by Nikita Thorn
“What is this thing?” said Seiki, as he drew his Hikari, making a face at the idea of his blade cutting through gluey bones.
“You rang the bell, you summoned it, so it’s coming after you now,” said Mitsue, gleefully. “That man you saw down there had been following our activities for a while. Now by the time he gets up here, you’ll be dead and I’ll be gone with the treasure. And he would think the treasure had perished with you.”
“That’s exactly the same plan you tried to use last time,” Seiki pointed out, still eyeing the disgusting creature and slowly moving backward away from it as he gauged what it could do.
Noderabou [Level 14]. HP 1075/1075.
The melting creature was not very fast, but it flowed like slime mold on the floor toward him—the front of it protruding as if it was an extended arm. As it got closer, the Noderabou opened its mouth and let out a hair-raising tormented groan, which seemed to make the bronze bell vibrate in resonance.
“It obviously didn’t work last time, ronin-san,” said Mitsue. “But this time, it will. Nothing personal, though. I hope you understand.”
“You said that too, last time.” Seiki tightened his grip on his sword. The limited space between the bell and the wall was not even wide enough for Sweeping Blade. Yet, Seiki was determined to use it, since it had a real knock back, and he did not like the thing anywhere near him.
Stepping out with his right foot, he went low and aimed his Hikari to pass under the bottom of the bell. As the blade struck the melting creature, he felt like it was cutting through slimy rubber, some of which splattered against the opposite wall in a manner both horrifying and fascinating at the same time. His sword hit elastic resistance and could not completely slice through. Seiki could note that from the middle of the creature’s back was a long sinewy thread that linked it to the middle of the bell.
The creature’s head, on the other hand, did not seem to be connected to anything. It dropped into its own pool of white and brown slime, its eyes, bulging out of non-existent sockets still staring at him as it let out another long agonizing groan.
Noderabou [Level 14]. HP 906/1075.
Seiki had expected it to form back into itself, but it simply started oozing on the floor toward him like an overflowing pot of soup, forcing him to back away in alarm before it could reach his feet.
Mitsue let out a little squeal as the slime almost touched her. “Ronin-san, can’t you keep that thing occupied for a bit?” She jumped back into a safe area and continued to glance around, muttering, “It’s definitely here. The four-storied bell. This is the one.”
The head started to rise again, supported by the liquid body. And when its arm stretched out toward Seiki, the ronin hit it with another Sweeping Blade to keep it off him.
Mitsue was murmuring something to herself, “The four-storied bell. North, southeast, northwest and south. Eight below temple.” She let out a sigh. “Maybe it’s below the temple?”
Seiki retreated around the bell as the creature oozed out, asking himself if he would dream of half-melted lifeless eyes tonight.
“Eight below temple.” Mitsue pondered. “What could it mean?”
Seiki guessed what she was talking about. “It’s a puzzle poem.” And he put two and two together. “You’re actually teaching me how to do a puzzle poem right now.”
He had accidentally accomplished one already, which was how he had obtained Fubuki, but perhaps this was how the game clued people in about the concept. It would make sense that a few levels later they would introduce a more complicated version that hinted at even better rewards with Iyo’s quest.
The creature’s head was slowing traveling along the ooze toward Seiki, and he became conscious he had nothing to deal with enemies on the ground. He had to wait for it to rise up, so he took a few more steps back around the bell.
“What do you think it means?” asked Mitsue.
Seiki figured he had to solve this as part of the encounter but, before he could properly think about it, something dropped down on his left shoulder, hissed and seared his skin like hot oil, before sliding off onto the floor. His left arm lost its feeling and Seiki let out a cry in disgust as he realized it was part of the creature’s melting ooze that had been splashed onto the wall. The tiny pool of white and red and bronze that never quite mixed made its way back to join the creature. Seiki glanced around in enthralled horror as he found that there were now droplets of the Noderabou stuck on various parts of the wall, ready to drop on him whenever he got too near.
