Part 1 – Treasure and more...
3 days later....
Its been 3 days since we went into this hell hole. I can't even count the number of times we triggered some trap or another. The first one was fine. I casted a Mana shield on each of us before hand and it blocked off the fire from the ground just fine.
The next one was arrows coming out of the walls. A bit of wind magic and it was fine. But it just got worse. In one case I triggered a wire trap on accident and it shot out fire in a straight line in the small hallway maze type floor. The fire was fine. But it triggered a second trap which shot out arrows from the walls next to us. Then a gush of wind pushed us back to a crossway where a boulder almost crushed us.
Naturally we dodged it but then the boulder triggered the final and most annoying trap I have yet to see. A pitfall. Yes the entire floor opened up for us to drop down into poisonous spikes as Patrick inspected them after we barely survived. Then I had to use Earth magic to make a walkway for the rest of the place because the entire floor opened. At one point I considered to break down all of the walls but Patrick advised me that they could be trapped as well.
Well 3 days later and 5 floors fully explored I'm sick of the place now.
“You think we're near the final bit of this place?”
“Maybe. Its been five floors already.” answered Patrick trying to get my hopes up.
Well I did kinda destroyed an entire floor before...it wasn't my fault! I was pissed off and I had to blow off some steam one way or another so I kinda made a dust explosion that almost killed us while laughing like a madman.
“Well I hope so.” I let my head drop from my exhaustion.
I finished scouting the area for traps with my light balls. I think my magic control skill increased in a level due to the massive and constant use of the light balls. It was getting easier to make and control more and more of them with time. Obviously my concentration stat got increased as well during this trip. And my level...well there weren't any monsters so there was no change in that.
Anyway I found the stairs to the next floor. Hopefully this is the final floor.
“Stairs that way.” I pointed to where by light balls were.
As always I walked first being the one who faced the most danger in this place anyway. The moment we reached the sixth floor there were some writing one the walls. It was a nice change but it was in a language I didn't know.
“Patrick, there's some writing on that wall. Can you translate?”
During one of our conversations I found out that Patrick was proficient in several languages, many being ancient and forgotten languages. It was apparently a tradition to at least that much to ensure the knowledge is not lost.
Patrick went to the wall still checking for any traps and read it for a bit before saying, “I have good news and bad news.”
Figures. This place always has bad news for me.
“What's the good news?” I asked hoping for this to be the last floor.
“This is the last floor.” Yes! The time when I'm back with clean flesh air is coming sooner.
“The bad news is that the traps are worse than the previous floors....its a warning.”
What? There are traps worse than the previous floors? Wait did the guy who designed this place not remember the very cruel trap he placed in the third floor? That one pretty much ensured most people would die there.
“So are we still going?” I asked.
I don't want to see the worse traps in this place. It seems Patrick had the same opinion.
He was very hesitant to say “Yes. We have to go forward. Else we wasted a lot of time trying to find this place and actually exploring it.”
I have to agree with that but most people would stop now.
“Well lets go.” I started walking from the small hallway connecting the stairs to the first room of the floor. I felt a pressure plate move under my foot, pushed by the weight of my body.
Oh..shit. In a split second reaction I said and casted, “Mana Shield.”
A log appeared from the darkness and hit my mana shield. Unfortunately while the shield could block physical and magical attacks it did not prevent the force of the attacks going through.
Mana Shield took 214 damage
That was quite a bit for the impact of the log but it wasn't over yet. My body was pushed in the air and into the wall. The log crushed by mana shield with me.
Mana Shield took 2413 damage. Shield has been broken
Damn it hurts! I vomited out some blood out of my mouth when the impact went through my body.
You lost 3386 mana
Impact caused you to internally bleed. Critical Wound. If not treated you will die.
You will loss 5 mana per second due to the bleeding.
Man if it wasn't for the fact that my mana shield absorbed most of the damage before breaking, that would've been an instant kill.
“Eden!” Patrick started to run over to me with some bandages.
Shit. We don't even know if there's anymore traps in the room.
I shouted, “Don't! Wait for me to light the place up first. Light ball.”
From my awkward position of having by body crushed by a log then slipping on the wall I casted some light balls which soon moved around the room to give some light. I increased the intensity of the light and it was well lit. When this happened Patrick looked around and ran to me, hopping over what seemed to be pressure plates for people who walked into the room without a light like me.
“Endure it for a bit.”
Patrick started to rapidly wrap my body in bandages. After a minute and several rolls of bandages a message appeared.
You have regained 315 mana. Bleeding has stopped.
You have regained 642 mana.
Well I couldn't get back to full mana but that can be done with some mediation.
