NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 2: You Explode When You Test
Like the first Asylum they’d been to, the hallway extended far into the distance ahead of him, nothing but a glowing root on the left side for light. The root on the right looked shriveled and long dead, which meant this was probably a different Asylum, like Left had suggested.
But what happened here?
Hiral had read about something called an earthquake that occurred on the surface from time to time, and about how they had the power to move the land around like a child throwing a tantrum—except on a continental scale. Could that be what this was? And, if so, were they safe here? Should they just head back to the discs and find the right one to take them to the next zone?
Then again, an earthquake was better than some of the other explanations about what could’ve happened…
“Anything?” Seena asked quietly behind him.
“Nothing yet,” Hiral said, his voice echoing off the narrow hall around him even though he’d barely spoken loud enough to be heard.
“Should we really be going this way?” Yanily said.
“We need Dr. Benza to tell us what the threat to Fallen Reach is,” Seeyela said. “We have to go this way.”
“We can ask the version on the disc,” Yanily suggested.
“Maybe we should stop talking about it, so nothing hears us,” Hiral suggested, eyes peeled and fixed straight ahead. Every breath was heavy and stale, like nothing had moved or lived within the walls for a very, very long time.
Lived? If all the root systems are connected, could the undead influence have spread here? Do we have zombies waiting for us at the end of the hall?
Hiral looked again to the glowing root on his left, a soft orange like sunlight on the horizon, and let that worry fade. The roots back in the undead city—Did it even have a name?—had all been shades of blue or green. When they’d purged the death energy powering the Urn that held the nation under its curse, the color of those roots had returned to something closer to this. So, that ruled out an undead influence. Probably.
Which just left earthquakes, the Enemy, or something else Hiral had never seen before.
Gee, so many choices.
“Anything?” Seena asked again.
“It’s been fifteen seconds,” Hiral hissed.
“So?”
“No, nothing… Wait, I do see something.” Hiral squinted ahead, where the root’s straight path seemed to curve and vanish. “I think we’re almost to the crystal room.”
“Wule, buffs…” Seena started, but Hiral heard her teeth clack shut as she cut off her own words. “I guess Lashing Vines will have to do.”
You have been buffed by Lashing Vines.
Vines will make independent attacks to enemies within range for 39 minutes.
Hiral glanced at his shoulder to find the vine with flaming thorns, the independent construct hanging lazily down his back. A quick look at the one on the other shoulder showed it similarly relaxed. Maybe they know something I don’t.
A tap right beside where the vine extended from, and Hiral shook his head, then continued down the hall, RHCs pointed straight ahead of himself. Holding his breath and focusing on his hearing, he took step after careful step, alert for any scuff or hint of movement ahead of him. Nothing. Not a peep or shuffle.
Closer now, he could make out the faint glow he’d seen in the last crystal room, like the walls and ceiling themselves gave off light, and he spotted the outline of what had to be the interface.
“Get ready to cover me,” he whispered through the party chat as he closed to within fifteen feet of the doorway, then burst ahead.
Quick steps followed behind him as he darted into the room, head—and RHCs—swinging first left, then right. Nothing immediately attacked or tried to eat his face, and he paused just a few feet inside. Like before, there were four doors leading off the main room, more soft light glowing within, though it flickered off and on, off and on, off and on, like a slow heartbeat. Hiral kept his eyes on each for a few seconds before turning his attention back to the crystal room.
Just to his right, a massive crack stretched across the floor beside the interface, then up the far wall and to the domed ceiling above. At his feet the crack was only an inch wide, but by the time it reached the far wall and climbed to the ceiling, it was at least three feet from edge to edge.
This is the first time I’ve seen the crystal broken…
“Looks clear,” he finally said, slightly relaxing the tension of his shoulders.
“Looks broken,” Yanily corrected. “What happened here?”
“Enemy?” Seeyela asked.
Hiral carefully stepped over to the crack and looked down, then up, nothing but darkness greeting him. “Doesn’t look like it goes all the way to the surface,” Hiral said, eyes on the ceiling.
“Maybe Dr. Benza knows,” Seena suggested. “Let’s get that interface activated. If we need to leave in a hurry, we have to figure out what the threat to Fallen Reach is first.”
“On it,” Seeyela said with a bamf. She appeared beside the interface, then waved her hand over the crystal.
Nothing happened.
“Uhhh…” she said, passing her hand over it again, and a glow within the crystal flickered. Jagged veins of light pulsed through the dome around them like an echo, but still… no Dr. Benza.
“Ideas?” Seena asked.
“Let me take a look at it,” Hiral said.
“You think it needs two different races?” Yanily asked.
“No, but maybe my Runic Artificer class will tell me what’s wrong with it,” Hiral said, giving the four rooms one last look before sheathing his RHCs on his thighs. With his hands now free, he jogged over to join Seeyela at the pedestal—Teleporting sure is convenient—then looked at the interface.
“Nothing looks wrong with the crystal itself,” he said, carefully checking it for cracks or fractures. “The interface column doesn’t seem to be damaged… which means…” He trailed off, moving over to crouch at where the crack split the floor beside the interface pedestal. “Seeyela, try it again.”
“Did you fix it already?” she asked.
“No, just testing something,” Hiral said without turning. He heard several sets of feet stepping away from him, and when he glanced over, he found everybody other than Seeyela—who was looking squirrely—standing a good ten feet back.
