Chapter 402: Tutorial's Over

Wake up lazybones! You recognise this guy? Ares was using pressure to poke around inside himself and tickle his bloodstream because Dominus' soul was hiding somewhere inside it. He spent time resting like this occasionally so that when he awoke he could speak a bit more clearly for a while on the off-chance he needed to. Ares was getting closer and closer to bloodline awakening so, after a good ol' nap, Dominus was capable of having a short conversation at least. Ares could have sworn he heard a yawn and could just about imagine the thought of his blood shaping itself into the form of a stretching wolf right about now.

Damn, I was trying to rest long enough so that I could stay awake permanently when you neared bloodline awakening. I could be here permanently from, like, the eighth stage onwards if I slept from now 'till then... It's rare that you call me out, though, so let's see what we're dealing with... Oh shit! It's Tom Tom! I had a feeling he'd be here, as he basically follows Sevorus around everywhere, but it's still good to see another one of the crew again. They're all bastards but they bring back some good memories here and there and good ol' Tom Tom was our gamemaster! He organised get-togethers and brought along all kinds of stuff. Chips for gambling with cards, boardgames for longer sessions, chess and checkers, Go, sometimes he'd even run campaigns and be our DM. He was pretty good at it too but he was called back home by his master a lot mid-session which sucked... Actually, that's kinda why I got into a fight with Sevorus to begin with! Heh, and you thought it was primarily some kind of noble goal? We just wanted our DM back!

Ares wanted to bang his head against a pillar. There are four dumb people in this room and you are two of them! Also, I refuse to believe his name is 'Tom Tom'. You just call him that because 'tomcat' is a thing and you want to grind his gears, right? What's his actual name?

Sphinx.

No but really?

I'm serious! He was made by Sevorus and you kinda already have a grasp on what sorta guy he is. You think he's giving his myriad created creations different names each? Honestly, Tom Tom here was lucky not to be called sphinx B! Besides, all the guys have nicknames we give each other. It's like a bonding exercise! If you don't hate your friends and poke at them even a little are they really your friends?

I'm not sure I agree with you but whatever, you seem to be happy enough with your little group... How many people are there in it anyway? I though it was just three?

Well yeah, officially, but there are a few other guys who come and go somewhat frequently. A lot of them don't want to publicly associate with us, because why anyone would is a mystery given our reputation, but there are people who join in the fun every now and then. The boys are reliable, for what it's worth, so it's not a bad group to be a part of. We're all strong in our own right and have some serious influence but, really, it's about getting away from all that. I ran away from my wives to play marbles all the time you know? Ah but it was so much better when Tom Tom came out to play too 'cos he brought all the snacks and million year old wine and stuff. If he ever gets grumpy about doing all this riddle stuff remind him he actually really enjoys it! Don't let him bait you into thinking he doesn't and he's some poor stuck shmuck with no other options. He is but he doesn't care! He just hates it when people criticise one of the things he's really good at or gives him a hard time doing it in general... I'm guessing, 'cos you're early on, he hasn't brought out the big guns yet but his riddles can be kinda hard... Although that's not to say they can't also be easy her and there. If he runs out of ideas he'll resort to pun riddles sometimes so, you know, be aware of that during longer sessions in this place... He's good at what he does but he's not perfect. Nobody is and God knows that's only doubly true for us outcasts. But yeah, no, say hello to him for me! I wanna see his face twist like he swallowed a sour chew! If he scrunches his face up it should look like he's been stung by a wasp! Do it!

You are a terrible influence! I'm in! 

Ahem

Ares coughed to himself and faced the sphinx who'd just finished ranting about his PTSD... Actually, what he said made a whole lot of sense now... If what Ares knew of Larsh and Dominus was any indication of their broader personalities then running a game-night and trying to keep them in line would be hellish! Ares almost sympathised with... Tom Tom? There was no way this sphinx was happy with that name... But what else was Ares supposed to call him? Sphinx? What if there was another sphinx! Well there probably wouldn't be in this Riddlemyd, at least, so it might just be fine for now... Though that being said... "Hm, I don't believe I mentioned it yet, but my name is Ares. What's yours?"

The sphinx shrugged. "I have no name and never have had one. Simply refer to me as sphinx."

"Really?" 

Pft

Ares had to restrain himself from laughing so he could deliver the deathblow. "Are you sure your name isn't Tom Tom?"