“Eight below temple,” said Mitsue again.
Another patch of slime detached itself from the wall, and Seiki stepped away from it. But there were too many of them, and suddenly something burned the back of his calf and Seiki could hear it sizzle as it ate away part of his hakama.
“Eight below temple,” repeated Mitsue.
“I can’t fight and think at the same time,” said Seiki, as the creature was now towering up again with outstretched arm-like protrusions in front of it. He could still not feel his left arm, and his right leg was also losing its sensation. On top of this, a fifth of his health was gone without him even noticing until now.
Noderabou [Level 14]. HP 728/1075.
He chose to hit the creature with Focused Strike this time around, to avoid it splashing more. But it simply tried to swallow his Hikari, and Seiki had to yank his sword back, and he grunted as his right foot also went numb when he was assaulted by an army of slime puddles that were attempting to rejoin the creature.
It was a different kind of numb, unlike the feeling of plunging your hand into a bucket of ice that he usually felt when cut by a weapon. This kind of numb felt so completely “empty” that he had to glance at his limbs to make sure they were still there.
Noderabou [Level 14]. HP 479/1075.
“Ronin-san,” said Mitsue, getting impatient.
“Okay, okay,” said Seiki, somehow not surprised that they would have him do two things at the same time. “Eight below temple.” The walls were covered with bits of the melting slime, and there was no room to maneuver. He dropped low and hit the approaching Noderabou with another Sweeping Blade, before realizing in alarm he could not. His right foot had no feeling in it and, if he could not feel it touch the ground, energy did not travel and Sweeping Blade did not work. The normal move did not even cut through the monster.
Seiki scrambled out of the way, hobbling on his left foot, and Mitsue was forced to move as the creature closed in. The clunky bell in the middle limited Seiki’s view and obliged him to keep going around in an endless circular corridor. Having only half the normal number of working limbs was a challenge, and Seiki had to steady himself with his right hand on the surface of the cold temple bell. He could feel its neat rows of bronze characters, which spelled out the history of the temple, pressed against his palm below the grip of the Hikari.
“Eight below temple,” said Seiki. He turned to look at the bell as he became aware of something. “The eighth character below the temple character.”
Seiki scanned the bronze text cast onto the bell. Quickly, he spotted a few ‘temple’ characters, and he dropped his gaze under one of them, counting eight characters.
“Light,” he said.
As he dodged another slime puddle around the bell, he picked another ‘temple’ character and, sure enough, eight characters below was the character for ‘light’, again.
“It’s the word light,” Seiki was saying, when a patch of slime dropped right on his forearm. Although he had not been forced to let go of his Hikari, he could no longer feel his right hand, and now pushing energy down it was impossible.
Seiki groaned.
“Trouble, ronin-san?” said Mitsue.
“This quest is about to end right now,” said Seiki.
Mitsue scoffed and Seiki could hear her fumbling with something before a spark lit up. She was soon holding a green incense stick, which gave a calm, pleasant smell. Seiki breathed in th
e smoke, and feeling slowly returned to his limbs.
“Healing incense,” he remarked, before having to chuckle. “Still holding my hand, I see.” It was perhaps not too surprising that they would be lenient with what was supposed to be your first puzzle.
“Better?” Mitsue said in an unimpressed tone, as if having to keep him alive was such a chore.
Seiki glanced around, searching for anything that had to do with light. “The lamp-holder,” he said, before having to rush aside before the creature could reach him. The creature growled again and the bell hummed in response. The low ringing was starting to get rather distracting. “Let’s take care of this thing first.”
With feeling returning to his leg and arm, Seiki slid in with a short Focused Strike and ended it with Upslash. The move’s extreme momentum splattered the Noderabou mass all over the wall as if it had been a bucket of plaster. Its head was slowly sliding down the wall with the slime, and then along the sinewy thread that linked to the middle of the bell. The head suddenly turned, and its lifeless eyes locked on him.
