Aquilo

Species: Storm Eel

Class: Water

Statistics: 100% HP

Skills:

- Combat Splitting

- Frost touch

- Storm

- Ice scales

- Water manipulation

- ???

It had become second nature for Dallion to split into a dozen instances each time he was about to do something important. However, it was quite rare for a guardian to do the same. Even stranger, the guardian didn’t make any attempts to attack, but rather positioned itself in front of each of Dallion’s instances, indicating that it would take a lot more effort for someone to get past it.

Fighting the guardian was going to be tough. Fortunately for Dallion, his music skill told him that the creature had no intention of fighting him, at least not yet. Rather, the eel was more curious to see him. However, the creatures that composed the labyrinth were a different matter. From his current position Dallion wasn’t able to spot any of them, but he could still see the spots of bloodthirst went on as far as the eye could see, like thousands of blue droplets on a white napkin.

“So you’re the human empath” the eel asked. “You look a lot smaller than I imagined.”

Summon me, sounds merged in Dallion’s realm, forming words.

Without hesitation, Dallion summoned his harpsisword. Instead of the weapon, however, the nymph within it emerged, dressed in combat armor. Seen her, the eel violently recoiled; its scales fanned out, making them look like razor blades all over its body.

This wasn’t the first time Dallion had seen others have such a reaction upon seeing Harp, making him believe that she had been a force to be reckoned with while in the real world. There was every indication that she could be as strong as Vihrogon, or even stronger.

“Behave.” The nymph’s skin vibrated to form the word. That didn’t make it sound any less threatening.

“I’m not here to fight,” Dallion quickly added, seeing the terror within the eel. “I just want to decipher the scroll.”

The eel’s scales lowered halfway, although it still kept its distance.

“Harp’s my guardian and friend,” Dallion went on. “She’s only here to make sure nothing happens to me. She won’t hurt you unless you try to harm me.”

That was supposed to reassure the guardian, but for some reason it didn’t. Dallion watched as spheres of fear appeared throughout the eel’s body.

“It’s fine,” Dallion whispers. Forward, Lux, he ordered.

Harp tried to block his path, but Dallion gestured for her to let him through. Normally, this would have been a huge risk on his part, but this wasn’t the real world—here, the only punishment Dallion could suffer was to have to try and enter the real world again.

“Can you order the creatures to decipher the text?” Dallion asked.

The eel remained silent.

“Harp, you can go back,” Dallion said.

The nymph gave him an are-you-sure look. Receiving a nod, she then went back to her harpsisword state, returning to being a weapon on Dallion’s back.

“Feel better?”

The eel’s scales returned to normal, but Dallion could still see traces of fear within it.

“It was much more fun talking to you on the outside,” it said cautiously.

“I told you she won’t hurt you. Now, can you help me?” Dallion waited. “She won’t do anything bad to you, if you say you can’t.”

“I can’t.” The Eel relaxed, then flew around Dallion forming a double circle. “I’m only here to protect the scroll itself. You’re not the first to have entered, although those before you didn’t fly… or talk. Watching them was boring, so I didn’t intervene. You, on the other hand, are interesting.”

“I get that a lot.” Dallion looked down. “So, there’s no way for me to get the creatures to show me what I want?”

“You’ll have to ask them. They’re part of the labyrinth.”

Clearly, the guardian wasn’t of much help. It had given Dallion an idea, though.

“Lux put me back at the beginning,” Dallion said.

Gently, the firebird did just that, while the eel continued to fly and observe the situation, flying along a pattern eight in the sky.

“Sorry, Harp,” Dallion tapped the hilt of the harpsisword. “I’ll need Gleam on this one.”

The whip blame appeared in his hand, then immediately extended.

“Let’s go through the labyrinth.”

COMBAT INITIATED

The message appeared the moment Dallion stepped out of the starting zone of the labyrinth. However, it wasn’t the guardian that had attacked him. Rather, bricks from the very maze had jumped out, charging straight at him. Visually, they were like small bricks and pebbles, the upper part of which was made entirely of stone jaws, while the lower had two sets of flea-like legs allowing it to cross large distances in a single leap.

The whip blade acted on its own, slicing through creatures by the dozen. Just to be on the safe side, Dallion kept splitting into instances to evade any creatures the blade had missed. Soon, it became obvious that there were two distinct creature types: gray and blue syllablights. The gray ones were larger with block-like bodies, while the blue were significantly smaller and pebbly in nature.

Finding himself overwhelmed, Dallion focused on his defensive skills, leaving Gleam to handle the attack. With the amount of attacks he was subject to, it was easy to slow time five-fold, all thanks to his guard skills. One more defense sequence and time stopped completely.

ESCAPE TRIGGERED

If you wish to end combat and escape, smash the window.

The rectangle appeared, just as it was supposed to. If he wanted, Dallion could easily exit the scroll. That wasn’t his goal, however. Instead, we went closer to the nearest syllablight and summoned his Nox dagger.

Dallion’s heart tightened, as if it were squeezed by thorns.

