Chapter 696 - Intel and Scheming

"What room did you pick?"

"Woltin!"

"Calm down, Wollice," Woltin nudged his brother aside. "It's not like he can change his mind now. Plus we'll be able to plan for him if we know."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked with a curious smile.

Woltin answered, "In the last room, you had to choose a path. The path you chose determines which of the treasuries you'll gain access to. So, depending on which path you chose, we may be fighting each other for the same treasures."

"Oh… Is that how it works?"

"So what path did you pick? The green one or the blue one?"

Scratching his head and feigning innocence, Jack sighed, "Um… Maybe I'll tell you if you tell me more about the keep?"

"See, Woltin. He's not a pushover like the others," stated Wollice. "You've already said enough. Sorry, Jack, but the competition is about to get serious, and don't expect us to be going easy on you since it's your first time."

"So you've been here before?" questioned Jack.

Wollice stammered while Woltin laughed again, "Now I'm not the only one to say too much. Thanks for the chat Jack, and no hard feelings for what comes next. Don't expect any more help after the puzzle is solved."

The twins turned to leave as Jack walked back to Lunara and Moranti. Jack also inspected his map, waiting for Rynheart's imminent report. In the meantime, Jack looked over the writing on the sixth wall and received a new alert from his system.

[Foreign writing detected. Analyze?]

Jack selected the notification with a smile but frowned as the next one appeared.

[Cost of attempted analysis: 10,000 skill points]

[WARNING: Resulting translation may not be entirely accurate and may lack necessary context due to lack of information supplied by the user, but the system will analyze and decipher what language the writing originates from based upon data stored by the system creator.]

Changing his plans, Jack left his menu with a hard sigh. He laughed to himself as the other teams were all eyeing the wall. For Jack to compete with the puzzle, it seemed that Jack would need to first pay to analyze the writing and then likely pay to learn the language, which could cost upwards of twenty thousand skill points altogether. That was an expense Jack was not yet comfortable to make, not until he had purchased enough skills to satisfy his need to grow stronger.

'Jack, can you come here?'

Nodding, Jack looked to Lunara and Moranti with a smile. They made sure to use telepathy and not let the other teams overhear their conversations. 'Be right back.'

Teleporting away, Jack reappeared beside his fully-visible teammate in a familiar-looking room with two paths leading to stairways. Rynheart's rapier was drawn and blood dripped from the blade but no bodies were to be found. Nonchalant, Rynheart lifted his card toward Jack. 'