ELIASIt took exactly five minutes to determine the issue. Even if Ambrosia could use magic other than her Oracle powers, which given how strong they were, was unlikely - the Law of Conservation of Will stated that the amount of magical versatility that a person could have is inversely proportional to its base power - it was an absurd notion that any of those methods would actually activate any sort of magic.

    A quick observation of the ring revealed its was made from alchemy, not magic. The metal of the ring was a fireproof alloy, with a tab that slid open a small slat exposing the stone inside to air. Inside was a pyrophoric stone. Pyrophoricity, for the layman, is the ability to ignite when exposed to air. I explained all of this (to the best of my ability) to Ambrosia, and taught her how to use it properly. As we could see no obvious means of unlocking the door to the south, I inspected the unlit torches within the corridor, and discovered that near the wick was a heat sensor. After instructing her to light them all, the door did indeed open. Taking the stairs inside, we found a pair of crystals near a circular dais. A nearby plaque read, ?This room holds the key to the power of rings. Focus the prisms to the center...? The puzzle was obvious. “Ambrosia,” I said, “place the ring in the insert in this platform.” I pointed to a small circular indentation that was obviously suited for such a thing to be placed. She followed my order, and I began to solve the puzzle. These crystals had light reflecting from above in an irregular path, the key was to rotate the crystal so that it focused light in the center, like the riddle said. The tricky part was figuring out from the rather dim reflection when one was done with a side. Ultimately, I carried it out, and as the light shone on the platform, the ring fell into a hole. Ambrosia looked angry and frustrated, since a great deal of work was involved in the acquisition of such a device, but I heard something happening below our feet. Eventually, a ring popped out of the ground. This was a different ring. Could this be alchemic transmutation?

    On further inspection, I think they just swapped out the ring for another one. This ring was quite different from the old one. A lens appeared to release or absorb thermal energy, using a portal to a dimension of fire. That is, it could not only create a small amount of warmth sufficient to spark flammable materials but also unlight them. But, a person might ask, isn''t it unsafe? Not exactly, remember, temperature is not the same as thermal energy, especially if the hot object has low mass. It was actually safer than the flame from before, and this appeared to be also able to snuff flames.

    Ascending upstairs, we noticed a pair of stairs hidden in a blind corner. We hadn''t seen this before but this was obviously the right way. We ascended into yet another puzzle room. This one involved pushing boulders into place in order to depress pressure plates. Ambrosia used the gloves from earlier to move these rocks. After much effort on her part, we made it to the next room. I hoped desperately that we would find our path out of this place. The room in the next floor was completely circular with a Yin Yang pattern in the center. In the same curved pattern as the center, there were lit torches and unlit, but the pattern was completely backward, so we wound up having to unlight these lit torches and vice versa. There was a fair amount of trial and error, however, for we had to match the swirling pattern of the lights in the room. When we completed the pattern, a trap door opened, and a metallic staircase extended.

    We arrived at a room with a number of geometric circles. I''m not sure I can help those reading this account properly visualize this; nevertheless, I shall try to explain it. The outermost section was arranged in one large circle, and inside these were seven hexagrams. Six of these surrounded the last to form a Star of David pattern. The center hex had four smaller ones that were arranged to cross at the central point of the central hexagram.

    Each of these circles glowed as we stepped on them, and functioned as switches to activate the puzzle. The idea was that we stepped on circles in a certain order, which would in turn power the ritual to transport us to the core of this temple. But it would take research to solve it...

    GOD

    I shall clear up certain things before we proceed with our story. The threads of the story have become tangled, and it is my duty to ensure that you understand. The Law of Conservation of Will mentioned by Elias is something that our learned understand better than they can explain. This law means that the more unique and powerful an ability, the more “space” it takes up in the user''s spirit. Ambrosia''s Oracle powers are sufficiently unique and powerful that she is unable to learn anything in terms of magic, since they consume virtually all of it. In fact, unbeknownst to her, she lost her Trigram power entirely, unless I grant it back for an emergency. She is able to use some magical items, and she is able to learn passive abilities such as her dodging ability, but spells or techniques are out of the question. Elias, on the other hand, could possibly also learn alchemy or summoning, since his abilities are not terribly rare. If he learned summoning, however, the great power would swallow his ability to learn any more techniques.

