Accidental Reaver

Drained, the Prism Golem dimmed, all of its brands previously present on its skin—gone.

A swirl of shadows blanketed the silver corridor, a faint light in weak streams all that remained. Charred flesh fumigated the enclosed space. The three Crystal Stalkers left alive languished on the floor, some distance away from the Prism Golem.

Darkness overtook the usually radiant tunnel, the still flowing beam echoing down its path until it smashed into a silver turn, absorbed after great struggle, cracking the previously flawless mirror surface. Sooty dropped from her shadowy abode, attacking with her plethora of abilities in a chain. Vorpal Touch spread, tearing into the already weakened Prism Golem. Its defensives were slow, unable to land more than glancing blows onto Sooty.

Fully sprinting, Luke pierced Xera into the Golem's back, the wisps of light around it struggled to form a barrier, one that Luke cut through like wet paper. Insidiously flowing frost into the Golem, a white-blue layer surrounded the golem, extracting out in a forward jerk. The light in the golem's eyes died out, its tremendous weight pressing down on Luke.

Flexing an arm, Luke ripped Xera out, while shoving aside the dense golem aside. It sunk into the floor with a thunk, the shaking caused crystal shards to drop from the ceiling, their number finishing off the three mutilated crystal beasts. Sooty batted aside any of the dropping shards within a harmful distance—especially those on course to collide into a shadow pocket.

As the bodies disintegrated from death, the smell of cooked meat cleared up in the narrow corridor. The Prism Golem dropped its core, which Luke handed to Sooty for safekeeping. The rumbling, which started from the Prism Golem, worsened, eventually mirroring an earthquake. The silver surface grew a brand mark to Luke's right, opening wide like a maw. Any hesitant feelings vanished when Luke saw the path up ahead start to become consumed by an abyssal maw, with no end to the drop in sight.

Sooty flew in first, and Luke calmly entered afterward. The corridor layer closed up after his entry. The quaking ceases, all returned to a serene silence, and it smelled better too—a minty and flower mix.

White glowing tiles etched the room he entered. In the middle stood an altar flanked by stationary crystals. A slowly rotating grey metal orb covered in mana veins peacefully minded itself. The damnable light beams were back, this time coming from small openings in the purple-blue glass walls. To Luke's relief, no enemies patrolled the square formed room. Each light beam reflected once stopped by the walls before doing a second refraction.

"A secret room you walked us into." Wayfinder's needle pointed up north toward Luke's face, "Get on with solving it. We ain't getting out of here without using that big noggin struggling from your shoulders."

The structure appeared rather barren, the ceiling a plain grey, with the walls their odd color palette. Little took up space besides the reflecting lights, five stationary crystals, and a floating metal orb in the middle. When he strained his hearing, a low hum came from the light. The place left no clue. At least, not any Luke managed to pick out.

Humming a tune from her crystal, Xera stopped to talk, "This place reminds me a little of the mirror room back in the cave. Don't you think so, master?"

"Now that you mention it…." Luke could see the resemblance, crystals, and lights, although lacking any mirrors. He guessed the glass-esque purple-blue wall came close enough. Sooty pecked at a stationary crystal, not a care in the world. The sound echoed across, covering up the low hum.

A light beam blocked his path toward the center. Placing Xera in the way, the light reflected and just so happened to connect with the southmost stationary crystal. The white structure lit up, transferring light again to its compatriot across the circle, where the light stopped once the second crystal absorbed it fully.

That sparks an idea.

Coming out to the other side of the light beam, Luke conjured up a vertical frost platform in the air to take Xera's place. Sure enough, the light beam reflected to the same Crystal once he put Xera up.

Five light beams. five crystals, one orb.

"Sooty, come along. We're going to play with lights."

Sooty flapped up, landing on his right shoulder, where she started to groom her feathers.

To solve the puzzle, Luke believed you needed multiple reflective surfaces, each to connect to a crystal. That might not be the entire solution, but it had to be a foundational aspect to it. With not much else to go on, Luke got started. His ice stayed around for a significant duration if he didn't consume it or snuff it out, it'd do the required job.

Splaying out both hands, Ice mirrors congealed from moisture in the air, each angled to reflect light onto the stationary crystals. Luke intentionally angled one ice conjuration to miss the fifth crystal—to see the reactions of the first five. Each glowed hot white, and without fail, they reflected to another crystal, which ended up taking the rest of the fed light beam.

Because of Luke's rushed attempt, they created a mess of an internal pattern around the circle formation. One hit the serene metal orb. It flashed a dark purple, and a shock-wave rang out, shattering Luke's ice, blasting him back against the walls, and returning to its typical grey a moment later.

[Ancient shock waves touch upon you and your companion. Dual Soul halves the resulting four corruption gain]

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"Reflect light onto all five, but not in a way that it hits the orb in the center. The cost of that lesson stings a little. The corruption price is the larger problem."

You'd think being blasted back and all would cause some incredible pain, but other than the initial impact, Luke felt bruised at most. Sooty's Iron Feather from the shade earlier absorbed the shock wave for her. She flapped in the place where Luke previously stood. Yet, the counter rose from one point to three, enough to proceed with caution. A black shard poked out his forearm, gone once Luke scrapped it off with frost.

[Your elemental body has bested the malignancy, one point of corruption cleansed]

Ignorant of the Interface messages aimed at Luke, Wayfinder spoke up, "Mean's either a circle pattern or a star with an open center. Those humming nuisances don't ever reflect on their partner. I bet me springs you'll need to try a star formation, lad."

