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Chapter 13: Puzzles and Ingenuity

Let’s look at my options here.

I could run across super quickly and hopefully I’ll be fast enough or lucky enough to beat all of the throwing knives that come my way (assuming that throwing knives are the only traps here). Pros: It’s fast. If my last test is any indication then this will be timed and the slower I am the worse my score will be. Cons: The odds of me surviving are pretty low. Those knives are really fast and I’m not confident about my ability to get past them fast enough, plus I have no way of knowing that a knife won’t come from behind or in front of me.

I could move cautiously across the floor like I was doing before. I did doge the first thing that came at me. Pros: It is safer than running, and assuming I survived I would get across in a decent timeframe. Cons: I don’t feel lucky enough to bet that every trap will be far enough in front of me to not splatter my brains across a wall (lovely image, don't you think).

I could just take the hits while walking across in a slow and deliberate fashion… who am I kidding?

I could use something that could trigger the traps without me having to be near them and throw it. Pros: It has a significantly higher chance of me surviving than any of the other options that I have considered so far and it would still get me across in an ok time. Cons: I have a very limited inventory and I didn’t see any rocks lying around so I would probably run out or have to risk retrieving items after they were thrown (which would defeat the purpose of me not having to be near any live traps. What if my hand goes an inch too far?).

I could try and figure out how to disarm traps while I’m here and then use whatever skill I discover to make my way across the floor. Pros: It would get me a useful new skill and I would be safe than if I ran. Cons: It will take a very long time and I haven’t the faintest idea on how to disarm a trap. Even if I leaned the skill it would probably take a really long time to disarm each individual tile and my time score would be even slower.

At the moment I think I’ll probably go with the cautious walking. I’d much rather throw stuff from a distance, but I don’t have enough stuff. I’ll just inch my way over to the tile I stepped on last time and… wait a second. I think that I have a way to trigger the traps from a distance. This is perfect. Oh how I love you my precious Crystal.

I can just use the mental control of my Luminous Essence Crystal to move it around and push down the tiles. I can be up to ten feet away after all. This glorious little miracle is the gift that keeps on giving.

In the same place in my mind that I gave the Crystal the command to stay over my head I tell it to go over to the traps and trigger them. It doesn’t move. The only thing that I get is a quiet feedback sound in my mind that makes me slightly wince. I don’t think that it can understand what I’m asking it to do. After all, “go over to the traps and trigger them” is a pretty complex command if you think about it. It requires you to know what traps and trigger is as well as be able to detect the trap and know how to activate it. Lets try something else. “move forward” (keep in mind that I’m not thinking the words themselves, I’m thinking about the action itself). Good. Now we’re getting somewhere.

Using this method of thinking about what action I want the Luminous Essence Crystal to perform I’m able to get it over so that it is hovering above the tile next to the one I stepped on (which I can identify because it is now slightly depressed into the ground). Bracing myself I give a fast command (I’m hoping that it is like ripping off a bandaid) of down. F’tang. A fresh throwing knife is embedded into the stone wall (although this one came from the left side as opposed to the right. I let out a sigh of relief. It worked.

I move my Crystal over to the next one and it goes down once again. What? Nothing happened. Why did nothing happen? I raise up the ball and slam it back down to see if I just didn’t have enough force and still nothing happens. Maybe if I do it even harder? Maybe this time it will work. Maybe this time. Maybe this time. Maybe this time… I’m being an idiot. Of course all the tiles won’t be trapped. It would be ridiculous. Probably there is a pattern to the ones that are trapped and the ones that aren’t that I could figure out if I didn’t have a better way to do it. I guess it’s on to the next one.

…

I bring the Luminous Essence Crystal up and over what feels like a million times before I can finally walk all the way up to the strange puzzle at the end. It is a bunch of square tiles in a square shape that is missing it’s bottom right piece. The tiles that are adjacent to the empty space can be slid into the empty space which makes the spot they were originally in the empty space, yada yada yada. If my guess is correct then when I finally get all of the tiles to their correct places (They all have parts of a picture on them so the correct place is probably where the picture is whole) then my challenge will be over.

