The Ruby Magician

Wyn looked between the entrance to the secret room that his Mushroom Lantern exposed and the portal to leave the fourth floor. He and Arabelle invited Daniel to climb the floor with them, but going inside a secret room was another matter entirely. It would definitely be more difficult than the regular floor, which was his biggest fear. There were only three of them, after all, and Daniel wasn't in prime climbing shape.

He was about to suggest they leave it behind when he was caught off guard.

"We have to go inside," Daniel said, taking a step towards the wall with the exposed runes.

"Let's wait a minute and talk this out," Wyn said. "This isn't part of the climb. We can go back to Alestead, we've already completed the fourth floor!"

"Wyn!" Daniel said, his eyebrows raising in surprise. "All I've heard from you for months was how your lantern exposes secrets and secret rooms. I've been so curious to see for myself, and now I actually have the opportunity! How can I turn this down?"

"Because they aren't like normal floors," Arabelle said. "We wouldn't know what to expect, and we can't guarantee your safety."

Daniel's face grew serious. He looked at both siblings for a lingering moment, then again at the runes on the wall. Taking a deep breath, he sighed.

Wyn had no idea what he was about to say, but he hoped it wasn't going to be too harsh.

"I know they aren't like normal floors," Daniel finally said. "I've only encountered two such rooms in my climbing career, which is about average. Wyn, your lantern gives you an extraordinary advantage with these rooms. I know the risks and I still want to go inside. I would never step foot inside Alistair without understanding what's at stake."

Wyn had to give Daniel credit – despite his reluctance at the final fight, he wasn't wrong. Finding secret rooms really were rare occurrences, even if he found them more than most Climbers. And who was he to question whether Daniel was prepared or not to go inside one? The man wasn't the same Climber he used to be, but he was still more knowledgeable than both Wyn and Arabelle combined.

Looking at his sister, Wyn saw tears form in the corner of her eyes. He knew she was mentally chastising herself about being overly cautious with Daniel.

But he understood her sentiment. This man was basically a father to them. Why would he not want him protected and safe?

Still, he was free to make his own decisions.

"Okay," Wyn said, nodding to his sister. She nodded back. "But only after you cast the same protective spells on yourself."

Daniel immediately cast both spells while Wyn and Arabelle waited. As he cast them, Wyn shared the runes he could read on the wall and explained the typical structure of the rooms being puzzles, with them deciding that Daniel should focus on figuring out the puzzle while Wyn and Arabelle dealt with the monsters.

Once he was finished, he pulled out a mana potion and drank it.

Then they were ready.

Wyn put a hand on the wall and tried to activate it like an ability. The wall shimmered briefly then disappeared, leaving behind an empty, black entrance. It was quickly exposed and filled with the yellow light from Wyn's lantern, which revealed a long hallway with dirt walls and a low ceiling.

Stepping inside, Wyn led the group slowly. His approach was a cautious one, full of anxious curiosity. Before long they were out of the hallway and into a large, spacious room that was dank and musty.

The singular area was completely dark, though Wyn's lantern lit the walls and space as he walked inside. The bright yellow light didn't reach the far wall, showing the size of the one room.

As Wyn slowly walked in further, the light eventually reached the far wall, where there was a singular, familiar pedestal placed directly beside the wall. The pedestal had no bars or any type of covering. The only other objects around it were four small braziers, two on either side, all the same size of about a bucket.

Suddenly a crystal floating beside the left wall started to glow, its color purple and aura strong.

"Shit," Wyn said. "Monsters will be coming soon!"

"The only thing in here are the braziers and pedestal," Daniel said. "It doesn't leave much to figure out, does it?"

Wyn summoned his weapon as a spear. "It might not be a puzzle." He didn't want to say the rest, but he had a strong feeling both Arabelle and Daniel understood.

If it was a monster wave challenge, it was going to be very, very difficult. But the prize could another stone tablet, something he desperately wanted.

Thinking while he still had time, Wyn considered his options. They were going to fight the waves no matter what to at least see some form of the room, and if they were manageable, he felt comfortable pushing himself to ensure the reward. If it was too much, they all had portal keys they could use to leave the room and return to the city. He'd lose out on a great reward, but nothing was worth them being seriously injured or dying.

The crystal's glow stopped at a bright light, then a trio of monsters formed in front of it. They were like sentient clouds in the vague shape of a creature without legs, possessing a funnel-like body that swirled in constant movement with arms and black glowing eyes. A dense purple aura emanated from their person-sized bodies, and they immediately honed in on Wyn who was the closest target.

"Wind elementals!" Daniel shouted.

Wyn understood. Casting Elemental Weapon on his spear, he coated it in a deep blue aura of the ice-element. By the time the spell finished the first monster was on him, and he immediately began trying to stab it.

Each strike missed as the monster shifted its body to completely avoid the blow, curving, compressing, or even making holes in its body to dodge. It was fast and responded quickly. The second monster was approaching beside it, too.

