Heart of the Void: Sosaku Online - Book 2

by J. Arthur Klein

  …

  17

  We walked arm in arm down to the beach and cleared off a small area near the water where we could sit and relax.

  Kjara lounged in the sand and watched the water as I took out my cooking kit and started to leaf through my recipes. “What are you in the mood for, m’lady? I’ve got the makings of meat skewers, lentil soup, or if you’re feeling especially bland, a baked potato?”

  She smiled. “I’m not actually hungry. I just wanted to see if you’d actually cook me something.”

  I shrugged, “Why not? I’m actually quite a skilled chef out of game. I make one hell of a blue box mac and cheese, and my grilled cheese game is on point.”

  She hummed and said, “I could really go for some grilled cheese right now.”

  Tucking my kit back into my pack I turned back to her and shrugged. “That I cannot do. At least not right now. If we can find some cheese, I’d be willing to attempt figuring out the recipe. But once I’m done cooking in the pod and am back in the modern world, I’d be happy to have you over for some homemade grilled cheese.”

  She smiled at me. “That would be wonderful.”

  It was starting to get chilly, so I took out my bedroll and set it up on the beach, far enough away from the water that it was extremely unlikely any change of tide or something similar would end up with me swimming in my sleep.

  Kjara came over and we snuggled up on the mat, gazing up at the stars.

  I sighed, “So, would you like your grilled cheese before or after you teach me to sail?”

  “I’m torn,” she said with a laugh. “On one hand, I’m hesitant about having too full a stomach if you’re going to be steering. On the other hand, I’d want to have at least tasted it before you crash the boat and drown us all.”

  “Hey!” I said, “I may be clumsy, but I’m not that clumsy… plus, we should start small. I’m pretty sure I could handle a paddle boat. Or maybe one of those small rowboats?”

  She kept laughing as I continued, her face pressed against my chest. “I mean. My dad’s a Naval officer, so some of those genetics should be there to help me figure it out, no?”

  “Oh, James,” she said between spells of laughter. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

  She looked up into my eyes and smiled, her eyes glimmering in the darkness. I leaned in slowly, and there was no Mika around this time to ruin the moment. Our lips met in a soft, gentle kiss.

  Time stood still for a moment and my heart began to thump in my chest in excitement. She pulled back slowly, our lips parting and our gazes once again locked, and I smiled.

  Nothing more needed to be said in that brief, perfect moment. She laid her head on my shoulder and we laid back and just enjoyed each other’s company for a bit longer until she had to log out, leaving me alone with my thoughts and dreams on the shores of a strange underground lake.

  Even after her avatar had dissipated, I could feel her warmth against my side, and I sighed. You’re such a sap, I thought.

  The temperature had continued to plummet, so I set up my tent, moved my stuff inside and settled in to attend to some business.

  First up I completed filling out the bug report about my Aspect of Light ability and how it had extended to my spell effects. The description of the ability indicated that only my melee attacks were supposed to be buffed, but when I’d used the skill it had been applied to everything, and even provided a bit of defense as well.

  That done, I popped open the web interface and started editing for my stream. There was a lot of footage to go through.

  The first video I cut to show our trek across the countryside, the introduction of our new companion, and our subsequent trek through the ruined city. I ended the video just as we reached the secret entrance to the temple.

  I started a new cut at that point, showing our talk with Kaluitep and our fight through the dungeon up to and including the battle with the sphinx... and the loot. Always show the loot.

  Cutting the call with my father from the sphinx fight was more complicated than I expected, and in the end, I added brief splash screen before the fight explaining why it got jumpy at points.

  Once the full versions were complete, I went through them again and cut together the storyline version and then posted them onto my channel.

  I opened up the responses to my previous videos, but there were way too many to read them all. I read through the first couple, smiling at the shows of support and even some other streamers joining me in pledging portions of their own revenue to Aly’s Arms.

  Closing the software, I drifted off to sleep with a warm feeling in my heart.

