He snapped his fingers just as my blood boiled and I surged forward with the absolute intention to rend him limb from limb. I was frozen mid-lunge with my hands going for his fat neck.

“Now, now, Viktor. Before you get your undergarments in a rumple, please recall…” He said in a slow steady manner as he started to walk around my frozen form. Each step punctuated with a sharp click from his cane and a soft jingle from the bells attached to the ruff around his neck.

“…I made this place. I own it. I brought your dying soul here. I own you. I saved you!” He announced with one finger gesturing in the air at the grand proclamation as he came back into my sight. He gave me a scornful glare. “Saved you, from whatever hellish afterlife you and your atheistic ilk are randomly sent! I brought you here to participate in this grand adventure afterlife of my creation!”

He gestured into the air as he exited my vision again, “and you… who successfully broke it in the first moments of being here. A task requiring the most contrary and absurd choices that I had not anticipated to happen anytime even remotely this soon in the alpha stage. It was so contrary that you actually impressed me. Whereas I, yet again, gifted you with something. A peek of the inner workings of my grand creation. I granted you a vaulted position as an official Alpha Tester with compensation and privilege.” He came into view again before settling in front of me. “Even after all of this. You still act a spoilt child.”

GULP. If I could move. That is what I would have done. My rage fizzled into sorrow. I was an ass, I knew it. Honestly, a lot of the time while acting out, I didn’t really care about the consequences, but when it bit back at the people I loved, I hated myself for it.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” He asked and I felt my restrictions loosening enough to allow me to not speak, but communicate.

‘I’m sorry. I know I’m a fuck up. Punish me if you have to, but please return Pest and just poof me away instead. He is my little buddy, and he didn’t deserve to be unmade due to my bullshit.’

“Indeed, he does not deserve it. However, he is my creation and is not of Midgard or anywhere else. He was conceived here in the System that I constantly nourish to improve and expand your quality of afterlife. Only in this tower does he possess any kind of existence. This tower is mine. The System is mine. He is mine. And…?” he trailed off after punctuating each proclamation with a tap of his cane. He paused for a moment while looking at me, giving me an encouraging gesture. “And…?”

‘I am yours.’ I confirmed.

“Excellent.” He said in satisfaction, but his eyes shone with a brief moment of disappointment. After a long stare into my non-blinking eyes, he snapped his fingers and a frozen Pest reappeared next to him. I would have sagged in relief.

“Now, while you remain there cooling off, let us look at this last report you did in your position as an Alpha Tester.” He said, plucking the last memo paper out of the air and looking it over.

Alpha Tester. Position. Compensation. Privilege. He really kept at it with the emphasis on these words, and while I sat in my paused state I tried to remove my mind from the horrible rage and terror of the possible loss of Pest while focusing on what he was trying to tell me between the lines.

What I came up with was that I couldn’t get renown, assistance or rewards from being Loki’s new champion. Although this entire time I had been getting most of those things. I was rewarded with occasional trinkets, the horse Finley, and most importantly Pest and his transformation. I got all those things not as prizes for being a popular champion, but for being a sort of employee.

So that must be his loophole around the restrictions. No renown for me, but if I kept doing my job, and doing it well, he would pay or compensate me as an employee. I couldn’t think of anything else that fit his actions. This had to be his cheat. He had to say it multiple times to get it through my thick skull, even to the point of taking away my little buddy.

‘Message received. I will continue to do my job.’ I communicated after I took plenty of time to think. He seemed to be taking a very long time to read that little memo slip.

“Excellent. Always a valued employee Senior Alpha Tester Viktor,” he said.

‘Next time you need to emphasis something about my work performance, can we have a codeword or something?’ I asked. ‘And you know, less of disappearing the important things in my life?’

“Excellent idea. What code phrase might you suggest?” Loki said with a grin.

‘Eat me,’ I suggested.

“Oh, I would rather not.” He said frowning. “That is rather uncouth. Let us make use of the term singular simpleminded simpleton.”

‘That is a mouthful.’ I said.

“Mayhap, however it is rather memorable, and I feel that that is an important quality for someone to work on.”

‘Sure. Sure,’ I brushed off his insult, but I asked a question that I really felt I needed to know. ‘So, about Pest. Would you really do it?’

