Chapter 29
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Upon entering the new room, Rigel observed a slate floor, but was unable to discern much else. The room wasn't lit much at all, only having some residual light leaking in from the room over.
Rigel sighed and lit a small fireball, pushing it out in front of him. The flickering flames illuminated the surroundings well enough to see. Rigel gazed around but didn't see much. They were merely in another enclosed room.
Eureka stepped up behind Rigel and said, "So, what's the key to this one?"
"Like I know," Rigel scoffed back. "Speaking of which, we sure were lucky that I managed to get through that last room so easily, or else perhaps we would have been there for a few days."
"And why is that, do you think?"
Rigel sighed and sat down in the middle of the room, fireball still ignited over his head. "I think that there are 2 possibilities for what this is. It's either a custom dungeon made by God for us, which is why I got through that last room so easily, or that room was meant to drive people to such desperation and insanity that they start cursing out the walls."
Eureka silently nodded in agreement. "Ah, but what if it's a combination of both?"
"Not impossible, not impossible," Rigel mused to himself. "I think that the answer is going to be the key to this room."
"Why?"
"Because there is nothing here that would suggest otherwise. It is a genuine blank slate."
Eureka silently nodded, albeit with some hesitation, and wandered off in her own thoughts.
Rigel did something similar. He wandered about the room physically, however, and brushed up against the wall with his fingers.
The walls were made from layered slate and were quite sturdy.
Rigel tried to see if there was a discernible opening- hollow point- to smash through with force, but alas, he had no clue what to listen for. Everything sounded the same to him when he knocked against the wall.
"Rigel, I don't think this dungeon was made by The One True Being," Eureka suddenly said.
"Any thoughts as to why?" Rigel stopped what he was doing and turned to face her.
"It's just… out of character, I suppose. So far, The One True Being, according to what I know, has never interfered with the mortal world so directly."
Rigel nodded his head in agreement. "So, do you think that this dungeon is 'alive'? It's a possibility, as most things are, but I'm not sure how mana works long-term. Would this dungeon be considered a beast if it was deemed sentient, at least somewhat?"
Eureka sighed softly and rubbed her eyes. "I'm not sure."
Rigel shrugged. "Let's try this from a different perspective. Get on my shoulders, see if anything is spelled out on the ground."
Eureka said, "Sure," and climbed onto Rigel, mounting him. Her small frame made it easy for even the feeble Rigel to hold her up on his shoulders. She looked down and around, but the floor was quite clearly very ordinary slate. She hopped down from her piggyback ride and reported to Rigel.
"Again," he sighed wistfully while walking to the entrance and out of the room. "Eureka, come over here. See if you can see anything."
As she did, the room started to shake and groan.
"What?!" the pair exclaimed. Eureka hurried over to Rigel, who was waiting in the other room, and grabbed onto his sleeve.
The slate room groaned louder and louder, until the floor shattered from the apparent pressure. The crumbled pieces and shards of stone all fell down into what seemed like the abyss itself. After just a few moments of hectic chaos, the room settled down into normal serenity once more.
Rigel approached the edge of the nubile abyss vigilantly. He gazed down into the black nothingness and saw only just that. Suddenly, Rigel felt the ground underneath him turn slick and slanted towards the hole.
His knees quickly buckled and Rigel slid towards the hole on his butt. Until, that is, he felt a sharp jerk against his neck, stopping him momentarily. He couldn't see what was happening, but presumed that Eureka had grabbed him by the back of his shirt.
The duo sat in a quandary; Eureka's front foot was standing in the slick substance that seemed to have secreted out of the floor- if she shifted her weight around much, she would almost certainly fall.
"Rigel, I think we need to go down there," Eureka said.
"We will most likely die, you know," Rigel replied.
"I can't pull you up, and I won't let you fall down there by yourself."
Rigel felt an intricate, profound sense of purpose and belonging at that moment. For, if Eureka was telling the truth, she was actually willing to risk her life just to stay with him, not even save him.
"Eureka… I can't do that to you. There isn't any-"
"There is a point," she cut off. "I trust The One True Being. He led us here; hence, this won't kill us. However, you may be mortally injured or permanently crippled if you fall from this height. If I'm not there, you may die."
