Chapter 35

Earth
Algonquin Park Dungeon, Ontario
August 17, 2019
07:17 EDT

“Thanks, Zaszi.”

“No problem, boss. Good luck today, guys,” she replied, the portal winking out a second later.

“Alright, let’s go. I wanna kill the boss and then move on to the next dungeon,” I said, making my way towards the building and noting that the damage from the assault was gone. New picnic tables had been placed in the same spot, and it appeared that all the burnt trees were replaced with new saplings.

It turned out that I wasn’t woken by banging on the door, or Vixa licking me. Instead, she proceeded to teleport around the bed. Each time she disappeared, air would rush to fill the newly vacant area, creating the usual loud noise. When she saw that I was up she teleported a final time, appearing at her food dish, which had recently been filled.

After I showered and equipped my armor, Vixa and I made our way to the cafeteria. Ben was already there eating, but neither Mason nor the twins had arrived yet. When they did arrive, we ate breakfast while making plans. We didn’t want to stay in the Algonquin Park dungeon all day, so we decided we would head to the next closest dungeon suitable for our levels, while turning Insight off.

We were all level eighteen now, so delving without Insight active would allow those of us with Siphoning Strike or Siphoning Shot to level up the ability over the next two days, as we wouldn’t be out-leveling everything we were killing. The fact that it would be at least three weeks before we were able to head into dungeon is what prompted us to use the time to level up these two skills, specifically. With luck, Mason, Sonja and I would be able to increase the damage of our abilities by several hundred points.

As soon as we took the waygate down to the ninth floor, I began the process of shapeshifting into my newest form. Selalea had actually shown up in the cafeteria with her son and several guards in tow, so I managed to scan one of them. This was the first time I had been able to check out the form. I was at least a foot and a half taller than my hybrid form, though only had two arms. I really need to learn how to modify my own forms without having my mom do it for me.

“I’ll never get tired of seeing you do that,” Mason said. “How are the stats in that form?”

I reflexively opened my mouth to respond, but all that came out was a mix between a grunt and a roar. I also need to learn how to talk in my various forms.

I took my phone out of my storage and tossed it to Mason, not wanting to damage it with my sharp claws. [You tell me.]

He caught it, quickly navigating to my stat page and began reading off my current stats before handing it back. With some quick math I calculated that Strength was eight times higher, Agility was four times higher, Intellect was one-point-two times higher, Constitution was eight times higher and Endurance was six times higher. Those were substantial increases.

[Bria told me how high her Strength and Constitution was in her dragonkin form but it’s still surprising to see. The other stats are pretty high, too.]

[A twenty percent increase to Intellect is pretty damn good. I’d love to have that, ] Ben said.

[I forgot about the Intellect buff, even after I talked about it yesterday, ] I grumbled. [I really need to set a reminder or something.]

I finished getting ready, strapping shield to my left arm but leaving it inactive. I decided to use my sword and spear today so I could level up Quick Slash and Gash, while using Mana Shield to keep me safe. Not that that would really matter. My stats were so high in my dragonkin form that the chances of there being something in this dungeon that could hurt me were slim to none. After channeling my mana into my sword and spear, I began walking forward, leading everyone down the hall.

We didn’t get further than the first ninety-degree turn before Sonja called us to stop.

[Trap ahead. Do your thing, Ben, ] she sent.

Ben immediately began summoning a Skeletal Warrior and sent it forward while Sonja was directing him on where to send it. As soon as the skeleton stepped on the trigger, dozens of foot-long metal spikes shot out of the floor. I winced at imagining what that trap would have done had we triggered it. I doubted that it would be able to pierce our armor, but I definitely wouldn’t want to chance it.

It was rare that one of Ben’s skeletons wasn’t destroyed by a trap, so after waiting for the spikes to recede back into the floor, he had it step on the trigger plate again, with nothing happening the second time. With the trap disarmed, we continued on with Ben’s Skeletal Warrior leading the way.

[Ben, how is it that we’ve been in dungeons for as long as we have and we haven’t seen another group of adventurers?] I asked.

[I was wondering about that the other day and could only come up with two conclusions. The first is that we’ve just been incredibly unlucky. I mean on Thursday we saw those other teams when we were teleported out of the dungeon. The second is that we’re being prevented from meeting other teams. I don’t think that’s as likely though, since again, we saw those other teams.]

