NOVEL NEXT Chapter 24: The Next Corridor
Travelling back along the corridor was a painstaking affair. Dominic wasn’t going to assume that the traps had been deactivated just because he’d already been along there once. In fact, there was more evidence of them being reactivated than deactivated – the pit was no longer in evidence.
The young lion suspiciously eyed the innocent-looking area of stone tiles where so recently there had been a gaping hole with razor-sharp spikes at the bottom. He still couldn’t spot whatever had triggered the pit. There was no trip wire, no tile which didn’t look entirely flush with the rest of the floor.
Instead, when he got to the area which had collapsed under him the last time, he decided to edge around it. Pressing himself to the wall, he knew that even if it did collapse, he’d still have a foothold. This time, he managed to get past without triggering the trap. Whether that was because the trap was completely deactivated or he just managed to avoid the action which activated it, Dominic didn’t know.
Regardless, he breathed out a sigh of relief when he knew he was past its limits. Thanks to knowing approximately where traps had been the last time he traversed this corridor, Dominic succeeded in reaching the entrance chamber without fault.
Well, almost without fault – he did accidentally trigger a dart trap. The fact that he was able to do that meant that he was glad he’d been so careful with the rest of the traps. Clearly they weren’t all deactivated - that’s even if any of them were at all.
He’d stepped over the fine trip-wire with his first paw, but misjudged either distance or his speed very slightly, snagging it very slightly with his second. The mistake triggered a number of darts to fly out from a set of vertically-placed holes in the wall. All but one dart missed completely, obviously aimed more at a bipedal figure than one like him.
Fortunately, the gorget proved its use immediately: the one dart that was correctly placed to hit him happened to fly directly at the side of his neck, and was immediately stopped by the leather of the armour. It stuck in the fabric, so Dominic brushed it off, looking at it in curiosity.
A long point with a faint hint of green down at its base, presumably making sure that it flew correctly, the dart was nothing special. Dominic tried getting some information from it, but his attempt failed. When he’d mentally asked for more information about the candle, the torch, or one of the statues he hadn’t got anything either.
Maybe it’s because these things belong to the dungeon while my new gorget has been given to me? Dominic wondered. Or maybe these items are considered too commonplace to be given a description? He’d have to test other items. Actually…. A thought occurred and he turned back to the entrance to the corridor that he’d just exited.
Trying ‘information’ on the small area of stone where he knew there was a spike trap, he wasn’t surprised – though a little disappointed – when nothing happened. After all, what kind of trap would it be if an explorer could just find out everything they needed to know by asking for ‘information’? He’d dumped the dart in his inventory anyway – if it started getting overfull, he could always get rid of it later. Though he was a little curious to see whether it would disappear of its own accord over time or when he left the dungeon.
Sitting in the entrance chamber, Dominic took a moment to look at his status.
Status of Dominic Martin Cole / Leo
Species: Lion (body) / human (mind), Two-Souled
Level: Half-step Evolved Beast Level 9 (Path of Evolution)
Progress to Evolution: 94/178 PP level up
Hunger level: 73%
Thirst level: 64%
Quests: A Noble Endeavour; Regain what is Lost
Acquired Abilities:
Quick Strike (T0) level 2 (61% to level 3) – 3 SP for +25% speed; 6 SP for +40% speed
Powerful Kick level 1 (44%)
Crushing Bite level 1 (30%)
Rage level 1 (24%)
Defensive abilities:
- Fur level 3 (6-8 Slicing damage reduction, 1-2 Piercing damage reduction, 3-4 Crushing damage reduction, 1-2 Tearing damage reduction)
- Skin level 3 (2-3 Slicing damage reduction, 1-2 Piercing damage reduction) Flexibility +1%
Offensive abilities:
- Claws level 2 (6-11 Slicing damage, 6-8 Tearing damage, 3-5 Piercing damage)
- Bite level 2 (32-50 Crushing damage, 35-63 Tearing damage, 28-40 Piercing damage)
General abilities:
- Muscular Body level 5 (max speed 24mps; max speed duration 15s) (83/105 SP)
- Carnivore Constitution level 2 (214/350 HP) +20% regeneration
Equipment:
- Leather Gorget (T1) - +12 to Piercing/Tearing/Slicing damage reduction and +6 to Crushing damage reduction to attacks to the neck. 6m² storage space (non-stasis)
Dominic noticed a number of interesting things. First of all, he had a new entry, that of equipment. Obviously, his gorget was the only thing there. Next, he could see that he was starting to get hungry, thirsty, and tired. If I go outside will I find some trodils to eat? And even if I do, will I be able to get back in without having to do that key quest again?
Though would it be such a bad thing if he had to? It would use time, sure, but he’d earn Prey Points for it…. Or he could just have a sleep here. Actually, that sounds pretty good. He didn’t have a meter to measure his tiredness levels, but he certainly felt fatigue. It would give his stamina and health a bit of time to recover too. And there was no guarantee that he would even find any trodils outside – he’d cleared them out pretty thoroughly.
