by R K Billiau
Befuddled
10% Your Mind attributes are reduced by 10%
This was so much fun! I loved getting a chance to explore a slow death like this.
The bowl rose to seventy-five percent and the Weakened and Befuddled debuffs started rising faster now, both at thirty percent.
This felt so strange; all of us quietly watching my blood drain away. Soon my legs were shaking and Kai grabbed me under the arms to hold me up, while Madison held my arm over the bowl. She watched me sympathetically, worry plastered on her face. She smiled gently, but I couldn’t return it. I felt nauseous and focused my little remaining energy on not puking all over Madison’s boots.
Congratulations! You have increased your Superconscious attribute!
Wonderful, it appeared that participating in a foul dark magic ritual could increase your attributes.
When my health had drained by ninety percent, my vision darkened and I could no longer focus on anything but breathing, and each breath felt like a marathon. Soon the ring on the bowl rose to the very top and white energy poured out of the bowl, filling the room with light. My eyes fluttered and I couldn’t tell if it was my imagination or not, but the last thing I saw before they closed for the final time was a creepy looking grin on Carl’s face.
Chapter 18
I opened my eyes at the entrance to the dungeon once again. I knew that others had died a lot, and I wasn’t the only one who had been caught in the death trap, but damn if I didn’t feel like I spent more time respawning than anyone. I blew out my cheeks as the system pop-up crossed my vision.
Your party has a total of 5 deaths allowed before the dungeon is considered failed.
I really hoped there weren’t any more rooms that required someone to die in order to beat this dungeon. I hustled back, surprising myself with how good I’d become at avoiding the pit in the corridor.
Congratulations! You have increased your Agility attribute.
When I caught up to the group, they were all standing around the pedestal. “Did you figure it out?” I asked.
Madison smiled at me. “After you died, the red light in the bowl kind of compressed down into this disc.” She held up what looked like a red glass coin. “It fits into these divots perfectly, but nothing happens when we put it in. Watch.” She placed the disc into a divot on the pedestal. Nothing happened.
“So my entire life essence is pressed into a coin, and it’s broken?” I asked, mostly joking.
“No, dumbass, we just need to find the other discs,” Carl said. Man, that guy rubbed me the wrong way. Just another reason to get done with this dungeon and quest quickly.
“What have you tried?” I asked.
“Not much,” Kai said. “We have not had much time.” He pulled out the thing that was basically a flashlight and began shining it once again around the room. The walls were all very rock-like until the light shone on the room I had slowly died in. The door was open this time and the light lit up the inside where the bowl sat, glowing. Stupid bowl.
I went into the room again, but nothing was different. I shrugged and walked back out, shutting the door behind me. Kai was still shining the light everywhere to see if there was anything he missed when I had a thought. I strode over to the pedestal and picked up the red disc.
“Kai, let me see the flashlight.”
“Flashlight?” he asked with a cocked eyebrow.
“Whatever, hand me the One True Mana Torch,” I said, in my best old man wizard voice. Kai just stared.
I took the flashlight and gave it a once over. I slipped the red disc into the slot on the end and pushed it in with my thumb. It slid in and clicked like they were meant to be together, and the light turned a bright red.
Congratulations! You have increased your Conscious attribute!
I shone it around the room, finding nothing different. The same stone walls, the same pedestal, same mirrors, the same door. I frowned.
“I thought that would work,” I said as I dropped my arm holding the light.
“Wait!” Madison yelled. “Shine it back on the door again!”
I did and she pointed at it, jumping up and down in excitement. “Look! LOOK!”
I looked. It looked like the door we had already gone through, only red. I started to get excited too.
“Wait, you don’t think...”
“It’s a different door!” she said and rushed over to it, flinging it open. The red light blasted through the open door to expose another small room with another pedestal and another bowl. This bowl was not glowing.
“Oh man. Not again,” I moaned. “Not it!”
“What are you? Twelve? Come on,” Carl said as he walked through the door.
Kai looked at me. “He has a point.”
“Oh, come on, don’t start siding with him now,” I said as I turned off the light and walked in.
Again there was writing on the pedestal next to the bowl, and once again it said: “Fill with the essence of life.” I sighed.
“Okay guys, we have a problem. We can only die so many times in this dungeon before we fail. There were two other divots on the pedestal; if we have to die two more times that’s not going to leave a lot of wiggle room to get through the rest of this place. And we have no idea how big it even is.”
“I don’t see much choice,” Madison said. “Unless since this is a different room there’s a different way to fill the bowl? Maybe I can heal right at the last moment? We could try that.”
“Should I cut you again?” Carl asked me. I backed up a step.
“You seem all too eager to do that, buddy,” I said.
He rolled his eyes and gestured to the bowl. “For the dungeon, idiot.”
“Enough,” Kai said firmly. “Hudson had his turn, cut me and I will provide the blood this time.”
“Sure thing big guy,” Carl said as he brought out his knife and sliced it across Kai’s out-held forearm. Blood started pouring from the wound, but Kai didn’t make any kind of acknowledgement that he was even injured. Damn, that was cool.
