Chapter 405: Jackal-Headed Woe

Ares set off without a care in the world, followed by the energetic girl who seemingly wanted to keep asking him questions, while the rest of the group trailed along behind. Aejaz was also further back and trying to talk with the the other group... Although not because he was trying to be polite or anything, he just wanted vindication about his opinion on the riddles! He was bothering the other three individuals but, for what it was worth, they seemed more comfortable talking to an idiot than unknown Mr Gold and potentially dealing his explosive tendencies. That was territory best left to the youngest and most adventurous of their group. If she came back alive, great! If not, her sacrifice would be remembered! Of course Ares had no such intentions, and she'd be fine, but they didn't know that! During Aejaz' griping session he did at least try to learn a little about the group he was talking to and he got a very brief run down of each individual one by one before they explained what they were doing here exactly.

The young girl was some prodigy from a sect from somewhere or other. Even now the rest of the group didn't know or bother asking because she was like a bat out of hell and was too bouncy to keep still for a minute and ask. She was talented, on a journey for fun, and that just about everything they knew about Lilly other than the girly dresses she wore each day that seemed to never run out. She'd worn a different one each day for as long as they'd known her and weren't sure if she just packed that many into multiple spatial rings or she had some kind of infinite portal tucked up one of her skirts! That aside, she was competent in combat and primarily relied on fire magic to get the job done from afar but could defend herself up close with finger guns that spewed magma bullets at anyone or anything that got too close. A combatant who relied on strong magic but wasn't great when fists were thrown was the best way to describe her but she had support from everyone else that gave her time and space to flourish so it was fine.

The middle aged man with a million and one things dangling off his utility belt, wearing an explorers hat, and carrying a torch in his hand was a well renowned archaeologist who's purpose here was pretty obvious. He was trying to learn more about this place's history, which was ironic given that Ares had no interest in such a thing but already knew near enough everything there was to know, but he wasn't having much luck near the entrance to the Riddlemyd and wanted to go deeper. He wasn't confident enough to go by himself and Lilly overheard his musings at the inn and politely offered him a chance to join up with her to go deeper. Marcus was his name and, though he wasn't a skilled fighter by any means, he had a decent wealth of treasures on him that would keep him safe as long as things didn't get too out of hand. He was also well enough versed in runemancy, foreign languages, and curses such that he could help keep everyone else safe from traps or other non-combat related threats. He was better suited to puzzle rooms than anything that required combat, dexterity, or nimbleness and had made himself useful in riddle rooms often thanks to his wide knowledge base and cleverness compared to the rest of the group. That didn't mean he was the only one who to get riddle answers correct thus far but he was the one everyone went to to discuss their own ideas first before saying them out loud usually.

Third on the introduction chopping block was Bess, a cultivator in her late twenties looking to make some money. She was a pretty strong cultivator that dipped in an out of retirement to earn some money for splurging when she was bored or running out (usually the latter). If people like Yulo and Sandy were the peak of the last generation then someone like Bess would be one or two tiers below them. Good enough to hold her own in almost any situation and would definitely never fold to anything that wasn't a considerable threat. She was probably the main force of this group and did a lot of the heavy lifting with her trusty sword.. There was nothing fancy about her weapon, weapon mastery, or magic, she was just all around good at near enough everything and was a sort of generalist who was prepared for every situation a place like this could throw at her. She'd joined this group out of pity because she hadn't known at the time that Lilly was a respectably talented cultivator herself. Bess just saw an 'old', as she put it, man and his young, over-eager child exploring somewhere far too dangerous and couldn't ignore it so she opted to help however she could. She had no intention of giving her life for these two or anything but tagging along with them really didn't hamper her in any way, especially not on the early floors, so that was how she came to willingly join the group. Of course she later learnt that these people could hold their own somewhat, and so that was a relief, but she stayed with them regardless because she felt like one more addition to their group, to round it out, would allow them to go far as they'd have a versatile and varied pool of talent to pluck from in any imaginable scenario.

Bess wanted treasures in exchange for helping out but the other two were ok with that because her aid was invaluable and they didn't care about earning money here anyway. Lilly just wanted to have fun and Marcus wanted knowledge so the group's wants could all still be met without any complications in terms of splitting everything. Lilly being a prodigy meant her sect gave her abundant resources and treasures anyway and Marcus was an esteemed fellow in his own circles so money wasn't even remotely on their minds and they were here for passion, not profit. In contrast, Bess' worn-but-still-sturdy gear, be it armor or weaponry, made it pretty obvious she needed replacements, stat, and this place was ideal. Maybe if she'd spent her heard earned stardust on replacements and not lavish cocktails at a beach resort she wouldn't be in this situation but the thrill of relaxation called to her ever other month and so she wound up broke quite often. If she just doubled down on work for a few years straight, and toned down the spending during that period, she could easily retire for life and get an easy 'job' as a sect elder who occasionally gave out lessons or whatever but disappeared afterwards for months at a time. Alas, she simply couldn't help herself and the thought of swimming under the hot sun in paradise was too alluring.

