Ex-Human Morphus [A Mutant Evolution Apocalypse LitRPG]
Chapter 205

Chapter 205

Jake wandered through the tunnels, chambers, and halls of the dungeon for a little while.

After his encounter with the abyssal liche and the ghost-like creature that had emerged from the defeated skeleton, Jake had encountered no further opponents of equal strength. He was confident that there were other powerful creatures, similar to the abyssal liche he had defeated earlier, lurking within the deeper sections of the dungeon, but so far, he hadn’t crossed paths with any more of them.

He inspected each sepulcher he came across but had not discovered any new weapons yet. Some held mana consumables, from which he promptly siphoned mana, but other than that, they offered nothing of value.

Eventually, he stumbled upon a chamber smaller than any he had previously explored. It had no openings aside from the one he had entered through. The room was dimly lit by wall-mounted torches and was empty, except for a towering structure that dominated the center.

It was an imposing arc crafted from some silvery metal. Several meters tall and at least three meters wide, it had a broad base that flared outward like the roots of a huge ancient tree. The top of the structure arched gracefully, resembling an open doorway to another realm.

Jake stepped through the arc, but nothing happened. It was definitely some sort of portal, but it obviously was currently dormant. He gave a mental command to appraise the structure, and a piece of information immediately flashed in his mind.

Gateway to Floor 2 (inactive)

So, he was right. The system didn’t bother to provide any information on how to activate the gateway, though. He then recalled studying the rules of dungeon crawling prior to entering the Maze of Torment.

One of them outlined that his primary objective was to navigate through the first four floors, ultimately emerging on the fifth, which was essentially an arena for facing the dungeon boss. So he didn’t need to meticulously explore every corner of each floor, as his main task was simply to locate the means to descend to the next level.

However, it hadn’t been mentioned that he would need to solve a puzzle to gain access to a lower floor. While he had located a gateway capable of transporting him to Floor 2, he still needed to figure out how to activate the portal.

He slowly circled the structure, inspecting it from every angle. The surface of the arc was embellished with intricate carvings that covered every inch. These deep yet fluid designs created spirals and swirls, forming a complex pattern that gave an illusion of movement in the dim light from the wall-mounted torches, as if the arc were caught in an eternal dance.

While the gateway was currently dormant, Jake could feel it pulse faintly, its energy thrumming in the air around it. Even though the arc was inactive, it was clearly imbued with powerful magical energy. The chamber buzzed with an electric atmosphere, filled with a sense of anticipation.

At one of the two bases of the arc, a subtle indentation at eye level caught his attention. It was a small, smooth, round notch, perfectly molded to accommodate a unique object. Unlike the intricate carvings of the arc, this area was bare, almost inviting a specific item to fulfill its intended purpose. Despite its ancient appearance, the arc seemed to hum with vitality, a dormant power just beneath the surface, ready to be awakened at the touch of the right key.

So, an emblem-like key was required to be inserted into the notch, and once placed, the portal would supposedly activate, granting access to Floor 2. For a brief moment, Jake stared at the indentation, deep in thought. It was shaped like a triangular shield and was about the size of his palm. This detail sparked a memory.

In one of the chambers where he had first discovered sepulchers, he had come across a sepulcher filled with various debris, where a glint of a metal shard had caught his eye. Though it was merely a fragment—not the complete object—it stood out among the debris, drawing his attention and compelling him to pick it up for a closer look. He remembered thinking that the complete piece must have been some sort of emblem or medallion, shaped like a shield.

He had even tried to give a mental command to display the description of the metal shard, but no information had been given to him. Because of that, he concluded it was useless and dropped it back into the sepulcher. However, Jake was now beginning to believe that the shard could be part of the object needed to activate the gateway. It definitely seemed that the complete key must be an exact match for the shape and size of the indentation at the base of the arc.

Lacking any better ideas for activating the gateway, he decided to retrieve the metal shard and look for other pieces. Based on the shard’s size and the size of the indentation, he speculated there should be two or maybe three more fragments that would complete the whole. Once he found them all, he would return to the arc, assemble them, and fit them into the indentation.

Would that work, though? After all, even when combined, those fragments wouldn’t magically repair the key, as they would still be merely a collection of several separate pieces assembled together. On the other hand, during the tower-climbing challenge, he had actually seen something like it: several concrete pieces joined together to create a solid platform that led to the upper floors. Maybe a similar phenomenon could occur now: when assembled, the fragments might actually magically restore the key. In a world where magic existed, anything was possible.

So while he couldn’t say for certain whether his theory would work, he figured it was definitely worth a shot. With a final glance at the towering arc, he spun around and made his way across the chamber toward the exit.

While exploring the first floor of the dungeon, he effortlessly memorized the various places he had visited and their positions relative to each other. His Enhanced Intelligence skill operated like a computer, generating a mental map of every location he explored, readily available in his mind. Thanks to the incredible memory provided by his skill, he could navigate the maze-like dungeon with ease, eliminating any risk of getting lost.

Upon leaving the chamber, he accessed his mental map of the floor, and the path to the chamber where he had found one of the potential key fragments immediately formed in his mind, much like a GPS navigation system. With a route to his destination calculated, he set off in the right direction, slipping into his usual brisk jog.