So the options are ‘Go back’ and ‘Keep going’…

I don’t know what I might find if I keep going; it might be dangerous. On the other hand, I reaaally wanna find out. Decisions, decisions… Ahh, screw it. I’ll just prepare for the worst and continue as far as I deem safe. That would also let me prepare (later) for whatever challenges may lie ahead.

I cover myself in my magic armor, which can help disperse physical blows to my body. Outside that, I form a mana shield, which will do the same, but it uses mana to disperse the hits before they hit my actual body. I also pull out the hexagonal conjured shields.

Or rather, semi-conjured shields. I have improved them the last couple days with physical components, primarily my selfmade string and mana crystal seeds. The conjured matter is formed around a frame of solid, non-conjured parts. I still have the improved senses from partial transformations, but not to the point where it’s distracting.

And with that, I levitate into the room with the floating platform. I spread out mana to get a grasp on the room. I can’t sense anything in particular, but I do get a sense of the shape of the room. I glance into the water. It’s pretty dark, but a quick {Orb of Light} illuminates it. Hmm, nothing of particular interest, though it seems like there’s more rooms below.

When I look up, I first see the platform extending from what is probably a hallway above, with a semicircle for the floating platform to connect to. The second thing is a green blob falling from the roof and landing on the floating platform. The platform promptly starts moving upwards.

Huh, good game design. Well, this isn’t a game, or at least I don’t think so. Leaving the philosophical questions for another time, I still enjoy the fact that this introduced me to 1: The fact that there’s green blobs on the roof that can drop down. Presumably I don’t want to get hit by them. And 2: The platform moves via magic, and is probably triggered by weight or presences.

That said, I no longer have my ride up. It’s fine though, and I move upwards. It’s not like the platform filled the entire room, and soon I hover past the platform. Yup, that green blob is definitely something. In fact, it looks like a gel/slime type enemy.

Which of course begs the question: What type of slime? Is it the cannon fodder any adventurer learns the ropes against, the kind that is pretty high-level and tricky to kill because it is immune or highly resistant to certain types of damage(probably physical), or is it the 18+ version?

If it’s the latter, I’m glad I’m not female, but still wanna make sure it does not get under and/or behind me. If it’s the resistance/immunity one, I have several methods of attack, so that’s probably fine, and if it’s the cannon fodder type, I’m gonna capture and study one.

To start off, I send a bit of mana towards it to see how it reacts. Oh, it is drawn to the mana. It doesn’t seem to absorb it, though… What if I pull the mana into a line? So I can maybe control it with mana. I release my control of it, and the mana is quickly absorbed by the slime. Hmm. It absorbs ‘loose’ mana? What if I shoot a {Mana Bolt}?

…

It exploded. Or rather, the bolt punched a hole straight through it. It seems to still be… alive? Whatever the case, they can easily be handled by magic attacks. Next up, physical. I conjure a tennis ball sized sphere and toss it at the slime. Hmm, if I threw that harder, the effect would be the same as with the {Mana bolt}.

I conclusion, they’re mostly harmless and can be dealt with easily, but I haven’t actually touched it. Nor do I intend to unless I know it’s safe. How could I find out, though?

Ahh, I know! If I create a form in my [Shapechanger] space, I can swap my body for it. But what’s to say I can’t just pull it out like with other subspaces? On that note, I should try to get any aspects I can from the slime.

[Aspect of the Slime], get. And the form that I’ve made is done, too. It’s the copy I made of Tåke, but not actually a copy. More like a generic [Mist Wolf], with slightly changed traits thanks to other aspects. Well, it’s like it is because I used it for experimenting.

I summon in the wolf. It flops to the ground. Right. While alive, it’s not like it’s alive? It’s in a vegetative state. The basic bodily functions of the heart and lungs do their thing, but there’s not self, I guess. Or maybe you’d call it spirit or soul.

It’s like a puppet! Yeah, that’s a fitting word. Especially since, with some concentration, I manage to make it stand up. I don’t think I have the capability to fully control two bodies, but I can hold my human body in the air and move the wolf puppet. I close my human eyes and try to see through the puppet.

Woah! That’s so weird. I can see myself in third person. Since I would rather not have my human body fall and drown, I hover over the platform, so that if I lose control I’ll just fall half a meter, instead of -hmm- six meters, and into water.

Good, with my main body safe, I gradually move my concentration to, and consciousness into, the wolf body. I retain my vision in the human body though, leading to a strange sensation of watching myself from behind, like in third-person games.

Ugh, this is so clumsy. I close my human eyes and open the wolf’s, then walk -I know how to control a wolf body by now- over to the slime. I stick a paw into it, then switch my vision back to my main body. Switching like this seems to be the way to go. I suspect there’s a range limit on how far away I can control the puppet, though.

