The room Kaizen and Gnorlin found after advancing through a few more corridors of the dungeon was large and partially dark. The only sources of light in the room came from the torches hanging on the walls, illuminating the stone chairs and the large rectangular table in the center of the room. In the same room, there were many old vases of various sizes, as well as chests placed in niches in the walls.
As Kaizen and Gnorlin entered the room, they looked around, trying to decipher some meaning behind the history of this place. Was this dungeon once the home of humans? That was the question they both asked themselves at that moment.
An entire wall on the opposite side of the entrance was covered with carved drawings, like hieroglyphics, that seemed to show warriors fighting each other and offering sacrifices to some kind of god.
Gnorlin looked curiously at this great work of art, for the figure to whom the people in the artwork even gave their babies was a knight with a horned helmet.
"What is that?" Gnorlin asked in fascination as he ran his hand over the engravings.
At the same time, Kaizen was rummaging through the chests in the room, but he looked over his shoulder at the strange illustrations Gnorlin was admiring and suggested:
"It looks like this represents an ancient religion, perhaps some sort of cult. The drawings show people offering sacrifices, and presumably the mythological figure they believed in promised or actually provided something, either protection or blessings."
Gnorlin looked at Kaizen with surprise. "So you think they really believed in the power of this god? Wow, man, what if this is part of a mission?"
Kaizen shrugged. "There's no way to know for sure if it's from a mission or not, but I think so. Nothing seems to be loose in this game. However, I say that if these people were willing to sacrifice even children, they shouldn't be.... At least we are lucky, it looks like they are long gone."
Psyker then turned his attention to the chest he was digging through and found some interesting items.
[You found 'Lizard Fossil' (2x).]
[You found 'Emerald Stone' (2x).]
[You found 'Meteorite Ore Dagger' (1x).]
[You found 'Fragment of Thousand-Year Aged Oak' (7x).]
Kaizen smiled happily as he put the items into his inventory. He didn't have time to inspect them right now, but they definitely looked like good items.
Gnorlin, on the other hand, was still focused on the engravings on the wall. He couldn't stop thinking about what those images meant to the people who created them. Though he was not sure what these figures represented, Gnorlin knew that there was something far more mysterious about this place than he could imagine.
Suddenly, a scream echoed from the hallway Kaizen and Gnorlin were coming from. A female, hissing voice that radiated desperation.
The Psyker and Monk looked at each other in the same instant, both with expressions of surprise.
"That-that's Aulenarca's voice! I'm sure of it!" Gnorlin exclaimed with a frightened face and a dry throat. He was ready to run in the direction of the scream without a second thought.
"Wait, man. First, open your map and see where they are so we can find them, otherwise we'll get lost with so many runners." Kaizen said.
The monk nodded quickly and with shaking fingers opened the game interface and clicked on MAP. The small square of the system screen expanded into a large rectangle showing the entire area they were in. It was then that Gnorlin got a sense of how large this dungeon really was. The straight corridors and few curves made everything seem much smaller than it really was. They were more than a kilometer away from the Dungeoneering Chamber.
But Gnorlin didn't care how far away the exit was, he just wanted to find his friends quickly. When he finally found the icons of Aulenarca and Mirthor, he said to Kaizen:
"Follow me! They're not far from here!"
Kaizen wanted to run as fast as he could, so he summoned the Hellround and nodded to Gnorlin. Together, they reentered the maze of corridors.
Impressively, the monk was much faster than expected. His frantic steps were well paced, and he seemed to have no problem with sharp turns or tight spaces. In addition, Gnorlin kept his eyes on the map the entire time to avoid getting lost.
"Did one of them run out of health?" asked Kaizen as they passed an intersection.
"Yes, unfortunately. Aulenarca's is still green, but it's gone down a bit, and Mirthor's is at yellow."
Health levels in Rise Online were also indicated by colors. Green meant the player was still fine. Yellow meant they were stable. Finally, red indicated that the avatar's health was critical.
Spending too long with the health bar in red could result in debuffs that would last for days without proper treatment from a healing mage or priest. Moreover, these debuffs were much more than weakness, slowness, or a temporary drop in the amount of points in a stat; the debuffs included diseases and infections that could permanently drain points from many different stats.
As a result, all players in Rise Online had to be very careful when entering an unfamiliar dungeon, protecting themselves with healing potions in their inventory and allies with abilities that could do the same. And that was part of the reason for Gnorlin's agony.
Why hasn't Mirthor taken a healing potion yet? Why didn't Aulenarca heal him? Are they already in the middle of a battle?' he wondered as he ran.
Eventually, Kaizen and Gnorlin arrived at the location of their friends' icons on the map. But what they saw was not what they expected. They found a huge room with a sea of statues. This room had a high ceiling and many quartz beams, but the appearance of the walls was deteriorated. There were so many statues in this place that they formed a crowd the size of a city.
Kaizen and Gnorlin looked into the room, stunned, and saw only a large green, scaly figure crawling at the bottom of the room, dodging the statues.
"What is that?" Gnorlin whispered.
With a swift movement, Kaizen pulled Gnorlin behind one of the beams, removing him from the center of the hall. At that moment, the creature in the room in front of them stopped crawling as it approached the entrance of the room, emitting an ominous sound.
*Ssssssss*
Kaizen looked at the monk and whispered with an expression of resignation:
"It seems we have found our last enemy."
At the same time, Gnorlin recognized that characteristic sound and widened his eyes even more. He understood that Kaizen's suspicion that there were Gorgons in this place after all was not wrong.
Now that they had this confirmation, they had to come up with a plan to avoid becoming statues while searching for Mirthor and Aulenarca in this dangerous room.
Thinking about it, Kaizen remembered an idea he had based on the most famous story he had ever heard about the Gorgons, the story of Medusa.
In this story, a legendary warrior named Perseus was able to defeat Medusa by using his shield as a mirror. He used the mirror to avoid looking directly into Medusa's eyes and thus not turning to stone.
The Psyker looked at Gnorlin with determination and said:
"I have an idea. Do you trust me?"
The Monk, startled, nodded without thinking.
"Okay, take this." Kaizen said and equipped a shield that was in his inventory.
The shield was heavy, metallic, and had no decorative ornaments. In fact, the shield basically looked like a manhole cover. However, it was the only shield Kaizen had, so it would have to do.
"You should use this shield as a mirror. You know, not look directly at it when you are looking for your friends. Remember, you can't look directly into their eyes, or you'll turn to stone, so keep this shield with you at all times, and even walk backwards if you have to."
Gnorlin nodded, still a little nervous, but ready to do what was necessary. "What about you? What will you do?"
"If the opportunity arises, I will distract them so you two can get out of here," Kaizen explained.
At that moment, from Gnorlin's perspective, a holy aura rose around him. However, Kaizen's thoughts were actually not virtuous at all.
'That's it, go find your friends while I get Medusa's head! Puahahahat!
...
Edited by: DrHitsuji
If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske
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This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