Chapter 52 – Dungeon Crawling

I never liked dungeons. Never liked them in video games, and never liked them in real life either. I didn’t like how damp and gloomy they were, how every step I took could be trapped, how there were probably skeletons and monsters lurking around every corner, and how the entire dungeon crawling experience was a claustrophobic nightmare.

Even isometric dungeon crawling was bad enough. First person dungeon crawling was way worse. PC games with first person perspective dungeon crawling ranged from moderately immersive to absolutely horrifying and ridden with jump scares, like Alien Isolation or Outlast.

This was way worse than first person on PC. The lightning speed advancement in computing technology in the last few years culminated in the creation of one of the most visceral experiences in MMORPG history, as the Eclipse company surpassed the entire market with the development and release of a never before seen engineering and software programming miracle.

The sheer size of the gap between Eclipse company’s technological development and that of the rest of the gaming industry left both critics and players completely astounded, to the point that the difference felt almost supernatural in nature.

As a result of the highly publicized gap, an overwhelming amount of worldwide hype surrounded the launch of the game, and the highly anticipated MMO launched with a record breaking 1.6 billion concurrent player count. By all accounts, it was some kind of miracle. Both the technological king-of-the-hill Eclipse company sat on, and the unearthly amount of hype that the game generated. Two back to back miracles made this experience possible for players like me.

However, sometimes a game could be too realistic. This was one of those cases. As a relatively skittish person, the long winding corridors and maze-like layout of this tomb was making me sweat in nervousness. I didn’t like how the torchlight danced around the corners, casting shadows into the unknown. I didn’t like how the strange carvings and inscriptions on the walls were visible behind the long vases and strangely placed benches and earthen pots all across the floor near the walls.

And I especially didn’t like how I vaguely remembered something in the quest description about misfortune and death in relation to this particular tomb.

Just as I was having these thoughts, we came across a large door in the middle of the hallway, blocking our way forward. In dungeon terms, this door seemed to be a waypoint in the dungeon, an indication that things would be different from here on out.

“Should we go through?” Rosalia asked hesitantly.

“Let’s take a look around, first,” Bjorn replied.

We traced back and explored the maze-like setup, before finding out that all paths eventually lead back to this same door. It was clear that we needed to pass through it to proceed, as much as I wasn’t looking forward to testing it.

“Hmm…” Bjorn said, walking forward and running his hands down the old, imposingly large door decorated with a carving of what seemed to be a two headed pig with an anguished expression on its face. Below the jarring two-pronged head of the pig was a single line of text, written in what seemed to be gibberish.

Thofaht awhothd fvioht, nos avoslif behoralf.

I read it twice, but it still made no sense to me. At first I thought it was Latin, but on closer inspection the inscription seemed to be written in a completely foreign language.

“It’s written in the ancient tongue,” the dwarf replied solemnly, shaking his head. “I can’t read this. You’d have to ask Sven, the dwarven scholar in our mountain to translate this. And even then, I’m not sure he’ll be successful, because this language may be an even older version of the ancient tongue that even scholars can’t fully decipher.”

“Can you read it, Rosalia? Maybe Luxuria can help you out.”

Rosalia placed her hand on the inscription and sounded out the words as I looked on hopefully, but she retracted her hand and shook her head. “I’m not getting anything. Sorry.”

I stroked my chin in thought, then nodded when an idea came to me.

“Summon cat.”

“Nyaa~”

Meat Shield, or Cerebi as she introduced herself to Rosalia and Bjorn as, landed on my hand.

“Check out what this means. Can you read it?”

Meat Shield side eyed the inscription, then began licking her fur in preparation to play hard to get to scam some treats from me. However, as her eyes registered what she was actually seeing, her eyes narrowed seriously.

She hopped over to the inscription in a more grave manner and inspected the writing.

“This is written in the ancient language, which is millenia older than the demonic script we use today,” the cat said carefully. “I haven’t seen this in a long time. Even in the demon realm, not many of us can read the ancient language.“

“Twice we fall, before the ashes settle. That’s what it says.”

“What does it mean?” I asked Meat Shield.

“Who knows~” the cat replied sardonically, stretching and yawning. “I’m just telling you what it says~”

Twice we fall, before the ashes settle. I repeated the phrase in my head, rolling it over and considering all possibilities. What did it mean?

After deliberating with Bjorn and Rosalia for a bit, we came to the conclusion that there was no point mulling over it. We would just have to proceed. However, the door was harder to open than I first expected. It needed a ton of force to push open.

“One… two… three, go! Push!”

On the count of three, our party of three misfits threw our bodies against the door and cracked it open. We backed off, and then slammed into it again. And again. And again.

On the fourth try, the door finally had a large enough gap for us to slip through. I lifted my lantern to see better, but right as I did that, warm lamp light began to shine from within the room. With several intricate engravings lining the walls, illuminated by torch light from the sides, it seemed to be some kind of puzzle room.

“Who goes first?” I asked tentatively.

Rosalia looked a bit unnerved as well. “Why don’t we play rock paper scissors to decide?”

Bjorn let out a small laugh and nodded. “Aye, that’s fair.”

“Rock, paper, scissors!”

I was left holding rock in my hand against two papers, held by Rosalia and Bjorn. Sigh… “Alright, I’ll go.” Bracing myself for the worst, I summoned my adamantite poleaxe and held my breath, squeezing my way into the room while gripping the poleaxe for a sense of security.

Nothing dramatic happened as I slipped into the marble and stone room, relatively unscathed in all aspects besides my pride. Rosalia and Bjorn emerged shortly afterwards, and even Meat Shield decided to tag along for a bit, deciding that tomb exploring was more entertaining than lounging around all day watching tv in the dimension room.

