Haven Online

Chapter 36: First Room Cleared*

While climbing down the vine-like steps, going one step closer into that dark abyss, Xinya's body suddenly passed through an invisible barrier of sorts, and the dungeon transformed from complete darkness to something quite beautiful, but he was aware that the most beautiful things are always the most dangerous. His life experience taught him that, for sure.

Xinya looked at Melting Snow, who was looking around the place in wonder or making sure he got a shot of everything for his recording, Xinya didn't quite know. What he knew was that this place was lovely. It was as if they were back outside, but it was night instead of daytime.

They were underground, but the minerals from the rocks sparkled like stars when they were hit with the light of the glowing plants that were all around. There were tall grasses everywhere and herbs patches that were scattered around, but what caught his eye the most was the statue that was standing against the wall in the room.

It was of a tiny child, a little girl to be exact, she was covered in flowers from head to toe. She looked so lifelike as if she could come off that podium at any time, but what was really strange to Xinya was her expression. It held a sinister feel to it, it made him feel very uneasy when he looked at her.

Melting Snow, on the other hand, didn't feel that anything was wrong and walked closer to the statue, looking at it curiously. Suddenly he squatted down, clearing away some of the foliage as if he had discovered something. "Drifting Cloud, come and look at this."

Walking over to Melting Snow, Xinya squatted down next to him and saw what he found. There was a plaque on the statue that said: 'To begin, give me red and blue. If you fail to do so in 20 minutes, starting from when you first set foot down here, you're through' and underneath those words, were two empty holes at the bottom of the statue.

"What does that mean?" Melting Snow asked.

"It means that if we don't give her something red and blue in" Xinya stopped and looked at the time. "In 12 minutes, the statue will most likely come to life and kill us."

Melting Snow: ....

Laughing at Melting Snow's face, Xinya pulled out a red and blue bottle from his inventory. "Don't worry, this test is really easy, the first ones are always the simplest. Did you forget that this dungeon is about potions? It just means that we need to place a health potion and a mana potion in the holes.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Melting Snow asked.

Xinya wanted to reply to that but decided against it, shrugging his shoulders at Melting Snow, he proceeded to put the bottles into the holes. At first, nothing happened but, a couple of seconds later, the statue moved, sliding across the wall to reveal a door. If Xinya had looked closely at the statue, he would've seen that the sinister expression was gone, replaced by a peaceful smile. But he didn't and so, would never see the true beauty of the statue.

You did it. Let's go in!" Melting Snow excitedly said while pushing the door open and walking in. 

Xinya followed him inside and, as soon as he got in, the door closed behind them and a notification popped up in front of him.

[You have entered the room one out of five of Krimplot dungeon! You won't be able to leave the dungeon until you finish or die!]

Once the notification disappeared, Xinya could finally see the room, it was similar to the room before, grass and herb patches all over the place. He was going to have to collect them after he dealt with this room test. He could never have too many herbs.

The only thing that stood out were the four statues standing on a podium in each corner of the room, each holding a weapon. There was a riddle on each of their podiums plaques, Xinya could easily tell where this was going. And, from the looks of it, so did Melting Snow. Because, after reading one, he said, "I don't think I will be helpful here."

"Don't worry, you're just the brawn," Xinya replied with a smile.

"Thanks, I guess." Melting Snow said, not knowing if he should feel insulted or not.

Walking over to the nearest statue, Xinya read: 'So busy, always so busy. Every time you overwork yourself, you need to drink me. The more you tirelessly work, the more you depend on me.'

"Stamina Potion," Xinya said in a loud and clear tone. He watched as the statue turned around, no longer a threat.

The next three statues were similar to the first, the riddles were very easy but, considering that this is a dungeon for people without any class skills, he should have expected that. Once he finished answering the last statue riddle, another notification appeared.

[You have completed room 1 out of 5! You may enter the next room at any time!]

When the notification faded away, a door that would lead them to the next room in the dungeon appeared on the wall. Melting Snow was about to go through it but Xinya stopped him, saying he wanted to collect the herbs that were around. Melting Snow didn't mind and went around the room exploring while Xinya collected the herbs, talking to his viewers while doing so.