บท 47: The road not taken
"Ok, that was weird," Blue said, staring at where Bonnie was a second ago.
"Yeah, shouldn't that thing be brighter?" Leo asked.
"Really? That's your problem with that? Not the fact that it was like inverted hatching," Mark huffed.
Hera stared at Mark for a moment.
"Holy crap, you are right. It looked like she was going back to the egg!" she exclaimed.
The group laughed a bit and took a few minutes to rest. They used the table to block the hallway and made it sure to be sitting facing outside.
Resting, they tried to talk about something to ease the tension. But each noise coming from the hallway made them even tenser.
"You know. If this were a movie, we would be the guys in the intro that seem to survive but die when something comes from the walls or something like that," Mark commented.
The rest of the group stared at him for a second and quickly got up, moving towards the exit.
"Nope, nope, nope. After that I'm not staying here," Alex said, pushing the table out of the way.
"That's worse than saying 'at least it can't get any worse'. What is the matter with you?" Blue asked, moving towards the door.
"Mark, even if you have a skill you really need to tone it down," Hera said, staying right behind Blue.
"I'm just talking about movies!" Mark said.
While they passed the corpse of the skeletons Hera couldn't help but stare at the pile that once was the aberration
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Skeleton Aberration (Simulation) - Remains
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"Did anyone try to inspect these?" Hera asked, pointing towards the bones.
The group shook their heads.
"I didn't have time to stop and inspect them. Do you think that could have helped?" Leo asked.
"I don't know, but I don't think it hurts to try," Hera said.
She stared at one of the skulls and activated her [Inspect].
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Skeleton Aberration (Simulation)
Humanoid - Undead - Manufactured
A malformed amalgamation of bones that came together due to long exposure to the elements. It can also have been handmade in a laboratory. Its claw is used to cut and maim its enemies while the arms are used to crush them.
These creatures are created by a powerful being and will follow its commands unless the core of the creature is destroyed. If the creator is dead, the creature will wander around aimlessly attacking anything in sight.
A skeleton without a master is little more than a feral beast. But in the presence of a leader, it becomes a cunning enemy.
Weak to blunt attacks and magic attacks that have the opposite element of its creator.
The version created by the simulation is weaker than the ones that exist inside the MAZE.
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Hera told her friends what the skill said.
"Ok, if that thing was smarter we would have been dead. Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean," Leo said, surprised with the information.
"The other ones are pretty much the same, aside from the created in a lab part," Mark said.
The group had run out of options in this place. They had no way to go to the upper floors, and aside from the wooden door that leads to the chalice room, there was only the path they took to get here.
It took them a bit less than twenty minutes to go back. Knowing the path and having a smaller party helped a lot.
Reaching the room they started at, the recruits investigated the remaining path. After a corridor with the same dark and appearance there was a small stone door. When they opened it the connected hallway had a completely different feeling. Unlike the one they took before, it was wide, and well kept. It didn't look like the corridor of a prison but the hallway of a castle.
"Quick question, if those things were the prisoners. Does that mean that whatever put them there can be stronger?" Hera asked.
The group stared at her for a moment before understanding the meaning of what the woman just asked.
"Crap, we should have a full party here, right?" Blue asked.
"Probably, but we'll have to make do. Stay low and don't make any noise," Leo commanded.
The five nodded and activated their [Hide] skill. Moving slowly through the hallway, Hera kept looking around. She noticed the tapestries on the wall picturing open flower fields and blue shores. A few candelabra were embedded on the walls, and the candles lit.
"This is too weird. Why would undead be in a place like this?" Hera asked,
"I know, right? This is too nice." Blue replied, staring at the tapestry.
"Guys, be quiet," Leo said.
They kept going through different hallways, each of them had a beautiful tapestry of a landscape. Forests, mountains, meadows, beaches, and lakes. Each one was more ornate and detailed than the last.
"OK, what the actual hell? We've been walking for almost half an hour and we only see these things. No markings, no noise, just tapestry. It's starting to freak me out," Mark said.
"I know it's all so weird. Do you think the undead weren't supposed to be here?" Leo asked.
"I don't know, but honestly. This is getting boring," Blue commented.
"Blue, I get that, but what if this was the real deal? We could die at any moment," Hera said.
"But it's not. Why pretend it is real?" Blue scoffed.
The group kept talking while explored the area. Hera kept noticing a symbol on the edge of the tapestries. It was a pair of waves crashing into each other, forming a shape that resembled a crown. It's placement varied, but it was always in one corner.
Hera was trying to find any sort of hint about what they needed to do through the tapestries since they were the only thing that changed. In one of them, Hera noticed that the symbol seemed different. It blended with the background in a way that an olive branch split the middle of the makeshift crown.
After about one hour of walking, the group reached a large entrance. Double doors went all the way to the 5 meters ceiling adorned with ocean-themed carvings and a pair of sea turtles in the middle. The last thing the recruits noticed was that the door had a small opening.