The first noticeable thing in the room were the big engravings on the walls, depicting different scenes. The first engraving depicted a scene of a torrential downpour of rain onto a forest, with people running for cover with their clothes over their head for insulation. The pained expressions on the people’s faces gave me a feeling that they were dealing with acid rain, the same kind of acid rain we were caught in on our way over here.

The second engraving was a volcano erupting, lava and ashes falling onto an ancient city full of people, as several bearded sages in robes attempted to hold back the landfall with a barrier spell among other spells, although the lava eventually broke through into the city.

The third engraving was strange. It seemed to be a fortress city half submerged in the ocean, with citizens traveling between the high rise buildings as fish and sharks and other less earthly creatures including a giant squid roamed the depths of the buildings, that had somehow sunk into the water.

The fourth engraving was a mural of a man with a crown sitting on his throne, cradling a bundled baby in his hands as a woman in flowing robes stood to his side, looking down lovingly at the baby. Around them, the throne room was damaged badly, and dust and debris floated down from an impact on the ceiling.

Aside from the engravings, there were four statues of knights standing guard on the sides of the room. The first knight held a sword, the second knight held a mace, the third knight a bow, and the fourth knight a lance and shield.

“This is a puzzle room,” I said definitively. “Let’s be careful with our choice of answer. From what I know of the Forgotten King, those statues standing guard around the room are probably golems that will come to life.”

Actually, I also inferred that from just common game knowledge. It was the ultimate cliche to have a puzzle room where a wrong answer would trigger death by animated soldier statues. Then again, something being cliche didn’t make it any less dangerous. For example, ever since the Titanic, a shipwreck at sea in the middle of the ocean was the ultimate cliche. However, the fact that it was a giga-cliche didn’t make it any less dangerous to be thrust into icy cold, pitch black waters in the middle of the night. If you were actually on board a cruise ship that ran into trouble at sea, the situation being cliche didn’t provide any tangible benefit to you.

That’s how I felt here. This situation was just too damn cliche to not see the blatantly telegraphed threat from the four knight statues standing guard around the room. However, just because it was obvious did not make it any less dangerous.

“Spoon, Bjorn, what do you think we’re supposed to do here?” Rosalia asked. “I’m not great with puzzles…”

Bjorn stroked his beard and looked around the room, examining the knight statues and knocking on their suits of armor. “These statues are almost hollow,” he said with a frown on his face. “This whole place smells of magic… ancient magic, the kind we shouldn’t mess with carelessly.”

I nodded in agreement, and racked my brain for what the trick to this room was. Maybe it had to do with the inscription on the door.

“Twice we fall… before the ashes settle,” I muttered to myself, looking at the engravings closely. “Before the ashes settle… hmm…”

I walked in a circle around the room, inspecting every engraving closely. “The ashes are clearly settling here,” I said, pointing to the volcano eruption engraving. “But what does twice we fall mean?”

Bjorn walked closer to the engraving and pointed next to where Rosalia’s head was, at the sky in the mural. In the clouds above the ancient city, there were two horizontal lines depressed into the stone engraving. “That must be what they mean by twice we fall.”

“What are we supposed to do with that, then? Touch it?” I asked, confused. I raised my hand and ran my fingers through the two horizontal lines.

Sshk.

“Aggggh!”

A thin blade sliced through my fingertips, causing the most intense and deep paper cut I’d ever experienced in my life.

[You have taken 6 physical damage]

“Spoon!” Rosalia shouted worriedly, taking out the cross pendant from between her chest. The pendant glowed in her hand as she began reaching towards my hand.

Blood seeped out of my fingers and onto the mural, dripping down the two horizontal lines, before spilling over the bottom of the lines and streaking down from the clouds, onto the depiction of the ancient city.

It made it look like it was raining blood. Right before Rosalia could heal me, I motioned her back.

“Wait,” I said. “I think this is the solution to the puzzle.”

I pressed my fingers into the two horizontal lines once more. This time, the blade did not come out, since there was already blood running from the open wounds on my fingers. I pressed a bit harder and smudged my fingers on the cold stone, coaxing more blood to flow out, until the mural was dripping with blood.

Ssssss.

[You have taken 4 burn damage]

With a sizzle, the volcanic eruption over an ancient city mural turned white hot.

“Argh!” I yelped, retracting my fingers again painfully as the mural began to turn to life. The three of us watched in shocked fascination as the sages holding the barrier against the lava began to crank into life, and the entire mural moved as if it were animated.

Blood rain seemed to appear out of thin air from one of the horizontal lines in the sky and drooled down the mural, as hot magma flowed down from the volcano and onto the ancient city below it. The sages attempted to hold the line with various spells that flashed into existence, and seemed to be holding on even through the first bout of blood rain, which stopped after a brief stint.

But a moment later, a second round of blood rain came down. A large amount of red liquid gushed from the sky and fell upon the sages, who held on for a moment. However, the caustic blood rain broke through their defensive spells eventually, and the sages screamed in agony as the rain burned into their skin and through their bodies. Molten rock crashed into the walls of the city and began to overflow the city, as citizens screamed and ran before being engulfed.

Suddenly, a blast of wind and dust from the mural knocked us backwards. I coughed and waved my hand in front of my face, trying to make out what happened. Rosalia and Bjorn were both on the ground coughing as well, completely covered in dust. Before long, the dust settled and revealed what was behind.

The entire wall of the mural seemed to have collapsed, revealing a treasure room. Two heavy chests were set in a room full of dusty scrolls on bookshelves that were so old that they seemed like they would collapse from a single shove. Nothing had been in here for a long time.