Chapter 18
The Marubo Dunes

~*~

It's another day in Fortra. Elric has been looking for me since morning, and I've been avoiding him. Oren is doing his favorite assignment: stomping grapes. I labor away in the field, using the time to think of a plan. Captain Morgan joins me and helps with chopping wood.

"@#(@)%*" he says.

A few people from the ship have asked me to cast Brighten on them, thinking there's a chance it might lift their Eternal Gibberish. But it's no use. It has no effect whatsoever.

The captain gestures for me to try again. "@#()@*#!@#)@"

I do so.

"@#(&*@#$"

Still nothing.

He sighs and walks away.

At this point, Elric comes marching towards me. I try to avoid him, but he's too quick. "There you are! I need you on a quest. Are you coming or not?

I shake my head.

"If we find anything at the Marubo Dunes, Roshan will reward us big time. You might just get an Elucidate."

What's that?

As if reading my mind, he answers, "Elucidate removes Eternal Gibberish. Do I have your attention now?"

He sure does. I don't really need the item for myself, but maybe I can do this for Oren. Last I checked this quest is only worth 50 AP. This guy might be pulling a fast one on me. In any case, it's worth a shot.

"So?"

I nod.

"There's been some supernatural activity going on at the Marubo Dunes. Our mission is to investigate and report back to Roshan. Here, take this."

"This is a dangerous mission so I need you to be at 100%. As for the Regneration Ring, it's idiot-proof. Just equip it and you're done. Got it?"

I can already tell traveling with this guy is going to be problematic. The ring replenishes my skill points every step I take. I remove one of my Skill Rings to equip it. 

"Alright, let's go."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We head north east through the highlands past the beach along the seashore. Dunes that form in the desert or near the sea are normally nothing out of the ordinary, but the Marubo Dunes are particuarly unusual due to their greenish tint. Soon, the grass below us turns to green sand. The screen fades out and then back in to show the new region.

"Okay, we've arrived," Elric says. "If you look closely, different parts of the dunes have different shades of green. We follow the sand to the darkest part, the area with the highest concentration of the substance causing this phenomenon. Don't wander too far south or we'll hit the Asentian Desert. Got it?"

Simple enough. I nod.

"Good. In case you didn't know, most of the monsters here are poisonous. Just make sure to cure us and we'll be fine. Let me do the rest."

For the sake of being thorough, I take us due south. Right before we step foot onto beige-colored sand, Elric stops me.

"What did I say about not going too far south, you goof?"

It looks like there's an invisible barrier that triggers his reaction and prevents me from going further. I steer us back in the right direction, following the clues in the sand. Some shiny objects catch my eye, and I bend over to check.

Nearby, I see more items reflecting the light of the sun and go pick them up.

I wonder who dropped their money? Standing atop one of the dunes, I scan the surroundings for more coins. Aside from the grass and rocks, the entire area is glittering with objects like stars in a clear night sky. There must be thousands upon of thousands worth of gold in the area. Excited, I go to collect the prizes in the sand.

The world suddenly spins out of control.

* BATTLE START *

---

Two Scorpions pop out of the sand and strike me and Elric.

The green-carapaced monsters recoil into position and wave their shiny gold pincers at us.

"Damn, we've been ambushed."

Elric lunges forward and slashes at one of the scorpions, then punches it with his knuckles.

I contribute a little bit to the offensive with my wand, getting in a bit of damage.

"Just defend and let me handle it," Elric tells me.

That's what I was thinking, but it's annoying to hear it from him.

It's his turn again. He goes in for Gentle Stab, a skill that has a chance of instantly killing the enemy. The special effect doesn't happen, but it still damages the wounded scorpion.

"Guh, it didn't work!"

One of the scorpions whip its tail at Elric, poisoning him.

The other scorpion smacks me with its pincers.

"Use Sooth on me," Elric says.

I contemplate for a little bit and then opt to bide my time and defend.

"I said use Sooth on me, are you dumb?" He once again goes for the weakened scorpion, lowering its health to a critical level.

The poison takes effect on him.

Both scorpions strike at me with their pincers.

Looks like I made the right choice to defend. I move in and smack one of them with my wand. To my satisfaction, it flips over onto its back and dies.

"Let me do the attacking," Elric tells me. He attacks the remaining scorpion with Gentle Stab, instantly killing it.

---

* BATTLE END *

Back on the main screen, Elric is pacing around, blocks of poison fumes shooting out of his ears. "I thought you learned Sooth. Use it on me and let's go."

I cast the poison removal spell on him as requested. As much as I enjoy seeing him suffer, I have to keep him alive to ensure I myself don't get killed.

A blue glow flashes around our bodies as we continue through the dunes. The Regen Ring I'm wearing take effects with every step, quickly recovering my SP.

It soon becomes apparent that random encounters don't occur in the area. The gold on the ground act as lures set by scorpions for the greedy traveler. I examine each shiny object carefully, trying to spot any differences that would help me identify the traps. But, the pixelation makes it impossible to do so. I reach to grab what I think to be gold, and three scorpions jump out at us.

"I don't have time for this," Elric says. He cups his hands around his mouth and takes in a deep breath. "Shoo!" As he exhales, a gust of wind shoots from through his lips towards one of the scorpions. The scorpion freezes momentarily, then turns around and scurries off.

That's a pretty useful skill.

