It also had the same spherical cavity and a plaque which stated.
No legs have I to dance,
No lungs have I to breathe,
No life have I to live or die,
And yet I do all three.
What am I?
|
"Ha! This one's easy. All of these phrases describe my favorite element. Igniz, put some FIRE into the receptacle"
The dark ember sprite made a small fireball and filled the whole spherical cavity beside the embossed door.
Espion clapped theatrically.
"I knew you'd guess this one right away. A good thing too, because I've almost used up all of my fire moss."
"Fire moss? What's that?"
A loud mechanical sound was heard. Gears and chains started to move, after Smoke placed some fire in the spherical receptacle.
The gate like impression on the wall started to moved, and opened both doors. Smoke, Espion, and Igniz, went to the opening and entered.
Espion wasn't able to answer Smoke's question until they were safely inside the hidden room. The young Spy answered Smoke after all of them entered the chamber.
"Well, fire moss is a special type of moss scattered in specific parts of the labyrinth. It's quite some distance from here. It makes a great fire after you light it up."
"Alright, let's rest up first. I'll cook some medicinal soup. Igniz, can you please light the fire."
Espion stepped in, and stopped the dark ember sprite.
"Wait, wait. I'd like to show you how a fire moss works."
The young spy gathered the firewood. He then placed the fire moss at the bottom of the tepee shaped firewood. Rubbed the fire moss for friction, and the fire moss lit up, which lit the campfire.
When Smoke saw Espion's demonstration of the fire moss, he remembered one other thing he was curious about.
"Say, how do you manage to navigate through this labyrinth without a torch or any other kind of light?"
Espion remained silent. He wasn't sure if he could trust Smoke completely. Although he was impressed with the abilities that the DarkElf had shown, and his intellect and battle strategies were just as astounding.
Smoke sensed Espion's hesitation, and speedily stopped his question.
"You don't have to answer me. I was just curious that's all."
"No, no, I'll tell you how I traveled through this tunnels. Ever since I was younger I've always wanted to become like my father. Because he was always so secretive. One day as I researched through our family library. I found a book that told me where to get the ability that would help me greatly."
The DarkElf was pleased with himself. Espion sharing this information only meant that his intimacy level with him was almost at 80%.
"The book told me to kill 10,000 bronze and masked owls. I had to use traps and laid them on the bronze owls nests. It took me over ten years, and when I got my 10,000th kill I gained this ability called 'Bronzen Owl Ears'. This ability gave me the monster's echolocation ability."
Espion grinned as he reminisced the countless days he spent earning this ability.
"It can also detect enemies, but its range is only for 100 meters. This was also how I was able to pick up on Duke Burmistrz conversations. If only I had the proper patience and waited until I gained the ability from the 10,000 masked owls. Then they wouldn't have caught me."
"So, the Duke caught you spying on him because you don't have a proper camouflage ability? Just how many masked owls were left until you gained its ability?"
"Well, counting the ones I've killed it would be 9,999. Those monsters are harder to find than the bronze owls. I've been spying on him for more than a month before he finally noticed me though."
Smoke had already met some iron owls in the forests around Nanahuatl. Yet, those monsters gave him no ability whatsoever.
He was interested in these bronze owls and masked owls. He thought that he would ask Espion about the location of these monsters later. At the moment, Smoke was only interested about what Espion heard from Duke Burmistrz.
"That's still a lot of masked owls before getting that ability. Now, about the time you were spying on the Duke? What exactly did you hear?"
The DarkElf offered the finished soup to the Espion, and both of them started to sip through the meal as the young Spy pushed on with his gathered information.
"Some parts were about this labyrinth. About how it's a special dungeon. As you've noticed you can't contact anyone in the outside, and I heard that even if a Sonstwelter were to die they wouldn't revive in the outside, but rather wake up here."
Smoke already knew this part about the labyrinth. He had never been to any map in Zectas that disabled all forms of communication to the outside world.
However, it did make sense that this feature was added for those captured inside. Otherwise, the Zectians captured like Espion would have had the opportunity to contact their guilds, and have shared the information that they managed to gather.
"The Duke was out harassing the villages outside of Coatl. Milking them out of their last zecs. If they didn't pay his weekly fees to the Cavalry Knights he would send out the Brandals and ransack the whole village."
The DarkElf shook his head left and right in disbelief.
Espion proceeded, and spoke his opinion about the Duke.
"How can such a monster act all responsible and caring, when the truth is he was the true reason why the villagers outside were suffering?"
"Well, you know what they say. The greater the power the greater the abuse."
The young Spy composed himself and pushed on.
"The Duke also mentioned that there were two ways to enter the labyrinth. One was through a quest accessed by honored players of the city. They were taken to the entrance of the first level of the labyrinth. They were tasked to look for Konig Mitleid."
The DarkElf was taken aback when heard Espion describe the first method of accessing the labyrinth.
"Only to find out that he had escaped and taken the key with him. Most players wouldn't even know how to find the maneator king, and if they did they would surely be wiped out by him."
Smoke clenched his fists tightly. It reminded him of the day he met Tristan.
"Smoke? Are you alright? Is something wrong?"
