The climb down into the secret room wasn’t difficult or very long. The dim blue light from the lantern was more than enough for Wyn to see, and he was thankful for it as there was no other form of light except for the singular ray from the suns in the desert above. After about half a minute of descending, he finally reached the bottom.
His boots clacked on a dusty stone floor, which was odd. But such was secret rooms. They didn’t follow the standard environment on the floor they were found, as though they were separate pockets of space entirely.
Which, for all Wyn knew, was exactly what they were.
In front of the ladder was a small, narrow hallway about thirty feet long. It ended in an opening that appeared to be a larger room ahead, and his light showed more empty space of sand colored stone. The range on the dim light from the lantern was 120 feet, but there wasn’t a wall in the far room that Wyn could see. The first thing he was drawn to, though, was four carvings on the walls of the narrow hallway, two on either side. The first on the left wall was just past the ladder, and depicted what looked like several waves of water with squiggly lines.
Wyn sincerely hoped that the secret room ahead didn’t have some sort of water puzzle involved. He detested the thought of facing a magical challenge that was water-based, whether that was swimming, treading, pools of water, anything.
Cedric poked his head around Wyn’s shoulder, trying to see further ahead. He looked forward then at the walls. “Interesting. When Tasha comes down maybe we can get some more light to look at these before making our way to the room.”
Wyn was planning for exactly that, and when the others finally exited the ladder, they continued forward. Marcy didn’t mention noticing anything ahead, but that was standard. The secret rooms they found before never had enemies or challenges waiting on them, but instead created them on entry. It removed Marcy’s ability to sense danger and forced them to react as needed. But that was part of the terms, in Wyn’s mind. It wouldn’t be too much of a reward if they knew what they were getting into and planned accordingly.
Tasha was the second to last to come down, and she raised her wand to cast Torchlight with the power of a tier two spell. That allowed her to create up to three separate balls of light that lasted up to an hour, and she could move them around at will up to 40 feet away from her. It was an easy way for them to have enough light while traversing large spaces or needing to find exits. Marcy bumped into her back after the three globes of light popped into the air at the ceiling above them, and the Climbers quickly crowded around each other.
Wyn moved forward down the hall with Cedric so everyone could see the carvings. The hallway was wide enough for only two people to comfortably walk down shoulder to shoulder, but they staggered themselves so they wouldn’t be cramped. Wyn moved to the next carving on the left wall, about fifteen or twenty feet down the hall. It had a single curved line with multiple, smaller wavy lines coming off the top of the singular curve. The first image Wyn thought of was the odd trees in the oasis above. If it was supposed to be a crude drawing of something, that was likely it.
“This looks like wind or something,” Tasha said, pointing to the first drawing on the right wall. It was a bit further down than the water carving on the left wall near the ladder. “I’ve seen it with some other runes associated with Amethyst Magicians.”
Cedric pointed to the fourth and final image, the second one on the right wall. “And this one is obvious, too.”
Wyn looked over Cedric’s shoulder to see an image of the scorpion monster that was prevalent on the floor.
“Do we know what these could mean?” John asked.
“No idea,” Cedric said. “But good to remember them just in case. We’ll find out soon enough at the very least.”
Wyn looked to the room ahead. Cedric was right. The few times in the past months when they had discovered secret rooms, they found more puzzles than just monster fights. They were each slightly different, but all had some sort of design that required some figuring out. Tasha and Cedric were usually the ones who figured it out while the other three dealt with whatever immediate threat was present, like monsters or traps.
This time looked to be similar.
Wyn repeated the four murals in his mind just in case they couldn’t go back to the hallway for whatever reason. Then he stepped into the room ahead with the hallway opening out in the corner of the next space.
The place was a large open chamber, about as big as the guild house’s dining hall. It was a square room with a single barred pedestal on the far wall and two small, empty braziers next to it. The pedestal looked like one a priest would preach from, or one a librarian used to review books. Four bars surrounded it like a small prison, caging it away.
Wyn smiled seeing the empty stone pedestal. It was the same one they had encountered twice before. Which likely meant the reward for completion would be the same, too.
As everyone continued filing in, the braziers slowly lit with a yellow glow, increasing until orange flames blazed and lit that half of the room in a warm light. Two crystals suddenly appeared on the left and right walls, floating in the air and emitting a blue magical aura. They were both the size of plates.
“We have a definite puzzle on our hands,” Cedric said.
Wyn turned around to see the others staring at the wall behind them. Four large, four-sided pillars were set like altars against the wall, evenly spread out to cover the entire wall. Each of them was easily ten feet tall, though only half way up to the ceiling. They were as wide as two barrels like thick stone columns marking an entrance to a grand hall. Small wooden dials protruded from each side like cogs in a wheel.
Quickly looking over the pillars, each of the sides had the same murals as the images on the hallway to the room. They were an image of waves, wind, one of the trees, and a scorpion. Currently the two left most pillars had the scorpions and the two right ones had the wind symbol.
“Do we need to rotate them to a particular order?” Tasha asked.
