Novel Full Chapter 1907 A Maze of Possibility
Chapter 1907: Chapter 1907 A Maze of Possibility
— Kress —
Kress coughed as he turned over, narrowly avoiding falling out of the corner he’d made for himself as the smell started to register to his conscious mind once again. His plan to sneak into the town before sleeping was foiled when he figured out the sewers were massively trapped. Like, whoever designed the thing had to have been super paranoid about people sneaking in… or out.
At the very least it was warm. Perhaps to stop the waste water from freezing along the way but he was thankful for that much. The smell wasn’t ideal but he’d been exhausted and sleep had eventually won the battle with his determination. See, the problem with the sewers? They weren’t just a maze filled with traps and a few monsters. It was a SHIFTING maze filled with traps and monsters.
Now Kress hadn’t been sure of that the entire time. The first instance of questionable maze design had come when he was looping back to an intersection. If his mental map was correct, and it usually was, the wall he’d run into should’ve been an open pathway back to the four-way intersection he was thinking of.
Though, with Thyme around that wasn’t a solid indicator that things were moving. It was entirely possible that Thyme had played with space a bunch… and in truth Kress wasn’t ruling that out completely either. There were a few more ’questionable’ walls that he was tempted to try knocking down… so tempted in fact that he DID make the attempt. All he got to show for it was a slightly sore wrist and barely a mark on the dark stone walls.
The thing that sold him on the whole ’shifting maze’ aspect was when he was confronted with undeniable proof that the maze, in addition to potential unconfirmed space shenanigans, was shifting. After sprinting away from a particularly nasty trap he’d stumbled onto a wall in the process of moving. He’d been tempted to jump behind the rising stone, but kept back, this time anyway. It was startlingly quiet. Whatever mechanism or enchantment that was moving the stone likely also silenced the process. There was no scraping, no shifting, just silent movement.
When the wall clicked into place… it was seamless. The repeating stone bricks and pillars to make it essentially impossible to tell the difference between a wall that can move and a wall that can’t. In fact, Kress had investigated them thoroughly enough that he wasn’t even sure if there WAS a difference. The enchantment seemed to be based in earth magic and it was quite possible that there wasn’t a difference to find.
Of course technically none of that was what had made Kress stop to rest. It was the fact that one of the traps had nearly gored him. The flame spitters where actually not that scary, for all that the flame looked fierce it wasn’t so hot that a second or two of exposure would injure him. A sunburn equivalent perhaps but nothing he couldn’t walk off.
There were also similarly questionable traps that dropped goop on him from the ceiling. Not slime monsters… just goop. Kress suspected that it was more geared towards washing away or drowning the smaller monsters that avoided the other traps. Which did seem to be most of the monsters still around.
The larger traps like the sawblades seemed to take care of the bigger ones. The scariest variation of that particular trap was where two large rotating sawblades shot out from the wall, one at roughly knee height, another at neck height. They were fast, and if you thought dodging out of the way was enough, the follow up wind blast along the same levels would take out the unaware.
Kress found the best and safest way to dodge these was actually to tuck in your knees and slip between the two blades, taking a short rest on the lower blade before jumping off when it went to retract. Kress’ decision to retire for ’the night’ had been when he’d messed up the power for that jump and knocked his head against the bottom of the upper blade. If he’d been just a little faster that would’ve been a death sentence.
Well, Thyme would’ve probably saved him so not quite ’death death’ but it was still scary enough to make him take a break. Even if it wasn’t something he wanted to do… the only reason he’d pushed so much while still tired was because death was off the table and he was all alone. Nobody else was at risk from his questionable judgement.
Kress carefully stood up and tried not to wretch from the smell. It seemed like it had gotten worse overnight. “Urgh. The smell is awful, much worse… but not as concerning as the worry that I might not be in the same place,” grumbled Kress.
It was a real worry too. With proof the walls moved… was it possible the floors did as well? He was no closer to finding the exit after hours of searching and truthfully… he was quite lost. Kress wasn’t sure he could even leave this place if he wanted to. It also wasn’t exactly flush with orbs like he might have thought. He’d managed to find three inside the sewers… and that was it. Kress was certain he’d spent longer than three hours down here… but then again he did just get up from a nap so counting that time might be a bit silly.
Glancing around, Kress took in the area he’d been holed up in. It was a room that had a main water way alongside a bunch of pipes that empty water out into the seemingly dead end. Kress had climbed up amongst the pipes and wedged himself between two of them. Mostly because he didn’t trust the spots near the wall… and he was right to do so.
Kress was quite certain he knew where the old entrance was. Everything seemed normal. The water was flowing out that way still… except it was on the opposite side of the room. Sure it was possible he was turned around. Rolling in his sleep was possible… but he’d also left a clear mark on the ground using the dirt from his shoe and it was STILL THERE. Sitting next to a stone wall that definitely hadn’t been there before.
Kress clicked his tongue. “Urgh, I’m so fucking lost. Is there even a way to get up to the outside?” sighed Kress as he glanced at the pipes. “No…” Kress moved his hands to take a better look at the pipes. “Yeah ok no…”
Kress didn’t like the idea he was getting but a second look where he crouched next to one of the larger pipes revealed that his shoulders were too wide, even if you took into account the armour. While crawling through a tiny tunnel with no space was potentially possible… not while also swimming upstream. “Praise be… I am very glad I don’t have to deal with that shit. At the same time…”
Kress glanced at the obvious and seemingly only exit to the little corner he’d chosen for his nap. It felt wrong to just… go along with what the maze wanted… but he’d already worked out that he wasn’t strong enough to break down any of the walls here. “Could test it again though?” hummed Kress.
Kicking the floor a bit he walked over to the wall he’d come through originally and pressed a hand up against it. Hearing nothing strange he kept tapping, looking for a lost brick or something. When this started to take longer and longer he added in extra taps with a foot to speed up the process. It wasn’t looking like he’d have any luck though.
Eventually, Kress had checked every single brick. It wasn’t too hard, each individual stone was fairly large but still it had been annoying. With proof that it wasn’t going to work complete, Kress pulled a rock from his spatial storage, because it was always good to keep one of those on hand. Moving back a few steps Kress wound up his throw and hurled it as hard as he could at the wall. It cracked into pieces while leaving a bit of dirt on the wall.
Frowning Kress moved up and brushed the dirt away… to reveal undamaged stone underneath. “Shit…” Kress quickly stored the loose bits of rock again, might need them and he had the space… but it was annoying that he hadn’t damage the wall at all. “Am I really going to be forced to just go the enchantments want? Did I fuck up here? Am I going to be stuck forever? Or at least until I run out of time…”
Kress sighed and ran a hand down his face as he looked around for Timmy. Didn’t see the little guy… which was maybe fine. “Did the little guy even come inside? Hmm… hey Timmy?”
Kress felt a tap on the back of his leg and when he whipped around, daggers in hands, he saw Timmy. Just…standing there. Kress had to ask, “Can you teleport?” Timmy didn’t answer, didn’t react to the question. “I have a strong suspicion you can…”