The tablet had dissolved in my hands, and a steady trickle of information started running into my head.

[Notice: The Skill “Analyze” will be unusable for the duration of absorption]

Well, that was just plain inconvenient. I had been relying on this skill heavily to satiate my lust for knowledge, and now I would have to abstain for three hours. Delayed gratification was not my cup of tea. I groaned. Gathering our treasures, we found a hidden exit and headed down a new path. We heard voices on one end of the tunnel.

“Cassidy? Alixandra?” I called towards the point of light I could see.

“Hi, guys!” I heard Alixandra call. Axel and I shuffled over to them, where they had just emerged from an exit similar to our own.

“I don’t think I like puzzles...” Cassidy mumbled.

“What happened?” I asked them.

“We had to solve this weird series of puzzle rooms. You probably would have done better than us,” Cassidy gave us a tired smile. “We failed a LOT. At least we didn’t get injured though.” She looked at Axel with concern.

“We got a lot of loot too. A big chest full.” Cassidy added. I was surprised to see her speak so much after her usual shy silence. I looked suspiciously towards the exit they left through. I walked over and peered inside.

“One second, I have an idea,” I told the party. A minute later I emerged with my prize. Another stone tablet, again at the bottom of the chest. I pushed up my glasses and stored them in my inventory.

----------

[“Cryptic Crypt Encryption Piece One” Absorption complete! You have a 25% understanding of the written language “Cryptic”]

The symbols scribbled into the wall had grown more dense and hectic as we walked deeper into the crypts. And strangely enough, some of them started to make sense. Stopping for a moment I traced my hand across a string of symbols.

“Great… immortal one… truthful...revolutionary?” I spoke aloud as I tried to translate, “The grammar works differently than English grammar.”

It takes a while to absorb these, but it pays off. It was really interesting to start recognizing all of these symbols and characters on the walls. We walked a while and made it to an open room with a fountain at the center. The rough-hewn stone of the fountain was worn and cracked, but it stood and sprayed water into the air, catching it again in its wide basins. We took a moment to rest, partly because of Axel’s quickly healing injury and partly because we were all pretty tired and gross, we took the time to wash our faces, hair, and hands, and rested awhile.

I opened my brand new book, excited to have something to read. At long last, I scanned through the first page and realized I couldn’t understand it. The entire book, cover to cover, was written in Cryptic. I sighed and stored the book away. Leaning against the grainy cobbled wall of the room, I listened to the rhythmic trickling sounds of the fountain. Eventually, I fell asleep on the stone floor, and I was woken sometime later by Cassidy, slightly shaking my shoulder next to me.

“W-We’re moving now, Gabe.” She muttered, looking to the side. I got up and we continued.

Dank corridors and twisting bends surrounded the party, and we hadn’t had an encounter in a while. I could have sworn I saw shadows running across the corner of the wall, but I hoped it was just my imagination. The symbols on the wall seemed to become abnormally dense, as though the walls were made of the swirling glyphs. My acute observation gave me a sense of heightened unease coming from Cassidy, leading me to wonder if she was afraid of the dark.

Peering ahead, as the density of the swirling glyphs reached a crescendo, I sensed a smooth surface up ahead. More specifically, a door.

“We’re here.” I announced, “Wherever that is, I suppose.” When we approached the doors, we saw that they were massive just like the rest of the doors here. These were smooth dark stones, outlined in an obsidian archway. I read some of the runes on the archway.

“Bone…Some word I don’t know…soul shredder. And something about void?”

“Sounds spooky,” Alixandra’s eyes shone. “Are we all topped off?” We all nodded, so we turned to address the door. As I expected, Axel took initiative and pushed it open. As the door swung silently open it revealed a curtain of darkness, some kind of magical effect making the interior impossible to scry through.

[Spell Effect: Dark Veil

This veil impedes senses from viewing or hearing the other side.]

[Special Ability of ‘Librex Spectacles’ activated:

There is a trapping effect through this doorway, making turning back impossible.]

“I think we need to enter. But we can’t turn back once we do.” Axel stepped forward, but instead of stepping through as I had expected, he stopped and turned back.

“Coming?” He called back. We stepped up in line with him and stepped through the veil together.

My ears were immediately barraged by a cascade of roaring sounds and wretched smells. We were in the pit of what appeared to be a large underground colosseum, and monsters surrounded us. The floor beneath my feet was sand, and the walls of the pit were at least six feet of stone bricks, littered with ancient symbols and glyphs. The monsters cheered and jeered, howling in what could have been outrage just as easily as excitement.

[You have entered the final Arena! Should your party accept a challenge of battle, you will engage in honorable combat and be heavily rewarded for victory. Upon rejection of honorable combat or defeat, the monsters in sight range will become hostile.

Would you like to participate in this event?

Accept or Decline?]

I pressed accept and watched a new indicator as I watched the rest of my party do the same. Axel made sure he was loaded, Cassidy put her fingers around her knife, and Alixandra’s knuckles turned white on her staff. As the last one clicked accept, an announcer’s voice boomed through the arena over the screams of the stands.

“ARE…YOU…READY!” The voice echoed through the chamber with no discernable source.

