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Chapter 6 - The Doll Labyrinth

Argent and Moonglow showed up early and Arthur was already waiting for them. He led the two to his reorganized room to accommodate his two guests.

Argent sat down on the floor, not wanting to ruin a chair or bed with the armor he was wearing. He set his shield against the wall and a sheathed sword with a grey handle lay in front of it. "What do you think we missed?"

Moonglow leaned a staff against the wall and sat in a chair. She was wearing a steel-boned reinforced leather corset with pants. "Was there something about the labyrinth that you found out about?"

"I don't think it is public knowledge among humans. I was training with the Shieldtusk orcs for about a week before they had to move. The..."

Moonglow cut him off. "You were working with orcs? I thought they were all evil and we needed to eradicate them."

"That's just our fiction stereotypes. Everyone has the right to decide to do the right thing or go batshit crazy including us humans. Anyway, I was teaching them stuff in return for some weapon and spell training. I guess the orc mage came to trust me and when they left, they gave me the key for the labyrinth. And... well... I'm the owner of a labyrinth now. And I thought, if I am the owner of a labyrinth, what happens with the cleared ones? Did someone find the key and become the owner? or did the GM organization have those keys and that's why they could allow people to raid the labyrinths."

Argent sat quietly listening and finally spoke up, "What happened when you became the owner?"

The redhead gave a sheepish look at his knight friend, "Well, the labyrinth told me that there was a dungeon that I was allowed to explore. It wasn't there when the Shieldtusk orcs lived there."

"Wait, you mean you own a labyrinth and have a personal dungeon?????" exclaimed Moonglow with her jaw open.

Arthur just nodded and waited as the two recovered from being stunned. "I am wondering if the key was never found in the cleared labyrinths. So I want to go back to the Doll Labyrinth and find out. We can confirm if the cleared labyrinths are unclaimed and we can also confirm what happens when we own it. I hope you two will keep this in confidence. If anyone finds out about owning a labyrinth, we might cause a very big commotion."

Argent clasped his hands together like prayer and put it against his chin, "Yeah, I'll keep this between us. We need to confirm it first anyway."

"Yeah, I'll keep this secret. It would be interesting if each one of us ended up being a labyrinth owner." giggled the healer.

"Let's go, I don't want to sit here all day discussing the what-ifs when we can explore a cleared labyrinth to see what we find out." Arthur stood up and grabbed his gear. He led the two and made a quick stop in the kitchen for some bottled water and a bag of mixed nuts and fruit.

"I'll drive and we can stop by a corner store for some sandwiches," said the knight.

The trio arrived at the location of the cleared labyrinth. They walked up to the light stone archway, there were two diminutive statues on each side of the archway, but there was no shimmering.

Arthur walked up and looked around, trying to find a pedestal with a bowl like the one at the Shieldtusk labyrinth. There wasn't one. "It's closed. Maybe someone owns it already, or the GM closed it off."

Argent and Moonglow walked around to see what they could find in the area.

The redhead knelt to be closer to one of the doll statues, whispering "I wonder where the keyhole for this labyrinth is."

Arthur noticed a hum from his left bracer, then he felt a pounding from his chest. This was similar to the feeling right before Valkyrie kissed him. He felt unbalanced and he reached out to hold the top of the statue's head for stability.

The doll statue's eyes opened as if alive, "Welcome, I feel the presence of the key. Are you here to claim the labyrinth?"

The two came back and Argent the knight spoke, "When did you get the key?"

"I don't know but I need to answer them."

He turned back to the statue and asked, "Is a person allowed to own more than one labyrinth?"

"A candidate may own more than one labyrinth as long as they meet the requirements. One is ownership of the key and the other requirement cannot be revealed at your current ability."

"May I know what is the key to this labyrinth?"

"The key to this labyrinth is a compressed mana crystal that appears to be a pulsing diamond, it is known as the Doll's Heart."

Arthur stared at the statue, "It's that thing that healed me and then went inside me."

"Something healed you and that's how you survived? You are holding out on us on what happened." pouted Moonglow.

"We can talk about it later." He turned back to the statue, "I am claiming the labyrinth."

The doll statue moved swiftly and bit into the side of his hand appearing to drink some of his blood. The eyes turned red, "Ownership conferred. Previous labyrinth owner detected. You may control this labyrinth in the same way. Dungeon access is allowed. Good luck protecting your labyrinths." The doll returned to its previous position and went inert.

Moonglow quickly came over to heal Arthur's hand and found that it had already been healed.

"Well, do you guys want to go in?"

"YES!" they both answered.