Suddenly the two crystals began humming and pulsed. Everyone readied their weapons. They knew exactly what that meant.
Two scorpions formed in front of each crystal, making four in total. They looked slightly different from the light and dark brown ones they were familiar with. While not the size of the champion scorpions, they were similar to the regular monsters, except their bodies had a purple hue with amethyst gems faintly glowing just behind their heads within their bodies.
Cedric pointed his scepter at the left duo of monsters and cast Static, which was relatively weak but a setup for fight. It had been some time since he left his scepter behind that changed his element, as he now had access to three different elements at will. Because of that, a rare but assumed to be mostly useless set was now one that he utilized to great potential. It was called Arcane Shifter, and he had nearly the entire set with the robe, circlet, gloves, and scepter. The feature of the set was that when he cast a spell of a different element than one he previously cast, it was massively increased in power and decreased in mana cost. The more he rotated them the better the effect, too. He learned to rotate his spells accordingly, and the result was always devastating.
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The spell washed over the scorpions who stuttered but didn’t stop advancing. Marcy was there then, firing arrows one after the other, and their combination quickly killed the two monsters.
On the other side of the room, John stepped forward and faced the two monsters alone as the familiar aura flared up on his body and he summoned his greatsword.
Wyn stood with Tasha to study the statues. The enemies likely wouldn’t be easy for long, and they needed to take every second possible to figure out the puzzle.
“We definitely need to rotate them,” Wyn said. He glanced back at the pedestal that had four bars surrounding it. He was reminded of the mushroom caves on the second floor of his very first climb and a possible solution popped into his head. “The bars trapping the pedestal likely will be released one by one. Which means each statue should have its own correct place, rather than all at once.”
“So let’s rotate the first one to see if it works!”
Wyn moved to one of the wooden handles and began to push it. It was incredibly stout, and he felt his body tense as he tried to rotate the statue. Finding purchase on the stone floor, the pillar began to slowly move, though it took about five seconds for it to only rotate a quarter of the way around.
John could likely move these without much trouble. He’d be needed, too, if they were going to move a lot of them. With his shared aura they all could be enhanced with strength and move them far easier, but without it Wyn was struggling.
It was a giant stone pillar, after all.
Pushing his body, Wyn felt the giant stone settle into place from one small turn. The symbol on the pillar facing the pedestal was now a tree. As nothing happened, Wyn started to rotate it again.
The crystals began to slowly increase their glow. When the monsters in the room died, they stopped glowing, turning dull and inert.
“The downtime between waves is going to be very low,” Marcy said.
Wyn began turning the pillar again as he heard more chittering, arrows flying, spells being cast, and John’s sword cleaving monster flesh.
The pillar stopped on the water symbol when it fell into place next, and the braziers flashed their flames for a moment in response. One of the bars around the pedestal lowered.
“Got it!” Wyn said. He and Tasha moved to the second one. On the way, he saw that there were now six total monsters in the room, three from either crystal. If they kept that pattern, it would be minutes before a dozen or more came with each wave and that would overrun them quickly.
Wyn took a deep breath and grabbed a handle on the second pillar. He trusted his friends to handle the monsters. If they needed help, they’d ask.
Rotating it to the next spot wasn’t as easy as the first pillar. His arms protested and his back strained from trying to move the stone pillar. But, he was able to move it, and now the tree symbol appear again. Nothing happened.
“I might need to trade off,” Wyn said, his arms and legs already straining from the effort.
Tasha nodded. “John, you’re up!”
John hacked a scorpion in half, then made his sword disappear in a magical flash. He jogged over to the second pillar. “Just tell me what you need!”
Wyn moved to take John’s place as he shook out his limbs. He used a charge from his necklace and cast Web, then added a Siphon on top of it. While John could brute force through the monsters, Wyn’s approach was a bit more reserved.
The lull before the next wave was worse than the actual monsters. John ground away at the pillar behind him, and he heard Tasha give more directions. The second bar never budged before the next wave came.
Four scorpions popped into the air and immediately fell into Wyn’s traps. They struggled against the magical webbing while a dark aura surrounded all of them, draining their health while Wyn recovered his own mana. He moved forward and began killing them one by one while they were restrained.
“Wait,” Marcy called from across the room.
Wyn was about to strike the fourth and final monster when he stopped. Marcy trotted up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Keep it alive. Tasha has an idea for the puzzle and we might have it figured out.”
“It’ll only last another minute or so,” Wyn said. “What is it?”
Marcy pointed to the hallway where Cedric was running into. “She thinks the mural’s order is the order of the pillars. Cedric is checking it.”
“You’re right!” Cedric suddenly yelled. “The second is the wind symbol, the third is the tree, and the fourth is the scorpion!”
Wyn chuckled to himself. Was it really that easy?
Wyn and Marcy looked at each other with amused grins as he realized she had the same thought.
“I’ll get the third pillar,” Wyn said.
“I got the fourth,” Marcy said at the same time.
