Heart of the Void: Sosaku Online - Book 2

by J. Arthur Klein

  “What?” I asked, “Can you say that in English please?” I had no clue what she was talking about. Prow, stern, starboard. Sure, I’d seen a bunch of pirate movies, but the lingo had never stuck.

  “I’ll take the front. Mika can go between the left and right and Amenhotep will stay in the middle near the back with you,” she explained with a grin and then hopped down into the boat, landing lightly on her feet and easily catching her balance as the boat rocked back and forth.

  Mika hopped down with just as little effort, and even less of an effect on the stability of the vessel.

  I wasn’t about to try that approach. I’d probably end up capsizing the boat or falling overboard. I shrank my spear back down to its rod form and tucked it into my belt and handed my shield to Kjara below. With both hands free I carefully climbed down the ladder and stepped into the bottom of the boat, stumbling into the rail as it tilted and put me off balance.

  I managed to catch myself and shuffled over to my position before taking my shield back. I slung it over my shoulder, keeping my hands free to steer while making sure it would be available in case we were attacked.

  Another lurch of the boat almost sent me tumbling over the rail as Amenhotep landed slightly off center on the wooden deck.

  I cursed and wrapped myself around the rail as the boat shuddered, glaring at Amenhotep. “Really? Just jump off the docks into the boat? How did you know it would hold your weight?”

  “It is Saa crafted,” his voice said in my mind, “of course it would hold my weight.”

  All the rocking was starting to make me nauseous, so I settled myself against the “stern” and took a few deep breaths before resting my hands on the tiller.

  *** Launch vessel? (Y/N) ***

  “Everyone ready?” I asked and looked around to my companions. One by one they nodded, weapons in hand.

  Taking a firm grip on the tiller, I hit yes.

  The boat came free from its moorings with a lurch, sending me stumbling back a step. Somehow Amenhotep was unphased by the change and stood rock steady in the center of the boat.

  Seconds later the current took hold and launched our vessel down the tunnel at near roller coaster speed. I could feel the wind rushing over my shoulder and looked up to see Kjara standing on the prow, the wind whipping her braid behind her.

  She turned back to me and grinned. “I’m the king of the world!”

  I smiled back and then saw a large arch of worked stone rapidly approaching. I could barely make out the words carved in the Saa tongue on its surface.

  As I read it aloud, I was kind of disappointed. Really devs? You couldn’t come up with anything a bit less popular for a riddle?

  “The beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end and the end of every place. What am I?” I said, bored.

  Kjara looked back and said, “Really?”

  I nodded as we rushed under the arch and looked back. The reverse side of the archway had the same riddle carved into it, giving anyone who missed it the first time another chance.

  Up ahead the tunnel split, each branch with another carved archway overhead. The left arch had a small plaque with the words “The Void” carved into it. The right arch had a similar plaque with a stylized “E”.

  The current increased in speed as we neared the fork, the water smashing into the cave where the river split. I yelled out, “Alright all, here we go! The letter E. Right!”

  I shoved the tiller hard to the right and almost flipped over the side of the boat as it turned sharply to the left and slid into the wrong tunnel.

  “Why did you go left?” Kjara yelled from the front of the boat. “You got the answer right.”

  I looked around as the tunnel began to glow red and the water began to slow. “I pushed the damn thing right. Someone inverted the steering on this hunk of junk.”

  Mika was laughing his ass off and Kjara just looked at me and tried not to laugh.

  “Oh, you sweet, summer child,” she said and looked around. “I guess that’s what we get for letting the land lubber steer the ship.”

  The river flowed into a large circular chamber with a massive stone gate blocking the flow of the river and I wondered what I had gotten us into.

  The current pushed us around the outside of the room in a large circle, the side of the boat occasionally scraping against the rock walls. Trying to rectify my prior steering error, I used the tiller to direct us away from the stone and any potential damage to the boat.

  “Well, what now?” I asked, looking for some way to open the gate just as something thumped against the bottom of the boat, causing it to rock.

  Kjara was up on the bow, looking into the water where some ripples and small bubbles were coming up from below. A second tap on the opposite side of the boat sent us drifting in the opposite direction.

  With a spray of dark water, a large serpentine form burst out of the water on our left and struck at Kjara on the prow. A giant snake wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it was very fitting for the source material.

  The creature’s body was covered in thick, dark scales with even darker patches along its back. Its underbelly was a bright orange color with several dots, like the pips normally seen on dice, and strangely, its gaping mouth was completely toothless.

  At its size it really didn’t need any teeth. Its mouth was big enough to swallow an arm, leg, or head with ease.

  I used Analyze as Kjara ducked under the serpent’s lunge and shot an arrow into its flank, dropping its health by a sliver.

  *** Laurenti Serpent, Level 15 ***

  *** HP: 97%, SP: 100% ***

  *** Conditions: None ***

  *** Active Spells/Abilities: Noxious Secretions ***

  *** Weakness: Electricity ***

  *** Highest Statistics: Strength, Agility ***

  Mika raised his crossbow just in time to see the tail of the serpent crest over the boat and release a spray of some substance that splattered onto the dýrafólk and our boat.

