Aster Loka
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Chapter 69
🕑 Added 2022-02-03 21:50:45 +0000 UTCThey continued carefully together without encountering any other creatures or enemies. Levi heard the clatter of centipede legs echoing back as Cen and Centoo ranged ahead, dealing with whatever Levi called out.
"Can you at least turn on your glowing sword?"
"It's not real light, just like this isn't real darkness. It won't do much besides killing any adjusting to the dark you may have."
"There's not much to adjust to." Gordon gestured toward where the minions were fighting. "The whole fight looks like vague shapes. I wouldn't be able to tell you who's ours and who's an enemy if not for the centipedes' distinct shapes."
Levi deactivated the lens to see, and understood at once. The darkness was unsettling, unnatural. It didn't fill the room like a lack of light, but drifted about in wisps and clouds, leaving first one patch of wall faintly illuminated, then another. It made him feel jumpy and on edge almost immediately, and he reactivated the lens before he started lashing out blindly at shadows.
"Guess there's a reason Dark dungeons are considered too much trouble."
The next room was empty.
"There are no creatures in this room." Levi swept over it again, to be absolutely certain, but aside from a cluster of shadevine lurking on the floor of the next room, he saw no creatures besides his own team. "Probably full of traps."
"Don't trust anything that looks even the slightest bit suspicious?" Gordon asked, stopping beside Levi at the edge of the room.
"Exactly."
The lens wasn't going to be any use navigating this one, and since it made environment harder to focus on with its hyper-focus on anything alive it may actually be a detriment. After verifying that the shadevine in the next room wasn't moving, he deactivated it.
The shifting darkness kept drawing his eye from one shadow to another, his instincts putting him on edge even though he knew it wasn't an ambush. There were no creatures in the room.
Levi lowered himself to the floor, then used the tip of his sword to feel around ahead of him.
The floor had a ridged texture, diagonal lines criss-crossing each other in a repeating pattern, the surface of each tile glassy smooth. It would be far too simple to turn some of them into pressure plates without anyone noticing.
"I definitely see why Dark dungeons are considered the worst."
"Should we just... skip it?"
Levi considered it. This was an independent treasure unrelated to the ongoing quest for the Seed Fragments, but part of him rebelled against the idea of leaving it unclaimed even so. The stories he'd heard about map rewards were all legends. They made everything else he'd found so far pale in comparison. Even his best equipment in the original timeline couldn't stand up to some of the legendary items from map treasures.
Besides, if he didn't claim it, who would? The map in the Ice dungeon had gone unnoticed for countless delves by the locals. There was no guarantee that they'd notice any special treasure hiding in a wall or floor or ceiling. It could be forgotten and neglected indefinitely, a wasted resource that could have been used.
"We'll pull out if things get too desperate, but I have to try."
Levi inched forward, closing his eyes to avoid being distracted by the shifting darkness as he felt his way across the floor. "Walk close behind me, and you'll be fine," he said.
Cen tapped his feet questioningly behind him.
"You can use the walls, right? Be careful, but go ahead. There's shadevine in the next room, so kill it quickly before it can drain you too much if you get that far."
Skarm was the only one of the minions currently unable to move along walls, Flomper could burrow through them, and the centipedes and spider weren't bothered by the vertical surfaces. Skarm clung tight to Centoo as the centipede rushed along the wall, Levi pausing to check their progress with his lens as Gordon stepped slowly after him.
They crossed a third of the corridor before he felt something amiss. "Hold." The next tile was a bit smoother along the sides, as though it had been rubbed by impact. He shifted to the left, but before he'd moved around the first he found a second tile with the same suspicious texture, and then more to the right, penning them in.
"Back."
He had to backtrack nearly half the distance they'd traversed before finding a path that didn't set off his suspicions.
In the next room, the minions were clearing out the shadevine nest loudly and efficiently. Levi checked on their progress, then continued his careful inching forward along this new route.
This one got them over two thirds of the way across the room in a slow S shape before he ran into another dead end. After another careful backtrack, they ended at another dead end. Levi reached carefully over the tiles ahead of them, to the next row over. "We may need to step over. I don't think there's another path forward."
"Step over what? I can't see a thing. Even you're just a dark lump."
Levi used his hand on the next tile as a guide, stepped carefully over the suspicious tiles, crouching on the single safe tile, and felt out around himself. None of those adjacent were safe, and he felt precariously balanced bunched up on the single tile. He could handle it, but he wasn't confident in Gordon's ability to do the same. He stretched further, but found only a single tile away to the right that felt secure.
"Should I follow?" Gordon asked as Levi hopped over to the new tile.
"How good is your aim?" Levi reached back and tapped on the safe tile with the tip of his sword. "Can you step to that spot perfectly?"
"How perfectly?"
"Five inches or so of clearance."
Gordon swallowed audibly. "Maybe."
Levi had hoped this would lead to another clear path, but it seemed from here on out it was going to be all single tiles. There was no next safe tile in the row beside or a row away, and he had to lean and stretch uncomfortable to check those beyond. He found another safe tile a second row out. This would have to be handled very carefully.
He returned to the tile between himself and Gordon.
"Reach out your hand." Levi guided Gordon's hand down to the safe tile. "Feel the edges here? Don't step beyond those. Give me a second to get clear."
Levi hopped back to the second tile, and Gordon carefully stepped onto the first.
"Next is here."
He repeated the procedure, then jumped over to the third tile.
"You'll have to really stretch for this one."
He took Gordon's hand, and felt the other man wobbling unsteadily as he tried to reach the more distant tile.
"You may need to draw on stamina for this one to keep yourself balanced."
"How am I supposed to do that?" Gordon grunted, as his hand came down finally on the correct tile. "I don't think I can jump that in the dark."
"You can't stay here. All it'll take is one shadevine slipping by us and you could be dead before I get back."
"I don't think I can do it."
Levi reached forward to check for the next set of tiles, and to his relief found two next to each other that both felt solid. "This is the last hard one. Next has an easy landing. Just this one jump, you can do it. Use your stamina."
"I don't know how!"
"You've used it in fights more than once, I know I've seen it."
"That's just adrenaline and panic."
"Then do that."
"You want me to panic right now?" Gordon sounded like he was on the verge of doing so even without prompting.
"If that's what it takes."
"I don't think this is a good idea."
Levi took his hand firmly. "I'm going to jump to the next set. Either you jump too, or we'll find out what happens when we trigger those trap tiles."
Gordon tried to pull away, then gripped Levi's hand tight, his breath coming loud and fast. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Three, ... two, ... jump." Levi held his breath and leapt for the pair of safe tiles, and felt Gordon launch himself in the same moment. Levi could make out the narrowing walls that denoted the next hallway, very close. Before they could lose momentum, he made an impulsive call. "Again. Now!"
"What--"
Levi jumped, and Gordon stumbled, but followed. Something clicked, and Levi dragged Gordon forward out of the trap room as something clattered loudly behind them. He felt something brush at his foot, then they were into the hall and safe.
Gordon was hyperventilating, laughing weakly. Levi let out his breath. "Different kind of exciting than I was expecting."
"I don't know how you do it. Fighting is one thing, but that... that was terrifying."
"I guess you just have to get used to it. After the first hundred life or death encounters with enemies eighty levels above you, a trap floor just doesn't seem that big of a deal."
