Delvers Defeated! Re-
Back, distraction! Back!
The message had appeared- well, it tried to appear- as ten flashes caused ten fishlings to disappear from their detainment tubes and from the dungeon entirely. The mist wall vanished two seconds later, allowing the eleven remaining fishlings access to the boss room.
A firm command of "Nr!" from the Elder halted any mad dashes before they could start. The Elder took the lead, walking just up to where the mist wall had stood, but going no further. It turned around to address its kin, then gave something of a speech. When it was done, it pointed its staff and said "Mrgl!", the name matching the one above the fishling it had called out. The Elder then pointed at the exit and said "Gr. Mr."
"Nr!" Mrgl said in response, stamping its feet.
The Elder whacked Mrgl on the head with its walking stick, then said "GR!" again.
Reluctantly, slowly, and with floppy feet dragging on stone, Mrgl walked towards the exit- er, entrance to the dungeon. Mrgl stopped just before the boundary and looked back at the elder with big, pleading eyes.
"Grrrrrrrr," the elder repeated impatiently, pointing at the exit.
Mrgl left. A few seconds later, more fishlings entered the dungeon, Mrgl not among them.
The Elder singled out another fishling, 'Urgl', and pointed at the mushroom. "Gr. Mr. Chr."
Urgl happily followed the command, bounding into the room and bouncing around on the soft floor.
The elder shouted, stopping its hopping with a single "NR!"
Urgl looked back at the elder in confusion.
Then the mist wall appeared, startling the elder, but not for long. "URGL!" it said in a raised voice, followed by a more complicated series of sounds that Rori couldn't follow at all.
Urgl, on the other side, didn't seem to hear. Urgl was starting to yawn.
The elder stopped shouting at the mist wall when it didn't seem to be working. It turned around and gave another speech, its kin listening attentively as the mushroom carried Urgl to an ejection pod.
Urgl disappeared, and a new fishling entered the dungeon.
Delver Defea-
Back!
Rori watched intently as the Elder said "GR!" the moment the mist wall was gone.
Fishlings dashed into the room, spears raised, each giving little war cries of "GRGLR!" Some stumbled, some ran, some bounced, but they all made a beeline for the mushroom in the center.
Rori watched in horror as his cute Snoozing Shroom was suddenly and ruthlessly stabbed to death by rabid, monkey-sized fish people. It didn't fight back, and it didn't make a sound, but it did have a face like a crying baby's.
The vicious display of violence was over quickly, the fishlings raising their spears in triumph as the mist wall fell. Some of them looked a bit tired, but none fell asleep. The sparkling mist (i.e. the sleeping spores) had disappeared the moment they woke up the boss.
Once the wall was gone, the Elder walked into the room and caught their attention with a few words of command. A few words more, and they were moving towards the next room. There was no doorway between rooms, only a wide gap in the glowing wall.
Once again, the Elder stopped at the threshold and commanded a fishling to go first. "Blrgl. Gr."
Blrgl stepped into the room.
The moment she did, the thingy at the back of the room spoke in the voice of Blrgl's kin. "Hear my song! Play along! Win, you strong!"
Blrgl locked eyes with the room's only possible 'enemy' and charged. With a tink sound, her spear bounced harmlessly off what looked to human eyes like a metal door lodged firmly in a wall of mist.
"Attack is wrong," the weird… thingy said.
Blrgl ignored it. She's not the 'talking' type. TINK!
"Three times, be gone!"
Blrgl continued ignoring it. She's also not the 'thinking' type. TINK, TINK, TINK, TINK-
"You lose. So long!"
The glowing circle beneath Blrgl gave a bright flash, and Blrgl was no more – that is, no longer in the room nor the dungeon. At almost the same time as the flash, Mrgl fell into the dungeon, seeming to stumble past the entrance.
Delver De-
Back!
Mrgl made a beeline for the elder, waving and raving like a lunatic.
The elder ordered all fishlings to stop whatever they were doing – i.e. stop bouncing around on the floor like idiots – and listen to Mrgl.
Mrgl told the story of his journey. After leaving the cave and telling his kin near the entrance to enter if they could, he found the some of the fishlings who had disappeared behind the mist. They were sleeping in the village, but he couldn't wake them up. Also, Grrrmrgrl is bigger and stronger now, and she says its her pearl, but Mrgl didn't understand. Grrrmrgrl had been trying to enter the cave, but she says an elder is telling her she has to wait for a day, even though Mrgl couldn't see any elders. Mrgl, with his special orders from the elder, had continuously leaned on the entrance until all of the sudden he fell straight through! And now he's here and that's what happened.
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Rori understood none of the words, but as he watched the fishling use gestures, sound-effects, and a variety of pantomimes, he almost felt like he could follow along anyway.
The elder nodded, thanked Mrgl, and asked Mrgl if he wanted to help.
Mrgl jumped and clapped happily.
The elder ordered nine fishlings, Mrgl included, to go forward and face the next challenge. All were females except Mrgl.
And then the elder himself stepped into the room.
"Hear my song! Play along! Win, you strong!"
The females didn't hesitate to rush forward and stab at the thingy in the room.
TINK! "Attack is wrong." TINK! "Three times, be gone!"
A hasty "NR!" command from the elder stopped them from going any further. The elder stepped forward slightly. "How we pass?"
The fishling language of Fishish isn't the most sophisticated language in the world. In fact, it might be the least. But that didn't matter to the Riddle Door. It knew- or could learn- all sapient languages, and it knew- or could learn- riddles within each language.
