Peering intently all around him Jarrod could see nothing, he heard nothing but at least he could still feel the ground beneath his feet. Fumbling his hands into his goblin satchel he groped around in the dark for the potion. OK I have no idea what this potion does, but at this point what have I got to lose. I literally can’t see a single thing so even if it does nothing, I’m not exactly going to be in a worse position than I am currently am I? Drawing the potion from the satchel he pulled it close to his mouth and unstopped the cork with his teeth. Spitting the cork out to one side he swallowed the entirety of the liquid in two quick pulls. It didn’t taste of very much, there was a very faint taste of some herb that had an almost medicinal quality, but beyond that there was nothing he could identify.

Slowly he started to make out some shapes in the gloom, he still couldn’t hear anything, but he could now see a series of platforms laid out before him. They were not uniform in anyway, nor were they laid out in any form of pattern that Jarrod could discern.

There was no uniformity to them in either shape, or size, but the more he watched the more he did start to notice a pattern emerge. In the dark the platforms were moving, slowly and definitely were more akin to islands than platforms of any description he had seen previously.

About 10 feet in front of him, the ground sloped down, and some form of liquid was lapping gently against the edge of the packed dirt. This liquid, whatever it was, is what all of the islands were floating in.

Striding to the edge, and watching the islands float by, he took the handle out that remained after his dagger mishap and pushed it gently into the liquid. What he assumed was water to begin with, swiftly showed itself not to be the case as the liquid, whatever it was started to eat away at the handle of the dagger, leaving nothing behind where it had touched. The material that the liquid had touched, appeared to have melted entirely for lack of a better explanation. Got it, touching that stuff is bad news. Doing this in the dark would be near impossible. I suppose thanks to the Other are technically in order as I’m assuming it’s this insane LUCK that let me find the potions to begin with.

With no differences he could discern between the platforms, he waited patiently for one to come as close as any did to the shoreline and with a short hop got across to the first platform. With his landing secured on the first platform, the rest started to shift in their movements again, still in utter silence. As he watched the islands settled into their new pattern, and he managed to chart a course that would get him halfway across, quickly bounding over there islands hopefully in a short spurt of time that wouldn’t allow the islands to adjust their courses again.

Lining himself up he made it across to the first island (second overall) without a mishap, the second went off without a hitch, just as the islands had started on their new path. He had the third jump lined up and as he took off, the islands had already set off on their new pathways. At each subsequent jump they were getting faster and faster, on the final landing he almost nailed it. His front foot landed, and as he had brought in the second, his right foot hit the very edge of the island and started slipping. His right boot dipped into the liquid, the sole started dissolving and the rest of the boot started sloughing off dripping into the liquid below. He threw his weight forwards and to the left, sprawling across the small island, tucking himself into the middle to get away from the liquid. He started to feel a burning on the side upon the sole of his foot. In a hurry he threw his boot off as quickly as he could, not even bothering to unlace it fully and quickly dumped the contents of his canteen over the foot trying to clear any remnants he could.

Rolling onto his back, looking directly up he considered his situation, how he had gotten into this state without even an option of what difficulty of dungeon he was to tackle. Looking forward reviewing how far he had come and how far he still had to go, he was glad to have made it over halfway. Just then a small glint captured his eye, an island far to his right, but no further forward had something different on it, something he hadn’t noticed until he had gotten closer, close enough to see. He couldn’t tell what it was from here, only that it was small and in the pitch black no one would’ve seen anything.

He stood and assessed the options for a minute or two whilst watching the islands and their movement pattern. He was fairly sure he could make another quick double jump and end up only 2 islands away from the end of this challenge, but in doing so would forego any chance of getting the glittering object whatever it may be. His other option was a quick double jump to the right and grabbing whatever it was, but who knew what would happen to the islands if he did. Every single one of these I’ve gotten through by the absolute skin of my teeth. I either go for the glittering shiny object and hope it gets me through this or the next challenge, or I ignore it and try just to finish this one sooner. My gut is telling me shiny, my head is telling me get out of this challenge. Just got to watch these islands on their next shift to see if I can get a slightly easier path.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Watching the islands again, his choice was made for him. Rather than waiting for the double hop forward, he took a quick skip to the right, and angled it as a 2nd skip into a jump ending up on the far right of the arena of islands. Crouching down, examining the item in more detail, it was a ring, sized for either a very slim lady, or even possibly a child he saw a simple silver band, with a small diamond in a claw setting. As he held it in his hand it expanded slightly, looking like it should now fit his finger.

Ring of Arcane Defence [Uncommon]

A relatively simple looking band that helps protect its wearer against arcane damage.

It provides mitigation against attacks or effects with the [Arcane] type or sub-type reducing the damage inflicted by up to half.

Hoo-yah! A genuine magic item, one he could identify as well! Even if I’ve never actually come across a skill or spell or even attack that had arcane as part of its descriptor. What do I have to lose to actually wear it, just in case? Already found those traps, what if some of those are spells in the future? Some spells must be arcane in nature.

With that thought Jarrod picked up the ring and slipped it onto his pinkie finger on his left hand. Not feeling anything, he had no idea if the ring had even taken affect. Hmm suppose it’s just passive, like I have to get hit by something arcane to actually have the ring take effect.

Looking back to the islands however left Jarrod with a sinking feeling and a gnawing hole in the pit of his stomach. The islands were now starting to shrink, the liquid lapping at them clearly starting to work their way through and erode the edges of the large islands. The smaller ones had not yet started to shrink, but the gaps between all of the islands were started to get larger and larger.

Deciding that playing it slow was now not an option, Jarrod lined up the next jump and moved forward and left a single island, giving himself more options. The next jump was simple, a nice large island in the middle leaving him 2 jumps and a single island from the other end of this challenge.

Disappointingly easy from the ring island to here, the first few jumps were actually more challenging than this past few had been! With that thought at the forefront, Jarrod took a small run up forward as there was only small islands to get to next, just as he was about to take off, the vision he had failed completely. He hadn’t noticed but the darkness had been slowly encroaching on his vision, he was unable to see quite as far as he had been able to. The longer he had been in this arena, the more the vision had started to fail, yet as he was only focused on going forward the effect hadn’t been noticeable. Jumping in the dark was very risky, but he had no other option, and he nailed the landing. It was a picture-perfect landing with not so much as a drop of liquid landing on Jarrod.

That’s why when the island started to sink, and he panicked. None of the others had done this, he had no idea what was different now. The liquid itself started lapping quicker and quicker, running across the sole of his unprotected foot and the boot of the other. In sheer desperation he threw himself forward, without a run up, and barely cleared the gap of over 5 feet. Sprawling along the ground, he had his left foot on the grass, but his right foot trailed through the liquid itself.

-17 HP

Scrambling out and forward as quickly as possible, he pulled his other boot off as quickly as possible ending up completely barefooted, whilst trying to scrape his left foot through the grass to get as much as possible off it.

-4 HP

He rolled onto his back, pushed himself up to his feet and turned to look behind him. The islands had vanished, the liquid had gone, all he saw was a grassy meadow in a lightly sunlight clearing. The sunlight dappled through the leaves shining upon the ground, highlighting a few select wildflowers.

Sitting down for over an hour, Jarrod rested, let the wounds on his feet start to heal and take a breather and a bit to eat.

Strolling forward, he entered the classic tunnel of tree’s leading towards the next challenge. As the tunnel started to open up, he saw the next arena, with one major difference to all of the previous. There was no exit to this particular clearing.

Welcome challenger to the final contest here in the home of Elouan’s chosen. You may battle wills with them in any way you choose. You may not retreat from this contest.