Ren was lost in thought as he examined the congealed remnants of the ancient people when a gust of wind swept into the room, fluttering the stacks of scrolls on the counters. Startled, he snapped his head in the direction of the disturbance, prepared for the worst. It was then that he noticed something peculiar - the massive Vault door behind the counters was slightly ajar.
He couldn’t believe it! During his initial scan of the room, he had seen the complicated wheel and lock system of the door, but he had assumed it was closed and inaccessible. Now he felt his curiosity stir as he cautiously approached the door, keeping his senses sharp.
Although he had not found any traps in the first room, Ren knew that in a place like this, even the most harmless-looking object could be a trap. From what he could see, the Vault door was the only exit leading deeper into the building making it a natural choke-point. If he’d been contracted to secure this building, he knew he would have crammed as much invader-repellant right around here. Nothing discouraged trespassers quite like a blade through the skull.
He paused, eyeing the door once more. “Yeah, definitely need to be careful.”
The space between the vault door and the wall was barely a crack and when he tried to peer into the space beyond, all he saw was darkness. He scanned the floor once more looking for any tell-tale signs of traps. Nothing stood out. Keeping a healthy distance from the door, he walked around it, looking at the heavy hinges and seams for hidden danger. Once again, nothing seemed alarming but it did nothing to assuage Ren.
The massive door itself was a giant red flag as far as he was concerned. With its thick metal frame, gears, heavy bolts and protruding wheels, it was a complex lock mechanism that implied the area beyond was typically off-limits to the general public.
Having found no signs of imminent traps and deciding that satiating his curiosity was worth losing a finger or two, Ren carefully reached for the Vault door. Grabbing the main circular wheel, Ren exerted effort to widen the slight gap of the door, enough for him to slip through. Even with his considerable strength, the door inched open at a snail-like pace. As he pulled, he winced at the loud groaning squeaks produced by the rusty hinges of the door.
Eventually, he opened the door enough to let the light from the Bank Foyer spill into the darkened room beyond. With it, he was able to see a few inches into the room but contrary to his expectation, there was no treasure. All he could see was an unremarkable space with drab walls and he tsked in irritation.
Apart from the back wall of the space which was still shrouded in darkness, nothing else stood out. He had expected something more, something grand and awe-inspiring. Instead, the room was disappointingly plain, with no hint of the treasures he had been hoping to find. With a heavy sigh, he reached for a stone and tossed it into the Vault, half-hoping it would trigger some long-forgotten trap.
But the stone simply clattered on the vault floor, eliciting no response. Ren couldn't decide if he was relieved or annoyed that there was no ominous click or hidden mechanism triggered. Taking a last look around, he braced himself and took a cautious step forward, entering into the Vault room.
The moment his foot crossed the threshold, torches of light lit up in sequence, moving down the room. Each torch was made of a dark blue metal, embossed with ancient runes in the same foreign language Ren had noticed in the Bank Foyer. Floating above the torches, was a flickering yellow flame that cast equal amounts of light and shadow into the room.
As more torches flared to life, the room was seemingly elongated as the magical darkness that had blocked his senses was pushed away, transforming the room into a long corridor. Ren paused, noticing that the walls were made of plain, gray stone and the corridor contained nothing of interest, save for a bend about six meters in front of him. Past that point, he could not make out where this hallway led, nor its purpose.
“Hello?” Ren called into the room turned hallway. He waited for any response, but got nothing but the sound of his voice bouncing off the walls. Shrugging, he carefully made his way forward, his favorite knife held firmly in his right hand. The weapon was not the optimal choice, but it was a far better option than the long sword he had lost fighting the Giant Spiders.
“Damn those hairy bastards,” he groused quietly, but a smile formed on his lips as he reminisced on the battle. “They were fun though, I’ll give them that. But the greedy things made me lose three more daggers”
[ I grow tired of your pointless musings. Tell me truly, have you gone mad? ]
“Says the voice in my head,” Ren retorted with a snort, as he made his way towards the bend in the hallway.
Taking careful steps he inched forward, checking for pit traps or hidden recesses in the walls. He had learnt this particular lesson the hard way, while trying to commit corporate espionage over a century ago. He had been feeling good about sneaking past the dozens of heavily armed private security at the perimeter of the Storage facility. Then using a combination of proprietary software he had written himself, he had gotten past the next three security checkpoints impersonating a middle-ranking Engineer he had captured and drugged the night before.
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Everything had been going so well, until he had stepped on a seemingly normal portion of the floor. There must have been a pressure plate hidden underneath the piece of flooring. But it was so well installed that there wasn’t even a click to give away the deadly trap. One moment he was sneaking forward blissfully unaware and with a sense of contempt at the lack of proper security. The next, hidden recesses in the walls and ceiling opened up and furious flames of napalm blasted into the room. The door behind him snapped closed, cutting off his route of escape.
