Broken Lands

Chapter 417 – Good Dungeon Design

Sophia brushed three more tiny shadow lurkers off Dav’s arm, then jumped as he finally lowered the rabbit-person statue into the bright water. He swished it around as if he was rinsing it off. Sophia wasn’t certain if that was necessary or not, but while the light didn’t vanish this time, nothing else said it was done. The shadow lurkers were even still there.

Sophia reached to squish one on Dav’s back, but before she got there the water flashed brilliantly. By the time she could see again, the shadow lurker was gone and the entire surface of the lake glowed a soft white. 

All of the shadow lurkers were gone, clearly banished by the way the surface of the lake lit up. Sophia hoped that meant there wouldn’t be any at the campsite, either; she’d really like to get some sleep without the need to worry about aggressive shadows.

Pale water streamed off the statue as Dav lifted it from the lake. “Huh. The statue’s dry. So are my hands. I think this isn’t real water.”

Sophia blinked, then frowned and focused on the statue. It didn’t seem to glisten with water, but she still wasn’t sure Dav was right about the lake. “I’m not sure about that. My pants are soaked through and I don’t want to think about how long it’s going to take to try out my socks, never mind my boots.”

“Ugh.” Dav looked down at his own pants with a groan. “Point. At least we have spare clothes and my armor will clean itself.”

“I don’t have spare boots,” Sophia muttered. She did have some other shoes, but they were meant for either city streets or indoors, not traipsing through the wilderness. 

Dav stood and offered Sophia a hand. She didn’t need it, but she took it anyway.

Ci’an stood at the edge of the lake, obviously and slightly annoyingly dry. There was little she could do once the miniature shadows arrived, but it was still a little annoying that she wasn’t suffering with Sophia.

The edge of the lake wasn’t far, but Sophia could feel her feet squish in her wet socks with each step. It was really pretty gross, which meant that when she took another step forward and didn’t squish, she stopped in place. Dav took another step and pulled her arm forward before he realized she stopped.

“The water’s gone,” Dav said in surprise. “My socks feel … dry but crunchy. I’m not sure it’s better.”

“It’s not,” Sophia agreed, “But at least it means we don’t have to dry everything out?”

Dav chuckled. “Yeah.”

The lake was definitely not water, or at least not simple water. Sophia guessed it might be something like the concept of a lake, though that didn’t explain why it didn’t glow with mana. She turned back towards the lake and almost jumped in surprise.

The lake glowed brightly with mana. How had she missed that when they first stepped into the lake? 

She hadn’t missed it. That didn’t make sense. It made a lot more sense if it started to glow with mana at the same time that it started to glow with light; she could easily have missed it then since she wasn’t looking for it and was paying attention to the light instead. Sophia sighed in irritation; she needed to be better at watching for things. 

The lake wasn’t powerful, even if it was stronger than before. That meant it was harder to notice, almost insidious, though not actively dangerous. It was a good reminder that paying attention was important even when there was no obvious danger and they were in a relatively safe place.

“Did the statue always glow like that?” Were Xin’ri’s first words when they reached the firelight in the campsite.

“No,” Dav answered softly. “But you should have seen the lake. It glowed like the surface of the full moon. This is little in comparison.”

“The idol is awake and weak,” the Lapine informed them. “It will keep the shadows away now. We can sleep.”

“Where do we need to go next?” Sophia asked the rabbit while she had his attention. “Do we follow the moonlight or is there somewhere else we should go?”

“Moonrest,” the Lapine said succinctly. “I don’t know where it is but the idol belongs in Moonrest. I will leave for my burrow when the daylight comes; you may follow me or find your own way.”

That was a clear choice. If they went to the Lapine’s burrow, they might find someone who knew where Moonrest was and what to do with the statue. They’d probably have to either solve a puzzle (like following the rabbit and then convincing the prairie dogs to let them talk to him, which Sophia managed to mostly skip) or have to fight something. It was even possible it would be both, like having the way to convince the Lapine to lead the way involving beating off an attack on the burrow or something.

If they “found their own way” by following the light that came from the orb on top of the statue, they might miss something completely. At the same time, it was entirely possible that there would be no reward for the extra step; it could easily be there for people who didn’t realize they needed to follow the light. It was also possible that Moonrest wasn’t where the light led and they might be missing something by following the rabbit instead of the light. In that case, there would almost certainly be something at wherever the light led that would lead them to Moonrest … unless it was a completely different end to the quest chain. 

Sophia wasn’t sure which to pick, but maybe there was a way to reach a decision. “Will you be safe if you go to the burrow on your own?”

