Level 1 Fallen

The next day, we set out again, this time with Bella’s brand dimmed. Because I wasn’t confident that the car would be able to handle the extreme temperatures of this lava zone, I decided to travel the rest of the way in my draconic form. When Marron saw me transform for the first time, she gasped, her eyes lifting up to reach my own.

“Oh, wow,” she muttered under her breath. “I mean, I saw your sponsor clips, but this is bigger than I thought it would be.”

“He recently evolved the skill,” Bella explained simply, no longer needing to be quite as cautious with her words around the dogfolk explorer. She waited for me to lower my body, climbing up onto my back and holding an arm out for the other two.

Once all three of them were mounted up, I teleported us back to the lava zone. “Where do we go from here?” I asked, turning my head to regard Marron.

Marron, for her part, was studying the terrain. “Can you fly up first? Below the ash cloud, I mean,” Marron said, dipping her head slightly. “Sorry, it’s just that there aren’t many landmarks that I can make out here. I remember the map that the ruin had pretty well, but I’m not getting any system corrections because of my trait.”

I simply nodded my head, flying up and into the air. Naturally, I made sure not to fly into the ash cloud released by the constantly erupting volcanoes. Once I was up, Marron leaned over to the side, narrowing her eyes to scan the surroundings. “We need to go further to the northeast. You’re looking for a volcano with three branching mountain peaks, and the lava flows down between them.”

I couldn’t help but blink at this description. That certainly didn’t sound like a natural rock formation. Though, given that someone could have simply used a stone spike skill at a high enough level to create something like that, I wasn’t too concerned. Instead, I continued to fly to the northeast like she said, my eyes scanning each mountain peak we passed.

In order to avoid missing the target, I didn’t teleport around or fly at extreme speeds like I usually did, making sure to take my time and accurately assess the terrain. That, and dodging monsters. This lava zone seemed to be home to some form of lava wyvern, molten monsters that flew through the air, dripping lava from their wings.

Avoiding them wasn’t incredibly hard with my stealth skill, but it was at least enough to prevent me from flying at my full speed. Thus, it took a full two hours before Bella shouted out. “There! Is that the mountain that you were talking about?”

I followed Bella’s gaze, looking at a mountain far in the distance, little more than a glowing dot within the ash cloud on the horizon. Still, I knew to trust her eyesight. Like Diane’s affinity for stealth, this was something that seemed to go beyond simple skill levels.

I flew in the direction she indicated, weaving through the flying monsters as we passed. Once we got closer, Marron’s eyes lit up. “That’s the place! On the northern slope, near the base, there is a cave that leads into the ruins. That’s as far as I got last time, before the guardians of the ruins captured and killed me.”

“All of these guardians have predominantly reptilian features, but some have hard exoskeletons or rocky skin. Once they saw me, they dragged me into a prison within the mountain to question me. That’s how I learned who they were. And once they were done questioning, well…”

I nodded my head, maintaining my stealth field as I approached. Once I was in front of the mountain, it wasn’t hard to find the cave. So, I landed outside of it, letting the others dismount before returning to my normal form. There was simply no way that I would be able to fight in my dragon form within the cave, after all.

Seeing Marron eager to go in, I grabbed her shoulder to stop her. “Let’s investigate first,” I told her. “You don’t know their layout, or where the core of the dungeon is, do you?”

Marron hesitated, slowly lowering her head. I could see that she was used to acting on her own, rarely having to worry about any encounters that may await her within a dungeon. “Alright, let’s do it your way, then. What do you suggest?”

I lifted a hand, generating the familiar sentries and sending them into the dungeon. Even without the complete invisibility that comes from their master evolution, which I was already close to unlocking, these were unlikely to be noticed unless someone was actively looking for them.

Once the sentries were sent into the cave , I created a series of screens to show the others their progress. At the same time, I focused on channeling Martial King into the skill, projecting a map of the cave interior as it was explored.

“I didn’t know that you could send things like this into a dungeon,” Marron marveled, but I shook my head.

“I don’t think that they’ve entered the proper dungeon yet. Most likely, the dungeon is further in.” As I spoke, the first of the local Chimerae appeared. Like Marron said, it had a reptilian head and stone-covered arms. It stood near the entrance, eyes narrowing as if it were waiting.

“They must have increased their vigilance after seeing you,” Diane pointed out. “They had probably gone a long time without any visitors.

“Look, there,” Marron pointed at one of the screens, which depicted a blackened door with a vertical eye engraved on it. “That mark was on the ruins that I explored. That should be our way in. But… how are we going to get it open without alerting the guards? I’d rather not fight them if at all possible.”

“We’ll just walk right in,” Diane said in a confident tone, turning her head to look at me. “Ready?”

I took a deep breath, intensifying the Wraith Field. The world seemed to turn slightly clouded, surprising Marron. Already used to this, Diane and Bella lifted off the ground, explaining the method to Marron. After this, the four of us flew into the cave, hidden from the view of the guards. Following the map I had created earlier, we navigated to the door.