Frustrated, Wyn activated Sprint and began attacking again, changing his tactic to add slashes while mixing up his attack patterns. The move worked, and the monster couldn't dodge fast enough to avoid every hit. When the spear would make contact, the monster would groan in pain and part of its body seemed to freeze away and shrink.

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But that was still only against one monster. The second swirled up to Wyn and blasted outwards with a cone of strong gales, knocking Wyn back while sending dozens of small magical cuts over his body. His equipment stopped most of it, but in the gaps of his clothes he still felt the cuts slice his skin.

A loud crack pulled his attention and he saw a blue wave of ice completely engulf the first monster as Arabelle struck it with her whip and some ice spell that greatly affected the monster.

Wyn stepped forward and cast Frostsnap to engulf all three of the monsters, which overwhelmed the elementals in snow and ice. The two closest monsters were completely blown away while the third was only doused in snow, its body halved from the attack.

Arabelle quickly ended it with another magical whip attack and the room fell silent once more.

"Damn," Wyn said, looking over his body. "That attack was more powerful than I thought."

A white aura enveloped Wyn and he felt his small injuries start to heal.

"Elementals are tricky monsters," Daniel said. "Usually tier two strength, they are pure magic. Not much magical defense and can be killed relatively easily, but their attacks are strong. They are deadly in large numbers."

Wyn hoped it wasn't a wave challenge, then.

Arabelle knelt down at one of the piles that dropped from the monsters. She scooped up what looked like light purple sand. "What is this?"

Wyn looked at the fine powder then back at the braziers. A sudden thought occurred to him.

"Like the mushroom puzzle," Wyn said softly, scooping up some of the powder beside Arabelle. He took the handful over to the braziers and studied them carefully.

Each of them had a different rune in the basin-like bowl, and his light let him read them easily. "Wind, fire, water, and earth," Wyn said, pointing to each of the basins.

"An elemental puzzle!" Daniel said, running to the brazier. "Drop the powder into the wind brazier!"

Wyn did so, and the brazier began to softly glow from the added material. The three Climbers looked at each other, realization dawning on them.

They quickly began grabbing as much of the fallen powder as possible.

It took almost no time for them to gather what had dropped, though as they poured it into the basin the other crystal in the room began to glow with a red light. The wind basin began to glow brightly from the powder and then a small, light purple flame came to life in the middle of it.

They all backed away as the flame grew, igniting the powder and causing a roaring fire. The pedestal responded to the flame and began to glow in a soft purple light.

"Ready some water spells," Daniel said while pointing to the red glowing crystal. "It'll be more elementals! We need their essence to fuel the braziers!"

Wyn cast his Elemental Weapon spell again on his spear, this time with water. Then Arabelle stepped beside him with her whip ready.

Before the crystal grew to a bright state, a third crystal on another wall started glowing with a deep green color. Wyn looked back and cursed.

He did not want this situation to happen.

"Hold the fire elemental monsters," Daniel said. "I can stave off the earth elementals until one of you comes to help!"

Before Wyn could protest monsters formed under the red crystal at the same time as Wyn placed a Siphon glyph to hopefully slow them down. Daniel would have to hold his own, and Wyn needed to trust him.

The fire elementals were humanoid, with two legs and arms, though they had bright white eyes and flames on their head that looked like fiery hair. Oddly they stood at the height of a child, coming up to about Wyn's waist.

Unfortunately they were fast, and right as five of them popped into existence they immediately rushed Wyn and Arabelle, splitting between them. His glyph on the ground did little to suppress them, but his follow up Flash empowered by his Ability Link made the entire group pause momentarily while they covered their faces.

Arabelle stepped forward and lashed the closest one with her whip, causing a torrent of water to drown the first monster and spray over another right behind it. It shrieked in pain then darted to the side out of the glyph.

Straight towards Daniel, whose back was to the elemental.

Despite the monster being blinded, it moved fast, and Wyn didn't want it blindsiding Daniel. Every step of the elemental left behind a small red footprint on the stone floor, and Wyn avoided them while easily running to the small monster. Striking with his spear, he stabbed it three times in quick succession.

The monster howled as the water from the spear overtook its body, but then it dissolved in a fiery bellow that felt like a small explosion. Wyn jumped backwards avoiding most of the blow, though he felt the heat on his face and quickly patted his face away, hoping it wasn't too badly burned.

"Arabelle, watch for the -"

Another small explosion engulfed Arabelle, and she cried out in pain. Wyn frantically returned to her side and saw that the monsters were gone but Arabelle was on the ground. He cast Improved Cure on her, not even bothering to see what was injured. A large part of him didn't even want to see.

Her body was coated in the white aura and her scrunched face visibly relaxed. What skin was exposed was blistered and red, which was mostly her face and neck. The blisters drastically reduced from the higher tier healing spell but Arabelle still seemed too injured to move.

