NOVEL NEXT Chapter XLVII (47)- Dungeon Traps
Chapter XLVII (47)- Dungeon Traps
Ione appeared surprisingly calm about their situation.
“You’ve still got the other book, right?” she said. “The one that ties you to your sister? Just get started on another divination spell. You’ll lose a bit more blood, but that’s hardly the end of the world.”
Kizu lifted it from his pack. Nothing else was missing. Even the dagger was still there. Despite the shapeshifter’s continual interest in it. If Basil had truly betrayed them, he could have done much worse damage by taking Kizu’s entire pack. But Basil’s disappearance still made no sense whatsoever. As much as Kizu racked his brain, he couldn’t think of a decent reason for it. Then again, he never completely understood Basil’s reasons for wanting to join him in the first place.
Kizu handed one of his ration potions to Ione. They tapped vials and then downed them together. Kizu grimaced. The chef hadn’t been lying. It did the job, but the taste and texture reminded him of the lumpy bland porridge the crone used to feed him.
After unwrapping the dagger, Kizu lightly pressed the tip of it against his finger, pricking his skin. A bead of blood was absorbed by the dark metal. Sojan’s eye snapped open.
“Oh! Hello!”
“I need your advice,” Kizu said.
“I advise stabbing something,” Sojan said sagely. “That girl over there looks full of blood. A bit scrawny, but probably the best option in the nearby vicinity. A stab straight to the spine would be ideal.”
“Not about that. My friend disappeared while we were asleep. Do you know where he went?”
“You’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m a dagger, not a scrying orb. Now, let’s get back to the more important matter. If you’re pining after that girl and don’t want her stabbed, I’ll begrudgingly allow you to stab one of the rodents scurrying around. But in doing so you will be taking advantage of my absolute lowest pit of desperation.”
“They’re an endangered species,” Kizu said.
“So am I!”
“This is the dagger?” Ione asked, leaning over it. “And you said it talks? Is it a magical creature?”
“Enchantment,” the dagger muttered. “Though I would be significantly more alive if you would just stab someone.”
Kizu relayed the message to Ione. He suspected that he could only hear Sojan due to using his own blood to awaken it.
“Can it guide us?” Ione asked.
“No, it already told me as much.”
“Just stab something already,” the dagger mumbled as its eye drooped closed.
Kizu sighed and wrapped it back in the cloth. Then he took out his sister’s divination book. He started the ritual, placing the book in the center of the circle. It worked perfectly, which was a relief. Kizu had worried the World Dungeon might throw off its divination. But it seemed to point him in the same direction as the previous day.
They left the cavern behind, though Ione took a sonney with her to study while she rode on her lizard. Surprisingly, the critter didn’t seem to mind Ione removing it from its home. It appeared content with its new lot in life. The creature was either extremely placid or too stupid to notice the change in scenery. Likely both. Kizu was beginning to suspect why the rodents were so rare. It was surprising the species survived this long.
A deep moaning noise echoed through the tunnel, breaking them from the monotony of the walk. They stopped. The moan occurred again; it sounded not too far away.
“Is that Basil?” Ione asked.
Kizu listened closely. “It’s hard to say. It’s definitely not his most recent voice, but he might have completely changed since we last saw him. And if he was in trouble, who knows what kind of noise he would make?”
“I imagine he would make the ‘HELP ME I’M DYING’ sort of noise,” Ione said. “But what do I know?”
After a short debate, they decided to take the detour down the side tunnel. As they did, Kizu realized that the tunnel wasn’t a cave at all. The circular path was built from cobblestones that ached over their heads.
Dozens of small lights glinted at the end of the tunnel. As they approached, Kizu realized it wasn’t a light source, but the reflection of their fireflies in a mirror. When they reached the mirror, they stopped and stared at it. Other than the mirror, the tunnel appeared to be a dead end. There was no sign of where the moaning had been coming from.
“I don’t like this,” Ione said, scowling at her reflection with malice. “We should turn around.
“Hold on,” Kizu said, leaning in closer to the mirror. “Why is this here?”
He reached out and tapped the mirror, listening for a false back on it. He regretted the action instantly. Ione’s reflection faded away into a murky white background, leaving only his own reflection on the mirror. It blinked at him. Then it smiled. The reflection’s cheeks split open, allowing the smile to spread all the way back to his molars.
The moaning occurred all around them, louder than ever and shaking them to the bone. Not from the mirror itself, it was more like the entire tunnel had come alive and was attempting to wheeze out a breath of air. Kizu examined the mirror through his spellsense, something he should have done from the beginning, and saw it oozing advanced spellcraft of a mastery level he’d never seen before.
“On second thought, let’s go.”
They left, thankfully without issue. When Kizu looked back over his shoulder, the smiling version of himself silently buckled over laughing behind them. Just as they got out of sight of it, Kizu thought he saw it wink.
“Well,” Ione said, clinging to the back of her giant lizard. “That could have definitely gone worse. Still, glad it zeroed in on you and not me.”
Kizu shuddered. “Let’s just keep moving.”
He followed his earlier divination’s impression. It was significantly more difficult without the atlas, as they continued to run into dead-ends, but he did make progress towards the location. They avoided a few more of the invisible mouths and almost fell in two different pit traps. Thankfully, Ione always went first so her summoned giant lizard mount triggered everything and it simply climbed back out without issue.
After what felt like a day's worth of stumbling through the dungeon, Kizu finally decided to start looking for a place to hunker down and get some sleep. When they entered a perfectly normal looking square room, the entrance slammed closed behind them, startling them both as it sealed them inside.
Then, of course, the ceiling creaked overhead, and several streams of water began to pour down from above.
Ione immediately began to sketch a summon on the wall with her piece of chalk, but Kizu gestured her to stop.
“I can’t swim,” Ione said, panicking while she continued to mark up the wall. The water was already calf deep.
“That’s fine.” Kizu reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew two vials. He passed one to Ione.
“You won’t be able to swim still,” he said. “But hang onto me and we should be fine. Just hold your breath. Try to keep the air from escaping your skin too.”
Ione took the vial, then glanced at the knee-deep water. “I’m still going to wait for you at the ceiling. I don’t want to be in that water a moment longer than I need to be.” Then she climbed back up on her lizard mount which scampered up the wall vertically.
Kizu stared down at the murky water. It felt surprisingly warm.
Mort hummed and looked at him.
“You’ll be fine. You know how to swim already. Just follow my lead and help Ione.”
Owl monkeys weren’t made for aquatic environments. But his bond worked two ways and Mort had been able to adapt over the years bonded to him. The monkey was still pretty terrible at swimming, but he could stay afloat if necessary.
It felt like only a moment later that he was treading water, the ceiling slowly getting closer. He examined it closely. Yes, his plan should work fine. “We’re going to enter where the water is coming out of,” he explained to Ione and Mort. “The grate is too small to get humans through, but a small monkey and a few frogs should fit fine.” Good news. He had been more than a little worried he might need to transform Mort into a frog as well. That sounded disastrous.
When his head pressed up against the ceiling, he grabbed Ione underwater and looked her in the eye. Wordlessly, they both drank their potion.
As he gulped it down, he felt something brush up against his leg. Only then did he wonder why the grate’s gaps were wide enough for Mort to fit through.