The group stared at the door, and before anyone could say anything. Alex activated her [Hide] skill and quietly moved towards the opening.
She peeked her head inside and saw twenty skeletons in the middle of a large hall that looked like a ballroom. Some torches flickered with a low light, giving the entire area an orange hue. However, the biggest problem was the skeleton sitting on the floor on the other side of the room. Even while sitting, the creature almost hit the ceiling, but she wasn't able to see its face. A pair of big brass chandeliers were in the way. The skeleton also had some sort of heavy silver armor.
Behind it, there was a long dinner table, and Alex was able to see a few golden glimmers coming from it.
Explaining the situation for the group, Alex suggested that they each took turns looking inside to understand what was going on. One by one the recruits looked inside the room, each of them coming back with a grim expression with Hera being the last one to go.
When Hera peeked inside, she saw the same twenty or so undead, and the big one in the back. Activating her [Observe] the 20 skeletons all had the same name as the one she fought before. However, the one in the back caught her attention.
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King Gwendelan (Illusion)
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The king was not a skeleton, nor it was appearing as a simulation. Could that be just a decoy?
She shuffled back to the group.
"… if we do a hit and run, I think we can drag this fight all the way back to when the hallway gets smaller," Leo suggested.
"But it's going to take a while to get there, we will run like hell for a long time. Shouldn't we find a closer place?" Mark asked.
"The problem is the big guy, if he can't pass these doors we will be fine. But what if it can?" Blue said.
"There is one other thing if the big guy is a leader, wouldn't that make the skeletons stronger?" Alex asked.
The group stared at her for a moment. Before letting out a lengthy sigh. They had completely forgotten about that.
"Guys, I'm not sure the big skeleton is a thing," Hera chimed in.
The group stared at her with puzzled expressions.
"Didn't your observe show the name? It says nothing about being a skeleton or a simulation. It is calling it an illusion."
"Wait, your observe could reach that far?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, I've been practicing it since we got it. I think the range increased, but it's still rank two. Anyway, the big guy has a different name, and it's marked as an illusion. The little guys are the problem, but maybe we can use the chandeliers," Hera suggested.
"How?" Mark asked.
Explaining her plan, the group reluctantly agreed to it. It all came down to the big guy being a fake. If it wasn't, they would have a colossal problem on their hands. But Hera made a convincing argument about the test having to be beatable. The guild wouldn't make something impossible to finish for a bunch of recruits.
Hera and Alex activated their [Hide] skill and went inside the ballroom first. While the other three stayed right by the door, waiting to hear the signal. Hera pointed to the chandeliers and then to the chain holding them in place. They would need to split up to break them at the same time.
The skeletons in the middle of the room were all staring at the big one, unmoving. The recruits walked quietly towards the sides of the room. Being careful not to make any noise or sudden movements. The chains weren't exactly in the middle of the room as Hera hoped. To reach them, the two would need to pass the skeletons a bit. That was risky, Hera had no idea how wide their vision was, or if they even could see.
She got closer to the chain, moving as quietly as she could. Reaching her target, Hera looked back, trying to see if Alex was ready to go. The woman was already there. They gave each other a signal and proceeded to remove the chains.
The chains were wrapped around a big metal clasp. To remove it, Hera had to unwrap it without making any noise. The two recruits carefully worked on the chain, being mindful of the noise not to attract the skeleton's attention. After some time, the chain Hera was working on weighed heavily on her hands. It was getting harder and harder to hold it in place. She was almost done when the chain escaped her grasp and fell to the ground, making a loud noise with the impact.
Shocked, Hera looked at the skeletons, all of them facing her at the moment. Panicked, she keeps trying to remove the rest of the chain but it got jumbled up on the floor making it harder to move it around. Looking back, she saw the skeletons slowly advancing.
Hera focused on the chain, trying to remove it when an even louder noise comes from the middle of the room. Terrified the big one was moving, Hera turned her head towards the skeletons and saw that a chandelier had just fallen in the middle of the group. Destroying almost half of the skeletons with the impact.
With the noise, Leo, Blue, and Mark rushed inside. Some skeletons noticed the movement and walked towards the recent arrivals. Grabbing the bundle for chain, Hera freed the second chandelier, making it fall into the ground. Sadly, because of the timing, the impact only destroyed four skeletons. Leaving the remaining seven for the group to deal with.
Hera rushed back to her group. Being surrounded by enemies wasn't a good idea. Luckily, in a big open room, they could maneuver around the skeletons. In a few minutes, the five recruits had defeated the surviving monsters. The giant skeleton remained still during the entire time.
They walked towards the tables in the back of the room. Hera and her friends stared at the big skeleton, being careful with each step they took. The giant had some cracks on its skull and a crown that looked like a pair of waves crashing at each other. The armor was adorned with a sea themed ornaments, including a pair of sea turtles on the shoulders.
When they got closet to the giant skeleton a notification appeared.
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Hidden task completed
Gwendelan's mission
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