Chapter 245 – Crystal Maze; Concatenated Mechanism
“You have done me such a big favor, of course I have to repay you.” The captain was much more vehement this time.
Ding.
System Notification: Congratulations. You have completed the mission “Annihilate the Sea Beast.” +300,000 EXP, +500 Reputation each player. Gain 1 Water-Break Shuttle.
“There’s even an item?” Fatty opened the package and saw a shuttle-shaped object lying there.
Water-Break Shuttle
Special Tool
Maximum capacity: 10 people
Can travel across and under water. Attacks are allowed inside this shuttle. With extreme solidity and speed, it was the beloved object of fisherman Kahn.
“Wow, such a good s.h.i.+p?!” Liu Lan exclaimed.
“Aii… I’m reminded of my son whenever I see this. Since you help me avenge him, you can have it. Go.” The old captain went back into his cabin.
Fatty released the Water-Break Shuttle and a bunch of control b.u.t.tons instantly appeared in front of him. This shuttle was some really high-tech stuff.
The shuttle lived up to its reputation of “Water-Break.” Sailing was smooth and much faster than that tattered s.h.i.+p from before.
The vast ocean looked exotic and stunning with all kinds of organisms. Colorful schools of fish with bizarre appearances traveled past the Water-Break Shuttle.
“It’s like a submarine!” Liu Lan happily watched as the various fish swam by the shuttle.
Following the map, several hours later, the shuttle finally stopped near a coral reef on the seabed.
“It must be here,” said Fatty as he looked at the beautiful corals.
“How come there’s nothing?” The party directed the shuttle everywhere without finding anything related to a Celestial item.
“Hmmm? There’s a trap over there.” Han Shen pointed at the distance.
The party hurried to that place. In an inconspicuous spot deep in the dense corals, they saw a small whirlpool that seemed nothing out of the ordinary.
“Detect.” Fatty and Han Shen took turns to cast Detect until the trap finally revealed itself.
This trap was formed based on the available terrain. The structure allowed water flow to create a mini whirlpool in this spot, and the inventor of this trap took advantage of this and arranged it into a sharp tool for murder.
“This is one powerful trap,” Fatty praised.
“The level of the one who made this is definitely above us,” Han Shen affirmed.
“That’s for sure. It must be none other than Sallip.” Fatty got out of the Water-Break Shuttle and repeatedly cast Disa.s.semble, wanting to break down the trap.
Ba-boom! Disa.s.semble seemed to activate another trap. In the blink of an eye, countless water currents kicked up and smashed onto Fatty.
“F*ck! It’s a concatenation of traps!” Terrified, Fatty hastily escaped the range of the trap.
Sallip’s power was absolutely above theirs. The trap he had racked his brains out to create to guard this treasure naturally wouldn’t be so easy to disarm.
Fatty and Han Shen stood at opposite sides and begun to cast Disa.s.semble. Finally, they determined that this trap was a series of 36 smaller traps.
“Formidable. That’s a rogue mentor for ya,” Fatty praised.
“Lucky for us it’s only 36.” Han Shen wiped the sweat on his forehead, not even thinking of how it was possible to wipe sweat underwater. “When I got my Underworld a.s.sa.s.sin enhancement, I came across a series of 72 traps. That s.h.i.+t nearly killed me.”
“Oh? So you have experience cracking concatenated traps? Tell me about it.”
A light from time to time landed on the two. It was Cheng Xiong’s Healing. They couldn’t breathe underwater, and the most visual manifestation was their constant plummet of health.
“First, we have to find the base points that support the concatenation. For instance, that chain of 72 traps had 8 base points, each base point consists of 9 interlinked traps. Within every 9 traps held 3 base points each consisted of 3 interlinked traps,” Han Shen explained in detail.
It wasn’t easy to locate the base points of a concatenated trap, or else Sallip wouldn’t have put in this much effort to set one up. Several times, Fatty and Han Shen were inattentive, touched the traps and suffered miserably for it. If it wasn’t for them retreating fast enough, they would have been sent on a free trip back to the resp.a.w.n point.
Fortunately, the two finally determined the locations of the eight base points and spread out to disarm them one by one. Spending roughly three hours, they were finally able to get rid of the traps.
The other three were bored to death waiting. If Cheng Xiong didn’t have to heal the two rogues, they would have used the shuttle to go sightseeing.
“Whew, I’m exhausted. This is no trap, it’s obviously a mechanism!” Fatty gasped for breath back inside the shuttle.
“That’s right, when Trap reaches the Grandmaster mastery, it’ll automatically become Mechanism.” Han Shen nodded.
With the concatenated trap removed, the coral reef collapsed with creaking noises and revealed the entrance to a cave.
“Crystal Maze.” At the top of the entrance were these big and ancient letters.
“d.a.m.n, and here I was wondering why there were so many corals. So it was all that brat Sallip!” Fatty was furious.
The entrance door was severely damaged, obviously Sallip’s deed. Fatty easily directed the shuttle to slip through the door. Once inside, the shuttle suddenly shook and fell on the ground.
“Woah, no water!” Liu Lan jumped off the shuttle and exclaimed in delight.
The rest got off as well. Fatty pocketed the shuttle and carefully observed the main hall of the maze.