  …

  18

  My dreams were full of a strange mixture of spell glyphs and potential new spells that upon waking were just out of reach, culminating in the most confusing thing of all; a skill gain message sitting in my view when I woke.

  *** Congratulations! You have become more proficient in Spellcrafting! Rank 2 Achieved! ***

  Gaining a skill while sleeping was pretty strange in and of itself, but my mana was also down to half, like I’d actually been trying to cast in my sleep.

  It was risky enough to tinker with new spells when I had my full attention on the process. The thought of fiddling with things while asleep was terrifying. Knowing my luck I’d end up waking to the pain of mana burn, or my head turning into chunky salsa. I filled out a bug report about the experience immediately.

  I shook off the lingering sense of fear and packed up my bedding, tucking it into my pack with the rest of my equipment as I settled in to wait for Mika and Kjara to get back.

  As time ticked by, I tried to recall the spells that my unconscious mind had been dwelling on, but the only thing in my current spell repertoire that even vaguely resembled my memory was my new food and water spell.

  Giving up on the elusive glyphs for the time being, I cast Create Food and Water to restock my supplies and fill the water skins. There was a giant lake nearby, but who knew what sort of strange creatures used it as their bathroom.

  The water created by my spell was crisp and refreshing, completely quenching my thirst. And as an added bonus, the conjured liquid granted a small buff to out–of-combat mana and stamina regeneration.

  As I cast the spell, I paid specific attention to the way all the glyphs worked together and how the mana flowed through the completed spell-form. Once cast, I started taking it apart in my mind, finding those pieces representational of the food and the water, and seeing where I could replace them with other glyphs.

  Kjara’s arrival broke me out of my mental experimentation, her form shimmering into being a short distance away. I helped her up from the ground and greeted her with a kiss which she eagerly returned.

  My heart began to beat faster once again at the feel of her lips on mine, and I was content to let it last as long as she wanted.

  Mika once again had impeccable timing, giving a faux cough to alert us to his presence.

  We broke off our kiss with a sigh and looked over at the dýrafólk with a hint of annoyance.

  “You guys ready to rock-and-roll?” Mika asked with a smile and a wink. “And I mean the dungeon, not each other. Giggity.”

  Kjara stepped out of my embrace and glared at the dýrafólk while I just shook my head.

  He just snickered and gestured towards the open door leading deeper into the tomb. “Shall we?”

  “All right. Let’s get buffed up and kick some ass,” I said and handed out some meat skewers and travel cakes.

  After scarfing down my own food, I summoned Amenhotep back from the underworld and made the rounds enchanting our weaponry.

  *** Meat Skewer: +5% HP/MP/SP out of combat regeneration. Duration (8hrs) ***

  *** Travel Cake: +1 Constitution, +2% in combat HP regeneration. Duration (4hrs) ***

  *** Congratulations! You have gained a better understanding of the Jackal's Tooth spell! Rank 4 Achieved! ***

  When we were ready, Mika took the lead and we entered the
doorway leading deeper into the dungeon. The hallway spiraled downwards once again, the worked stone walls and floors full of potential death.

  Mika activated his beast form skill and his features shifted, short brown hair sprouting from his exposed skin as his ears became larger and rounder and his snout elongated. His senses and reflexes enhanced, the dýrafólk crawled ahead, his murine eyes scanning every nook and cranny as we moved forward.

  The first trap he found was about fifteen feet into the tunnel. An entire five-foot stretch of the corridor was littered with pressure plates disguised as stones, linked to some sort of complex machinery that seemed to perplex the dýrafólk.

  “What’s up, Mika?” Kjara asked, after several moments of the rogue staring silently at the ground ahead.

  He sighed and turned back to us. “This one is a bit complicated. I could disarm it…”

  “I hear a ‘but’ in there,” I said with a sigh.

  “But,” he continued, “I’d need another set of arms.”