"Stay here," Wyn said, pulling out a healing potion. Arabelle opened her eyes to look at him. He put the potion in her hand. "Take it while I help Daniel."

Wyn felt anger rise in his chest. Arabelle seemed okay, but whatever was that suicidal attack could have been devastating.

Changing his weapon's element to wind, he activated his boots to further increase his speed. The monsters had just formed under the green crystal, looking like large rocks with blocky bodies that stood on two legs but had four arms.

He suddenly appeared in front of them, then cast Frostsnap followed by Drain. The first spell slowed them but didn't do much else, but the enhanced Drain coated Wyn in a dark black and grey aura that was dense and wide. He could already feel the effects sapping the closest enemy's life, and it was still fifteen feet away.

"Arabelle's hurt," Wyn said to Daniel, before looking back to the monsters. He planned to handle it himself.

The monsters didn't take long to defeat with Wyn's multiple magical effects boosting him, in addition to the slow, lumbering movements of the earth elementals. The monsters were tougher than the other elementals had been, but not nearly enough to slow him down.

He channeled his rising anger into his fighting, cursing the monsters that hurt his family.

When the fourth monster was dead and the fifth was barely hanging on, Wyn realized the first crystal that had spawned the wind elementals was now glowing a soft blue, nearly white. It was growing in strength quicker than the others, and Wyn changed course.

He changed his weapon to the lightning element after the last earth element was all but rubble. Then he turned course to the new enemies.

The water elementals looked similar to the fire creatures, appearing like the size of children with familiar appendages and water-like hair that rolled off their head. The half dozen that were created in the room were similarly fast, too.

But not as fast as Wyn.

He cast Web to the side to snare them, then changed his weapon to a sword. Dashing directly into the fray, he began slicing through them with ease as his sword crackled with electrified energy. Each hit seemed to completely diminish their bodies as it exacerbated the weakening effect from Drain that was still active. After the first monster groaned in finality, its body started to glow, and Wyn had an idea of what was coming.

Not stopping his assault, he slashed out more on the water elementals around him to make sure they would die. Then he leapt away and out of the group, and a moment later he ended his Sprint aura to use the effect to teleport away.

The monsters all exploded in a torrent of water, one after another in quick succession, completely drowning the area. The combined force was so strong that some parts of the stone wall and floor were missing as rubble was scattered around haphazardly.

Wyn just stared at the monsters in anger. Seeing they were dead, he turned to look for Arabelle and Daniel.

Both of whom were standing in front of the braziers staring at him. They had already filled the next brazier with the leftover fire essence.

"Are you alright?" Wyn asked, quicky walking up to Arabelle.

Arabelle kept staring at him, slowly nodding her head. "I'm okay. The healing took care of the burns, but… gods, Wyn."

Wyn looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"You may very well be the fastest Climber I've ever seen," Daniel said, standing beside them and also staring at Wyn. "Your movements were a blur! When the water elementals started to glow you were still in the middle of them. Then in a blink you were out, just watching from the side."

Wyn shook his head. "You know I can teleport when I end Sprint early. That's all I did."

"'That's all I did' he says," Arabelle said, throwing her hands up. "Gods, your dense."

Wyn didn't know what to say. Maybe they just didn't expect him to be so efficient?

Since all of the enemies were gone, the three quickly and easily gathered the remaining essences to place in the correct braziers. Different colored fires sprouted from the basins and the pedestal began glowing in the same multiple colors. The individual fires grew larger at the reaction, then swirled into the air in a collective rainbow before engulfing the pedestal in a torrent of fire. It was so bright Wyn had to shade his eyes, but he found it hard to look away from such a wonderous and beautiful magical sight.

When it was over seconds later, the pedestal wasn't empty – it held the familiar stone tablet as a reward.

Wyn carefully took the tablet and put it in his pack, and then the three left through a portal that formed in the middle of the room. They didn't care to wait around any longer, and Wyn already told them they could inspect the tablet with the rest of his team back at their guild house.

Back at the base of Alistair, though, the three Climbers collected their rewards. Keeping true to their intentions, Arabelle and Wyn gave Daniel their blue-rarity items and coins as an early wedding gift, to which Daniel initially argued against but reluctantly – and tearfully – accepted.

Satisfied with their performance and luck with the secret room, the three left towards the dining hall, hoping to find Wendy so they could tell all about their adventure over dinner. Daniel kept mentioning he was grateful for the experience, but wasn't eager to return to climb anytime soon – though he did ask quite a few questions about the stone tablet.

Even if he didn't want to climb again, Wyn knew he'd help them discover its secrets. The man was just too curious.

But before they completely walked out, their bellies full and bodies recovered, a guild official stopped them.

"Excuse me," the woman said, flashing a large smile. "But the Tower Master would like to see you, Mr. Thatcher."

Arabelle and Daniel both looked at Wyn, who just shrugged. "Did he happen to mention what it was about?" Wyn asked.

"I believe he mentioned something about news regarding your guild request?"