Lost World-Chapter 54: Hidden Quest 2

Looking at his map, it was as expected, since the map in lost world operated based on exploration, so there was nothing to look at except smooth and blurted out textures.

Naturally, Yamamoto had to pull up his mental map of the dungeon to navigate going forward. There was no way to say he knew every single part of this dungeon, but as far as the correct path was concerned, he could lead a blind person though while blindfolded.

Rather than simply getting you lost and strain you mentally with looping corridors and the likes, the Abandoned Armory was designed to be as deadly as possible, and that also at every turn where it was possible. From pressure plates that triggered terrible traps, to false floors that collapsed into deadly traps and environments, to ceiling mechanics, golems... there was a lot.

With all this, it was a good thing that Yamamoto knew what to do and when to do so.

With confidence, he started moving, doing everything right that he had to. At one point, facing a rather normal wall, he pressed a specific portion of the stone wall that immediately became like a brick the moment he pushed it in. Immediately, a hidden passage opened, bypassing an entire of trapped hallways.

Twenty minutes into the dungeon, he encountered the first major trap room. The floor ahead was a checkerboard pattern of black and white marble tiles. In the game, stepping on the white tiles meant instant death, with spear traps from the walls, poison gas from the ceiling, the even more he had heard of.

Of course, one would think to just avoid the white tiles, but that was just deception. The real way to stay alive was to avoid the entire floor as much as possible, if not entirely. The tiles would often switch, and because of the scale of it, there was no way to calculate the randomness of it all.

Yamamoto looked up, his eyes landing on the support beams around fifteen feet overhead that crossed the chamber at regular intervals. The way through was to make use of those to get across, and to do that he would need either grappling hooks or some sort of flight ability. There was no way to even get an item that granted flight, so the only real true method was the grappling hooks.

Well, Yamamoto didn’t have any grappling hooks...

To cover for that, he was going to make use of his superior agility and newly learned skill, Dash Strike.

Taking a couple steps back enough for a small run up, he focused on the first beam and pushed forward, activating the skill just in time.

[Dash Strike]

His body launched with so much speed that it appeared as though he had disappeared and reappeared mid-air. In an instant, he had covered the distance and grabbed the beam. Following that momentum, he swung his body halfway around and landed in a crouch on top of the beam... perfect execution, even he was impressed.

From there, it was parkour across the ceiling beams. They were just enough for him to get a good footing without worrying about a misstep or slipping.

58 seconds later, he dropped safely on the far side of the trap room and continued deeper into the maze.

From there on, the maze continued, from the endless traps—rolling boulders, poisons of all kinds, javelins, a section where the walls slowly spiraled closed, a section filled with blade pendulums—all sorts of things. Of course, each time he went about it either by following a secret path, or finding clever ways around it. In the end, it worked and he was not affected.

The dungeon was extensive, complex, and absolutely lethal to anyone attempting it blind.

Yamamoto navigated it like he was following a marked path.

Finally, after ninety minutes of careful progression, he reached the center, exhausted.

The core chamber was circular, maybe thirty feet across, with a domed ceiling that displayed a moving map of constellations—stars that rotated in patterns that matched no sky Yamamoto had ever seen... not that he had seen that much of the sky, not even the boring city sky.

The walls were plain stone, but the floor was different. There were circles of different colored marble that spiraled inward toward the center, where a stone pedestal rose from the floor, and on that pedestal, glowing with soft blue light, was an orb.

That was the completion mechanism of the dungeon, touching the orb. Doing so would make the dungeon recognize that the clear condition had been met.

Yamamoto approached the orb boldly, knowing that there was no trap to be afraid of.

On reaching the orb, he reached out his palm and touched the smooth surface of the orb. Immediately, the light intensified, flooding the chamber with brilliant blue radiance. The orb dissolved into particles of light that swirled upward, and beneath the pedestal, the floor began to shift.

The marble tiles slid aside, revealing a hidden compartment. From within, something rose, lifted by invisible force and accompanied by the sound of wind chimes that had no source.

Simultaneously, sand seemed to have materialized from nothing, swirling in spiral patterns around the emerging object. The particles glittered like gold dust in the blue light, and when the sand dispersed, three items remained floating in the air before Yamamoto.

[DUNGEON CLEARED: Abandoned Armory]

Rewards:

Blade of the Wanderer

Skill Tome

Stat Crystal

...

The first item was a sword.

It was not a longsword exactly, as it looked slightly longer than standard, but the blade was a beautiful damascus pattern of dark and light steel. The crossguard was simple but elegant, and the grip wrapped in worn leather that somehow still felt new. Even without touching it, Yamamoto could sense the quality. This was a weapon made by master smiths for sure.

[Blade of the Wanderer] (Rare)

Type: Two-Handed Sword

Requirements: Level 10, STR 15

Effects: +25 Attack, +10% Attack Speed

Special: Traveler’s Edge (Passive) - First strike against any enemy deals 50% bonus damage

...

’Nice.’ He thought to himself after seeing the sword’s information.

The second item was a small scroll, its paper yellowed with age but somehow pristine. This was a skill tome—the knowledge of a technique compressed into physical form, waiting to be absorbed.

[Skill Tome: Dash Strike]

Use: Learn skill "Dash Strike"

...

Seeing what it was, Yamamoto’s excitement dimmed slightly. He’d already learned Dash Strike from Greaves! The tome was useless to him. It was still valuable, potentially tradeable, but not useful to him personally.

The third item was a crystalline sphere, small enough to fit in his palm, glowing with soft white light.

[Stat Crystal]

Use: Gain +5 Free Stat Points

...

After taking these rewards, the chamber began to fade, the blue light dimming. The pedestal sank back into the floor, the marble tiles sliding over it seamlessly. The constellation ceiling went dark immediately and everything lost the otherworldly feel... at least for the most part.

Following that, a doorway appeared in the wall. This one led directly outside of the dungeon, instead of a standard dungeon exit like a portal. He was quite surprised, because this was not exactly game accurate, since it should have been a portal, but he trusted it and followed the long passage towards the far light at the end.

Yamamoto walked through and found himself standing at the base of the cliff, the forest spreading out before him in the fading evening light. It was strange, because when he looked, his horse was just a few metres away from where the door led up from the earth.

After looking around for a few seconds and looking back, Yamamoto found that the door that led him out had disappeared, leaving behind not even a single trace.

It was very strange, but at this point he had already gotten used to things like this.

’This world keeps surprising me at every opportunity.’ He thought to himself.

He could only wonder what it all was. This dungeon was a onetime dungeon, meaning it would be inaccessible going forward, but the possibility of a deeper lore lingered in his heart.

Yamamoto drew his new sword, testing its feel. The blade caught the last light of sunset, the damascus pattern seeming to shift and flow. It was beautiful.

He sheathed it and began the journey back to Mashlow, taking the horse and riding back.

To say the least, he seemed to have spent more time within the dungeon than he originally anticipated, but in the end, he was alright, that was still good. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

It took him a few hours to reach the city, and by then the night was far gone. He even almost had some issue at the gate, with the guards, but after some back and forth, they let him through.

He returned the horse, and quickly went to get something to eat. He was already thinking of taking a day to shop for different foods and things he could eat, so that even away on quests or dungeons, he would not have to worry about food.

After he was done with that, he returned to his quarters to rest, he had something special to do the following morning.