“Is your health back to normal?” asked Patrick.
I still didn't tell him that I didn't have any health anymore. It might lead him to believe that I was more durable than he originally thought. Well its nice to continue a lie for so long.
I replied, “Yeah.”
I tried to get up but there was a sudden and sharp pain in my stomach.
“Don't move so quickly. By bandages can't heal those kinds of wounds quickly. You'll need some proper treatment by a priest later and some rest.”
“True but we're in a tomb right now. I don't think I can get some medical attention.”
“In that case let me apply some herbs on you.”
Patrick opened his backpack and pulled out some herbs and a bowl. He placed some of the herbs in the bowl. He grinded it quickly into powder. Then he splat in it.
“Why did you spit in it?” I asked a bit concerned about the hygienic application of doing such a thing.
“We can't waste water here and don't wine mister I'm going to go first without a plan or light.”
“Damn yo-ouch! Be careful. Injured man here. Its strange how you know all of this.”
Patrick pulled my shirt up and started rubbing the mixture onto my body. When it touched my skin, the pain started to go away to some extent.
“I believe its more strange how your a man not a woman with your looks. Anyway, I'm done.”
Patrick stopped rubbing and slapped me there.
“Ouch! Stop that!” I complained.
Patrick placed all of his stuff in his backpack again while I was trying to get up without some pain coming from inside of me. When I finally managed to Patrick offered his shoulder but I refused. The light balls were still around so I guided some of them to the next hallway making sure I check where each one went.
“Anyway lets go. You lead now.”
“....you got hit on purpose didn't you.” retorted Patrick.
“Why would I get hit intentionally?”
Seriously didn't you see all the blood I coughed up because of it. Why would I, out of all people want to be caught in a trap after everything we experienced before.
“The traps will get worse....” Yes that is true. But still, I'm in no condition to lead the way right now.
“If I get hit by another trap like that...I'll probably die.”
With that Patrick lead the way. Thankfully the second room of god knows how many rooms did not have any traps in it. We searched around and found some stuff that we could sell or donate to some noble later. It seems Patrick didn't actually care about anything in the tomb of his ancestor. There were a couple pieces of old pots amongst other things but nothing much of value.
73 rooms later.....
“Well we almost finished this 75 room floor.....” I said sighing at the fact that there so many damn rooms to clear.
“Not to mention the countless traps that came out of nowhere.” sighed Patrick.
I don't blame him. He had to endure all of those traps with the help of my mana shield. I was kinda glad that I was injured near the beginning. Well I did have to take over leading us when Patrick fell and almost drowned.....but he recovered.
Eventually we decided that it was best to make some 'dolls' that had looked kinda human in terms of shape and weight. It helped a lot after the room 15 where we were certain there were instant kill traps. It done with Earth and Wind magic. It costed only a bit of my massive 5000 mana. Well they triggered most of the traps before hand so we a mostly trap free run except for a couple of them...like the times the traps activate for a second time which was very bad for me who was leading.
“Okay lets finish room 74 quickly now.” I said that but I was exhausted already. I moved my light balls around again....oh found the exit.
“This way...” I pointed to the exit and started walking sluggishly there.
I walked through the hallway and found that the next room was really small. Was there some sort of trap here? I checked and found there was none that activated at least right now. I saw there was the same unknown language like the start of the floor ad a couple other rooms.
“Patrick. There's more ancient writing stuff.”
“Right.”
Patrick ran over and quickly translated it for me.
“Rest now for there a foe beyond the doors. Let your courage take over your fears. For you will die either way.”
That's a nice message to the people who survived bloody 74 rooms. Perhaps we should rest. Unless this was a trap itself.....I wonder what Patrick thinks of this. I looked over to him and he already dropped his bags and started sleeping. That was fast! Man he really can relax well in these situations.
“Hey don't go to sleep just yet. There still may be traps around.”
“Don't care...zzzzzzz”
Damn you. Its not my fault if you die later on. Well might as well get some sleep before we finish this place off. I sat down next to the wall and shut my eyes trying to get some sleep.
Part 2 – The forgotten One
An unknown amount of time later....
“Hey get up.”
What? I'm trying to sleep here. Someone was shaking my body. You think that's enough to wake me up? Think again. Then I felt a pain in my stomach...ouch! I opened my eyes rubbing my stomach.
“Patrick?”
“Yes its me! Now get up!” he commanded.
Man your really aggressive in waking people up. Anyway I got up and found him fully set for the next room. Even though he's not the one fighting whatevers on the other side he was very happy to go to the final room of this place and let me do all the fighting. I started stretching to loosen up my muscles because I was definitely going to have to run.