They aren’t guardians, he told himself. They’re just blank creatures within the realm. Same as cracklings. Dallion took a deep breath. Zoology, he thought.

Black and white dotted lines covered the creature, marking where he had to make the incision. This had been the main reason Dallion hadn’t increased his zoological skill so far: similar to forging, the skill could only be increased after successfully dissecting a creature type; so far Dallion hadn’t had the stomach to do so.

With each cut, more lines appeared on the creature. Parts of the creature moved to the side—lines and arrows indicating where it had come from, as if Dallion was looking at a schematic in an instruction manual. The difference was that he was creating the schematic as he went along. Body parts and inner organs gloated in the air, not releasing a single drop of blood. After a few minutes of chest squeezing pain, Dallion had finally succeeded.

Your ZOOLOGY skills have increased to 2.

The coveted rectangle finally appeared.

KNOWLEDGE ACQUIRED - GRAY SYLLABLIGHT

Syllablights are parasitic creatures that can be found in underground veins or certain metal ores. Highly aggressive and territorial, they spend most of their existence moving ore fragments between parts of the vein, multiplying in the process.

Discovered and domesticated by dwarves, syllablights were used to cypher important text information due to their ability to constantly change their location within the mending labyrinth of the item in question (as long as the item is composed of metal). They are trained to return to their original location upon hearing orders from the echo that originally placed them there, or anyone else, the echo approves of.

While in the awakened realm, Syllablights cannot be destroyed, since they have become integrated with the labyrinth itself.

The information was a lot more than Dallion expected. From this point on, the creature was an open book to him: he knew everything about it, from the way it behaved to every part of its anatomy.

Taking a short break, so that the pain in his chest could loosen a bit, Dallion then went to the nearest blue creature and repeated the process. Alas, there was no new message or skill increase. Apparently, the species were considered too close to one another, for Dallion to be granted a reward.

Well done, dear boy, Nil congratulated him. You’re finally making proper use of your hidden skill.

Dallion didn’t say a word, returning to standard combat instead. The whip blade spun like crazy, slicing syllablights by the dozens, while Dallion kept evading them and blocking them with his shield.

Lux, heal the walls, Dallion ordered.

Blue flames extended from Dallion, covering the walls. For the most part, nothing happened. Healing flames covered the gaps caused by the syllablights, incapable of filling them in. After a while, though, Dallion’s efforts paid off. A single block appeared in a space of the wall, filling in a single square hole. Considering the mass of holes nearby and the miles of labyrinth Dallion hadn’t even gone through, the success was minuscule. In truth, it was astonishing—Dallion had just found a way to restore the original state of the labyrinth, and by extension, the message on the scroll. This meant that Dallion could decipher the message without using an unlock item. It was going to be long and difficult, but it was possible. Unsurprisngly, Dallion continued doing just that.

Hours became days. Fighting the constantly increasing hunger, Dallion kept at it. Once he had gone through half of the labyrinth, the syllablights started filling up the holes at an increasing rate. Even the scroll guardian—still a bit timid due to the harpsisword’s presence—would give Dallion some encouragement while roaming the skies above, watching him engaged in battle with the creatures.

On the eighth day since he had entered the item, the labyrinth was finally in order.

BRUTE FORCE DECIPHERING

(Mind +5)

Brute force is the least efficient way of deciphering a message, but it works. Just make sure you have the strength to read what you’ve deciphered.

An achievement rectangle appeared in front of Dallion. It had been a while since she he’d received an achievement, and a five point one at that. Exhausted, he leaned against the silver wall, breathing heavily.

That was fun, Gleam said as she assembled the fragments of the whip blade. Monotonous, but fun.

“Speak for yourself,” Dallion said between breaths. He wanted to rest, maybe even sleep, but knew he couldn’t take the chance. For all he knew, that pause might cause the syllablights to change position again.

Dallion closed his eyes and concentrated. Then, upon opening them again, he left the realm. Reality around him shifted. Once more he was with the hunter’s party, Euryale next to him, holding the other scroll. Largo was still walking away, as he had been over a week ago.

“You’re back,” Euryale said, able to tell that Dallion had returned even after a mere second.

“Largo,” Dallion shouted. “Take a look now.”

The words were magic, causing the large hunter to combat split and get back to Dallion at extreme speed. Dallion was able to see several of his instances reading different parts of the scroll at the same time.

“Sea currents,” Largo said. “The chart is nothing but sea currents.”

Sea currents—the most valuable information for a maritime power, and also an explanation why there were next to none nymph cities remaining. Everyone had assumed that the cities had been destroyed, but they were never on land to begin with.

“Trade routes to nine cities,” Large kept reading. “Some on land, others in water. Can you decipher the other one?”

“Not a chance,” Dallion almost snapped. He wasn’t willing to go through what he just had. Not without getting a week of rest before that.

“Then we have one location with enough information to find more. We really hit the jackpot for once.” The man patted Dallion on the shoulder. “Are you fine with that, princess?”

“After the Glass Mounts,” the fury replied. “Depending on what we learn, we’ll see.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” Largo pointed at her. “I hope you don’t change your mind.”