  It stank. My eyes started to water, and my vision got hazy as the stench of whatever foul substance the creature had squirted at us washed over me.

  *** Constitution check unsuccessful! ***

  ***You are affected by the Laurenti Serpent’s Noxious Secretions ***

  I couldn’t see it, but I heard the sounds of retching as Kjara and Mika began coughing and choking from the front of the boat.

  I leaned against the tiller, sending the boat into a slow turn which only added to my nausea as my budding seasickness combined with the effects of the oil of stank.

  Amenhotep seemed unphased when my eyes cleared enough of the tears to get a look around. The Temple Guardian was poised in the center of the boat. Head tilted as if listening for something.

  With another splash, the snake appeared over the rail on the left and dashed toward Mika’s retching form, its toothless maw closing around the dýrafólk’s leg.

  A new icon appeared next to Mika’s name in the party window indicating some sort of paralysis effect and the snake began to slide back into the water, dragging the rogue with it.

  Amenhotep stepped forward and smashed his shield down onto the deck, producing a shock wave that washed over the serpent. The creature released its hold on Mika and turned its gaze on Amenhotep as the taunt component of his Shockwave skill forced the creature to focus on him.

  Mika dropped like a mannequin into the bottom of the boat, his limbs locked in place by the serpent’s toxin.

  I hit him with a Purification spell and winced in sympathy as the paralysis burned away and he started screaming. A quick Cure Wounds eliminated the pain from both the bite and my fiery purification magic.

  When I looked back to the front of the boat, Kjara had recovered from the noxious attack and was busy cutting into the serpent’s flanks while Amenhotep held its attention.

  The boat was too unsteady for me to move any closer to the fight, and I was sure that any attempts to use my spear would result in so
meone going overboard. Probably me.

  The snake’s main tactic seemed to be poisoning its prey and then dragging it down to a slow, painful, drowning death, but the Legionnaire was immune to the poison, and was strong enough to avoid being tugged into the water when the creature did get past his shield to latch on to his bandage-wrapped form.

  I wedged myself into the space between the tiller and the rail and kept the healing flowing. The one or two times purification became necessary, I sent the magic along with an apology, but a little burn was far preferable in my mind to drowning in the loving embrace of a giant snake.

  Forced to fight us on our own terms, the snake was at a distinct disadvantage.

  Mika landed the final blow, leaping onto the serpent’s neck and plunging his daggers into its eyes. The risky move almost backfired when the snake went limp and almost dragged the rogue into the water with it. Only the dýrafólk’s quick reflexes saved him from joining the corpse at the bottom of the river.

  *** Your party has destroyed a Laurenti Serpent! Your party gains 841xp. ***

  Nothing remained of the giant snake, and as the final ripples of its passing faded from the surface of the pool, the stone door blocking the way forward slammed open. The water trapped in the cavern, now free to pursue another course surged through the door, taking our vessel with it.

  …

  15

  I moved the tiller slowly back and forth, getting myself even more familiar with the inverted nature of the steering device and looked over my companions. Their out of combat regeneration was slowly closing their remaining wounds, so by the time we approached the next archway we were all completely healed.

  Mika turned to look back at me. “You got the whole steering thing down this time?”

  “Yeah,” I said and shrugged. “I never claimed to know how to drive a boat.”

  Kjara gave me a wink. “Don’t worry, James. As soon as you’re up and at ‘em again, I’ll take you out on the water and show you the ropes.”

  “Let’s hope I don’t get seasick for real,” I answered just as the next arch came into view.

  I read through the next question and said “Wha…”

  Kjara looked back, “What is it? Neither of us can read hieroglyphics.”

  “How many sides does a circle have.” I said, trying to wrap my brain around it. “I don’t get it. It’s a circle. It doesn’t have sides.”

  Our boat sped down the river as Mika answered, “It’s got two sides. Pick two.”

  “Yeah, two,” Kjara agreed. “An inside, and an outside.”

  I smacked myself on the forehead and watched for the split ahead. The right-hand tunnel had a one carved above it, and the left had a two.

  I pushed the tiller gently, steering the boat to the left-hand tunnel. The walls of the tunnel glowed green as we passed under the archway, and the current once again increased in speed as it carried us forward.

  The next arch came up quickly, asking another common riddle that we easily answered, but then the devs really turned up the difficulty, or at least I thought so.

  The riddles progressed from common ones we’ve all heard as kids all the way up to strange obscure questions that just blew my mind, but somehow Kjara knew the answers.

  As we passed through the latest arch I just had to ask, “Where are you getting these from? Did you memorize a riddle book or something?”

  She laughed. “No, but my team is the reigning champ at trivia night at the local bar. Amazing how much random knowledge you pick up when free drinks are on the line.”

  But even her trivia mastery ran out as the underground river widened and the current slowed to a crawl. The sound of the river itself diminished, replaced by another, more deadly sound. A waterfall.

  Rising from the center of the river was a large stone pillar with a series of numbers carved into it, and as we approached, Kjara started reading them off.

  Whoever had programmed this test decided to forgo any hieroglyphic numerical system in favor of the standard Arabic numerals of the real world.