Rigel was astounded by her keen disaster awareness and could only silently nod.
As he nodded, he felt the tearing from his own shirt lighten in load and started once again slipping downwards. Rigel, during this process, could swear that he heard giggling in the background.
While mildly perplexed, he chose to ignore the oddity and focused more on the abyss he was falling down. He turned over to see Eureka, but the darkness was intense enough that he could barely see his own hand let alone someone a few feet away.
Rigel felt that he could try to teleport, but it would most likely fail and kill him since he had never tried to do so while in free-fall. The intense rush of air whistling in his ears as he fell was discomforting and offsetting, the lack of normal force to counteract gravity was even more so.
Rigel was still rotating and spinning uncontrollably at this point and decided to level himself out. After taking a few moments to do so, he suddenly saw a wall in front of him. Flinching, he barely reacted in time and only hit his hand to recoil off and away.
Intense agony ravaged his poor hand. Rigel tried to take a look at the damage while gripping his wrist in anguish but couldn't see much. Blinded by pain, Rigel never noticed the giant basin of water underneath him.
SMASH
More agony enfolded Rigel as he felt his skin die from the impact.
"AHHHHH!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. He flailed and tried to swim upwards as fast as he could, squirming from the lack of oxygen since he screamed so loudly.
After a terrifying couple of seconds, Rigel burst out of the water and took deep gulps of air as rapid as his little lungs could handle. Then, when he was no longer focusing on breathing, a wave of pain paralyzed him. His back hurt so bad that he couldn't even move.
Rigel was hyperventilating and tensed up, just barely staying afloat, even, when he barely caught a glimpse of Eureka in the same situation. Floating on her back, her eyes were closed and teeth gritted.
"Eureka..." he barely said aloud. "Eureka," he tried again with a bit more force, but the pain was too much for Rigel to handle. He just wanted to close his eyes and die. The agony was so bad that he was seriously considering killing himself just to escape it.
"No." He shook himself out of his daze. "Eureka needs me, if only for now."
Yelling aloud, Rigel painstakingly paddled towards Eureka. He reached her after a couple of minutes of very slowly yet steadily making clean strokes across the water and using his own momentum to keep going, conserving as much movement as possible.
During the swim, he had taken a look at both his hand and side to see the extent of the damage. His hand was mostly destroyed. Hitting the wall at even just a few percent of terminal velocity had completely broken or shattered most of the bones, it seemed. His fingers were all jaded and mostly disconnected; some chunks were even taken out of them. After inspecting his own hand for a few seconds, even Rigel felt nauseous.
He then took a look at his back, or what he could see of it. It seemed like the skin did, in fact, die upon impact. It was a very deep shade of purple, approaching even black, with dark red blotches strewn throughout. There was apparent swelling, as well.
Rigel was bemused by the fact that he was even alive, though. Hitting water at terminal velocity most certainly should have killed him and broken every bone and ruptured every organ. His rib cage should have been a pincushion of ribs, not just a bit of dead skin.
When Rigel reached Eureka, though, he put all of those various thoughts aside and focused on the girl in front of him. She was clearly in a similar boat as his own, but she seemed to have slapped her face of the water, for her cheek and side of the head looked much like his own back did.
"Eureka," he said while patting her. "Wake up. You need to heal yourself or you'll die."
"Eureka!" he said again with increasing franticness. "Please, wake up!"
The girl didn't respond whatsoever to his attempts.
Rigel didn't stop to think much about the situation at hand: why she was unconscious; what could possibly be happening to her internally at the moment; how he could save her, but he did try regardless.
He looked around and saw that the ceiling was made of some naturally luminescent mineral- or perhaps it was some bioluminescent worms- but regardless, it was what was providing light. Using this light, Rigel inspected his surroundings avidly, trying to possibly see some sort of ground or place where he could lay Eureka out. Alas, he only saw more rock walls, all of which were too steep to ever lay a person across. Rigel most likely could not even keep himself out of the water using them.
"Please, please, please don't do this to me. No no no, not now. Please!" Rigel started sobbing to himself. "Don't kill her!"
