Chapter 4: Enter the Dungeon

“Welcome to the Crypts of Al’ Numar.”

The golden archaic letters of the title screen slowly vanished from her vision and Mercy found herself in a room made entirely of cold blue granite. Flaming torches were placed upon the walls illuminating a variety different of passageways. Some were decorated and open, with fine arches, while others were blocked by doors of different makes.

In the middle of the room was a box, made of thick stone slabs; a tomb. In front of the grave, chiseled into the stone was a plaque. She approached and read the inscription. “Here’s lies the great king Al’ Numar, who's legacy shall live on forever. 697-772"

“Welp, I pity the fool who took the time to carve that, cause I ain’t never heard of um.” Said a voice close by her.

Mercy spun around finding nothing but the empty passageways and doors. Not a being in sight.

“Who goes there, show yourself!”She called out.

“I am showing myself, I'm right here!”

She looked in the direction the voice had come from. But, there was no one there. Only the solid rock wall. She was starting to become concerned.

“If you’ve got an invisibility spell up, turn it off, I can’t see you!”

“I don’t have an invisibility spell on! I'm right down here!”

Mercy felt a tug on her pocket and looked down. The smallest gnome she had ever seen climbed out, shuffled down her leg, and dropped onto the sandy floor.

“Now you see, Lassy? I told ya I didn’t have an invisibility spell on.” Said the gnome, turning towards her.

He snapped his fingers and began to grow. His form, swelling in size and mass, until he was at proper the height that a gnome should be; around that of her kneecap. He wore long robes of velvet purple, while a small green pointed cap rested upon his head and, from his chin, he sprouted a white and wizened beard. He checked himself over, then looked up at her and bowed.

“How did you do that?” She asked him.

“Oh, what? That? Nothing but a little shrink potion I cooked up me-self. Sorry to hitch a ride on yuh like that. I just had a gut feeling about you, and by the gods' favor, was I right!” He smiled widely, looking up at her in awe.

“What's your name?” Mercy she demanded.

“Oh, dear excuse my rudeness, my name is Professor Barnabis Florian, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” He said, reaching out and shaking her hand. “What’s yours?”

“You can call me Gno.”

Mercy wasn’t sure how she felt about the hitchhiker. She wasn’t particularly mad at him, It was more a matter of whether or not she could particularly trust him. He seemed friendly enough, so for now, as long as he didn’t get in her way, or try and stop her from beating the dungeon, she would trust the winds of fate that brought him here and take him along with her. There was just one more thing she needed to know.

“Question for you Barnabis, can you fight?”

“Why certainly! Yes! Sort of...Well...Maybe a little... In a...In a manner of speaking... My talents more so lie in the alchemical fields? I've devoted myself to the study of all the plants, animals, and Alchemy of this world. Maybe you’ve heard of my blog? Professor Barnabis Florians Fantastic Field Guide of the Lands of Algrim?” He beamed up at her with wide eyes.

“I’m sorry, I can’t say that I have.”

His smile wavered and he looked at his feet, disheartened by her response.

“But the next time I log out, I’ll definitely check it out, okay?”She promised him.

She was most likely never going to look at it but, her words seemed to satisfy him, at least a little bit.

“We’ll seeing as you and I are the only two that made it through the gauntlet, how bout we stick together and form a party?” She asked him.

“It’d be a pleasure, Lassy.” He said.

She brought up the Party window in her menu and selected his name from the “Players in Your Vicinity” bar; his being the only one on the list. She pressed the “Send Invitation” icon and after he accepted, the screen brought her to the "Party Name" input screen. She peered over at her new companion.

“What do you think we should name our party?” She asked.

“How about, Professor Barnabis Florian's Fantastic Field Guide’s Field Agents.”

“...Um, I don’t think they allow that many letters. How about we just leave it blank for now and come back to it?”

“Sounds good to me.” He replied.

She exited out of the menu screen, leaving the party name as .

“So?” Asked Barnabis, looking around the area.“Got any idea which way to go?”

She didn’t.

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“Let’s search this room a little bit more first and see if we can get a better idea about what's going on here.” She said.

