After searching around and about the maze a bit more, we finally found something that looked like the path to the next floor. That being said, it wasn’t so much of a path as it was a gaping hole that literally lead to the next floor.

“No way!” Old Man Linus immediately shouted out, making an ‘X’ with his forearms, “It’s too high of a drop, we might break our legs if we take the leap! And besides, how will we get back out when we find the artifact?!?”

“Looks like you’re getting senile, old man.” Snorted Sullivan as he threw a torch down to ascertain the hole’s depth, “Did you forget that we’re well-equipped adventurers? We have instarope for situations just like this.”

Just as Sullivan said, everyone (apart from Linus) took a small spiky pellet out of their pockets. They’re certainly a must have for adventurers in this day and age!

“Jeez! You kids and your nifty gadgets!” Linus scoffed, “Back in my day, we used to carry around rope. None of that ‘grapple ball’ nonsense!”

I immediately found many flaws in his words, so I went to correct him. “It’s not a grappling ball! It’s an amazing gadget we as adventurers should always keep near us!”

Just as I said those words, I threw the ball with a hefty amount of force applied to it, making sure it hit the ground at the bottom of the hole. Hitting right next to the torch that Sullivan previously threw, the ball’s spikes dug into the ground and from it emerged a rope that made it all the way to our level.

“Hmm?” Linus raised an eyebrow in astonishment, “What just happened?”

“Come on, Mr. Linus! Even I know this!” Miss Dola added onto the conversation, “The ball’s spikes fasten it to the floor, and it blasts rope up to us! Simple as that!”

“Actually,” I started explaining what I learned about instarope from a book I read in The Base’s Library, “it doesn’t just ‘blast the rope to us’. The forces from the impact of the device open one of the spikes (that are all actually latches) whilst simultaneously igniting the gunpowder located in the container. After that, the scrunched up rope inside the ball that’s lacquered with fire retardant paint bursts out with tremendous force! It’s an amazing design, as the inventor had to put adequate counter-forces into practice, put it all in a small little ball you can fit in your pocket, and-!”

“We get it!” Everyone stopped my lecture.

“I don’t care how it works, just get going!” said Linus as he started climbing down the rope I threw down, “If I had known you would blab on so much about this, I would’ve jumped down myself a long time ago!”

Yeesh, words hurt, Old Man. You couldn’t have sugarcoated it any less, huh?

***

One by one, we finally made it to the Third Floor of Shaid’s Temple. It was quite the different sight than we had first expected (or hoped for, at least). What we saw was a large, magnificent landscape laid out in front of us. It looked sort of mystical in a way, as the moss on the ground was used as a substitute for grass, and the shiny rocks on the ceiling served as both adequate lighting and a replacement night sky.

I actually had to pinch myself just in case this was actually a dream (although waking up back home with Nelly and Cecily sleeping next to me doesn’t sound so bad). In any case, we had no idea what to do from here on, as there wasn’t any clear indication of a goal. We pondered what to do for a bit before Miss Lionheart suddenly remembered the Book we found previously.

“Let’s consult the Book of Fortunes!” She exclaimed as she flipped to her last page, “Ahem: Let’s head northward!”

Immediately following what she suggested we do, she went on to read what the book said, “The main character and her fellow party members head to the North side of the vast scenery. A venomous snair stands in their way! Fighting it proves to be rather difficult, and they have to use their environment to make it out with as little casualties as possible.”

I see… But wait, does that mean casualties are inevitable? Well, let’s ask around for safer alternatives just in case.

“Okay… Then East?” Miss Lionheart looked at the direction she mentioned, “Heading East, they find a small crevice which they consider to be the next floor’s entrance. Instead they find what is essentially a red herring which leads them to an inescapable dead end. They hopelessly await for help to arrive for a month straight before their rations run dry and they succumb to hunger… ”

We all gazed at the book Miss Lionheart read to us, then turned to face one another. Miss Dola had an uneasy expression on her face, and Sullivan and Old Man Linus both stood there quietly. The thing that bothered us the most was that there was a clear path leading to the aforementioned crevice. Had we not stumbled upon this book, we most surely would’ve experienced this very fate firsthand. The thought was enough to make me queasy.

“A-Ahem, Westward?” Sullivan broke the Ice with his suggestion.

“Choosing to ignore the clear paths laid out in front of them, they instead venture through the unmarked flora. Their doubts pay off in the end, as they stumble upon a magical item which alleviates all the mental strain they felt up to now.”

“Great!” Shouted Miss Dola as she started preparing to go West, “Another magical item? It’ll surely help us with the commission! I’m gonna go get it-!”

“Hold it!” I stopped her from running any further, “We mustn’t be too hasty, what if it’s a trap?”

Before I could lecture her any more, the others told me it’s okay and let her go to retrieve it. Am I the wrong one here? Why is everyone so calm and unguarded in this situation? Shouldn’t they be more wary?

As Miss Dola left to grab this magical convenient item, we decided to check the last direction we could go in, but not weighing down our options first. Obviously, going East is a definite no-no. This left us with either fighting a snair or going Southward.

“Speaking of, what happens if we go South?” Miss Lionheart inquired the book, “Going South, they find the door to the next floor, then… it’s in their best interest to strip to their underwear?” She raised her eyebrow as her tone shifted to that of doubt.