As for the slime, while it is slowly covering the puppet, it doesn’t hurt or anything, and I can’t detect any damage either, so it’s not that it dulls pain receptors while actually killing its target. Yeah, this slime is definitely the cannon fodder one. Or the 18+ one, I suppose I could find out how it react to clothes and/or bodily fluids.

Mmm, let’s not. Let’s just assume it’s the cannon fodder one and avoid it so I can’t be proven wrong. Now to retrieve the puppet. Hmm, problem: I need very close proximity to absorb it and I might absorb the slime if I do that. Bah, I’ll just lure it off with mana.

Okay, so the thing clearly has no higher intelligence. It followed the mana over the ledge and fell into the water below. It seems to have dissolved in the water. That or sunk. Either way, it’s not my problem, and after retrieving the wolf body, I turn my attention to the hallway.

In said hallway, there are a couple slimes. I’ll just levitate past them, though. As I do, I look at the murals at the walls. The ones on this floor depicts humanoids. Assuming that the various images are supposed to be sequential, like a story, the humanoids are dancing or something. Or posing.

The hallway is pretty short and simply leads into a small room, which I estimate to be more or less directly above the main room below. Most of the space is taken up by a circle, about three meters in diameter. It gives me the impression of a boxing ring. So obviously I avoid it.

In each corner of the room, there are ceramic vases. I get a strong feeling of the [Aspect of Water] from them, so I suppose they contain water. At the other end of the room there are two such vases flanking a pedestal of sorts, on which a ocean blue crystal orb is placed.

The room does not seem to have any other exits. I make sure none of the slimes have followed me, but they just sit there. So everything in the room is potentially important. A presumed fighting ring, a crystal orb and vases of water.

Problem is, water does not, ironically, give such a strong feeling of it’s aspect unless there’s large amounts of it, like a lake or the ocean. With this quite possibly being a dungeon, having a water theme and magic being real, I would not be surprised if touching the orb made some kinda water elementals pop out of the vases.

I totally wanna touch the orb, though!

…

So I’ve been thinking. It doesn’t seem like there’s any doors that can lock me in this room, Zelda-style, so even if strong enemies appear, I can just run away. And if the enemies are made of water, I am fairly confident I can handle them. Oh, and the murals in this room depict a humanoid touching the orb, which then glows. Then blue humanoids appear, and then the first humanoid seems to dance, sometimes with the others, sometimes not.

Naturally, this is a water elemental dance-off room. Hah, as if. I’d be screwed, though. I think the dancing is actually some sort of martial arts or something. Or a way to use water magic, which would explain the blue curved lines that some of the images have. And what have both martial arts and water magic? Bending arts. As in, the magic system from the Avatar series. The Last Airbender one, not the film with big blue hippie aliens.

Right. I gone back and looked over all the murals, with this insight it really does look like water bending. I followed some of the moves, and while I probably need something more to actually use the magic, if it’s even a thing, I can more or less smoothly execute the moves. The squiggly lines by the images also seems to be names or identifiers for the moves, and the wall of squiggly lines/text seems to be a collection of combo moves, Street Fighter style.

Though I might be completely wrong here and be doomed if I touch the orb. Which I am still gonna do, because there’s not much else I can do at this point, and I wanna find out what the deal with this place is. But before that, let’s do the moves written on the wall behind the orb while in the ring.

For the first time since I entered the dungeon, my feet touch the floor. No rumbling or other ominous warnings? Good. Also, performing the moves while hovering would make a lot more sense if this was for air magic, wouldn’t it? While hovering I can move my body almost like on the ground, but it’s not the same. At least, I’m not gonna bet on that.

I take a deep breath and do a few of the simpler moves to warm up. Outside the circle, that is. It’s a bit, no, quite different from when in the air, but I get used to it somewhat quickly. I then perform the moves written on the wall, first separately, then in sequence. Good. I can do this. Probably.

I stand in the middle of the circle, feet shoulder width apart. Breathe in. Open my eyes. Breathe out. Let’s do this.

I lightly and slowly slide my right foot in an arc, stopping behind the left one, my upper body and arms following it. From there, I repeat the motion, this time with my left foot. I notice that I end up facing one of the corners, and thus, vases. Then, I bring my right foot forwards, pointing to the vase, and stretch my arms and palms towards it.

I twist my body, still with slow movements, to the vase ninety degrees counterclockwise from the first, pulling in my left leg. My fingers end up pointing towards this vase. From there, my hands continue their motion, and after an arc to my left and then up, I turn to the vase behind me guiding in imaginary orb of water to it with my hands as my right leg stretches out towards it.

The left leg follows until I stand with my feet close together and hands like I’m holding something on top of my forearms. Then I repeat the first motion, with my left leg, this time for a full three-fourths of a circle, to the last corner, arms following as usual.

From there, I retract my outstretched left leg and lower my arms, ending in the same position I started, but facing the opposite way. I breathe out.

The entire time, my movements were not unlike the tides, flowing towards a vase then retreating like the ebbing tides. I glance around, but nothing happened. Well, time to try the orb, then.