Now you have two options in front of you: report back to Kirio with the information you know, or you could attempt to discover the culprit responsable to trap Layla in the depths of the ruins before reporting.
Report back: (0/1)
Find the culprit: (0/1)
You have initiated a branching quest.
The quest rewards and eventual consecutive quests will differ based on the quest objective completed. Aim for a fruitful ending!
As expected, she got a new follow-up quest. Conceptually it didn’t seem that different from the first quest she received, that one too had implied that there were multiple ways to complete the quest. The only difference seemed that this time around her objectives were clear-cut.
Still, she could think later about the quest. Right now something more important must be done. She got closer to Frӧst, whom had been sitting down on the ground with a vacant expression since who knows when “Happy news! I figured out how to get out of here; we just have to finish the puzzles”
Frӧst eyes focused on the granny, his brows frowning “I have checked the place while you were busy with your thing, one of the mechanisms is broken” Tacha took the Midnigh Eye out “It should work again if we use this” the young man stared at the gem for a bit, then nodded “Let’s try it then”
The two went towards the broken mechanism. Looking at the scratched surface, Tacha recalled Layla’s struggle in removing the original gem. She wasn’t going to summon some kind of ancient demon by activating the remaining mechanisms, right?