I didn’t go to the room right away. I checked the nearby passages. All turned into dead ends quickly except the two to the right when I had entered. Since everything was laid out in a grid and I had entered from the West, I needed to think of things in terms of North, East, South, and West.

The room was to the East. I went back to the passage leading to the room and looked inside at a distance. The golden looking rod was just sitting on the pedestal. Nothing had shown up nearby and I knew my way back to the entry room.

I had my escape room planned out and had cleared the nearby passages of any threats and traps. I needed to just do it. I hated confined spaces like this. In the past, I had always had a lot of freedom of movement to retreat and maneuver, here there was the feeling of being trapped and hemmed in.

Advancing closer towards the room’s entrance I scanned it closely. There were striation marks in the energy patterns on the far wall. They were hard to make out, but it was obvious the edges of the room were trapped.

The entrance wasn’t trapped. But the most concerning thing were four glowing blue square outlines on the floor and the ceiling above them spaced out around the central pedestal. The blue light was twice as thick as the soft blue lights in the edges of the tunnel and the room.

Either they were safe spots or death spots. It was hard to be sure which they were at the moment. I advanced up to the entrance of the room and carefully checked the entrance. There was no door or panels. I checked for anything that might be illusioned on either wall and there was nothing.

I did note that to the left and the right of the entrance, the energy had striation marks. Looking around the room, the entire edge of the wall had those marks except this entrance from the West side of the room and another entrance to the North.

Well time to start testing things methodically. Acid Shot. The attack went into the room and landed short of the central pedestal. Nothing happened. Acid Shot. I did another attack and still no reaction. I changed my target to the sides of the room.

Bladed traps sprung out. Edge of the room was a clear death sentence. That was good to know. Hitting the glowing outlined squares on the floor did nothing and triggered nothing. That was concerning. I doubted they were there for decoration.

After all this time in the Systemic Lands, the one thing I could say about the Almighty System was that it didn’t care one bit about decorations in the slightest. If gray featureless rock and basic mathematical shapes was a design theme, the Almighty System had grabbed it with both hands and hadn’t looked back.

The fact that there were even lights in the tower was surprising. There was little to no lighting in the dungeons, so I had assumed this place would be dark as well. That was just another indication that I couldn’t blindly assume anything.

I entered the room ready for anything, my head on a swivel. Nothing happened. No doors slammed shut trapping me inside. I carefully tested the glowing squares on the floor again with Acid Shot but there was no reaction.

Walking around the pedestal, there was nothing. It looked a lot like a store pillar if I had to be honest, except the golden rod sitting on top. I didn’t touch it on breath on it. I had no doubt the moment it was disturbed all hell would break loose. Either I would get trapped in this room, or something would happen.

While it was tempting to just grab the golden rod and run, that was foolish. I left through the North entrance and the passage quickly turned West and East, lining up with the right most passage from the entry room. There was just a wall in the way that had blocked off the passages from connecting.

To the East I could see another room with hundreds of glowing blue dots on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Based on the distances I had traveled in the first passage from the entry room to the North, the room with the dots of blue light was probably in the center of the tower. I checked the passage the other way first just dead ends and approached this second room.

Acid Shot. The skill vanished when it entered the room and my eyes went wide at that. Checking the energy I used my skill again and it just dispersed instantly when entering the room. I approached and extended an oil flask, then a piece of cucumber, and then my stub into the room.

Nothing happened and I didn’t feel anything. I used various items to poke the blue lights on the floor, but nothing happened. Looking into the room, I saw three passages leading off in every direction. If this was the center of the tower, then these passages aligned with the entry rooms.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Well, that was the confirmation I needed that there weren’t any portal shenanigans going on. The tunnel directly across from me in the room didn’t go all the way to the opposite entry room. I very carefully took a step into this room.

Nothing happened. I tried to use Acid Shot and the skill activated, and energy was used up, but nothing appeared. This was some kind of anti-skill room. Air Burst didn’t work either. This was very good to know. I couldn’t fight in this room no matter what.