“P-Perverted Book!” Miss Dola suddenly popped up from behind us, “Genevra, now’s not the time for jokes!” She said as she looked over at Miss Lionheart with flushed cheeks.

“I’m not making any jokes, seriously!” Miss Lionheart defended herself, “I’m just reading what’s written in the book!”

“Ah, Miss Dola, you’ve returned. Where’s this stress-relieving item you went out of your way to search for?” I asked, looking at her empty hands.

“Uhm, it wasn’t there. I tried searching around a bit more, but figured it’d probably be a case of diminishing returns if we spent any more time looking for items we didn’t need.” She hastily answered back.

“Then we know for a fact that the book is a phony!” I raised my voice, “I mean come on, what does stripping have to do with us making it to the next floor, for Gods’ sakes?”

“There’s gotta be a good reason for it!” Miss Lionheart answered back, “If it’s important enough for it to be mentioned by the book, then it’s definitely not something we should just ignore!”

“G-Genevra, you’re not suggesting we actually strip, are you?” Miss Dola quivered, much to Sullivan’s pleasure (horndog).

“Alright, enough everyone!” Linus stopped the quarreling, “Let’s just be thankful we don’t have to encounter any venomous snairs and just head to the next floor. The book said ‘it’s in our best interest’, meaning going that far probably isn’t necessary.”

Just as expected, the Old Veteran Adventurer can keep everyone’s worries and doubts at bay. It’s a skill I wish I had…

***

Making it to the Southern-most wall of the cave, we found nothing but a river in front of us that lead to who knows where. But still, no sign of the next floor’s entrance…

“U-Uhhh, S-S-S-” Sullivan looked back as he nudged us repeatedly, “G-Guys, SSSSS-!”

“What’s the matter, Sully?” Miss Dola turned around as well before donning the same expression as him.

“S-S-SNAIR!!!” they shouted in unison at the top of their lungs before running away as fast as they could.

We turned to see the serpent quickly slithering it’s way to us, making us jump with fear as we headed to the same direction Sullivan and Miss Dola were headed: the river. The snair from the North must’ve heard our quarrel from earlier and started slowly creeping it’s way to us.

“Everyone!” Miss Lionheart shouted, “The river leads to the next floor, it’s gotta! Just jump in!”

We doubted her, of course, but it was either that or being snairfood. After weighing down our options, we opted to follow her lead as we jumped into the river, managing to escape the snair’s deadly jaws (just barely, though).

“Huff, huff, brrr!” Miss Dola shivered with all her might, “That water was freezing!”

“Yeah…” I agreed with her, “And it looks like our clothes are only making it colder because they’re wet.”

“Everyone, change into drier clothes! We don’t want anyone getting a cold out here, you hear?” Old Man Linus raised his voice as he looked into his backpack, before realizing even the spares got wet as well.

“Damn, looks like we’ll need to wait a bit before we can press on…” I replied, “Even still, we can’t just stay in these clothes. We’ll freeze!”

“…it was right.” Miss Lionheart murmured something.

“Did you say something, Miss Lionheart?” Sullivan spoke up.

“The book, it was right.” Miss Lionheart said as she started taking her wet clothes off, “We indeed had no other option but to strip, no?”

We all finally realized what the book truly meant by it’s words, and started silently taking our clothes off as well. Before long, everyone was sitting around a campfire we made, clad in nothing but our undergarments. It was an embarrassing sight, to be sure, but we didn’t really care. We only saw the fire in front of us, and only felt the warmth of it’s flames, nothing more.

“Does this mean we aren’t free to pick our choices?” I pondered to myself offhandedly, not really expecting a serious answer, “Is everything we do already decided? Predestined? Does this mean that ‘Free will’ is a lie?”

“Whoa, calm down there, Mr. Philosopher!” Miss Dola chuckled a bit, “In my opinion, you’ve free reign over your life as long as you don’t follow the book’s predictions. But on the other hand, if you hadn’t done so, we’d probably be long dead, no matter how you look at it.”

“Exactly,” Sullivan added onto Miss Dola’s words, “be happy we have this tool with us. You can ponder all you like after we make it out of here.”

As they completely missed the point of my monologue and instead chose to laugh it off, suddenly the old man had something to say.

“Then that settles it.” Old Man Linus quietly proclaimed, “Let’s make a pact: From now on, no matter how absurd the instructions are, if the prediction says we’re headed the right way, we’ll follow it to a T. No questions asked.”

For whatever reason, everyone agreed to his suggestion, but I wasn’t up for it at all. Why put so much blind trust into a book you just found a couple hours ago instead of trusting your own gut that helped you throughout your entire life? I fought a snair when I was 13 and escaped unscathed! I’m sure 16 year old me can handle it just fine, plus I got a shiny new Titanium Sword now! There’s no way I’d lose, even against this snair (which was around the same size as the one I fought back in Whitehood).

“Lune, stop being obtuse. Even if you’re against it, we have you 3-1.” Miss Lionheart glared at me.

“… Do what you want, but don’t rope me into your delusions. I’m joining the pact for now (for the sake of progression), but if something seems too fishy, I’m backing out immediately.”

“Suit yourself.” Sullivan shrugged as we all got dressed to press on to the next floor.