“What?” Seena asked. “You explode when you test.”
“Just try the interface crystal,” he said with a sigh, focusing his attention back on the split in the floor.
“Here we go,” Seeyela said, and Hiral waited for… There! Small flickers of light, like glowing smoke, stretched from one side of the crack to the other before sputtering out. “Got it. Whatever powers the interface crystal seems to be cut off.”
Hiral lay down on the ground so he could get a better look. A small feed of solar power into his Rune of Energy, and a sphere of light appeared around his hand, outlining where the power should be flowing. On both sides of the crack, there were the broken ends of what had likely been some kind of crystal pipes. No, pipes wasn’t right; they weren’t hollow. Actually, solar energy would probably travel better directly through crystal, which would explain why they were solid.
“Can you do anything about it?” Seena asked him.
“I think I can, actually,” he said, pulling some of the raw crystal they’d gotten way back from The Mire out of his Interspatial Ring. Rolling it between his hands and extending it into something like an inch-thick, crystal rope with his Mold Crystal ability, he then reached down to measure the length. “Little shorter and thicker,” he muttered to himself, shaving two inches off the rope, then making it a touch wider. One more check to confirm it was the right size, and he touched one end on the near side of the crack against the broken crystal. Another pulse into his Mold Crystal connected it like it’d never been broken in the first place.
Gently pulling to make sure it wouldn’t snap off immediately, he extended it over to the other side, connecting it there.
“Done?” Seena asked, now crouching on the opposite side of the crack and watching what he was doing.
“Two more,” Hiral said, starting on the next one. Now that he’d done the first, the second only took half the time, and the third half again. Just a few short minutes later, he had the three crystal paths ready for the energy to travel to the interface.
Assuming he was right about what the crystal veins did.
“Ready for me to try again?” Seeyela asked.
“Yeah… Wait… no!” Hiral quickly amended, pushing himself to his feet and then taking several steps back from the crack. He waved for Seena to move away as well. “This might actually explode if I did it wrong.”
“Wonderful,” she said, coming over to join him.
When they were all clear—just in case—Hiral gave Seeyela the go-ahead, and she waved her hand above the crystal.
Orange light blossomed out of the crack on the ground, and Dr. Benza appeared beside the pedestal.
“Welcome to an Asylum,” he said, his image flickering slightly, but his voice strong. “If you’re here, that means you’ve cleared the three dungeons in the area. Congratulations. Within these walls you will find safety, shelter, and a place to regain your strength before you push on to the next set of dungeons.
“The remote location, along with the rare materials used to craft the Asylum itself, reduces the chances of Enemy detection to almost zero. Though, this does limit the maximum occupancy to only eighteen.” Dr. Benza shrugged. “Believe me, if we could’ve just built more Asylums to house our people, we would have. The dozen we’ve constructed around the world as waypoints for your journey through the dungeons will have to do, however.”
“Same thing he said last time,” Yanily whispered.
“Exactly the same,” Hiral confirmed.
“During your stay, please feel free to make use of the fully equipped training room, the well-stocked kitchen and garden—though watch out for the rabbits; they bite, little bastards—and the multi-purpose workroom,” Dr. Benza continued like nobody had spoken. “You will of course also have access to the Tutorials and Help sections equivalent to the number of dungeons you’ve cleared.
“With all that in mind, I’m sure you have many questions, and I would be happy to answer…” The image truly flickered, then vanished, though Hiral didn’t even bother checking his work.
He’d been expecting this.
All at once, red lights came on within the crystal dome overhead—though only on the right side, with veins splitting the left like lightning—and tinted the entire room the color of blood. A second later, the older version of Dr. Benza reappeared.
“Here we go,” Seeyela said, palms on the hilts of her daggers at her back as if having the weapons in hand calmed her.
“If you’re seeing this version of me, it can only mean one thing: The magic keeping Fallen Reach in the sky is failing.
“You need to act,” he said dramatically. “You need to save it. If you don’t, within one year, the island and everybody on it will be destroyed.” He flickered again, his whole body growing static. There was a flicker, then another, and Hiral’s eyes went to the crack in the floor, where small stutters interrupted the previously steady light.
Is something wrong?
“Accessing PIMs,” Dr. Benza said, drawing Hiral’s attention back to the once again solid image. “Access complete. PIMs of suitable power to achieve necessary results detected. Success calculated at forty-eight-point-three percent.”
“Did he just say we have worse than a one-in-two chance of still failing?” Yanily asked.
“He did,” Hiral said, but that kind of made sense. Only two of them had the advanced classes, and for now, they were all still D-Rank. Sure, they were level 19, and within spitting distance of C-Rank, but they barely met the minimum requirements.
Dr. Benza’s image shifted again, away from the rigid and tired form, and now he paced back and forth in front of the group. Once, twice, he passed the party before finally looking up like he’d noticed somebody was there.
“We were afraid this day would come, though we estimated it wouldn’t be until thousands of years after I recorded this message. The seals should’ve held that long. Longer, if the Enemy was defeated. Which can only mean they haven’t been… yet. It means you’re still fighting. And, I hate to say this, but things will only get worse if you don’t save Fallen Reach.
“If you don’t stop the Fallen from awakening.”