Marron still seemed confused, only to gasp audibly when Diane flew up into the door, and then through it. Bella followed soon after, with Marron and I in the rear. On the other side of the door was a pitch-black cave, causing the first two to enter a defensive stance, unable to accurately see their surroundings.

Once I was inside, I created a glowing orb with Martial King, looking around. “I don’t see any sign of monsters,” I pointed out to the others, though I didn’t immediately drop my stealth.

The walls were clearly unnatural, neatly carved bricks with empty torch sconces bolted to the walls at regular intervals. The floor had a thick layer of dust, showing that the door had not been opened in some time. In addition, the air tasted stale, which caused Marron’s eyes to widen.

“There might be a limited supply of breathable air in here,” she said, slowly walking ahead. “The ruin seems large enough that it should last us a little while, but keep an eye out for any dizziness or related status effects. Drake, can you map out the interior, and see if you can find another exit? Anywhere that we can open up for some ventilation.”

I agreed, sending out another wave of sentries to focus on mapping the area. Unlike the caves outside, these ruins had proper hallways, splitting off in paths at ninety-degree angles. However, my brow soon furrowed, looking at the map. “Marron, wait. Diane, Bella, come look at this.”

The three girls paused, moving over to see what had me concerned. I pointed at the map, where two sentries had crossed paths, creating criss-crossing lines. “According to each sentry, that junction shouldn’t exist. Neither one went up or down, and they both see that region as a different, straight hallway.”

“Over there, too,” Diane said, pointing at another intersection that appeared. “Marron, do you know anything about this?”

Marron blinked, quickly shaking her head. “N-no, I’ve never heard of a mechanism like this.”

Curious, I decided to start from the beginning to be more thorough. “Maybe it is just the skill channeling wrong,” I muttered. “I’ll have the sentries turn back to start over.”

As soon as I said that, and ordered the sentries to return, all of the screens went dark at once. I froze, my eyes widening slightly. “What’s the matter, Drake?” Bella asked. “Aren’t you going to release some new ones?”

“I never dismissed the old ones,” I pointed out, startling the three. “As soon as I had them turn around, they were all destroyed.”

Diane’s eyes narrowed at this. “In other words, there are some special rules to this dungeon. First, the dungeon’s interior changes based on the paths you take. Secondly, there is a restriction where you are not allowed to turn back at any point. You have to commit to every decision you make.”

“What if you hit a dead end?” Bella asked, but Marron simply gulped in response.

“Then, it’s a dead end,” she answered, causing Bella’s eyes to widen slightly.

“Drake,” Diane spoke up, turning to look at me. “Keep the current map up and release another series of sentries. Put them in groups of two, all going along the same path. I want to see if the map changes for each ‘participant’, or if it is purely based on the choices you make.”

I agreed, summoning another group of sentries and pairing them up like Diane had suggested. Using Martial King, I overlaid the new map on the old one, the old passages lighting up as sentries flew down them. Meanwhile, Marron and Bella focused on the screens.

“I’m not seeing any inconsistencies between the paired sentries,” Bella spoke up. “They’re both getting the same twists and turns.”

“Drake, spread them out. Have one sentry follow behind the other,” Diane suggested, and I promptly changed their patrol formation. This led to a rather startling discovery. As soon as the leading sentry turned at an intersection, it disappeared from the view of the one behind it, only appearing again when the rear sentry made the same choice.

“Okay, that explains that part,” Diane muttered in a relieved tone. “Each intersection is a concealed teleport point. Once you enter a new corridor, you will appear in an entirely different part of the ruin. Your map looked like the hallways overlapped, but the sentries were in two completely different regions.”

“What do we do, then?” Marron asked, curious. “If we can’t map the terrain, do we just pick randomly?”

“No, we can still map it,” I muttered. “If I make each sentry provide its own, disconnected map, we would just need to follow whichever one leads to the goal, right?”

“How long do you think that will take?” Diane asked, furrowing her brow. “We don’t know how many different paths there are, or if there are any other rules.”

I could only answer honestly. “Like you said, we don’t know. Marron, were there any quotes you remember from the main ruin that could help us here?”

Marron closed her eyes, thinking. “It was mostly philosophical stuff, like stay true to yourself, don’t question your own heart, that kind of thing. This should be the Trial of Resolve.”

Diane nodded her head, taking a deep breath. “In that case, let’s go.” Without another word, she started walking ahead, towards the first intersection.

“What about mapping?” Bella called out, but Diane didn’t look back.

“If this is the Trial of Resolve, the best answer will be to simply stick by your decisions. Every path should lead to the end eventually, as long as you don’t turn back. So, we will go in a straight line. Any time we are forced to turn, turn to the right. Remember, don’t turn around, don’t look behind you, and don’t take a single step backwards. A trial like this will often include illusions meant to scare you or trick you into failing.”

After she said that, she stepped forward again, disappearing from view.

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