EUGH

The sphinx twisted his head sideways and made a sound akin to that of a cat coughing up a furball. It was a rather visceral reaction to a name he clearly despised and thought he wouldn't hear again while down here in Sheryashka. He'd been ambushed! It was like being bullied throughout childhood, living a peaceful life for the next thirty years, and then having your bully sneak up behind you, wrap his arm around your shoulder, and call you your old nickname in the middle of a crowded street! This was all kinds of mean! He'd just finished going on about his game-night trauma as well so for Ares to flare it up again at this very moment was the definition of animal cruelty!

"Why?! Why do you know that name?! Who told you?! Where are they? Lemme at 'em! I'll claw their eyes out!"

"Uh, aren't you just a head right now?" Ares raised a valid point but the sphinx was still raging about and bellowing agitated roars. "Well, anyway, you won't be able to attack the person responsible because Dominus is stuck inside me currently and can't come out to play. He's also telling you to take some catnip and chill out..."

"Dominus? That bastard, huh? Hahaha. Oh how the mighty have fallen! Reduced to being trapped inside some random brat! Well I guess he's a fundamental champion, so it could be way worse, but still sucks to be you Dominus! Hahaha! Keep hurling your insults through this kid, won't change the fact you have to get someone else to speak on your behalf for now! If Larsh and Dago could see you now they'd be having fits of laughter! You know we're never gonna let you live this one down, right? Just like how we never let Larsh forget that one time he was reborn as an egg! Haha! This is why it's good to be a sphinx and not some dumb 'legendary' creature. You all make fools of yourself when you die. Even Dago became a tiny little drake that one time. Me? I have clones everywhere and never have to go through this crap! Sucks to be you, Dominus! Maybe next time you should ask Sevorus for help instead of annoying him when he's working! Maybe he could grant you true immortality unlike the crappy revenant garbage that's resulted in this!"

Ares was told by Dominus to act as his mouthpiece for this discussion because he wasn't going to let these comments slide! As such, Ares responded to the sphinx, repeating Dominus words one for one without missing a beat. "See? This is why you were never truly one of us. Always master this, master that. Say what you want about us but we were free!"

"Who'd want to be one of you fuckers anyway?!"

"Really? If I didn't know any better I'd say you sounded kind of nostalgic when you were talking about us earlier."

"Hell no! Do you have any idea how hard it is to run a campaign with you three idiots always bickering like jaded lovers?! Being the DM during game night was awful! None of you ever took things seriously. I don't mind some light hearted fun but you were all such terrible players! On your phones all the time, constantly arguing over every little thing ESPECIALLY loot drops, and always trying to betray and kill each other! And I don't even mean just in game! Don't even get me started on the time you attacked me over the table because you rolled a snake eyes!"

"Whoa whoa whoa! You used magic to make that happen! Don't think I didn't notice!"

"YOU DESERVED IT! You deserved it for killing every single NPC you came across! I had to kill you off because you're character was causing way too many problems and ruining the stability of the entire world I set up!"

"That's on you for not taking my actions into consideration!"

"How am I supposed to that when you once trained a random stray puppy to be a GOD KILLER? Teaching in-game characters your real life self's moves should be illegal! That stupid mutt busting out an asura rondo against the final boss of the campaign I worked on for ten years was despicable behaviour!"

"That sounds like a you problem. Also, trust me, it could have been way worse. Larsh's character had been charging up a laser beam since the game started and let me tell you that ending would have been far uglier!"

"And where the hell did this magical laser beam fit into any of the established lore?!"

"Hell if I know! Ask him your damn self! At the start of the campaign I was too busy convincing Dago not to sell us out to the demon lord for a quick buck!"

"UGH!" Tom Tom shook his head. "Why am I even bothering with you lot? I don''t know why my real body keeps going back..."

"Because it's fun. What else you gonna do? Sit around in Sevorus' lab and be bored outta your skull, waiting for him to occasionally chuck you a bone? Anyway, that aside, don't suppose you'd be willing to give Ares here his DNA back?" Ares felt truly weird referring to himself in the third person like this but he was a mouthpiece right now and was being diligent in his duties!

"No. He gets to go through this trail fairly, that is as good as it gets."

"Pft. Big talk from you. This body of yours is pretty weak right? Stronger than most other things down here in Shery' if you go all out but I don't think you'd beat this guy if he transformed. Whatever, I wont' spoil the surprise. Knowing you I think you two will end up fighting after all. In fact, here's my guess in full. Ares gets his DNA back and you tip him off to some kind of secret you're hiding. He can only get the secret thing in question if he fights you for it, because you are holding onto it personally, but that means you get a chance to wrestle the DNA back from him as well because you can't attack him 'till he attacks you. You think you understand Ares' strength roughly because he's not gone all out in this Riddlemyd prior to your scrap and then you lose to the ace up his sleeve, Garmr. You don't need to know what Garmr is but you'll know it when you see it, that's for sure. So? Am I right? Do you have something hidden away? This feels like the kind of backup plan you'd have and the kind of game you'd play."

