Chapter 151: Pest control

Chapter 151: Pest control

[Dungeon puzzle event completed. Experience awarded.]

The door clicked open with a very smooth, and very satisfying beep. Despite the somewhat ancient looking dungeon, the metallic door and hinges seemed freshly greased and perfectly made, swinging wide to reveal...

Yet another corridor. Blake sighed and walked through, hoping this didn't go on so long he'd test whether he died first of thirst or boredom. He hurried forward, eager to reach the next room and the next challenge.

Then the stone floor cracked and shattered like a pane of glass. Blake had barely managed to shout in alarm before he activated Telekinesis in panic and stopped himself from moving.

He looked down to see a fifteen foot drop into spikes the size of his leg. His heart pounded in his chest, and he slowly pushed himself back onto solid ground before collapsing to the wall and closing his eyes with slow, deep breaths.

OK, he thought. Let's not get too careless. And it was clearly time for a new Mental Partition rule.

He constructed a new if/then statement for Telekinesis that went something like this: [If I change speed without meaning to, then activate Telekinesis and stop me.]

He hoped that was clear enough and didn’t result in some kind of unforeseen problems, then finally stood back up. His mana was actually still fine, so he simply floated himself over the entire length of the corridor, all the way to the next door. This one opened to a much larger hall, equally well constructed and ancient looking, but with little enough light Blake was already squinting.

Great, he thought. Where the hell was the low level light spell?

But he did at least get some light from the corridor, and did his best to follow a wall as he looked out and listened for danger. Eventually his eyes adjusted, and when he looked out he saw some kind of pool of water and what looked like another metallic door. He inspected the pool and found nothing unpleasant, and though he was pretty damn thirsty he decided a drink could wait for him to get a bit more desperate.

About the time he'd decided he had no choice but to move out into the darker depths of the hall, a small, green light appeared in the gloom, like someone had turned on a flashlight.

"Welcome to the Hall of the Makers," said an almost cutesy, childish voice from the direction of the light. "Are you finally here to help us with the pest problem? Or, oh," the voice lost some enthusiasm. "Would you just like a tour of the facility?"

Pest problem? Sounded like a quest. Blake had a feeling how he answered was important, so he put on a winning smile and squinted into the light.

"How about both? If you give me that tour, maybe it'll help me solve whatever problem you might have."

He pushed away the thought that maybe this was a waste of time and he should be exploring with the light or maybe asking a hundred questions. The darkness terrified him, and he couldn't do anything if he couldn't bloody see where he was going.

“It’s just a puzzle, and it has to be a simple one,” he told himself, because it didn’t have symbols or moving parts. In fact the only thing that changed at all was the reflection looking back at him.

He examined his image in the glass and saw no difference. He touched the glass, finger connecting to hard surface just like any normal mirror. He frowned, then blinked in surprise, because his reflection did not.

Again a monstrous scream pierced the darkness, and Blake’s little light friend seemed to quiver slightly as it looked.

“I don’t mean to rush you, pest controller, but I daresay it’s coming closer.”

“Shut up,” Blake said, watching his reflection, which didn’t repeat his words. It reminded him of an old D&D puzzle he’d solved in a very similar situation—where a kind of reflection of the party had only hurt them as much as they did the same. He stepped back and gestured into the darkness.

“Please, after you.”

His reflection smiled and stepped away, mirroring him. Then it winked.

“No, no, I insist, after you.”

Blake stepped inside without even testing the surface. He walked through the mirror as if it didn’t exist, then smashed his hand down on the giant red button.

The cavern flared behind him, growing brighter and brighter until it was more like a modern building filled with florescent light. Blake stepped out and tried to mentally prepare himself for whatever ‘critter’ was on its way.

"Thank you very much!" said the light, which was in fact a floating...lantern. It had a little face on the front like a piece of cartoon furniture from Beauty and the Beast, and Blake decided its name was obviously going to be Lumiere. "Now would you like to continue the tour?” it asked. “Or maybe you should deal with the critter first?"

Blake turned to see 'the critter' at the far end of the hall.

It had stopped when the lights turned on, as if detecting a change in its environment but little more. It stood at least nine feet tall, a kind of headless humanoid with four gangly limbs like a cluster of rotting, tangled tree roots. At the center of its 'core' was a fanged mouth that dripped with something like tar.

Then it raised one of its arms and pointed vaguely towards Blake, holding out its hand. A single, red eye opened and blinked as if it hadn't done so in years. The eye locked onto Blake and twitched with obvious excitement, pupil bouncing back and forth. Then that terrible maw of fangs widened, and screamed.