Last but not least of the group members was.... Unknown! He refused to give his name even now and that was somewhat fitting given his rogue-ish aesthetic. He looked aloof, and acted it, but didn't seem like a bad guy necessarily. He simply wanted to challenge this Riddlemyd and go as deep as he possibly could to test himself and his thief skills. He wanted to pick locks, disarm traps, assassinate monsters, etc.. It was all like one big training session for him and so his reason for being here somewhat aligned with Lilly's. He was arguably the second strongest member of the group but could debatably be the first depending on context. He wasn't great in a head on fight but, while Bess took on that role, he could do impressive work in the background while going unnoticed. He wasn't as strong as Aejaz, Aejaz was in a league of his own and that was an unfair comparison, but for an assassin type, with no connections, that didn't belong to a sect that could train him, he was a force to be reckoned with in his own right. It seemed like he was the one who took the hit from the stepper ambush earlier because he had a small nick near his waist. Apparently he tried to fight it head on to experiment with a dual dagger approach that he wanted to get used to and he made a small mistake.

As for why this guy didn't want to share his name... He admitted he hadn't lived the cleanest of lives up until now and wanted to put his past behind him so his name was more of an inconvenience than anything useful which was fair enough. There was a non-zero chance he was even a scavenger at one point which would cause complications if his name was well enough known to the general public. He was living a different life now and trying to make up for the lost years he wasted idly bemoaning his fate so good for him? It didn't erase his past but his past was impossible to guess or know without his name so making assumptions was entirely pointless and, thus, it could be said that his unwillingness to share his name wound up doing exactly as it was supposed to. As for why he joined this group, if he really was a scavenger then that automatically prevented him from joining any of their groups off rip as they'd know him on sight. He wanted to delve as deep as possible so he simply looked for groups starting at floor one that could potentially make it deep enough to satisfy himself. Stronger groups were already deeper in the Riddlemyd and that, skipping multiple floors, felt like cheating so his options were actually not great. These lot happened along, however, and he was confident they were his best bet so he offered to join them for free and was upfront about his intentions. 

And voila, a group of strong-ish cultivators had been formed and their journey through the dungeon officially began earlier today! They'd been minding their own business for the most part, and had a simple enough time so far on the first floor, but things had unexpectedly ramped up a short while ago for no particular reason when Tom Tom thrust them into a strange lava parkour room that was way harder than the last parkour room they'd entered! Thankfully the basics of the room made it easy enough to traverse without too much of a struggle but if anything else had been added to it then they might have had a bit of a rough time. Learning that was a beginner room for Ares helped them understand the scale of what they would be dealing with from here on out and everyone other than Lilly could do nothing but sigh in despair for the future. They had to pray for riddle rooms as, if nothing else, they weren't something that would cause them immediate trouble. This group wasn't particularly good at riddles overall but if it meant avoiding whatever loony challenges Ares would be facing then they were quite happy to deal with more riddles, actually! They really didn't wanna see what one of his combat rooms looked like...

"So! What's your name then?" Lilly was rocking Ares' shoulders back and forth and he seriously wished this munchkin would calm down for two seconds... Where did all this energy even come from?! She was almost as bad as Peppy? At least there was some counterbalance with Peppy? thanks to Loris evening out the energy in any given room but this little tyke's spirit was boundless and Ares wasn't sure how long he could last with this pipsqueak before he felt old and got tired... This kid was great at raising your mood for all of five seconds with her relentless enthusiasm before she became way too much! Still, whether her mood being infectious was for better or for worse, she meant well so Ares responded truthfully. He had no reason to hide his identity anymore and there as also no guarantee he would be recognised anyway. He had a degree of notoriety now, and in Xascan and Central Land that was doubly true, but it's not like he was a household name at this point. If Lilly was from some other country and didn't follow the news about the international too closely then she wouldn't know him.