"Tsk, none of your business you stupid mutt! I've been working hard, that's all I'll say on the matter!"

"Yeah, well, if it's a fine grind blue you've been working on this kid's gonna smack you around for it regardless of what happens with the DNA. I'm telling you that now..."

The sphinx tried to hide any and all signs of Dominus having hit the nail on the head but, though it was subtle, both Ares and Dominus could tell that was precisely what happened. It made sense this guy had been cultivating fine grinds here for his master. His master was obsessed with the perfect body and so getting a high quality fine grind was paramount and would explain why the sphinx clone had been dumped here in Xasca. Sure it was where Sevorus left his lab, and did his experiments in this domain, but the bigger picture was farming fine grind for countless years until a miracle occurred. There was actually probably no better place to consistently get rare fine grinds from than Xasca provided you had the kind of life span necessary to set up a farm of sorts. The quarry was not the only location fine grind could be collected from and Sevorus appeared to have found his own location and linked it to the Riddlemyd via that crafty spatial magic. God only knows what the sphinx had found in all his years of constant searching and sifting through the exploded waste!

Depending on how long the fine grind Tom Tom found had survived for without going kablooey, it might even be more valuable than Ares' DNA and that was saying something... If Ares could get his hands on that then yes, yes he was absolutely going to attack this sphinx clone! He felt somewhat guilty for attacking Tom Tom, Dominus' buddy kitty, but it seemed like this was something that happen between them all rather frequently anyway! This could be considered Ares' induction into the group. He was a bit dumb here and there so he'd be a natural fit amongst the other idiots! Besides, there really was a strong 'no hard feelings' vibe going on right now. Tom Tom would take the loss on the chin and only be mildly annoyed. If anything, it was Sevorus that would be miffed but who cared? Ares had enough trouble thanks to him as is! He wasn't really directly responsible for any of Candy's problems, and debatably made them less problematic depending on how you looked at it as he was the least problematic candidate, but he wasn't exactly helpful in that regard either. Ares didn't know the full details about what he was doing, or had already done with regards to Candy, but he seemed more like an annoying moth that kept cropping up rather than a straight Ject-style villain. As long as Sevorus stayed away from his family, and didn't do anything troublesome, he could live for all Ares cared... Though Ares did want some payback to put him in his place. All these monsters on Ares' home planet, as well as hassling Candy, meant there was no way in hell he was getting away Scot free! Taking his fine grind would be a good first step to getting payback!

"Tsk, whatever, can we move on from this? It's bad enough knowing you're gonna be here from now on constantly pestering me! I thought I'd be safe from you, Dominus, down here in Sheryashka... Curses! Just go through the damn portal already and enjoy your checkpoint! Better yet, leave and don't come back!" The sphinx made a shooing gesture by tilting its head upwards and pointing its nose towards the portal while hmph-ing at Ares who'd done nothing wrong! He was just the messenger here! Although, if Dominus was correct, then he would end up scrapping with the sphinx at some point... But would he really need Garmr to fight Tom Tom? That was his main worry right now. How strong was this sphinx exactly? He looked and sounded dopy enough, and Ares wasn't exactly fearful of a talking head, but maybe there really was more to him than meets the eye? The real body of the clone would likely be located at the very end of the Riddlemyd so Ares would get a chance to figure out how much of a threat his opponent was going to truly be then. He trusted Dominus' opinion on the matter, because he knew more about Tom Tom than Ares did at least. Ares left the room and Aejaz was about to follow him into the portal when he stopped and faced the sphinx head on.

"I'll beat you yet!" Aejaz left a confused Tom Tom to wonder what one earth he'd done to deserve this guy's ire! He didn't know about Aejaz' determination, or where it came from, but he was definitely sure of one thing! This idiot was not getting any correct answers ever! He was going to drag Ares down and slow his progress so, annoying though he was, this Aejaz fellow was going to be Tom Tom's ticket to keeping hold of the DNA for long enough to send it back to his master! Tom Tom could tolerate catastrophically bad answers, as well as the inevitable debate that followed, if it meant success in the long run. Lose the battle, and suffer through that twerp, but win the war! All he had to do was come up with devious riddles, or reuse old classics that he'd saved in his memory banks from when he was in his riddle master prime, and he would win for sure!

