It's Not Too Difficult, Right?

Welpen: “What was the point of that event? We had monsters attacking us and then rising water? This is all too new to me.”

Octavious jumped up and down squealing, but did not talk. Astro looked at him as if he was crazy and allowed him to speak.

Octavious: “Oh! Oh! Oh! I know! I know! I was about to lose my breath if I held it in any longer. Anyways, when we entered the door to start, you had to look at the defining features of it. Mushrooms, seaweed, chains, and if you looked really closely on the side, there was a depiction of the great flood caused by the sword Wistenia, 99 years ago. The man who used it targeted the many libraries in this world, but specifically the Infinite Library. He failed miserably because he couldn’t handle the power of the sword. He tried to enhance it with an Aqua Chaplet to double the damage dealt, but it didn’t matter. The sword denied the man’s attempt at a covenant and in anger flooded the area for miles and miles. The Aqua Chaplet fell to the floor in the chaos and broke open, which made the water rise quickly and kill many innocent people. The only thing not affected in that area was…Guess. The Library!”

Welpen: “Why wouldn’t the librarians help the people around them?”

Octavious: “That’s not their job. Their job is to protect the library. They decide who is allowed in and who isn’t. I don’t know of anyone who has been there though. I would love to talk with someone who has gone.”

Astro: “Yeah, well, I do know someone. He’s a little too smart. He questions everything and everyone. How about this, help me protect this kid in this game plus, if we win this upcoming tournament, then I’ll let you meet him. We got a deal?”

Octavious’s eyes lit up as he agreed to the deal. They remained in the distance from the clock tower and watched as much as they could unravel. Arrows still flew all over the sky and people laughed and smiled as they killed each other. Even those being killed weren’t unhappy.

Death tokens began to rack up. Welpen still had 0. Astro had 85. Even Octavious had 6. Nobody asked him about it though. It was an easy assumption that he killed 1 person and died 1 time. Welpen didn’t even open his mouth to speak about it.

Astro: “This damn clock is taking too long. What’s the next event going to be?”

Octavious: “There was nothing else on that door, so it either has something to do with chains or seaweed unless there is a hidden event.”

Astro: “Okay, then we’ll stay here. Everyone is over there. No reason to do anything. By the way, why aren’t you trying to get kills?”

Octavious: “I figured you would ask me that. Both of you are smart fellas indeed. I do have quite a good amount of death tokens saved up. When I was a kid, I got into a lot of trouble running my mouth, so you can guess what happened. I don’t really need to be in these games, but I had nothing better to do, so I entered.”

Welpen: “Wow. Amazing. I want more death tokens, but…I don’t wanna die and I don’t want to kill hehe.”

Octavious: “There are other ways of getting death tokens my young boy. You can trade for items with them or work at the guild for a steady wage. Dying is just the easiest, but they don’t really want you killing in the streets. For some reason, they don’t like the chaos that it brings. Although, with the party going on right now out there, people are definitely getting a lot of tokens. The guild can’t stop everybody.”

Astro: “The hell is the point of dying if you can’t kill on the main streets?”

Octavious: “It’s not that you can’t do things on the main street, but they don’t like the concept of killing others so publicly. That’s why you participate in these games and hope for the category to be in your favor. You can kill yourself as many times as possible out there and nobody will even take a second look, but if you kill others, then it prompts too much chaos amongst the partiers. That’s why they want you to do that privately.”

Astro: “That makes no freaking sense. You can’t kill even though people want to die. Stupidest concept I’ve ever heard of. Forget it. I don’t even care about this place. Let’s just focus on the next event. You said seaweed or chains, so I’m assuming it’s seaweed.”

Octavious: “What makes you so sure?”

Astro: “These chains on the doors don’t break at all no matter what you do. Not even by the game's own creatures abilities. There were also no chains in the clocktower, meaning it’s going to be the final event. These doors will open underground to something and force everyone somewhere else just like the rising water event. If it follows that pattern, then there are only 2 more events and then the game should hypothetically be over. That is, like you said, unless there is a hidden event.”

Welpen: “I see, I see. So, the games should only last another 35 minutes, right?”

Octavious: “In a sense, yes. However, we don’t know what is down there. The events unfold every 10 minutes and also last 10 minutes, but there is some down time in between. Very good knowledge my young boy.”

He pat Welpen’s head as the clock in the sky began to count down to 0 again. Astro’s assumption was correct, but even if they knew what it was, they didn’t know what was to come.

Seaweed shot out from the water and grabbed at their bodies. It wrapped around them and curled until it reached their throats in an attempt to choke them out. Astro could not even escape as his scythe didn’t have mana at the moment and the fuel in the bottom was empty from driving the boat with it.

Welpen reached for his dagger, but couldn’t muster up the strength. Octavious was the only one that had something up his sleeve. The bottom of his shoes carried knives that exerted from the tips and cut the seaweed at the bottom. He kicked his leg up and cut the rest of the seaweed from his body, but it didn’t stop it from coming.

He evaded easily, which surprised the two of them. His nerdy look and weird personality didn’t connect with his skill level. He was almost on par with Astro’s physical abilities.

He jumped over to Welpen first and untied him with the dagger, while defending against the incoming seaweed against him. He quickly untied Astro as well to aid in helping Welpen.

As if this wasn’t enough, arrows began to rain down towards them, but not in a negative way. In fact, the arrows were targeting the seaweed that bolted at them. From a distance all the way near the clock tower, arrows continued to come near them. The figure from before was helping them.

With the help of everyone, they were able to make the event short and easy with no deaths.

Welpen: “Yes! That was good. I thought it was going to strangle me a couple times, but that wasn’t that difficult. Good job everyone.”

Octavious: “Oh man, that was exciting and scary. I’m going to go sit down and take a break. I might need a little nap.”

Welpen: “Okay, okay. I’ll wake you up when the next event happens…Astro, what do we do now?”

Astro: “Like we have been doing, just wait. Go take a nap too if you want kid. The next event will begin shortly, but if you need a rest, then go ahead.”

Welpen: “Okay. Promise me that you will wake me first so that I can wake Octavious because I told him I would.”

Astro: “Sure.”

Octavious fell asleep immediately. Welpen laid down next to him and had trouble getting comfortable, but passed out in a couple minutes. It wasn’t long before he was woken up by Astro though. In fact, it was only a few extra minutes of sleep that he got. The timer in the sky was almost at 0 again, so Welpen woke up Octavious who was full of energy again right away.

When the clock hit 0, they were yet again correct. The chains on the doors unravelled and the doors opened. Stairs led down beneath the water where they were forced to go. The sky turned to night out of nowhere and the scenery before them began to crack and shatter as if it was going to fall apart. If they stayed, it was going to bring them below regardless, it seemed like.

The three of them ventured into unknown territory down to what could be a presenting troubling challenge or a calm and serene end to these games.