Headstrong

Garrett tucked the chain with the key away into his backpack. Even if he couldn't use the key again, the chain part of it might be useful. The hallway dove further downwards into the Darge, which Garrett carefully walked through, sword at the ready. There weren't any robots that he had seen, so the Darge hadn't been touched by Prism in this timeline. He also hadn't seen any sort of rock creatures either. What should be a relief to Garrett with a lack of enemies only served to make him tenser. Knowledge was the strongest power that he had when it came to surviving in Asuria. All he knew this time was that Lyman was somewhere and trying to attack him.

"Strange that I haven't encountered anyone else," Garrett said to himself as he entered the next room. Goblins and bats turned towards him as he entered, lunging at him with killing intent. "I'm not that easy!" Garrett swung his sword, slicing through the closest few. He parried a bat away with his shield and used that momentum to roll away to a better position. The monsters growled at him, and more bats and goblins emerged from small crevices in the wall.

"Okay, that's a bit harder," Garrett said, seeing the growing mob of monsters. "It's okay. I can do this." He took up another battle stance and lunged towards the creatures. This time, there were just a bit too many for Garrett to get out unscraped. Some of the bats had scraped at his face and some goblins managed to tear past his armor with small stone knives.

"Alright, that's enough! Flariseo!" He aimed his bracelet at the largest concentration of monsters and unleashed the flames. It struck the first goblin and spread to the nearby monsters, killing them quickly. He turned to the next largest concentration and fired again. Garrett spun, ready to scorch the next group, but the remaining goblins and bats had scattered. "Whew, good," Garrett said, now clutching his wounds.

He looked over the spoils of his encounter, a solid amount of Helioxene, and two green God Chests. He opened up the first one and felt relief as he saw the treasure inside become a small first aid kit. Quickly, he opened it up as he felt his wounds burn. He expected to see the usual bandages and gauze, but inside was just a small bottle of red liquid. "Figures this magical world would have some kind of potion. Am I supposed to drink this or apply this?" Garrett looked it over, trying to see any sort of instructions, but the bottle was blank, as was the first aid kid.

Not wanting to risk missing anything, Garrett decided to drink half of the potion, then applied the remaining half to his wounds. Instantly, he felt the burning sensation fade away. Not wanting to waste this bottle, Garrett tucked it into his backpack and turned his attention to the other God Chest.

This one transformed into a small bow and five stone-tipped arrows. Garrett had taken a few cues from watching the girl's archery team at his school, but he had never actually used one before. Still, this would come in handy, especially when something was resistant to his fire attacks. He put the bow and arrows into his bag, still surprised that it entirely fit inside. Garrett picked up the Helioxene into the special pouch and continued on his way. There were two paths, one left and one right. He flipped a coin, caught it in the air, and looked at the result.

"Left it is."

He took the left path and walked through the crystal illuminated hallway. The only sounds were his footsteps, echoing in the caverns, and the subtle drip of water. Then, he entered the next room. On the other side of the wall was a massive engraving into the wall on the far side. As he approached it, he began to recognize the symbols on it. They were Orkish, and the same symbols that he saw in the previous timeline. There was powerful energy emanating from behind the wall, almost foreboding and overwhelming.

The room this time was more ornate than before, however. Instead of natural stone, there were blue bricks lining the ground. Torches were propped up on columns as opposed to crystal light. Everything looked incredibly ornate and done with proper care. If it weren't for knowing that he was in Asuria, Garrett would have thought he stumbled into an ancient Egyptian tomb.

"Whoa, that's really strange," Garrett said as he wandered around the room. "It's the room where the treasure of Amer-Turul is. I never find this thing this early." Garrett quickly whipped around, drawing his sword. He surveyed the room, but then relaxed his stance. "Also, someone usually comes and attacks me by now. I guess not this time."

He turned back to the engraving, which was on a large circular stone. Once again, it was far too heavy to move and he couldn't quite see any alternative ways through. "Also strange. Sure, the rooms so far have been different, but why is this room so different from last time? There hadn't been anything of the sort before." He ran his hands across the engravings. "Well, I can't read Orkish. I think the only ones who could read this would be Jerten and maybe Xul."

Garrett looked around at the rest of the room. "Either I need to figure out how to get through this room, or I need to find one of them." He looked over the engraving and tried pressing on various parts of the stones, none of them doing anything. He sighed in frustration. "I could spend hours in here never figuring anything out."

He turned back to the room entrance and gave an affirming grunt. "From what I've seen so far for my companions, they usually need my help. I can't linger around here anymore."

Garrett walked towards the entrance, making a mental note of everything in the room. He did a brief check to make sure there wasn't anyone else hiding in here. Then, when he was certain, he headed back the way he came to find the other companions that were likely somewhere in the Darge.