Chapter 20
CU SITH WOOFSON had revealed the rules of the morphing labyrinth, but he was not satisfied with conclusions alone; he charged through the labyrinth, yearning for proof. Of course, he let Cat Sith take the lead as a cat shield.
“Turn right there, woof,” Woofson ordered. Ever the contrarian, First Pupil turned left. Woofson said nothing, for he had made that order knowing that Cat Sith would defy him.
Woofson’s objective was to go a different route than Mira originally had, and return to the entrance once more. By doing that, he would be able to identify exactly where the loop occurred. In a way, it was like checking his answers.
“Left there, woof.”
The cat fairy turned right.
It’s incredible how well they’re doing, despite everything… Did this mean they worked well together, or poorly? Mira simply followed after them, chuckling at their odd relationship.
“This is a trap!”
Not willing to let Woofson take all the credit, Cat Sith fired off a card. When it reached a certain, seemingly empty spot, vines reached out and dragged the card into the ground. Woofson could not sense these traps; they were Cat Sith’s specialty, as he excelled at intuition.
Thirty minutes had passed. Through their teamwork(?), Woofson’s hypothesis that the loop trap was connected to the entrance was confirmed. That meant that he now had a complete understanding of the labyrinth’s changes and the loop trap’s location.
“My hypothesis has been met with proof. Now, I’m going to get us out of this trap,” Woofson said calmly, keeping himself from sounding smug.
Mira’s First Pupil was visibly confused—how had anything been proven when he’d gone the opposite way every time?
***
Regardless, they proceeded with rules in hand. Their third expedition lasted only fifteen minutes. Thanks to Woofson’s leadership, they arrived at a place that felt distinctly different.
“The character of this place has changed,” Mira mused. Before, it had been like a decayed forest in a tree hollow. But now, they were heading to what seemed like a cavern full of dead grass.
“Meow?! I don’t like the looks of this…”
Based on looks alone, one might think that the visibility here was better. But First Pupil said that the area up ahead had the stench of a different trap. To this point, the only traps they had interacted with were the changing labyrinth, loop, and vines. But he declared that the traps up ahead were nothing like the ones they’d seen so far.
“Don’t do anything reckless, woof. Tread carefully.” Woofson urged prudence.
But Cat Sith roused himself and cried, “Leave it to me!” as he took the vanguard. The sign on his back read, “You just watch my back.”
As expected, many traps had been laid up ahead. They ran into a new one every few meters.
“Right there!” First Pupil may have been bad at puzzles and ciphers, but he was a master at dealing with simple gimmicks and finding hidden objects. As such, he saw through every single trap along the way. Even with Martel’s prior warnings, it wasn’t easy. Cat Sith did his job admirably, though, removing any danger of running into traps unprepared. This bred overconfidence, which led to a fatal misstep.
“Aaaargh! What a stench! My nose, my nose!” Mira groaned.
“This is hell… Woof! I’m in hell!” Woofson howled.
“I really messed up this time!” the cat cried.
At first glance, it looked like a normal, green flower bud. But it was a trap that emitted sludge upon approach. The sludge gave off an awful stench that made the victim nauseated. Close-up exposure could have led to lost lunches. Thanks to First Pupil, they had avoided the worst of it, for his long-ranged card throw had set the trap off from a distance. However, the correct solution was to simply detour around the trap, since it only sprung when approached.
“Ugh, I can taste it!”
This was a trap that had been set up by progenitor spirit Martel, so the stench of sludge was simply legendary. Even mouth-breathing failed, causing Mira and her friends to gag in agony. It was awful enough to whittle away at one’s sanity.
“Ms. Owner… I’m not long for this world…” As a dog, Woofson was sensitive to smells, making this many times worse for him.
“Woofson! Get a hold of yourself, Woofson!” Mira picked up the lifeless canine and ran back the way she’d came. If she charged forward, she would risk running into another devastating trap. “Nnnngh!” She ran, all the while trying to stop her stomach from churning.
She ran, and ran, and ran, until the smell couldn’t reach her anymore.
***
“Phew, that was close…” Mira just barely managed to stop herself from blowing chunks.
Pale, she glared in the direction of the sludge. They would have to do something about it before they could proceed. Its effects were stronger than she’d expected, and it was still expanding outward, though slowly. And because this labyrinth was a closed space, there was no hope of it dispersing. It would eventually fill the entire place.