“I hop quickly,” the Lapine asserted. “Shadows follow the idol, not the Lapine.”

Well, that put a different slant on things, didn’t it? Heading to the burrow might mean that they brought the very threat that they’d have to fight off to convince the other Lapine to help them, if things went the way Sophia guessed. It made sense in a lot of ways; it meant there was no need for a separate trigger for the conflict. Back home, she’d call that good dungeon design.

“Then I think we should follow the statue’s light,” Sophia proposed. 

Xin’ri shrugged like she didn’t care. “This should be three zones, so all we need to do is finish the Challenge chain. That should get us there. I’ll take first watch if you three want to handle the later ones.”

Sophia glanced at Ci’an and Dav, but they didn’t seem to have anything to say. They were all tired and seemed ready to sleep. It was just like Xin’ri to take first watch; there was little competition for it, since they were all ready for bed, but it meant she’d have an uninterrupted night’s sleep once she did get to bed. Some nights, Sophia took that watch for exactly those reasons, but tonight she wanted out of her stiff clothing.

Morning came all too early. They waved the Lapine on his way then checked on the lake before they headed off to Moonrest or wherever the statue’s light led.

The lake was dim once more, even though the statue still seemed highly polished and even glowed softly where there was no light. It didn’t seem as bright as during the night, but none of them were certain if it was fading or if it was simply a matter of the higher light level washing it out. They could find out if they waited until nightfall, but there was no reason to do that. They could probably finish this tonight if they tried.

Travel that day was just as inconvenient as the day before. A small creek had willow trees that tried to capture them as they walked by, which was simple enough until the shadow lurkers leapt from the willows’ shadows. Even then it wasn’t hard but it was annoying. 

Every encounter that day was like that, with shadow lurkers appearing as soon as they were busy dealing with something else. Aggressive tumbleweeds held shadow lurkers and when they found a field of flowers attended by gigantic bees that were perfectly willing to leave the group alone as long as they didn’t disturb the flowers, the shadow lurkers went after the flowers first. It was a step up in difficulty from what they’d seen before but it was still only annoying.

It did make Sophia a little worried about what they’d find when they reached the top end of where they were going. They’d have to face third upgrade monsters to reach the part of the Moonlit Branches only fifth upgrade or higher people could reach without having to travel through the World Tree’s dangers, the area where Issvako made her home. Similar numbers of third upgrade threats were manageable, as long as they weren’t any more powerful than what they’d seen in the Maze, but they’d have to move slower. If it got worse than this, they might not be able to make it until they were closer to the top of the third upgrade, and that would take time.

From what Sophia knew, most fourth upgrade Called could make it through the area and some third upgrade could as well. That gave only limited reassurance, because the fact that some couldn’t meant it might well be fairly difficult.

There was no point in borrowing trouble. She could worry about that when the time came.

Following the light took several hours, nearly half again as long as it took to reach the prairie dog colony despite the lack of stops for Ci’an to examine their surroundings for the tracks they followed on the way. Well before they reached the destination, Ci’an said something that made Sophia doubt all of her assumptions about the question chain. “You know, the tracks we followed from the tree to the prairie dogs weren’t rabbit tracks.”

“What? But the Lapine said he left the idol in the tree and hopped quickly.” Sophia started running over what she knew, but she could only come up with a handful of possibilities. The Lapine could have lied to them; in that case, what they did at Clear Moon Lake might or might not have been a good choice. It seemed to have scared off the shadows at night but they were definitely being followed during the day; maybe that was why.

Another possibility was that it was by design, to make things easier. Rabbit tracks were probably difficult to follow for long distance, so the World Tree put in easier to follow tracks. Sophia didn’t really like that option, but she definitely couldn’t dismiss it. It would explain everything, including why they arrived at a good time.

The third obvious option was that they weren’t following the Lapine at all; they were following something that followed the Lapine. They’d seen no sign of anything, but that didn’t mean anything. Whatever it was could be hiding in a way they couldn’t find it or it might not be able to affect things right now. Whatever it was could be anything from a protective entity linked to the statue to a powerful shadow creature that needed more light to emerge. 

Sophia rather liked the last option. It meant that they hadn’t been lied to, which was nice, but there was an even bigger reason to like it: it hinted that there was a big monster they’d have to fight at the end. Some of the best dungeons teased the later encounters that way, with clues in the environment that could help someone who was observant figure out what they’d face later on. “Have you seen any sign of it since we left the prairie dog colony?”