Fast Choices

The sound of a heavy metal axe cuts through the air, Arsene barely dodged the destiny of being cut in half, but not everything survived, his hat, that big ridiculous hat that provided him shade, the hat that he only had for one day, split in two uneven pieces that fell to the floor, he could only lament for a few seconds, while the axe retracted and went back into position "... my hat..." sadness filled his voice, but he was having the time of his life surviving this.

The steps of an armoured foe made him return to himself, picking up the destroyed hat he started to move again towards the end of the corridor, with luck this skeleton will kill himself in the axe trap.

When he heard the activation of that trap, and a few seconds after, no more steps, he sighed, finally safe. "i guess the lack of experience means that enviromental kills don't give them, that sucks" he laments in a small way, finally entering that second room, which was.... a smaller hallway, connected to 5 rooms, though this seemed way fancier than the last rooms, whatever it was at the end, it would probably be the last one... this was clearly a short kind of dungeon, but hell, who would trap a tomb this badly if it didn't have good things in it?

He walked closer, the last door in the end of this stone hallway had four small altars, no colour on any of them, but each had different creature on them, The first one had a Spider, The second one had a Fish, The third one had a Bird, and the last one... that he recognized, a Sphinx "ok... that's weird" Arsene looked at the rooms, each one had one of the creatures etched on them "damn, i better take a rest... i need the mana back"

After an hour of meditation, he had regained a good amount of mana back, he stood up, and went into the spider room, Arsene was quite confident, after all, what could a puny spider do to him? Torch in hand, it was worse than he expected, thousands of the small critters in the room "thank god im not arachnophobic" he had no trouble getting the spider statue from the otherside of the room, along with a few poison vials that were there as a gift he assumes, he was squeamish and every time he felt them brushing against him he trembled a bit, but nothing majof, it wasn't pleasant, after all, there were many spiders that bit him, Heavy Tolerance doesn't fix bites, just makes them not poisonous, so it's annoying to deal with anyway.

The second room was colder, there was a nice pool of water inbetween him and the Fish statue, well, it wasn't really a nice pool, it had a lot of electric eels, so he couldn't really swim to the other side, but he did have an idea sinking his hand on the water, and casting Freezing Hand.

528 damage dealt to [Lightning water serpents] 100 xp

584 damage dealt to [underground fishes] 20 xp

The pool of water took a 20 seconds to freeze, costing him 80 mana in total, but he walked over it with ease, picking up the statue "i hate this place..... no, that's a lie... i kind of dislike this place" as he walked back to the entrance of the room, he notived one of the 'water serpents' as the game called them, they were clearly more electric than any real animal, so he waited a while for the ice to unfreeze, after all, it would be kind of a waste for him to not take what he just killed, right?

Arsene had in his backpack like 9 dead sea animals that he now had to cook, no matter, how hard can it be? But first, the rest of the statues, Bird room, now this was hard, why? Because it was just a big hole between him and the statue, now, anyone with a build in strenght could jump to the other side, but he had to figure it out "a flying test? No.... that doesn't make sense, the people who made this cannot fly, what are birds known for?" He though about it for a while, sitting down "sight! Most of them have great sight!.... or maybe it's a myth but it could be an answer..." he looked closer, nothing visible to his eyes, but maybe....

Arsene threw a rope to the other side of the room, and it... held itself up? In some places it was lower, but in others It looked like a straight line. "Invisible path! Oh that's clever!" He said with excitement, starting to walk on the path, looking down and seeing nothis was... scary, but as long as he was careful "almost.... almost-" he slipped, grabbed onto the invisible floor, trying to not fall into the void below this path "more careful, slower..." he stood up, finishing the path, it took him a while, 10 minutes to reach the other side, and grab the statue, then looked back once he heard the shifting floors, in total, 30 minutes of trying not to fall to the void while walking back, his torch gave out halfway through so he had to be even slower, but he finally did it "hell, pure hell, never again"

Before entering the last room, he placed the three statues in their respectives spots, they emitted a soft glow, and nothing else, aftwr that he sat down on the floor, searching the small backpack "it must have some rations, i saw them earli....er"

Cube of nutrition x8

Made by a magician, this small cube holds all the necesary nutrients for a day, the taste might be disgusting, but it's filling

"...... figures" he bit into one, vile flavor, while at the same time tasting like nothing, soft yet rought texture, a cube shaped contradiction, he just shoved the entire thing in his mouth and ate it before he could fully taste it "Blegh, the spiders probably tasted better" he stands up, going into the last room, shaking his head in disgust, Arsene looked around, the biggest of the four rooms, but sadly there was no sphinx, maybe it was too much for a tomb, but there were... dead bodies! "Okay, what's the riddle here"

Arsene got closer to the wall, inscribed on it was a language he could understand.... why could he understand it? After that thought his languages page opened up, "forgotten languages? Does it come from researcher? Makes sense" he sighed, a bit convoluted, but he won't hold it against the game "it says.... What does always come, but is never arrives" a riddle, there were many, oh this was gonna take a bit, that's fun

1. What does always come, but never arrives
2. What gets bigger the more you take from it
3. To keep it you must give it to another first
4. The one who made me doesn't need me, the one who buys me doesn't use me, the one who uses me doesn't know it
5. I have forest yet no trees, rivers without water, cities but no people

"Five Riddles, i better get the camp ready before i start thinking about it" Arsene sat in the middle of the room, sure there were a few skeletons on the sides but those were dead dead, he set up a campfire, the flickering of flames would help him think "Always come... yet never arrives... that could be tomorrow, it's never tomorrow... or future? Hmmm, let's go with tomorrow for the first one" he chuckled to himself, pulling out the 'water serpents' and starting to cut away the skin, if they are that conductive maybe he can make something of their skin.