  “Okay, looks like a number series and there’s a blank at the bottom. Guess we have to find the next number,” she said.

  “Here we go. From the top we have one, eleven, twenty-one, one thousand two hundred and eleven, one hundred eleven thousand two hundred and twenty-one, three hundred twelve thousand two hundred eleven,” she said.

  Mika groaned. “Really? Complex math problems on a limited timeline?”

  I started trying to do some calculations in my head and saw Kjara’s brow furrowed in thought as well as she scratched out numbers on the bench in front of her.

  The boat continued to flow onwards, getting closer to the pillar until it was readable by everyone.

  1

  11

  21

  1211

  111221

  312211

  ________

  Kjara growled. “It doesn’t make any sense, there’s nothing there. All the math just breaks down after one step.”

  Mika shrugged. “I can calculate planetary orbits in my head. There’s gotta be a trick here. This isn’t math, its bullshit.”

  I read through the number again, hoping for some spark of info from the game system but there was nothing. “One, eleven, twenty-one…. wait….”

  Our boat passed by the pillar and started to pick up speed once again. Luckily the same sequence of numbers was engraved onto the back of the pillar as well.

  Something clicked in my head and I laughed. My companions all looked at me like I was crazy as I said, “It’s not math! Listen. Follow along with me.”

  “One. One one. Two ones. One two, one one. The next number’s describing the previous one,” I said.

  The pillar was rapidly disappearing behind us so I yelled, “Kjara can you still see it? What’s the last number?”

  She squinted. “Okay… we have one three, one one, two twos, and two ones… so One three one one two two two one… Got it?”

  I looked down and saw Mika had scratched the number into the wood of the seat with his dagger and looked up to see a series of caves open up before us.

  Unlike the previous questions where there had been two choices offered, this one had four.

  Kjara pointed to one of the tunnels with our answer carved above it and I put the boat on course. I crossed my fingers as we sped under the arch and hoped to see the familiar green glow of a correct answer surround us, but there was nothing.

  The boat dropped out from under us as river plunged down a steep incline, the walls of the tunnel narrowing into a tube just big enough for our craft.

  I clenched the rails with white-knuckled hands and ducked down into the boat so I wouldn’t hit my head on the tunnel roof. Amenhotep and Mika hunkered down as well, but not Kjara. She was at the front of the boat, eyes gazing forwards with a grin of pure joy on her face. “This is so much better than any water ride I’ve ever been on!”

  “Yeah… Totally,” I yelled back. “Let’s hope this ride is more Disney and less Jurassic Park.”

  She howled in glee as we whipped around the bends, the centrifugal force pressing us all down into the boat as we spiraled downwards. I barely had time to register the tunnel was coming to an end before we were ejected out into the open air.

  Somehow, we managed to keep our grip on the boat as we sailed across a massive cavern and then began to fall.

  I may or may not have peed a little as our vessel plummeted towards the sandy beach far below, but just when I thought we’d somehow made a mistake on the last riddle, a force took hold of the boat and arrested our fall.

  Peeking over the rail I saw a cloud of some sort under our boat, supporting us as we slowly descended towards the water below.

  I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and relaxed my grip on the rails, flexing my fingers to restore circulation as Kjara gazed around as if we hadn’t just almost plummeted to our deaths.

  Mika slowly peeled himself from the bottom of the boat and
looked over the rails as well, whistling softly to himself, and Amenhotep was well… Amenhotep, sitting stoically, unphased by it all.

  With the fear of impending doom no longer filling my mind I was able to relax and take in the scenery.

  Up above there were four openings spewing water into the chamber. Beneath the three we hadn’t come through were formations of sharp, jagged rocks. The fate of those who had failed to figure out the last riddle.

  Below us and approaching quickly was a small beach leading up to a large stone door carved into the cliff face. The story of Asah and Aset was duplicated in the stone here, with colossal statues of the King and Queen of the Saa pantheon flanking the door, and a large stone sphinx resting in an alcove above it.

  As we landed and hopped out onto the beach, Kjara rushed over and wrapped her arms around me in a warm hug and gave me a quick kiss on the lips, her eyes wide and lips curled into a massive smile. “Can we do it again?!” she asked, hopping up and down excitedly.

  I smiled and gave her a warm squeeze and kissed her on the forehead, basking in the moment, until it was shattered by the sound of cracking stone and something massive clearing its throat nearby.

  …

  16

  I spun towards the sound and raised my shield, looking for its source. Kjara already had an arrow nocked and ready to fire.

  Perched above the stone doorway was a creature straight out of the myths. The creature’s lower body was that of a lion with a pair of feathered wings sprouting from its back, and her - it was most definitely a her - chest and head were that of a beautiful human woman.

  A broad usekh was draped over her shoulders and extended down her chest, just far enough to cover the bits normally not kosher for prime time TV and provide some protection to her less leonine flesh in those areas.

  Portions of the sphinx’s body were covered in a residual layer of stone, which she quickly sloughed off and stood. The majestic creature’s human mouth spit into a grin, revealing a deadly looking pair of fangs framed by blood-red lips.