Chương 14: A Shifting Puzzle

"Peeper?" Oscar asked incredulously.

"I'm supposed to be scared of something called Peeper?" Calus gave him a look that said he was serious. He still felt like he was being messed with, but he voice any further doubts. Might as well go along with it.

"And how do you know that this dungeon is the one that has this… Peeper in it?" Oscar asked.

"Because I helped create it, you fool," Calus replied.

"And no, I won't help you navigate this place either. I know what I said about you staying alive was in my best interest… but that was before I figured out where you were. Do you know how long it's been since I've had any form of entertainment? You haven't shown yourself to be so special to deny myself this, but perhaps my attitude shall change later."

"So now if I die, it's suddenly okay because you'll have been entertained?" Oscar said.

"And what do you mean you helped create this dungeon?" Calus walked over to a wall and pointed up towards a crack in the ceiling.

"These holes aren't the result of natural degradation. I planned each and every one, and I cannot wait to see your face when you see just what I've done." He returned back to Oscar, bending his lanky frame over until his uncanny face was hovering over him.

"I suppose I can give you one hint about this place though… you cannot begin to see the way out until you've gone blind."

"Right… I'll keep that in mind," Oscar said as he slowly backed away from Calus.

"There's only one path forwards and I don't think Gita or Bruno will be making the drop down themselves, so…onward I go, I guess."

"Even if they were to drop, there's no promise they'd have landed with you. This place is an ever shifting puzzle that shifts based off— ah, I've given another hint, haven't I? I think I'll take my leave and watch from afar lest another secret spills out from me," Calus said. Despite hating the man, Oscar frantically turned around, ready to beg for him to stay so that he wouldn't be alone… but Calus had already vanished. He knew that Calus was still around, but that mattered little when he couldn't see him.

It was likely that he'd reappear when something significant happened though. That was immensely worrisome in itself of course. What sort of dungeon would Calus create? Oscar knew he was an evil being, but there's a lot of different forms of evil in the world. Would it be like Dorian and that warped dancer but a million times worse? If he had to guess, then he'd say that's probably too simple for a man such as Calus.

"Only one way to find out, I suppose," Oscar said to himself. The path ahead was one full of twists and turns and at times it felt like he was climbing up vast hills only to then descend them right after. As a result, he couldn't tell if he was climbing back up to Bruno and Gita's floor, or if he was going even deeper towards the heart of the dungeon. Finally, after what felt like hours of mindless walking, Oscar stumbled upon a four-way intersection.

There was no way he was going to go straight anymore, and the lights on the east path were out… so west it was. The longer time passed without anything happening, the more he dreaded whatever was lurking within these walls. But he also knew that something was coming. A dungeon created by Calus wouldn't let him freely explore without interruption. The moment he took his first step in the west path a scream assaulted his ears. It was such a sharp shriek that he was forced to cover his ears.

The scream felt like it was right next to him somehow. Once the scream died down, Oscar heard a boys voice whisper for help. And truthfully, he didn't want to help, but even still, he took off running down the pathway. It was only a little bit more of running until Oscar stumbled upon a spacious chamber. There was a boy, perhaps around Oscar's age, that was sat atop a damaged pillar. He was weakly swatting down at four strange looking spiders with… a bow?

The spiders were fucking huge, but that wasn't what gave Oscar pause. Their skinny legs were long, giving them an amount of height that shouldn't be possible for the disgusting insects. Their back was mostly flat, aside from a bulbous sack directly in the middle. On the back of the sack there was some sort of tube like organ which connected to floppy looking tail. He was ashamed to admit it, but he just watched for a moment.

Too scared to swoop in and be the immediate hero, it wasn't until the freaky spider's bulbous sack began to pulsate and send vibrations down towards its tail that he activated his skill.

"[Malleable Shadow: Essence of Spear]," Oscar uttered as his shadow crawled it's way up his body, until finally creating a lengthy spear in his hands. Not wanting to be too close to the spiders, he opted to trying a spear again.

"I'm here to help! Don't worry, I've got this!" he called out, not convinced himself. The spiders all reared around to address the intruder. The one that had been doing the weird shit with its sack aimed its tail at Oscar and spewed something very bright his way. [Lesser Dexterity] granted him the grace he needed to dodge the projectile. Look back to see just what it was that it had launched at him, he saw it was silk.

The fine strands webbed themselves around where it had landed, but what was the most terrifying was how they seemed to be melting the stone wall with immense ease.