Meanwhile, at the checkpoint, Ares was looking around only to realise this place was just the entrance all over again! He was in the same sort of hub room, with multiple different portals to choose from, just that now there was a second blueish portal to enter instead of only one. The rest were still greyed out and couldn't be passed through as they would reject anyone who tried, blasting them across the room and into the dark corners of the unlit room. Some of the torches were now active but not enough to bring light to every single shrouded corner so they were pretty pointless as is. This was where the real Riddlemyd began and Ares and Aejaz would no longer be teleporting between rooms on each floor. There would be rooms tied together by multiple corridors, some of which might even contain monsters to fend off, and things would be more like an actual tomb or dungeon henceforth. Each floor was carefully constructed by the sphinx to be an escalating challenge but, now that things had gone in a different direction, they were going to be harder right out the gate.

The in-between rooms sections would likely remain the same for now, because other cultivators were also here and lumping the increased difficulty on them as well was somewhat unfair, but the challenges in each room would be ramped up considerably for Ares and Aejaz going forward. Maybe, if they were lucky, they could stumble into a room that other people were already in as the easier trial would already be underway and they could coast off that. It was very much a possibility but there probably wasn't going to be too many people on the early floors and so whether that was relevant or not remained to be seen. Either way, Ares wanted to do one more floor, to really get a feel for how things worked via first hand experience, and then he would call it a day. He'd originally planned on staying here for longer, and that would make sense now especially given the time limit to get his DNA back, but he'd rather prepare himself for a full day of exploration tomorrow from sunrise 'till sundown. He'd wasted a lot of time today on other things, namely the journey and fighting Juggernaut, so going all in today with what limited time he had didn't make sense. Understanding what he was working with and getting a clearer picture was a good enough result today as is... Plus, there was something he wanted to do back at the Oasis sect regardless. It was a relatively innocent trick he wanted to pull but it might end up mattering in a few days time so setting it up now was preferable. Also also, he wanted to send the curry over to the Grecian Land via Transmit and if he stayed here until tomorrow that was obviously not going to be possible. He'd leave Blo Blo high and dry if he did that and that was a no-go! All in all, there were enough reasons not to stay here for an extended period but one more floor was still manageable and wouldn't hurt. Dominus had gone back to sleep so it was jsut going to be Aejaz, Ares, and whoever else they happened across traversing the dungeon!

There was really nothing else to do in this checkpoint area, at least right now while everything was still too dark to move around in properly, so the bandit brothers departed. They went through the second portal from the left and wound up directly in another room that looked pretty identical to the ones up until now. The rooms would have different layouts depending on the challenge associated with them but that just meant this first room was likely another normal riddle. Most rooms would be riddles, as that was what the place was named after, but there would definitely be others down the line and Ares was really curious to see what sort of challenges awaited. That was for later, though, and right now Ares had just spotted a section of the wall to his right that had a bunch of grooves in it and would likely open up when the room was completed, revealing the passageway to the next one.

Ares could hear some murmuring on the other side of the wall so it was possible another group had literally jsut finished the room, exited, and been locked out of returning. This was a good reminder not to leave anything in the room or else Ares would have to start the floor over again to go back and get it, if it hadn't already been taken. It seemed like, at the end of every room, you could choose to proceed through the passageway that opened up or return to the checkpoint area that was isolated and unique to each group. If you picked the latter you would have to repeat the floor anyway but you could leave early, before reaching the next checkpoint, if you felt like your life was in danger. If you picked the former you could advance towards the checkpoint but might struggle if you were running out of resources during long dungeon diving sessions. Giving up on the checkpoint and trying again some other time was usually the correct choice but a lot of people tried to brute force floors they weren't well enough equipped to take on. Where this started to really matter was when people would attempt multiple floors all at once and tire themselves out halfway through a floor because of how much work they'd already done throughout the day. You'd have a hard time choosing between pushing on through or relenting and that was where some of this place's lethality came in. Making the wrong decision would be costly and there was no going back once a decision was made. Ares ignored the passageway for now and walked over to Tom Tom to accept the first of his new and improved, difficult riddles! With a voice that was more domineering and thundering than before, perhaps to hype up the quality of riddle and give the feeling that things were getting serious now, Tom Tom eloquently bestowed upon Ares' mind a real head-scratcher of a conundrum!

"In the morning, as I wake up atop a large stone, the only thing I, a philosophical drifter, own, I contemplate about the earth and all the mysteries buried beneath it. In the afternoon, I ponder over the sun's warmth and purpose. What do I dwell on at night?"