“Are you done yet?” asked Patrick still very happy for the next room.
Well I'm not. I don't want to face the thing or things that are on the other side of that door.
After a bit I said, “Yeah.” and we both pushed the pretty heavy door open.
The first thing I noticed was that the room was lit up. When I said lit up, I mean barely, enough for us to see with the touches on the walls. The room was in the same style of the rest of the tomb. Very old and ancient looking. It was around 20 by 20 metres big which was pretty large for a room. But there's suppose to be something to kill here.
“MMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
Was that a cow.....no it can't be. From the shadows of the other side of the room there was a Minotaur. Weren't Minotaurs suppose to be in labyrinths like the ones we passed earlier?
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg
I heard the sound of stone being slid. The door behind us was closed and before it fully closed I saw that damn Patrick on the other side making me the one stuck with this thing.
“Good Luck...” muttered Patrick once more trying to avoid eye contact.
Angry I went to the closed door and started pounding it screaming, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN GOOD LUCK! YOU'RE NOT THE ONE FACING THAT COW!”
Boom Boom
Damn it looks like my anger has to be subsided for a while. At least before this things kills me.
“Mana Shield Mana Shield Mana Shield”
I casted a triple layer of shields around me. The Minotaur would probably rip it apart easily but its better than nothing. If I recall Minotaurs were around level 300 which was very bad for me a mere level 41. And that thing has a weapon as well....I'm so screwed. I don't even know if that thing has a weakness I can use. Man that message on the wall was right. Either way I'm dead.
[….................chains..................................]
And there's that voice again. Give me some helpful advice! First I should try to stop it moving. I imagined a field made of ice.
“Ice Field.”
The ground started to glow a certain blue white colour. The walls and ceiling was also turned this colour.
“MMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
The Minotaur did its battle-cry and started charging at me with its giant hammer. Now how do I not get hit my that? I started running to the right of the room. I have to blind it.
“Light ball.”
Around a dozen or so light balls appeared and moved straight to the Minotaur. When it reached its eyes I said, “Explode.” They exploded simultaneously and gave off a bright light even to me who was over 15 metres away.
“MOOOOOOOOO MOOOOOOOOOO”
The Minotaur stopped in its tracks. Damn I wanted it to charge straight into the wall...or the door with Patrick behind it. 4634 Mana left. The burning snake seal got undone. Good now I can fight at full strength. I imagined ice encasing the Minotaur.
“Ice Prison.”
A massive 500 mana was taken from me to vast that spell. From my ice field under it, ice started to climb onto the blind Minotaur. Its skin started to turn into the colour of my ice. When it covered its legs, it still didn't notice the ice. Looks like I can finish this more easily than I thought. As the ice climbed its body, the lower part also became thicker as well. But my hopes were killed off.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
The Minotaur used its hammer and smashed the ground. The sheer shockwave of the hit unbalanced me. I looked in its direction and found that the impact removed the ice field near it and completely destroyed by ice prison spell. Man what the hell do I do?
[…...................................................chains.........................................]
What the hell do you mean chains? You know that I can't make chains big enough with the amount of mana I have and my skill proficiency in creation magic. Damn useless voice. Trapping it for long is impossible then. I should try to inflict direct damage to it then.
“Earth Spike times 3”
I realised this but sometimes I don't even need to think when I'm using a spell. Looks like Warlic's lessons are working well for me. Three earth spikes came from the ground and did not pierce...wait it didn't work? Shit! Then I'll use Lightning.
“Lightning Bolt.”
A lightning bolt came from my fingertips and stuck the Minotaur. It had no effects at all.
“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
And it looks like I made it made. It smacked its hammer around a bit and started to move towards be. Wait I'm at a corner. I have to run and fast. And so I started running one the right hand side of the wall. The Minotaur was getting ever so close now and swung its hammer at me. I did a barrel roll and managed to survive unlike the wall next to me....a small crater was formed on the wall. But the wall did not shatter. Man the place was build durable...so why was there a Minotaur stuck down here? And how come my lightning doesn't work on the recent giant creatures I've faced.
“Wind Gust.”
In front of me a gust of wind picked up and pushed against the Minotaur. And it did not effect it at all. Now what am I going to-OH SHIT! The Minotaur was suddenly next to me and swung its hammer down on me. I quickly rolled out of the way.
Mana Shield took 4912 damage. Shield has been destroyed.
Mana Shield took 2345 damage. Shield has been destroyed.
Mana Shield took 1234 damage. Shield has been destroyed.
You have lost 641 mana from the impact.
Three mana shields in one go and it didn't even hit me! I got up and started to run again.