Butchery: The skill of slaughtering animals, dressing their flesh, and preparing the resulting meat. Associated attributes = Dexterity & Perception.

+50 xp

"Right, skills" with a sigh he continued, he just wanted the skins but since he's at it, he should probably cook them too, to eat at least.

After a few hours of getting experience from a mundane thing, and cutting his finger a few times with the dagger, he is already cooking the meat, it will chewy and all, but probably tastier than whatever he ate before, and he managed to get what he wanted from the things.

Electric Glands, crafting material. This material can be used in addition to certain spells or potions, holds tiny amounts of mana.

Conducting skin, crafting material. This scaly skin is highly conductive, might make for decent armor.

"The skin might serve me for some gloves or something, and the glands..... eh, im hungry" by the amount of stuff he's eating up, he already leveled cooking, sadly it won't be as good, but definitely better than the cube he ate earlier, but with that in mind, the answer to another riddle reached him. "Of course! A map! Rivers yet no water, forest yet no trees, almost went right past me"

He bit into one of the cooked water serpents, it tasted bad, but at least it had a taste, and besides, it was doing wonders for his health, though the glands were way tastier, it gave him a bit of a shock, a small one, nice flavor. "Ok... bigger the more you take.... ok that's easy.... it's a hole, yeah, that makes sense" he writes the answers down, two more left, what a place, at least he could rest for a bit before anything else happened.

It had been a few hours, he felt a bit dumb about taking so long, but at least he had recovered his full mana thanks to meditation and most of his health thanks to the badly cooked food he ate "coffin" he sighs, putting both hands above over his face in frustration, the coffin maker doesn't need it, the buyer doesn't use it, the dead don't know anything "it was so simpleeeeeee" Frustrated, he freezes the cuts of fish he won't eat, last riddle, he was a bit angry now but he still had to answer it.

"..... you must be kidding, My Word" as soon as he utered the answer to the last riddle, the tiny statue of a sphinx appeared infront of him, angry, he grabbed it, and started to dismantle his camp, at least he didn't fully set it up.

Arsene made his way back to the hallway, basically slamming the last statue into place, the last door opened slowly, but even though he took so long, even though he lost so much (his big hat), his eyes had this shine, finally, reward!

But the steps of something in heavy armor made him turn around, wide eyed, first time he ever felt scared in a game "It can't be" the armored skeleton walked towards him, big gash in the armor where the axe must have struck, few broken ribs poking out, he used inspect on it to see what kind of monster he was fighting.

The defender of the tomb, Aneroth, lvl 30

The last line of defense of this tomb, determined undead.

".... shit" He pulled out the wand with the metal tip, he had to use whatever leverage he could get, he looked at the rooms, knowing that he had no chance in this small hallway, Spider, Fish, Bird, Sph- FISH! The water!

He ran, and he ran fast, a direct hit of that sword could kill him even if he had full health, and he had a little more than half, so he was in no position to fight this in, mano a mano, as he entered the room he almost fell as a pain shoot up his back.

-19 hp

A superficial cut along his back, mostly a bruise than anything else, but still painful, he recomposed himself and started to get closer to the water, without taking his eye off Aneroth, Arsene placed his hand upon the cold water, starting to freeze it again with Freezing Hand. it was still cold from before, so it would be easier, The skeleton charged towards him, sword in both hands.

Arsene jumped to the side, trying to avoid the certain **** that this guard was about to give him, certain that it would fall into the water below, but it didn't, it stumbled a bit over the edge, but quickly it recomposed itself, which will make it more difficult, a higher level skeleton wouldn't fall for a trick like that, but he still had to try.

He took his hand out of the water, points the metal tip wand at it and casts Lightning Bolt.

Dealt 373 damage to [Anerath]

Staggered

Not stunned? The opening in the armor! That fucking Axe trap! He stood up, he haf but a few seconds to do this, and 3 more shots of the spell he ran towards the staggeres Skeleton, crashing into it with his whole body, using specifically his shoulder to push him

-10 hp

You have been inflicted with a medium wound: Dislocated Shoulder, manipulation is greatly reduced until this is treated and fixed.

What a great idea to hit the metal man with your shoulder, yet it works at a cost, being pushed into the freezing water, and sinking to the bottom, Arsene raises his good arm into the sky, wand in hand, gathering power.

"Leviathan, give me the strenght to kill my enemies! Give me the power to make them dust!" Pure theatrics, He know that he's won, but doing this alleviates the pain a bit, if Arsene had fought it on a normal 1v1, or a place without water, he would have been toast, and he knows it, He fires the Lightning Bolt towards the water, then another, and another.

Dealt 1386 damage to [Anerath]

Dealt 2789 damage to [Anerath]

Dealt 5364 damage to [Anerath]

[Anerath] Has been slain! +2500 experience.

"Finally...... god good, that thing was... invincible" he drops to his knees exhausted, grabbing his dislocated shoulder, and with great amounts of pain pushes it back into place, of course he screams, not a manly scream, a high pitched one, it will be very funny in retrospective.

"Now..... my reward" he starts walking again, towards the last room, now without interruptions, Arsene finally lays his eyes on this Tombs secrets.