“Oh, God,” said Seiki. For once, his game-inspired nightmare might actually be worse than his usual nightmares about darkness and drowning and screaming crowds.
Noderabou [Level 14]. HP 1/1075.
“What? One, again?”
“Ronin-san,” said Mitsue. “I can’t reach the lamp-holder.”
Seiki turned to look at her, and found her pointing upward and nodding toward the wall.
“Oh, come on,” said Seiki, as he could guess where this was leading. Behind him, the creature growled once more and, with its health stuck at one point, Seiki knew he had better not stall.
Sheathing his sword, he pressed his back firmly against the wall beneath the lamp, and he squatted down enough so that she could use his knees as a step.
“Hold this?” said Mitsue, thrusting the green incense stick into his hand before proceeding to clamber up his body. She tried to put her left foot on his right shoulder, and he had to turn away and concentrate on the Sandalwood Incense [Instance Item], 42 seconds remaining, between his fingers.
“All right,” she said, once she had managed to find a position from where she could reach the lamp. “Now what do we do with north, southeast and all that?”
There were only three things in the room: the window, the bell and the lamp-holder. Now that he had figured out the first bit of the puzzle, the solution was obvious.
“Turn it like a safe dial,” said Seiki, not even caring if she had never seen a modern safe in her life. “There should be an arrow or something on the dial. North is up.”
Apparently, once he had solved the riddle, his terrible instructions were good enough. Mitsue soon let out a cry of delight as the first level of the lock clicked into place.
The melting creature’s head had flowed down toward the end of the splattering and plopped down noisily on the floor.
“North, southeast,” muttered Mitsue. “Now how did it go again?”
“Would you mind hurrying please?” said Seiki. Although the green healing stick had now filled his health, the oozing creature had started making its way across the floor again. And if it reached him when he was stuck in this position, he could only imagine a very horrifying death.
“You know what happened to the guy?” said Mitsue, as another click sounded.
Stories about a melting slime were the last thing he was interested in at the moment, but Mitsue went on. “He was a young novice monk. The temple was having a new bell cast, and the novice monk thought he would play a prank on everyone. You see, he planned to soil the sacred bell with human waste, so that every time it rang, he would have a secret laugh at what had gone into it.”
Seiki had a pretty good idea where this story was heading.
“He sneaked into the chamber where the bell was being cast, and climbed up on the scaffolding. But suddenly, as if the heavens had sought to punish him, a lightning bolt struck the building. The novice monk slipped and fell into the molten metal, and his soul was trapped in the bell. That’s why the monks sealed the bell temple shut and why no one would go near it. Every time someone rings the bell, the creature appears in the form in which he died and tries to kill them.” She paused. “Which makes it the perfect place to hide a treasure.”
The puddle that was apparently half molten metal and half liquid human had almost reached Seiki’s position, and the head was slowly rising up right in front of him. The creature let out a tormented groan once more as it reached out toward Seiki, the ooze flowing around its main mass like a long skirt, cutting off his escape route.
“Done yet?” asked Seiki.
Another click sounded. “Done!” said Mitsue, and Seiki grabbed her and slid out of there as fast as he could. The encircling puddle of slime was unavoidable, and it seared through his boots and ankles, breaking his Slide and sending him crashing onto the floor on the opposite side of the room.
Seiki grunted as he realized that both his feet were completely numb. Mitsue pushed herself up into a sitting position beside him and looked in delight at the items in her hands, which consisted of an almost circular golden metal hoop about the size of a bracelet, labeled as a Mysterious Metal Part [Instance Item], and a paper scroll.
“What’s this?” The thief girl seemed perplexed. “I assume we just need to read the instructions.” She quickly pulled the scroll open. “With either or both hands, lightning strikes from the sky to the ground and ends deep within the earth.”
As soon as she had finished reading it, the scroll crumbled into dust and dispersed. “That makes no sense,” she said in disappointment, staring at the metal hoop.