“Mana Shield Mana Shield Mana Shield”
Great I only have 3946 mana left even though I was absorbing this thing's mana as well when I'm close to it. Which I don't want to be. Well I didn't want to use fire magic since we were deep underground but hey its still better than being crushed to death under that hammer of his. It wasn't even 2 minutes since the fight began and I already am prepared to give up and die.
“Fire Field.”
The ground turned into a scorching red colour instead of the blue-white colour. Flames started to come out under the Minotaur and it caught on fire.
“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
Yes Yes you can scream. Now to spam fire balls at it.
“Fire ball times 8”
8 fireballs were formed from the small amount of oxygen left in this room. This is why I didn't want to use fire magic in this place. I could die due to lack of oxygen! I sent the 8 of them straight to the Minotaur whom took it like a champ and was still mostly unaffected by it though it did spread the fire on it even more which does damage it quite a bit judging by its screams of pain. I wonder if I can make it drop it's hammer.
“Lightning Bolt.”
I sent a lightning bolt to the hand that was holding the hammer and it was charging at me again.....shit! A flaming Minotaur is charging at me! At least the meat would be cooked when it died. I casted another spell as it was chasing me.
“Earth spike.”
This was the same tactic I used against that overgrown Kobold thing. And funny enough it made a very very small wound on it. Fuck. Its skin is harder than most things and probably steel as well. Man its getting hard to breath here. I have to put out the fire or I'm the one going to faint first.
“Flood.”
Some water formed which wasn't much since there probably wasn't a good water source nearby and splashed over the fire I created. Wait if I create enough water from my creation magic then....then I'll run out of mana before I can do anything.
[….........................use..................chains..............................]
Why do I have to use chain?! Tell me voice. Why?
[…..........................weakness................................................]
Ah it responded. So it could really hear me eh. Well I can't do shit with my other magic so I have to trust this voice.......should I make thick ones? But the length will be too short. Too thin and the Minotaur will easily break out and I'll waste mana.
[…..............................supply.............................]
Supply? What supply? WOW! My mana is rapidly filling up! Did you do this voice? Thank you!
“Creation Magic” I shouted out the words since I was excited.
But I was still running away from the Minotaur. From my hands chains were being created and I was making more of it as I left it on the ground for the Minotaur to step on. When the Minotaur was mid way from the start of the chain and me I started to run around it in a semi-circle fashion. I need to make a spike to hold it down.
“Creation Magic: Iron Chains.”
A spike of some sort or rather a nail to my opinion was created in my other hand. I slammed in the end of the chain and used my speed to reach the other end and slam the nail through one of the holes of the chain.
“Creation Magic: Iron Chains.”
Another chain was made and I was about to repeat this but the Minotaur was about to break free.
“Ice field. Ice Prison.”
I used two other spells at the same time in an attempt to distract the Minotaur enough for me to surround him in chains. The ice climbed up its body. If it didn't break the ice then it would seal it but if it did not break the chains then the chains would seal it. Either way it was getting sealed and then tortured to death by me later on.
Break
Shit it was using brute force to get free.
[…......................................Darkness.................................................................]
Darkness? Are you telling me to use dark magic. Sure why not, you are supplying me with mana. Now I actually haven't used dark magic before. I imagined the Minotaur was being comsumed by darkness.
“Dark Prison.”
5000 mana was taken away and quickly refilled as the space around the Minotaur was darkening. The Minotaur was swinging its arms around trying to get free of the darkness. However it was futile as it was swinging into nothingness. The darkness that was covering it was not coming off and it was covering more and more of its body with time. This was a lot more powerful and more useful than the ice prison. Now while its distracted with the dark prison, I should run around and chain it up.
10 minutes later...
Well the Minotaur was covered completely in chains now and I dispelled my dark prison as the voice stopped supplying me with mana and it took a lot of mana to maintain. I also noticed there were two doors.
One I came from and other to somewhere else. I don't seem to remember which one is which. I lost track in my battle with the Minotaur. Do I have to kill this thing? Oh and my mana stopped refilling so quickly after the Minotaur was completely trapped as well. It seems the voice only helped me that far.
“Now what to do with you? Your covered in metal chains so Lightning Bolt!”
A lightning bolt came from my body and hit the chained Minotaur.
“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
The Minotaur started to cry out in pain. Yes! I want you to feel pain! Take another one.
“Lightning Bolt.”
Another lightning bolt came out of my body and hit the Minotaur.
5 hours later....
You have killed the guardian of the tomb!