Arthur called out for the gate to open. The two stood watching the shimmering effect and all three walked through. Arthur closed it as they went through and explained that he didn't want anyone to enter. As a cleared labyrinth, most people would just assume it was closed by the GM and that's why it is inert.

"We have our own labyrinth and dungeon!" cheered Argent.

Moonglow pointed at the dungeon gate. There were two slim obelisks on each side of the gate. The double doors appear to be made from some lacquered wood, carved by a skilled artisan.

She turned around and crossed her arms. "Ok Arthur, talk."

Arthur sat down, "This is going to take a bit. It's a good thing we don't have a time limit to the dungeon."

Arthur filled them in on what he found out about the labyrinths based on the Shieldtusk labyrinth and what he suspected about labyrinth keys. He didn't expect that the keys would be different for each dungeon.

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"I figure we can explore and if we can't finish the dungeon, we can always bring others to help. Speaking of, I might know someone who could back us up if we run into trouble."

Argent sipped from a water bottle, "Who?"

"Valkyrie." The response caused Argent to spit out.

"Yeah right, and I can call in Gladiator," retorted the healer.

Arthur didn't bother to defend himself and just handed Moonglow the business card. "OMG, you really do know her!"

Argent peeked at the card, "Holy cow man. When? How?"

Arthur laughed and told them about the rental office, minus the kiss.

"A Maserati, a fucking expensive Maserati," stammered Argent the knight.

"She was renting equipment because she was having a custom-made one created! I've only heard of a weapon being custom made and that already was in the tens of thousands. You said all of her gear was being custom-made? That could run into the millions." gawked the blond.

"Ok, we can sit here and talk about Valkyrie or we can explore our privately owned dungeon. And when we clear this one, we can go explore the other dungeon that I own."

They all laughed and geared up. They got their game faces on and approached the dungeon doors.

Arthur nodded and Argent pushed one of the doors. The patterns quickly swirled and a crackle of electricity sounds through the air.

"Get back both of you!" barked Arthur, he quickly grabbed his sword and stabbed it into the ground between him and the door as the two friends rushed behind him.

The jolt of electricity lashed out and got attracted to the sword like lightning to a lightning rod. The sword melted into a useless lump of metal.

"And now I have to pay to own a sword that is a glorified paperweight," cursed Arthur inwardly.

"That is some serious trap," whispered their healer.

"Good call on getting us to back off and doing the lightning rod thing. I don't think I would survive that too."

Arthur pondered the situation. The pounding in his chest happened again and he felt a repository of mana that he never had access to before. He unconsciously called up words of a spell and a glow surrounded all three of them. The glow faded but the three could feel the barrier that was surrounding them.

"What did you just do?" asked Moonglow.

Arthur walked up to the door and pushed the door open. The door opened even after releasing another arc of electricity. It hit the barrier on the redhead but it didn't harm him. "The spell will last half an hour. Let's hope we don't need it constantly on. I don't know how many times I can cast it."

"That's a protective spell. Healers and maybe druids can cast that. How do you know it?"

"I... learned it from an elf," he responded and glanced at the stairs leading down.

The torches on the sconces of the walls flared up to illuminate the area. Argent moved to the front, Arthur stayed in the middle and Moonglow stayed in the rear.

Arthur noticed that Argent could use a little more training using the sword and shield. He thought about a few styles and chose one that he thought would be a good fit for him. He was still thinking about the fighting style when he pulled an arrow and put it against his bow. He paused and felt that he was way too calm. He wondered if this was Kelrick's memories integrating with his own.

"Incoming," hissed the knight.

The sound of small wooden feet charging towards them. Argent swung his sword and sliced across a doll that looked like a sharp teethed mix between a human and a baboon. The markings and colorations on their faces mimic the mandrill baboons.

An arrow flew out and pinned a doll wearing a headdress against the wall.

The rest of the dolls went crazy. They crawled, clawed, bit, and gnawed on the three adventurers. It took a few minutes to destroy the remaining dolls.

Argent sat on the stairs, nudging one of the dolls with his foot. "Man, these things are vicious and we just had the first encounter."

Moonglow began casting her healing spells, starting on their tank.

Arthur grumbled as he tried to retrieve the arrows and hoped he didn't waste the whole quiver in their first fight.

The knight stepped into one of the ruined dolls, "We don't even get any treasure." The cracked wooden skull fell apart and showed something glittering. He reached down and picked up a small crystal. "Hey, is this a mana crystal? Is this what was powering the dolls?"