His imploration was met by resounding silence.
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Upon entering the new room, Rigel observed a slate floor, but was unable to discern much else. The room wasn't lit much at all, only having some residual light leaking in from the room over.
Rigel sighed and lit a small fireball, pushing it out in front of him. The flickering flames illuminated the surroundings well enough to see. Rigel gazed around but didn't see much. They were merely in another enclosed room.
Eureka stepped up behind Rigel and said, "So, what's the key to this one?"
"Like I know," Rigel scoffed back. "Speaking of which, we sure were lucky that I managed to get through that last room so easily, or else perhaps we would have been there for a few days."
"And why is that, do you think?"
Rigel sighed and sat down in the middle of the room, fireball still ignited over his head. "I think that there are 2 possibilities for what this is. It's either a custom dungeon made by God for us, which is why I got through that last room so easily, or that room was meant to drive people to such desperation and insanity that they start cursing out the walls."
Eureka silently nodded in agreement. "Ah, but what if it's a combination of both?"
"Not impossible, not impossible," Rigel mused to himself. "I think that the answer is going to be the key to this room."
"Why?"
"Because there is nothing here that would suggest otherwise. It is a genuine blank slate."
Eureka silently nodded, albeit with some hesitation, and wandered off in her own thoughts.
Rigel did something similar. He wandered about the room physically, however, and brushed up against the wall with his fingers.
The walls were made from layered slate and were quite sturdy.
Rigel tried to see if there was a discernible opening- hollow point- to smash through with force, but alas, he had no clue what to listen for. Everything sounded the same to him when he knocked against the wall.
"Rigel, I don't think this dungeon was made by The One True Being," Eureka suddenly said.
"Any thoughts as to why?" Rigel stopped what he was doing and turned to face her.
"It's just… out of character, I suppose. So far, The One True Being, according to what I know, has never interfered with the mortal world so directly."
Rigel nodded his head in agreement. "So, do you think that this dungeon is 'alive'? It's a possibility, as most things are, but I'm not sure how mana works long-term. Would this dungeon be considered a beast if it was deemed sentient, at least somewhat?"
Eureka sighed softly and rubbed her eyes. "I'm not sure."
Rigel shrugged. "Let's try this from a different perspective. Get on my shoulders, see if anything is spelled out on the ground."
Eureka said, "Sure," and climbed onto Rigel, mounting him. Her small frame made it easy for even the feeble Rigel to hold her up on his shoulders. She looked down and around, but the floor was quite clearly very ordinary slate. She hopped down from her piggyback ride and reported to Rigel.
"Again," he sighed wistfully while walking to the entrance and out of the room. "Eureka, come over here. See if you can see anything."
As she did, the room started to shake and groan.
"What?!" the pair exclaimed. Eureka hurried over to Rigel, who was waiting in the other room, and grabbed onto his sleeve.
The slate room groaned louder and louder, until the floor shattered from the apparent pressure. The crumbled pieces and shards of stone all fell down into what seemed like the abyss itself. After just a few moments of hectic chaos, the room settled down into normal serenity once more.
Rigel approached the edge of the nubile abyss vigilantly. He gazed down into the black nothingness and saw only just that. Suddenly, Rigel felt the ground underneath him turn slick and slanted towards the hole.
His knees quickly buckled and Rigel slid towards the hole on his butt. Until, that is, he felt a sharp jerk against his neck, stopping him momentarily. He couldn't see what was happening, but presumed that Eureka had grabbed him by the back of his shirt.
The duo sat in a quandary; Eureka's front foot was standing in the slick substance that seemed to have secreted out of the floor- if she shifted her weight around much, she would almost certainly fall.
"Rigel, I think we need to go down there," Eureka said.
"We will most likely die, you know," Rigel replied.
"I can't pull you up, and I won't let you fall down there by yourself."
Rigel felt an intricate, profound sense of purpose and belonging at that moment. For, if Eureka was telling the truth, she was actually willing to risk her life just to stay with him, not even save him.