"Ares." He kept an eye on the group's reaction to get a feel for who knew him and who didn't but it seemed like only one person recognised the name and that was Marcus. This was strange because, actually, Ares figured it would Lilly. She was at the appropriate cultivation base to be interested in the international surely? Maybe she was busy at the time and couldn't go or pay any attention to it. Bess was probably too busy living it up and living the high life on a beach somewhere to read any headlines and drag herself back to reality before her cash reserves ran out. The unknown assassin guy would have no contacts anymore now that he abandoned his previous life and so it wouldn't be too surprising if he was more concerned with staying alive by finding work on his own instead of reading up on foreign affairs or promising youth in other countries. Maybe if he was truly with the scavengers at one point would he have heard about Ares through his information network but it was unlikely now anyway. As for Marcus... It actually made some sense. He was fascinated with history so Ares being a fundamental champion would be an interesting avenue for him to explore and understand in greater detail. A new history of magic was born in Red Sun when Mako and Ares appeared, as well as the Gods which confirmed everyone's suspicions on that matter. Throw in the stardust being the remains of cultivators and groundbreaking history had been unearthed on that day and that was not simply a pun about Terros appearing! Though Marcus' line of work and areas of expertise might not have been directly magic related, his peers who were interested in such things probably raved on and on about it at a gathering or in the workplace and so he was at least loosely informed. Or, well, that was Ares best guess on the matter. It was a reasonable enough assumption so he didn't bother to ask because he didn't really care much. He just wanted to know roughly what he was dealing with here. Anyone who knew who he was ought to not be stupid enough to try anything untoward against him even in spite of his lower cultivation base. He was a killer of peak transition realm cultivators so that would dissuade most people from messing with people!

It seemed like Marcus wanted to take Lilly's place and ask Ares a whole bunch of questions about this and that but the next room was already in sight so it was going to have to wait for now. There weren't any monsters in the hallway to bother the group so they arrived without much hassle and so time for conversations had been cut short. Ares was the first to enter the room and, luckily for the other group at least as their prayers had been answered, it was another riddle room! Though Ares preferred the combat rooms, as he could run through them quickly, this was also fine and acceptable. He just needed to not get stumped again and progress would continue to be smooth for the foreseeable future as he predicted there wouldn't be any more riddles rooms on this floor going forward... Although Aejaz was still a thing and eh could complicate this room... Ares had to make sure this guy didn't leap to unfounded conclusions now that there were other people in the room as well as it wouldn't just be Ares getting punished!

Tom Tom waited until everyone was in the room, shut the entrance behind them, and spoke up. "There are three bears positioned around a child in a semi-circle layout. One is a polar bear, one is a a brown bear, and the last is a Himalayan black bear. Strangely, no matter how much time passes, be it seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or even years, these bears do not attack the child. There is a very clear reason for this. Why?"

Ares rugby tackled Aejaz because, at this point, his incorrect answer was more obvious than the correct one! This idiot was going to say something along the lines of 'because they're nice bears' or 'because they're lazy' or something! Ares wiped the sweat from his brow as this brother bomb had been defused successfully but it didn't change the fact that he didn't know the answer either! He was going to start pondering over it when he saw Lilly hop, skip, and jump in front of Tom Tom and give him pets! He didn't seem to mind... Or, rather, he was enjoying it! Was that a purr Ares just heard?! It definitely was!

"Because they're teddy bears!" Lilly gave a confident response while everyone was still contemplating the issue and her group were thoroughly embarrassed that she'd snuck off to go give an answer without discussing it first! Ares had prevented his party member from doing it but these lot failed!

"Correct."

...

Is that answer really correct or is Tom Tom just showing favour to the cute girl petting him?! Ares was a little lost here but, honestly, he didn't care! A correct answer was a correct answer, right? The group could move on! To be fair to Lilly, the answer was a reasonable one so maybe she had gotten it right? Teddy bears could be positioned on shelves around the child's bed and they obviously couldn't attack the child because they weren't real... Ares couldn't help but think this answer came from personal experience as Lilly seemed like the type to have a room full of teddies, the image just fit with her bubbly personality down to a tee. Ares could envision a tidal wave of pink and fluff in this girl's room! Hell even Tom Tom would fit in there and could have a pink bow underneath his mane; he'd be like a house pet... Speaking of, Tom Tm almost seemed reluctant to see the hand that gave him pets leaving... This guy... He was a big softie! Ares shook his head but smiled deviously as he walked over to Lilly's side and gave her a nudge. "Didja know this fluffy kitty's name is actually Mr Tom Tom?"