The redheaded leader looked back and picked it up to feel the mana from it. "Looks like it is, crush the rest and collect the crystals. At least we get some money out of this. Let me borrow your shield." He picked up Argent's shield took a deep breath and slammed it against the headdress doll still pinned to the wall. A crystal dropped to the ground amidst the debris.

Moonglow tapped Arthur's shoulder and he winced in pain. "Let's get out of the dungeon. We need to regroup. This is a much more dangerous dungeon than the one we came in with the two assholes."

They got outside and Arthur closed the door. They could hear the electrical hum and assumed the dungeon trap reset.

"When are you going to pick an adventurer name?" the blond asked while she continued with her healing spells on Arthur.

"When I get classified, I guess."

"We got thirty crystals. That's ten for each of us." counted Argent.

Arthur waited until he got healed up enough. "Argent, Can I show you something?"

The unarmored friend began to mimic having a sword and shield and acted like he was nearly dancing. Argent watched with confusion at first until he noticed that it was a style for sword and shield. "Where did you learn this? You have always been a single sword wielder."

"Same elf I learned the spell from," he replied nonchalantly as he finished the rest of the dance.

"Can you do that again? I want to record it with my phone so I can study it."

Arthur repeated the dance and Argent checked the recording. "What's it called?"

"The Attacking Fortress."

"Cool name. I hope we can meet this elf of yours."

Arthur sat down and tinkered with the battery of the older phone, "Maybe you could talk to him soon."

Arthur looked for the smallest with a thin point. He snapped off about an inch. He opened up the battery to remove about the same size and replaced it with the crystal. He crossed his fingers and plugged the battery back in.

Once the phone turned on, he looked at Moonglow and saw her healing herself. He turned his head to give her some privacy. Argent was still staring at the video recording.

"Kelrick?"

"Hello, Arthur. It looks like you found a mana crystal. I can sense the difference."

"Who are you talking to?" Asked the knight.

"The elf who taught me the Attacking Fortress and the spell that protects against electricity."

"I thought you were just joking. No one I know has encountered or befriended an elf!"

"Kelrick is more than a friend. He... He's like a constant companion. He's living in me but I can't communicate with him unless I'm asleep. I finally figured a way to channel him through an old phone but I needed a mana crystal to help power it."

"OMG Arthur. That's like a serious possibility to make millions out of something like that," excitedly responded Moonglow as she returned to the group.

"Well, we can't do that. Part of the program is copyrighted. I'd get sued if I ever got caught. Anyway, Holly a.k.a Moonglow; Frank a.k.a Argent, I want you to meet Kelrick Shatterstorm, elf friend and teacher."

After the pleasantries, Moonglow asked, "Kelrick, what are you classified as?"

"I am guessing that's something the Guild Ministry set up for you humans. I don't think I know how they set it up but among the elves. I would be considered a weapon master with a specialization in single blades and bows. Among the spellcasters, I would be considered a universal spellcaster."

"A... weapon mas...master?" stammered Argent.

"What does universal spellcaster mean?" asked Moonglow.

"Universal spellcaster in our terms would be a mage who can cast any spell we can understand. Most universal spellcasters tend to create their original spells too."

"Cast... any ... spelll... you can understand..." repeated Moonglow as if she blew a fuse in her brain.

Arthur watched his two friends and snickered under his breath, "OK you two. Before we leave this labyrinth, Kelric is top secret. Do not reveal him to anyone. Let me decide who I share this information with. He is helping me find herbs to save my grandma from her sickness. And since I have him in my head, I might have the same capabilities as him. I might have to trick the classification test to focus on a single swordsman and maybe an electric-based mage."

"Oh, and Arthur. Congratulations on claiming two labyrinths. If you didn't know what fate had in mind for you, you are well on your path to something extraordinary."

"Do you know something about the requirements for ownership of the labyrinths?"

"I do, but I have made a vow as a Lawbound to not say anything unless the person has already reached the ability for the labyrinths to reveal it. The elves know that someone or something created the labyrinths, but even we do not know the purpose."

"Well, at least now we can talk when I am conscious. I didn't want to think that all of our conversations were dreams." laughed the redhead.

"Well if you plan to take the test again, you need an adventurer name," teased Moonglow.

"We might want a couple more people. A trapfinder would help," suggested Argent.

Arthur scratched his chin, "I'm thinking I'll just use my name. I don't know any trapfinder, but maybe Valkyrie..." The thought of calling Valkyrie made his face turn red.

The two friends noticed the deep blush. Moonglow asked, "Did something happen between you two?"

"We... um... kissed."

"WHAT?" the two yelled in unison.