"Eureka… I can't do that to you. There isn't any-"
"There is a point," she cut off. "I trust The One True Being. He led us here; hence, this won't kill us. However, you may be mortally injured or permanently crippled if you fall from this height. If I'm not there, you may die."
Rigel was astounded by her keen disaster awareness and could only silently nod.
As he nodded, he felt the tearing from his own shirt lighten in load and started once again slipping downwards. Rigel, during this process, could swear that he heard giggling in the background.
While mildly perplexed, he chose to ignore the oddity and focused more on the abyss he was falling down. He turned over to see Eureka, but the darkness was intense enough that he could barely see his own hand let alone someone a few feet away.
Rigel felt that he could try to teleport, but it would most likely fail and kill him since he had never tried to do so while in free-fall. The intense rush of air whistling in his ears as he fell was discomforting and offsetting, the lack of normal force to counteract gravity was even more so.
Rigel was still rotating and spinning uncontrollably at this point and decided to level himself out. After taking a few moments to do so, he suddenly saw a wall in front of him. Flinching, he barely reacted in time and only hit his hand to recoil off and away.
Intense agony ravaged his poor hand. Rigel tried to take a look at the damage while gripping his wrist in anguish but couldn't see much. Blinded by pain, Rigel never noticed the giant basin of water underneath him.
SMASH
More agony enfolded Rigel as he felt his skin die from the impact.
"AHHHHH!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. He flailed and tried to swim upwards as fast as he could, squirming from the lack of oxygen since he screamed so loudly.
After a terrifying couple of seconds, Rigel burst out of the water and took deep gulps of air as rapid as his little lungs could handle. Then, when he was no longer focusing on breathing, a wave of pain paralyzed him. His back hurt so bad that he couldn't even move.
Rigel was hyperventilating and tensed up, just barely staying afloat, even, when he barely caught a glimpse of Eureka in the same situation. Floating on her back, her eyes were closed and teeth gritted.
"Eureka..." he barely said aloud. "Eureka," he tried again with a bit more force, but the pain was too much for Rigel to handle. He just wanted to close his eyes and die. The agony was so bad that he was seriously considering killing himself just to escape it.
"No." He shook himself out of his daze. "Eureka needs me, if only for now."
Yelling aloud, Rigel painstakingly paddled towards Eureka. He reached her after a couple of minutes of very slowly yet steadily making clean strokes across the water and using his own momentum to keep going, conserving as much movement as possible.
During the swim, he had taken a look at both his hand and side to see the extent of the damage. His hand was mostly destroyed. Hitting the wall at even just a few percent of terminal velocity had completely broken or shattered most of the bones, it seemed. His fingers were all jaded and mostly disconnected; some chunks were even taken out of them. After inspecting his own hand for a few seconds, even Rigel felt nauseous.
He then took a look at his back, or what he could see of it. It seemed like the skin did, in fact, die upon impact. It was a very deep shade of purple, approaching even black, with dark red blotches strewn throughout. There was apparent swelling, as well.
Rigel was bemused by the fact that he was even alive, though. Hitting water at terminal velocity most certainly should have killed him and broken every bone and ruptured every organ. His rib cage should have been a pincushion of ribs, not just a bit of dead skin.
When Rigel reached Eureka, though, he put all of those various thoughts aside and focused on the girl in front of him. She was clearly in a similar boat as his own, but she seemed to have slapped her face of the water, for her cheek and side of the head looked much like his own back did.
"Eureka," he said while patting her. "Wake up. You need to heal yourself or you'll die."
"Eureka!" he said again with increasing franticness. "Please, wake up!"
The girl didn't respond whatsoever to his attempts.
Rigel didn't stop to think much about the situation at hand: why she was unconscious; what could possibly be happening to her internally at the moment; how he could save her, but he did try regardless.
He looked around and saw that the ceiling was made of some naturally luminescent mineral- or perhaps it was some bioluminescent worms- but regardless, it was what was providing light. Using this light, Rigel inspected his surroundings avidly, trying to possibly see some sort of ground or place where he could lay Eureka out. Alas, he only saw more rock walls, all of which were too steep to ever lay a person across. Rigel most likely could not even keep himself out of the water using them.
