Chapter 235
The room was oddly shaped and after a moment Jay had puzzled it out. They were inside the tree, but the inside was far larger than it had appeared from the outside. One wall of the room was curved – that must be the outside edge of the tree. The room itself was shaped like the wedge of a piece of pie.
If the tree were the whole pie then the 'slice' of room they were in would be about one third of the entire pie.
There was a door, large and chunky and with a hazy fog that obscured whatever might be on the other side. It led to the outside and no one was in a hurry to use it anytime soon. A second door led from the room they were in to an adjacent room and that door was currently closed.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were all wood, and it appeared that they were indeed inside of a massive tree like structure. Magical lighting lined the walls as well as hung at intervals from the ceiling ten feet above them.
In the center of the room sat a cooking station that had been all set up with dry logs. Around it were arranged eight seats, grouped in twos. They were just wooden logs without any backing to lean against but they would do.
The group looked awful. They were soaked, and if they hadn't had waterproof bags then their belongings would have been soaked as well.
“I call first,” M'redith said before anyone had even had a chance to look at the room around them. Then she had turned and had gotten a good look at Carly in the light. She wasn't looking so great.
Carly's eyes were wide and looked as if she weren't seeing the world in front of her but instead was trapped in her own thoughts. M'redith shook her head, that needed sorting out right away.
Jay had walked over to M'redith and was about to turn on his aura when she flipped her head towards him and shook her head. “Change of plans. Carly first.”
Jay was about to say something when he caught sight of Carly's face and instead decided to keep quiet. M'redith helped guide Carly over to the cooking station and sat her down on a wooden log in front of the fire pit. Jay stood next to her as the others backed away so that the aura would affect Carly and not them.
As Jay turned his aura on the room became stuffed with a flurry of motes of light. Normally the aura would throw up a pleasing display of motes of light as the person was cleaned – or dried – depending on the case. That was not what happened this time.
They were all soaked to the bone, and Carly didn't have a dry spot on her body. All of that water had to go somewhere, and Jay's aura turned every drop of that water in to motes of light.
The display was momentarily blinding as the air around them shimmered with motes of light as if they had stepped in to a veritable cloud of the things. The room was thick with the motes for a time before the cluster began to dissipate a bit and slowly returned to the standard flurry of motes. It took far longer than the usual thirty seconds.
Roughly a minute later Carly was dry and the room's brightness faded a bit as the motes disappeared. Carly gave out a soft sigh and blinked as if she had just realized where she was.
“Guys?” she asked in confusion.
“It's ok,” Norri assured her, “we're in the dungeon and getting dry, that's all. You're safe.”
M'redith smiled at Norri as Carly nodded slowly.
“You ok?” M'redith asked.
Carly suddenly looked horrified. “I am SO sorry, I don't know what came over me,” she said and blushed red, almost purple. She wiped tears from her eyes and shook her head.
Norri made little tsk noises as if correcting a small animal, “No worries, we're all here and safe. Just relax while the rest of us get dry, ok?”
Carly smiled and nodded before she seemed to curl in to herself, her arms crossed, her knees up against her chest.
No one else was sitting down – no one wanted to get the logs wet only to have to sit down on them after they themselves had been dried. Instead a bit of a line had formed in front of Jay as he began to use his aura to clean and dry off the group, one at a time.
The next few minutes was full of motes of light as the room became blinding once more as they were all dried off. Sounds of contentment and pleasure were made by each of them as they were finally all dry.
And warm. The inside of the tree was much warmer than it had been outside and in the cold rain. The group gathered around the cooking station and sat down on logs to rest. Everyone needed a rest at that point to collect themselves.
The room smelled of old fragrant wood and a tropical ocean breeze – an interesting and pleasant scent combination. While they rested Aiden leaned over and cast a Physician's Bolt at M'redith. All three bolts struck her chest and formed a green gel that sank in to her flesh. She let out a sigh as her injuries from earlier were healed.
“Thanks Aiden,” M'redith finally said with a smile.
“You're welcome!” Aiden said brightly before he suddenly turned to face the woman across from him.
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“And congratulations Carly,” Aiden said with a playful grin. “You passed your first test.”
Carly let out a strangled laugh and made a flustered face. “That was horrible!”
Aiden continued to grin. “It was! But it's also in the past now!”
Carly shook her head but smiled. “Thanks for all the help guys, and again – sorry about that.”
M'redith shook her head. “That's ok. We all are aware that you are afraid of heights, and you still went across. If anything, I'd say we're a little impressed.”