  “What do you mean?” Kjara asked. “Can we help? I mean, without the skill?”

  Mika shrugged. “Hell if I know, but it’s either that or trigger it and hope that it’s localized and doesn’t collapse the way forward.”

  He pointed to two of the stones and said, “I need someone to press down on both of those simultaneously and keep them down while I disarm the mechanism over here,” and pointed to another stone on the other side of the tunnel.

  I stepped closer, but Mika looked up and shook his head. “I should have specified,” he said with a grin. “I need someone with some semblance of coordination, and we both know that isn’t you.”

  Kjara snickered and patted me on the back before stepping forward. “Tell me when.”

  I prepped the glyphs for Cure Wounds just in case.

  “Alright, on three,” he said and started the count.

  Kjara’s lips moved as she followed along, and when he hit three, she nimbly reached down and depressed the stones the dýrafólk had indicated.

  There was a loud click and Mika went to work. “Now don’t let go or we’re toast,” he said as he pressed his face to the ground close to the third stone.

  With a delicate touch, he slid his probe under the lip and popped it open, revealing a mechanism reminiscent of one of those tile slider games I’d played as a kid. The ones where you’d have to unscramble the tiles to form a picture.

  Unlike the puzzles of my memory, each of the trap’s sliding tiles was attached to a thin cord that disappeared back into the floor.

  Mika took out a small hammer and some equally tiny nails and tapped them gently into the stone next to the puzzle. Next, he produced a sturdy looking set of tweezers and slowly detached the cord from one of the tiles and moved it over to one of the nails and deftly tied it off.

  One by one he shifted the cords to their new homes until they were all detached.

  Kjara held her position while Mika worked his magic, her endurance pool slowly draining with the effort required.

  With the cords safely anchored, Mika moved on to the puzzle itself. He shifted the pieces around, sliding them along the built in grooves until they formed the final picture of a single hieroglyph that read simply “Safety”.

  As the last tile slid into place, there was a loud click and the stones Kjara was holding sank about an inch into the ground along with almost twenty other stones on the pathway ahead.

  Mika gave us a thumbs up and stood. “All done. You can let go now.”

  Kjara stood up and raised her arms towards the ceiling, stretching out her shoulders. I admired the view as discretely as possible, but a sly smile appeared on her face as she caught me in the act.

  I just shrugged and smiled back. I mean, could she really blame me?

  The rest of the tunnel was clear except for one final trap which Mika was able to handle on his own. I was expecting another precise manipulation of the traps triggering mechanism, but instead he just tossed a rock onto the trap, triggering a wall of spikes that shot out from either side of the tunnel, catching nothing but air.

  “Dude!” I yelled.

  “Disarming that one wasn’t worth the time. But don’t worry, I could see the actual trap so knew triggering it wouldn’t get you guys,” he replied, and waved us onwards.

  At the end of the tunnel was an archway leading into a small room with a statue of a woman standing over an altar at its center. Hallways led from the room to the left and right, and on the far side of the altar was another large stone door.

  I examined the statue closely, my lore skills feeding me the info needed to correctly identify its subject.

  “Aset, I presume?” Kjara asked, beating me to the punch.

  “Yup,” I replied and took a step forward.

  Amenhotep’s arm reached out and blocked my way as the mummy turned his glowing eyes toward me. “Let the rogue do his job, Adept.”

  “Probably a good idea,” I said and gestured towards the altar. “Mika, if you would?”

  With a nod, he slipped forward and examined the altar and statue before heading off to check the rest of the place.

  He returned a few minutes later. “No traps that I could find,” he said. “The hallways on each side seem to go on for a bit, but I didn’t hear anything. The big door doesn’t even have a keyhole or handle, and I wasn’t about to mess with it too much after last time.”

  “What about the statue and altar?” I asked.

  Mika shrugged. “Didn’t see any traps there. There’s more of your Saa comic books carved into the altar, though. Maybe that’ll give us a clue?”

