Chương 73: 73 Loop 2, Part 27

The crank was just behind us in the entrance hall, sitting in the pillar where Finn had left it. I wasn't sure if removing it would somehow raise the water or not. But it was clear the dungeon wanted us to travel back and grab it. Of course, after that, we'd have to figure out how to get across the water. I was hoping [Float] would let us cheat things, but given the balcony room, I was having second thoughts. I had a feeling the second I moved off the platform, the spell would drop.

I couldn't really see a ward, but I could feel something magical in the air above the water. I wasn't going to risk having the spell backfire, so I decided I'd play the dungeon's game—at least for a little bit.

"Finn, go grab the crank." He cocked his eyebrows up, waiting for me to explain myself.

"What? I'm being agreeable to what the room wants. Don't be so surprised." He went without further argument.

"There is no need to be afraid," Axe said.

"The effort you put in is always paid back."

"Axe, if you say anything about hard work again, I'm pushing you in the water."

"I have been in water before. I was unbothered." Nothing ever really seemed to faze him, so that was probably true. There was an odd soul inside that thing, and it got weirder every time he talked. Finn came back through the door with the crank up on one shoulder. He was walking carefully, as if he were afraid he'd drop it and break it. Which was odd, given it was a bar of iron with a handle on it.

"Right," he said.

"Where's the socket?" The socket was on a dock across the water from us. And there was no way to get across other than swimming—or, hopefully, [Float] ing.

"Commander," Axe said. He drifted past me, about to float out over the water.

"You said you would push me into the water. I have given this consideration, and I believe—""No."

"I have not finished speaking."

"Yeah, and I'm not gonna let you. Let's try a less valuable golem before risking you." I selected one of my golems that had spent the night drowning in a lake and cast [Stride] on it. It was a lot cheaper than [Float] and worked on the same principle, so I assumed whatever spell would cancel [Float] would also cancel [Stride]. Once the golem was floating in the air, I commanded him.

"Move across the lake to the dock." It pulled along in a perfect line, crossing the lake without falling. I immediately felt relieved that it worked. In total, we had Finn, myself, Axe, and about five golems that could float. We left the platform. The trip across wasn't far, but experiencing it was a different story altogether. An unsettling, queasy feeling filled me as I looked down at the black water beneath my boots. Murky reflections pointed back up at us from a surface so flat it didn't move at all.

The enormous tree sat to our right as we crossed. Its trunk cut straight through the black water and disappeared into the darkness above. My light caught pieces of the carved squares whenever I directed the beam across the bark. Even so, it wasn't powerful enough to see where the tree ended, no matter how hard I tried. Flag's tether still pointed upward, driving us forward. I kept expecting something to jump out at us from below.

I mean, it hadn't even been half an hour since I'd watched thirty copies of my face pour out of a wall of mirrors. So I wasn't exactly happy to be in a room filled with more water.

"The water is calm," Axe observed.

"This is suspicious. Maybe the water is planning something."

"Thank you, Axe. That's a very helpful observation, and not at all something I'm worried about right now."

"You are most welcome." The far dock had been built long ago. The wood had gone so soft and dark with age I couldn't quite tell what kind of tree it came from. It was supported underneath by rusted iron brackets driven into the stone. Four iron rails ran vertically up the wall behind it, each one passing through metal loops bolted into the dock itself. They kept going well beyond the reach of my marble. The crank box sat between the two middle rails.

Finn slid the handle into the socket, and of course, it fit perfectly.

"Do you want me to start cranking?" he asked. I wasn't going to stand there and watch him do manual labor. That sounded dull as fuck. At the very least, that kind of hard work should have been beneath both of us. Stolen story; please report. So I suggested something.

"There's gotta be a spell for this. What do you think? [Spin]? Would that work?"

"Only one way to find out." He pointed his wand at the handle." [Spin]." The crank turned on its own, made a full rotation, and then stopped. Finn just stared at it.

"Well, I guess it worked. Kind of." We both sighed. Thankfully, it was a 1 mana spell. We took turns alternating casting the spell—which was, kind of effort? But it was effort that saved you from even more effort, so it was acceptable to me. The whole rickety, rusty platform groaned like a dying man as we jerked upward against the four rails. Water spilled off both sides, finally breaking that too-calm surface. As the dock climbed, more of the tree trunk came into view. Every new section looked just like the last.