Carly smiled but Jay knew M'redith was being a bit overly generous. The rest of the group didn't exactly like Carly, but even Jay had been impressed at Carly's willingness to press forward in spite of her fears. M'redith was being extra nice in the hopes that it would help Carly come around. The last thing the group needed was for Carly to come down with dungeon madness after being forced to face one of her biggest fears. Heights.
Jay paused a moment as he realized that he had just pulled a M'redith. He'd read in to the situation without having to have it explained to him. Maybe he was maturing a bit?
“JAY!” M'redith almost yelled at him. Jay had gotten lost in his thoughts and missed the last things she had said to him.
“Sorry, was thinking,” Jay said and smiled in embarrassment.
“Was it working?” Aiden asked with a grin and Norri giggled.
M'redith looked at Jay with a considering look. “I asked if you were ready to go? Everyone else is.”
Jay nodded, “I am. Let's see what's next!”
“Before you do that...” said a woman's voice as a figure faded in to view near the foggy doorway.
“Sweet Gaia!” Aiden yelled in surprise as the others all made startled noises.
“How the Goddess did you get in here?!” Norri asked.
“You can't be in here! Only five people in a dungeon or we get cursed!” M'redith said in shock as she saw their monitor suddenly fade in to view.
She was still wearing her orange sash and shook her head slightly. “Oh hush. You'll find as you go out in to the world that for every rule in Eden there is an exception. Today I am the exception. This sash isn't just for show. So stop worrying about the curse of the 6th. You're all safe.”
M'redith looked unsure and shook her head for a moment but the monitor didn't give her a chance to speak. “You have passed your first task, congratulations!” she said and gave Carly a meaningful look. The monitor had seen everything that had happened up until that moment.
“I don't feel like I did very well,” Carly said in a frustrated voice.
The monitor gave her a pointed look. “That might be because you don't know what you were being tested on. It's a good thing I'm grading you and not you. Enough chatter. You next task awaits. Carly, you may now open your envelope. You are all to follow the instructions inside to the best of your abilities.”
Carly had forgotten all about the envelopes that they had each been handed earlier that day. She nodded and reached down and rummaged about in her pack until she had found it and pulled it out. She used her thumb and slid it under the flap and tore the envelope carefully open. A single sheet of paper was nestled inside. She took it out and read it out loud to the others.
“Congratulations on moving on to the next phase of your graduation exercises. Your next task is to make your way through the dungeon and obtain the item that drops from the final boss. You should be careful – the monsters in this dungeon are more dangerous than the ones you may have become accustomed to.” Carly read in a voice that shook slightly.
She took a breath before she steadied her voice and continued, “Normally a group would research a dungeon before entering and fighting it – however your group has been given no opportunity to do so. In lieu of research you are offered this one piece of advice for this dungeon. Run.”
The rest of the group became tense at Carly's final words as she finished reading.
“That's it, that's all it says,” Carly insisted as she moved to set the paper down.
As she did so the paper burst in to flames and burnt down to ashes so quickly that Carly had to quickly let go of the paper or be burnt. She released the paper and it completely burned to ash before it hit the ground.
“What about...” Carly asked but then looked around in puzzlement. The monitor was gone.
The others looked about but couldn't find her either.
“I guess that is all the instruction we're going to get?” Norri asked with a grin. She was having fun it seemed. The entire thing felt like one big adventure to her.
M'redith nodded as she finally gave up looking about for the monitor. “Well, we're still being timed, let's get moving.”
M'redith stood up and walked over to the door that led further in to the dungeon. The others soon followed her and they all got their weapons out and readied them for action. They lined up in order, M'redith in front, then Norri, then Jay, Aiden, and finally Carly.
The group might not entirely like Carly but that wasn't the reason they put her in the rear spot. Carly had a powerful and rare class ability that was perfect for taking care of anything that might try and sneak up behind them.
M'redith made sure that everyone was lined up before she waved Jay up to the front.
Jay didn't need to be told why she'd asked him to come forward and moved to the door to inspect it. He carefully went over the frame little by little until he was sure there was no traps.
“Looks clear,” Jay said shortly and moved back in to his spot in line.
M'redith nodded and waited until he was back in his spot and then reached out and opened the door.
As the door swung open a sudden blast was heard from behind them and the room became instantly boiling hot. They each began to sweat from the intense heat at their backs and Jay turned just in time to see a white hot fire burst in to flames along the opposite wall. The fire was creeping across towards their position and the group had no choice but to pass in to the next room.
“Run!” M'redith called out and the group ran in to the next room as the raging flames swept closer to them.