1.7

There it was. The classic one-handed choke hold.

In one swift execution, Subject X managed to cease Aesa by the neck, squeezing his air pipe nearly to the point of breaking. Not even half a second later, it too had succeeded in pinning him up against the rocky cave wall, affixing him there like a tiny tack on a corkboard.

Who would have thought that a lone puny looking skeleton with no weapon and no armor to show for would be that strong? It only had a pair of disheveled boots for fucks sake.

‘How is this thing so abnormally strong?’ he asked himself out of bewilderment. 'It can't be because of the alone, right? That's just absurd! Thats not balanced!'

For once in his gaming life, Aesa kind of wished that an MMO such as Grum’s Labyrinth would take a step back into shelling out one lethal game content after another. Sure, it was a nice change to not be spoon fed by the tutorial for once or to not be led around town by the nose to complete some lousy ‘fetch me’ quests. He was even thankful that the developers of GL made a tremendous effort to distance itself from the usual MMO recipe. Problem was, this one big guessing game had Aesa completely tired by day two. First, there was the Kobold. And now, this Skeleton. This only goes to prove that the organizers were dead serious in cutting down the competitors to just the worthy one hundred and nothing more.

"But can we at least get a little breather around here even just for today? Is that too much to ask? Kukh!" Aesa complained while he choked on his own words. "And where are the overhead labels when you needed one?" 

He could have avoided being surprised like that and at least from the get go, he had an idea as to how strong this creature was, then he would have not approached it. But then again, it was too late to regret that now. Shit happened already.

Before Grum’s, he used to loathe how other MMO’s were so obvious about a lot of things. The developers loved to babysit their players back then that they would label everything from Lvl.1 Normal Brown Poop to Lvl.999 Legendary Impregnable Condom. It was so blatant and shameless at times that Aesa had to customizate his settings and turn off all of the labels plastered across his entire screen. He had to do that so he could stop gagging from all the notifications popping left and right while he was playing. 

But things do change. And so were his needs. The irony of it all was that Aesa longed for them now; those excruciating gag worthy 'pop-up' features. He needed them so badly today and he needed them quickly! If he had before hand, this predicament would have not occured in the first place.

‘Keh. Curse this level gap!’

Aesa could only assume the glaring disparity. Without , it was impossible for him to appraise the exact level or even the overall stats of his opponent like he wanted to. He was merely going with his gut feel at this point, evaluating his enemy’s statistics based on his past experiences and playthrough.

If he was to plainly judge by how Subject X reacted against his tirade of kicks and punches (which was a no reaction to say the least), he could clearly say that there was a huge level of disparity between the two of them. Aesa estimated that the Subject X could be about five to ten levels higher than him. It was kind of obvious with the way his attacks against it were not dishing any damage output at all. Even with his hardest right punch hitting the creatures face full on, still, Subject X was unfazed.

While being strangled mid air, Aesa observed something very peculiar about Subject X's behavior. It was somehow strange that it didn’t seem to do anything more other than suspend him on the wall like a portrait. If this was any generic MMO out there, this creature would have torn him to pieces by now. That was the normal expectation. For him, it was simply puzzling as to why that particular scene hasn’t played out yet. It was strange that he limbs are still very much intact at that point. Is this creatures A.I. bugged? I mean, what’s it waiting for?

Clak! Clak! Clak! Clak! 

As if it read his mind, Subject X responded in a sort of weird skeleton speak. If it was jostility or otherwise, whatever message that the creature was trying to convey, Aesa did not understand a thing.

From the waist down, the undead evaluated Aesa like a piece of merchandise passing through the conveyor belt. It sniffed him all over like it was performing a sort of odor test. Obviously, the creature was confused about Aesa’s entire existence. It was having a difficult time decifiring as to what he really was. Aesa looked and smelled just like them but only he wasn't. He was niether friend nor foe. The creature was trying to make sense of the situation but its simplistic binary logic failed itself. And so, after a few minutes of prodding, Subject X finally gave up on Aesa, letting him loose bit by bit in the process.

Subject X sniffed him one last time. And no more than a second later, it withdrew its face away from Aesa. It didn't stop there either. Its grip completely came loose, freeing Aesa completely from the iron noose that has once held his neck. The encounter ended with Subject X finally walking away opposite of Aesa like it was the most natural thing to do in the world.

With all of his strength spent, Aesa decided not to move any further and just retired from where Subject X had left him. He melted on the floor like a scoop of dirty ice-cream on a hot mid-summer day; messy and disheveled. And then he blacked out.

----------------------------------------

Hello there, Treasure Hunter. I guess I should call you that for finding the box, huh? Kuku. Anyway, my name is Lawa-Lawa. A nomadic blacksmith. I don't have much time left so I'll be brief with this recording.

Here, inside this box is a trinket. A trinket that I’ve spent my entire life perfecting--- the Pocket Furnace. Now, a tad bit of warning--- what I’m leaving in your care is something very important. This thing in my right arm has the potential to create things that are both great and unimaginable. Things that are beautiful. Things that are horrible. Unbelievable but fantastic things. All of those things I mentioned… all of those… could be created by this tiny inconspicuous thing that is wrapped around my wrist. Believe it? Don’t just yet. You have to use it first so you can judge it. Kuku.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

From here on out, whether the things that you’ll conjure will benefit the entire labyrinth or the opposite, depending as to what you fancy, will be purely up to you. I would not tell you how you would use the trinket. No sir. Rather, I’d like for you to build and create things that speaks and connects to you. That is all.

 *Cough* 

I wish I had the luxury of witnessing what you would do with it. I wish to see something mind blowing but I guess I wouldn’t be here anymore to witness that. 

