Chapter 225. Where to Now?

The sounds of combat continued, eventually reaching a crescendo before a burst of flame licked around the end of the hallway. My surviving goblins were singed a bit by the flames, and I hit them with another cast of Health Bloom. After casting my spell, I noticed that things had quieted down and I risked a peek around the corner to see what had happened.

The hallway was a charred disaster. Wool carpeting smoldered on the floor and a few small flames licked at the walls. Some type of magic must have protected the building from a catastrophic fire, but the effects of whatever had happened here were still easily seen.

Humanoid-shaped unburnt sections of the walls and floor revealed where the bodies had been. Other than the clean patches, nothing else remained, the summoned beings having been turned into mana vapor by the explosion. I counted a total of three spots where someone had fallen. If that were true, the total number of foes would have dropped by five between the elf, the orc, and the three here in the hallway.

A pair of open doors were further down the hall, and I had my team form up, this time with the drone in the lead, as we checked for anything lurking inside. The doors revealed empty rooms, probably the starting location of two other participants. With nothing else to do, we pressed on. The hallway ended at another, partially ajar door.

The drone, in stealth mode, moved through the partially open door. Whoever, or whatever might have been inside the room would know something was up as the door squeaked all the way open from my minion’s entrance. Nothing seemed to attack the drone, so the rest of us filed in. It was down to me, the drone, Elida, Glamb, and Glurk. We had lost three, but two of those three were our weakest members.

“Welcome participant, you may take a moment to recover. If you are low on mana, or need any healing, please let me know. Otherwise, you may select one item from the chest in front of me before choosing your next path,” a young woman said as I entered. She stood up from a chair she had been sitting in and indicated a large chest next to the chair.

“Thank you, is there anything you can tell me about this little competition?” I asked.

“I’m sorry, I can’t divulge any information to a participant, other than to tell you that this room is a sanctuary, and no combat may occur inside of it. Should you participate in combat here, you will forfeit and receive the worst possible rating. Do you require healing or mana?” She asked again.

“I’m just down a bit of mana, but it should recharge shortly,” I said, checking that all my surviving minions were in tip top shape before declining any healing assistance.

“Please, drink this, it should bring your mana levels back to normal,” the young woman said, pulling a small vial holding the familiar blue liquid that I’d come to associate with mana potions.

Taking the potion, I quickly gulped it down, hating the terrible menthol flavor the potions seemed to have. Instead of an assault on my taste buds, I was greeted to a rather lovely, sweet tasting potion. It was similar to blue raspberry candy, and I was going to have to have a word with the alchemists in Somhagen. They were clearly slacking in their potion work.

I didn’t know how long I had to rest inside the sanctuary room, and I wanted to get whatever reward was hiding inside the chest. Inside, I found an odd collection of items, the system organized and explained them to me.

Choose one of the following.

1. Longsword.

2. Tower shield.

3. Mana potion, minor.

4. Healing potion, minor.

5. Summoning figurine, Tier 1, Rank 5.

6. Scroll of Lightning Bolt.

There was little bit of everything inside, and I had a feeling all the participants were offered the same choices. Any type of class or build would find something useful, and there were several things I could use in here. I still had four minions, so the while the lower tier and rank figurine would be useful, it was filling a role I already had covered.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Going into melee wouldn’t be the best use of my time, the same with lugging around a giant shield. A single potion wasn’t going to be a game changer either, especially now that I had healing magic, and a healing minion. Being able to blast a foe with a lightning bolt seemed like a much better option. If I could end another summoned being in one shot, it might keep my minions alive and helpful for much longer.

You have received a scroll of Lightning Bolt.

“Where to now?” I asked the woman, not quite sure what to do now that I’d grabbed my loot.

“That is up to you. From where you entered the room, three doors await. Once one is chosen, the other two cannot be accessed. Depending on the door you choose, your experience can be a difficult, or an easy one,” she explained. This was more than frustrating, I was hoping to win or lose this based on my skill, or that of my opponents. If it all boiled down to which of us randomly chose the best door, how could that be entertaining for our summoner?

“Wait, so if I choose the wrong one, I’ve already lost the whole competition or whatever you call what we’re doing?” I asked, sounding more than a little annoyed. The woman shuffled back slightly, and looked worried that I was going to lose it.

“There is always an opportunity for success, it’s just a question of how much struggle you’ll be required to endure in order to achieve it,” she said. The line sounded almost rehearsed, like her boss expected at least one of us to ask questions along those lines and wanted his employee to give us this specific answer.

“Okay, I get it. Thank you for your help. Sorry if I sounded a little annoyed a moment ago. I know it’s not you personally who makes the rules, and I really do appreciate you helping with all my questions,” I said, feeling bad that I may have frightened her.

I may not like the answer she had given me, but this woman wasn’t the one making the decisions. It was like getting angry at the checkout clerk at the grocery store because the price of bananas went up.

“Best of luck to you, sir,” the woman said with a smile, accepting my thanks and my apology. I could have been wrong, but I thought I caught her eyes shifting to the door on my left. Was she trying to give me a hint as to which way I should go, or was she doing the opposite and trying to torpedo my chances?

“I’ll head out this way,” I said, choosing the door I thought she had indicated. The woman’s smile got a bit bigger, and she sat back in the chair, presumably waiting for another contestant to arrive. Given that I had cleared everything all the way to this room, I doubted she was going to get any additional visitors unless the others would enter through some other means.

I had the mana slayer drone open the door that I’d chosen. It proved to be an old study of some sort, and appeared empty, save for a weathered desk that looked like it would crumble if anyone tried to use it. As the last of my party entered the room, the lanterns in the room suddenly went dark, and the door slammed shut behind us.

A moment later, the light returned, and I could see the desk was no longer unoccupied. Clothed in tattered robes, a skeletal figure sat at the desk, his focus on the paper he was writing upon. The hood of his robe covered the man’s face, and I held the lightning bolt scroll in my hand, ready to push mana into it and blast whoever this was if he proved hostile.

“Excuse me, sorry to intrude, but I was wondering if you knew the way out of this place?” I asked, not quite sure if I should just launch into an attack or not. The mana drone, now stealthed, moved to circle the desk and come at the seated figure from behind. The remaining goblin pair, with Elida behind them ready to heal, placed themselves between me and the potential threat.

“Why do you seek to leave? Many would find this place a perfect spot to spend their days,” the man said. His voice was odd, scratchy and fake like an old-time recording being played through a cheap speaker. The man looked up, and the hood fell away from his face, revealing a skull devoid of any flesh. This creature was an undead being of some sort, but after meeting Tzes’zod, I knew that didn’t necessarily mean he was evil.

“I’m involved in a contest with some others, I was called here and have no intention to stay once I’ve completed my task,” I replied, trying not to act startled or frightened by his appearance. My minions picked up on this and kept their weapons down for the moment.

“To each their own, I shall not force you to stay. As for your question, no, I have no idea how to leave the mansion, as I’ve never had any desire to do so,” the skeleton said.

“Can you at least tell me if there’s any way out of this room?” I asked. There were no other doors leading from the room, and when I tried the handle of the door we had entered from, it was locked through some magical means and wouldn’t budge.

“There is always this way out,” the skeleton said, standing from his chair and pulling a sharp letter opener from the desk drawer as he spoke.