Chapter 023 - Hard Counting

The brief walk back to the split where she’d spotted the first choker was quiet and she was pleased to see that it was one of the critters that had attacked her back in the hall with the pool. She stopped right at the spot where the path split back towards the way she’d come-and the entrance-and deeper inside. Her glowstone was back out and she could easily see a turn almost immediately up ahead with more glow coming out of it. She rounded the bend and stumbled upon yet another split, clearly an effort to confuse someone lost in the dark and chased by ravenous wall-climbers.

To her left, going west inside the maze, she immediately spotted the edge of another of the wide pools of mana-tainted liquid. It was even wider than the last one at first glance from the angle she was standing at. Doesn’t seem like there are any of those chokers that way. She turned to where the path continued north and wandered that way for a moment, stopping when the path turned and peering around again. Still no monsters, she thought absently and stepped around, holding out her glowstone. The path ended there with nothing but some old worn carvings on the wall.

Nothing here, can’t make heads or tails of what that is. Looks like words or script? She squinted at them but they were far too deteriorated by whatever natural elements had been working on this place to parse out anything. Sighing, she made her way back to the large pool and stopped at the edge, squinting across to see if she could make out what was over there. She didn’t see a pedestal illuminated by the glow but she did see a dark shape in the rear that looked rigid. A box maybe?

She glanced up at the ceiling and her heart sank. Several of the hoops were corroded and torn by something, bits of them ripped off and leaving whole spaces between them that would make it impossible to cross. She frowned, I guess I’m not going that way, shit. That looks like treasure over there. 

She turned away and rubbed at her neck before following the path back to the intersection. She glanced down at her hand and curled the clawed gauntlets. Now that the excitement has worn off a bit, aren’t the rarities a little weird? The gauntlets are great and all but I got them kind of early and just a few bonus points in stats isn’t going to mean much at later levels. Seems a bit low for ‘Rare’. Maybe I’m missing something. She stopped and turned west again, the long hallway continued on before jerking towards the south. 

She rounded that corner and found another hallway in front of her. This one stretched down a bit before breaking off twice. Two east-west intersections in a row. She stopped at the first one and checked east first, knowing that if the maze itself conformed to the normal laws of reality that direction was technically where the entry hall ended. It was empty, just a short path and a black stone wall. To the west it stretched out into darkness and she could hear faint gurgling in the distance as well as a very low glow of another mana pool. A trio of white clouds milled around one another in the darkness.

Hm, south first? She kept moving south and stopped at the next intersection where the path ended. Again, east, and this time she found another one of those tiny pools of mana like the one she’d fallen in before. The sight of it gave her more heebie-jeebies than the big ones for some reason. Trauma response, probably, she thought with a deadpan expression before looking west and hesitating. The hall was completely dark save for the bit that was illuminated by her glowstone. It seemed to stretch on for a while before a glimmer in the dark caught her eye. She took a few paces forward and held the stone up, excitement rising in her gut.

The faint outline of a pedestal glimmered once as light reflected onto it.

Yes! There’s number two!

She took another step forward and paused again, looking down at her feet and then back at the pool of mana behind her. She frowned and rolled her eyes, Oh no, you’re not gonna trick me that easily. Long hallway with treasure at one end and a deathtrap at the other? Nice try.

She knelt down and held the glowstone over the floor, squinting at the tiles. For the first few feet they were plain, just like the rest of the flooring in this awful place. Then a mosaic band stretched across the floor about ten feet ahead of her. Past it the tiles of the floor were varied in appearance and design, some flat squares while others were embossed with various symbols and lines. 

Anna walked to the edge of the mosaic and looked down at the tiles. No idea what the symbols mean but they look like numbers maybe? She pursed her lips, One line, two lines, one block and two lines, huh…

She looked up at the pedestal but the light still didn’t reach far enough to see what was behind it or what the trap could be if she messed this up. I could test it, she mused and glanced over her shoulder towards where she’d come from. It’s probably going to try to push me into the pit somehow, so I’ll tap a tile and make a break for the other hallway.

