ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 6: It’s A Trap - Dungeon

Chapter 6

It’s A Trap - Dungeon

The two entered the trap dungeon, at which point they were taken to a waiting room.

“This is the primary waiting room. All dungeons have something similar. In this, we can either break apart for an individual challenge.” Alexa began, by first pointing to the three separate tunnels that led from the entry room. “As you can see there are three different tunnels, each with a corresponding difficulty level. These are generally denoted in the standard color schema you see before you. Green is the easiest and therefore easiest to solve, but light on rewards. Yellow is a little tougher and might require a few timed trials to get a reward. Red is the toughest, where every room will be a time trial. If you fail to complete a room within the allotted time, there is no real problem, you just must go back to the start of the room and wait for the timer to restart.”

“We will be waiting here, until we are acknowledged as a team. At which point the size of the tunnels will expand. Then we will have to again choose our difficulty as a team. Do not worry about deception on the difficulty, this dungeon is too weak to be able to mask its true power rating. Also, even if it was, know I would be able to easily note such a subterfuge.”

With that John just paused for a second, then cocking his own head to the side, he asked. “Just what are your stats at to be able to notice that?”

This was an uncomfortable topic, one that Alexa found diversion was often the way to avoid having to answer.

“Already asking for my measurements? Well, I am an idyllic 39, 27, 42.” Alexa admitted.

John for his part paused, as he looked like he wanted to protest. Then after realizing what she said, he then asked. “Wait, I thought the ideal was supposed to be 36, 24, 36?”

“Only if I was 5’3.” Alexa quipped.

Silence.

At John’s apparent lack or response, he clearly never heard the song played at all middle school dances. While Alexa had never been to a school dance with a date, she had been to quite a few. If only to be forced into social situations by her parents and her brother.

Alexa wondered for the moment if getting a reference to a middle school dance song was worth deducting points. But ultimately, she decided against such an action for that was well over three decades old. Ultimately, she realized her comment did its purpose and distracted John long enough to let him forget his original question about her attribute ratings. This was a sensitive subject, one that Alexa didn’t even tell her parents about.

Still the diversion did its part, as soon the tunnels began widening before their very eyes. “As you can see, the tunnels have widened. This means the dungeon has accepted us as a team entry. Now for your first time. We will only do the yellow trial, just so you can get used to them. Know that should you choose to be part of the repeat offender and go on another dungeon delve; we would go on a red trial.”

At that Alexa just began walking forward to the middle selection.

John for his part looked like he wanted to protest, but ultimately swallowed his complaints as he walked forward and fell in line with Alexa.

“Know that this is a medium run. Meaning we should expect a minimum of two augmentation crystals for a successful run, not including the special challenge room.”

At this, a question formed on John’s lips. “Wait, if there is a special challenge room in a red dungeon, does the coloring change?”

“Good question. The colors are only present for the tunnel leading to the dungeon difficulty level. Once there, the colors and trials are completely random. The only time they cannot lie is on the special challenge room, as that is a room that could lead to a deadly trap.” Alexa answered.

“To be clear we will not be going into that room?” John asked, a bit of fear seeping into his voice.

Alexa paused as she looked at John, then answered. “I would never force you to put yourself in a situation that you felt less than comfortable with. If you do not wish to join me on the trap room, that is fine. Just know that any and all items I gain from that room will be my own.”

Hearing that, John nodded a bit sheepishly. “I am probably a terrible date partner on this?”

“Not at all. Again, it would be far more annoying for you to go and push yourself to do something that you clearly weren’t comfortable with, than to sit out an unnecessary room.” Alexa said. She personally was fine with this arrangement, as it meant she would have the full reward of the death trap room to herself.

Once they finished walking down the yellow corridor, they entered a room that looked a lot like a mad science lab gone wild.

Looking around the room, it was clear that there were a lot of chemicals, burners, and dripping liquids everywhere.

“This is what is referred to as a mad scientist layer. This will likely be a theme throughout this dungeon run. The time trial rooms will be based on solving the rooms challenge before the chemicals have a chance to combine or get too hot and release poisonous fumes.” Alexa continued. “Again, this is a yellow dungeon so there are only to be a few of these time trial rooms. This room is a safe room, as it is the room we will start and likely must go back to, in order to reset our run. For that reason, it is often good just to search around here for different clues that might help us solve problems in the future.”