Elaborate squares had been carved into the bark in uneven rows that just kept going up. The water level rose with us, slowly covering more and more of the first floor. Eventually, all I could see below was the entranceway getting smaller beneath us. I looked up, which was a bad decision. My stomach lurched and I almost lost my balance as the rails continued into the never-ending dark overhead. Even with the spells, it still took about five minutes for us to reach the end of the iron rails. Flag. We're coming up.

Say something so I know which branch to head to. Oh. Hello, Lazlo. His voice came through so fast and loud I flinched. But I've got to admit, it was nice to hear his voice. I'm quite high up. And I'm not sure where I am because it's very, very dark. But I think I'm in that tree. You know, the one with the root. He won't talk to me, though. I wanted to be friends. I could hear the sadness in his voice. Are you hurt? No, I don't think so. Why would I be hurt? I didn't know how to respond to him.

Instead, I just said, Hang in there, buddy. We're on our way. The dock shuddered as it hit the second floor. One hard knock against the rails. By then, we were high enough that the tree trunk had become part of the room itself. Maybe that was why the second floor felt smaller than the first. It didn't make much sense for the tree to get larger the higher up we went. But when magic was involved, who really knew how anything worked? Black water filled the room from wall to trunk to wall.

Eight round wooden platforms rested on the surface between us and another dock on the far side. Each one was spaced about fifteen feet apart, as if challenging us to travel between them. The walls were the same wet grey stone as downstairs. Still, like I'd said, there was less room here. My marble light almost reached all the way across, and with [Wideview] I could see nearly everything. But neither one could pierce the surface of the water, which had returned to its murky black state.

My gut told me not to trust the platforms, so I was grateful [Float] was still active.

"Hey, it's exactly the same as down below. Room filled with water that we'll float across. Oh, what a waste. We're done here."

"And you just had to go and jinx it."

"Besides, it's not the same one," I said.

"There are platforms this time." The crank box on the far dock looked identical to the one beside us, mounted between another four iron rails. The rest of the room was almost the same, too, except for eight round wooden platforms sitting in two rows between us and the dock on the opposite side. Anything the dungeon had gone out of its way to add was likely there to make our lives worse.

"We'll float across, just like when we were downstairs," I said.

"Though we should probably avoid the circles." Finn looked at the black water beneath us.

"Are you sure we shouldn't avoid the water instead?" We could be wary of both while taking the shortest path across. We got about forty feet out when things got crazy. By then, the dock was behind us and the second wooden platform was passing underneath my right side. So far, nothing had happened—which was, of course, the reason something finally did. The surface of the water bulged like a bubble about to pop. And a pale grey shape burst through the water.

Its body was translucent enough that I could see darker shapes moving inside it. It had eight narrow legs underneath a bell-shaped head, each one ending in little sharp black stiletto points. They were thin and jointed like a spider's, covered in dark hairs that clung wetly to them. Each foot rested on the surface of the water, perfectly balancing the bell-shaped body above it. The bell tilted toward me. A slit opened across the front, and something shot out.

I jerked sideways on reflex, and a fist-sized rock that glowed blue passed by my ear and hit the golem beside me square in the chest. The force of the blow sent the golem into the water. Despite its flotation spell, it immediately dropped and sank like an anchor. Light burst out, brightening the whole room. And then the rock hit the water. On impact, blue-white veins of lightning raced to the walls, branching around the wooden platforms and the tree trunk.

Somehow, the light reached through the murk and lit the stone walls underneath the water. I gulped when I caught sight of just how deep it went. And I was suddenly immensely grateful that we were floating above the surface of the water.

"That fucker's electrical. Needless to say, don't get hit." I stared down after it and did the math. Water, lightning, and me floating directly above that water. Did not mix. And to make things even more fun, three more bell-shaped monsters pushed through the surface of the water ahead of us.

"Fuck, fuck. Lazlo," Finn said.

"I'm gonna freak out. You know I hate spiders. And these are fucking flying." There was just a pinch of panic in his voice.

"I see them. It'll be okay, just—""Throw me," Axe said with great enthusiasm.

"I will slaughter them all!"

"Nobody's throwing anybody." The first creature fired again, followed by its three compatriots. We all moved aside in different directions. Axe managed to dodge into a platform. But our dumbass normal golems didn't know how to dodge at all. Thankfully, they didn't need to. And I just shouted, "Move!" All four moved at once towards the tree. More and more of the monsters kept popping up. It felt like the entire area was going to keep filling until there'd be nowhere left to dodge.

And that was when the ward finally activated. Our [Float] spells all canceled out.