"If you wish,
To pass mist,
Stand on disk,
Riddle this."
There was a large half-circular disk right in front of the door, ever so slightly raised from the ground, upon which the eight female fishlings were currently standing.
The elder ordered all the females off the disk, then ordered one of them to step on and play the game. He didn't single anyone out, he simply said to go one-at-a-time, and so there was immediately a struggle for dominance.
Still uncomfortable at seeing that sort of thing in real life, with real biting, real bruises, and real blood, Rori searched for something to do in the downtime. A quick scan of his stats showed that his mana had reached full again.
Like in most people, there was a part of Rori's mind that hated watching resources go to waste. And it looks like a big way to waste resources in this coma dream / simulation stream / alien super-tech machine is to remain at max storage. Time spent at full mana is time spent not getting more. If he wants to optimize his gains, he needs to never reach capacity. Or if he does, like when leveling up, he needs to not stay at capacity for very long. So that means he should…
Confirm: Appeal 3->5?
Yes.
…increase his mana capacity, of course. He still didn't want to level up and increase his 'Delver Capacity', so he decided to look up the keyword to assign free attribute points and put his two into Appeal, increasing his mana capacity to 500 without spending his current budget of 300 mana. If they do reach his core, hopefully he'll have 500 natural mana in the tank by then.
Although as he increased his Appeal, he noticed a few other values on the Mana screen had changed. His adjusted I/M had grown by a fair margin, and his natural I/M was now -93% instead of -96%.
So Appeal DOES affect more than just my mana capacity. It's either lowering my maintenance costs, increasing my natural intake, or both. And it's definitely increasing my adjusted intake.
That thought was as far as his distraction could take him before he heard a cry of triumph. Battered and bruised, but ultimately victorious, a fishling called Grbl stepped onto the disk and said "Me play!" in Fishish.
A barrier half-dome arose above the half-circle, cutting her off from her kin and isolating her with the door and the wall of mist. A small sliver of white light extended out on the disk from beneath the mist on one side of the door, like a protractor with the door at its center, slowly depicting a larger and larger angle. It progressed at a perfectly steady pace, like a clock – an entirely visual way to display the passage of time. With a hard limit at the end.
"If you wait 'til it's all white,
Or give answer that's not right,
From this place, you will take flight.
In big flash of blinding light."
The fishling scratched her head. This thingy uses big words. But she understood.
Then the Riddle Door spoke, the pie slice of light beneath her feet receding to nothing as it did. "Lrnlurglurklurml, Grmlrmlurglrm…"
Or at least, that's what Rori heard.
The fishlings heard:
"Little hills,
Never still,
Found on krill,
Small and shrill.
Water fills,
Does not kill,
But air will.
I am…"
Only after it was done, did the timer truly begin.
There was a stretch of silence beneath the barrier.
As the seconds ticked by, the glowing piece of pie beneath her thighs slowly grew in size. An eighth circle. A quartier-circle. Three-eighths.
Nrrrnr was stumped. She looked back at her kin, who looked like they were making noise and trying to tell her something, but she couldn't see them all that well, and she couldn't hear them.
Mrgl, in particular, was shouting, "gll! GLL! GLLGLLGLLGLLGLL!"
When time was almost up, she decided she should at least try something. "Fish!"
"Close, but far.
Dumb as jar.
Path, I bar.
Gone, you are."
The floor-disk flashed, and Nrrrnr was gone.
Delver-
Back!
The fishlings looked ready to riot at her disappearance, but the elder calmed them down with a few whacks of his stick.
Mrgl wanted to go next, but the order was decided by strength, and females are bigger and (usually) stronger than males. Another female, Crrrgls, stepped onto the pad.
The barrier arose, the door repeated the rules of the game, and then began.
"Fuel me and I not tire!
Cage me or your fate dire!
You touch me? Hurts like briar!
You are dry? I make dryer!
Give me earth, make me shyer!
Give me drink, shrink my ire!
Give me air, I rise higher!
Beware wrath! I am…"
Again, Mrgl tried to shout the answer, but again his voice didn't pierce the barrier, nor did it rise above the louder shouts of his kin.
"Thornbush?" the fishling tried.
"Do not wail.
Do not flail.
But you fail.
Go to jail!"
Like her sister before her, Crrrgls disappeared in a flash.
Delv-
Back!
This went on for fishling after fishling and riddle after riddle, the elder watching all the while.
Eventually, only two fishlings remained in the room.
"Me now!" Mrgl shouted. "Now me! My turn!" Aquiver with anticipation, he stepped onto the disk and the game began.
"Seen by many, heard by none.
Felt by many, smelt by none.
I came before and follow after,
Starting life, bringing laughter.
In front of stars, I am one.
Above the hills, do I run.
Banish the dark, I have done.
Praise me! I am the…"
__________________________________
A/N: For a riddle as grossly incandescent as this, jolly cooperation is encouraged in the comments. The first reader(s) to post the right answer to a riddle will be given a special reward. I intend to reveal the answers first thing next chapter, but only AFTER the correct answers have been posted. If the upload date arrives before a riddle has been answered, I'm going to censor its corresponding in-story reveal until it is correctly guessed by readers, so there's no time limit on this offer in that regard.
"Does it-" (*horrible swallowing sounds*) "-know the answer?"
Update: Riddles two and three have been solved, but the first is still up for grabs.
Final Update: All three have been solved.