137. The Castle (III)

Mike, Dairen, and Angie scooted closer, waiting for her to explain everything that was going on. It wasn’t often that Snow would input her thoughts about the coming dangers that plagued their predicament as most of the decisions were either given out by Mike or Dairen.

“I've been paying attention to the magical energy for the past twelve hours,” said Snow. “There have been odd fluctuations here and there. At first, I couldn’t quite tell the exact layout of the room itself as the magical flow was erratic, almost living.”

The others were shocked to hear such information, mostly because they had not thought about checking the magical energy. Everyone realized that they were stuck in an illusion.

“Just like Dairen had said. We've been going around in circles.” Snow lay it out to them.

Angie gasped, a bit panicking at the thought of being trapped in this illusion. While Mike punched the ground, frustrated that he didn’t figure this out sooner. While Dairen was deeply engrossed in his thoughts silently.

“Then, where are the others?” Angie whispered, “How did everyone just up and disappeared?”

This was a question that they all wanted to know. It was strange that people started to disappear one after another, without any clue.

“I think the others had fallen into the same repetitive traps.” Snow sighed. That was the only explanation, which was super simple.

“Really? That just sounds too easy.” Mike dryly chuckled; he was having a hard time believing people were falling into the same trap repeatedly.

“Yea, it’s the only way. If I counted the energy readings correctly, there should be a total of twenty,” said Snow.

“That many?” Alarmed by the number of traps laid out before them, he wanted to bolt up and search for them right now.

“That is honestly not a lot,” Snow shifted a bit to get a bit more comfortable. “The room is actually pretty small. We have been going in a figure-eight motion, which gives the illusion that we have been walking around for hours. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a special mechanism that changes and blocks the hallways to make it look like that we were endlessly going somewhere, but honestly, we were going nowhere.”

It was an annoying trap, and Snow wanted to get out of it as soon as possible, but she wanted to make sure that the traps were always located in the same spot. The reason: to see if they can find any clues of the whereabouts of others.

“What should we do?” Angie grabbed Snow’s hand, waiting diligently for an answer. It was as if Snow could bring about many miracles if she held tighter, but Snow was uncomfortable at her gaze and belief.

“We sleep.” Snow interjected. Her mind was stuffy with what-ifs and buts that she could not answer herself.

“What?!” All three of them burst out loud by the unexpected answer.

The other guild members glanced over, wondering what was going on. They didn’t expect the loud noise from the tree.

“Why? They could be hurt right now,” Angie vehemently replied. “We need to go save them. They could be in trouble.”

Snow shook her head. “They are fine. I’m sure of it.”

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“How?” Angie didn’t quite believe her.

“I remember that you guys said, you can check on the status of the guild member through your screen, right?”

Angie nodded furiously.

“If they die, their names get blacked out, correct?”

Angie nodded again.

“What other colors does it have when someone is heavily injured?” Snow waited patiently. She had been thinking seriously at this, while she heard Mike and Dairen talking a while back.

“Red.”

“So, are any of the missing people names red?” Snow slowly asked. She was relieved that she

was right.

Angie and the others pulled up their screen, flipping through the information of their guild members. When they finally finished their search, Angie squeaked in surprise.

A happy voice bubbled out with excitement and relief, realizing what Snow was saying. “None of them are heavily injured.”

“Then we have time. My theory is that these traps are to capture people rather than to kill them.”

“Yea, but they could possibly be injured and can become a serious problem.”

“I don’t think it will be that at all.” Snow reassured her. She was sure that the others weren’t injured at all. It wasn’t for the past hour that she felt a different set of energy that she didn’t understand until now. The power in the walls and the ground tingled with the energy of people, barely noticeable unless she focused hard. Every single one of them was alive.

The question that she had was how did they get below and above. She thought of a possible trap door that would cause the players to fall into the floor like the flipping trap door, but the large amount of energy above completely threw her off. It was a weird feeling to have people below her and over her.

To know that the others were alive was good enough for her now. She just needed to find a way to get everyone out and kill the dungeon boss and the crystal. The last dungeon core was stolen, and she didn’t want Levian to steal another one again.

“We need to be sharp. I know all of you guys want to save them, but a tired mind won’t help you along the way. I am confident we will be fighting more and more monsters the deeper we go. We need to think about ourselves just as much,” said Snow. She knew the burden of saving people, especially her new guild members--her new family.

Angie gave up trying to persuade Snow. She puckered her lips, folding her arm in front of her.

“She got a point,” Mike sighed, his shoulder slumping, but with dedication and hope in his eyes. “Let’s take a quick rest, and we can figure out what to do with the traps. A quick nap should be enough to push through for the next day.”

“I’ll send some of my skeletons out again.” Dairen said, getting up as he left the two behind.

The others got up to take a short nap before they got up again.

#####

Snow packed away her bag and a couple of canned goods that she ate last night. She tidied up as the others were ready to go.

Dairen came over, he crossed his arms, waiting for her to finish up.

“Did you find anything last night?” With the last of the trash put away, she turned towards him.

Dairen had slight bags underneath his eyes that told her that he was exhausted. Even the way he walked wasn’t as alert as before.

“Nothing still. I don’t think my skeletons can feel any peculiarities.”

“Did you sleep at all, though?” Snow asked as she walked over towards him. Her hand reached out, pushing away his bangs as she checked his temperatures. “You don’t look too good.”

They were almost nose-to-nose, staring at each other.

“I’m fine.” Dairen took a step back, “I’ll just take a quick nap later.”

Snow didn’t nag him any further, shrugging her shoulders as she knew that she couldn’t do anything more.

“Okay, let’s get going.” Snow headed towards the front, leading the way. “We’re going to check out some of those traps before we break out of here.”

Mike was elated at what Snow had said. “You heard the lady. Let’s go!” He shouted as he waved everyone in motion.

They continued on through the endless path that seemed to go straight off into the distance until they came up a split path going either right or left. Snow turned sharply right. She then took three steps before she raised up her hand.

Everyone leaned over, wondering what she had found.

Throughout the whole time, she spread out her magical energy to feel around. Even her eyes changed slightly into a golden color as she saw the magical patterns of energy flow. It was a weird squiggle line at first, changing quickly into rows and rows of lines that moved back and forth through different parts of the wall.

If Snow didn’t know any better, she thought that she was looking in an anthill with worker ants or termites living in it.

Squatting down, she a trail of energy congregated all in one spot. It was different from the rest as it reminded her of a blob of magic pooled together to make a perfect square.

“Did you find anything?”

Snow didn’t reply. She raised up her hand, covering it with magic, and smacked the ground.

Suddenly, the trap door broke, flipping over halfway, showing them a hole in the ground. It slowly closed back up.

“It's the trap door!” Mike shouted in alarm. “Everyone, don’t move from your spot.”

The chattering between the guild member intensified, realizing what this meant. They all gazed down, hoping that they didn’t hit a trap themselves.

Snow peaked over, seeing an endless long tube structure that disappeared into the darkness. She frowned, realizing that this slide took the captured target somewhere else.

“You got anything?” Mike asked, hoping for an explanation.

“Nothing yet. All the traps lead to somewhere else. We should check all the traps before we head to our next destination. We might find more clues.”