Seiki glanced at her, then at the creature, which was again slowly turning around to make its way across the floor. The incense stick was still burning in his hand with a few seconds left on it, and Seiki inhaled its faint pleasant-smelling fumes and waited patiently for the numbness to clear and for his health to creep back up. For some reason, he knew that once the thief girl had gotten her treasure, she would now try to find a way to get rid of him.
As expected, Mitsue turned to face him. “You see how you can’t seem to kill the Noderabou?” She heaved a little sigh as she waved toward the pitiful creature. “The stupid boy didn’t know what he was getting himself into. Now he’s cursed to haunt the bell forever in an eternity of agony.”
Seiki observed the Noderabou again, which was now halfway across the floor. “Indeed,” he said, solemnly. It was difficult to imagine that this had once been a young man. The Noderabou reached out its arms, and Seiki had a weird feeling that maybe he was just yearning for a sense of normalcy.
“And with this curse, he will never stop until he burns to crisp whoever rang the bell to summon him. So, it’s nothing personal. It’s just that I can’t let that swordsman know it was I who took the—”
Her sentence was cut short by an explosion from down below that shook the entire building. Seiki only now remembered that there was another element to this encounter that he had completely forgotten about.
Mitsue leapt up to have a peek out the window. “He could have tried picking the lock. Now he’s woken up the whole temple,” she said, before looking at Seiki and letting out a sad smile. “Well, do you know who that man is and what he is capable of?”
“I think so,” said Seiki. He had had limited interactions with Shousei, but he could imagine that compassion was probably not one of his virtues.
“When he discovers that the hidden compartment is empty, you might wish you had let the creature kill you.”
Mitsue slipped the metal hoop on her wrist. She then uncoiled a long piece of rope from around her waist, hooked the end of it to the windowsill, and leapt out.
Seiki could hear her quickly lowering herself down four stories, before a quick tug magically dislodged the hook, and the contraption vanished out the window. At the same time, Seiki could hear footsteps thundering up the stairs, and Shousei, with a high ponytail a
nd in black and white, appeared with a long curved sword in his hand.
The man scoffed as he saw Seiki sitting on the floor. His eyes shot toward the creature, and the lamp-holder, which meant he clearly knew what this place was all about.
“Tsujihara died to keep you out of all this, boy,” said Shousei. “And I was willing to let you go, but you just had to get yourself involved.” He took a step further. “Did you find it?”
Seiki understood Mitsue’s full plan now. It was a perfect setup. She had made him ring the bell and appear at the window to attract Shousei’s attention, and now with the treasure and thief gone, there was no way Shousei was going to believe his story.
Seiki stared at the lamp-holder as something clicked in his mind. “Of course,” he whispered. “Once you read the scroll, it disappears.”
At the door, Shousei unsheathed his sword. “Too bad Tsujihara died for nothing,” he said. “Talk, boy. How did you learn of this place?”
Seiki was not listening. Thoughts churned in his head. Of course, Akari’s blackmail plot had been to frame the White Crane Order, but that was just the springing of the trap, something to set things in motion. The trap itself had been laid a long time ago, and multiple people had already walked into it.
Shousei took a step closer, and Seiki picked himself up from the floor. It was deathly quiet, and the melting creature on the other side of the bell was still progressing toward him. The swordsman took a quick glance at the thing, and a smile appeared on his lips.
“Talk, and I’ll allow you a clean death,” said the man. “Or I can let that creature kill you.” He produced several healing incense sticks from his pocket and carefully pronounced his next word. “Slowly.”
Seiki was still not listening. As he looked at the golden lamp holder and the melted, miserable, groaning creature on the floor again, he had a light bulb moment and everything became clear to him: the key, the blood-locked box, the invasion, the scroll, the design of this whole encounter, and perhaps, to a certain extent, the unspoken wish of unfortunate young men who had not understood the full consequences of the kind of mess they had gotten themselves into.
