Crystals and Rooms

Javelin watched in shock as Cavrien literally disappeared through a doorway after stepping inside.

"Leader!" A few of the expedition members gasped in surprise, following the man's footsteps and also disappearing inside.

One by one in rapid succession, they charged in. Without Cavrien it was likely that they would get lost within the corridors of the great portal— Cavrien was their navigator. All the maps that were created while going through had been created by him.

"...Guys...!" This left Rie alone, not knowing what to do as she was all but stunned by what had happened.

She had entered a state of higher existence just as their leader disappeared, allowing her to learn one thing: The room inside was a trap. She just did not know what kind of trap.

Panicked, she was about to run in as well, but she was promptly stopped by a familiar meow in her ears.

Javelin was at her feet, rubbing against her leg.

"J-Javelin..." Rie was about to tell the little guy to come with her, before remembering that the animal was smarter than it lets on.

"Is going inside a smart choice?" She couldn't help but ask.

"It depends on who you're asking," Magnus replied through Javelin. "And also in what you believe in."

He continued,

"If it's me, I would surely follow them in. But if I were you, I would wait until I have enough information before acting. You have a very unique power, so why not use it to its fullest first and create an advantage for yourself?"

"I..." Rie faltered for a moment, "So should I go in or should I wait?"

"Up to you," If a cat could shrug, Javelin was doing it now. "I'm heading in."

Without waiting for Rie to answer, Javelin pounced forward and disappeared into the room. Now, Rie was well and truly alone in the dark corridor with nothing but a small flashlight in her hands.

She was pondering over what Magnus had just said through Javelin. Her maturity born from the Trials she faced surfaced in this manner. No haste, no waste.

In the end, she decided to wait. An hour. Maybe more.

She wanted to know what the others were facing so that she could help if needed.

"Everyone... Please don't die before I gather enough information..." Rie silently said to herself.

.

.

.

Entering the room, Magnus instantly found himself in a tiny enclosed space. It was like the room on some old pirate ship. Wood created the entire room. The walls, the ceiling, the desk, the bed, and the shelf. Everything was crafted and carved out of some kind of wood.

The wood was sturdy, despite its already-withering state. A few nicks here or there would surely bring painful splinters.

Nimbly, Magnus jumped up onto the bed as he looked around through Javelin's cat-vision.

The room was quite dark as it was damp, making for a rather uncomfortable place to be in.

"Hm?"

Just then, Magnus felt his Vow of the Lonely ease up on its restrictions. His active bodies suddenly felt lighter, and everything in the world seemed clearer once more. The nauseating weakness was gone.

"I see," Magnus muttered through Javelin as he stretched.

It would seem like his Curse allowed for this setting where he separates from a group. Both physically and in terms of his goals, he was totally separated from anyone at this moment.

He was alone.

"This entails quite a lot," Magnus muttered.

It meant that in the future, whenever he was associated with a group by means of simple verbal and physical cooperation, he could temporarily lose the weakness when fighting by moving the battlefield elsewhere and doing combat alone.

Though of course, if he became associated with a group through a contract or agreement, that was likely a different matter.

With these thoughts in mind, Magnus then looked around as he searched his room for any peculiarities.

There was nothing notable.

He glanced over at the doorway and decided to give it a little push.

Creaaaak—

The door opened with a foul screech. Javelin shuddered at the sound.

Moving outside the room, Magnus found himself in a cave-like room with six doors spread throughout the area.

Left, right, front, back (from where he came), and in the ceiling and floor.

No symmetry was followed as the doors were all in different places bearing different designs.

Magnus walked up to one and discovered carvings of monsters depicted ravenously devouring a human at their mercy.

"Hm..."

He walked up to another door and saw that some kind of lake was depicted. It was bubbling with heat and seemed to be a lake of lava instead of water.

He looked at the other doors and discovered that they were of similar natures, three having depictions of some kind of ornamental item. That included the door to the room he came out of.

The only difference these three doors had were in the fact that they were crafted out of differing materials.

After some thought, Magnus chose a door to go through:

The monster door to his right.

With another bone-shuddering screech, the door made out of porcelain opened up.

Magnus had Javelin walk through it, and when he did,

FWHIP!

Javelin instantly dodged to the right, narrowly avoiding a set of claws from a manticore-looking monster.

"Indeed... the monster door leads to a monster."

The room Javelin entered was lacking any doors. There was only the monster that had instantly lunged at him from the centre of the room.