Living up to its name, the floor, walls, and ceiling of the Crystal Maze were encrusted with sparkling crystals of red, green, blue, violet, almost every color there was. The luminous plants on the floor painted the interior with their various colors as well. Splendid and magnificent, this place was just like paradise on earth.
“So beautiful.” Liu Lan mumbled in a dreamy voice.
“Let’s dig it all out then.” Fatty randomly tossed a Harvest and heard a ding. Surprisingly, he actually gained a piece of crystal.
Red Crystal: An ornament that has no use at all.
“Oh wow!” Liu Lan was overjoyed. She hugged Fatty’s arm. “I want more.”
Erm… The men all broke out in a sweat. Cheng Xiong even exaggeratedly used Heal on himself.
There was nothing else here aside from the glowing plants, the colorful crystals all over the place, and three towering gates.
“Which one?” Fatty asked as he continued to cast Harvest on the crystals.
Everyone was unsure, especially in this maze where the map had become completely useless.
“I’ll go check.” Cheng Xiong was the restless type. He quickly strode towards a door.
“Watch out!” Fatty cried out in fear.
As Fatty’s shout echoed, the floor beneath Cheng Xiong’s feet flashed. A meter-long crystal cone suddenly spiked up from the ground and hit him in the b.u.t.t.
“AHHHH!” The rest couldn’t bear to watch and covered their eyes. Cheng Xiong let out a tragic, miserable scream, his body immediately arched upward like a shrimp.
“It’s Sallip’s trap!” Putting down his hands, Fatty raged.
“I… I @#%$#^& that motherf*cker…” Lying limply on the floor, Cheng Xiong spat out those words with difficulty.
“Shouldn’t the traps have been completely removed?” Liu Lan was confused.
“Who knows if NPCs are different from players,” Fatty said resentfully. “When I return to the Imperial Capital, I’ll definitely find Sallip and make him pay for this.”
“Whew, lucky you didn’t die.” Xiao Jian ran over and helped Cheng Xiong up.
“I’d rather die than be treated like this.” Cheng Xiong’s face twitched. He cast Heal on himself and slowly replenished his rock bottom health back to full.
“Han Shen, let’s crack the trap first.”
The two started tossing Detect all over the place. There was no choice. Sallip’s rank was too high, his traps would kill them if they were careless for a single second.
“What the f*ck!” After half an hour of Detect, Fatty and Han Shen both gaped in shock. Even Xiao Jian couldn’t help but curse out.
The entire hall floor was filled with traps. They didn’t even need to count to know that the number had surpa.s.sed four-digits.
“Master, didn’t you say that you offended that d.a.m.n Sallip? Is he doing this on purpose?” Han Shen asked, his voice shaky.
“That’s over 80% possible.” Fatty nodded and narrated how he got the map in detail.
“I… have nothing to say…” Speechless, Han Shen turned away and started to try cracking the traps. Very soon though, he screamed out, “F*ck! This is not just a trap! It’s a concatenation of 108 mechanisms!”
“Yep, divided into 18 series of mechanisms. Does that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Sallip have too much time on his hands or something?!” Fatty cursed.
“Bro, you have been very lucky it’s only one and not a series of ash smash.” Xiao Jian told Cheng Xiong. The latter wanted to cry but had no tears left.
“Is there any way to pa.s.s without setting off the mechanisms?” Liu Lan asked.
“It’s impossible. These mechanisms are blocking all the way, unless we fly over them.” Fatty shook his head.
“Let me try.” Cheng Xiong gritted his teeth. He used Float and summoned a magic s.h.i.+eld, then slowly drifted past.
C-creak! A sound suddenly echoed from above, followed by a lightning bolt that struck down and shattered the magic s.h.i.+eld.
“Move back!” Fatty shouted urgently.
Cheng Xiong already retreated at his quickest speed without Fatty’s warning. In the process, two more lightning bolts fell at him but he simply summoned two magic s.h.i.+elds and blocked them.
“There’s no other way. Let’s get to work.” Fatty shrugged and told Han Shen.
“We’ll take a trip outside in the meantime.” Xiao Jian asked Fatty for the Water-Break Shuttle and left with Cheng Xiong.
“It’s gonna take very long to solve this. You should go with them,” Fatty told Liu Lan.
“It’s fine, I’ll stay here and watch you guys.” Liu Lan gently laughed.
“Master, look how well she is treating you,” Han Shen whispered.
“Just do your job!” Fatty shot him a glare.
The main purpose of traps and mechanisms was to catch people off guard. As long as they were discovered, they wouldn’t be as dangerous anymore and only required time to solve. Fatty had thought to observe the mechanisms with the X-Ray Mirror, but quickly gave up on that idea. The Mirror only allowed ten uses a day. There was no guarantee that it wouldn’t be required later, so it was better to save up as much as possible.
The mechanisms took even more time this time; only half of them were cracked after three hours. Since it was already early morning in reality, Liu Lan logged off to make breakfast for Fatty.
“Ughh, at long last! Lord Fatty is dead tired.” Fatty was so exhausted he couldn’t stand straight.
Dinglingling. The system notified that someone was calling for Fatty in real life.
“I’m off for a meal. If you guys remain here, have fun by yourselves.”