Keeping our balance on the stairs was a feat in and off itself. The second floor was much of the same except that every so often a zombie horde would awaken in a dead end room we entered. We would have to kill them before we could leave. It also spawned undead warriors to roam the maze as well. They would attack on sight and the more we messed up, the more that appeared. This pattern repeated for three floors. Each floor had stronger and stronger enemies and more mobs. When we got to the fifth floor, we eventually reached the stairwell. It was blocked by a gate. In the center of the room was a raised platform with an obsidian pedestal on which a 9 by 9 square was etched. In the compartment lower on the pedestal was a bunch of tiles with numbers on them. A popup with a tutorial for sudoku appeared. I had seem my mother play it enough to know the rules already. Every row column and box needed to be filled with the numbers 1-9 without any conflicting placements. From the walls, I could tell that getting it wrong would summon a boss. I took a deep breath and got to work.
Like my mother always told me, these things took time and massive amounts of my attention. I had to go slow and check my progress against what was already there. It was grueling. When I was finally finished, I confirmed my answer. The bars rose up and cleared the path to the stairwell. On the sixth floor, the enemy type changed. It went from the undead to air elementals. It started with traps that blew either hot or cold air on us. On the seventh level were large pitfalls down to the other floors. The eighth floor had small elementals appearing in the maze. Some were hostile at the start, but more were more interested in leading us astray. The ninth floor was where the humanoid elementals came out. They were strong and always hostile. If we had gotten a dead end, one would spawn with some sort of weapon. I was able to snatch some swords and two quivers of arrows by simply knocking some of them out. That did not clear the room so we ended up having to kill them. Since I took the weapons and equipped them, they did not disappear like they were supposed to. That was pretty great.
My surprise when the tenth floor was a single large chamber was immense. As we walked further in, I heard rumblings that felt like it was speaking directly in my head. I looked at the centaurs. They were holding their hands over their ears as if that could stop the noise already in their minds. That was not actually the case as I could see the walls tremble as well. "You may have conquered the other floors, but you will soon know why no one has bested me in over a thousand years." As we got to the center of the floor where the stairwell was, we saw a mist float down through the bars. The mist coalesced into the form of an air elemental in the form of an old centaur. I saw it look down at itself and take a few experimental steps. "How curious. Never have I been summoned in this form before. It matters not. You shall fail as all the others have and be slain." he said. I rolled my eyes. "In a battle of wits, we shall compete." All of a sudden, the floor rose up. There was a 3 by 3 grid. We were going to have to play tic-tac-toe for entry. I had to steel myself as I was not the best at this type of thing.
Not waiting for me, the air elemental went to the center and made the fist move with a circle. I put an "x" in the top right corner. He put his second circle in the bottom left corner. I put my next mark below my first in the bottom corner. His third circle was right in the middle of mine. I had to block him by putting one on the middle left. We then filled in the top spaces and that left only one spot left. It was a tied game. After two more round, not much had changed. I knew that I had to finish it soon or I would lose focus and lose. Since I was going first, I put mine in the middle. He put his on top of me. I put my next one in the top left corner. He went to the bottom right. I put my next one on the bottom left. This was a checkmate. I had two ways to win: middle left or top right. He could only stop one of them with his next move. He went top right. I placed my final mark and won the battle. He smiled at me and said "You have indeed done well to have bested me. Rejoice, for the Spring of Aether is beyond this final stairwell!" The path was cleared and we were all allowed through. I smiled in my triumph.
Ominous steam seemed to rise as we approach the end of the steps. At the top we say that there were indeed Japanese style hot springs waiting for us. At the edge of the water and at the bottom were stones glowing with white runes. As I reached for one, a popup appeared. Entering the water would cure all diseases, grant a blessing as well as remove all curses, debuffs and blessings from any other god or demon. The quest listed purifying myself in the water as an optional goal. As long as I took the stone, I would be fine. I wondered whether Paul's manipulations would be erased if I got in the water. That would not be good. I could not implement the plan that way. It would have to be either commit and risk losing everything, or leave it alone. There was also the middle ground. I might be wiped out by the water, but I still had two male centaurs with me. Either could mount me and allow me to have children with the super buffs right now. Then, even if I was reset, the children would still be super powerful. I looked at Xenios. He was now level 13 from all of the peak dungeon crawling.