A few steps to the right put her at the wall and right in front of a tile that had two blocks and a line on it. She looked at the others again, Wait… are the blocks tens? That would make this twenty-one. It was good information but she wasn’t going to know how to approach this until she tried a few things out. She tapped the tile with her foot and immediately started to move back, pressing her shoulder against the wall as a low click sounded down the hall. Then the wind came. A gale force of air blasted against her, pushing even through the slits in her helmet and forcing her to close her eyes. She was swept off her feet before she could even react and was shoved back towards the waiting pool of mana.

Fortunately, preparedness paid off and she tumbled into the connecting hall rather than into the hole intended to liquefy her flesh. It was a good feeling, not dying.

Anna just lay there on the stone for a few moments, staring up at the ceiling. Her heart was still settling from the scare. Welp, I saw it coming but that didn’t make it any better, she thought and got to her feet.

When she arrived back at the mosaic line she found the twenty-one plate had reset. She turned from it and made her way down the line, checking all the numbers. They ranged everywhere from one to-and she was just guessing-three hundred and twenty based on the ‘x’ symbols put in the place of the blocks. She took a step back and scanned the tiles further out. Hm… lots of sevens and threes for the smaller digits. Anna pursed her lips, No way, it can’t be that easy can it? She frowned, Well, I guess not easy. I doubt there’s more than a handful of people in my grade who have them memorized like I do.

She checked the numbers again just to be sure. That has to be it. If it is, mom, you are the greatest, she thought and put her foot down on the ‘one’ tile just at the edge of the mosaic. It depressed and clicked, nothing happened right away and she nearly let out a sigh of relief. Then it started ticking and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. Shit! 

Anna burst into motion, Three, Twenty-nine, uhh, there’s a Seven! Each step came with a click as the steady ticking grew more intense. Despite the urgency, her confidence only shot through the roof as she landed on a tile that said ‘seventy-one’ and didn’t get thrown off her feet. Prime Numbers! Hardcore mathematician parent for the win!

CLICK! CLICK! CLICK CLICK CLICK!

The glowstone’s light cast further and further as she made her way along the path, moving quickly but focusing enough not to make a mistake. Up ahead she could see the pedestal now and the fan behind it. It took up the entire wall in one big industrial-sized square. To make matters worse the fan was slowly beginning to pick up speed. The tiles only slow it down! Fuck! She hopped left and right, angling herself and moving as quickly as she could, the numbers blurring together as she felt the wind brush against her robes. Another step and the wind died a little before returning a heartbeat later. Before she even realized what was happening she was standing on the other set of mosaic and the fan was speeding up again.

No time to waste! She hurried to the pedestal and found another silver token waiting for her. She snatched it up, shoved it into her inventory, and turned, pumping her legs and racing for the tile she’d come in on only to realize that it was still depressed. Oh, you have got to be- there! She spotted a ‘seven’ panel on the far right and raced to it as the wind nearly got fast enough to topple her over. She caught herself on an ‘eighty-three’ and powered forward.

Come on, come on, ninety-one! Fifty-nine! Eleven! Uhh… she turned her head, Where’s the next one? Her robes flapped around her legs, the breeze was getting too intense. There! Seventy-SHIT! 

Her foot caught in the wind and landed on a ‘sixty-nine’ tile.

TOK! WHROOOOOSHHH

Anna spun, pulling out her club and quickly adjusting her grip. No fuckin’ way I’m getting roasted on this! She raised the weapon up with the crowbar point aimed down as the breeze tried to pick her up. She threw herself towards the ground instead and drove the hook into the space between two tiles. It caught, clipped, and slipped. No no no! She scrambled for another tile and felt her fingers slide along one edge as the wind blew harder. Anna grabbed on, holding for dear life and trying again with the crowbar end of her club. This time it dug into stone and held as the gale ripped across her body.