On my turn, I smack one of the remaining two creatures with my wand, dealing an insignificant amount of damage.

Elric uses Shoo! again, leaving us with only one scorpion to deal with.

The rest of the battle unfolds without excitement. We take turns attacking the monster, quickly eliminating it for a measly 90 EXP each.

We resume our trek, following the near perfect ripple of green. After a while and several more battles, we end up in the region with the darkest color of sand. Its color is no longer green; the grains have become so dark and big that they look almost like coal.

"This is it," Elric says. With his boots, he brushes aside some sand. "Whatever's causing the phenomenon must be underneath this black spot. I wish I knew how to Dig. Wait, you're a Miner. Don't you know how it works?"

I shake my head.

"Are you serious? When you see a suspicious looking patch of color anywhere in Zephyria, you can use Dig to find out what's underneath. Alright, get to work!"

This feels like slave labor. Lucky for him, I'm as curious as he is. I take out the Rusty Shovel and start sweeping aside the black substance. My heart begins to pound, but not from the exercise. It doesn't a take a genius to know that something bad is about to happen. A boss perhaps? An ambush by a dozen scorpions?

My questions are soon answered by a sudden cracking sound. The ground below us opens up. I swing my arms around to grab hold of something, but all I feel is air. As I fall deeper and deeper into the hole, the light from the sun grows smaller and smaller until it fades away. My body slams into a hard surface, causing me to suffer massive damage.

Seconds later, my surroundings are illuminated by a bright orange glow.

"Idiot, are you alive?" Elric says, already surveying the area with a Candle in his hand. "Learn to land properly."

I heal myself back to full health and grudgingly do the same for him.

"What is this place..."

He runs his hand along the wall of the circular room, tapping the surface to see if there's some sort of trigger mechanism. The hole we are in is as dry as the desert, but surprisingly cold. Something hit me, and I shift my focus to the ground below us to discover that it isn't made of dirt. I lower myself to a crawl to get a better look of the oddly familiar engravings in the cement floor. Elric joins me.

"There's something coming out of the ground."

I realize he's right. The wisps of black smoke are barely noticeable in the dim light, but they're no doubt rising to the surface of the Marubo Dunes. My hand moves to examine one of the cracks spewing the seemingly harmless substance. The area below my fingers depress, and I hear a click. It looks like I've stumbled upon some sort of mechanism, but I see no change in the room.

"What did you find?" Elric practically pushes me aside to get a look for himself. After pressing the ground a few times, he goes to check the other cracks. "More of these...buttons...I wonder what they d--"

Suddenly, a geyser of black smoke shoots upwards, the sheer force knocking us over. The room clouds up with the substance, rendering the Candle useless. Above our heads, our health bars begin to deplete fast.

He goes nuts on the buttons in hopes of undoing the trap. "Dammit, how do I fix this!"

Finally, the geyser stops. The smoke begins to dissipate. Both our HP has fallen to 1.

"Whew...What the hell was that?"

I grab the Candle from him and conduct my own analysis. A puzzle, perhaps? In total, there are nine circular buttons, all different in size. When pressed, the buttons making a clicking sound and then return to their original positions. It seems that if the wrong combination of buttons is pressed, a trap is triggered. I'd ask Elric what he did, but I doubt he remembers.

Elric slaps his head with his hands multiple times. "I suck at puzzles..."

I rack my brains, trying to unravel the mystery of the puzzle. There must be something we're missing. I check along the wall again but don't find anything unusual. It begins to dawn on me that we're trapped down here. I take a seat on the ground and sigh. Even Elric seems to have given up. He joins me in defeat.

"The Candle is going to run out of juice soon," he says. "Don't worry. Rush and the others will come looking for us if we haven't returned in three days."

Three days? We probably won't starve to death, but I'm not sure I can handle being stuck in a hole with another person for that long, in complete darkness no less. My eyes meander, unsure of what to look for. Some time passes. The Candle goes out. But instead of complete darkness, I see a faint beam of light in the middle of the room. I turn my head upwards and have to avert my gaze at the blinding pin-sized hole above. It must be where we fell from. The sun's rays have found their way down here. A thought shoots through my mind like a lightning bolt.

"Don't tell me..." Elric says, staring at my awestruck face. "Have you gone mad? We'll be fine down here. Eudimon help me..."

No, I've figured out the puzzle! But we can't do it with just the two of us alone. Triggering all the correct buttons requires at least three people. That's probably a good thing, as I have a sneaking suspicion that an event like the one back in Moaning will happen once we solve the mystery. Best to be prepared.

Looking through my inventory, I realize I have an Exit Gate. It's supposed to be able to teleport a party out of a dungeon, but I'm unsure whether Elric and I are actually in one. Plus, I'm quite conservative when it comes to using items. I would hate for it to go to waste.

"I should've asked for an Exit Gate at the item shop," he says. "We wouldn't have to wait to be rescued then. Dammit, I feel so stupid!"

Ah, screw it. I decide to use the Exit Gate. The world turns white, and I feel my body get sucked into some kind of portal. My eyes blink. The Marubo Dunes appear. We're back at the entrance.

Elric is as surprised as I am, but for different reasons. "Why didn't you tell me you had one? Ugh, let's just go! I can't wait to tell Roshan what I've found!"

What he's found? I suspect the folks at the fort will need my help to solve the puzzle. Without further delay, we leave the dunes and make our way back to Fortra.

~*~