...and slid down to the floor below. Arrow drawn on his bowstring, Link aimed for the rope bundling up the ladder. The last thing he wanted was to cut the ladder itself and leave himself trapped on this lower level until the the Restoration either let him die or provided another way out. Fortunately for Link, his arrow merely cut the rope and dropped him a line between the floor above the grate and this basement. It was a very small gap between the rope and the grate, forcing Link to press his stomach up against the wall hard to slip through, but at least he couldn't get trapped below if he closed all of those pools back up by mistake.
Link pulled himself up to the floor about the grate. He wondered what the point of it was, considering there was another entrance down to this level. What did it even block off? Maybe he'd find out if he got all of those doors open. Right now, he needed to get that last key. He had a guess, remembering that cluster of vines on the ceiling above the large key. Perhaps there was a switch beneath the pool, he just needed to close the doors and get back beneath it another way, either from one of the other pools' bottoms he could now open with his bow or from the ladder he had just climbed up from.
It was as he was about to climb back onto the vines that Link realized he could knock off a few of those spiders to keep them from charging him. Their backs were tough armor though, more than able to deflect a few arrows, leaving him just with their soft heads to aim for. That would be a difficult shot, even with his sudden proficiency with the longbow.
After knocking a few off the vines, Link decided to save his arrows. He managed to salvage a handful of arrows as he climbed up, but not enough that he thought continuing to pick off the spiders was worth it. He cleared out enough to let him climb with ease between the levels, and left the rest alone. He could dodge them decently enough as it was. When he found more arrows, maybe he'd bother with it, but he knew he needed those arrows for those levers and he couldn't spend them on spiders until he knew he wouldn't need them.
Back at the top of the pit, Link turned around to reorient himself with the doors. To be fair, he only had two options, as the third was still locked, and the room he didn't want had a hole in it. He guessed the correct door, not that it matter.
Pulling the lever again, Link let out a sigh. This was going to mean a lot of climbing. He had a moment to avoid fighting while he solved this puzzle, but he knew he was going to be sore like nothing else when he woke up from...wherever he managed to get some sleep. He didn't know how other Heroes had done this. He reasoned they likely went into these temples knowing they would be dangerous and not half asleep, where Link wasn't expecting for this building to come to life and consume him, and was slowly losing his mind out of worry for his friend and his own lack of energy.
Link dropped back down the pit until he reached the ladder as the very bottom. He would have dropped from the pool, but he was still drying out from his last dive and the last one had been risky already. He would take this safe option until he could give himself a better cushion for that drop. Dropping into cold, dirty water didn't sound fun, even if it would wake him up again.
Back down to the bottom of the pit and then up through the barracks, Link returned to the room with the large button. Before Link turned left towards the room he had just closed off, he looked up at the bundle of vines on the ceiling. Link flexed his bowstring. "Let's see how strong this thing is then."
Link drew his bow back, letting an arrow fly. The arrow didn't cut deep into the plants, but it cut enough. Vines began to snap and break before a chest tumbled down from the ceiling where it had been hidden, rolling to a halt at the far side of the room after a good deal of banging and bouncing.
"This isn't going to be another monster, is it?" Link asked, looking up at the ceiling.
"No, this is a reward for your puzzle solving, Hero!" The Restoration answered, cheerfully. "You have thought through this puzzle and sacrificed your items to gain a reward, so--"
"It's not going to kill me?" Link pressed, uninterested in the Restoration's excitement. "That's all I want to know."
"It will not kill you, no," the Restoration added, disgruntled as being dismissed so quickly.
Pushing the chest open, Link found a red crystal similar to the one that had fallen out of the skulltula, a rupee, the Restoration had called it. Well, a variety of gems wouldn't hurt at a pawn shop, particularly not with the amount of trouble he was racking up the longer he was in here. He shoved it into his new, expanded wallet and stood back up.
"In the past, Heroes would travel with a companion. If you would prefer a more physical companion, I can materialize someone to travel with you." A few orbs and figures bobbed by Link, but he didn't pay attention as he walked down the left hallway. "Is there anyone you would like--"
"Dwarf," Link answered, scowling at the ceiling. "I'd like to adventure with Dwarf. That one going to work out for you?"
"You are not prepared to face your final encounter yet, Hero, but if you are sure you are ready to face Ganondorf Dragmire, I can prepare a teleportation to his location and expedite the changes to Hyrule."
"Changes to Hyrule? What are you doing to Hyrule?" Link asked. He looked down at the bag hanging over his shoulder, and his transformed wallet. Could changes like that be happening on a grander scale outside the temple? What kind of devastation would happen if the Restoration transformed the whole country like this in minutes? No one would have any warning about it, just "poof" and everyone was thrown back hundreds of years into the medieval era. "What do you mean by 'restore?' What were you programmed to do exactly?"
"I cannot answer that question, Link Sayre."
"What do you mean you can't? You're some kind of computer, you have a program you're running, what is it? You're supposed to help me with my quest, right? And I need to know what your objective is here." To save Hyrule in more ways than one it seemed, though Link doubted any of those was how the Restoration meant it.
