Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 81: The Leaky Caverns (Part 6)

"I'm back!" Koko shouted as soon as she arrived back in the room that held both the puzzle door as well as her friends. Though she slightly regretted her volume as Richard nearly jumped out of his boots at her sudden announcement.

"Could you please hold off on the outbursts when inside of a monster infested dungeon?" Richard asked pleadingly. "Please?"

"Sorry." Koko laughed bashfully as she apologized.

"Did you find anything?" Christina asked.

"Sure did!" Koko replied immediately as she regained her cheerful mood. "Ten, five, one, twenty-three and seventeen."

"Ten, five, one-" Richard repeated back her words as he started spinning the rings on the door again. And when he eventually finished aligning all of the roman numerals at the top of the door, a loud clicking sound echoed throughout the room before the ground started shaking as the door sank into the ground.

"That is so much cooler when you see it in person..." Koko said in amazement as she watched the door disappear along with everyone else.

"Christina? What are you doing?" Richard asked as the hero walked to the wall beside the door and started chipping away at the stone with one of her magic swords.

"I'm writing the numbers down for any adventurers that come here in the future." Christina replied as she continued her work. "That way they wont have to do whichever dangerous thing that Koko did in order to find the combination."

"Hey, I didn't do anything dangerous!" Koko defended herself.

"Riiight." Both of them replied at the same time.

"So where did you find the hints?" Richard asked.

"At the... bottom of the lake in the first chamber." Koko mumbled as she looked away from them.

"Don't tell me you went swimming." Christina shot her an angry look.

"I didn't! I just looked down at the water from the cave entrance!" Koko explained frantically. "Though I did have to rip a crystal crab out of the ground and throw it into the water so that I could see the metal plates at the bottom... I kinda feel guilty about that..."

"You should. The poor thing probably drowned." Christina scolded.

"No, it didn't suffer for long." Koko corrected her friend. "The fish ate it."

"That's... not much better." Richard commented from in front of them. "But now that the door is open and we've marked the combination down, let's get going. I agree with Koko in the fact that I want to return before nightfall."

"Yup! Let's go!" Koko enthused before picking up the giant crystal again and walking through the now open puzzle door along with her friends. However, when they were all past it, they turned around and watched as the puzzle door rose out of the ground and blocked them from the previous rooms.

"Good call with making sure to write the numbers down. Otherwise, if we do get trapped, anyone that comes looking for us might not have been able to get past it." Richard nodded his appreciation towards Christina. "Though now that the door is shut and there doesn't seem to be a way to open it from this side, we can't get to the first chamber anymore to attempt an escape."

"No use in worrying about it now." Koko wanted to shrug but couldn't thanks to the crystal she was carrying.

"Hold up." Christina said in a whisper as as she held out her hand to stop the others. "Do you hear that?"

"It kind of sounds like a chorus of grunts." Koko attempted to decipher what she was hearing. Though after setting the crystal down and following the others down the cave a bit more, they stopped at a turn in the cave and found out that she was correct as the next room had a massive bonfire in the center of it with at least twenty puppet masters doing some kind of dance around the flames. However, while there were only twenty puppet masters, the sides of the room were filled with hundreds upon hundreds of puppets though thankfully they hadn't noticed the Koko and her friends yet.