    Despite many people explaining abilities, I fear they may have created confusion or apparent contradictions. It seems as though there are many exceptions to what is considered magic, right? Alright, I shall try to explain from the top. “There are many gifts, but the same spirit.” I have given all living things a spirit, but it is what they do with it that makes them distinctive. The typical person has thaumaturgy, a talent which they can develop into great or small power based on their faith, and antimagic for lack of faith. Others, like Elias or Azrael or the wizard Yazim Jianne are able to learn powers through study. Likewise, users of alchemy require study to understand how different herbs and minerals function. There are also techniques, which are physical abilities not magic, and which require training and physical conditioning. And so on, including stuff like racial abilities.

    All of these gifts were either divided into magic, antimagic, physical abilities, or other abilities. Other abilities were things like Ambrosia''s Oracle Crest and her Trigram attack, they didn''t fit into a clear category and were hard to counter. This would also include things like Exorcism. Magic was further subdivided into direct magic and indirect (such as miracles) magic, and direct magic was still further subdivided into magic that used aura or magic that used runes. Indirect magic, physical abilities, or other abilities can still be blocked by some magic or dodged. Whew. I think I covered everything.

    AMBROSIA

    So I don''t really understand the puzzle, we just followed directions. Elias told us to stand in the very center of all of this, while he walked around and triggered the circles. First, the outer boundary was lit up. Elias said this was to contain the magic. Next, he activated the outer circles in the sorta triangular pattern. This created a vaguely star-shaped boundary, which he said would focus energy and stabilize the effect. Finally, he lit up the circles that formed a cross, and then moved toward the center with us. The circle swirled all about with energy, and suddenly we were in another room of the dungeon. There were four animals here. In the northern section of the room was some kind of giant turtle, to our left was a white tiger, to our right a serpent dragon, and closest to us in the south entrance was a giant... red chicken. “These are the Four Gods,” Elias explained, “they protect the cardinal directions of North, South, East, and West. Genbu the turtle guards the North, Seiryuu the Dragon guards the East, Byakko the White Tiger guards the West, and Suzaku the Phoenix guards the South.” Phoenix, chicken, same difference.

    A long and epic battle against these critters began. Fortunately, they didn''t appear to like the idea of working together, so we were able to attack each of them in turn. Suzaku flew at us, wrapped in flames. Zoe and Azrael blasted it repeatedly with water and ice magic, until it at last collapsed. The dragon, Seiryuu came next. While those two guzzled our remaining potions, Nevras decided to fight, with the assistance of Aqorm and Elias. Elias used Bless, boosting his speed and defense and his physical power, and Aqorm used her geomancy to drop some rocks on it. It had been about a day since she had last used this, as we were stuck in this stupid dungeon for quite some time. She used the opportunity of it being pinned to steal some dragon scales from its body. The dragon roared and squirmed, slamming her with its tail. It managed to throw off the boulders, and breathed in deeply, prepping a breath attack that would finish her off.

    It never got the chance. I blinked, and Nevras had managed the Dragon Roar attack, stabbing it right in an area where many of its scales were missing after Aqorm''s theft, and it crumpled to the ground. We likewise defeated Genbu easily, thanks to Azrael''s sword Raphael and numerous thunder attacks from Zoe. Elias called out, “True Source!” This was a difficult prayer to cast because the nature of magic was such that it tended to not be able to create more of itself, so this was more like a bubble of energy which drained mystic power from him to restore their mystic power and to draw more from the air. Needless to say, casting it on himself was impossible. Elias was reduced to simple healing, but they were still ready to go. On the other hand, we were far from done. Suzaku had arisen from the flames, and was like new. And we had yet to touch Byakko.

    The white tiger, Byakko, was like a literal force of nature. All around him, bamboo trees sprung up. We tried to attack him with magic, yet he smoothly evaded attacks as though they weren''t there. The same for ranged attacks, techniques, and so on. Something about these steps reminded me of the lessons about “going with the flow” that Lao Tzu had taught me when I learned my footwork. “Hang on, guys,” I said, “got this one.”