They started to inspect the room. Searching it from top to bottom, leaving no nook or cranny left unchecked. Not that there was much to it other than the tomb, the walls, and the passageways. But, her thoroughness proved fruitful, when she discovered what looked to be a small keyhole in the side of the sarcophagus.

“Well, whichever way we go, we're most likely going to need to come back here at some point.” She said, pointing to what she had found.

Barbaris nodded to himself, then produced a green leather tome from his backpack. Reaching into the sleeve of his robe, he brought out a small, elongated wooden box. He opened it, and a quill came out; floating all on its own. He opened the book and the quill flew to it and began scribbling hastily away.

“I’ll make us a map and take notes as we go so, we don’t get lost.” Said Barnabis, looking proud of himself.

A map maker in party member was definitely going to be Useful. Mercy couldn’t even remember the countless times she and the Storm Wolves had gotten lost. Only to end up in arguments because Angel “just knew” which way to go. It had gotten to the point where she had downright refused to go near any dungeon labeled “Labyrinth” no matter how amazing the loot was at the end.

“So, shall we just choose a doorway at random then? Or have you thought of some sort of method for this?” He asked

Mercy examined the possibilities. She counted a total of eight exits that lead from this room. Most of them were open but, there were three barred with doors or gates in front of them. She tried a few of the doors, only to find that they were locked and wouldn’t budge. This left them with only five options currently.

It was obvious to her, that the locked passages lead to challenging rooms. Ones that offered keys, or maybe a lever as a prize. Most likely guarded by a difficult puzzle or a powerful monster. Regardless, it worried her that neither she nor Barnabis seemed to have any damage potential.

In fact, the small gnome could probably do more damage than she could. They were in a bad position if they got attacked.

“You said you were an Alchemist?” She asked

“Yup, that's me, Barnabis the Alchemist.”

“Have any good potions in your inventory?” She asked, trying to take stock of everything that could be useful to them in their predicament.

“Well let's see now.” He said, bringing up his menu. “I’ve got some health potions, some mana potions, some antidotes, some anti-rots, something for bad breadth, a few potions of speed, there’s one here for defense, a handful of elemental grenades, some flame coatings, lighting ones, water ones, I can damn near wrap your weapon in any element you wish, got some moon pies, and honey stickers, glazed ham, a cabbage and-”

“Did he say elemental grenades? Those will come in handy.”

The Weapon Infusion potions wouldn’t add a whole lot of damage to her blade. They were most effective via their elemental interactions. Which might be helpful; if they happened to run into any elemental-based enemies.

The Elemental grenades, on the other hand, offered them the opportunity to deal large amounts of damage across a decent-sized area. They would do nicely to make up for some of their inherent lack of attack power. Unfortunately, they were single-use items. So she hoped he had packed a lot of them.

Barnabis continued listing off ingredients; mostly. Nothing else he mentioned was of any particular use to her or their situation and her thoughts had traveled elsewhere. The thought of exploding grenades made her realize that up until this point, she had completely forgotten about the sword she had thrown.

She brought up her equipment menu. The sword had been soul bound, so even if she were to throw it 100 miles it would still come back to her inventory. It not being there wasn’t what worried her. She brought up the item's details.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Sword of Shi’or

Level requirement: 75

Dexterity requirement: 35

Strength scaling, B+

Base damage: 13

Style: Dha

Durability: 12/100

Bonuses: Movement speed increased by 20%

Combo increase +3

__________________________________________________________________________________________

The blast had nearly destroyed her sword. She was going to need to get it repaired when she got back to town, but at least for now, it wasn’t broken. She was going to have to be careful with it moving forward though.

She closed her menu. Barnabis was still listing things so she ignored him and approached the first interesting passageway she saw. Choosing one with an arced door frame and a set of stairs that lead down; to whatever awaited them at the bottom.

“I guess this way will be good enough!” She called back, drawing her weapons and readying herself.

Barnabis reached into a pouch affixed upon his belt. From it, he withdrew a small tinkerer's hammer and a royal blue vial of liquid. He uncorked the vial and splashed its contents onto the hammer. It grew in his hands, becoming a powerful-looking Warhammer, in the shape of a ram's head, with brutal spiraling horns. Without a word they nodded to each other, then proceeded down the stairs. Barnabis in the lead.