No light appeared. The blood began rising in the bowl, but still no light. Kai grunted. “This does not seem to be working the same. Madison, would you please heal me?”
Madison placed her hand on the wound and activated her healing ability. Kai’s skin knit together seamlessly.
“Well, now what?” she asked.
I examined the bowl. There was nothing different in this room, it looked the exact same as the last one, but it was different. The red light gave it a strange color, subtly changing everything in it. I searched around the bowl, looking for more clues. Nothing. I puffed out my breath in exasperation, right over the bowl, and a faint line around the bottom of the bowl started to glow, then faded out of existence.
As an experiment I blew harder, this time my breath aimed directly into the bowl. The blood in the bottom of the bowl faded into nothingness, and a yellow line briefly lit up, then faded out again.
“Maybe one of us won’t have to die after all,” I said as I blew harder this time, and just like the ring on the last bowl, it moved a small amount, coming up the bowl. But it faded as soon as I stopped to inhale.
“Madison, come here!” I positioned her towards the bowl. “Now blow, and when you stop to take a breath, I’ll blow, and so on...”
We took turns blowing into the bowl, our breath coming out as a near constant stream, but still at every slight pause when no air was being blown into the bowl, the line would fade away.
“Kai, Carl, we need you guys too, lets tag-team this.” The two men came over and also started blowing. It took some trying, but eventually we found a rhythm to where there was always air being blown into the bowl, and in a short amount of time the glowing line made it to the top, and white energy exploded out of the bowl.
This time I got to watch it happen. It was like a mini fireworks display, just not as hot. My hand went through the explosions to no effect. Then within the bowl, winds began to pick up, swirling around each other fas
ter and faster, forming a small tornado. The tornado abruptly stopped and with a tinkling sound like a dropped marble, there was another colored glass disc inside the bowl. This time yellow.
“All right!” I shouted and pulled the disc out. “Only one more to go!”
“Hopefully no one has to die for the next one either,” Madison said and grabbed the disc from me. We left the room, shutting the door behind us. We promptly swapped out the red disc for the yellow one in the flashlight and shone it where the door had been.
Bingo. Yellow door.
“So what’s next?” Madison asked.
Kai cleared his throat. “Blood and air are both essence of life. I believe water could also be an option.”
He grabbed a canteen out of his pack and started pouring it into the bowl. As the water splashed in the bottom, the bowl started glowing.
I pumped my fist in the air. “Awesome!”
Kai poured and poured and poured. It seemed like the glowing line barely moved. “Uh, how much do you have left?” I asked.
“Not much. Perhaps you want to get your canteens out and ready, we don’t want the light to go down,” Kai said.
Madison and I quickly whipped out our canteens and started pouring. The line on the bowl moved up slowly, ever so slowly. “This is making me nervous,” Madison said. “Carl, do you have a canteen?”
He frowned and pulled it out, adding his water to the bowl. “This is the last of my water,” he said.
My canteen ran out and shortly after, Madison’s did as well. We all watched Carl’s water slowly pour into the bowl. The light was getting close to the top, but it was hard to tell how much water he had left and he was pouring it painstakingly slowly. The line finally reached the top and in another swirl of energy, and an impressive whirlpool that surprisingly didn’t splash out, a blue disk clattered to the bottom of the otherwise empty bowl.
Carl held his canteen over his mouth and the last few drops of water fell into it. “Well, I hope we don’t need that water for anything else. Like, drinking.”
“We’ll be fine,” Madison said. “We went through that forest for a long time without dying of dehydration, we can do it again. A benefit of a game world, I suppose.” She picked up the disc and we switched them in the flashlight. The light turned blue, but the door stayed yellow.
“I guess that means we have them all?” I shrugged.
“Oh! I know!” She shouted excitedly and bounced over to the pedestal. She slid all three of the colored discs into the slots and beams of light shot out from them, each beam converging in the center above the pedestal, merging to make bright white light. Floating in the light was a big, shiny key.
Chapter 19
As the key appeared floating in the air, a small musical number played out of nowhere. I looked around, trying to see where it was coming from. “Was that from Zelda?” I asked to shrugs and confused faces. I grabbed the key which felt solid and well built, especially for something that was just floating midair.
“Let’s go get that treasure!” I slid the colored discs out and put them and the flashlight in my inventory for safekeeping. I know I hadn’t been here long, but I’m not sure I could live without a digital inventory again. It was way too convenient.
“I hope this is the last thing,” Carl said. “I feel like this is taking forever.”
“I would not count on this dungeon being over,” Kai said. “I have not played many games where dungeons were puzzles only.”
“Wait, you played video games, Kai?” Madison asked.
“Of course. They are nearly ubiquitous,” he said.
“Let me guess, fighting games?” I said with a smirk.
Kai rolled his eyes. “Some, yes, but mostly I preferred monster hunting games.”
“Can we go see about that treasure?” Carl asked.
I sighed and started walking. We made our way through all the traps with relative ease and got back to the treasure room.