    Meanwhile, Azrael and Zoe were having troubles subduing Suzaku. They had managed to put down the phoenix once already, and just a few minutes ago, Zoe tried again. Exorcism didn''t seem to work, because this thing wasn''t a Monster or undead, it was just immortal. “Caw caw!” the bird cried out, as it flew towards them. Our exorcist stretched her hands out and said an extended chant, “You who would do harm and evil to others, turn away from your path, repent. For the day has come where if you do not turn from your path, God will destroy you. But if you turn away, God will forgive you. Ninevah!” Azrael became sheathed in some sort of protective field. The bird, recognizing that this spell probably would kill it off for good, let out one last “Caw cawwww....” and sat down on the floor, pecking at the ground. Its size began to shrink, and before long we were looking at a pet-sized phoenix clucking at us. Zoe waved it over, and adopted Suzaku as her pet. “Don''t eat all my food though,” Aqorm warned it. “Aqorm,” Elias sighed, “it''s a phoenix. It lives off pure water and bamboo, and finds its own food. It''s not gonna take your meat.”

    The tiger and I were engaged in a strange sort of defensive dance. The tiger lunged forward and I swept my body aside. I tried to stab him with my knife, and he was always in another place. This continued for some time, with it trying vines to restrain my movement, earthquakes, or a deafening roar to throw me off. Somehow, I always knew exactly what to do next. And all of my moves against it, whether using my knife, fishing pole, Trigram, Oracles'' Crests, or simply dodging seemed to be of no avail. The tiger would not even charge while Apollo''s golden aura was active. I remembered something Apollo had whispered to me before we left. He told me, “If ever you find a creature who is a counter for this ability, show him this move, and he will no longer bother you.” I circled around Byakko, and he around me. I moved my hands in a Ward Off position. We walked in a pattern that closely resembled a waggle dance from a bee, neither of us moving close enough to attack or be attacked, to advance or to run. We were mirroring each other for a minute or so, when the tiger nodded and walked away. A bamboo garden formed a path ahead of him, as he walked off fading into thin air. Nevras asked, “You got him to flee? What kind of magic was that?” I tried to think of how to explain that it wasn''t magic at all, but I gave up. “Ummmm... that happened,” I said.

    All of us took a very big breath, and sighed in relief, but our relief was short-lived. A circle appeared in the center of the room, and a woman ascended, hand first, into the area. She was dressed in tattered clothing made from roots and leaves, and her dark brown bangs parted slightly to the left. She wore no weapons, but it seemed like she may be able to use runes. “Greetings,” she spoke, “I am Kodama of the Center Gate. My existence is Void, I exist only when the Four Gods don''t,” Kodama told us that we would need to challenge her in order to receive her Crest, at which point all of us groaned. This dungeon was entirely too long compared with the others. “S''okay,” she said, “I''ll let you rest in your tent for a while.” She showed us to a save point, and we took advantage of her kind offer, building our tent. Inside, we made a po''boy out of thinly-sliced pumpkin and alligator meat with our remaining bread. It was rather interesting, with the subtle squash flavor blending with the not nearly as subtle flavor of the alligator. It was chewy yet not rubbery, and both parts melded in a soft warm whole that was pleasant enough for being about to fight for our lives.

    After the meal and a long rest, we talked to Kodama. She repeated, “Greetings. I am Kodama of the Center Gate. My existence is Void, I exist only when the Four Gods don''t.” And then we fought.

    ELIAS

    Before we proceed, I guess I''ll talk about counterspells. Since, after all, that was half of what she did for the battle. I''ve told about how runes can be dispelled but aura stuff can''t, but it doesn''t really sink in because half of the time it sounds like we''re just calling out words. It''s not really the words that are important, the caster could speak in English or Hebrew or Unified Japanese, or any other of the languages of this land. But since most of the population know Common (the current version of English with some changes), this is how most spells looked. Of course, what the average person doesn''t see is that while it is being spoken, runes start floating around in the air, and the prayer or spell starts when they combine. For a Fire spell, a bunch of symbols that look like 火 floating in the air combine, and out pops a flame. Basically, there''s about 3 seconds of lag between when the spell is spoken and when the effect happens. Now there are some aura-based spells, and some spells that are called fast spells, but this slight period where runes start to gather is where a thaumaturgy is at its weakest. Counterspelling simply forces these runes apart before they combine. And no, counterspells aren''t runes themselves, so you can''t counter a counterspell. They''re... it''s difficult to explain. Let''s just say that thaumaturgy is less old than one might think, and some things came before that.

    But this isn''t all. When a spell is traveling towards a target, it can still be countered by someone with good enough knowledge of elements. Like, if our nature-user Zoe were to cast a water spell, and someone else casts fire, they would puff each other out. But such casting can actually be dangerous. Certain spells conduct others, so it casting water if the other person uses electrical magic would cause a pretty terrible shock.