“You mean like finding a key?” John asked as he began looking around.

“No, there are generally no keys in the first room. Instead, you can begin to see how the different chemicals will react to each other. Take for instance that yellow liquid that is hovering over the non-lit Bunsen burner.” Alexa said, pointing over to a vial that was by the door’s exit. Once John looked over to the vial in question, Alexa continued.

“See how it is by the door. Likely it will take time to reach a certain boiling point. Once it reaches that boiling point, we can expect the vial to emit yellow smoke that will slow or impair us from leaving the trap room quickly enough. There might also be a need for us to rest in the next room, while we wait for the side effects of the smoke to dissipate from our systems.” Alexa responded.

“Now, if you look at the floor in front of us, you will see two vials that have fallen on the ground. There is one green and one blue. Look how they have run towards each other but have not quite touched yet? This is also a warning. In the future we can expect to have a timed reaction where we must complete certain tasks before those chemicals mix as well.” Alexa began.

“What happens if they mix?”

“Hard to say, really. Anything from a fire that blocks off a part of a room, to creating a monster that we might have to defeat or evade. To creating even more noxious fumes that we will have to move through or around.” Alexa answered.

“Why does it do this? Give us a room that says, here are all the traps that I will throw at you.”

Alexa shook her head. “These are not all the traps, but just the main keys in how to solve a particular room. Also, again the dungeon likely wants us to stay here as long as possible. The longer we are here, the more ambient mana it can draw from us.”

Hearing that John just nodded. “This looks like it might be fun.”

Alexa nodded. She of course couldn’t tell what was fun and what wasn’t, but she knew agreeing with people generally put them at ease. She also made a point to try to get John to relax as much as possible as he seemed tense this whole time, up until now.

“Is it true that dungeons can give skill or power crystals, even to people that are unawakened?” John asked.

“They can, and before you ask. Yes, you can take them and gain the skill or power even without being awakened.” Alexa paused, as she waited for the next question that she knew was coming. She planned to shoot it down on the start. She was so certain that he would ask the typical question that followed such a statement that shew as taken aback when he asked something entirely off topic.

“All right, scenario for you. The apocalypse has come. Gigantor and Mum-Ra got into a major fight, the type we all speculate would happen. The world dies out, our only way to survive is by continually delving into dungeons. What is the one skill you would want most?” John asked.

While Alexa often hated answering personal questions, she welcomed the topic change. This was why she answered truthfully.

“In a scenario where the world is dying. There is only one skill to have: Antiquing.”

“Antiquing?” John asked and was suddenly distracted by the answer. This was good, as it was exactly what Alexa wanted, all attention being taken away from anything related to early skills or powers gained from dungeon runs.

“Yes, in a post-apocalyptic world. In addition to dungeon delving, there would likely be a huge market for pre-crash items. Thus, the skill Antiquing would become a necessity for survival, and set up a relatively easy life for those who could find, recover, and repair the most pre-crash items.” Alexa said, this was sadly something she had already thought out long ago, mainly when her brother asked her the same question a few years ago.

“That is surprisingly well thought out, and a very good answer.” John said, as he looked away clearly trying to internalize the information that was just provided.

With her distraction already working as planned, she decided to continue pushing the boy forward. She already knew this date candidate had an unhealthy infatuation with her, the last thing she truly needed was for him to get attached.

As such, she decided to take the lead on this date. This only made sense, as John showed both a fear and reluctance to go first. Additionally, this was the venue she chose to be the setting for this date consultation.

As she moved forward, she felt John was quickly following on her heels. This was good, as it meant that on the time trial room, he would not hold her down too much.

As soon as she entered the room, she made a quick scan of the room and instantly the different portions of the room came to life around her. Everything was visible to her exceptionally high Perception attribute. Her natural attribute was so high that she could even see the flows and nuances of mana in the air. This meant that she was practically cheating in a dungeon like this. The only reason she decided to go for yellow, was to keep her date candidate John from completely hyperventilating on her.

Given his emotional state, and the way he was always taking in deep breaths even on this yellow difficulty challenge run, it was clear he was not happy to be here. That said, if he wished to take on the repeat offender program, she made it clearly known that she would force him on a regular run. Well, a regular run for her standards.

As it was, this yellow room was already glowing with all the key components highlighted.

