[S] Taking the Manor: H3

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

After what seemed to be forever, Saber finally reached the bottom of the stairs. He sighed hard as he did and huffed, bending his tired knees slightly so he could let them relax. He felt stiff, really stiff and it honestly hurt a little. Even when he crouched all the way down and bounced a little to stretch his pair of joints, they still had some issues because of the stairs. Usually going up them hurt, but because of the constant dropping and falling and the on and off pressure, they hurt. The pain wasn’t a burning or anything like that but was more of an annoying feeling. It was as if the cushion in his knees had been slowly eroded and now he was pretty much walking stiffly. It felt terrible, and so he decided to take a break. Sitting down on the third to last step, the Assassin spread his legs out and relaxed. Oh did they hurt, and damn was that trip long. He could go a whole night of combat and could run forever, but those stairs were terrible. It wasn’t just the amount of stairs either, but they were made out of stone too and a few of them were cracked, causing him to almost fall a few times. Man, that was obnoxious.

“Leader. Tired?” Blumpy rolled off Saber’s shoulder and floated over in front of his face. Saber chuckled at the little pumpkin and nodded. Then, he reached up and scratched the little thing on its chin, or where he believed its chin to be. The pumpkin began to giggle at the feeling, which made Saber smile. Blumpy had been with him since he had come into this building, and he was happy to have the little companion with him. It was actually a surprise to Saber that the little creature had been with him for this long, but he didn’t complain. Instead, he continued to give the little guy some attention every few minutes just to show that he cared.

“Yes, Blumpy. Leader is tired.” The man laughed a little before patting the little guy on his head. Blumpy may have been a level one, but he was brave. Sure, Saber told him to run and hide whenever he came across something violent, which was so far in every hall, but it did so without question. Blumpy also didn’t freak out when the little girl snapped its vine around it. Instead, it continued its hasty float out of reach and hid in the array of pumpkins above. Although Saber did wonder one thing; what did Blumpy do while he was fighting…? The little guy seemed to be quite curious about things and floated all over the place. Whenever Saber tried to find him, it was a challenge, as if Blumpy was doing his own exploring of the zones.

“Mysterious little fella…” Blumpy continued to float around the air in front of Saber, dancing and twirling around happily as if nothing in the world truly mattered. Well, until its attention was nabbed by something. Mid flip, the pumpkin stopped itself in its upside-down motion and stared towards something in the distance. Saber raised his eyebrows and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees as to keep himself in a comfortable position. When he did, he noticed something in the distance; a glowing yellow squar---Blumpy, Blumpy noh.

“Blumpy, where are you going?” Much like a crow attracted to a shiny object, Blumpy began to levitate towards the glowing square. It made a humming noise and a dozen or so “oh’s” and “ah’s” as it closed in. Saber, a little upset that he had to now chase after the little guy, sighed and pushed off the floor and back to his feet. Well, it looked like it was time to get back to it.

: Word Count :
639

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

Blumpy seemed extremely intent on getting this glowing thing because as it got closer to the square and further down the long hallway they were in, it seemed to start to shake a little more until it was actually oscillating up and down as it floated. The orange pumpkin itself even began to glow, and its giggle increased in volume. It was seriously like a homing missile that came with its own tracking noise. Saber found it strange, but he followed it anyways. There was usually a reason for what the pumpkins did, and so Blumpy’s awkward behavior was one worth noting, and he quickly discovered that following the attentive creature was a good idea. Soon, as the glowing square was almost within reach, the outline of several rooms began to appear off to the sides of the hall. Curious, Saber glanced into each room as he passed, noting that each of them had a small podium in the center of the room with some kind of glass case. There were six rooms total, three on the left, and three on the right. Saber wiggled his nose at the sight but continued on towards the golden square.

The closer Saber got, the type of object which was glowing became more obvious. It was a golden box, or plaque on the wall, encased by glass to protect it from being disturbed. It was a fairly large one but it honestly needed to be. There were quite a few words written down within its boundaries. Those words popped out of the boring silver container and also glowed yellow, which in the distance made the square seem full. Now that Saber was practically on top of it, he could get the overall gist of what this was going to be. This plaque would hold some sort of clue or instructions, while the other rooms most likely had some kind of answers to the question, hints towards the solution, or objects which needed to be moved about. In total, there were six plaques in the rooms with a seventh directly above the golden one, sitting in all its glory in the shadow of the golden plate.