[The previous dungeon also had that disorienting effect on the fourth floor. They could have been held up by that. Remember how long it took us to figure it out?] Sonja asked.

[Ugh, don’t remind me, ] Ben replied. [We should have figured that out a lot sooner.]

We came up to the first room a few minutes later, only having to pause for one more trap. There was no door that needed to be opened, giving us a good look at the room. There were four entrances, including the one we were looking through, but not much else to note besides the carvings in the tiled floor. Sonja also couldn’t detect any traps, so we stepped inside.

As soon as the last of us stepped inside, four metal prison-like doors fell into place at each of the doorways. Everyone channeled their mana into their weapons, but no attacks came, making us wonder what was going on. After a minute passed and nothing happened, I stopped channeling mana into my weapons and went over to the door. Gripping onto the bars of the door, I lifted with all my dragonkin strength, but they wouldn’t budge an inch.

We spread out pressing against the wall trying to find some kind of switch or something to open the doors, but it was Ben who figured it out.

[Ooh, I’ve been waiting for a floor like this!] he sent, drawing our attention over to him. [It’s a sliding puzzle! You see the tile missing here? With this empty space, we’ll be able to move all the tiles around. When in the right positions, they should form an image and the doors should immediately open. Let’s examine the tiles and see if we recognize anything.]

We did as he asked, spreading out to take a look at the individual tiles. It was hard to tell what most of them were, with them just being lines, or in some cases, just blank, being dyed a darker color than the rest. The only one that actually stood out to me was the one in the center of the room. Wanting to see if he saw what I saw, I called Ben over.

[What do you see?] I asked, gesturing down to the tile that was the same gray as the rest of the room, besides a distinctive part that was dyed black in the middle.

[What do you see?] he returned the question while looking down at the tile.

[I asked you first.]

[Well, I see what looks like a nose. Or a lack of a nose? I’m not sure of the terminology for a skeleton’s nose.]

I nodded, looking around the room. [Anyone see anything that might be part of a skull?]

[I have some teeth over here, I think, ] Mason answered.

[Me, too, ] Sonja sent.

Ben and I split up to look at the apparent teeth before looking back at each other and nodding.

[Alright, it appears as the image we need to make is that of a skull. Ben, how about summoning a skeleton for us so we’ll have a reference.]

[Good idea, gimme a minute.]

I walked back to the center of the room where the nose was, and saw that it was, indeed, in the center of the room. The room was five tiles wide by five tiles long, except for the single missing tile in the bottom right corner of the room.

Ben walked over when he resummoned his Skeletal Warrior. [Alright, let’s get started. This isn’t going to be easy so the sooner we get started, the sooner we’ll be able to get out of this room. You wanna move the tiles around, Jonathan?]

I nodded and walked over to the corner with the only open space. [Which one do you want me to start with?]

[This one, ] he said, tapping the one to the left of the open space.

It was easier to slide than I was expecting it to be, though that may have been my increased strength. Once the tile was in the corner, he had me working on moving the tile that could only fit in the top left as it was just a curved line. Once it was in place, we continued with another slightly curved line that lined up nicely with the first one. Ben’s strategy was to work from the top down, as it would quickly allow us to complete around sixty percent of the puzzle, saving the most time-consuming part for last.

That sixty percent took me around twenty minutes or so to complete, making me glad that I had chosen to use this form. The part that was complete definitely looked like a skull, leaving nothing but the upper jaw and mandible remaining. This is where it got tedious, and it involved moving a set of pieces in circles until they were in the right position. That took another twenty-five minutes to get everything in place, and then all it required was sliding all nine remaining pieces counter-clockwise until they formed a complete skull, while leaving the right corner empty.

Mason and the twins just sat on the complete part of the puzzle while doing this, just chatting amongst themselves while Ben and I worked. I was glad for that, as there was no room for them to help, and I was annoyed with the puzzle by the time we’d finished. It was just so tedious. As soon as I slid the right part of the mandible into place, the outline of the skeleton glowed and the doors started retracting, allowing us to leave the room.