“Oh me, no. I need him to win the bet. Also, there would be an exodus of supporters, some communities are obsessed with non-human characters. Can’t have that now can we. But I do need you to toe the line, dot the I’s and cross the T’s!” He said. “Now, moving on! Mountain aspen trees in autumn next to spring stage forests? Hmmm. Maybe a dysregulation with the biome timers I’ll need to look into that. You have been very perceptive today Alpha Tester Viktor. I will compensate you for your mediocre work and the willing attempt at self-sacrifice to rescue your companion from the repercussions of your own poor choices.”

“Let me think,” he said aloud as he put a finger to his chin to ponder. After a moment he brought the cane to his head to scratch with it before his eyes widened and he grinned brightly. “How about this old cane? Maybe it will suit you?”

‘Yes, please!’ I cried internally with joy. I was going to get some of that sweet-sweet god juice after all!

“Excellent.” He offered the cane to me and snapped his fingers. I found myself stumbling forward out of my frozen leap to land in front of him in a heap. I got to my knees and reached out to take the Trickster’s Lantern.

“It is all yours…” he encouraged me like a mall Santa gifting a teddy bear to a toddler. Just as my fingers brushed the smooth shaft and the smallest hint of power began to creep into me, the cane vanished.

“…as long as you can find it.” He said.

“Wha…” I started to ask as he faded out of my vision, the shine of his smile staying behind for a brief moment longer than the rest of him, just like a fucking purple striped cat.

[***]

“Why am I here?” Pest asked. “I was there.” He pointed a few feet away.

“Bud. You don’t even want to know.” I said in exasperation after a breath or two of disappointment.

“Okay.” He said and kept on with his merry little march towards the arena exit.

“Fucking, fuckity fuck.” I muttered in exasperation. I wasn’t exhausted or painful any longer, with Loki’s little snap-heal, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t worn the fuck out by all that up and down. I felt like I needed a week of recovery just thinking about all of it. Extra wits points or not, I think my brain had shorted out. I didn’t even know what came over me in that violent charge towards Loki. It wasn’t going to succeed in anyway, and I could have figured out better ways to enact vengeance with the rune-code.

I slipped my bear cloak back on and made sure my gear was settled as I caught up to Pest as we hit the exit doorway. As I caught up I gave a brief thought to my current situation, trying to right my mind after that stressful intermission of Loki. What really sucked about it was that I didn’t gain anything much from it.

I supposed the Improvised Weapon was worth a little bit of hassle. I had been using the pan I named Gloria because it was affordable, and I had thought that Unconventional Weapon Use was helping but I guess not. I took a look at the description again.

[Unconventional Weapon Use]

Unlock Conditions – Use a weapon in an unconventional way to receive desirable results.

[lvl 1] – You can estimate how to swing a bow and throw a sword to your advantage.

I had misinterpreted the skill, and it was rather obvious now. Using a weapon in a weird way, not using an item as a weapon. Would this mean that my already decently mean Gloria would absolutely crush things now? And here I was thinking of trading her in for a real weapon. For shame!

Giving her a reassuring pat on the handle I exited the arena into another large-bricked corridor. As I walked along Pest discovered he enjoyed my new cloak. Unfortunately for me, he detested the outer flesh side, but loved the internal fur side and climbed up inside to stuff himself into the hood and lounge across my shoulders.

He had been getting too big for this maneuver, but now with the new cloak he had enough support to resume one of his favorite resting spots. I was fearing when I would need to wear my pack next. The cloak was big to the point that I would need to wear it on the inside, which would keep it nice and dry during a rain spell but would make a perfect platform for him to ride me like a palanquin. Not to mention the heat he would that his warm little body would produce. Even without environmental temperatures my walks were soon doomed to oven like temperatures if I wore the cloak.

I noticed he was getting heavier as well even without any visible growth spurts. After a little bit of testing, I found his rucksack was the culprit. Apparently weight reduction was not a quality of BOTTOMLESS. My flask held the FEATHER quality, so I took a moment to add that to the rucksack. It didn’t seem to make a difference in its weight and when I inspected the bag, the flag had disappeared. I tried adding it a few more times, but it seemed the System didn’t accept it.

I supposed it must need to be bestowed by a god or plugged into the anointed section. I didn’t want to mess with that yet in the case that the gods somehow got a notification about an Implement being anointed in their name. Best not draw too much attention with my fuckery of the rune-code, I allready has one all seeing eye I had to dodge while doing that, through the pause during inspect helped lessen that worry by quite a bit.