    The third area where a spell could run into trouble is around the target. A shield can negate, or reduce, or even reflect spells. Even aura stuff is no good against this. Typically, this was our response to spells, since I had a few to work with.

    Zoe tried to cast Fire, but Kodama was ready for her, calling out “Dispel!” as fast as she could. I watched as the runes just fell apart, and Zoe grew more frustrated. We huddled together, as Zoe cast her fifth or so elemental spell with no effect. “Sigh,” she sighed, “I can''t even hit her!” We waved her over for a quick conference. Nailing a couple of pegs into the ground and cutting her hand, Azrael put up a Kekkai, a protective distortion that forbade anything in or out. It bought us time, but Azrael looked tired. And no, a Kekkai itself was not able to be dispelled even if it did work like that, because it formed a break between our reality and a protective pocket dimension. All incoming effects would be unable to properly target the barrier until she removed it. sea??h thё Novёl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    While Nevras took lookout for any chanting, I asked, “How much does everyone know about counterspells?” Azrael of course, answered, “I''ve written a few of them, why?” Ambrosia, on the other hand, said, “Ummm, I know that it breaks apart runes.” I groaned. Everyone knew that.

    I explained, “I think this is our best chance. Okay, look, Ambrosia, it''s like this. Dispelling magic works as an instant effect. She can counter constant effects like illusions or blessings where the runes just hang around, or she can counter stuff about to be cast. But after casting, there is a window of a few seconds when we can cast. So here''s what I want everyone to do...”

    Whispering out a plan, we coordinated things carefully. Since Ambrosia didn''t have much offensive magic if there weren''t undead around, she used her fishing pole to distract Kodama, as every good villain is distracted by fishing poles.

    Meanwhile, Zoe and Azrael took turns casting. I used Twilight, only to have it countered, Azrael cast a Slow spell immediately to open the timing window just a slight bit wider, and Zoe bound her with vines and covered her mouth. It seemed like she was wide open to attack now, but this was not to be the case. “Diffthlll!” she cried out, and some of the newer vines withdrew their growth. She no longer appeared to be slowed down either, and she looked pissed. She wriggled around enough to manage to speak normally. “Now you''ve done it, you little pricks,” Kodama snarled, “I''d like to see how you deal with this. Decaying Touch!” The vines around her began to rapidly dry up and became brittle, until finally she snapped them apart.

    She changed her tactics. Instead of countering our attacks, she applied a Protection sutra on herself. She had been blasted with Lightning and Fire, but she continued to fight. Nevras and Aqorm tried to help out, but Kodama used a powerful effect called Negate Physical, shortly after she got slashed in the face with a Speed Slash. They couldn''t even damage her after that. She shot at us with each of the four elements, until I used my Rainbow Shield to greatly diminish their effects. We managed to keep healthy with its help, but it was a difficult battle. Since her elemental magic wasn''t as effective, she stopped using the elements altogether.

    Annoyed, Kodama used Void instead. Void was all elements, and yet none. It was the formlessness of the universe, where everything was created and everything broke down. All the same, I was amazed that she was able to hold a swirling mass of emptiness in her hand with a strong urge to suck everything in. “Vortex,” she said. Void magic was unlike anything we had seen. It didn''t really contain runes, it wasn''t organized magic at all. It was magic at its rawest, most direct. Matter cannot be created from nothing. It has to have a creator, and it has to have a material. But Void as a material was utterly alien to everything we knew about the current universe. The closest analogy would be the sudden loneliness of heartbreak, or standing six feet away from everyone. This was less a presence than an absence, a force of concentrated separation. Zoe urged, “Everyone move to the edge of the room!” Azrael tried a few cancellation spells against the slow-moving vortex, but it kept plodding along as she directed it, closer to its target, sucking up runes as it went. Zoe used the Wind spell to try to push it back, but it ... it ummm, didn''t work. It just sucked in the air. I remembered what Lao Tzu had said, so I gave it back as advice. “Zoe!” I said, “don''t target that... stuff. Target around it!”

    Zoe recast, this time putting a right English on the spell, swerving it around the left of the space of the vortex. It started to swirl faster and faster, while the vortex itself became like the eye of the storm, stopping dead in its tracks and gradually the vortex began to move in the opposite direction. Before it made its way to her, she halted it with a few words, “That which does not exist, cease to be!” Immediately, it stopped not existing.