You have levelled up x 43
You have gained 540 Fame
All stats increase by 3
After this message appeared both doors opened up. From one of them a worried Patrick came. He had a worry look until he saw my face with was very happy and he looked at the fried Minotaur on the ground chained up.
“Eden you....” stuttered Patrick.
I looked at Patrick with a smile of malice and said, “Its your turn now.”
Patrick took off immediately.
“Earth Wave.”
The ground under Patrick moved and caused him to trip over. I walked up to the very frightened Patrick and said in a very calm voice, “I'm joking, lets go.”
“What about the loot?” Patrick asked.
“Already got it. Some coins and scrap metal.”
With that, the loot issue was solved not that there was a problem in the first place right Minotaur?
Anyway we walked through the other door, the one Patrick didn't come from and entered a short hallway and into a small room that was 5 by 5 metres big. In the back was a large stone with writing on it and in front of it was a tomb.
Was it Tellap's or what? To the left and right were some pieces of loot which I will take later and there was no treasure you son of a bitch! Patrick walked up to the stone at the back and read it before saying, “Tomb in memory of the forgotten 15th one...the unknown explorer Alice Stargazer...what is this?”
Wait there was a 15th person in that story you took me?
“What's going on Patrick, the story you told me clearly had 14 companions not 15.”
“Shut it! I'm reading.”
After a bit of Patrick reading and me trying not to take all of the loots, Patrick started writing something down. He soon gave it to me to read.
The forgotten One
Alice Stargazer, close friend to the famous explorer Tellap and his wife travelled along side him and the other 13 companions during the age of betrayal. Staying in the shadows due to politic issues with the Kings and nobles at the time, Alice's record was wiped clean of all the discoveries she had made. These discoveries were later placed on other people whom were all nobles. Alice lead the party even as some of them died in the way to the place known as the forest of death. She too rejected the power that the Reish offered her but did not side with the humans or Reish.
During the battles between the two races, Alice tried to make peace between them. The Reish respected her for that and would stop the war but the humans did not want to even though they were losing. With the power of the Gods that protect them, the Reish were pushed back. The humans were given a way to slay the Reish permanently by the Gods. Fearing this Alice offered a solution as the Reish would lose the war and be wiped out at this rate. The solution was to the 3 betrayed ones; Tellap, Vincent and Morphesis whom both agreed to it. However the other 7, the betrayers did not. They wished for the power of the Reish and wanted to use it to rule over all creation. As such the Reish cooperated in helping the group seal them after the war even though it was said that they were sealed and the war ended. This is a lie created by the group to prevent the humans from attacking the Reish. The seal exist to protect the Reish from the malice and greed of the humans. By this act the Reish gave her some of their race's powers while keeping her human form.
Alice was assassinated by one minion of the nobles trying to take power after the Kings were slain as they feared her. Sadden by the loss, two of the companions became Kings while the other watched in the shadows to track down every person involved in her assassination. With time the culprit was found and killed. Alice was buried in her hometown but when gravediggers appeared it was moved here to safe guard her body and the secrets they process.
Those who defile the body or steal anything will be crushed as the tomb would self destruct if done so.
Ah....so it was the right choice not to touch anything. Anyway how do we get out? Don't tell me we have to walk back through the 6 floors again?! Patrick pulled something. It looked like a lever. From behind the stone writing was a doorway. It had stairs in it.
“Are you done reading yet? Lets get out of here.”
As we were walking up the stairs I asked, “So are you going to report the story?”
“Yeah.”
“Don't you think it was a bit short?”
“No. I wrote down a summary of the full thing. The full writing will be at least 100 or so pages. I'll write the full one later when I have the time and enough ink and paper to do so. It was really hard to read it since the writing was so small.”
“....”
Several flights of stairs later....
“FREEDOM” I shouted out in the air. The clean air! The open spaces! Most importantly NO MORE TRAPS!
“Yes Yes. Now calm down Eden.” sighed Patrick. Why weren't you happy about this?
“Anyway we have to split up now since I have to get back to town.”
“Why don't I come with you?” I asked. I really want to get back to a town.
“No no. I frankly don't know where the town is. If you come with me, you'll get lost with me. I can't impose on you any more than that.” That makes sense.
I waved goodbye to Patrick and looked at the mana detector once more to find that the creature I was searching for was only 10 kilometres away.
Continue Misfortune?PreviousExitNext
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Author's Notes:
- Word Count is 5144
- Who thought I would kill off a character? How dare someone think that.
- Yeah I'm not writing 73 rooms worth of events. Think about it. Each room has traps. MC and co. avoid traps. Continue to next room. Rinse and repeat and add in traps that activate.
- The identify trap skill would be so helpful in this chapter but.....