Further experimentation in flags definitely needed to be soon. Which I felt I kept telling myself but had never gotten around to. I was easily distracted and I seemed to always have more projects started than finished.

We came to a T intersection and on whim I went left. Law-of-lefts! It led to another octagonal arena space, the doors already opened. Eight corpses of large ravens littered the floor. I inspected them.

Name: Corpse

Species: Elder Corvax Raven

FLAGS: DECAY

[…]

All the ravens were the same and being elder’s may explain their abnormal size. They had a wingspan as wide as I was tall with bodies the size of a border collie.

A few broken primitive spears---sharpened sticks---that I knew Dark was using as backup weapons, were soaking in a large pool of congealed blood accompanied by four raven corpses. There was too much blood on the ground to have only been from the birds.

Since they were elder and none of them looked to be plucked or skinned, I decided to dress the bodies. Most of the ravens wouldn’t fit into Pest’s bag but a few did. They looked to be struck with Carmilla’s Wither magic. That brought a frown to my face because I knew that particular Word meant she had to be touching them to work. To increase my worry their beaks and talons were covered in blood with one even having a chunk of pale flesh hanging from its beak.

I ended up with quite a bit of raven materials. Seven feet with large three-inch claws, three heads with both beak and eyes, five feathered skins of slightly damaged quality. The three withered corpses were shrunk down to nothing but skin and bones so I was able to stuff them whole into Pest’s rucksack with a bit of effort.

Along the way I got a couple skill ups.

[Congratulations! Skinning has increased to Level 3!]

[lvl 1] - Slowly skin an animal, separating useful portions.

[lvl 3] - Quickly skin an animal, separating useful portions, and gain better quality parts sometimes.

[Congratulations! Butchering has increased to Level 2!]

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Skinning became noticeably easier at that point, increasing my speed by about a quarter and I made less mistakes while removing it. Butchering wasn’t anything to sneeze at either and was gained when I harvested the meat for dinner. Bear and raven, an odd combination of meats, but I’m sure it would go well with a few wild vegetables and seasonings. Thinking of seasonings, I vowed to scour the market next time I was in town. This bland white people food was starting to make me want to abstain from eating all together. I needed seasonings!

I did wish I had an animal harvesting skill like the Monster Harvesting. It would be good to know if raven eyes were some sort of sought after ingredient, because I didn’t relish keeping random heads. What the hell did they even do with all these random animal and monster parts, some sort of ritual or alchemy ingredient?

I wasn’t even going to pretend to fuck with alchemy, I’d just cheat my potions into existence. Who the hell wanted to walk around and randomly eat things to identify it? Sounded like a good way to get the System’s commiserations. Wait… Didn’t I already do that with herbs? Wow, I was dumb.

The beaks of the birds I kept as well thinking that traditional eastern medicine use powered bird beaks as some sort of holistic Viagra or aphrodisiac. Well, the truth of my thought being what didn’t the they turn into an aphrodisiac if movies and television were anything to base the thoughts off of. Tiger dicks and sharkfin soup. Powdered elder raven beak fit right into that category I figured.

I decided that skill idea was report worthy and sent it off.

I did a rough cleanup with a scrub of random paper and fabric scraps from Pest’s bag. He glared at me the whole time and I had to fend him off from recollecting the soiled bits. He had a hording problem at this point and I was concerned for a moment, but honestly if he didn’t horde everything I wouldn’t have had anything to scrape the gore off of myself.

We left the blood soaked arena and headed back the way we came, taking the other path on the T-intersection. This corridor lead to a dead end.

I found Carmilla sprawled out on the floor slumped onto Dark’s lap as he sat on the ground with his back against the wall. His head sagged down to his chest. They were either dead or dead asleep. An agitated and blood-splattered little raven was perched atop their raven statuette.

The floor under my party mates was smeared with more of the dried rust-brown of life fluid. The few bits of skin on Dark that I could see were torn up and looked like he fell through a bramble with three-inch barbed thorns. Carmilla was worse off, her shirt and pants were slashed like she had just broke into ‘90s fashion with the addition of a serial killer tie-dye blood scheme. With my now rust-brown redcap jacket, we would make quite an impression on the Vinlander socialites this fashion season.