    Kodama smiled, and then sat down, acknowledging her defeat. She told us, “You have fought well. You have earned her right to use my ability,” she said as the Four Gods Crest lit on my hand. Ambrosia objected to this, “Wait, Kodama! Why was I not required to struggle for my Crest?” This time she chuckled, “I gather you have heard of natural selection, the survival of the fittest.” She nodded, “Well, what of it?” She told us flatly, “It isn''t true.”

    AMBROSIA

    The shock may have shown in my face as I asked, “How can you say that? What proof have you of it?” Kodama countered, “What proof had ''scientists'' that wasn''t doctored? Tell me, what of the people you have seen? Never mind their cruelty, they have told themselves they needed to be strong.” She continued, “But look at them, are they? The people who live can be fat, lazy, or stupid, and yet still they may survive in this land. But you can''t get far competing with everyone. Without others to give things, to make things, the strong would simply starve.” I think I heard her muttering something about John Galt under her breath. She went on to explain how survival of the fittest created regimes where the weak were put in camps to be exterminated. Eugenics. Nazi mentality. And the genetic purity movement of the early 30th century, which almost erased the human race. “You see, when all the ''best'' traits are selected, and everyone agrees on them, the lack of variety means one disease can make everyone sick.”

    Kodama continued, “All things in nature are connected. The food chain is not a cycle of death, but one of life, for all living things need each other to carry out their lives. Likewise, as much as one might want to live a solitary life, it will fall to nothing, for the very reason that just as animals need food to live, humans need love in order to thrive. Life cannot be judged by quantity of objects gained, or how hard one works, but by worth, for when you die, all you have will be given, but those you know will grieve. I had to know that the Oracle had a team she could count on, that she didn''t try to do everything herself.” I frowned, “I hope the same is true of love. I wouldn''t want Nevras judging my possessions as a scale of whether I''m girlfriend material. That wouldn''t do.” She nodded, “Remember... Life has a cycle of growth, age, death, and rebirth. The seasons change, plants grow or lose their leaves, and life and death constantly interchange. Don''t just think in terms of nature either. Treasure love while it lasts. Don''t take that man for granted. Remember, as a human you are part of the food chain, live life to its fullest.”

    I was uncertain whether I could live up to this standard, but I said nonetheless, “I will keep this lesson in my heart.” Something about her explanation didn''t add up, when considering how difficult and long the dungeon was. Not to mention my struggle in the past seemed... well such a struggle. Oh well. We had another Crest now! Yay!

    ZOE

    I had originally intended to keep my pet phoenix, but after finding it liked to perch on my shoulder, and seeing as how it was such an exotic pet that I had trouble keeping track of it, I followed Nevras''s suggestion and sent it off with a letter to Phoenix Castle, stating ?Please adopt this pet.? The last time I checked, one of the maids now has a phoenix to care for.

    THE WORLD

    Elsewhere, in the castle of Phoenix, King Charis and Queen Victoria walked home after a second Council meeting. The Council was worried about their organization, so they called an emergency meeting instead of waiting for their regular schedule. Still more troubling, the meeting, once called, only lasted long enough to announce that this meeting was delayed until a later time.

    Charis appeared like he wanted more to just go back home and sleep with his wife than he wanted to talk. Their transport broke down just outside the castle, and they were reduced to continuing on foot in Phoenix''s notoriously bad weather. Ultimately, he sighed, and talked to his wife. Victoria spoke first, “What a depressing meeting. If this continues, the Council will fall, and we''ll have war.” Charis sighed even deeper, and nodded, “I just wish I knew what to do,” he sighed even more, “I don''t like to think about what Nevras will face when he comes to power. He''ll be a kind king, but for matters of war...” Victoria held him close, “We raised him as we thought right. And I have faith in Ambrosia''s ability to help.” The two waved off their guards, and indeed did sleep together that night. Nevras would have yet another sister when fall came again.

    Far below Phoenix Castle, and to the east, the wizard known as Yazim Jianne burrowed using his powers and a set of mining tools. He had dug for hours, and was becoming exhausted. Just then, a molebear came to disrupt his progress. He started for a second, gazing on its huge hairy form, long claws, star-shaped nose, and dim eyes. Slowing his breathing, he realized that if he called out a spell, it would likely trample over him before the runes could ever properly set.

