Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Book 4: Chapter 11: Bloody Puzzles

Chapter 11

“Some sort of super secret passage then?” Devon asked as they all approached the area Kate had discovered.

Alex peered at the archway with his [Aether Sight] finding a strange aura that looked a bit familiar. It wasn’t aether like a spell or enchantment, but there wasn’t much in the area for him to get more information other than seeing a whiff of energy in a slightly purple-ish color.

“I’ve come across something like this in the Dark Den dungeon, a secret passage. Yet, it was far before the end of the Dungeon.” He said.

“Hmm, well it’s either gotta be hiding some really awesome stuff, or a death trap. No in between.” Garret added.

They all looked around, trying to discover any sort of clue, searching the walls and floor, checking for any energy or aura Alex might have missed. But there was nothing, at least not easily visible. Whatever the passage was, it wouldn’t give up its secrets so easily. It was tight-lipped like a bank vault.

“I mean, we can’t let this opportunity go, right? We gotta check it out,” Cole said with a shrug.

And he was right.

The steps leading down were rough-hewn, and although not as large as the ones that were at the very front of the structure, they were much bigger than what a typical human would have used or made for easy travel. The stench of long-sealed stale air and possibly centuries of dust attacked their senses, making the journey a threat to their olfactory capabilities above all else. Even the hint of mold attached itself to the smell’s after-notes.

Besides that, they didn’t have any real trouble descending the staircase.

It was deeper than Alex had first imagined, going further and further down as the minutes crawled by. Based on the time of travel and the height of the steps, Alex guessed they went nearly a mile deep before something finally changed.

The stairs bottomed out into a large stone-cut room with tall vaulted ceilings and high walls. The place was taller than it was wide and was adorned with various carvings depicting writhing serpentine creatures in the stone.

At the very far end, thick decorative pillars were carved into the back wall, at the center of which stood a pedestal with a stone basin.

Lying on the floor in the room were bodies.

Each lay in a different pose, clawing, crawling, or fighting off something in desperate attempts to flee an unknown force. It was a macabre still-life of the final moments of a panicked adventuring party locked in time, their armor and clothing looking brand new even with the dust that caked the room itself.

“Damn, something took them all out,” Devon said.

Holly sighed and nodded. “Looks like we found out what happened to that last party that never came back.”

Alex could only assume that she was right; their bodies looked far too fresh otherwise. But it was certainly strange, because he couldn't see what it was that had killed them. They contained no wounds, injuries or other afflictions. Besides the positions their bodies were left in, he could have assumed they had fallen asleep and never woken up, cousins to Snow White who had eaten their apple and never received a prince.

“Look around, see what you can find. But be careful, there could be traps or something,” he said, already scanning the first body that lay in front of him.

He gave it a once over, seeing it was a man in a cloak and armor made of leather from some arcane beast he didn’t recognize. A sword lilted off to the side of their open hand, as if it simply tumbled from their grip after falling.

After only a minute of searching, he found a small amulet around the man’s neck containing an item that he recognized rather easily, an aether slate, small and solid crystal.

“I might have something here,” he said, waving everyone else over.

He held up the device as they gathered around, and Devon was the next to realize what it was. “You think they recorded the entire dive?” he asked.

Alex shook his head, “No, not the whole thing, but probably enough to figure out what the hell happened. I hope, at least.”

He pinched the aether slate between his finger and thumb and sent a trickle of energy into it, activating the item and letting him peer at the information written into it. He was happily surprised to find that it was a memory recorded slate, flashes of images and sounds, feelings, and thoughts coming at him quickly.

“Give me a second, I need to sort through this, it's a lot.”

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With a bit of time and some help with Obby handling most of the processing and mental load for him, Alex was able to sift through everything that was put on the slate in his hand. It truly did belong to the party that had been sent into the dungeon before them. Alex saw their entire briefing happening outside the Dungeon portal, just like theirs had been, receiving the same information and warnings.

Then came the dungeon dive itself, seen and felt through the eyes of the slate owner, Alex experienced it all. There were minor cuts and jumps in the recording as the user turned it on and off, but he watched as they moved through the starting tunnels into the topside cavern. The Emberworms had also attacked them, and they fared well. The strange lava room was next, and the team ignored the actual solution, opting instead to have their earth mage shift the entire dais to the side and reveal the passage down to the forge.

Damn, looks like they had a bit of prior knowledge then. Some work around on the System’s dungeon info suppression.

The fight with the Golem came next, and they looked to do better than even Alex and the others had. They had three of their tanks hold back the construct and its massive hammer blows while having the others toss enchanted items into the crucible before it got too hot, freezing it over completely like an ice-rink in winter.