Her wounds were deep and many without an armor to protect her, a hasty bandage around one shoulder that had leaked through. Fresh blood seeping out from under it.

Their weapons, Dark’s javelin and Carmilla’s witch broom, leaned against the wall in the corner. They were chipped and dented, but that was hard to see through the thick gooey blood that caked them. The whole scene reminded me of those paintings where everything was greyscale except the emphasized items which were bright red.

I gripped Gloria by the handle and took a look at the interface to see if the little son of a bitch raven had finished them off and was gloating over his kills.

[Ryan Wolfe – Heavily Injured]

[Alan Halloway – Seriously Injured]

[Viktor – Healthy]

[Pest – Healthy]

[Mave Pollaris – Fallen]

[x_x_DarkEdge_x_x – Mildly Injured]

[Carmilla – Critically Injured]

[Corvinus Valerius – Lightly Injured]

That last name was a curious addition and led me to inspect the bird.

Name: Corvinus Valerius

Race: Juvenile Corvax Raven

Type: Creature

Allegiance: Carmilla (bond)

FLAGS: COGNITION_0, IS_BOUND (Carmilla), ADAPTABLE

Health: Lightly Injured

Energy: Full

A new bonded critter! Fantastic! Ravens were wickedly clever and an intelligent one would be an awesome companion. If it raised its cognition value and grew to the size of those other birds it would be a true unkindness to face against him. The little bastard cawed loudly which startled me as it echoed painfully off the stone walls of the corridor.

“Shut up!” Dark shouted as he and Carmilla were jolted awake. Carmilla groaned.

“Don’t talk to Corvinus like that,” she mumbled. I was impressed, though she looked near dead she managed to get out the reprimand.

“Fuck! What the hell is that?!” Dark screamed. “Bird, kill it!”

The raven looked at him and let out another caw. I imagined he said something along the lines of, ‘get fucked.’ Or at least that is what I would have said. It just flapped its wings and hopped around on top the statuette in puffed up agitation.

“Worry not! Is it I!” I announced as I flung back the hood to my cloak.

“Oh great, this asshole.” Dark huffed as he looked up to see me.

“Hey! Don’t talk to Pest that way!” I shouted at him.

“I’m not asshole!” Pest announced not a heartbeat after me. Glancing at him I found saw him pointing at me as he finished. “I have asshole.”

“Et tu, Pest!” I staggered with a hand to my heart, wounded by his merciless insult.

“Gesundheit,” he said as he marched up to Carmilla.

Paying a little closer attention to the party information, Ryan, Halloway, and Carmilla were doing worse since I looked at it before with only Dark holding steady. Pest had caught on to her deterioration quicker then I and was already giving her a dose of his flask’s health potion. He looked up to Dark consideringly then pointedly closed and holstered his canteen while staring at him. Pest didn’t like Dark either, and he was doing okay.

The bird let out another squawk and Pest took on a defensive stance with hands ready to pull his knife-sword.

“No, it’s okay Corvinus. He is a friend. A good friend.” Carmilla said with a weak smile, some life entering her as she peered around. As if an afterthought she added, “and Viktor too.”

“Howdy Feathers,” I said with a nod and the raven bristled and puffed himself up to show his displeasure at the new nickname. I looked to the pair, “so, giant ravens?”

“What gave it away?” Dark asked rhetorically.

“The big fucking ravens in the other room.” I answered him anyway.

“What got you, a yeti?” he said with a smirk.

“Nah, it was your mom. Don’t recognize her back hair?” I asked as I parted the cloak to show off the fur lining.

“You mother fucker.” He cursed at me.

“Yes, that was the joke.” I said dryly. “If you point it out and I have to explain it, it kinda ruins the punchline.”

“I’ll show you a punchline.”

“Sure, sure, just make sure to have someone to hold your hair out of the way so you can actually see me.” I said as I rolled my eyes at him, and he tossed his head to get the bangs out of his face. To my utter delight, he winced in pain afterwards.

As we bickered, Carmilla was able to get herself together and get to her feet. Pest had assisted her up as Corvinus watched closely while making little croaking noises. It was funny to watch as the raven raised his shoulders and pulled his head in with each noise like he had to squeeze them out.

“What… What was it?” Carmilla asked in her nervous manner.

“Bear. Big ass bear.” I said with a tired exhalation. “Almost got me too.”