This room seems safe enough, Dominic decided, gazing around at it critically. Although the ceiling was high, there were no obvious places where something could be hiding. The walls were pretty bare except for that mosaic and the two torches, so no obvious secret doors there either.
The floor wasn’t the most comfortable – hard and cold – but Dominic found that he could cope well enough in his new body. A cat is a master of being able to sleep in a variety of ridiculous places and a lion proved no less capable of this than a domestic tabby. Pillowing his head on his large paws, Dominic relaxed and drifted into a watchful sleep.
*****
Time was hard to measure at the best of times – inside a dark temple within a dungeon where the light source never varied, it was impossible. All Dominic knew was that he awoke feeling refreshed. His stamina bar was full, and his health bar had increased by a few points.
Once more he wondered whether he ought to go out and search for some trodils to top himself off, but he was discouraged by a sudden thought. What if not only could he not enter the temple without the key pieces, but there were no trodils for him to fight either?
The room he’d just been in hadn’t completely reset, after all. The candle hadn’t replenished itself; the altar hadn’t moved back to cover the two pillars. What if small things like the thieving trodil or the statues moving back into place were reset but major things like the mini-boss trodils or the altar were not?
Maybe I should just explore the next corridor and finish with this dungeon, Dominic thought to himself. He was above half health anyway, so hopefully that would see him through.
It was a risk, but so was everything, so after second-guessing himself a couple of times, the human-turned-lion moved to inspect the second corridor.
It looked pretty identical to the first one he’d gone down, though bent in the other direction at the end. Guessing that identical meant that it was also trapped, Dominic started his painstaking checks for any indication on floor, wall or ceiling of something about to shoot at him, stab at him, fall on him, or collapse beneath him.
Has my patience improved? he wondered idly as he got about halfway. It was a good question: he’d never been someone who’d get so absorbed into puzzles that he lost all sense of time and his surroundings. Sure, he’d get absorbed by stories in that way, hours disappearing in the pages of a good yarn, but not puzzles. And this was a puzzle, one that required him to be alert at every moment. Maybe it’s Leo’s influence.
It kind of made sense – a predator like a lion which relied on catching its prey unawares had to be able to keep a patient alertness for an elongated period of time. If it was true, however, it raised a disturbing question: if Leo was influencing his ability to be patient, what else was he influencing? And did Dominic want that influence or not?
Those thoughts were too distracting. Dominic resolved to question them later when he wasn’t picking his way between traps which could easily injure or even kill him if they caught him unawares.
It felt like a long time before he managed to make it to the end of the corridor, and it probably was, but Dominic considered it time well-spent when he reached the bend without a single injury. Once more he hadn’t quite made it through without fault, though.
He’d managed to trigger two blades of stone that came swinging through the corridor at mid-body height – on a human. Fortunately for Dominic, that was a little above his head so he didn’t even have to dodge them. There are advantages to being a different shape than the trap-maker expected, he mused.
Though it had ended up being a disadvantage in the previous room when the dungeon creator obviously expected someone to be able to pick the candle up to carry it to the torches directly. Ah well, I found a way. Fortunately.
Not yet setting foot in the room ahead of him, Dominic surveyed the space he’d newly gained access to. It was alarmingly similar in shape to the previous – now he’d thought it, Dominic couldn’t rid himself of the comparison to a coffin. There was also an almost identical altar on the opposite side of the irregular hexagon from the door.
He did breathe a sigh of relief as he realised that, although the torches were in identical places, there were no stone statues. We won’t be repeating the last room, then. There was also no candle on the surface of the altar, another indication that whatever would happen in this room wouldn’t be a repeat of his previous experience. He did have a sinking feeling that this altar might not be the one he was searching for. Again.
The room was completely bare, even more so than the previous one had been. The only thing that looked ever so slightly different from the previous was that there were six hexagonal floor tiles which were a different colour than the grey stone around.
They were scattered around the room, the closest only a couple of tiles away from where Dominic was standing – a red one – and the furthest a yellow one which was right next to the altar. Otherwise there was a green, a blue, a purple, and an orange tile.
Come on, this can’t be another trap, can it? Dominic moaned to himself, the oddly-coloured tiles feeling like a red flag. There are only two rooms for heaven’s sake! One of them had to be the end of the dungeon...surely?
Feeling uneasy, but figuring that he didn’t have much choice, Dominic stepped carefully towards the altar. He didn’t dare touch any of the coloured tiles in case that would set off the trap. It was only when he was already halfway across the room that it occurred to him that this might be some weird game of ‘the floor is lava’.
When that thought appeared, he shrugged it away – if he’d already made an error by not stepping on the coloured tiles, it wasn’t likely to be improved by him suddenly switching to doing it now.
Getting to the altar finally, he hesitated for a long moment. Then, deciding that he might as well get whatever it was over with, he reared up and thumped down on the altar, forepaws first.
When the sound of the door slamming shut hit his ears and words started appearing before his eyes, he could only think one thing: Damn it! Another bloody trap!