Chapter 64: Truid Dungeon Quest (5) Reunion
Tyr sighed, "Well, I guess I can\'t complain much even if this is one of the three treasures. It\'s not like I would have been able to make it on my own outside of this dungeon."
He turned, walking toward the various vegetables and plants in the crop plot.
"And if this pill is one of the treasures, that just means these plants are scarce and valuable... I won\'t let them go to waste in this rut." He decided to make the most out of the situation.
In just a few minutes, every plant and ingredient in the room was wiped out clean. Even the mortar and pestle weren\'t spared, all stored inside of his 5x5 ft. storage ring that he had gotten while on his travels to Mycelia.
He placed his hands on his hips and exhaled, "Hah~~ let\'s see... what the hell am I supposed to do now?"
He left the small room, "Maybe I retrace my steps and go to other death chambers?"
But when he got to the room where the snake was, he noticed that the exit that he had entered through was fully sealed.
"Huh... that\'s odd." He looked around the entire serpent chamber but didn\'t find a single area that even allowed a smidge of airflow through.
In the end, he was back in the room with no ceiling.
"Think Tyr... what\'s the answer out of this one?" As soon as he said these words while staring up at the tall walls, a realization entered his mind, "The only other possible thing that is out of order is the fact that these walls... they are far rougher than the smooth walls of the other rooms."
He walked forward and grabbed a small natural ledge. He then grabbed another one that was slightly above the first one--placing his feet on one bump that was near the ground.
Just like this, he began to ascend the wall. After climbing 20 feet, he grabbed onto a rock bump that abruptly dislodged and became loose--causing him to lose his grip on the wall and fall back down.
He tried to grab onto some rocks as he fell to keep some of his progress but all that did was scrape the shit out of his fingers.
A nail was even torn straight off. Tyr squinted hard, "Tsk." He exclaimed in slight pain, shaking his hand.
"This won\'t be easy. But it\'s doable. I just have to test each rock before grabbing it. I can\'t fail too much either... I don\'t know the time I have."
He furrowed his brows, "Anyone in my squad... I hold them to be as close as family. We have gone through thick and thin with each other... I won\'t let them down. And even if they are fine and don\'t need this medicine, I only have less than 18 hours now to climb up. Otherwise, we fail the quest."
He furrowed his brows, continuing to climb up the walls.
Several minutes passed as he continued to climb. Many times he fell before reaching even the 100 feet mark.
His body was damaged each time since there was no way to fall without getting slightly injured. If he let himself go all the way down, he would take heavy damage on the ground.
And if he tried to stop his fall to get a more graceful landing, he would just scratch and tear open his hands.
Two hours passed.
Tyr\'s journey up the wall was still treacherous. However, he quickly understood that he could use Blink Step in case he accidentally made a mistake.
It was a save for the most part--unless he Blink Stepped to another bad ledge.
Despite this, he continued to climb. As he got higher and higher, he began to make less mistakes.
At the same time, his body was getting more tired by the second.
Keeping your grip for so long was excruciating, and feeling the pain radiate through your body was a constant reminder that this was far too difficult.
Each wave of the tingling feeling of knives digging into Tyr\'s hands and feet made him want to quit.
Yet, \'It\'s not like I have a choice. Damn...\'
He had thought of using Rudra to climb up, but this space was simply too small for the beast.
It was unfortunate, but all he could do was hope for the best and keep on going.
Multiple more hours passed...
Tyr fell and got back up, no longer falling all the way down to the bottom after reaching 500 feet. He had multiple safe ledges and spots that he had marked by now and memorized through pure mental blisters.
At some point, Tyr forgot all about his pain. His body went numb, and his mind was in a state of tunnel vision where he didn\'t see anything but the top inch closer and closer.
"Finally... I think this is the last piece." Hanzo said, placing a large stone tablet into a slot in the ground.
He took a step back, sweat trickling off of his forehead as he looked at the grand puzzle before him.
It was over 20 feet in both length and width, filled with stone slabs that were 2 by 1 ft long.
"Over 200 of them... what an insane dungeon," Jonas said while sitting on his rear, exhausted from all that just happened.
"See, I told you it wasn\'t a normal dungeon." Hanzo joked as the door in front of them slowly began to open up.
They had been stuck in a room for several hours, fighting random beasts that came from holes in the ceiling while trying to solve this giant stone puzzle.
Each stone had a line on it, and you had to place the stones in the perfect position to where the lines all matched up and you went from the very top--the start--and slithered all the way down to the bottom--the finish line.
Due to the waves of beasts, it was tiresome work. Yet, they finally managed to pull it off.
"This next room..." Jonas said, standing up as he slowly walked closer to where Hanzo was.
Hanzo was standing right in front of the opening door, "Yeah... it\'s the final room before the boss room, which is the final one before the treasure room. This was one of the only rooms that all other rooms connected to eventually unless they were dead ends."
They entered inside and noticed a fairly large space with an elevated pool in the middle filled with bright and transparent light-blue water.
There were pillars all on the sides of the chamber, with several ancient encryptions on the wall.
"Huh?" Hanzo raised a brow as he saw three figures on the ledge beside the small pool of water.
Yurin and Cyllia looked up, their faces brightening slightly.
"You finally arrived!" Cyllia said, running up to Hanzo with open arms.
Time seemed to slow down as two round, bouncing planets quickly assaulted the short young man.
As she neared him, however, he pushed her behind him and walked toward Yurin.
Cyllia landed on Jonas\' leg, crying, "I missed you guys so much!"
Jonas sighed, limping over to Yurin and Urvil who was lying beside him--Cyllia stuck to his left leg.
"What\'s wrong with her?" Hanzo said while looking at Urvil, sitting down beside the pool.
Yurin had a grim expression. He explained what had happened up until this point. All the trouble they had gone through and also what happened to Urvil.
Hanzo had a stern expression by the end after hearing it all, "If Tyr doesn\'t show up soon, we might have to abandon this quest--"
"No." Yurin interrupted, "It\'s fine... she will be fine. We are already so close... we have to finish this quest at the very least."
Hanzo squinted his eyes slightly at Yurin. \'Yurin...\' He said inwardly.
The others stared at Yurin as well, quickly sobering up from their previous feelings of exhaustion.
Cyllia was the first to speak after a short silence, "Well... I suppose that\'s what Urvil would have wanted. I\'m sure she will kill us if we tell her we quit the mission because of her. It will make her feel horrible." Cyllia sounded genuinely concerned.
Hanzo continued to stay silent.
"You know how harsh she takes these things..." Yurin said, seeming as though he was also conflicted.
"We will wait for Tyr," Hanzo said, lying beside the pool and closing his eyes.
The others sighed, sitting down and making themselves comfortable.
"One more stone..." Tyr\'s voice echoed through this tall tunnel as he grabbed onto another ledge.
His arms were throbbing with pain and numbness.
"One more stone..."
His face was pale, the blood from his body only entering his hands and feet.
Tyr continued to climb in solitude, his voice echoing through the tall chamber. Each more sentence was another reminder to him to keep going...
"One more stone... one more stone... one more stone..."