Eramith
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Book 2: Chapter 44
🕑 Added 2023-05-22 13:03:01 +0000 UTCHe walked up the steps to the doorway across from him and pushed it open to find a large hexagonal room. There were four tables arranged in a square a few meters apart in the center of the room. On the far end of the room was a large metal box sitting on a raised stone platform. Felix inspected the room as well as he could then used his staff to hold the doors open just in case then walked in. Looking down at the circular tables, the tables were each a different color, orange, green, blue and magenta. On the tables, there were symbols inscribed around the edge at even spacing.
Felix realized they were dials with the hands in the middle currently all pointing in the same direction. Walking over to the metal box, Felix saw that the lid would open, he just couldn’t do it himself. He didn’t want to risk damaging whatever was inside so he didn’t try and pry it open. Turning back to the dials, Felix turned one of them, the red one, just to see what would happen. He waited a few moments but nothing happened.
There were way too many combinations and even potentially orders for him to try every one of them. His best bet, was trying to crack the lock like he’d seen people do with safes on tv. If the dials needed to be correctly positioned for the box to open, he hoped there would be mana and enchantments involved. It was possible for the mechanism to be entirely mechanical, but if that was the case, he was going to have to figure something else out. Felix walked up to each dial and slowly spun them all the way around trying to pay attention to any variance in the mana around him. Unfortunately, the dials only spun around exactly the same amount, getting stuck if he tried to push further. He also didn’t feel anything in terms of mana or enchantments so the mechanism was likely mechanical.
He was hoping for something easy like an audible click when one of the dials was at the right position but he heard nothing. Though he had never done it, Felix knew more or less how lock picking worked so he hoped he could apply the same principles here. The first thing he did was create a channeled force spell that would push up on the top of the box. He wasn’t trying to force it open, just create tension in the mechanical system. Then he walked back over to the dials and began spinning them. Nothing happened so he increased the force on his spell gradually as he spun each dial all the way around. Eventually, one of the dials got stuck.
Excitedly, he spun the other dials and slowly increased the force on his spell until each of them got stuck and the box flew open. Instead of the top of the box hinging open like he expected, it rose into the air remaining perfectly flat. There were four metal bars, one on each corner that held it in place and ran deep into the box. Felix walked over and looked inside finding what seemed to be multiple concentric white metal bands. Identifying it revealed it as a bracelet, but nothing more.
Other than the bracelet, the box was completely empty so Felix simply released his spell but the top remained open. He didn’t really care at this point so he left the room and headed further north and to the east. Walking into the passageway, the smooth walls were completely gone in place of rough stone and what appeared to be a natural cave. There were passageways continuing to the east and one to the west. He knew there couldn’t be more than a single room to the west between his current position and the lake. He decided to just continue east and worry about the entirety of the lake later on. Once again, inspecting the room for traps, Felix fired off a series of Force Bombs into the room. As soon as he did, a massive boulder dropped from the ceiling and fell right in the middle of the room with a loud reverberating crack.
He walked into the room and saw that there had been a tiny trip wire that dropped the stone when broken. He was happy he had caught it, but not overly impressed with himself because the trap was so rudimentary. He continued on through the cave and after a dozen or so meters, the passage opened into a larger cave area with multiple huts. The huts were made of wood posts and wrapped in hide, more like a tent than an actual structure. Between all of the huts were the charred remains of a campfire.
Further into the cave Felix saw a large tent many times larger than any of the others and surrounded by a palisade. He was surprised both the tents and palisade were still standing and not completely rotted through, less surprised to find them all inhabited by Devoured. The smaller tents each contained a few small Devoured, just a few feet tall that looked like they had either been children or just a small race.
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[D] Devoured (Lvl 107) .________________________________________________________________________________________
Just outside of the large tent, loafing about behind the palisade, was a much larger Devoured standing almost twice Felix’s height. It reminded him of the troll he had fought back in a combat dungeon.
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[D] Devoured (Lvl 143) .________________________________________________________________________________________
The two other passages in the cave, other than the one Felix had just walked through, were positioned on either side of the large tent. A series of small Mana Bolts pelted the small Devoured causing them to search for their source. The creatures found Felix and screeched then ran into the narrow cave passage he had come from. A deep rumbling roar reverberated through the area when the large Devoured realized what was happening as well. The small Devoured followed by the big one ran into the passageway and got tossed around and incinerated by Fire Balls. Luckily it seemed these Devoured didn’t have any intelligence like the Priest had so they funneled themselves towards Felix, running into the fire with no regard for their own safety.
Ding You have slain 11 [D] Devoured (Lvl 107-143)
Searching their huts didn’t result in anything other than mold so Felix looked down each of the passageways that branched out from here. One of them looked to be a dead end with a few more huts. Looking down the other passage, the rough natural cave morphed back into smooth, straight walls so Felix headed down in that direction. It was possible the small huts contained a treasure, but Felix doubted it. If he didn’t find all four elsewhere, he would just come back to check it out.
Walking back into the constructed part of the vault, the room was a large open chamber that was almost circular with pillars around the outside. In the very center of the room was a stone platform a dozen or so meters wide that held a massive statue of a Dragon made of a dark stone. It was very intricately carved, the scales had definition, the teeth were sharp and the wings had slight veins. It was a beautiful statue and no matter how much Felix scrutinized it, it appeared to just be a statue. Looking down the two passages in the room, the one heading south seemed to just be a large open room with a couple of empty tables and strewn crates within. The one that headed east, right next to the one Felix had walked through opened up into what was now a large empty room and continued south into another chamber.