There was a potential chemical mix in the back left room. This meant that they needed to go there first. Rather than talking through the process, she just pointed out the clues. In this case, she pointed out the two chemicals that were slowly creeping towards each other. Finding a nearby wooden chair, Alexa dropped that to the ground in between the two chemicals. This was generally a quick way to gain a few extra minutes before the chemicals combined.

Again, to Alexa’s sights, the whole room seemed too easy. The chair glowed faintly, implying that it had some type of magical property to it. In this case, Alexa assumed that the chair was meant to dissolve under the chemicals. Then in the corner were a few cabinets, but the glowing key, or piece needed came from a vent up high. Climbing unto the cabinets, Alexa reached into the vent and then pulled out a strange star shaped object.

Showing the puzzle piece, Alexa scanned the room, until she found the slot on the other end of the room where the puzzle piece would fit.

“This is a passageway key. Remember when I said there were regular door keys, and passageways? The doors take you to the main prize, while the passageways take you to different prizes. Well now you can see why.” Alexa said, as she held up the once hidden passageway key. Then a quick look around revealed a second key that had fallen on the ground underneath a few obvious sheets of paper that hid a rather large bulge.

“Here is the regular room key. We will take both, as keeping both keys will likely increase our overall score at the end. But now we need to use this passageway key on that door.” Alexa pointed to the far room at a cabinet that stood by itself against the wall.

As they got closer the lock glowed to Alexa. A glow she could see even through the cabinet, which was clearly meant to be pushed aside. With a quick shove, the cabinet was tipped over, revealing a hidden door with a slot designed specifically for the pentagon key she held. Once she inserted the key, the door slid open, and they were off to find their second room.

The entire dungeon was like this, the two would enter a room. Alexa would make a quick scan around the room, during which time she would identify key areas to search. Then she would loot everything possible. She offered a fifty-fifty split of augmentation crystals.

“I think I will only take two, and they must be the two that you don’t want.” John admitted.

That was a rather presumptive request, as most of the time even in higher difficulty dungeons finding more than two additional augmentation crystals was rare. Still Alexa graciously accepted the offer as it was intended.

When they got to the death trap room, the markings on the walls and glowing ominous look to the room caused John to visibly shake even from beyond the entrance to the room.

The room was a straightforward design. At least that is what John thought. The room was made up of multiple clear glass panels that all sat over numerous large spikes that would clearly impale anyone who fell through the glass panes. Then at the center of the room and standing over a pillar that seemed to be holding up the entire glass floor was a treasure chest.

“So, what is this, the typical tiles fall away if you make the wrong path? Or let me guess, since this is a team dungeon, we need to go at this from opposite ends and slowly make our way to the center, lest we shake up the entire floor’s balance and plummet to our deaths?” John asked.

At that, Alexa nodded. “You know those aren’t half bad thoughts and things that could happen. But no, that is a mimic in the center. The glass floor is a secondary way to kill the mimic. The primary way being to drop that pile of debris from the ceiling right on top of the creature.”

At that, John paused. “A mimic? That chest is a mimic? I thought such creatures were just superstition?”

“Sadly no.” Alexa answered.

John took one look around, before asking the obvious question. “So where exactly is the reward? Is it part of what you drop down?”

Alexa shook her head. “No, the mimic is the reward. If we kill it, then it will revert into the actual item it was mimicking.” Alexa answered.

John took that in for a moment, then looked at the floor and at the huge distance between the spikes and the platform.

“So how do you get the treasure if it falls down there?” He asked, looking around the room.

Alexa just shook her head. “You don’t, with this type of room there is only one true way to solve it.”

“Oh.” Was all John managed.

“Oh indeed.” Alexa responded. “Just stay here, I’ll be right back.”

With that, Alexa entered the room, but before she even put a foot down, she twisted her body around. Then with her body now facing John, she began to climb up a path right to the side of the door.

John for his part watched on in amazement, as he saw the way Alexa climbed up the wall. John tried to get closer, but dared not enter the room, lest he trigger some type of sealed room scenario where he would be stuck with Alexa and a mimic. As things were, he was content to just sit back and wait for Alexa to reappear in his vision. This of course happened only a minute or so later, as he saw two feet dangling down from the ceiling. As he looked, John saw Alexa climb around specially placed stalactites on the ceiling. From there she made her way to the center where a giant crack was in the ceiling.