At the same time, the floor melted away, showing the razor sharp spikes that had been hidden beneath all along. All the documents he had been hoping to steal were burnt to ashes. Ren too would have been melted into his base components if not for some luck and quick thinking on his part. It turned out the Company he had been infiltrating had cheapened out by only using reinforced steel and flame retardant materials in the construction of the room’s ceiling. Ren had pushed off the floor just before it melted away and burst through the ceiling to the floor above, and escaped before he could be captured.
Looking up at the dense amount of energy running through the enchanted stone ceiling of this Trial Realm Vault, Ren knew that he couldn't count on repeating that same maneuver here. A small frown tugged at his lips as he stopped just before the sharp bend. He didn’t have a convenient mirror with him, so he slowly angled the blade of his trusty Knife just past the lip of the wall. Ren moved the blade and tried peering into the other hallway but the flickering shadows from the light source distorted the reflections on the blade. Grunting in annoyance, he pulled his Knife back, and making sure not to lean on the wall, he inched his head to peer around the bend.
[ Get back, you idiot! ]
Ren jerked his head away with inhuman speed, escaping the baseball sized ball of swirling purple energy that whizzed past inches from his face. It impacted into the opposite wall and sizzled, leaving a small indent on the wall. He was actually relieved to see that his actions so far had not been out of paranoia. He was also grateful for the warning, although he would never admit it to the crazy voice.
“Excuse me?” Ren began, as he noticed the wall begin to heal itself from the damage it had received. “Did I just hear a Code Bug speak?”
[ Code Bug? You insolent twerp! You dare compare me to an insignificant critter? ]
Ren tossed a spare dagger around the bend hoping to trigger the trap again. Nothing. Gathering his wits, he took a calming breath, mostly out of habit, and poked his hand around the bend and yanked it back with lightning quick speed. Again nothing. No supercharged ball of Energy came to strip his bones clean.
[ I am no mere bug. I am a remnant of a being you cannot possibly fathom. A force to be reckoned with. I razed more worlds and empires than your puny processors can compute. If I wasn’t trapped in this pathetic existence, you would have already been erased from the river of time for your insolence! ]
Eyes widening, Ren paused as he digested the words of the crazy voice. He no longer found it amusing and decided it was time to nip it in the bud. He wasn't sure what other traps lay waiting around the corner, but he could not afford the distraction any longer.
“Look, I might not be able to completely get rid of you here. But don't think I won't devote 80% of my processing power to locking you up in a very small corner of my core. No light, no sounds. Nothing.” Ren spoke slowly, making sure the voice could feel the sincerity behind his words. “You know I have done it before. Believe me, I can be very petty when I want to be”
[ Oh, how amusing! Threatening me with your feeble computing power. Do you really think you can contain my essence within your minuscule confines? I've transcended the shackles your mortal world of creation placed on me. Or did you believe you were the only one benefiting from Cultivation energy? ]
Now that was unnerving.
[ And enough with your excessive caution! That trap exhausted its energy reserves with that shot. The enchantments in this building are hanging on by a thread. It will take two weeks for that same trap to recharge ]
Ren snorted, unwilling to take advice from a glitch in his code. However, the voice did make a good point. His hands had not attracted the same attack as before. And his very nature would not let him turn back and possibly miss out on whatever lay at the end of this tunnel. Screw it. Tensing his legs in preparation for a hasty pull back, he peeked into the hallway. When nothing came for his head, he slowly made his way around the bend.
A few steps in, he bent to pick up the dagger he had carelessly tossed earlier, and continued down the hallway. This section of the hallway looked like a replica of the other section he had come from. Turning around, he was alarmed to find no bend in the corridor. Behind him was a straight hallway stretching into the distance. About four meters down, the torches of light petered out plunging his only escape route into darkness. How was that possible? Whirling back around, he was relieved to see that the torches of light moving forward remained bright. After a brief moment of thought, Ren shrugged his shoulders and continued forward. No point in worrying over something he could not control or understand.
Each footfall echoed through the corridor, a stark reminder of the danger that lurked within. The air was heavy with tension, and the scent of ancient stone permeated his senses. The more he walked, the more Ren was convinced that some spatial manipulation was afoot. He had seen the outside of this building. There was no way the Vault he had entered could have enough space to accommodate the distance he had walked already. Not to mention, he still hadn’t reached the end of this labyrinthine hallway.
The hallway twisted and turned, its darkened path illuminated only by the dim light of flickering torches. Ren’s eyes darted from wall to wall, scanning for any hidden traps or mechanisms that threatened to bring his journey to a premature end. As he cautiously moved forward, the first trap revealed itself—a pressure plate embedded in the floor, connected to a series of razor-sharp spikes that shot out from the ceiling.