Reina nudged past him, already on her way to the doorway of the right hallway. “Might as well open this one; the left door had an empty chest inside.” She grabbed the ancient door handle and twisted, but it didn’t budge.

  “Let me try,” Mara said, gripping the door handle. With a strain, the ancient handle creaked under the pressure, but didn’t budge otherwise.

  After ten minutes of trying and different types of attacks, there was no give. No amount of fervent pushing and striking would budge the door. The door must have been magically sealed.

  “Then how do we open it?” Rook asked, gliding his fingers across the solid wood construction.

  “Magic obviously,” Al chimed in, once again saying something hilarious without meaning to.

  Reina wiped the gathering beads of sweat from her forehead. “If I am to look at history, you must fight fire with fire, so to speak.” She rubbed at her shoulder.

  “Usually, when there is a seal, it must be broken with magic. However, ancient civilizations normally placed a barrier ward on the entry and not the exit.” Reina bit her tongue. “We need something that can get inside and open it from behind.”

  Rook looked up and around the door frame. He surged his atrramancy and realized that there was a single pulse from behind the door; it was light from what he could make out. He plucked it and pulled. The door swung open on its rusty, squeaking hinges with a crash.

  “I believe I unlocked the door,” Rook said, looking inside the dim blue corridor.

  Within the place were several mounds built up like gravestones in a cemetery. He looked around and realized that there were different urns on each mound. I wonder what’s inside.

  The air beyond the doorway was stale, thick as soup, and smelled like mildew. Same musty ass air as the antechamber. He gave a sigh of discontent as he inhaled the damp air and assessed the inside of the room. The distant babbling of a gentle stream was the first shock he noticed. Water down here? It sounded like a bucket of water gently pouring into a bathtub. Their footsteps lost their echo in this room, and he realized from his damp pant legs that they walked through dewy grass. How does any of this make sense? The room resembled a forest; there were living trees, thriving trees similar to small pines, and for the first time, buzzing insects like lightning bugs. Just like home. A messed-up forest version of home.

  With each step in through the room, his spine shivered with an unease, one that there was something dangerous. Within the room underneath the hum of the waterfall, the images of sacrificial altars dedicated to that man bear god flooded his mind. He shook his head free from the intrusive thought. Rook noticed that Al no longer looked like a cat in a swimming pool, desperate to escape. In fact, he looked cool as a cucumber, doing a low squat with his ass touching his heels. A form Rook used to see the old Korean men do when they were smoking outside convenience stores, when he was stationed there. Impeccable.

  He turned to ask Reina about magic chambers, but she just pointed to the middle of the room. A waterfall moved in reverse from the floor to an opening in the ceiling. His heart raced towards the middle of the room. He looked down, and there was a pool lit by crystal lamps set in a perfect circle. The green water was immeasurably deep, and Rook had to fight the urge to stick his arm in. Looking deep into the water, a small glint shone within the space. He reached in, grabbing hold of the object. The reverse current threatened to pull him in. Shit, bad idea, bad idea.

  You have obtained Effigy of Strength

  Would you like to use Effigy of Strength?

  Y/N

  An effigy. Rook paused for a long moment. Yes.

  Effigy of Strength Obtained.

  +10 to Strength

  Allows strength-based skills to be used with increased efficacy

  “Are you a fool every waking moment?” Al grabbed hold of Rook’s shoulder. “I hear it, this place has elvish magic, the waters within the pool have no bottom, they are as deep as the sky. The waterfall leads nowhere.”

  “Thanks,” Rook said, trying to steady his heartbeat.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Some of the water elves worship these anomalies,” Reina said, walking beside him.

  Rook gulped, nodding as if he didn’t just reach his arm into the pool and endanger his life. “Reina, so it turns out that the upside-down waterfall held an effigy of strength.

  Her face was a mask of shock. “What?! You found an effigy? You don’t understand how important these are and how rare. There are only so many on this continent.”

  Rook felt the pang of guilt, things seemed to go his way with loot and some of the skills, he pressed his lips togehter in a hard line. Reina smiled at him, seeming to notice his guilt.

  “You need it more than me. Your strength was lower, but now it’s just above mine, my friend.” She touched his shoulder.

  Reina Jax

  Rank (Bronze) one out of five Effigies

  Elite Enhancer

  Level 13

  Core Attributes

  Strength- 14

  Dexterity- 10

  Arcane Wisdom- 9

  Charisma- 2

  Constitution- 6

  “Good lord, Reina. I didn’t know your stats were that good.”

  She just smiled in return. “You never asked for my stats.”

  “Anyways, there’s grass and water within this place, does that mean there’s an exit?”

  “Not always, this could mean that there is probably a tomb nearby.” Reina looked around the chamber with a confused frown. “This is too easy.”