Once she was at the crack, she quickly and easily grabbed the ledge and pulled her way up.

Her grip and hand strength are amazing. John thought to himself as he watched the natural spelunker climb up into the fissure. Then she disappeared for a moment. The only sign that she was still there came a few minutes later when a giant boulder rolled down the crack and fell right onto the mimic, cracking it open in a second.

Boom.

HISS!

The mimic slowly deflated, as it was pinned under the giant boulder. With the main attack done, Alexa lowered a long thread of rope that was randomly in the hole on the ceiling. At this point John was beyond wondering about certain aspects of the dungeon that seemed to make no sense. Instead, he just watched in awe, as Alexa made her way down the rope to the dead mimic. At which point she reached her hand in and pulled out a purple crystal.

The crystal was only seen for a second, and almost immediately upon seeing the glowing purple crystal Alexa stashed it away in her pocket. But John was not mistaking, it was a purple crystal. Not the typical dark blue of an attribute augmentation crystal, no this was a purple crystal. John didn’t know what that meant, but he knew it was rare.

Alexa for her part, just made a look at John, where their eyes met for a second. Then with a look of confidence, she grabbed hold of the rope in her hands. Then proceeded to run away from John.

John for his part was visibly confused by this, as his slack jawed appearance suggested. The reason for the apparent run away made sense a second later, as the entire floor began tilting upward. Apparently, John had not been far off with the need for both to enter and slowly walk their way towards the center of the room. Of course, this would all be for naught, if she died due to the floor sliding out from under her. But it seemed that Alexa was prepared for this outcome as she then used the tilted floor to run up, at a slight angle towards John and the only exit from the room.

John watched as she ran up and over the ledge of the floor. The floor that was almost even with the floor by the time she ran out of room. During her run, the entire floor slid back a few feet, making it so there was a gap of at least four feet from the edge of the glass floor to the open doorway. Still, that was enough for Alexa who, aided by the guidance of the rope swung forward, then let go at the last second, letting her roll her way out of the trap room like an action movie star.

Of course, John and his slower reaction time didn’t have time to get out of the way of her forward roll where she barely managed to twist her body out of the way from tackling John.

Silence.

The two paused for a second. Alexa because she was breathing slightly, as she slowly rose to her feet. John paused, as he tried to take in everything that had just happened. After seeing her movements and her mad dash at the end, he was so glad he didn’t join her in tackling that room. It was well named as a death trap.

“Turns out, you were right about the floor being some sort of top. Good instincts.” Alexa said, as she slowly got to her feet. “You ready to finish this dungeon?”

John just stared at Alexa with wide eyed shock. “Yeah, I guess.” Was all he managed to say, before following her through the remainder of the traps and trials. Somehow after seeing her destroy a mimic and rope swing for her life, the rest of the dungeon was relatively simple by comparison. In the end the rest of the run was relatively calm by comparison. What was a few chemical fires and threats of paralytic poison clouds in comparison to that?

There was also the sight of the purple crystal. John was certain that it was something powerful, but he wisely didn’t comment on the find. Instead, he just made a note to look up such an item later.

When it came to the ending, John got an additional two augmentation crystals. These two, along with his one of the three augmentation crystals found in the side passages meant he had three total augmentation crystals for his troubles. That was an exceptional haul by anyone’s metric.

“Would you want to do this again?” John asked tentatively, holding up the two augmentation crystals.

Alexa paused and looked at John. She seemed to evaluate something in her mind, before finally concluding.

“Sure. I can go again.” Alexa said.

John was at first elated, but then quickly realized there was a major disconnect. He had held up the two crystals as a gesture to use them to buy two more tickets. But he did not mean that he wanted to do the second run right now. He was about to protest, but Alexa was already out of the dungeon.

John quickly exited the dungeon and then immediately felt the freedom of fresh air blowing against his face. He was free, but then he felt panic set in, as he realized Alexa was already at the entrance again. Then she pointed to John, as he appeared. Before John could protest, he found himself stuck making a second run in a row. Worse, he knew for a fact that this next run would be a red difficulty dungeon.

I just hope there aren’t more mimics. John thought to himself, as he shakily followed Jess back into the dungeon entrance.

By the end of the day, John realized that maybe taking the good review from Alexa was enough to call today a win. As he decided he might have better luck dating someone other than Alexa Thyme.