Espion stopped talking midway as he noticed the DarkElf trembling with anger.
"Oh, sorry. It's nothing. What about the second way in the labyrinth?"
"The second way was to be captured by the mayor or any members of the Tenebris. Those captured would be sent down here to the third level. Where the maneators were suppose to tear us limb from limb. But, as I mentioned before, I heard the Duke talk to one of the Tenebris' high council say that all the maneators were exterminated and were replaced by these krampus monsters instead."
Smoke nodded as he remembered the death of all of the maneators inside the labyrinth.
"What about the Mounted Race? Did you hear anything about that?"
"Umm... Only that the race was actually the main event for Coatl's festivities. It was exclusive for the benefit of the nobles in Chayotl Kingdom(Western Kingdom). He sent someone by the name of Macher on a quest to gather participants that the other nobles would bet on. The Jousting Tournament was only there to throw people off the Mounted Race event."
"Do you know what the Duke was planning to do with all that money from the bets in the Mounted Race?"
"I think he plans on conquering the whole kingdom. One city at a time. Heck, he even promised that Macher fellow Centzo city."
"So, anything else you heard from the Duke?"
"I think that's it. Oh, and he often gets called to answer to someone named Lizardo."
Smoke only heard the name Lizardo once before, but he got an ominous feeling when he heard it again.
The DarkElf shrugged off the sinister feeling, and focused on the central hidden room instead. At the center of the room there was a single pedestal.
As they had both finished their meal, Smoke stood up and went closer to the focal point of the secret chamber.
He took out his Coatl Labyrinth Key which he got from the king of the maneators. He placed it on the pedestal and nothing happened.
"Pfft. Some key this turned out to be."
Espion stood by Smoke, and saw nothing changed.
"Is that key the reason why you wanted to come here?"
"Yeah, it was given to me by Konig Mitleid himself."
"Wait, what? This key is the one where those honored players were trying to look for?"
"I think so. It's suppose to open the secret treasure room, but I guess this isn't the place. Shall we head back to the last room you mentioned earlier?"
"Sure, maybe the key can be used there."
* * * * * *
Smoke and Espion maintained a fast pace as they traveled on the last hidden room. They traveled through several great halls.
They were stopped with the same jigsaw puzzle of the krampus. As what they did before, Espion was the one assigned to deal with the puzzle as he had mastered it.
After their third great hall and jigsaw puzzle. Smoke noticed that Espion's unusual speed of solving the jigsaw puzzle got even faster.
"Espion, how many jigsaw puzzles like this do you think you've done?"
"I don't know? I've lost count already. Why do you ask?"
"I think these puzzles aren't here to simply block the path. I think they're related to the first hidden room you've shown me before."
"What do you mean?"
Smoke was adrenalized. He wanted to test out his theory ASAP.
"Let's head back to the first chamber now."
"But, we're already halfway to the last hidden chamber. Can't we stop there first?"
"I don't think we can do anything in that room with another receptacle and plaque at the moment. We need to solve the room with the two jigsaw puzzles first."
Espion was apprehensive, but followed Smoke's orders.
"Fine, let's go this way then."
It took them almost two days to get to the central hidden chamber. However, with the monsters were cleared out, Smoke expected the trip back to be quicker.
Smoke edged Espion on as he ran close next to him. The young Spy wasn't used to someone running close to him. Although it was a good distance between them, this still made him run even faster.
The DarkElf also dealt with the monsters they met as rapidly as possible. He used Espion as bait to lure the monsters' strikes as he killed them with his back attacks. This time he didn't give the killshot to Espion.
Espion tried his best to get more kills, but Smoke gave him no opportunity. This inspired Espion to try harder. After their eighth monster encounter, Espion finally managed to kill one monster.
"Not bad, Espion. At last, you managed to kill one on your own."
"They say that the first one is going to be the hardest, and the second one is gonna be as easy pie."
Five monster encounters later, Espion still didn't get his second killshot.
After a day and five hours passed. Smoke and Espion were nearing the hidden chamber which required air to enter it.
Their increased pace and suddened contest to get the kill shots led them to the first hidden chamber in no time. Espion was disappointed when he saw the engraved door on the wall. For the young Spy's second killshot did not happen at all.
Smoke took in a deep breath and exhaled all his gathered air into the spherical receptacle. As soon as they entered the room. He immediately went to the opposite wall from the entrance, where the two jigsaw puzzles were.
Espion looked over Smoke's shoulders and asked.
"So, how are the jigsaw puzzles scattered all over the labyrinth related to these puzzles of a man and horse?"
"I think that those puzzles were designed to mislead you. You've been solving them so quickly and efficiently that you're already doing it out of reflex. And whenever you look at these two puzzles here you solve them as is, right?"
"Yeah? How else would you solve them?"
"How about we take the upper half of the man, and we also take out the upper half of the horse. Then we swap their halves."
Espion followed Smoke's instructions. In under five minutes Espion was done swapping the two upper halves of the jigsaw puzzles.
One jigsaw puzzle had an upper body of a man and a lower body of a horse. While the other jigsaw puzzle had the upper body of a horse and a lower body of a man.