*Cough* *Cough*

All right, looks like its time. Congratulations by the way for solving the puzzle. It just goes to show how you know your stars by heart just like I did. I personally prefer beings who look up to the stars. They’re the ones who weave beautiful dreams. And I certainly hope you have some big dreams in you, whoever you are that is watching this recording. Anyway, I have to leave now. They’re here. 

Blip!

The holographic recording was exactly two and half minutes long when he played it. The demi-human on the video who called himself Lawa-Lawa, looked like someone who was in his late sixties. Despite his age though, the old man had a strong bulky body which made him look even younger than he was supposed to. Lawa-lawa wore his salt and pepper hair in a tight long dreadlock which made him appear way more stylish for his age. The old man also sported a quad-spectacle tinted in ruby. What really stood out though amongst all of Lawa-Lawa’s features were his six strong tank-like arms. They’re built like turrets as big as the turrets of an M1A1 Abrams.

Four eyes? Six arms? Must be a demi-arachnid, I guess?

Two hours ago, after dodging a ton of skellies, hell hounds and everything else undead in-between, Aesa has finally arrived at the place where the map had led him to. His success and safety were all thanks to the data provided by Subject X. The trick that he learned a moment ago was actually very simple-- for as long as he would not make any physical contact with any of the mobs there, regardless if he’d breach their respective agro spheres or not, he’d still be ignored for the most part. The only exception to this rule were the species of . It seems that they were more instinctive than most mobs inside the dungeon. They were five times intuitive than what the normal skeleton soldiers were. What stood out in their A.I. programming was that these were more aware of foreign presences and scents regardless if he touches them or not. For that reason, Aesa avoided them like a plague during his entire journey. He hid whenever he sensed one coming even from afar.

There was a point however during his trek when he mistakenly thought that he had lost his way inside. He even panicked slightly when the map purposely led him to a dead end. The corner screamed of trap all over and it was stupid of him to not recognize the glaring warning signs from the get go.

The passage that he was currently on were narrow and could only fit one person at a time. It was perfect for culling unsuspecting idiots (like him) who were easily lured by the allure of silver and gold. But since he was half an idiot and a little bit too greedy for his own good, Aesa still pressed on despite the danger. He remembered a time when he gambled his college money for vial of A Grade compressed oxygen solution from Earth. It was recklessly stupid and irresponsible, but he did it anyway. In the end, it was all worth it. The gamble paid off. This was the same exact situation. He was shaking and scared at the same time, but he wanted to be that stupid and irresponsible guy again. He wanted to take that chance. Nothing gambled, nothing gained.

As Aesa passed through the narrow pathway, his thoughts were filled with images of dread. Thoughts of deadly traps appearing out of nowhere-- flying spears, rain of poisonous arrows and even collapsing floor amongst all other things. He only felt relieved when it turned out that his morbid thoughts were baseless and he worried himself for nothing. It was his own fault anyway that he exaggerated his fears. Truth was, the map has actually led him to a hidden crack on the cave wall where a two inches thick steel door was waiting for him. The door was craftily disguised by the abundant overgrowth of combined moss and an assortment of other crawling nocturnal plants in the section, making the door entrance appear like a normal cave wall and nothing more.

“Hmnn. Now that I’ve found the door, what’s next then?”

The steel door didn’t seem to have a handle nor a keyhole to begin with. Opening it seemed to be a mystery.

But a door will always be a door. There has to be a way to open it, otherwise, the contraption should have not been built at all.

A spark of idea suddenly came to Aesa. Maybe I should use that? It was then that he remembered an item that he picked up along with the map. A sort of crystal slate, three inches in length, two inches in width and about half an inch thick.

The moment he took the slate out in the open, a sort of bwoong bwoong sound resonated from behind the seven foot tall steel door. Following that, a fan of soft yellow laser light suddenly beamed out from the top center of the door, bathing Aesa with its sweeping radiance from head to toe. He wasn’t sure as to what exactly was the light was for, but he believed that it was scanning for something. Hopefully the crystal slate would provide a clue as to what the scanner was searching for.

A few sweeps after, the fan of light eventually converged into one thin line. It looked more like a pen laser now than when it first started. Little by little, it zeroed in on the crystal slate that he held out, changing its laser light color from yellow to green.

Authorization confirmed. Welcome back Professor.

‘Pfft! So unoriginal’. He realized that one of the developers that was assigned to this segment must have been a fan of the classic X-Men: Days of Future Past. That ‘welcome’ line was practically a direct reference to the movie when Cerebro greeted Professor X back after a long hiatus.

Going in, Aesa was greeted by a small well-lit workshop. An array of tools and materials riddled the entire messy 10x10 room. Right smack in the middle of it was an islet where a small tool box was placed. Double checking his map, the green arrow was pointing exactly where the box was. Obviously that’s the treasure! He screamed in delight inside.

The tool box didn’t have any lock on it, so Aesa just swooped right in and rummage through it. Inside the box were two things--- a tin colored rubix cube and a tin colored arm band. The rubix cube looked interesting but Aesa got drawn to the arm band more. He picked it up and examined the trinket closely. There was nothing extraordinary about it. It was sleek, plain, but very solid. The materials appears to be of tin but it's not. Running his index finger and his thumb through the bracelet, he somehow detected a tiny hump half way through the circumference. What was that? He didn’t know what he has triggered exactly but suddenly, bursts of golden light exploded from where the bracelet was. With it came three giant floating spheres-- one big sphere in the middle and two basketball sized mini-spheres on each side of the biggest one. All three were made of interweaving holographic solidified energy that formed both the grids and entire structure of all three spheres. They glowed in colors of radiant gold and somehow pulses too for no apparent reason.

Pocket Furnace Initialization Complete. New user detected. Initiating registration process, would you like to proceed?

“Oh, wow!”

Warning: Low battery. Please charge.

“Wait… what?”