I try a few different methods that lead me nowhere before deciding to figure out what the upper left most piece of the puzzle is and get it into position. Then move the one to the left of that into position as well and continue from there. It works (although not without a few hiccups) and as soon as I slide the last tile into place all of my muscles visibly relax. I should be able to chill for a little bit now.

“SKREECH!!!!!”

Or not. Sigh. A ridiculously loud NOISE comes from behind the puzzle and all of its tiles fall out and crash into the floor. The wall on which the puzzle was resting (which I could have sworn was firmly attached to the other walls a minute ago) starts to slide open like a supermarket door with a horrible grinding noise. Light starts to seep in through the rapidly growing crack so I store my Luminous Essence Crystal in my inventory and put an eye up to the gap like a little kid spying on his parents. This doesn’t look good.

Inside is a large round cavern which must be 75 feet in diameter and 30 feet in height with extensive seating ringing the edge. Hundreds of demons are sitting right there in the stands cheering like they’re at one of those illegal fighting matches that I know nothing about *whistles suspiciously*. That leaves a 50 foot circle with high walls surrounding it that my door is opening into. The worst part is the door on the other side that is opening as well.

Not knowing what else to do I activate stealth and bring out my starter knife. The door is finally open enough to slip inside the colosseum and I think I have to go for it. It will give me time to assess my situation and potentially be better prepared than my opponent.

My stealth form is halfway out of the door when a booming voice announces “ALL TRAPS HAVE BEEN DISABLED TO ALLOW BOTH COMPETITORS TO GET INTO THE COLOSSEUM. AS A REWARD TO BLADE FOR COMPLETING THE PUZZLE BEFORE KRAST SHE WILL RECIVE A BUFF TO HER COMBAT STRENGTH WHILE HE WILL RECIVE A DEBUFF. LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!”

I can actually feel energy rushing into my limbs and mind washing away the mild mental strain I got from controlling my Crystal for so long. At the same time I get a message that says

You have received a 10% buff to all stats for the duration of this fight.

That seems very helpful. Even if it only gives me one to each stat (rounding down for the stats that have slightly more than 10) that is still equivalent to just under 2 levels and at higher levels it would be even more. Assuming that my opponent - Krast was it? - got a negative 10% as well then that doubles the effect. I just hope that it is enough to even the scales from whatever level he is at to my level one. I guess we will find out.

While I was thinking about this I slunk around the edge of the colosseum, as the announcer called it, to arrive just to the left of Krast’s door. For some reason he has yet to emerge, but when he does I will hopefully get a good strike on his back.

Speak of the devil (Who probably exists here now that I think about it). A cautious face belonging to an absolutely huge demon has poked itself out and examined its surroundings (Luckily not very thoroughly otherwise I would probably be in a lot of trouble). He seems confused at the distinct lack of demon in the arena and steps a few feet out of his puzzle hallway to try and get a better view.

That was all I needed. I lunge forward as time slows around me and, using a reverse grip on my knife, slice clean through his right achilles tendon (I’m begging to sense a pattern here) . He cries out in pain and actually drops his sword to the ground so he can clutch at it which I find to be quite hilarious. He’s a champion now, he should be able to handle a little pain without doing something so incredibly stupid as drop his weapon. I only allow myself a mild chuckle though before running forward and stabbing my knife deep in his lower spine. It takes off a full 50 percent of his health adding to the 10 percent from before. I am very satisfied. OOOFF. Or I would have been if he hadn’t just spun around and backhanded me into the wall like I weighed ten pounds. Oh crap my knife is still in his back! I look down at my now empty hand and realize the even worse news. My stealth is gone. And Krast is looking directly at me with a face full of pain and rage.

