Chapter 128: Chapter 121 – Hello?

They explored the room, but the only rewards they could find were the ones in the bowls. It felt like an offering room to the gods.

“Should we take these?” Raz looked at the shoes doubtfully. “They’re magical, but only barely. And I’m not sure if the dungeon would like it. The display…”

As he spoke, Katya was reaching into the bowl that held the coins to pull them out. While they weren’t Etherium, Serenity assumed they were probably still a local currency of some sort, or Katya would have ignored them. “I’m not worried about the dungeon. This has to be how it’s decided to do the loot boxes, we’re probably near the end of the level. Some dungeons are creative, especially wild dungeons.”

“You can have it,” Serenity stated. “I don’t like dealing with gods, and this is a bit too close to that for my taste.”

Katya dropped the coins in her pouch. “Killing their worshippers isn’t?” She shrugged. “We’re in a dungeon. The only God likely to be able to see in here is the God of Dungeons, and if there even is one, he or she wouldn’t mind us doing what you do in a dungeon.”

Serenity shrugged. “I’m sure Lady Luck can as well, so I’m not inclined to doubt other Gods. Your choice is yours, but I’ll skip this one.” If there was a God Serenity could believe in, it would be one like Lady Luck; she didn’t tell you what you had to do, she just gave you the chance to do what you wanted or needed - even if she did sometimes put her finger on the scale.

“I don’t think there is a God of Dungeons,” Raz said. “I’ve looked, and all I was able to find talked about dungeons respecting Order’s Voice.” Despite his statement, Raz didn’t pick up the shoes.

Katya shrugged and tucked them into her pack as she went by.

Exploring the room didn’t yield any more prizes, but it did reveal several doors. One seemed to lead farther in the direction they’d been headed before, so that’s the direction they went as they left.

It led to an open, bare room with stone walls, a stone floor, and a vaulted ceiling. It was the only room so far without paint on the walls. Serenity looked around and didn’t see anything, so he started forward, only to freeze before he took his second step.

If he finished the step, he would die or be painfully immobilized.

The knowledge simply flashed into his mind and he stepped backwards instead of forwards to avoid it. That had to be Moment of Prescience kicking in. He hadn’t realized how unpleasant it was going to be.

“There’s something wrong with this room. I’m not sure what.” Serenity looked around the room. He still didn’t see anything. “Do you see anything strange? Don’t step out there, it’s dangerous.”

Raz stepped forward, even with where Serenity was standing, and looked around the room. “The floor is red, except for the first brick next to the wall all the way around, and that’s too thin to easily walk on. There has to be a trick.” He knelt down and examined the floor. “I think there are a bunch of pressure plates, and if you step on one, the floor tilts and sends you sliding to the middle. Can’t tell what happens there from here. We’d have to avoid all the pressure plates, or somehow disable the entire trap. The problem is, all of the nearby floor tiles look like they’re pressure plates - all except for that single border of bricks.”

Serenity nodded. There were tools that could be used, but the best way to handle something like this was a traps specialist. Raz would probably eventually work it out; Serenity couldn’t tell how he’d worked out that many of the floor tiles were pressure plates so quickly. Still, maybe there was a way Serenity could speed it up?

Moment of Prescience had warned him. Maybe something similar would help? Serenity thought for a moment, then triggered Time’s Eye. He’d tried using it in combat during one of the Tutorials, but the different views it offered quickly grew confusing. He’d need to spend some serious time on it to be able to use it quickly and well. He suspected it was an ability he would still be trying to master for years to come. Even so, this was a place where he could take it slow and see what it told him.

He concentrated on seeing the flow of Time and everything looked different and yet the same. He could see many possibilities branch off of each movement by both himself and Raz. None of them told him anything until he moved up close to the tiles Raz had identified as pressure plates. Then he could see a faint image of himself stepping on the nearest one and slipping.

Serenity didn’t take the step. Instead, he looked at the other tiles. As he looked at each and concentrated, he could see himself step and slip. Eventually, he found one where the image didn’t slip - but Raz was already standing on it.

Serenity thought Raz might have said something, but he couldn’t listen and concentrate on the flows of Time at the same time, so he simply started looking farther out.

Eventually, the three of them made it to the other side of the trap room, stepping on the few blocks that weren’t trapped. Raz was faster at identifying them than Serenity, but Serenity felt pleased that he’d managed to find a way to use his vision ability, even if it was slower than Raz.