They, too, found the passage and decided to explore it, reaching the current room. A bit of conversation occurred between the party members, then an argument began to heat up, shouts exchanged as if they were a family at a thanksgiving dinner table, angry and personal. At some point, a decision was made, and one of the party members cut their hand, leaking some blood into the stone basin at the far end of the room.

That was the final mistake they made.

The room sealed off, and a thick green gas filled the space, deep emerald, choking gas that filled the lungs and attacked the inside of their bodies. Alex didn’t even need to see the rest of the memory in the aether slate to know what happened next; the proof of it lay in front of them like an unfinished graveyard.

Alex’s mind came back to his own body in a rush of clarity. He shook his head and frowned before passing the aether slate over to Devon. “The room is trapped for sure, some kind of poison gas. It killed them all, it happened fast, but it was still painful.”

“Damn…” Devon muttered as his mind flashed through the slate as well and handed it off.

“So why didn’t it work?” Holly asked when she was finished looking through next.

“What?”

She pointed at the basin at the end of the room. “Why didn’t it work? It looked like they knew what they needed to do, but it didn’t work. Why?”

Alex finally got her point. It seemed the party knew a lot about the Dungeon, even if this room seemed to surprise them. And they looked to be confident in themselves, even if there was a big argument about trying to activate the basin beforehand. The failure was a mistake, not an amateur Hail Mary by an inexperienced crew. Accident, not ignorance.

So what went wrong?

They all approached the basin and looked around. The serpentine carvings were even present on the basin and the podium, not just the walls. Each carving showed a coiling scaled beast, a large reptilian head with dagger-like teeth at the end of each slithering body.

Alex’s body tingled slightly once he got close enough to the basin, something within his blood reacting to the object. He switched back to his [Aether Sight[ to see that same purple-tinted energy faintly surrounding the stone container, pulsating just ever so subtly, as if waiting.

“I don’t know for sure, but I feel something,” Kate suddenly said softly.

“You do?” Alex asked, raising his brow.

She nodded and crossed her arms. “Yeah, but I don’t know what it is. It feels… weird, but also familiar. I don’t know.”

Obby, are there enchantments, items, or some other way to detect a constitution?

The pebble’s freaky creature-body appeared in front of him with its creepy pointed-toothed smile. “Very rare items, or specific spells can. But they require a sample of a constitution to compare against. You can’t just test anyone for any constitution, but you CAN test a person for a specific constitution, or one related to it, like a bloodline.”

That was enough to confirm Alex’s budding theory. He knew what the room was, and what the basin wanted. He also might have known why the other party had been killed. They didn’t complete the dungeon correctly, a misstep that cost them all their lives.

“The basin wants a blood sample,” Alex said.

Holly eyed him like he was a crazy man on the street shouting about falling skies. “Uh, those guys tried that, remember. It didn’t work out for them.”

Alex reached out and tapped Holly’s nose playfully, causing her to scrunch up her face in mock displeasure. “Yes, but they didn’t have what we have. Because they didn’t follow directions.”

“And what’s that? Hmm?” She put her hands on her hips and looked at him pointedly. Normally, that was her “I know I’m right and your gonna regret this”, stance. Alex knew that stance, knew it well. He had seen it quite a few time when the two of them disagreed.

He grinned at her and wiggled his eyes brows. “Oh, being like that are we?”

Holly only rolled her eyes in response.

“Okay, fine. How about I tell everyone my idea, and we vote on it. If the majority of us think I’m wrong, we leave this room, and exit the Dungeon, no worries. And I spend all my Dungeon points on Air-attuned cultivation items for you.” Holly’s eyes sparkled at that, he could see he had her attention. “But if the majority of us think I’m right, we give it a shot. And…”

He leaned in close, placing his mouth near her ear and whispering so no once else could hear him. “And tonight, you do that thing I like.”

Her face turned cherry-red instantly and she quickly looked around checking if anyone else heard. It was clear no one had, but her reaction gave away a general idea. Alex saw Cole give her a cheeky thumbs up from the corner of his eye.

“Fine,” she said. “Deal, let’s hear it.”

“Its easy,” Alex said, pointing to the basin. “We need to put blood in the basin. But the type of blood matters. The carvings are a clue on what it wants, and we just happen to be extremely lucky Wolrdstriders. The System may want to kill us, but it keeps giving us stuff that others would kill for, Myrae and Ghrukk already explained that.”

“Get to the point, it smells in here,” Kate said.

“Fine, fine.” He pointed at the carvings on the pedestal. “These aren’t a bunch of snakes. They are one snake. One very large, multi-headed snake. And the basin wants blood attuned to its constitution.”

“Oh…” Kate said.

Alex smiled and crossed his arms, puffing out his chest slightly. “We need Kate’s blood, from the Hydra Constitution.”