Tom Tom visibly recoiled at this treachery but what was he going to do now? He wasn't going to berate the girl with sparkles in her eyes because she was clearly over the moon to hear this information. Him having a goofy and cutesy name like Tom Tom made her really happy for some inexplicable reason and he didn't want to be the one to ruin her fun! His name was just going to have to be Tom Tom from now on. He inwardly cursed Ares!... At the very least, it would just be Lilly calling him that, nobody else was permitted! Not that that stopped Ares from snickering to himself in evil content as he walked through the passageway to the next hallway. It wasn't about getting to call Sphinx 'Tom Tom' himself, it was just about causing him trouble as much as humanly possible! The rest of the group were incredibly curious as to what kind of relation Ares had with Tom Tom exactly because they really couldn't tell at this point but, honestly, they were too afraid to ask! They simply followed Ares into the corridor and left it at that.

The group weren't looking forward to the next room because they had a gut feeling it wasn't going to be another riddle room and the chances of it being anything other than a combat room was slim. Ares had technically cheated his way through a combat room as he only had to deal with the floating crocodiles and not anything more severe, as per his challenge, so Tom Tom wasn't likely going to let that slide... Now the only question was what exactly was he going to have to fight? There were plenty of incredibly strong creatures in Xasca but most of them would not fit inside a normal sized room. Nobody doubted Tom Tom's ability to make a massive room if need be but everyone assumed it was more likely there would be unique monsters hiding in this place that Tom Tom would make use of instead of rehashing known entities. The Riddlemyd was singlehandedly responsible for half of all new monster discoveries throughout Xascan history and there were plenty of things in here that didn't exist anywhere else. This was especially true of the lower floors and, if Ares' challenges had their difficulty accelerated, it was possible to come across entirely new monsters that nobody else had ever seen even in the current greatest depths of the Riddlemyd.

Marcus was somewhat intrigued, as he could make a brand new discovery and attach his name to it, but he also didn't want to actually have to fight whatever the thing was! He, and everyone else, were hoping it would just be a large onslaught of familiar monsters, a bunch of waves of strong giant scorpions for instance, because at least that would feel like home territory... But they all had a feeling in their gut that this wasn't going to be the case. There was a dangerous and ominous aura floating through the corridor and it was suffocating and heavy unlike anything they'd ever felt before. The next room clearly housed something very dangerous and they were all tempted to abandon Ares and wait for him to go ahead! He didn't seem phased by this hazardous aura and was literally whistling to himself as though he couldn't even sense it! If it wasn't abundantly clear he was either delusional or ridiculously powerful before then it was now! Even Aejaz, the seemingly weaker cultivator of the two was still inching forward. He was hesitant but he wasn't stopped in his tracks completely nor was he refusing to move forward. He almost reminded the group of cartoon characters that were perpetually frightened out of their wits but lived through everything that came their way regardless and, really, that was a particularly apt description.

In the end, curiosity got the better of at least half the new group so Bess and the rogue had no choice but to follow along and pray things went well... If nothing else, maybe this Mr Gold / Ares guy was reliable and could beat the room on his own... That was the hope, anyway, so they were the last to step inside and cross their fingers as they did so. They glanced around the room and, though it appeared to be a normal sized combat room, without any immediate differences from those that came previously, there were two stand outs that, when noticed, made any who saw it reflexively gulp. On both the left and right side of the room, positioned directly at the centre of the walls they were partially buried in, were two Anubis statues. Though unmoving they felt larger than life and borderline omnipotent, as though the correct approach here was to bow in reverence and worship. Something felt very off about them, however, like all their cultural and historic relevance had been replaced by some intangible influence gnawing away at their visage. It was hard to explain but these Anubis felt like they belonged to a different period and space entirely. It wasn't quite alien but it was certainly a foreign feeling that didn't mesh well with anything that Xasca was. The group couldn't quite put their finger on what exactly was causing this feeling of incongruence but it was certainly there. Also, if there was anything else they were certain of, it's that these things were going to come to life and be a real pain in the ass... They were twice as tall as an average human and packing at least twice as much muscle mass. Mana would obey them in servile fashion and grant them access to extraordinary magic that ordinary cultivators couldn't possibly hope to wield in their life time. long story short, these were the opponents that everyone was going to have to face in trail by combat and there was no escaping now that the entrance and exit to this room had been shut. These monsters were unknown even to Marcus who'd done a great deal of research on every single piece of information he could gleam about the Riddlemyd which could only mean one thing, these were monsters buried so deep in the Riddlemyd that nobody had ever come across them thus far... Some of the monsters people had seen and fought in the deeper floors had strength equal to that of weaker western monsters and took entire squads of cultivators to take down.... If these statues were stronger than even those monsters... Well, the conclusion was obvious. At least as far as the group was concerned, everyone was going to die here.