The next room was small and seemed empty other than the small pedestal with the level crystal on it and a door on the same wall. “No level boss?” Serenity wondered. His eyes were glued to the level crystal, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as the ones in the Great Tutorial Dungeon had been. He was pretty sure that was because he had more self-control, not because the draw was weaker. He’d done better in the Duo Dungeon as well.

“I think that’s what the trap room was,” Raz stated. “It was much harder than anything else up there.”

Serenity nodded without taking his eyes off the level crystal. “Makes sense.”

“Yeah, we probably should finish off the level,” Katya commented, following Serenity’s gaze to the crystal. “After that, we should rest. That trap room was a surprise.”

He’d just have to ask. There wasn’t any way around it. “Can I have the level crystal?”

“It’ll come out of your share of the treasure, but I don’t see why not,” Katya stated. Out of the side of his vision, Serenity could see Katya’s head turn towards Raz and Raz nod. “You’re an enchanter, too?”

“No,” Serenity said as he stepped towards the crystal to pull it off the pedestal. “I never learned enchanting.”

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“Then why are you so interested in it?” Katya’s voice sounded puzzled.

“Paths are strange sometimes.” Serenity shrugged as he reached for the crystal. “I don’t like to talk about mine, it’s dangerous. Power usually is.”

It wasn’t exactly an answer, but as long as it stopped the questions it was good enough.

[Ancient Temple Level 1 Complete]

[500 XP Awarded]

[1650 Ev Awarded]

Serenity felt the oddly curious death-tinged mana in the dungeon flood through him as he touched the level crystal and he fell to his knees, still holding it.

Hello?

Serenity didn’t recognize the voice. It definitely wasn’t Order’s Voice; that had a somewhat robotic - or perhaps pedantic was the right term - feel to it. It also felt old. This voice sounded young, like a child, and he could hear the curiosity in the question.

“Hello yourself. It’s nice to meet you. Are you the dungeon?”

Nice. Tired. Sleep.

The flood of mana stopped and Serenity picked himself up, feeling much more tired than he had only moments before. He tucked the level crystal in his bag and turned to the other two.

They were both staring at him. “Didn’t you hear that?”

Raz shook his head. “All I heard was you talking. Did you hear something?”

“Yeah. I think it was the dungeon, but all it said was hello. It’s strange.”

They didn’t talk about it that night, but there were several times where Serenity caught Katya or Raz staring at him. They looked away when they realized he’d noticed.

---

Serenity checked on the spread of the Heart before he slept. It had finished taking his second lung and was extending unevenly towards other organs. There was still time.

---

The second level was similar to the first, except it was set in the private areas where the priests lived and worked instead of the public areas that worshippers would see. They saw kitchens, a small garden, several sleeping chambers, a dining hall, and a large room that seemed to be set up for copying books.

The monsters were still mostly skeletons, but a few still had their skin. Serenity knew they were technically mummies, desiccated and dry, but their behaviour was more like simple zombies. They were a little sturdier than the skeletons, but not truly any harder to kill. It didn’t hurt that like the skeletons in the public areas, these undead seemed to be normal people going about their lives when they saw invaders - but also like the skeletons on the floor above, all they did when they saw the intruders was attack. It made them predictable and they were quite weak. Serenity had fought stronger normal enemies in the Tutorial.

The only treasure they found other than a few more cores was a book in the last room. It was faintly magical, but the enchantment was only to preserve the book. The contents were the valuable part; it was a collection of Tzintkran religious treatises and commentaries, copied into a single book. When Katya realized what it was, her eyes lit up. “This is exactly what people hope for on a first dive. THIS will pay for us not reporting the dungeon, and more.”

Raz looked confused. “It will? But it’s not magical or anything.”

Serenity assumed it was due to its age, but he’d never been one to care that much for treasure so he wasn’t sure.

“It has something more valuable than magic - information! Lost information! This looks like information about the lost Gods and legends, which will give us more places to look for things. Things get left behind, and also places that were once worshipped can form magical treasures. You never know what you’ll find. This will be of high value to the scholars; we’ll get a good price for it.”

She stopped and looked down. “I’d, I’d like to share some of that with Hale. He should have gotten some of the report fee, and that will be a lot lower now. I shouldn’t - I really shouldn’t have come in here without him.”

“Fine by me,” Serenity said. “I wouldn’t have known the value of it anyway.” It was probably more accurate to say that Serenity just didn’t care, but he knew better than to say that he didn’t care how much treasure he got. He’d learned that the hard way. He might not really care about the treasure, but he did care about being blatantly cheated.