Javelin instantly transformed into its wind-leopard state and clawed at his opponent.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Blood spurted from the manticore's body as Javelin's attacks all landed with perfect accuracy.

"A strength of 1.8," Magnus gauged the strength of the manticore and it wasn't a threat.

Soon, Javelin had turned the manticore into a corpse. And that with only a few bruises here and there from slamming into it. It was to be expected.

The difference in strength was clear to see even beforehand.

"Hm?"

Magnus witnessed the corpse disappear from his vision in an instant.

Clink!

Only to be replaced by a crystal that hit the floor with a small sound that echoed throughout the room.

Magnus walked up. He saw that the crystal was a deep red colour. The colour of blood.

He picked it up, and instantly, the blood crystal dissolved in Javelin's paws. The blood-red substance seeped into Javelin's flesh, digging through his pores and arriving beneath his skin.

Magnus suddenly felt that Javelin was a bit livelier. His fur was more vibrant and his eyes were clearer. He had a bit more vitality than he did before.

"That's cool..." Magnus muttered as he looked up and discovered that the room suddenly had doors.

The doors had appeared without warning, bearing no sound, no visual indication, no lights, and no rumbling of the earth. They simply manifested out of thin air as it seemed. Like they were always there and Magnus simply couldn't see them before.

This time, there were only three doors.

The one he came in from, one in front of him, and another heading downwards.

Magnus scanned the engravings on the doors, and after a moment of pondering, he decided. He was going through the door with engravings of ornamental items.

And when he did,

"Empty, as expected," Magnus muttered as Javelin pranced his way through the door with his little feet.

More doors appeared before him and he decided to choose another monster door.

Another manticore was hidden behind it but was slightly weaker than the first manticore that he encountered. Javelin made quick work of this manticore as well.

Clink!

Another blood-red crystal appeared where the carcass fell. Javelin absorbed this too. He felt something heighten his physique.

Magnus gained confirmation of what the blood crystals did. It was some kind of vitality-enhancing power.

He continued forward.

This time, he chose a door with lava depicted.

Expecting a scene filled with flames, Magnus had Javelin brace himself. A faint simmer of wind-attributed Spirit Energy swirled despite the costs.

But when Javelin stepped through, he was surprised to discover a barren room. Any sort of flames was absent. No lava, no magma, no nothing.

Crack!

It was then at that moment, Magnus heard the ground crack under Javelin's feet.

A searing burst of steam escaped, singing Javelin's paws. Javelin jumped in fright as the heat seeped into his flesh and organs, threatening to bake him alive. He soared through the air for a moment before landing.

But just as he landed, the ground cracked once again, forcing Javelin to jump.

This cycle then repeated, again and again, continuing without end.

Slowly but surely, the rocky floor was disappearing, to be replaced by pillars of heat and gusts of hot air.

The minimized Javelin continued to leap around, looking for places to land each time. Despite the worrying decrease in footing, Magnus forced Javelin to stay calm.

Up until some kind of crystal revealed itself underneath a slab of crumbling rock. It was suspended in the air as if begging Javelin to take it.

Thus, with a lunge that tore through the air, Javelin dash out as he transformed in midair.

He zoomed like a homing missile, heading straight for the crystal floating above a pool of lava lying in the distant depths.

Through the brief contact with the blazing orange crystal, Magnus perceived a foreign force enter Javelin's body.

It was a fiery energy, one that seemed to clash with Javelin's wind attributes at first. Thankfully, nothing dangerous occurred. The fiery essence meshed into Javelin's winds, allowing the wind leopard to control the temperatures of his winds to a greater degree.

That, and Javelin gained a small affinity to fire. The high-temperature gusts of wind were no longer as painful as they were a while ago, even if only slightly.

"I have Javelin's special Spirit Beast physique to thank for this," Magnus chuckled in satisfaction.

Magnus then continued on. His target was another lava door in the hopes of raising Javelin's fire attributes higher.

He wanted to see if he could turn the wind leopard into some kind of fire-wind hybrid.

This time, when Javelin stepped through the door, he was greeted with the sight that Magnus was initially expecting from a lava room.

A large pool of lava lay bubbling in the centre of the room. Then, at the centre of the lava lake was another orange crystal ready for Javelin to take.

But then,

"A lava monster?" Magnus noticed irregular movement from within the lava lake and instantly made an assumption.

He saw some kind of limb on the surface of the lake, after all.

It was hard not to make such an assumption, especially when it was paired with the low growls that now reverberated across the room.