I heard another noise and looked up to see something falling from the ceiling right above me. I knew I would be able to get out of the way in time, so I activated Mana Shield. I was surprised when the object wasn’t as solid as I figured it would be, which made sense a few seconds later. The object happened to be a mimic, it’s large jaw opening revealing its razor sharp teeth and long tongue.

It turned and started bouncing towards me before leaping when it thought it was close enough. Rather than sinking its teeth into my flesh, it was instead met by my spear piercing through the back of its mouth and exiting behind it. It didn’t really do a lot of damage to the mimic, but it did stop its advance.

While holding it in place, I channeled mana into my sword and began hacking at it, alternating between Gash and Quick Slash. It took one use of Gash and two uses of Quick Slash before it finally died, my friends watching the entire time. When it died, its body started disintegrating, and I was annoyed to see that it didn’t drop a Skill Gem for us. I bent down and picked up the Mana Gem before walking over to join my friends.

[Three hits, not counting your initial spear thrust, not bad, ] Mason said.

Nodding I handed him the Mana Gem which he put in the sack.

[So, which way?]

[I don’t think it really matters. I think this is a puzzle floor, which will have multiple rooms like this one. There will probably be as many as three paths to the final room with the stairs leading down to the tenth floor. The good news is that we won’t have to fight anything but the odd mimic, but the bad news is that this floor will be more time consuming than if we could just fight our way through.]

[So we just choose at random?]

[Yup!]

[Alright, let’s go this way, ] I said walking over to the doorway that had been on our left when we entered the room. [Mind summoning another skeleton before we continue?]

[Sure, ] he nodded, starting the cast right away.

A minute later, we were on our way down the next passageway, the skeleton taking the lead. We didn’t come across any traps this time before coming up to another much larger room. The only exit was on the opposite end of the room, and there were a large number of tiles between us and the door. The tiles alternated between black and white making it look similar to a chessboard but was way too big. There were no chess pieces, either.

[Ugh, I was hoping we wouldn’t come across one of these, ] Ben said.

[What do you mean?] Sonja asked.

[It’s a trap room. Each tile will activate a trap, and you need to activate traps to get across. They can be anything from poisoned darts to flamethrowers to pitfalls and many others. See those pillars on either side of the room? Those are probably where poisoned darts or other projectiles will be fired from.]

[I thought you said this was a puzzle floor. How is a room like this a puzzle?]

[Because there is always a way through that is free of traps, but it’s really hard to find. Most people just end up choosing the most direct route, which is what we’ll probably doing as well, ] he explained, turning back towards us. [The traps in rooms like these reset pretty quickly, so you’ll need to lead the way, Jonathan.]

[How quickly are we talking? And can’t we just teleport to the other side?]

[It tends to vary. It can be ten seconds or it can be a minute, which means we’ll need to move fast. I already tried teleporting to the other side, but there is an energy field preventing that. There wouldn’t be much point in a trap room if people could just use abilities that allow them to teleport across the room. I bet Sonja’s Ride the Lightning wouldn’t even work.]

I looked over to Sonja and saw the look of concentration on her face as she looked across the room, before looking back. [You’re right about that. It won’t even activate.]

[Alright, three of us have Mana Shield, so I want Anja to follow behind me with Ben in the middle and Sonja behind him. You’ll follow behind us, Mace.]

[Got it.]

[Okay, let’s go, ] I said with a nod, walking past everyone and stopping at the edge of the tiled floor and turning to look at my friends. When I saw that we were all in a line, I activated Mana Shield and stepped forward and stopped on the first tile. I was immediately buffeted by a large amount of darts from multiple directions, and stayed in place until the barrage ended a few seconds later. Stepping forward onto the second tile, nothing happened.

[Above you, Jonathan!] Anja sent, causing me to look up.

My eyes widened when I saw a large boulder falling from the ceiling. Normally I would be crushed under a boulder as big as the one above me, but I was in my dragonkin form, which gave me an advantage. Stepping back, I lowered Mana Shield and braced myself to catch it. It was heavier than I thought it would be, but I was able to handle it with a little bit of difficulty.

With it in my hands, I had an idea. Turning sideways, I swung it back as much as I could, and then launched it across the room. It didn’t get much air, soon falling to the ground, but it did continue rolling across most of the room, activating traps as it went. I was surprised that there weren’t any pitfalls, but maybe we just got lucky. There were a host of other traps like flamethrowers and swinging axes from the ceiling, among others.