  The party entered the room, Kjara moving around to take a look down the side passages while I moved up to the altar. The surface was covered in sand, obscuring most of the writing.

  I brushed the sand aside, and at my touch the altar began to glow. The glow spread to the statue and then into the floor, eventually covering the entire room and extending down both side passages, illuminating the dungeon in a steady, golden light.

  Had there been an enemy ready to pounce, we would have been easy meat as the bright light of the dungeon overloaded our eyes which were used to the complete darkness. Fortunately, there was no bogey man waiting, just a bunch of hieroglyphs in need of a good dusting.

  I finished cleaning off the altar and started to read aloud.

  *** Lore (Saa Religion) check… successful! ***

  *** Literacy (Saa) check… successful! ***

  *** Congratulations! You have become more proficient with Literacy (Saa)! Rank 2 Achieved! ***

  “Upon the death of her King, Aset was inconsolable. Their love was meant to be eternal, but that eternity had been torn asunder. Before Asah’s remains were recovered, all the goddess had to remind her of her love were his heka and nekhakha, which she held close to her heart. They led her from her despair and showed her the way forward. Heka to guide. Nekhakha to defend and avenge. One alone would lead to ruin, but wielded together, these items would open the path to prosperity.”

  I looked up at the statue. Aset’s hands were crossed over her breasts in the classic pose normally seen on the covers of Egyptian sarcophagi, but unlike those ancient carvings, her hands were empty. Upon closer examination I could see a cylindrical slot in each hand.

  “What’s a haka and neckahkahk?” Mika asked, mangling the names.

  Another bubble of info percolated into my mind, answering the dýrafólk’s question almost immediately.

  “The heka is a shepherd’s crook and the nekhakha is a flail,” I said. “They’re the symbolic tools of the Pharaohs based on old school shepherds’ tools. A crook to guide the flock and a flail to beat off the wolves.”

  Mika shrugged. “So, I’m guessing we need to get the hakunamatatas to go forward?”

  Kjara laughed as Amenhotep glared at the rogues’ statement. “Sounds that way.”

  “Yeah, there are spots in the statue where they probably fit, and the engraving is pretty obvious in its hints about ‘open
ing the way,’ ” I responded, and showed them the openings in the statue’s hands.

  “Makes sense. Two paths. Two thingamabobs. Big door onwards with no keyhole.” Mika said, gesturing to each in turn. “Which one you want to try first?”

  I looked to Kjara and she just shrugged and then pointed towards the right passage. “Let’s go right.”

  “Why right?” Mika asked.

  Amenhotep and I headed towards the right passage with Kjara as she looked back towards the dýrafólk. “Right means I didn’t have to walk as far.”

  I laughed. “By what, like five feet?”

  “Better than flipping a coin,” she said with a grin and pulled out her bow.

  Mika just sighed and moved past us, scanning for traps as we moved along the brightly lit tunnel.

  …

  19

  The passage continued for quite a while with no traps whatsoever, which had us all anxious considering the number of traps that had been waiting for us in the rest of the tomb. Mika was the only one who didn’t seem worried as he scanned the stones ahead, confident that his skill would reveal any threats.

  The tunnel ended in a wall constructed of a series of tiles similar to the slider puzzle we’d encountered earlier, but instead of a parts of a scrambled picture, the tiles had parts of a pathway carved through them, like one of those old plumber games where you had to get the water to flow from one side of the board to the other.

  With those games in mind, I examined the edges of the puzzle closely and was pleased to see my instincts had been correct. At the top edge of the puzzle where it met the ceiling there was a slight golden glow leaking out from where the edge of one of the tiles was blocking the flow.

  At the bottom of the wall was a small hole of the same diameter as the channel, leading into the floor. The likely destination of whatever mojo was meant to flow through the puzzle.

  “More puzzles?” Kjara asked with a sigh. “Mika, you know how to do these things right?”

  He shrugged and said, “Eh, sort of?”