by Phoenix Grey
Quality: Average
Weight: 0 kg
Uses: Mends you or a target's wounds for 5 Health. Spends 1 Durability for each use.
"What is it?" Janine asked, staring wide-eyed in wonder at the ring. Azure handed it over. "Oh, super nice. I want."
"Let me see." Lonnell gestured for the ring. Once she placed it in his hand, he held it up to examine it as if he could see more than what the information box provided. "It's a little weak with only fourteen uses before you'll have to pay to repair it, but I think we all want it." He clasped his hand around the ring and lowered it. "The question is, which one of us gets it."
"I have the lowest Health," Janine said quickly.
"That's just because you're a lower level than us," Azure pointed out.
"And you've allocated your points poorly," Lonnell added.
"I have not!" She scowled at them. Then her features softened. "Have I?"
"We can discuss that next time you level up again." Azure pushed the topic away. "For now, we should decide who gets the ring. Honestly, it's a win no matter who ends up with it because it benefits us all." But of course, he desperately wanted it just as much as the other two.
"So how do we decide?" Lonnell looked from Azure to Janine.
"Flip a coin?" she suggested hesitantly.
"A coin only has two sides. That would be unbalanced. How about we play Rock, Paper, Scissors for it?" Azure offered.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Lonnell parroted. "What's that?"
Janine spent a moment explaining the rules of the game to him. Then they squared off to battle it out for the ring. Azure held his breath as they jointly chanted the words before showing their hands. Both Azure and Janine cringed when Lonnell ended up winning the ring.
“Beginner’s luck.” Azure frowned as he watched Lonnell slip the ring onto his finger.
“It looks good on you.” Janine nudged Lonnell’s shoulder, unable to resist pointing out that the pink heart-shaped stone was not the manliest. Azure doubted that either of them would have cared less about how the ring looked. It’s the benefits it provided that mattered.
I bet it’s worth a lot too, he thought, though he would have had no intentions of selling it if he had won it. Honestly, the ability to heal without having to buy potions or sacrifice Mana was priceless.
As before, as soon as they walked out of the room, the ghost of the little girl appeared.
“I wonder where she’ll go next?” Azure said dryly before watching her run into the next room across the hall.
There was another set of low-level skeletons in the room. Azure and Lonnell stood back while Janine made quick work of them. She leveled up after killing the second skeleton. The excited look on her face made Azure smile.
“Now we can talk about where you should place your points,” he prepared for his lecture as he leaned against the wall to rest while she looted the bodies. “What do the rest of your stats look like? Luck, Charisma, Agility, etcetera.”
Janine paused to pull up her character sheet. “Thirteen across the board.”
His brows arched for a moment. “You really have been working on being balanced.”
Lonnell shook his head.
“What’s wrong with that?” She glanced up at them.
“Well, it’s not horrible.” Azure’s head fell to the side. “But it would be easier for you to accomplish your goals if you placed your points where you needed them. Have you been leveling up your skills equally, too?”
“No. But only because that’s a bit harder to do. My highest skill is One-Handed Weapons. As you might be able to guess, I’ve been putting all of my skill leveling abilities into that.”
At least that was a smart move. Janine did seem to be able to handle her ax well. Better than even Azure and Lonnell managed their own weapons, it seemed. Though she charged at her enemies like a maniac, there was no doubt that there was tons of power and skill behind her swings.
“Let’s just focus on assigning your points, then,” he offered. “You don’t need Mana if you’re never going to cast spells, so placing points into Intelligence is pointless.”
“It doesn’t make me smarter?”
“It’s not completely pointless,” Lonnell argued. “It does help you resist the effects of spells cast on you, but there’s no reason to spend a lot of points on it if you aren’t going to cast spells yourself.
“As a drawf, Agility is a good place to put points since you’re naturally slow.”
“I am not!” She furrowed her brow at him.
“Yes, you are,” he insisted. “If we had a footrace, Azure and I would leave you in the dust.”
Azure couldn’t help but smirk at the silly quarrel. It seemed that Janine forgot she was a dwarf from time to time. Which brought about the question of how she even ended up a dwarf in the first place. It seemed strange since there were no dwarves in their world. Not the fantasy variety, at least.
“Since you want to level as quickly as possible and you engage in lots of melees to do so, you should probably primarily be focusing your points on Strength, followed by Vitality, followed by Dexterity.”
“Why is that?” Janine stood to rejoin her comrades.
“Every time you swing your ax, it takes Stamina. If you run out of Stamina, you can’t fight anymore.”
“That’s why I always stock up on Stamina potions.”
“But they’re bloody expensive. How can you afford them?”
“That’s all I spend my money on. Stamina potions and healing potions.” She gestured with one hand, then the other.
Azure guessed that made sense. With no expensive aspirations, Janine didn’t have to save up like he and Lonnell did.
“Well, since I clearly don’t know what I’m doing, I’ll just follow your advice,” she said, though sarcasm had seeped into her voice.
“You can do whatever you want. Those are just my suggestions.” Azure pushed himself from the wall.