"Please, please, please don't do this to me. No no no, not now. Please!" Rigel started sobbing to himself. "Don't kill her!"
His imploration was met by resounding silence.
Upon entering the new room, Rigel observed a slate floor, but was unable to discern much else. The room wasn't lit much at all, only having some residual light leaking in from the room over.Rigel sighed and lit a small fireball, pushing it out in front of him. The flickering flames illuminated the surroundings well enough to see. Rigel gazed around but didn't see much. They were merely in another enclosed room.Eureka stepped up behind Rigel and said, "So, what's the key to this one?""Like I know," Rigel scoffed back. "Speaking of which, we sure were lucky that I managed to get through that last room so easily, or else perhaps we would have been there for a few days.""And why is that, do you think?"Rigel sighed and sat down in the middle of the room, fireball still ignited over his head. "I think that there are 2 possibilities for what this is. It's either a custom dungeon made by God for us, which is why I got through that last room so easily, or that room was meant to drive people to such desperation and insanity that they start cursing out the walls."Eureka silently nodded in agreement. "Ah, but what if it's a combination of both?""Not impossible, not impossible," Rigel mused to himself. "I think that the answer is going to be the key to this room.""Why?""Because there is nothing here that would suggest otherwise. It is a genuine blank slate."Eureka silently nodded, albeit with some hesitation, and wandered off in her own thoughts.Rigel did something similar. He wandered about the room physically, however, and brushed up against the wall with his fingers.The walls were made from layered slate and were quite sturdy.Rigel tried to see if there was a discernible opening- hollow point- to smash through with force, but alas, he had no clue what to listen for. Everything sounded the same to him when he knocked against the wall."Rigel, I don't think this dungeon was made by The One True Being," Eureka suddenly said."Any thoughts as to why?" Rigel stopped what he was doing and turned to face her."It's just out of character, I suppose. So far, The One True Being, according to what I know, has never interfered with the mortal world so directly."Rigel nodded his head in agreement. "So, do you think that this dungeon is 'alive'? It's a possibility, as most things are, but I'm not sure how mana works long-term. Would this dungeon be considered a beast if it was deemed sentient, at least somewhat?"Eureka sighed softly and rubbed her eyes. "I'm not sure."Rigel shrugged. "Let's try this from a different perspective. Get on my shoulders, see if anything is spelled out on the ground."Eureka said, "Sure," and climbed onto Rigel, mounting him. Her small frame made it easy for even the feeble Rigel to hold her up on his shoulders. She looked down and around, but the floor was quite clearly very ordinary slate. She hopped down from her piggyback ride and reported to Rigel."Again," he sighed wistfully while walking to the entrance and out of the room. "Eureka, come over here. See if you can see anything."As she did, the room started to shake and groan."What?!" the pair exclaimed. Eureka hurried over to Rigel, who was waiting in the other room, and grabbed onto his sleeve.The slate room groaned louder and louder, until the floor shattered from the apparent pressure. The crumbled pieces and shards of stone all fell down into what seemed like the abyss itself. After just a few moments of hectic chaos, the room settled down into normal serenity once more.Rigel approached the edge of the nubile abyss vigilantly. He gazed down into the black nothingness and saw only just that. Suddenly, Rigel felt the ground underneath him turn slick and slanted towards the hole.His knees quickly buckled and Rigel slid towards the hole on his butt. Until, that is, he felt a sharp jerk against his neck, stopping him momentarily. He couldn't see what was happening, but presumed that Eureka had grabbed him by the back of his shirt.The duo sat in a quandary; Eureka's front foot was standing in the slick substance that seemed to have secreted out of the floor- if she shifted her weight around much, she would almost certainly fall."Rigel, I think we need to go down there," Eureka said."We will most likely die, you know," Rigel replied."I can't pull you up, and I won't let you fall down there by yourself."Rigel felt an intricate, profound sense of purpose and belonging at that moment. For, if Eureka was telling the truth, she was actually willing to risk her life just to stay with him, not even save him."Eureka I can't do that to you. There isn't any-""There is a point," she cut off. "I trust The One True Being. He led us here; hence, this won't kill us. However, you may be mortally injured or permanently crippled if you fall