The Small Maze
The heavy sound was almost similar to something hitting the rocks but everything seemed fine? Or not!
Su Xin Yu felt like her head had hit something very hard. But it was definitely not rocks. She felt a heavy weight on herself. Opening her eyes, she found Li Ming Hao was lying on the top of her, her head aching from the impact of his chest. But why did she not feel anything at the back?
She could hear his racing heartbeat yet again. At least he was conscious.
"Are you okay?" she was the first one to ask.
"Ye… yeah," Li Ming Hao said feebly. Something was definitely wrong. Su Xin Yu helped him up, without judging. At least, they were all okay.
"Rocky, are you okay too?" she asked and got a loud bark in response.
"Good girl," she praised the smart dog.
This time she exercised much control and abstained from touching his muscular chest. She looked at him and he had pain written all over his face. She realized he had covered her with his two arms and that's how her back never scratched the ground. His arms on the other hand were full of bruises.
"Oh God!" she gasped looking at the wounds on his arms. Were they going to use all their medical supplies right here? She did not even have an idea where to do next. The luminescence was completely gone. This insane guy had done something he should not have.
"What is that?" she found a tattoo in the form of a sea serpent. She ran her fingers over it. She had not noticed it before. Was it the work of that creature, whatever had started engulfing Li Ming Hao?
"I-I have no clue!" Li Ming Hao was spooked too. This place was never connected with any mythical animal, much less a sea serpent. How did he get it?
"We will think about it later. Let's first treat your wound and then get out of here. We have been here for far too long. From my experience, the spirits of one location start getting used to you and that is not a good thing," she hurriedly rummaged the first aid kit in the bag and started patching Li Ming Hao already.
They had no idea how much time had already passed. Su Xin Yu's heart ached for the guy in front of him. She prayed to her ancestors for a smoother journey ahead.
Li Ming Hao's gaze was settled on the tattoo on his arm. He and his ancestry, practically had nothing in common with this place. Why him and Su Xin Yu? She was the one with the blood of the tribe that should have owned this place.
"Sometimes, spirits choose a total outsider for help. They know how corrupt insiders can be. You don't need to fret," Su Xin Yu told Li Ming Hao who was in daze since she discovered the tattoo.
While she was treating his wounds, Rocky was looking for hints to get out of this place. She barked very enthusiastically to both of them, taking them by surprise.
"What did you find?" Li Ming Hao snapped back to reality and looked at where Rocky was digging with her paws, or was trying to at least. These were solid rocks, how could she dig?
"Looks like a lever," Su Xin Yu got up and flashed the light at the spot. This was the same place where Li Ming Hao had kept his bloody hand and the creature had started creeping up.
Su Xin Yu went into deep thinking mode. She knew that using blood was a dangerous act in these dungeons. But did his blood have any special abilities that he was able to summon such intense light earlier?
The denizens of these caves also were very docile. None of them had ever harmed her unless they felt threatened. Same was with the bats earlier. As long as she did not disturb them, they were good. But the way that light had attacked Li Ming Hao was very weird.
Furthermore, it was corrosive enough to melt the rocks and expose this hidden iron lever there, then why did they not die when they jumped into the lake. Was all that an illusion? But their wounds were very real, were they not?
She poked one of the wounds on herself and felt a sharp pain. Yup, definitely was not an illusion.
"Xin Yu," somewhere along the way, Li Ming Hao had started calling her by just her given name. Su Xin Yu had also not objected for he was the Dean's son after all. He could do anything. Plus, it did have a nice ring to it, him calling her name.
"This has a similar pattern inside this hole around the lever. Do you have any idea what to do?" he asked her curiously. She sure would have encountered this in the past, would she not?
Su Xin Yu dearly wished she could answer his question. Right now, she felt that all her previous expeditions had been too easy. Or she had not explored to the full potential. Should she take this guy with some mysterious magical ability to all those places once again?
She shook her head at the ridiculous idea and stepped ahead to check the lever. There was a hole at the bottom and a joystick kind of lever with another exquisite design on the head was sticking out. There was another sea serpent pattern at the edge of base hole.
"Shed some light inside the hole, let's see what's there," she asked Li Ming Hao. He did as instructed. There were iron pins standing in that black hole, making a maze like structure. It was a small hole, about 15 cm in diameter but the patterns with the iron needles made it seem like something they themselves could get sucked in.
"Illusion! That's an optical illusion. Don't look at it for more than a minute. It might affect your brain negatively," Su Xin Yu warned.
"Is this something your ancestors developed?" Li Ming Hao inquired. If she was so confident, then it must have been their handiwork.
"I can see the trap being theirs but I don't think the serpent was their idea," she surmised. It was weird, this whole cave was different. Was it something that was influenced by the nearby country of Shu? The country of Shu was the one of the countries that bordered the N nation.
Shu was a very traditional nation which believed in the legacy of dragons. From her knowledge of mythology, Su Xin Yu knew sea serpents were kind of dragons, so it might be related to them. But the border was still hundreds of miles from here.
And although this whole dungeon was a disputed land, the Shu country originally had never crossed the original border if she recalled correctly.
"Okay, let's first pull this lever, do you know what pattern we should follow?" Li Ming Hao glanced at the girl who was thinking deeply. She had already told him to not stare at the needles.
"I don't think we have more than one chances at this. If we fail, we might end up in a hole exactly like this here. Those needles will pierce us all," Su Xin Yu was sure that was the case. Her ancestors were not cruel enough to put traps to kill.
Her foundation of belief in her ancestors did shake after she encountered those flame arrows. But here, involvement of Shu country could especially be lethal.
"Then?"
"Let's go with spiral. The two patterns that are standing out to me are spiral and infinity symbols. I cannot think of anything else," she replied.
"Why not infinity?" Li Ming Hao wanted to know her thinking process.
"To be honest, I am not sure either. But if we have already encountered the spiral in that tunnel with flame arrows from the diary, I would say there is 90% chance that this will be spiral too," she shrugged, her heart was palpating too. Their lives were in all her hands.
"But you said Shu country is involved. If they like infinity better?"
"But your tattoo is closer to spiral too," she pointed to the gorgeous tattoo on his arm.
"Fine then, let's do it. We live or die," Li Ming Hao collected all their stuff into his bag and embraced for whatever was to come next.
Su Xin Yu moved the lever slowly, following the path of needles, outwards, since the lever was already at the center. When she released the stick from her hand, the mechanism clicked. And the three beings were suddenly nowhere to be found.