Every step they took, echoed off the stairs as they descended. No matter how softly they tried to place their feet. If enemies were lying in wait nearby, they would surely know that they were coming. When they reached the bottom, Barnabis quickly poked his head out.

“Well, it appears to be safe, but I don’t think were getting very far with this path.” He said as he relaxed his posture.

Mercy cleared the last couple of steps to see what he was talking about. The room they were now in looked exactly identical to the room that they had been standing in moments ago. Tomb and all. At first, she was confused. Then understanding dawned on her then. This wasn’t a regular dungeon; it was a puzzle dungeon. Some relief swept over her.

Most puzzle dungeons didn’t have many enemies in them, some of them didn’t have any at all. They were more of a test of the mind instead of the body. It didn’t make them any less challenging of course, it wouldn’t be Rise of the Broken if things were easy. These puzzles could stump even those with the intelligence of qualified geniuses.

Based on the circumstances that surrounded them currently, this puzzle could be one of a few different kinds. What she dreaded the most was that it might be a labyrinth. The rooms might only look identical to trip them up and make it hard for them to figure out where they’d come from.

“Please don’t let this be a labyrinth, please don't let this be a labyrinth.”

“Barnabis! Take a step out into the room and stay there for a second.” She instructed her companion.

She turned on her heels and rapidly ascended the stairs she had just come down. Praying to the gods the entire time. When she got to the top, Barnabis was standing across the room from her.

This wasn’t a labyrinth. The spaces weren't just identical; they were the same room. She had him remain where he was while she tried a few of the other passageways; just in case. Every single time she found herself right back in the room. After her fourth door, the room flashed red for a moment, but nothing happened.

“Do you think maybe, this is a sequential puzzle?” He asked.

“Probably.” She replied, letting out a sigh of relief.

Solving a sequential puzzle was a matter of figuring out the set of combinations, or moves, that needed to be performed in a pattern to unlock the next part of the puzzle. This then continued until all the parts of the puzzle were unlocked. In this instance, the sequences she would have to make were likely moving through the doors in a certain order. If she did it correctly, one of the locked doors might open and they could move on.

Mercy took an iron ingot out of her inventory. A chisel would have been better, but this would do. Above each of the doors, she scratched a number into the stone. Marking the doors from 1-8.

“There, that should help us keep track a little better.” She said, “ I’m going to keep trying doors. what I need you to do, is use that book of yours to keep track of the sequences we try.”

“Sounds like I'm the perfect gnome for the job!”

He climbed his way onto the tomb in the center of the room and stretched out comfortably. Pen and paper, ready to go. She turned towards the doorways and started trying combinations. After every few choices, she would check the doors to see if they would unlock. After nearly twenty attempts, one finally did.

“Barnabis, what were those numbers?” she asked

“1423.” He replied.

“Got it! This is door number six, so put it at the end and circle it!” She said, pulling open the wooden door that had once been sealed.

She walked through and waved to Barnabis as she re-enter the room. She was disappointed. She had hoped that the locked doors had something interesting behind them; maybe a little bit of loot. But finding nothing was better than getting eaten.

Putting in the next sequence, halfway down the stairs of stairwell 5, she heard a door slam shut. Indicating that she had chosen the incorrect path again. The door closing also meant that she would have to start all over with the first correct combination. She hit the brick wall of the stairwell in frustration.

Suddenly, she heard a blood-curdling scream coming from the main room. Quick as a rabbit, she rushed down the rest of the steps. When she entered the room, she found that Barnabis was no longer alone. Standing atop the tomb that he had been resting on was now a 6-foot-tall skeletal warrior, halberd raised and oozing with black miasma.

It swung the blade down, towards the small gnome. Before it could connect, Mercy put on her full speed and tackled the creature, sending it flying into the wall and bursting into pieces. The impact with the skeleton, and subsequently the wall behind it, caused Mercy’s Hp drop to critical again.

After she got up and dusted herself off, she popped another health potion before walking over to check on Barnabis. He remained unharmed but was a little shaken.

“I...didn’t even see that one….coming.” He wheezed, through rapid breadths; clutching his chest.

“Looks like this puzzle’s about to get a bit tougher.”