from this height. If I'm not there, you may die."Rigel was astounded by her keen disaster awareness and could only silently nod.As he nodded, he felt the tearing from his own shirt lighten in load and started once again slipping downwards. Rigel, during this process, could swear that he heard giggling in the background.While mildly perplexed, he chose to ignore the oddity and focused more on the abyss he was falling down. He turned over to see Eureka, but the darkness was intense enough that he could barely see his own hand let alone someone a few feet away.Rigel felt that he could try to teleport, but it would most likely fail and kill him since he had never tried to do so while in free-fall. The intense rush of air whistling in his ears as he fell was discomforting and offsetting, the lack of normal force to counteract gravity was even more so.Rigel was still rotating and spinning uncontrollably at this point and decided to level himself out. After taking a few moments to do so, he suddenly saw a wall in front of him. Flinching, he barely reacted in time and only hit his hand to recoil off and away.Intense agony ravaged his poor hand. Rigel tried to take a look at the damage while gripping his wrist in anguish but couldn't see much. Blinded by pain, Rigel never noticed the giant basin of water underneath him.SMASHMore agony enfolded Rigel as he felt his skin die from the impact."AHHHHH!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. He flailed and tried to swim upwards as fast as he could, squirming from the lack of oxygen since he screamed so loudly.After a terrifying couple of seconds, Rigel burst out of the water and took deep gulps of air as rapid as his little lungs could handle. Then, when he was no longer focusing on breathing, a wave of pain paralyzed him. His back hurt so bad that he couldn't even move.Rigel was hyperventilating and tensed up, just barely staying afloat, even, when he barely caught a glimpse of Eureka in the same situation. Floating on her back, her eyes were closed and teeth gritted."Eureka..." he barely said aloud. "Eureka," he tried again with a bit more force, but the pain was too much for Rigel to handle. He just wanted to close his eyes and die. The agony was so bad that he was seriously considering killing himself just to escape it."No." He shook himself out of his daze. "Eureka needs me, if only for now."Yelling aloud, Rigel painstakingly paddled towards Eureka. He reached her after a couple of minutes of very slowly yet steadily making clean strokes across the water and using his own momentum to keep going, conserving as much movement as possible.During the swim, he had taken a look at both his hand and side to see the extent of the damage. His hand was mostly destroyed. Hitting the wall at even just a few percent of terminal velocity had completely broken or shattered most of the bones, it seemed. His fingers were all jaded and mostly disconnected; some chunks were even taken out of them. After inspecting his own hand for a few seconds, even Rigel felt nauseous.He then took a look at his back, or what he could see of it. It seemed like the skin did, in fact, die upon impact. It was a very deep shade of purple, approaching even black, with dark red blotches strewn throughout. There was apparent swelling, as well.Rigel was bemused by the fact that he was even alive, though. Hitting water at terminal velocity most certainly should have killed him and broken every bone and ruptured every organ. His rib cage should have been a pincushion of ribs, not just a bit of dead skin.When Rigel reached Eureka, though, he put all of those various thoughts aside and focused on the girl in front of him. She was clearly in a similar boat as his own, but she seemed to have slapped her face of the water, for her cheek and side of the head looked much like his own back did."Eureka," he said while patting her. "Wake up. You need to heal yourself or you'll die.""Eureka!" he said again with increasing franticness. "Please, wake up!"The girl didn't respond whatsoever to his attempts.Rigel didn't stop to think much about the situation at hand: why she was unconscious; what could possibly be happening to her internally at the moment; how he could save her, but he did try regardless.He looked around and saw that the ceiling was made of some naturally luminescent mineral- or perhaps it was some bioluminescent worms- but regardless, it was what was providing light. Using this light, Rigel inspected his surroundings avidly, trying to possibly see some sort of ground or place where he could lay Eureka out. Alas, he only saw more rock walls, all of which were too steep to ever lay a person across. Rigel most likely could not even keep himself out of the water using them."Please, please, please don't do this to me. No no no, not now. Please!" Rigel started sobbing to himself. "Don't kill her!"His imploration was met by resounding silence.
