Chapter 39 - Stepping into the sanctum

Chapter 39: Chapter 39 - Stepping into the sanctum "Aurea, look at this." It’s Mwacir, one of the fox warriors. He is showing me a pendant he found in the last treasure chest. "I think that this might be an amulet of protection. At least it looks like one, but it’s different from the ones I’m used to seeing." The pendant indeed emits a strong aura, now that I look at it. "Let me see..." They’ve been relying on me to identify weird stuff since they learned that I have the Appraise Object skill this morning. I activate the skill and examine the pendant. ---------- Amulet of Death Warding The wearer ignores one hit that would have otherwise killed them. Uses: 1. ---------- "This is an Amulet of Death Warding. It lets you ignore one killing blow." "Whoa!" "Wow!" "Amazing!" "You should put it on yourself, Aurea." Everyone is amazed by the amulet, and Kwarah tells me to use it. It makes sense, considering that I’ll be going alone into the next area. "Thank you, Kwarah. I hope I won’t need it, but it’s better safe than sorry." "Exactly. How are your mana reserves? I’ve seen you casting high-level arias one after the other in the last hours." "Oh, it’s okay. But it will be good to rest for a bit, nonetheless." "Good, so let’s rest. I think that the night is already falling outside, so it will be wise to set up camp. You go in tomorrow." "Okay!" Yeah, there’s no need to push too hard. Taking a Long Rest won’t hurt. I just need to be sure of one thing. "Won’t the boss of this chamber respawn or something?" "I’m told bosses have a three-day cooldown before respawning." ::: After the camp is set up, I’m turning around on my bed, restless, thinking about what happened today and what awaits me tomorrow. Man, what a gamified experience. I feel like I’m in some sort of MMO raid. Even the words, like ’respawn’ and ’cooldown.’ But as weird as it is, this is the new normal of my life. Could this be some sort of simulated universe or something? If it is, that’s a lame trope, and I don’t like it. And it feels too real... the pain, hunger, thirst, sleepiness... every sensation is real and exactly like it would be in real life. It’s just that system, and now the dungeons. Like someone had superimposed a layer of augmented reality onto the real reality. Yeah, that makes more sense than to think that this whole world is a big simulation. I haven’t been tasked with guard duty during the night, so when I finally manage to drift off into slumber, I only wake up the next morning. ::: So, now is the time. I have the amulet on my neck, my sword, and my backpack with provisions for a couple of days, for if anything goes very wrong. I don’t expect to take too long to do whatever I’m supposed to do in there and come back. But as I said earlier, better safe than sorry. I step into the barrier. What I see on the other side is just another staircase to a lower floor, exactly the same as any other we’ve been going through since we entered the dungeon. And another thing that greets me as soon as I go through the barrier is a loud screech. It seems that there is a monster down here, though it’s still fairly distant. I walk down the stairs slowly while I cast the strengthening aria. When I reach the next floor, what I see is completely different than anything that was on the upper floors. First, there are two columns and an arch over which there is a bas-relief that depicts two women dancing on a field of flowers. Under the two women is the word ’sanctum.’ In proper latin, with roman letters. Well, whoever built this came from Earth; there’s no doubt of that anymore. I cross the archway, and I find myself in a hall with some statues. The walls are covered with mosaics full of religious symbology. Some of them I recognize from greco-roman mythos, while some are completely alien to me. The result is weird and chaotic, bordering on nonsense for me. I do my best to resist the urge to appraise everything. After all, I keep hearing the screeches coming further from a corridor on the other side of the hall. And, if I pay enough attention to the sounds, I can hear something like the tapping of something hard and pointy on a hard surface. Like the footsteps of insects. Or, better phrasing, the footsteps of one large insect-like thing. I focus on the sound, taking everything else from my consciousness. It comes from the same direction and distance as the screeches. And it sounds like an eight-legged being with a hard exoskeleton. In other words, an arachnid. And an enormous one. And the screeches probably come from that same being. It sounds like desperation. I walk towards it, leaving the exploration of the side chambers and corridors for later. After all, I can’t detect any signs of monsters aside from that one. And there are lots of things here. All the chambers are filled with objects, like a museum. Even the corridors have ornaments and decorations. And the same two young women are depicted over and over again in several different circumstances. Sometimes they are colorless, like in bas-reliefs, but sometimes they are depicted in colorful paintings. Is it just me... or did the goddess seal the woman she betrayed inside a museum dedicated to their life together? What a cruel joke. At the end of the corridor there is a new staircase, and the sounds come from below. I walk down the steps; the sounds are very close now. The screeches are echoing with resounding agony. In the archway, the words ’inner sanctum.’ Yes, English and Latin, exactly like that. In roman letters. So, the goddess is from modern times, after all. On the archway there is a new barrier. It’s different from the other one, being mostly transparent, with some golden and green shifting patterns. On the other side of the barrier, there is a giant scorpion. It seems to be in a mindless rage, running around, screeching, and attacking the walls at random with its claws and tail. The chamber has a circular shape, and there are no signs of doorways or any other entrance or exit besides this one. There is nothing else in the chamber. The walls show signs of centuries of constant assault. What is this thing???