There was silence for a long while. Link took the quiet to continue to the end of the hall. He was right; there was a switch beneath the pool's floor. One arrow sent it rocking back, and seconds later, Link could hear water pounding against the floor above him. A few drops of water managed to slip through, plopping into the murky pool that had already dropped in.
"I have an arrangement for you, Link Sayre."
"Is it like this one I'm already in?" Link asked, returning to the barracks. He didn't like the sound of any deals the Restoration might offer him.
"If you complete these dungeons, I will answer a classified question."
Link paused, holding on to the bow string as he thought about the offer. "What does that mean?"
"It means I will disclose to you information about my programming that was intended to remain secret," the Restoration explained. "It will take a little recoding on my part to allow for this, but if it will insure your co-operation, then I believe it is an agreeable arrangement and my creators would understand the reappropriation of information."
"What if I ask a question that isn't hidden behind your restrictions?" Link hung his bow back over his back. "Is that going to count against me?"
"I will provide a list of options for you when you reach the final chamber of each dungeon, if it will simplify the process, with questions based on your current interests that may contain restricted information.."
Link paced a few steps, thinking over the offer. He shouldn't accept it. If he did, it meant he would have to keep coming back into these temples. Link figured he had already be roped into that, between rescuing Dwarf and now the potential threat of the Restoration redesigning Hyrule entirely. But maybe if he could get answers out of the Restoration, he could help prevent some of the scope of the devastation it would do the country. Give the people some kind of warning about what was happening and how to prepare for it.
"Deal," Link replied as he returned to the barracks. He pulled himself to a halt as an arm extended itself from nowhere. It was almost a hologram, but the shape was actually touchable.
"Let's shake on it then, Hero."
Twisting his mouth for a minute, Link let out a frustrated huff before grappling the Restoration's projected hand. It was surprisingly warm for a concentrated form of light, but Link guessed that's what happened when you solidified light into a hard shape, like concentrating the pinprick of a magnifying glass. And as soon as Link let it go, the hand disappeared back into the tear in the world it had produced itself from.
"Do you have a body?" Link asked as he walked back into the barracks, backtracking again.
"I can create one if I need it," the Restoration answered. "I am glad to have your co-operation, Link Sayre. I was concerned that I would need to prepare a number of fail safes to finish my programming."
"I'm so glad you didn't have to brainwash me like you did my friend to get your job done," Link snarked, dropping down the ladder to the bottom of the pit. "Why don't you, actually? Why don't you mess with my head like you did Dwarf? If you clearly can do that kind of messed up shit, and you have right in front of me, what's stopping you from making me your happy little Hero and just solving all of your problems right here and now?"
Nothing. Link waited for any response, but nothing. No answer. Link rubbed his temples again, trying to wake up. Just get out of here alive, that's all he needed to worry about for now, not reasoning with a magic supercomputer with a weird set of morals that clearly wasn't interested in listening to him unless he was "co-operating" with them, even though Link barely knew what the co-operation would entail on his part.
As Link continued to climb up, he paused on the pool level. If he opened the bottom of that pool again, he wouldn't be able to get to that chest, which had been the whole point of his backtracking in the first place. Not wanting to add any more time to his dungeon delving, Link pushed the door open, and was greeted by a full pool of fresh water.
Leaning over the edge, Link cupped up a few mouthfuls of water. He drank his fill before splashing the rest over his face. "Breathe, Sayre, breathe." Link leaned over the pool for a few more minutes, just trying to let his breathing slow while also trying not to nod off. He was so tired at the point, he was surprised he wasn't snapping at the ceiling more, much less being able to fight these monsters the Restoration was throwing at him without taking serious injuries. Not that he was complaining about the latter, just that it surprised him.
Pushing himself off his knees to his feet, Link took one last deep breath. He was getting there, so close to being done. Turn on the water and open up the pools, that's all he had left. And that big plant monster, but he wasn't entirely sure he would have to worry about that with the trap door in the barracks. Part of him knew he would, but as long as he could push it away, Link would.
Link hopped onto the floating platform, which had raised to meet the water level. It now passed along at a high enough level that Link was able to grab onto the platform in the center of the room. Link pulled himself up and over the edge, rolling on his side as he threw himself up on top. Lying on his back, Link popped open the chest and fished out the key hidden inside.
"Duh da na na na," Link muttered to himself, sitting up as he shoved the key into his backpack. Now to open the pool's floor again and he wouldn't need to come back here.
Taking the ramp up and then the vines, Link returned to the lever at the top of the pit. He heard a loud "boom" as the water in the pool slapped down to to the stone below when the floor split open, but nothing else. Link sighed, wondering if even moving the grates would wake up the plant monster at this point. He highly doubted it, considering all the noise he had already made, but part of him knew it was going to happen anyway. Maybe that button was hooked up to some kind of gong.
A third of the temple complete, Link left the lever room...