He reaches down to grab his great sword which looks like it could cleave me in half with ease. I have to do something or I’m dead meat, but I’m boxed in by his long reach with that sword and the curving wall of the coliseum. The only way that I could get around him and potentially retrieve my sword is by going up and I the only way that I have started to fly is by falling. I need to get up. I can’t just push off from the wall… but that does give me an idea.

I take a deep breath in and in the split second before Krast starts his swing I use the skill wing push. I don’t do it at my opponent however. It is directed strait at the ground. With a might heave I’m suddenly 10 feet above his head and gliding forward. The brief glimpse of his face that I get before I’m behind him was absolutely priceless. (Well that’s not true I would probably sell the memory for about 4 silver, but still.)

Doing a combat roll onto the ground as a landing I spin around and run for Krast. His severed achilles tendon makes his turning speed just a tiny bit too slow and his body is only halfway done with facing me by the time I get there. I send a kick into the blade of my knife, still sticking out from his back which causes it to spin and rip out of his back along with some flesh bringing his health down to 20 percent. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the time slow, but I’m able to reach forward and catch the knife as it falls. The cost for getting my weapon back however is a powerful sword blow to my ribs that brings my health down by 50 percent.

I clench my teeth to avoid letting out a scream as I watch a long line get torn just inches from my throat. With what little strength I can muster in the midst of all that pain I bring up my hand which is still holing the knife and his blow actually makes him cut himself on my blade and let go of his weapon which goes flying away. Seeing that he is now without a sword the massive demon drops to his knees with his hands (maybe a hand and a half) up.

“I surrender, I surrender, please don’t reset me I surrender”

I touch the stinging wound (now starting to close) on my chest and laugh mirthlessly. “You surrender. Ha. There’s no room for weaklings that surrender in the demon lands” Then without another word I ram my dagger into his throat.

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First off I'd like to apologize to any of you that though that that was unnesisarly harsh, but I think that while Blade is a good person at heart she is in no way kind. I look forwards to seeing your reactions though. Hopefully I will relese at least one chapter tomorow so you have even more to look forwars to.

Free stat points: 0

Strength: 3 Agility:1

Dexterity: 1 Endurance: 4

Heath: 10 (1 point= +10) Mana: 10 (1 point =+10)

Regeneration: 3 Wisdom: 1

Skills

Essence Sight. This ability will give you the ability to asses almost anything you focus on and find information on the object or person. Quality and amount of information will increase as your skill level does. This ability won’t work on items obscured by an essence shadow of an equal or higher level than your level of essence sight.

Essence field. You will now be able to see names as well as health and mana levels of NPC’s, champions and monsters. This skill has no levels.

Wing push. This is a hidden skill which cannot be taught and is unique to the demon and angle races. This skill, involving both wings, will send a blast of air at an opponent possibly stunning it and pushing both the user and target back. The chance of stunning and the distance pushed back will increase with skill level.

Stealth. This ability allows you to sneak near enemies without them seeing or otherwise sense you. This is a general ability and there are multiple specialized abilities that are modifications of this ability such as jungle stealth which will help you sneak while in a jungle. The effects of this ability can be negated by an adversary with the perception ability.

Cooking. This skill will allow you to use ingredients that you find or purchase to create delicious meals. At a high enough level with high enough level ingredients the food can give bonuses to stats which at even higher levels can be permanent.

Time Slow. When you are in a situation where your normal body cannot react fast enough to a threat your mind will speed itself up making everything else seem to slow down. This takes a great toll on your mind so it will use up mana and you will not be able to use this repeatedly in a short period of time or sustain it for long periods of time without experiencing side effects. Increasing the level of this skill will decrease the amount of mana expended for each second of Time Slow and reduces the side effects when using this skill repeatedly or for a long time.

Flight. This is a passive skill that determines the skill with which you fly as well as the time you are able to fly. It will increase the more you fly.

Bartering. This skill will increase your ability to get better prices both for purchases and sales. In order to increase this skill it is necessary to get above standard prices from people. Current skill level: 1.