Janine held her hand up to him as if to shut him out. “Done. Let’s get going.” Then she walked through the door, leaving the men to follow behind.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE REALM – Day 74
Another chest awaited them in the fifth room. Their moods all brightened at the thought of the loot inside. But when they opened it, none of them could identify the fat round bronze plate-like object that lay at the bottom. Azure lifted it to get more information, feeling the weight of it in his hands.
You have received the following item:
Pendulum Bob
Uses: Quest Item.
"What in the hell is this?" He flipped the item over, trying to see if there was anything significant about its backside. It was identical to the front.
"It goes to the clock out in the hall," Lonnell told him, casting his glance in the direction of the clock though he couldn't see it through the wall. "I'm now assuming that it's broken and will need to be repaired before we can move on."
That sounded like a pretty safe assumption.
"I know nothing about clocks," Janine groaned.
"I don't either." Azure shook his head before taking a breath. "But, we'll figure it out. It can't be rocket science."
Lonnell gave him a queer look, and Janine smirked. It was nice to able to use terms from his own world and have someone understand them. It made him feel like less of an oddball.
They took the pendulum and watched the little girl run into the last of the rooms. Following her, they found yet another bedroom, though this one looked more like a jail cell. The two beds inside were made of wood and held to the wall with chains that fell diagonally as if the beds folded from the walls. Atop them laid a blanket and feather pillow, but there was no mattress. Something was off, though. Three of the chains were silver while one was bronze and looked different than the others.
"This may be a piece of the puzzle," Lonnell noted.
There was nothing else of interest in the roo
m, so they turned to leave, wholly expecting the little girl to appear again, but she didn't. Proceeding out into the hallway, they stopped in front of the clock. Azure and Janine weren't sure what to look for, so they allowed Lonnell to examine it.
"Yes, it's definitely missing parts," he confirmed after scrutinizing over it for a good ten minutes.
"Well, we have the pendulum bob. What else do we need?" Azure asked.
"It looks like we'll need a cable or chain for the pendulum bob and a finial."
"What's a finial?" Azure raised an eyebrow and then shared a confused look with Janine.
Lonnell reached up to touch the top of the body of the clock. "Most grandfather clocks have a piece that goes here. It's not imperative to the function of the clock, but it's the only other thing I see that's missing."
"I hope you're right." Janine inhaled deeply. "What does it look like?"
"It should look like these side pieces." Lonnell moved his hand to the side and grasped a wooden piece in the shape of a lantern.
"Well, I'm pretty sure the chain is holding up the bed in that last room we were in," Azure said what they were all thinking.
"Probably." Lonnell scratched his chin. "And I bet the last piece is in the other bedroom."
Azure led the way back to the jail-like bedroom. After unclasping the bronze chain from the one bed, they discovered that it did match with the pendulum. With that done, they moved on to the other bedroom.
Looking under one of the beds, Janine found that the finial had been used for one of its legs. Azure and Lonnell lifted the bed while she pried it off. Then they returned to the clock with the pieces.
It took Lonnell about ten minutes to put it all together. As soon as he closed the door on the front of the clock, it began to chime. All three Adventurers went on alert, turning toward the hall and reaching for their weapons. There was no doubt in Azure's mind that the chime was meant to draw spirits to them for an ambush. But nothing happened. The clock chimed nine times before coming to a rest. When it did, there was the sound of something moving behind them. Putting their backs to the hall, they twisted to see the clock sliding to the side to reveal another door.
Janine lowered her ax and reached up to place a hand over her chest. "That about gave me a heart attack."
"Not what I was expecting at all," Azure admitted.
"Me neither. I was sure we were about to be swarmed." Lonnell kept a wary eye on the hallway.
"Maybe we just got lucky." Azure shrugged.
"Maybe we should go through the door before that has a chance to happen." Janine took a step closer to the door, bunching in with her two companions.
"Probably a good idea," Lonnell agreed, gripping the door handle and opening it.
Having not been attacked after the chiming in the hallway, Azure had half-expected a monster to be waiting for them on the other side of the door, but all that was there was another set of stairs. Reaching the bottom revealed a small library reminiscent of what Azure remembered from high school. Rows of tall bookshelves lined the walls, and the smells of paper and dust were strong.
At the back of the room, the ghost of a boy stood in front of a desk and a peculiar bookshelf that was completely solid except for one small square nook carved out in the center. The boy was the same from the portrait, dressed like a proper little gentleman in his Sunday's best with a bowtie around his neck. If his unsmiling visage wasn't so creepy, he might be an adorable child.
They tried talking to him to no avail. As with the little girl, using the amulet on him had no effect, and as soon as they began to approach, he took off to the left.
"This again?" Janine rolled her eyes.
"It appears so," Lonnell said with a sigh.
A pile of bones separated them from the desk at the back of the room. Azure eyed it warily. "Should we pass through or just go to the left?" There was enough space between them and the shelves to move comfortably without encountering the skeleton.
Janine frowned. "I can't Analyze it until to starts moving, but it looks similar to the ones on the other level."
If anything, the bones were just slightly thicker. A rusted battle ax lay in the middle of the pile which was a pretty good indication that the skeleton would eventually rise.