[Well, that’s one way to do it!] Mason laughed. [Let’s get going before the traps reset.]

Nodding, I reactivated Mana Shield and walked onto one of the tiles the boulder missed, and immediately felt myself falling. Luckily my hands were empty and the tiles weren’t too big, so I was able to catch myself. Unfortunately that also activated another tile, but it was just a flamethrower being directed at me. Nothing Mana Shield couldn’t handle. I waited a few seconds for my mana to replenish before stepping onto the fifth and final tile before we were clear to the end of the room.

I was expecting anything else than what actually happened. I was teleported to another tile. I looked back to see where my friends were, and saw that we were about five tiles away, with me slightly ahead of them.

[We might want to skip the fifth tile, ] Ben said. [Teleport tiles tend to reset immediately, so we’ll all be teleported over there. I’m going to take the lead. Let’s hurry before they reset!]

I watched as my friends quickly made their way across the room, jumping over the third and fifth tiles before running across the rest of the already triggered traps. A few activated again when Mason ran over them, but since he was last, they didn’t slow them down at all. When they were all safely across the room, I turned to deal with my own predicament. There are ten tiles between me and my friends, so I can either trigger them one by one, or...

An idea popped into my head, and I immediately began shapeshifting into a new form. When the process was finished, my perspective was a lot closer to the floor. Jumping into the air, I began flapping my wings and covered the ten meter distance in only a few seconds before landing beside my friends and shapeshifting once more.

[That’s so not fair!] Mason grumbled.

[Gotta work with what you’re given, ] I replied with what I imagine is a pretty terrifying grin when I was back in my dragonkin form. Looking around the room, I didn’t spot any treasure chests or mimics, so I turned back to Ben. [Hey, what gives? No treasure chest for getting through this room?]

He shrugged after glancing around. [Guess not.]

[Alright, let’s keep moving, ] I said, heading to the exit of this room. [Hopefully there aren’t too many rooms we have to go through, this is taking way too long.]

[Give me a minute to summon another Skeletal Warrior. I’m betting we’ll run into a few more traps between here and the next room.]

We all stopped and turned while we waited, and then let Ben’s skeleton lead the way as soon as it was summoned. He ended up being right about there being traps along the way, and for a change they were particularly deadly ones if someone wasn’t careful. The first one was a pitfall with sharpened spikes sticking upwards, while the third was another of the crushers we had experienced a few days ago.

The second was the deadliest one as far as I was concerned. It was another pitfall, though this one had a spinning blade in the bottom, which quickly chopped the skeleton into little bits before it reset and we could safely cross it. It made me very appreciative of the fact that Sonja could detect traps and Ben could trigger them.

We soon arrived at the third room and there was another groan from Ben when he saw what we had to deal with. There was actually a staircase leading down to the apparent puzzle, which gave all of us a good vantage point. The floor seemed to be entirely made out of glass and there were square blocks that seemed to be strategically placed.

He turned back to us, and seemed none too happy. [This puzzle is probably very easy for a smaller group, but it’s a pain in the ass for one as big as ours. You can see that the floor is entirely glass, with those blocks placed to limit where we can walk. When you step on a piece of glass, it will crack, and the next person that steps on it will fall through. Puzzles like this aren’t lethal, and will instead teleport all of us back to the beginning, while resetting the puzzle. We need to make it through without crossing each other’s path.]

[I can help with this one, ] I said, before beginning to shapeshift once more. When it was done, I wasn’t standing there as a dragonkin or a dragon, but as a gryphon.

[Ooh, good idea! Me first!] Anja said before walking over. I lowered myself so she could climb on and waited until she got a good grip before jumping in the air and flying across the room. She hopped off and I turned to fly back. It only took a few minutes to transport everyone across, and as soon as I landed with Mason on my back, there was a thumping sound which drew our attention over to a chest which had fallen in a corner of the room.

Mason hopped off and walked over to investigate the chest while I began shapeshifting back into my dragonkin form again.

[Being a team comprised entirely of Scyftans must be like having a cheat code, ] Ben said. [I’ll take it, though. Puzzles like this one really suck.]