I looked to my right down the tunnel. My heart froze for a second. It led all the way to the Southern entry room and I could see golems resting there and not moving. I stepped back into my original passage and thought about what to do.

The main thing was to find the way up to the next floor. Either a staircase or an elevator. While the golden rod might play a roll, or even be some kind of reward, it was too risk to use right now. Once I found the way up, then I might consider poking it.

I went back into the null room and turned to the South, down the tunnel towards the monsters. I wasn’t too worried. They were level 4 and for some reason the cube golems were just resting on the tower floor. I paused when I noticed a trap.

After triggering it I made my way forward, briefly checking the side pass to my right. Lots of branching off paths. I kept moving forward towards the golem. It remained inert. I entered the room and there were ten monsters just sitting on the ground doing nothing.

I had never seen monsters like this. Why weren’t they moving? That was much more concerning than unrelenting aggression. Acid Shot. I hit one and it began to melt and then crumbled to dust. A point crystal dropped and they all just sat there. I went over and touched one. The surface was cool but that was it.

I walked around them all and nothing happened. That was really weird. Well, they were monsters and there was probably some kind of trigger. I melted them all. I had a much better grasp on things and the layout.

The tower clearly wasn’t using some kind of extra dimensional space or portal nonsense. That meant each floor was laid out in a square with only so much room. I consider the width of the tunnels and looked back North through the tunnel I had come from the central room.

Everything was also laid out in a grid pattern, similar to the cities. Very nice, clear cut lines. The minimum thickness of the walls was one tunnel length. I carefully paid my way back to the central room, past the trap.

If the outer wall of the tower was 1. The entry room had a depth of 3. The tunnel to the central room had a length of 18 and the central room was 7 by 7 tunnel units big. That meant the tower was 51 by 51 units. If the outer wall was completely solid except for the entry doors which were closed, it was 49 by 49.

These numbers didn’t have any significance that I could tell except being able to measure the size of the tower. I considered the total height of the tower and the possible thickness of the floors. They were a couple feet or a meter in thickness at the very least if I had to guess.

So, there would be no tunneling straight up even if it were possible. The room with the golden rod had been 9 units by 9 units. About a quarter of a quarter. I had explored part of the Northeast corner and all its dead ends.

It was important to take the time to think about all this now instead of later. Once it was later, it would be too late to work out the layout of the floor if I was in a hurry. If any floor would be the easiest, it was probably the first floor.

I would rather spend an entire day here, working all the rules and nuances, than rush ahead blindly. Once I knew everything, then I could rush ahead. I made my way back up the tunnel towards the central room but went to the side passage to check the Southeast portion. I had a hunch that there might be a connection to one of the passages near the room with the golden rod.

Each time I made a turn I said which direction I was facing to help keep track and myself oriented. With all the tunnels looking the same it would be very easy to get lost. The rooms would help orient me with their respective positions, but I didn’t want to get turned around if I was in a rush.

The passage to the side had lots of dead ends, but at the end of one of the dead ends the dead end had a glowing square like in the golden rod room. I checked it out and even stepped on it, but nothing happened. Clearly, they were something, but I wasn’t exactly sure what those glowing blue square outlines represented.

I kept exploring the Southeast corner of the tower and found another glowing blue square outline. Nothing happened with that either. I made my way up around a large passage. There was a tiny dead end that was just a trap area, but there was nothing beyond it.

I even checked for a hidden wall or something, but there was nothing. This more than anything confirmed that the layout of these passages was mostly madness. Or beyond my ability to comprehend why they would be laid out like this.

After traversing a long passage with no turnoffs besides that one trap stub, I found the eight passage split which connected to the golden rod room. That gave me a lot more confidence in terms of navigation and ruling out areas.

I didn’t need to check every single dead end. I could rule out areas if they were too small and didn’t have space for a room to be there. I made my way back to the central no skill room. Now there were two and a half corners of the tower still left to explore.

I made my way to the Southeast corner. It quickly turned into a complex maze, but I was able to keep a mental map as I carefully made my way through. My pace picking up since I felt more confident and knew what to look out in terms of traps and hidden walls. I just needed to find the way up.