As if reading their thoughts and not wanting to give them a choice, it began to do just that. Azure quickly Analyzed it and was relieved to see it was no real threat.
Level 8 Dreaded Bones.
He glanced over at Janine. “Do you want it?” Now that she was level 9, it should Analyze as easy to her.
“Yeah. I’ll take it.” Janine readied her ax, jogging a few paces to reach the skeleton as it finished righting itself.
Metal clanged as the two matched weapons, this one giving her much more of a fight than the rickety skeletons on the previous floor.
“There will probably be another puzzle on this floor,” Lonnell mentioned as they watched Janine fight with the skeleton.
“That last one was blessedly easy.” Azure’s glance kept shifting to the side just in case more enemies might come streaming out from behind the other bookshelves.
A soft chuckle left Lonnell’s lips. “If I hadn’t been here, it would not have been easy for you.”
“True,” he admitted. Azure likely would have never been able to figure out how to piece the clock together on his own. “She’s doing pretty well.” He cast a nod in Janine’s direction.
Lonnell sucked in a breath. “She definitely has fighting skills.”
“I can hear you two bozos,” Janine shot back as she cleaved the skeleton’s skull off of its shoulders.
“What? We were just complimenting you.” Azure laughed.
They waited for her to finish looting the broken skeletal body. Then they regrouped.
“It might be best to see what awaits us in that main area.” Lonnell nodded toward the area with the desk.
“All right,” Azure agreed, and Janine made no argument, taking up the rear as Azure led the way.
Reaching the end of the bookshelf, he looked cautiously left and right before stepping out into the open. There were no piles of bones on the floor or signs of other threats. The little boy wasn’t waiting for them either.
“He must be between two of the bookshelves,” Lonnell surmised, his eyes floating in the direction that the boy had run. “But first maybe we should check out this one. It is strange.” He walked over to the solid bookshelf at the back of the room that only had one small space. “I think something goes here.”
“Well, this is lucky,” Janine said from the desk. Her head was quirked to the side as she read the open book laying atop it.
“What?” Lonnell turned to her.
Azure quickly walked over to see what she was talking about.
“This book tells us how to solve the puzzle.” She pointed to some of the wording, tracing it with a chubby fingertip. “It says that bookshelf is actually a door. To open it, we have to spell out the boy’s name with the titles of certain books found in this library.”
What’s the boy’s name?” Lonnell moved toward the desk but didn’t bother reading over Janine’s shoulder.
“Gay-lus?” Janine pronounced slowly. “Gal-us?”
“I think it’s Gal-us.” Azure turned the book toward Lonnell so he could see. The spelling of the name was Gallus.
“All right. But does it tell us what books we need?” he asked even as his eyes began scanning to read the instructions.
“Unfortunately not.” Janine’s gaze scoured over the library.
Lonnell flipped to the next page, but it appeared to be blanked. Picking up the book, he backtracked a few pages before the ones that told them how to solve the puzzle. Those were blank as well.
“Well, let’s just hope that there aren’t a lot of books with those letters.” Azure’s eyes flashed, knowing they wouldn’t be so lucky.
“Do you want to split up and look?” Janine glanced from A
zure to Lonnell.
Azure quickly shook his head. “No. Never a good idea in a dungeon.”
“Azure is right.” Lonnell set the book down, leaving it open to the spot they had found it at. “We don’t know what we might encounter in here. For all of our safety, it’s best to stick together.”
“Okay. So how do you guys want to do this? We could go in alphabetical order or how the name is spelled or whatever letter is closest,” she threw out options.
“Let’s see where we started from first.” He backtracked to the shelves they had entered through, stopping at the edge to pull out a book. “It looks like this side is O,” Lonnell informed them before moving to the shelf on the opposite side. “And this shelf is Q.”
“So the next closest letter should be...” Azure hesitated while he thought.
“I’m going to take a guess that S is going to be the next shelf over on the left and L is going to be the next shelf over on the right,” Janine jumped in to help him out.
“Or vice versa, depending on which way you’re facing,” Lonnell corrected her since they were facing in opposite directions. Her brow dropped slightly in response, but she said nothing. “Whatever the case, you’re right. It probably doesn’t matter which way we start.”
“We should probably start in the direction that the ghost ran. I doubt he went to the left for no reason,” Azure pointed out.
“True.” He nodded.
“So...to the left it is, then. We’ll start with the L’s. There should be two books for that one.” Janine turned to lead the way this time.
“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” Azure sighed, following Janine around the corner.
Instead of a pile of bones between the two shelves, this time there was another chest on a pedestal. It seemed out of place. Like a trap.
“Maybe the book’s inside,” Janine suggested, pausing to scan the shelves on their right. “These are all K’s. I think the L’s are further down.”
“Or on the other side,” Lonnell mumbled.
“Which one of us is going to open the chest?” Greed was already getting the best of Azure. He hoped there wasn’t a book inside. Half of the excitement of being in a dungeon was collecting loot, and this particular dungeon had already proven that it had plenty of that.
