Chapter 2238 A Dungeon Flower
--- Pansy ---
Pansy was still looking for her sister... and the chances that Crocus was doing the same were high. Though, even with that as the eventual goal she needed to take break to ensure that her orb count remained high. She was in the Spring area... again. Currently, she was in a sort of dungeon and hoping that it had a bunch of orbs inside of it. She’d found it behind a waterfall that had remnants of a chest and perhaps an orb or two... but behind the vines on the back wall there was one more secret, and entire dungeon, and it seemed untouched.
The easy orbs that were being used as lights were the first thing she grabbed. Sure that plunged her into darkness, but she’d managed to acquire a lantern earlier, and Timmy walked beside her, lantern above ’his’ head to light the way for her. Even when the orbs were removed the light remained fairly steady due to this. It was even enchanted to ensure that the light went much further then it would naturally be capable of, plus, it never ran out of fuel.
The walls were cracked and broken, the vines from outside encroached inside like parasitical roots. Stonework murals, once perhaps telling a grand story now had so many holes in them cheese would be embarrassed. The light that shone from the orbs wasn’t even that good to begin with, what with the vines trying to strangle the source to snatch a bit of extra light for themselves.
Of course, that meant Pansy was somewhat pissed off when she stepped on a loose tile and it sunk into the ground with a notable click. The entire place was basically in pieces but apparently the traps still worked?! Pansy threw herself backwards as the walls opened up and arrows flew out from little holes. Pansy glared at them as they shot in patterns. Two shots, break for five seconds, two more shots.
The issue was that the arrows, upon hitting the other wall, snapped into pieces and then vanished. Meaning they weren’t really arrows, they were fake enchanted constructs. Less damage perhaps... but also practically infinite in number. She couldn’t just wait this out unless she was willing to wait hours, possibly days. She needed to find some way to turn it off.
First stop was the button. It was just barely inside of the arrow range, and while she couldn’t stand on it again, reaching out a hand while laying on the ground was quite possible. Pansy did just that and slapped the stone. It clicked again... but the arrows didn’t stop. Bother. Pansy tried a bit of magic. A ball of fire exploding from the sigil and flying through the arrows.
The firing stopped for a second... and then resumed a moment later. Destroying the arrows didn’t seem to disrupt anything. So... what about the mechanism itself? Pansy aimed another spell sigil at one of the gaps in the wall and lighting exploded from her sigil, frying the hole in question... and stopping the arrow. Not arrows sadly, but arrow singular.
Pansy scowled as she looked at the rest of the corridor. Even casting the spell dozens of times wouldn’t stop all of the arrows. "Hmmm... what to do. A more powerful spell might be able to blast through the wall... but it also might just take down the ceiling. The arrows aren’t too fast... they seem pretty survivable. Hmmm... flame wall won’t be enough to destroy them though and there’s no rest spot. Ok surely there’s some sort of trick here? Timmy ideas?"
Timmy said nothing. "Excellent idea Timmy," responded Pansy as she glanced towards the ceiling, and low and behold, there was a gap in the firing. Enough space for someone to slide across the top. The corridor also wasn’t too wide. Pansy was pretty sure she could reach one side to the other... so she decided to test it.
Putting her heavy armour away into her bracelet, she lay down flat on the ground once again, lying perpendicular to the corridor. Feet on one wall, and hands on the other. It took a bit of effort, but Pansy managed to ’walk’ herself up the wall and into that gap she spotted. Then it was just a matter of travelling sideways. It wasn’t too bad. The rhythm was easy and while it would’ve been hard on the core muscles of a mortal, Pansy was strong enough to deal with the toll it was taking on her body.
When she eventually got to the other side, for it while it was easy enough it wasn’t fast, Pansy wanted to simply drop to the ground and relax. She notably, did NOT do that. The chance that one of the tiles nearby would set off another set of arrows was way too high. So she gently walked herself down to the ground and kept her weight as evenly distributed as possible. From there it was a matter of carefully wiggling the nearby tiles before finding a few sturdy ones and pulling herself into a standing position on that one specifically.
"HAHA!" cheered Pansy. Before slowly turned her head sideways to wear Timmy stood with her lamp. "Shit." Should’ve grabbed the lamp before I did this. Though the light was nice. Hmmm... "Timmy, can you get through the arrows without you or the lantern being hit?"
Timmy shook his head. "Bother," Pansy cursed as she looked around the area. "Wait... can you get the lantern and yourself over separately?"
Timmy nodded. "Please do that then," asked Pansy. Immediately, Timmy backed up and then threw the lantern through the gap she’d shimmied through. It wasn’t quite enough but apparently Timmy could time everything so that it dodged the few arrows it needed to to make it to the other side...
But Pansy had to catch it herself. She could already tell it would’ve cracked upon reaching the ground... but she supposed she’d only asked that it get to the other side in one piece. Once it was ON this side apparently it didn’t matter anymore. Whatever. Once Timmy had done that, he dashed along the ground, dodging the few arrows fired his way.
Unlike Pansy, Timmy was short enough that he only needed to dodge a single row of arrows from either side, and even then, crouching or sliding under a few for a bit was perfectly possible as well. Timmy made it to the other side just fine. So Pansy reiterated her reliable words about the lantern and then handed it off to Timmy again, trusting the little guy to keep it in one piece... as long as she didn’t give a contrary order.
381
Now that it was settled... Pansy took a step forward. A very careful step forward. The tile was fine, and so were the next few... but a wobble here and there appeared and were avoided. The issue with this, was that the area was in horrible shape. Each wiggly tile MIGHT be a button ready to ruin her day... or it could be just a loose brick. There were more than enough for both to be the answer, but of course figuring out which one exactly was going to be the problem was impossible without triggering things.
It was only after a few minutes of this slow walk that she looked backwards at Timmy and shivered. Glad that he wasn’t setting any of them off. Pansy wasn’t sure he COULD but the fact that he wasn’t was clearly a great sign. Though... "Timmy can you tell which of these is a switch?"
Timmy didn’t respond. As expected, but annoying. Still, Pansy continued as she was. Occasionally breaking an orb out of the ceiling, but otherwise making slow progress. When the floor changed in style, she continued slowly. When the ceiling went missing for a bit, she continued, slowly. There was no reason to rush and every reason to keep her current pace. Even with her slow progress she was still finding plenty of orbs. Hours were regained in minutes, even if it could have been seconds had she been more reckless.
Finding her sister was the goal. Winning the tournament the ultimate prize... but that was no reason to rush. Days had already passed, and now, when there was a chance to loot this place to the ground without worry? For who else could get through the traps so easily? Well... that just meant she needed to take her time.
Pansy happily walked her slow walk, ready for whatever traps might be dropped on her head... but taking continual clear steps to avoid them. Her feet moved slowly, wiggling the stones before carefully placing her weight upon them. She did NOT lean on the wall to relax, risking another trap. Her feet were raised high, and her eyes were poised for any tripwires, runes, or other traps that might be triggered should she move past them.
It was dangerous, to some it might be scary. For Pansy? It was almost a nice break. The worries were all quite small and she just needed to... keep... walking... forward.