Sooty tried a similar technique with her shadows, but the crystal hanging to one of her feathers stubbornly held on. No amount of pecking at it got it off. Since Sooty either lacked the technique level or perhaps a 'soul' granted from affinity, she couldn't replicate Luke's success.

Eyes on the crystal on Sooty's feathers, Luke coached himself, Take it slowly, Luke. Too many of those shock waves, and Sooty's going to be the one that suffers first.

Remembering how the five crystal pillars reflected earlier, Luke came to the same conclusion as Wayfinder beat later. "Yeah, that might just work. Here goes nothing."

This round, Luke reflected one light beam at a time, shedding the vertical ice platform once he jotted down how each crystal angled the light it received. After double-checking their tendencies, Luke went for broke.

Luke refracted the five light beams using ice creations, beginning a pattern. The northmost crystal sated first; a peaceful song came from its structure. It fed to the southwest crystal, lighting it up. The Reaver repeated the process on the southwest crystal, in turn, the light beam connected to the northeast crystal pillar. A melody of sorts began to play around the small room.

The Reaver controlled the third light beam to hit the southeast crystal, its beam connecting to the true north one. Using the northwest crystal, its light beam connected to the southeast counterpart. Finally, the man adjusted one ice mirror, allowing its beam to shower over the northwest crystal at an angle where it bled off the remnant light to the northwest crystal.

A star pattern etched itself into the white tiles, the melody grew overbearing, causing Luke's tinnitus to act up. An unexpected benefit revealed itself.

[Mirah's crystal song has reduced all corruption in the party to one. May the light guide you]

Each stationary crystal turned into a glittering mass, swirling around the rotating grey metal orb. The crystal sand floated around it, then plastered itself all over, cracking apart the metal orb in blinding light. Luke shielded his eyes, when they readjusted, a solitary white crystal chest with purple streaks awaited where the metal orb once floated. An ornate red latch provided the means to its interior.

Opening the latch, materials inside surrounded one neatly wrapped vial, over a red padded backdrop. Five white resonating crystals hummed in unison above the vial, while various ores, a herb satchel, cloths, and skins stuffed the rest of the treasure chest. Coming into contact with the resources, information from inspection flooded Luke's mind one wave after the other.

[Crystal Demon Herb Satchel]

Quality: Rare

Stored within is a wide range of rare herbs found throughout Crystal Demon Point, used for alchemy, medicine, first aid, and many other crafting processes. A portion are able to act as a baseline herbal material used to activate the second ascension ritual.

[Mirah's Song Ore]

Quality: Rare

A sound-conducting metal can create composing weapons—favored by Sonic Bards. Simpletons use it for regular armor, a waste.

[Pristine Crystal Stalker Hides]

Quality: Rare

A foundational material often found in leather gear at the peak of tier one. Its pristine condition ensures maximum effectiveness and price.

[Shimmering Demon Cloth]

A favorite for non-abrasive clothes, bandages, and particularly itchy Mage types to wear. A luxurious cloth that wastrels favor to use as sleepwear.

[Resonate Luminous Crystals]

Quality: Rare

Never found out in the open. Its limited means of production make this material in overwhelmingly short supply despite great demand. The perfect mixing agent for enchanting of all three types. Useful even in tier 2 attempts.

Sending Sooty a look, the corvid got the message. All the materials entered her Spatial Wing with one sweep of her wing. A white vial with rainbow colored liquid, accentuated with small gemstones, peacefully lay on the red cushion. Reaching out to it, Luke held it in front of his nose, identifying its properties after a couple second delay.

[Gem Shard Elixir]

Quality: Exceptional

Provides a permanent boost to the toughness of one's skin, akin to smooth gems. Less effective on those in the second tier or above. Usable for humanoids, poisonous to other lifeforms. Any additional uses after the first used vial will result in no further gain.

A batch of a recipe lost to time. Its vial threatens to burst apart if exposed to an unstable environment. Cannot be taken outside of Crystal Demon Point. Very rarely found in treasure chests or mini-bosses in the dungeon.

Uncapping the glass cork, Luke knocked back the Gem Shard Elixir. The sharp liquid cut into his throat, scratching it. After a cough, the substance settled within, and Luke's skin flashed silver, becoming smooth, flawless, refined, before returning to normal. The feel remained roughly the same. The Reaver already underwent multiple strengthening sessions through attributes, thresholds, and training. Thinking it barely worked, Luke tried lightly cutting into his palm with Xera—he left a faint white mark.

It came off as sliding metal across crystal, instead of living skin tissue. The faint white mark closed itself in a hurry. Finished experimenting, Luke stepped back from the treasure chest. The elixir toughened up his skin by another quality level, although putting it into an exact number proved difficult. He took the unexpected boon in stride. Shimmering, the treasure chest shattering into crystal particles, shifting like a sandstorm. Whirling around, the weather-like pattern cut into one of the purple-blue walls, summoning a hazy transparent exit.

Making a last pass in the room, Luke observed nothing else of import. Once he gifted Xera and Sooty the typical Essence buff abilities, he rubbed a cheek against Sooty.

"Ready for a move on?"

Sooty answered by pecking him back in the cheek, hopping away to the furthest reaches of his right shoulder—Whispering Tome decided to float right above his left one. As white-blue runes crackled up Luke's forearms, as subconscious frost essence leaked mist out his eyes, the Reaver exited the hidden room. A weak resistance passed over him as he crossed the transparent film separating the hazy exit from the other side.