Both players agreed on taking a puzzle each; as the granny picked the colorful one, Frӧst went to the closest one. He gave the dials a few turns, but he wasn’t focused at all. From an outside point of view, he was just looking half-heartedly at the mirror puzzle, but in reality he was looking at the latest notification he had received.

??? is warning you.

It had been a while since the skill had show up like that. It was weird how it had suddenly gone quiet once he had come down to the boss room after making such a ruckus before.

However, unlike before when he had received a similar message, there was no sense of dread that accompanied it. Was something dangerous near? More than that dreadful boss?

He really hoped not. He couldn’t handle both another boss and that devil granny. Just thinking how that old hag had used him as a bait, made his blood boil. He would have already gotten rid of her if it wasn’t for the murder penalty. Some of the NPCs that he needed to contact would refuse to interact with a player that had killed someone before. It wasn’t worth it to ruin his whole plan.

Thinking about his plan, it has now gone off the rails with Layla dying. The system notifications had shown the name of the boss multiple times, although it was corrupted, just like what he had heard from various players during his last life.

Still he could make up the name that he had seen so much in the past: the Chthontic Emissary – Layla. Only the NPCs that could cure the bugged status held such a title.

He had always thought that it was an NPC class-only, but maybe it held more meaning than just that. Now that a reliable lead was gone, he had to follow a dubious clue. Still, it was better than nothing.

A mechanical noise interrupted his thoughts, as the old bag got up from her puzzle and jumped happily towards the scratched one.

The ‘Emblem of Water’ is now active.

He snorted, unwilling to look at her anymore. The faster he was going to solve the puzzle, the quicker he could leave this place.

ᴥᴥᴥ ≈ ° ≈ ᴥᴥᴥ

Tacha had no problem in solving the colorful puzzle. It was just a matter of mixing and matching the different liquids so that they matched with the clues given.

As she happily headed towards the last puzzle she noticed the laid-back attitude of her fellow player. She tsked to herself; young people these days have no will to solve simple puzzles. That’s why today’s main stream games held little to no puzzles. Youngsters would find them too difficult otherwise!

Tacha looked over at the ruined mechanism. The hollow cavity was just under the dials and she quickly filled it with the Midnight Eye. Whith a whirr, it powered up and one of the gems beyond the glass lighted up.

As she turned the dials, some gems light up and others turned off. When two close gems light up, a spark that turned into an electric line connected them. Looking at the 7x3 grid, she tried to light up all of the gems, however even after she did it there was no response from the mechanism.

She stared at it grumpily, she had wasted a lot of time by lighting them all up, but it wasn’t the answer. As she was looking around for more clues, her eyes fell upon the symbol of the emblem.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

All of the other emblems too had a symbol that rapresented them and that had lighted up once she had solved its puzzle. The one for this emblem looked like a crooked branch. Noticing how the sharp lines would fit perfectly the grid, she rolled up her sleeves and did her best with a silent complaint.

When she turned the last dial to complete the picture, the emblem at the bottom lighted up and a notification appeared before her eyes.

The ‘Emblem of Thunder’ is now active.

Ah, so that really was the answer.

A small tear fell down her cheek at the thought of her suffering at the complete waste of time she had done by illuminating all of the gems.

Not long after, a second notification popped up, signaling the completion of the last puzzle.

The ‘Emblem of Light’ is now active.

Checking components…

The Winter Stag array is active!

The Wellspring array is active!

The main functions of the mechanical array will now be restored.

At first the noise came from only the three emblems on the ground. Then, it felt like a domino. It spread from under the floor to the walls. The whole room trembled a bit and a whirring sound came from the top of their heads.

Looking up, the two could see the weird telescope on the ceiling opening up like a camera, revealing a structure made up of multiple lenses, some weak light coming through.

The focused light illuminated the center of the room, as the lines drawn all over the floor became neon colored. Then, like magic, the patterns that surrounded the center in a circle, moved like snakes and rearranged themselves in seven symbols: a stylized spider on top of a gem, a circular chain, some roots, a half closed eye, a wolf head, three arrow heads meeting in the middle and a seven pointed star with a dot in the middle.

For a moment everything was still. And then, dark smoke filled the center without symbols. It stirred and puffed before sinking on itself. A watery surface appeared on the ground showing a rocky red wasteland, the smoke falling down inside.

The ‘Jackal Gate’ has been opened.

Due to insufficient energy, the Gate will be operative for 2 minutes.

Grandma Tacha got closer to the weird gate. She had hoped until the end that solving the puzzle would open the secret passage, instead she got a passage to a weird place. She could only see red rocks, floating red rocks, oh and would you look at that: some more bright red rocks.

She rubbed her eyes in frustration: she could already feel her eyes hurting from the excessive monotony of color. She was starting to think that the devs were pure sadists.

Tacha glanced at the young man that had crouched beside her. He was looking at the red environment with a scrunched up face; it looked like the color was too much for him too. Yeah, no sane person could stand to look at that for more than a minute.

With a grin, she gave a loud slap at the youngster’s back. Frӧst, taken by surprise, fell into the portal with a betrayed expression. In response Tacha simply waved her hand, even though he had already fallen through. She wasn’t going to test the danger that was waiting beyond if there was a willing volunteer here.

The granny glanced at the lenses at the top, she could see the early morning sky through them, a couple of stars still shining brightly. She briefly remebered the main hall where the pool and statue was located. Straight on top was a hole in the ceiling, from where the moonlight was coming through. Was the whole building mad for this specific purpose?

As the smoke at the edges of the watery mirror trembled, Tacha gazed back at the world of red shown on it. With a sigh she jumped inside. Since the start, the only way was forward.

After the small granny passed through, the light from the ceiling was no more. The mirror trembled before shattering in countless dark red drops. The smoke engulfed every last drop before disappearing along with the rest of the light inside the basement.

Now with the lenses on top closed, the whole place was engulfed in darkness. The patterns that were shining brightly just before, now seemed just like an illusion. The place had become as dark as Tacha first saw it.

However the stillness that governed the place was soon interrupted. Heavy noises of stone against stone resounded in the empty room.

Quiet footsteps came down the secret passage, but before they reached the end, they stopped for a few seconds. Light gently trickled in from the stairs, the room baring its emptiness before its visitor. However that didn’t last long, as the steps rushed back up along with the light. Soon after the secret passage was closed again, the darkness now king again.