    Kneeling down slowly, he wrote in the dirt with his finger. ?時間 相反 ?, it said. Time rewound slowly, until at last it was hours earlier. The spell could reverse time, but of course the exhaustion of using this much magic was still retained. He exited the cave, and spent the rest of the night in his tent. His dousing had told him the key was in this area. He would return, and this time he would prepare his spells properly. In addition to Move Earth and Snow, which he had carefully studied for this job, he was going to need to prepare the dread destructive spell, Meteor.

    GOD

    In this world, human beings have the ability to alter their environment. We see it all the time, but before the New Earth, we believed the opposite. An oasis in the middle of a desert? People believed that folks found the oasis and built the town around it. This is nonsense. Any oasis would dry up if there were enough people drinking from it. What actually happened was that as people settled in an area, reality altered to fit their needs. There are people who are good at this, who have a passive ability of surviving in harsh climates even in space, those people tend to be explorers.

    Just as the towns near Seikai and Goji managed to be much more pleasant than the land around them, a single person with a strong sense of self could override the natural state of the world around them. It was usually as a result of having an incredible amount of mystic power to burn, but not always. The most powerful ability of the Crest of the Four Gods wasn''t its active ability, despite being able to govern the four elements. This ability was impressive, yes, but her passive ability allowed her to adjust to any climate. Needless to say, making it back to town from this area was extremely simple after this.

    AMBROSIA

    The town of Goji was its usual self, with ghosts floating around in the air, and the feel of the air heavy with auras. But we ignored this, and headed straight to the port. The samurai who normally issued us tickets was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was a ninja selling boarding passes. Rather than take our money, he gave us a ticket and said, “あなたの旅をたのしみクダサイ！ これはつぎのようになりましておもいで会いたいモノ,” which I had Elias loosely translated to, “Enjoy your trip! This will be a memorable one!” After taking the ticket, we took all of our remaining money and stuffed it in the back. I also talked with the others about keeping watch while we slept. We were not about to get mugged or killed for a “free” ride.

    The ninja was right. It was an interesting ride. And we didn''t need to fear what I thought after all. Oh no, we had a completely different issue, which I never would have thought of. But I stand by what I say. Ninjas are no good.

    Let''s just say this ship was originally slated for a three-hour tour. The weather started getting rough, and the tiny ship was tossed. Although, what actually went down was we hit a nasty patch of fog, and well, rocks have a way of cropping up every now and then.

    I''ll say one thing, ships have definitely improved in the centuries since the Titanic sunk. Ships were designed to fragment into pieces and effectively wick moisture. If a ship hit something, it basically turned into a series of rafts instead of filling with water. We awoke on a scrap of wood that appeared to include the top stern of the ship and some outside stairs. Nearby us, some flotsam drifted along: everything from light cabinets to shelves filled with medicine, to crates filled with supplies, to a painting titled Prouncing Owl Cat by missbooyaka. The extremely salty water made all of it float despite it being heavy enough otherwise to have sunk, but I wasn''t convinced these things would last well in this weather. The painting, thankfully, had pretty sturdy backing, so we were able to hop on it, then jump to a floating table, followed by a barrel and a bucket, before landing on another raft of floating wreckage. This had been jerry-rigged together while we were unconscious (by other passengers, I assume), so the raft was hooked by a ladder to another one, which in turn was hooked by a series of beds to a block of wood with a cannon strapped to it. Near the bed was a corpse of someone, although the moisture and wind had already rotted the body beyond recognition. This was serious weather.

    Searching the body, we found a set of keys. It was pretty easy to figure out that this was probably the captain. The raft had a lower floor, and since we were trapped here, we may as well see what was down there.

    Down below, the lowest levels had formed a pool. They weren''t flooding, thanks to a steadily working sump pump system, powered by runes, but they also were not draining fast enough to become dry. We floated on a nearby mattress across the pool, and found ourselves facing a large metal door. Remembering the keys from earlier, I fumbled through them until finally one clicked. I made my way upstairs again, and I saw the shore in the distance. There were floating objects we had to make our way to, however. Thankfully, before we set out, we managed to find a save circle. Tying a rope to my body that I found wrapped around a post, I went first. I jumped from chair to table to random other floating object, but I missed a jump and fell into the water. Despite the high salinity, there were currents, and I''m a lousy swimmer. I got sucked under and died.