It didn’t take much for her to lose her grip on the tile, leaving one hand clinging to the crowbar as it swayed slightly in the increasing pressure. She looked ‘down’ as the wind picked her body up and saw the gaping maw of the mana pool waiting for her. She turned to where the hallway opened up, I can treat the opening like a ledge and catch myself on the wall. She looked back to the wall behind her and tried to reach her foot towards it to get some sort of leverage. Not close enough. I need to get over just a little bit. 

The wind kept howling, it felt like it was going to peel her armor off if she held on any longer. Her bones creaked in her hands, her muscles screaming at her to let go. She wrenched herself up a foot and swung her body, Only one thing to do. I’m not going to enjoy this.

She threw herself at the wall closest to her and opposite the exit, hitting it and pulling her crowbar with her as the wind started to carry her away. All of her strength went into kicking back against the hard surface and she launched herself across the room, rapidly moving further down even as she crossed. It was a nauseating feeling that ended when she clipped the corner of the opening of the connecting hall and her vision swam, pain exploding in her forehead. She rolled across the ground and hit the stone painfully.

Something cracked in her shoulder.

“Augh! Fucking-shit-balls god-” she gasped and panted, falling to one side and rolling once more onto her back. “Damn it. That hurt.”

She didn’t even bother getting up after that, just laying there as her shoulder throbbed. The notification waiting for her didn’t help matters, buzzing like a hornet in her skull. She didn’t even have any potions to spare on healing it, which meant dipping into her precious medicinal water supply and hoping that was enough to at least speed up the process. She pulled the flask from her inventory and took a swig, staring up at the ceiling and brooding.

I’m not convinced which part of this dungeon is worse now, the Forest or the Labyrinth. I’m leaning towards the latter, she griped and rubbed her head as faint warmth began to blossom in her shoulder. It still hurt like hell but it looked like it would mend with enough time. She closed her eyes and sighed, plucking the token from her inventory to check it. 

Stygian Completion Token of the Disciple - Taint (Unique)
This token can be redeemed for a Disciple Token upon leaving The Tainted Halls.

She smiled, It was worth it though. One more to go and I… don’t know what to do next. Do I just leave? She rolled her eyes, I guess I’ll see it once it updates.

Bonus Condition Update!
Bonus Condition: Find one more Completion Token.

“Alright!” she sighed and put it back. She was about to take a moment to catch her breath when a gurgle precluded a pair of saucer-sized black eyes peering down at her from above. She frowned, Little shit, she thought irritably and cranked her presence to maximum, blasting it with the full force of her aura. That seemed to be enough to chase it away as it let out a garbled shriek and scampered back along the ceiling, fleeing towards where it had likely come from.

Anna pulled herself up to a sitting position and leaned against the wall, her shoulder creaking angrily in the process. Guess I’m not getting any rest, she thought and fixed her eyes on the passage where a cloud of white turned and disappeared. I’m so tired, she sighed. It feels like every waking moment is a scrape with death. She knew well enough that this constant state of mind wasn’t healthy but vigilance was all she could depend on at this point. She snorted out a derisive laugh, It’s not like the bags under my eyes can get any worse.

A pair of clouds of white scampered out of the passage and she cocked an eyebrow, Really? Alright! Fine. She focused on the closest one as it scrambled up onto the ceiling and with a flex of will and the momentary collapse of her presence, she cast Aura Snap. She didn’t see what happened, but she certainly heard the loud crack and pop of something bursting under pressure. Her stomach churned as a wet slap of something hitting the floor followed.

She turned her eyes towards the second attacker and fixed it with a stare, “You want some too?”

It did not. She smirked before wincing as the buzzing in her head reminded her she still had one notification left. She let out a sigh and opened it.

Athletics (Mortal-Common-Base)
Opportunity comes to those who reach for it. You jump, vault, climb, and run your way towards it. Your ability to move in dynamic ways improves as this skill does.

Her eyes went wide before going deadpan, “Seriously?”