The room had once had carpets, judging from the discoloration on the floor and even had a fireplace carved into the wall, though there was no chimney so Felix wasn’t sure how it had worked. There were remains of some furniture spread throughout the room but none of it was identifiable. Through Felix’s rudimentary search for traps he found a large sink hole with spikes at the bottom just a couple of steps in front of him, blocking the entrance to the chamber. Other than that, there didn’t seem to be anything else in the room so Felix cautiously floated over the trap.
Inspecting the room closer revealed nothing so Felix continued on and looked into the next room. This room was the biggest in the entire vault and seemed to be a massive circular chamber with the passage he looked down connecting in tangentially. In the center of the room stood a marble statue of what appeared to be a woman with two horns, a vast head of hair and two massive dragon wings. She wore simple robes and stood with a warm and inviting posture, almost motherly.
Felix did his best to check for traps, paying particular attention to the floor considering the pit trap in the last room. There didn’t seem to be anything based on his novice inspection so he cautiously stepped into the chamber. Walking inside, he saw the walls lined with sconces so he fired off a series of simple Fire Bolts at them, surprisingly they seemed to still have fuel in them because they immediately caught fire. He walked forwards toward the statue and continued lighting the sconces around the room to get more light in so he could see better. Walking around the statue, it was just as intricate and beautiful as the dragon statue outside. The marble was carved in such a way that the statue’s robes looked silky and her skin soft and supple while in contrast the wings and talons at the end of them seemed sharp and vicious. Felix lit the final sconce and heard a loud grinding sound that echoed through the chamber.
He spun around and watched as the statues hands began to glow and redden to the point where they were wreathed in liquid fire. The hands dripped all over the ground and the statue’s head began to lift very slowly. Felix wasn’t one to judge and it was completely possible this statue was friendly, but he was learning to be more cautious so he got as far from the statue as he could, towards the entrance of the room. The statue began to lower their hands with an irritating grinding sound and their foot slowly lifted from the platform they stood upon. Every move they made was made in halted rough movements which starkly contrasted the beauty of the carving itself. Felix kept his guard up but seeing how slow the statue was, how difficult it was for them to move, he definitely started to feel like the statue wasn’t overly dangerous.
The only reason he hadn’t just left was that he was pretty sure the treasure was on the statue’s finger. As the liquid fire encompassed their hands, he had spotted a single metal band on their right ring finger, the only part of the statue not made of stone. He was pretty sure it would be possible to kill the statue, The System wouldn’t let something too strong be in a dungeon for level 140s. Still, Felix had had a bad experience with the Priest so he stayed back and waited to make sure it wasn’t just playing him.
The statue continued to take halted steps to the side of the room then lifted it’s head and began opening it’s mouth in Felix’s direction. Luckily, it was slow so he had more than enough time to step aside when the massive stream of liquid fire filled the corridor between the rooms. It lasted just a few seconds but Felix didn’t dare peek his head around the corner. Instead, he fired off a Force Bomb into the room, aiming roughly where he remembered the statue standing. He heard a loud boom from the spell followed by some grinding noises then, silence. Though he hadn’t gotten a kill notification, he also didn’t know if a statue would have a kill notification so he simply waited.
A couple minutes passed before Felix decided to risk a look around the corner, with a Mana Shield in front of him of course. Looking into the room, the Statue had walked back to the center of the room and was standing exactly as he had found them previously. As soon as he entered though, it’s head began spinning towards him, again with halted movements and loud grinding. Felix simply jogged around the room and the statue struggled to follow him. On it’s left side, the dress and part of it’s wing had been completely blown off so Felix was hopeful of his ability to cause it damage.
He maintained the Mana Shield as he constructed another Force Bomb, this one much stronger. Judging from how much damage a simple double sized bomb had done, Felix was expecting to shatter it with the 10 sized bomb he was constructing. He made sure to make the force itself contained so he didn’t hit himself while hopefully still doing similar damage. A marble of light purple energy arced out from just in front of Felix towards the statue. It was still trying to turn itself around to look at Felix when the spell collided with it’s side.
A massive explosion shook the chamber as tiny shards of marble shrapnel exploded in every direction. Felix’s Mana Shield pulled a few thousand mana to stop them all, but it was well worth it considering Felix didn’t even take a single point of damage. A couple drops of liquid fire had also been flung outwards from the statue’s hands but neither of those streams flew directly at Felix.
Ding You have slain a [D] Dragon Mother Statue: Devoured (Lvl 156)
Once the dust settled, Felix looked around the room and saw white marble scattered everywhere along the floor. A few of the sconces had been extinguished but their shape had protected most of them. Felix searched through the rubble for a little while before he found the ring buried in gravel. The ring seemed to be made of a shiny metal though not one Felix had ever seen. It was entirely a deep crimson and seemed to have an inscription inside of it but it wasn’t something Felix could read, even with his tongues skill.
He pocketed the ring and headed back to the only place he hadn’t really explored yet, the chamber to the north and the lake just west of it. There were a handful of other chambers he hadn’t walked into, but he had looked into all of them and didn’t find anything interesting. If the room appeared empty, he wasn’t going to risk dying to a trap unless he really had to. If the lake turned out to be nothing, he would go back and explore them, but he was really hoping he wouldn’t have to. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