Wyn moved to the third pillar when the braziers once again flared in response as the second pillar was correctly placed. Another bar lowered surrounding the pedestal.
“I’ll head to the fourth with Marcy!” John yelled. He had his Saint Aura active, obvious by the fact that as he passed by, the others gained the same red- and orange-colored auras.
Wyn was at the third pillar and checked the side facing the pedestal. He needed to rotate it two times to have the tree symbol. Planting his feet, he started pushing and found it far easier to move with the aura enhancing his strength. Unfortunately, the moment he started moving it the crystals flared in intensity despite the lone scorpion still struggling against the magical traps.
“Shit,” Wyn cursed.
“Keep going!” Tasha said. “Cedric and I can hold them!”
Immediately ten scorpions dropped into the room. Some had two stingers instead of one, and others had four pincers instead of two. It was obvious they were stronger versions of the weak monsters.
Wyn wanted to let go of the pillar and fight them but knew he needed to finish his task. He was nearly done rotating it and could help when finished, and had a hunch both Marcy and John were nearly done, too.
Cedric raised his scepter and pointed it to the left grouping of scorpions. “Lightning storm!”
A grey cloud formed in the air above the monsters, nearly to the ceiling, and streaks of yellow light rumbled through it. Water began to pour from the cloud like a secluded rainfall, quickly followed by lightning strikes hitting the scorpions before bouncing to the others in a chain reaction. Each individual pings of lightning passed through the group easily, and the storm cloud created strikes constantly.
It was a powerful tier three spell that functioned as a sort of trap, strong damaging area of effect, and chain reaction spell all in one. It was also incredibly powerful as Cedric’s Storm Sage class boosted the effect by a major margin due to the inherent nature of the spell.
On the other side, Tasha held off the first few scorpions with a wide arc of magical orange light that seared and cut like a concentrated flame. Using the power of her Invoker class, she channeled the power of her selected Callings. One of her most popular ones she carried each month was a celestial angel that was able to both damage with magical light and heal with that same light. Allies caught in the radiant light were healed while enemies were scorched as though from the very heavens above. She floated in the air on translucent wings also gained from the Calling, and began firing horizontal beams of the light in rapid succession, hitting the scorpions two or three at a time.
Wyn finally settled the stone pillar in place before summoning his weapon, ready to fight. Several spells stopped at his lips until he knew the situation they were in.
Looking around the room, he saw no enemies.
“What happened?” Wyn asked.
Marcy held her bow casually in her left hand and smirked. “We killed the monsters and solved the puzzle. What do you think happened?”
“Well… I thought there would be at least something!”
Marcy laughed. “This is a secret room on the fourth floor. We’re tier three Climbers, now. It’s not that serious of a challenge for us.”
The braziers around the pedestal increased their flames, and the color changed to a beautiful silver hue. The fires bellowed before going out, leaving the room lit only by Tasha’s three orbs of light.
That was odd. They hadn’t encountered that before.
The pedestal suddenly glowed with the same silver light, getting so bright that Wyn had to shield his eyes and look away. He noticed were doing the same, avoiding the strange light. As quickly as it came, the light dimmed and vanished, and all was left was a single item on the stone altar.
Everyone walked up to it, eager to see. Wyn could hardly contain his excitement as a familiar item rested on the pedestal. It wasn’t an exact copy, only similar to the first two they found. The shape was slightly off as though the jagged edges were broken, but the color, stony appearance, and size were all the same. There was no doubt in his mind they were related.
“That’s certainly interesting,” Cedric said, bending over to look closer.
Wyn watched as John reached out and grabbed the stone tablet. He had to use both hands to grab it as it was the size of a large book and solid stone, more unwieldy than heavy. Rectangular and flat, it looked like a small stack of parchments from the tower was solidified into rock, then the edges and sides chipped, cracked, or broke off over years and years. The other two the group possessed were incredibly heavy and similarly chipped and jagged, and this one looked to be the same.
Still, it carried the same silver aura as the other two. It was obviously magical but how was unknown.
“Just like the others,” Tasha whispered. She ran a hand over the smooth surface of the stone. “I can’t feel a thing.”
Wyn reached down and shook his Mushroom Lantern. He cast a dim green glow, covering them and the room in emerald light.
Tasha gasped. John laughed.
Wyn’s excitement doubled. The light revealed runes on the stone tablet formed in a different layout than the ones they owned. It was circular and rounded in five layers, with smaller runes set between each curved line.
Reading them, it didn’t make much sense. Wyn saw the words he was used to seeing on parchments, like “magic”, “space”, “power”, and other generic words that went along with people’s marks.
The possibilities for what it was were truly endless.
But something in the shape looked familiar to him. Like the first tablet they found.
“Just like the others,” Cedric said, repeating Tasha’s words. “Does it look like it could fit alongside the first one we found?”
“Wyn, what does it say?” Marcy asked.
Wyn shook his head. They all had so many questions, himself included. They needed to sit down and review it. Safely. “Not here. Let’s take it back and get it with the others. I think we need to figure out what this means.”
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