"Oh, fuck all the way off," Oscar cursed, then launched himself towards the nearest spider. Jabbing his shadow spear forwards, he got lucky and snagged one of the spiders straight through it's face. As dangerous as they seemed to be, they lacked finesse. Or maybe he'd just gotten lucky. Regardless, that was one down and only three remained. One of the spiders reared back, displaying it's crude fangs at him and hissing loudly.

It's fangs began to heat up, and were it not so damn scary, he might have said it looked beautiful. He went to stab at it, but the monster jumped and landed on top of his spear. The spider wrapped it's lanky legs around the spear and bit the weapon. Of course nothing happened to the spear, and upon the spider realizing something was amiss, it was too late. Quickly dismissing his creation, he formed another and brought the new spear down onto the fallen spider, skewering the insect.

The other two offered resistance as well, but aside from their scorching hot silk and bite, they didn't pose all too much of a threat. Once all the spiders were dead, Oscar looked up and addressed the person he'd saved. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"It's okay, you can come down now. It's safe," Oscar said.

"I'm Oscar, who are you and how did you end up in here?" With shaky hands the boy climbed down from the pillar.

"D-Dan…I came here with my sister Emily. I'm s-sorry, I don't do well with… spiders." Oscar did his best to give a reassuring laugh, but it felt quite hollow, he thought.

"Can't fault you on that. Those sure are some nasty looking spiders."

"Searsilk spiders aren't common in this part of the world, I thought," Dan said.

"Emily and I have a bad past with them. As pathetic as it might sound… part of the reason that we came to this part of the world was just to get away from them. Spending all this time in the dark, I had been thinking back to old nightmares of seeing their bright backs igniting. And then it fucking happened. Crazy shit, no?" Oscar nodded, thinking that seemed both immensely dramatic but also unlucky to have encountered the spiders regardless.

Now that Dan had calmed down, he could see the bow on his back and a quiver chocked full of arrows. Just how afraid was he to not even try and pick those spiders off from above?

"Why are you here, though?" Oscar asked again.

"Oh, right… Emily and I came here looking for our friend, Dorian. We've been staying in his village for a few months now while we plan our next move. We've become quite close with him, so there was no way we could just move on and forget," Dan said, making Oscar almost choke on his spit in surprise.

"He often retreated to this Ironrose tree to seek inspiration when he was in a slump. Dorian has been gone for over a week… maybe close to two now? While not uncommon for him to be away for awhile, it's strange that he hasn't sent a message to us."

"My group and I found that tree as well," Oscar said, but didn't comment on Dorian's fate.

"Did you and Emily also find that strange archway?" Dan shuddered at the mention of the archway, confirming they both went through the same one.

"Yeah, it seemingly just popped in as we got closer to the tree. I told Emily we should head back and report it… but she has a crush on Dorian, so… here I am."

"I came in with two others but you know that chamber near the entrance with the hole and water stream? It collapsed and I… you look confused. Where did I lose you?"

"We didn't come across a room like that. Truth be told, I don't even know how the two of us lost one another," Dan said.

"We were cautiously progressing through the halls — these strange lights weren't on at the time — and one moment she was behind me, the next she wasn't. I walked back the way we came to see what had happened, but I hit a dead end somehow. Emily was just… gone." Calus had mentioned this place was like a puzzle that shifts, but surely it wasn't actually moving with them in it. Aside from the fall, Oscar hadn't felt anything abnormal about this place. He also couldn't fully discredit Dan either.

Something about his story felt genuine.

"I see you have a bow, are you an [Archer]?" Oscar asked, changing the topic.

"Yep, apart of Dandelion's local guard force for the time being. Emily is something of a [Mage], but still needs a lot of practice," Dan said, then shifted his gaze downwards and kicked at a rock.

"Do you perhaps want to work together to escape? I know you've got your people to look for, but I think we can do more if we are together." Oscar flashed him a smile and stuck his hand out. The two shook on it, and just like that, he was saved from isolation once more. With a new companion by his side, they discussed with path to take next, and began to make their way out of the chamber.

"Do you think I could kill him? This place is just so full of… what did that oaf you're with call it again? Oh, right, corruption," Calus said mockingly, startling Oscar as he spontaneously appeared in front of Dan.