“Yes. If not for this beautiful fellow, we would have fallen.” Carmilla said as she leaned down to scratch at the ravens’ feathers who preened at the attention. Dark gave it a dark look. Guess he was jealous of a bird now. This guy had issues.

“How did Feathers turn the battle against those big ravens? I saw you Withered some, and Dark speared others,” as I said this, I leaned two primitive spears against the wall where his javelin rested. I had repaired them from the broken ones he had left in the raven room.

“Thank you,” he grumbled.

“Oh… I… ran out of energy, and Dark…,” she ran her fingers through his hair, and he preened more than the bird, “…was injured badly.”

“Talons and beaks shredded us. All I could do was lay on top of Carmilla trying to protect her with my armor.” Dark said.

I imagined it was more like he cowered and fell atop her, but I’d let him keep this one. After all he had been polite when I gave him the spears back.

“Corvinus dove in from nowhere pecking and clawing their eyes.” Carmilla continued with as much passion as she talked about her sparkly vampires with. “They were bigger, but he was more agile, in and out he flew.”

“We managed to break lose and I brought down the blinded ravens before we made our way here.” Dark said.

“Why did Feathers help you?” I asked.

“Wh… When we… entered that room. He greeted us.” Carmilla said as she affectionately stroked the bird again “He was just so beautiful and let me walk right up to him. I was feeding him little pieces of dried meat and I guess I made a friend. Then the other ravens came. He hurried away as they landed around us. I offered them meat, but they bit my fingers and started attacking us.”

“Good job, Carm! Bonded a raven with a little bit of jerky.” I said with a nod to Corvinus.

“What do you mean bonded, Viktor?” She asked me.

“Bonded, the same thing with Pest and I.”

“Oh… Oh…” She stammered excitedly. “Do you think so?”

“I know so!” I said with a grin and patted her bare shoulder. Her shirt was sliced up pretty badly, only the barest of tatters holding it together, much less covering her. Seemed she couldn’t avoid flashing her bits no matter how hard we tried to keep her clothed.

“Do you want my jacket or something?” I asked her in a close whisper.

“N… No… Thank you…” She said hesitantly and I waited patiently for a reason. Finally with a scrunched nose she confessed. “…you really stink.”

“Oh!” I said in surprise and did a quick pit check. I guess I was getting a little ripe. “Well, you aren’t a bed of roses yourself sister.”

“Oh!” She bleated as her cheeks colored.

“Alright, dead end.” I said and looked at the walls of the corridor.

“It is another closed doorway, but there are two slots this time.” Dark said, finally getting up from the floor and subtly interposed himself between me and Carmilla.

I eyeballed the raven statuette and it did look to be set into the floor with another slot waiting next to it. As I got closer for a better look Corvinus must have felt cornered as I approached because he let out a strangled caw and took to the air with frantic flaps of his wings. A few feathers drifted in the air, lost in his panic as he careened around the corridor in an impressive burst of chaos before landing on Carmilla’s shoulder.

She let out a squeak as he drew blood on her unprotected shoulder with his talons, which caused him to panic again and hectically flutter to Dark’s shoulder instead, the samurai armor protected Dark from a similar bloodletting. Carmilla coo’d and pet the bird to smooth its ruffled feathers. I clicked my tongue.

“Pest, board meeting.” I said and he instantly appeared next to me.

“Yes, Chairman Viktor?” He asked with almost ramrod straight posture. Ferretmen didn’t really have a straight in their wiggle noodle bodies, but he did his best. I was starting to think he was part soldier beneath that businesslike exterior of his.

“Private meeting!” I told the others and hunkered down with Pest using my cloak as a miniature tent. It was bulky enough that I could sit with legs bent while he sat opposite which created a work space between us.

“What the fuck?” Dark asked.

“Private!” I shouted from inside my cloak tent. “I have sensitive things to discuss with my business associate, take a nap or something!”

“Oh… Okay.” Carmilla said, I could hear her perplexion.

As they shifted around and Corvinus cawed a few more times, I had Pest tip out some of his rucksack loot between us.

[***]

A while later we burst out of my cloak turned tent. Carmilla wasn’t wrong, it was a little funky in there. I appreciatively took a deep breath of fresher air. I held the two things that came from our meeting, the bear statuette and something I made for Carmilla.