“Blumpy stop…” Saber placed a hand on the top, or actually the bottom because of him being flipped, of the pumpkin and rolled his hand over the little creature. This motion caused Blumpy to start spinning in the air, and he giggled with joy as he circled around on his axis. Saber chuckled and shook his head, but diverted his eyes to read the instructions; it was a tale of a group of players whom had come to the Mansion and met some Field Bosses. Saber wiggled his nose at the plaque and then looked at the first one above it. As he did so, he sighed and pulled open a message box. This was going to be tricky, and he could bet that there was some kind of catch, but he didn’t fret over it.

Instead, he took a lap into each of the six rooms and took on the challenge without a single complaint, aside for the sigh from before. In the message box he had opened, he noted down all of the clues from the seven plaques, copying them down word for word and in order. Then, he opened a second box. There he noted down the variables that he had been told to play with; there were twenty. Once he had the twenty together, he opened a third message box. There, he began his arranging. As he put it all together, Saber stood in front of the Golden plaque and let his mind float away, just like Blumpy who was now searching the rooms.

: Word Count :
620

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Saber]

Do you believe in ghosts?

The riddle, or should I say puzzle, this time around was quite an interesting one. Rather than give him a mind breaking statement that led to a vague answer, this one required a more steady thought processing. The hints Saber was provided with were still difficult to understand, but as he started to tinker with the possibilities, he came with a sort of formula for the answer. Well, not really a formula but a way to organize all of the tiny details. There were seven different sentences, or hints, and about twenty variables all together. There were five players, five weapons, five bosses, and fives rooms. If he did the math, there would be probably over a few hundred to maybe a thousand possibilities. What helped narrow those many possibilities down, however, was the fact that the puzzle gave him plenty of little nudges towards the correct “product placement”. There were one or two players he could stick into a certain room, a few bosses he could stick into their rooms, players he could tie with weapons, and players he could tie with bosses; all right off the bat. Once he did those starter connections, the rest just fell into place.

Blumpy hovered and wiggled around in the vicinity of Saber, never wandering too far as the sound of a low groan echoed into the hall. At the sound, Saber looked over his shoulder. In the distance, probably on the entire other side of the hall, there was a lone figure standing there. It was short and plump, and looked sort of like a standing elephant, but in its left hand there was a glowing circle which ticked left… and right… left… and right. Saber wiggled his nose at the creature and turned away from it; it was no threat to him at the moment. And it never would be. After turning away, Saber put the final piece of his puzzle into his message box and began to reread the hints he had noted down. With each hint, he whispered to himself his theory behind why the answer was what it was and organized the battle in his mind. He was a little unsure of two characters and their weapons, as well as one pairing’s location, but he was fairly confident that he was correct.

Without wanting to waste any more time than necessary, Saber approached the golden plaque and placed his hand on top of it. As he did so, another plaque appeared in front of him, just underneath the first hint about Toki. There, he organized the names and the twenty variables onto their individual lines and paused. He checked the message box on his interface to make sure he had copied the answers down correctly and then checked the plaque. As he did so, he switched two weapons; the Swore and the Grimiore. When he did that, he placed his hand back down onto the Golden plaque. Doing so keyed the mansion and his answer board began to glisten. The names flicked and they began to spread, arranging themselves into full sentences. All of the hints which were scattered in the various rooms began to glow, illuminating the small section of the hall for several seconds. Then, it all went dark.

In a blink, Saber went from being almost blinded to being unable to see. His first instinct was to look towards the fat elephant thing but as he looked down the hall, there was nothing there anymore. He hissed at the sight and gripped onto his swords in anticipation of an attack from the shadows, as if the lights were a distraction meant to daze him. Blumpy was even a little disturbed, as he now closed his eyes shut and whimpered. Yet, Saber’s defensive feeling was unnecessary. After a long silence, an unseen clock chimed and the pedestal which the Golden plaque sat on dropped into the floor. The two plaques on the wall were slid back into a slot and the wall itself split and opened, revealing another staircase that led further down into the mansion’s depths. Saber sighed at the sight of more stairs, but was content with the fact that he was able to proceed. Yet before he did, he gave the distant opposite end of the corridor one more look; the elephant was gone, but Saber had a feeling that it would be back.

“Come on, Blumpy.” The Assassin carefully scooped the little pumpkin out of the air and placed it onto his shoulder. That elephant would get his if it showed its ugly face again, but for now Saber focused on the staircase. He left the puzzle room behind and disappeared into the depths again, heading for the next room.

: Word Count :
789

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M