I have to settle things with the sludge first. But how? Mira thought to herself. Just then, she heard the voice of the sludge’s manufacturer.
“Sorry for the trouble, Mira.” Martel sounded apologetic.
“No, it’s our fault for being overconfident,” Mira replied, casting a glance at the corner.
She was naturally looking at Cat Sith, who sat on his knees. He jolted up in response to her voice. Next to him stood a sign that simply said, “Reflecting on mistakes.” This was the result of him ignoring Woofson’s warnings and trying to forcefully disarm every single trap. Either way, he’d learned his lesson—or at least Mira hoped he had. Cat Sith often acted without thinking, but he always did what he needed to when the situation called for it.
How could Mira deal with that stench? She decided that asking its creator would be the fastest way to find out. “So…what should I do about it?”
This was the right call. Martel taught her how to solve the problem. There was a red flower bud near the green one. If one spread the nectar of the red bud on the sludge, it would neutralize the horrid stench. However, that nectar was another trap that would cause intense hallucinations. As such, she would need to be careful.
“I…I see.” She knew how to deal with it now, but the question was how to put the solution into practice. The red flower bud was already in ground zero of the sludge. In other words, she’d have to go back into the thick of it.
Mira took medicine from her Item Box as a test. It was an anti-odor medicine she’d purchased from Dinoire Trading that suppressed the effect of bad odors. Before taking it herself, she glanced to her side.
“First Pupil, come here,” she said, picking the cat as a sacrifice.
He ran over, delighted that his time-out was finished, at which point Mira handed him the anti-odor medicine. This was her first time using it, and that sludge’s stench was even worse than rotting corpses. She’d picked Cat Sith to see just how well it worked.
“First Pupil, I will kindly offer you an opportunity to regain your honor,” Mira said exaggeratedly, hiding the truth. One or two failures could be overwritten by success. In her enthusiasm to avoid the work, she passed on the solution from Martel to Cat Sith.
“As a man’s man, I’m gonna take responsibility!”
Having learned from his mistakes in trying too hard to outdo Woofson, he gulped down the anti-odor drug as a show of resolve. He fearlessly marched down the path where the sludge awaited, shooting them a manly thumbs-up as he walked away.
Not long after, Mira heard a cry. “This is hellish!” Shortly afterward, the feline heroically screamed, “I’m not done yet! The drug is still working!”
The cries of her First Pupil’s soul gradually grew more distant. It seemed he was making progress despite his screaming. Through her summon link, Mira received occasional status reports. The anti-odor drug was at least enough to help with the sludge’s stench. Impressed by the quality of Dinoire Trading’s goods, she drank one of her own, just in case.
Sometime after First Pupil left to retake his honor, Woofson came to. “Ah… Woof?! Where am I?!” He sat up in Mira’s arms and frantically looked around.
“Ooh, you’ve finally awakened.”
When he saw Mira, he breathed a sigh of relief, slumped over sadly, and apologized. “I’m sorry for causing you trouble. It won’t happen again.”
“No worries, friend. That must have been difficult for you.” That sludge’s stench must have been a lethal weapon to a dog’s nose. Mira petted Woofson in consolation before retrieving a third anti-odor drug and asking if he’d like to take one, just in case.
“Thank you, but no,” he refused. “I’ll need my sense of smell to use my magic to the fullest.” If the effects of the drug suppressed his sense of smell, it would also suppress the effects of his magic. When he was helping Mira, he didn’t want to venture any risk.
“Very well. I’m counting on you, Woofson.”
“I’ll do my very best, woof!” he replied.
While First Pupil fought for his life in the murderous stench, Mira and Woofson’s bond grew ever stronger.
***
Having suddenly remembered the situation at hand and his reason for fainting, Woofson asked in annoyance, “By the way, Ms. Owner, where did that cat go?”
“Ah, well…” Mira told him what she’d heard from Martel and how the cat had gone to carry out the plan.
“So that’s how it happened… Well, if I know that cat, it won’t be much longer.” Though he’d taken anti-odor medicine, that stench would still be painful. Woofson had to admit that Cat Sith had guts. Not that he’d say that directly to his face, of course. “I bet he’ll be hallucinating from that nectar when we see him again, though,” he said, laughing.
***
“I did it! I did it!”
After Mira and Woofson had discussed their strategy for a while, First Pupil reported that his mission was complete. Apparently, the red bud was made to hide when the green one burst, so it took a fair bit of searching in order to find it. He proudly explained that, even though his senses had been thrown into disarray by the pungent odor, he’d managed to deploy the red bud.