  After a silent hour of methodically searching the chamber, Rook took a seat at a nearby tree and watched the waterfall. He remembered another of Grandpa Jimmy’s stories about the different traps that his platoon ran across in Vietnam. Before he got sick, his grandfather was animated, pretending to be unsuspecting Soldiers walking through the muck, then getting cracked by a swinging punji stick trap. Why was I allowed to hear those stories again?

  After a few minutes, the group dispersed and looked around the chamber. Reina waved him over towards the far wall of the cavernous space. Artwork flooded the wall with different dioramas of the same bearfaced man, but staring back at him now was a gruesome sight. The images that flashed in his mind about sacrifice were shown on the wall. Rook winced at it then attempted to shake off the dirty feeling.

  “The Teru figure sure liked pain, eh?” Rook asked, with a trembling voice.

  “Teru was considered a minor deity until the demon overlord was sealed by the Sentinels,” Reina said, her fingers gliding over the mural. “This depiction is of the fairie genocide; the friendly race was similar to bees, where the queen goes, the horde follows.” She shivered. “And unfortunately, that meant right into Teru’s subjugation magic.” She finished scribbling in her journal. “Teru, the god of the trap.”

  Al sidled up next to them. “It’s truly sad, the fairies used to live in harmony with the elves residing in the forests of Sylnaria, the elvish home.”

  Mara shook her head, placing a hand on the wall. “Always more than one evil in this place.”

  Stepping away from the violent mural. The group continued searching the place; only Reina seemed to have any idea of where to look. Rook gazed at the vines working their way up the wall, threading in and out of cracks and burrs in the stone face. How many freaking vines can there be on one wall? Rook scratched at the gritty feeling on the back of his neck. I need a shower.

  One patch of vines looked out of place. Unnatural, as if someone placed it there. Travelers of the Mine of Struggle or this tomb would have had a difficult time seeing the patch on the side of the wall that took hours of pain to get to. However, using her knowledge of the old gods’ history and traps, Reina followed the hidden tracks in the chamber like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs. Rook pulled at the vines, surprised when the vegetation tore away some of the fragile stone. Rook looked up to see Reina and Mara standing in front of another one of the corroded copper plates.

  “Ugh, this is hopeless,” Reina said, flipping through her book. “There isn’t anything about a tomb here in the mine of struggle–this dungeon doesn’t even have a floor boss. Ugh!” She exclaimed, flipping through the section that held the mine’s information.

  “It seems like this place has been wacko for the past several hours. Honestly, nothing should surprise you anymore,” Rook said, seeming to further add to her frustration.

  She flipped to a new page and scribbled a few notes with her dull pencil. She placed the pencil on her tongue, poked at a page, and then threw it to the ground with a huff. “If I hadn’t taken so many extensive notes on the civilizations of the past, then we wouldn’t have found the entrance.”

  “It’s fine, calm down. We will figure it out.”

  If Rook knew anything about his past relationships, it was that the women in his life hated being told to calm down. Reina and Mara shot him a flat look, staring daggers until he put his hands up apologetically.

  “How many of these puzzles do we have to navigate? These symbols they’re not common. It looks like the language of the old gods. If I remember correctly, this will say.” She hovered her fingers over the series of symbols and began to speak the words. “Allies. Proceed.” Reina huffed again and sat in a crouch against the wall. “What could it mean? Allies, Proceed? Or maybe this means that you must sacrifice one friend.” She looked at him incredulously. “No, that can’t be it,” she said with a nervous chuckle.

  “Teru is the god of the trap. We don’t know what lies beyond. I think we should find an alternate route,” Al said, with a hint of apprehension.

  “As great as this is. I’d say that the wall has something to do with entry,” Rook replied, pointing at the wall full of symbols. “Most likely people wouldn’t think about reading that language, especially if it is from the Old Gods, or even know how.” Choose a symbol that means friend and see what happens.”

  “Brilliant! You know, every once in a while, you say something that isn’t a joke?” Reina asked, marching over to the wall.

  She pressed a plate on the wall that Rook swore looked like the hipster window shade sunglasses.

  What kind of symbol is that? Hell, who made that is more important. Above, a portion of the wall was jagged grey stone that lit with a green hue.

  “That’s new.” Rook looked at Reina. “What does that mean?”

  “It’s a puzzle,” Reina said, setting down her pack. “We have to hit the target to open the secret passage once the damned pressure plate is depressed.”

  “I’m just like that pressure plate,” Rook answered, with a chuckle.

  “Damned?”

  “No, I meant depre–” Rook sighed. “Never mind, let’s give it a shot.”

  The path was amongst the wall, the breadcrumbs of dusty footprints led to multiple portions of the wall, and were of no help. On the ceiling, a budding crystal glowed with the faint pulsing of mana.

  “Hit that crystal as it lights up.”

  He tried several times with projectiles over the course of the next several minutes, but was unable to get an echo on the crystal for a direct hit. The hell’s going on?