The cheers rose to a crescendo, and my ears threatened to start bleeding. The scent was also getting to me, reminiscent of old salami and burnt garbage. A party of four like our own walked through a one-way door opposing the one we came through. I immediately started analyzing.

[Player Name: HugoHuge4)

Level: 9

Class: Duelist

Race: Human

Description: A Spanish man with a brilliant mustache and dark brown hair. He wields a rapier and has the air of a gentleman.

Estimated 1v1 Victory Chance: 15.5%

Title(s): Champion in Training, Gentleman]

[Player Name: NoraReal9

Level: 8

Class: Bard-barian

Race: Human

Description: A rock enthusiast, medium height with black hair and hazel eyes. The only weapon you see on her is an electric guitar lined with steel spikes.

Estimated 1v1 Victory Chance: 56.5%

Title(s): Champion in Training]

[Player Name: Gwen_PlayzPro

Level: 11

Class: Demolition Expert

Race: Human

Description: This stocky woman standing over six feet. She clearly works out. You don’t see any weapons on her, but her face is covered by an intimidating gas mask.

Estimated 1v1 Victory Chance: 45.25%

Title(s): Champion in Training]

I also tried to quickly analyze the front player, but something was wrong. His robes seemed to be shifting in color as I watched, and I could have sworn I saw him flicker.

[Player Name: [email protected](#*!

Level: ####

Class: Unknown

Race: huemanan

Description:

Estimated 1v1 Victory Chance: ERROR

Title(s): c%)#@^^*^!]

I narrowed my eyes, immediately suspicious. The announcer’s voice shouted “BEGIN!” over the tumultuous crowd. I watched a round object fly from the hand of “Gwen” as I received a terrifying notification.

[Special Ability of ‘Librex Spectacles’ activated:

The player you tried to analyze is not in the position he appears to be in.]

My eyes widened. Turning to the side, I looked just in time to see an arm in midair rake a shining dagger through Axel’s throat. Axel made a horrifying Gurgle as his health bar plummeted to the red. He fell to a heap on the sandy ground. I lunged, moving to stop the arm from further damaging Axel.

Cassidy was one step ahead of me, shadow claws flashed at the arm. The arm was slashed badly, and an illusion fell away to reveal a tall man with golden hair, the same that appeared to be standing with his party a moment before. A gleaming smile was plastered onto his damn face, and Cassidy snarled and lunged. Alixandra gave a health potion to Axel, and his health crawled to a yellow medium as he sat up.

Just as we started to regroup, a clatter sounded from the direction of the opposing party. I whirled to find a frisbee-shaped device clamped to the ground. Fearing the worst, I immediately activated Bullet-time Processing. While my perception was accelerated I analyzed the disk and began scheming.

[Small Proximity Mine: After being engaged by connecting to a surface, the explosive detonates when it detects motion within five feet or loses durability. The Lethal blast radius of this device is up to 15 feet.

Quality: Rare

Durability: 20/20

Creator: N/A

Date of Creation: N/A]

I froze in place. The device had clattered just at my feet. I used the party chat to send a few messages, and then I ended bullet-time processing to conserve mana. I saw movement behind me on the mini-map, so I knew there was still action behind me. Meanwhile, the rest of the enemies moved forward to aid their ally. I stared down at the landmine in wait, as if my gaze alone could elicit surrender. And then the plan fell into place.

A disk of black darkness opened beneath the landmine, and a similar void appeared above the approaching party. The explosive fell through the void, appearing out the other exit, falling toward the enemy party. And then it detonated. The force of the explosion rippled my hair and clothes, but the point-blank attack wasn’t so gentle with the enemy players. The crowd was momentarily stunned as the trio was all but ripped apart. The guitar and guitarist flew, the guitar striking the distant wall and the wielder crashing to the ground, unmoving. Hugo, the Duelist, skidded against the ground and cracked into the wall. The muscular woman flipped head over heels and landed hard on the sand. She struggled to rise off the bloodstained battlefield.

The crowd regained their voices and went wild with the thrill of the battle. If it could still be considered one at this point. A smile slithered onto my lips as I turned to address the final-standing enemy. To my surprise, he was holding his own against the others in the group. An empty impact mark showed a missed attack from Alixandra, and the blonde man was currently dodging Cassidy’s slowing blows. She slashed at the man and her claws passed just next to him. The next swipe went directly through him and he jumped from another angle.

[Special Ability of ‘Librex Spectacles’ Activated:

]

A gold outline appeared in the air, showing the exact position of the player. I could see the outline move even as the player’s image turned invisible and created illusion clones of himself.

“Cassidy, attack to your left” She swiped at what appeared to be air, but a cry and a splatter of blood erupted from the place. The illusions around Cassidy faltered and dissolved. The player backed up, clutching his wounded shoulder. His confident smile was still there, not so bright as it was at the start of the battle. The man brought his hands up.

“We surrender.” He had a snake’s voice.

“WE HAVE OUR WINNERS!” The announcer shouted. The crowd's cacophony reached an ear-splitting crescendo as they jumped and screamed. A white beacon enveloped our party, and we were whisked away.

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