They were asleep again with Dark sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall while Carmilla rested her head on one of his legs. Her hair was undone and pooled in his lap and the raven nested in it. I might have called it adorable, if it wasn’t for my healthy lack of respect for the ugly emo kid, so I’d settled on cute. I checked the party health again.

[Ryan Wolfe – Lightly Injured]

[Alan Halloway – Heavily Injured]

[Viktor – Healthy]

[Pest – Healthy]

[Mave Pollaris – Healthy]

[x_x_DarkEdge_x_x – Mildly Injured]

[Carmilla – Healthy]

[Corvinus Valerius – Healthy]

Things were all over the place with Ryan, and Alan’s health. Up and down each time I looked. Dark, Carmilla, and Corvinus all looked better. But the kicker was Mave as back up. Which led me to believe that the night had passed while I was crafting, and they rested. I guess Halloway was right, and it didn’t include us in the reset since we were inside the dungeon.

Like on Christmas morning, I couldn’t wait for presents and shook Carmilla awake. When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to open them, as an adult I couldn’t wait to give them. Unless I was up to 4am wrapping them, then all bets were off.

“Oh, V… Viktor? What… what’s wrong?” she asked.

“I made a thing for you.” I said and took her hands to pull her into a sitting position. Corvinus squawked indignantly as he was spilled out of his blonde nest. He flapped his wings as he righted himself, Dark reached out and Corvinus pecked him as he tried to steady the bird.

I ignored them and shoved my creation over Carmilla’s head and adjusted it to her shoulders.

“Wha… What?” she squawked.

The feather shawl draped over her shoulders. I affixed it around her neck with a leather strap and raven’s claw. It came together snugly and resembled a choker. The layered black raven’s feathers shone in the torchlight and spread out to cover he shoulders to hide her chest down to the sternum and halfway down her back. I checked the bones hidden in the under layer of leather that went along her shoulders for anything that might be uncomfortable, but it all seemed to hold up well.

“How does that feel?” I asked her.

“F…Fine…” She said.

“Excellent.”

“Ho… how does it look?” She asked Dark.

“Fantastic.” He said with awe in his voice.

“If you like that, just wait until she wears her black dress underneath it.”

“The Morrigan.” He whispered.

I admired my work. It didn’t prove that difficult. As rough and barbaric as my cloak came out, this shawl came out the exact opposite. It was delicate and elegant in the way of a dark sorceress. I was honestly surprised by the quality, and I had the thought that something in this dungeon was guiding my hand. Nothing I had ever made, even cheating, came out as good looking as these items did. It had to be the dungeon’s influence as a reward for completing our challenges.

Name: Feathered Shawl of the Elder Raven

Material: Remnants of Memory and Thought

Durability: Undamaged

Value: Priceless

FLAGS: ANOINTED(LOKI) - UNIQUE(RAVENPALACE), CHOSEN_ARMOR, MENDING

It held another unique blessing, raven palace? What the hell was that supposed to be? I couldn’t wait to discover what it could do. The materials were a bit unhinged as well since what I had actually used were raven feathers, spare leather, and split bear bones. So I was doubling down on my thought of some form of System manipulation in this dungeon.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here, eh?” I said with a grin at the small party.

“Hell yea!” Dark said as he hopped up, more excited than I had ever seen him. I faltered for a moment, maybe I had unleashed a kink unto the world that I may regret later. I shrugged, wouldn’t be the first time.

“Oh!” Carmilla tensed as Corvinus landed on her shoulder again, but she didn’t wince in pain. The bones worked just like I hoped they wood, granting the bird a safe perch to grasp that wasn’t her flesh.

“I got you.” I said as I gave her an upward nod. She thanked me and I moved to the notch in the floor, settling the bear into it. As soon as it aligned properly the wall moved upward with its stone on stone grinding and grumbling.

The next room was much smaller than the arenas had been, but it was still a good-sized space. Large braziers sat in the far corners, burning with a fire that seemed a little too red to be natural. Peeking to the corners on the entrance wall showed two more, making one brazier in each corner of the room. A stone plinth was in the center of the room creating a table high surface. Something was on top of it.

“Trap?” I asked nobody.

“If it is, I know just the guy to take care of it.” Dark said and gave me a hearty slap on the back. I stumbled forward a step, but luckily no traps sprang to burn off my face. Scratch that, it would probably be my hand that got burnt off.