“It seems First Pupil came through for us,” Mira said to Woofson. Seeming to notice that there was a change already, he ran down the corridor in the direction of the sludge.
“Woof, this is odd. The smell is gone. It’s as if it was all an illusion.” Woofson sniffed and sniffed, amazed that it had cleared up so quickly. Even if the source of a stench was removed, it would normally linger for some time.
Martel had mentioned that the nectar-covered sludge became a substance that neutralized the stench. Based on what she’d witnessed, Mira could tell that it was working fast.
The cause of the odor was gone. With that confirmed, Mira and Woofson stepped forth, eager to continue their journey.
***
Upon returning to the site of First Pupil’s mistake, Mira cringed at what she saw. “This looks…ominous.”
Thanks to the nectar, the sludge scattered from the green bud had turned into a harmless substance. But the substance had an oily sheen and convulsed like a beating heart. Things that looked like poison slugs littered the area. Martel had said that they were harmless, but the images flowing into Mira’s brain through her eyes made her doubt this.
“This is strange, for sure,” Woofson barked in agreement.
The objects wobbled and convulsed. Mira backed off in fear. While it was eerie, Woofson’s thirst for knowledge had been stimulated, and he daringly approached. He produced a magnifying glass out of thin air and observed the biggest one. Then, he picked up a nearby twig and began poking it. Woofson almost looked like a child poking cat poop that had been left in a park sandbox.
“It’s, erm… How do I even describe it?” Mira shuddered.
If nothing else, the sludge problem had been solved. That meant they could focus on the traps up ahead without vomiting their guts out. As for the hero—and villain—of the day…
“Gold! Gold everywhere! I’ve finally discovered the City of Gold! I’m riiich!” As Woofson had hypothesized, Cat Sith was hallucinating, while buried in a pile of dead leaves. Based on his words, he seemed to think he was lying in a pile of coins. He piled them up in his hands and said, ecstatic, “The sparkle…that’s the color of victory!”
“Well… What do we do with him?” Mira wondered aloud.
He’d been like this since they’d arrived. When asked how to get him out of his delusions, Martel said that smelling the sludge would wake him right up. However, that would mean releasing that stench again. Wondering what to do, Mira pulled Woofson—still absorbed in observation—back to reality and asked for his wisdom.
“Worry not. I’m on the case!” Woofson replied confidently. Upon being questioned, he declared that this was the perfect opportunity to use his newest magic. “That was an intense one, so I remember it vividly, woof!”
Woofson’s new spell allowed him to recreate smells that he recalled. He could even calibrate its concentration and duration. Apparently, he normally used it to recreate the scents of vicious fiends to keep unwanted trouble away. He seemed excited to use it to awaken his delusional “friend” this time. The First Pupil would make a fine subject.
When Mira and Woofson approached, the cat started dancing around on top of the pile of leaves, his eyes spinning. “Meowstress, look at this! Gold! Mountains of gold, I tell nya! Mew-hoooo!” The sign on his back also said…nothing at all. “How d’ya like this? This is my greatest treasure!”
First Pupil uncrossed his legs and elegantly approached Woofson. Then, he confidently showed off the red flower bud and smiled.
“Do you see this golden grail? This is the ultimate treasure,” he declared, before bringing the so-called grail to his mouth and drinking something down. That was probably the remaining nectar. The grin on his face grew wider and wider.
“Could it be? The Feline Deity…” First Pupil was no longer dazzled by money. He fell to his knees like a monk who’d received divine revelation and looked to the sky.
Martel had mentioned the nectar’s strong hallucinogenic effects, but based on how he was acting, there was more to it than that. Alcohol was nothing compared to this; the cat was truly tripping.
“Okay… Do it, Woofson.” Mira felt a little bad forcing her feline companion to smell that sludge again, even if it was for the sake of saving him. Still, it would be kindest to drag him out of this state before it could get worse.
“As you wish, Ms. Owner.”
Woofson got to work. He circled around Cat Sith’s back, put an arm around him to restrain him, and covered the cat’s mouth with his other paw. Mana began to flow and take form through his magic—becoming that hellish stench from before.
Its effects were dramatic.
“Mreooowwr!” After letting out an agonizing cry, the Cat Sith fell onto the ground and shouted, “It’s pure hell!” His placard—which read, “Where am I? Am I God?”—was launched away. It was unclear if he had sobered up yet or not.
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