"There's so much corruption here that I feel as if I can do anything I please. Or does that pesky rule still forbid me from interacting with anyone in Torralgia, despite where we are. I'll continue to observe, but should I get bored… I think I'll test my shackles integrity." Once more Calus poofed away. Oscar had been paralyzed in fear at the sudden appearance, but did his best to return to normal as Dan turned around in confusion at the hold up.

Apparently he hadn't seen Calus, so that restored some security within him.

"Are you okay, Oscar? You look like you just saw a ghost," Dan said. Oscar let out a brief chuckle and jogged up to where Dan was.

"Sorry, I thought I heard something. I was wrong, though, let's get going." There was something else that Oscar was feeling. Though Calus had left, he still felt as if something was watching him. Chalking it up to another lurking spider or something, he pushed it out of his mind. There was too much to consider to be paranoid about someone spying on him. Likely it was just Calus fucking with him somehow anyway.

Bruno laughed as he watched Gita frantically pour a healing potion over her burn. She'd gotten lucky with the searsilk's fang only grazing her thigh, but even still, it had to hurt something fierce. If he were to be serious about her performance though, he'd say she'd done quite well for being classless. She was packing more of a punch with the cestus on her hands. Most likely she'd receive the [Martial Artist] class. Which was a solid combat class, and it also had a good amount of potential evolutions as well.

Turning his focus back to the girl they'd saved, Bruno reached into his satchel and pulled out a half-eaten loaf of bread.

"Girl, take it. You look famished." Gingerly, Emily snatched the loaf away and damn near devoured it in one bite.

"Thanks…" she said, and wiped crumbs off her face.

"Have you two seen my brother? Or my friend, Dorian?"

"Nope, we just arrived not too long ago. We also got split up with someone we came in with as well," Bruno replied.

"How long have you been in this dungeon?"

"Uh…a day or two? It's hard to keep track, but I that seems about right," Emily said.

"Who are you two? Hopefully you're both strong. I don't need anyone weak slowing me down." Gita returned and just gave her a harsh stare.

"And you think that you're strong?" Emily snorted and rolled her eyes at Gita.

"Uh, duh. I'm a level 12 [Mage] after all."

"A level 12 [Mage] that can't kill four searsilks?" Bruno asked.

"Be honest with us, what are you really?"

"I was out of mana. If you don't believe me about my level, that's fine," Emily said, turning away from them.

"I have people to save. And while I would've eventually killed those pests myself, I'll be the bigger person and say… thank you for your not asked for assistance."

"Gita, looks like we found a bigger bitch than you," Bruno said. Somehow Gita didn't get mad at that.

"Yeah, I'm inclined to agree." Then to his surprise she said, "But having another strong girl on the team could be exciting, and she's so pretty as well." A fake smile followed, which told Bruno all he needed to know about what was happening. Emily preened at that, oblivious to Gita's true feelings, and offered a slight bow.

"Emily Rothcrest, a pleasure to meet you."

"Gita Basu, and that old bum is Bruno… something," Gita said. Her eyes suddenly lit up and a smirk appeared.

"You mentioned a Dorian? Did I hear that right?" Emily perked up at the name.

"Yes! I did! Have you seen him?"

"Yup. We saw him alright," Gita replied. Bruno could feel what was coming, but he chose not to stop it. Despite what Gita said about liking Emily, she looked to have found a way to reclaim her crown for being the biggest bitch in this dungeon.

"Do tell! Is he okay? Can you take me to him?" Emily asked, her voice becoming increasingly frantic. Gita looked over at Bruno, hesitation clear on her face. Was she actually thinking about being considerate? In their short time together, he'd learned that if there was one thing Gita didn't do, then it'd be spare feelings. But maybe she was trying to work on that.

"Dorian's dead. Our friend, Oscar, killed him because he was a psychopath terrorizing the town of Ascot," Gita said. Emily's eye twitched, both grief and anger purchasing land on her face.

"H-He's dead? You lie!"

"I'm sure he was a good person when you knew him, but we think this place warped—""[Wind Punch]!" Emily shouted, summoning forth a gust of wind that slammed across Gita's face. Gita crumpled to the ground, instantly knocked out from the impact. On the bright side, while this hadn't been the moment of self improvement for her that Bruno had hoped for, he felt confident that she wouldn't make this mistake again. Then again, this was Gita... Emily turned her ire towards Bruno next.

He flashed up both of his palms to try and show he wasn't a threat to her.

"I don't suppose another portion of bread would calm you down, would it?" It didn't.