章節 3: Baby Steps

Frost opened the wooden door revealing a unique hallway. The floor had black and white tiles arranged in a random pattern throughout the length of the hallway. The hall was around 30 feet long, with 2-foot Gargoyle statues attached to the wall every five feet on both sides. The statues held miniature torches that lit up as soon as the door was opened.

Huffy was about to step into the hall, but Frost stopped him. "Wait! Look closely at the walls, this room is full of traps. "

Upon closer inspection, the group saw tiny holes in the walls which could produce any number of deadly objects.

Frost continued, "Look! Upon the far wall, there is a box. It could be the mechanism to disable the trap, or it could be a decoy. I don't know how I know this, I just do. "

The box he spoke of, was barely visible in the dim lighting. It was attached to the wall next to a wooden door.

"Hmm, I could use Telekinesis and move the box? " Phil offered.

Frost shook his head, "No, you have a limited amount of magic. Save your spells, I got this. "

Before anyone could respond, the small brown halfling rogue skipped into the room. His steps were confident as he danced across the tiles, taking care to only step upon the white tiles.

The others braced for the sound of traps going off, but they never came. The halfling continued across the room following his pre-defined path. After traveling 25 feet through the hall, he stopped next to one of the gargoyle statues. He fiddled with it until the sound of a soft 'click' could be heard and the statue swung outward.

Frost pulled out his thieves tools and accessed a control panel behind the statue. His actions were quick, concise and confident.

After a few minutes, a strange grinding and powering down sound could be heard.

"Alright, were clear! You guys can come in now." Frost called out as he walked confidently into the middle of the hallway.

"Whew! That was impressive, little Mexican. " Phil said while performing a golf clap.

"I told you to call me Frost," Eric replied coldly.

"You can't expect me to remember that.." Phil stated with disbelief.

"How did you figure it out?" Drew asked Frost, ignoring his brother.

"Well, since the box at the end was most likely a fake I figured it was behind one of the statues. This statue is the only one with a white tile in front of it. I backtracked it and found a path. " Frost replied calmly.

"Nice, how did you disable the trap?" Huffy asked.

"It's weird, it's not like a game. I understand what I'm doing somehow, like muscle memory that I have not worked for. Yet I also feel as though I have done this many times. "

Frost replied thoughtfully.

"Interesting. This must be the case for everyone then, but towards our respective classes. " Drew said as he joined Frost in the Hall-way.

The others followed suit and entered as well, moving to stand next to Frost at the end of the hall.

"Yeah I feel like I can cast spells even though I havent yet. We should find out though. Cmon just let me cast one spell! " Phil implored.

"No." Frost said with a cold finality.

" But since I was a wee boy I dreamed of being a wizard. " Phil said with a British accent.

"No." Frost replied as he checked the wooden door for traps. Finding none he turned the handle and opened the door to the next room.

"Don't worry, you will get your chance. "

The room was dimly lit by some unknown source embedded into small holes in the domed ceiling. It was large and circular with 12 goblin statues arranged in a circle facing a pedestal. Upon the pedestal rested a smooth ball, made of some sort of crystal or precious stone.

As soon as the door opened, the crystal ball began to produce black lightning upon its surface that crackled and sparked with a furious fervor.

"Phil! What did you do!" Tabby yelled at Phil.

"How did I do something?!" Phil exclaimed in frustration.

The black energy struck out at the goblin statues surrounding it, surging between them like chain lightning. The stone began to fall off the statues with every strike, revealing green skin beneath.

The statues began to move and shed more stone, becoming very real goblins.

The five-foot-tall monsters had tough green skin and wore simple fur armor that covered only a portion of their bodies. They each held various crude weapons such as the spear, dagger or club, all of terrible quality.

"Well, you got your wish, Phil. " Frost said as he drew his crossbow and expertly fitted a bolt, instantly readying his weapon.

"Its time to use some magic."