“Okay, so I think I will try to jump over there and-”
“Wait,” Madison said. “I want to try something. She waggled her fingers and pointed at herself, then repeated the process, pointing to me.
You have been Boosted!
Please choose what attribute you would like to Boost by 25 points
Not choosing after 5 seconds will default to Max HP
Expendable pools are Boosted by 68 points
“I’ll pick Detect Traps, you pick Disarm Traps, and let’s see if we can turn this thing off,” she said.
“I just have one question,” I said. She waited. “Why didn’t we do this the first time?!”
“I know, ridiculous right?” Madison said. “I really need to keep using the skill even if it’s just to level it.” She looked around, her skill activated. “Uh oh,” she said when it turned off.
“What is it?” Kai asked.
“This trap- it doesn’t look like any of the ones we’ve seen before. You know how the trap highlights when we use Detect Traps? Well, this one didn’t. The tiles were glowing blue with weird writing on each one. I kinda think the whole floor is trapped and it’s not a type we can disarm.”
Carl grunted. “It’s always something.”
“Perhaps it is a magical trap,” Kai said. “This dungeon has far more magical properties than we have encountered before. The pedestals and bowls, the dagger- all of those have magic, perhaps the trap is no different.”
“So what does that mean?” Carl asked.
This couldn’t be an unsolvable trap. There was a purpose and solution to everything here. But what was it? I chewed on my lip while I wracked my brain. Ah ha! I had an epiphany.
Congratulations! You have increased your Subconscious attribute!
I pulled out the flashlight and slotted the blue disc. Other than the floor lighting up blue where the light touched, nothing happened. Annoyed, I took out the blue disc and replaced it with the red one. This time when the light hit the floor the tiles lit up red, but some of them had yellow squiggly writing on top.
“Bingpot!” I pointed to the tiles that had no writing. “I bet if we step on those tiles, it will be a safe path to the chest.” I smiled, perhaps a little too proud. “Who wants to try it?”
“Not me,” Carl said. “I’ll wait to see what happens.”
“Always the team player,” I said.
Kai gave him a hard look and walked forward. I carefully shone the light so he wouldn’t block it and watched as he hesitantly took the first step on an unmarked tile. Nothing happened. With a breath of relief, he continued his trek around the tiles, deftly making it to the treasure chest.
“Nice!” I shouted and high-fived Madison.
“Throw me the key and I will unlock it,” Kai said.
“Why don’t you wait until we’re all there?” Carl said.
Kai paused a moment before responding. “Yes, that is a good point. We should get all of us here.”
“Okay, head on over then. I’ll man the light and come last,” I said.
Madison went first, and despite her heavier armor, she was agile enough that she didn’t take a wrong step. Next up Carl, with no issue, but the small un-trapped area around the treasure chest was getting crowded. I took my first step, holding the light in front of me to show the way, and breathed out a sigh of relief when nothing happened, even though I had just watched three other people do the same. Being tossed around like a rag doll was not something easily forgotten.
I continued over the tiles that had no writing, making sure to be careful and precise. When I got to the last step, I paused, gauging the area around the chest to find the safest place for my feet. I jumped the last tile, landing in the empty safe spot, but I had used a little too much strength and when I landed I slipped, almost losing my footing and falling onto the tiles. Madison grabbed me to keep me upright, yanking hard and pulled me onto her, a much better place to land.
“You know, you’re like a magnet,” I said, “you really attracted me.”
“Ug
h, I may have terrible jokes and puns sometimes, but that was just plain terrible.” She smiled when she said it though, so it was still a win.
Chapter 20
“Let’s open this bad boy up!” I said, slapping the top of the chest. I handed the key to Kai, who took it and had to use two hands to get the huge thing to fit into the lock on the front of the chest. With a little effort he turned it and we heard a satisfying ‘click’! Another musical chime sounded out and the lock- with the key still in it- lit up with a bright white light that made its way through the whole chest, then like rain in reverse, the light cascaded up into the air and we were left standing around a stairway down.
“Wait,” Carl said, “that’s it? Stairs? Where’s the loot!?”
“Yeah, that is kinda lame,” Madison said, “I wanted loot too.”
Kai simply shrugged and made his way down the stairs, and with a cute pout Madison followed. With an annoying pout, Carl also followed. I brought up the rear, and when my foot touched the base, the steps behind me faded into light the same way as the chest had, the hole sealing itself closed. I wouldn’t describe the feeling it gave me as comfortable. Nothing good happened in dungeons behind sealed off rooms.
We found ourselves in a gloomy darkness. The kind of darkness like when it’s night time but just barely starting to turn into day, and you look at the clock and instantly regret having stayed up that late, but it’s too late to go to bed so you know it’s just going to be a rough day. I had a feeling we might be in for a rough day.
I turned on the white beam of the flashlight and shone it around. We were in what appeared to be a cave: dark ceilings, dark floors, dark walls, with branching paths to the left, right, and center.
“I was really hoping that treasure would be the end,” Carl said with a huff.
“Hudson, please shine the light down the paths, so we can select which one we will go down,” Kai said, ignoring him.