A shimring light filled Marcus’ vision as the teleportation circle whisked him away.
An instant later he appeared in an empty room much like the others that had appeared on the earlier floors.
However, this ti instead of it just being a completely sealed off room there were three doors on the far wall that each had nas above them.
But before he even read what each of them said, he was imdiately alard by the fact that he found himself alone.
These next ten floors were supposed to be completed in groups of three or four, and he had gotten on the teleportation circle expecting to appear with both Roxene and Mrazivý.
‘This fucking dungeon tricked us. It never had any intention of letting us work together. Or perhaps it is not letting us choose our teams and when the others try to teleport, I will get so of the others at random joining ?’
Turning his head back around Marcus began impatiently tapping his foot waiting to see if soone else would arrive, when he noticed sothing.
Whenever he had been on the first ten floors his connection to his beast companions had been cut off. But right now, he could still feel Roxene. Though she was a bit of a ways from him.
‘Roxene, can you hear ?’
Waiting for a mont Marcus had his hopes up, and thankfully he received a response.
‘Loud and clear. Do you know why we ended up in different places?’ Roxene asked.
Of course, he was just as much in the dark as she was, and before they continued, he asked her to wait while he tried to contact Mrazivý.
Unfortunately, while he was able to contact Roxene through their connection with the mutual seal, Mrazivý was out of range of his telepathy.
Still, knowing that Roxene was at least within the sa area made him suspect that Mrazivý was as well.
‘Are there three doors in your room as well?’ Marcus asked Roxene.
‘Yeah, there are. One of them says strength, another speed, and the final one skill.’ Roxene said, relaying what she was observing.
It was the exact sa as where Marcus was and confirming this he was able to get a much better grasp of what was going on.
‘I will try approaching one of the doors and see what happens. Just wait for to get back to you.’
Putting Roxene on hold, Marcus moved up to the door that was titled strength and grabbed ahold of it.
When he tried to pull on it the door refused to budge, but sothing else happened instead.
Just a mont after he touched the door three different projections appeared.
One that had Mrazivý in it, another that had Roxene, and a final one that was asking if he wanted to confirm choosing the path of strength.
“Marcus!?” Mrazivý said when the projection appeared.
Apparently, it could transmit sound and touching one of the doors had connected them all together.
“Mraz, I am glad to see you are alright. Looks like this dungeon pulled a fast one on us.”
Now that they were all connected the three of them began relaying what information they had figured out and discussing the best course of action for them to take.
“So, are we all in agreent that Roxene will take the path of strength, Mraz will take the path of speed, and I will take skill.” Marcus said.
In response Mrazivý and Roxene nodded their heads, and everyone prepared to go through their respective doors.
“We may not be able to communicate after we take our respective paths but let us all do our best to pass and et back up.”
With that last ssage all of them steeled themselves and confird the paths they would go down.
Both Mrazivý and Roxene were able to easily open their doors and began heading out.
However, Marcus’ door leading to the path of skill refused to open.
‘You have got to be shitting .’
As he watched his companions disappear, Marcus remained stuck at the start line.
In a bout of frustration when the door still refused to open after trying for nearly two minutes, he pulled out his scythe and struck it. But the result he was expecting occurred.
Even the top tier athros weapon bounced off without so much as leaving a scratch on the seemingly normal wooden door. Once again confirming that this dungeon did not follow the logic of the world and could not be forced through.
‘Nope. Cannot phase through either. This dungeon really will not let use any of my usual tricks.’
Sighing, Marcus tried to see if he could open either of the other two doors, but they remined fixed in place as well. Simply giving him a prompt that these paths had already been chosen.
‘Okay, this is supposed to be the path of skill. I must need to use so sort of skill to get through it. But which one? There are literally thousands of skills and I do not even know all of them.’
Looking at the door more closely Marcus began examining it and soon found what it was he needed to do.
‘Talk about dirty. Who makes a hidden lock on a door in a dungeon.’
Having located the reason he could not open the door, he pulled out so tools and began testing if anything was going to help him unlock this door.
Unfortunately, it was not like he had any dedicated lockpicks nor any skill for dealing with such.
Normally he could just phase through any door in his way, and if it had a barrier that could actually keep him out a simple lock would be the least of his problems.
Still, he did have a solution, albeit one that was a bit extre.
Within his item box he kept so forging equipnt on him, and if there was a lock that he could not pick all he needed to do was make a key.
A few hours later and on his fortieth attempt he finally made the correct key to fit in the lock after much trial and error.
Click!
‘Finally! I made it past this stupid door.’ Marcus thought as he slowly swung it open.
Laying out before him now was a short hallway that curved around and out of sight.
‘This skill challenge is not just going to be having to make keys for a bunch of doors, is it? I have no aspirations to be a locksmith and can train my forge skill on my own ti.’ Marcus thought as he took his first step into the hall.
Yet right before he set his foot down, multiple warnings went off in his head and he stepped back.
A skill he had not gotten much use out of for quite soti had just alerted him that there was sothing wrong with the floor in front of him.
‘Traps. Of course, it had to be traps.’
Feeling the distinct feeling of his trap sense, Marcus looked down at the ground and found that there were a number of tripwires set up in the hall.
And they were not just on the ground. They ascended all the way to the ceiling making it impossible for him to move forward without disarming them.
Reviews
All reviews (0)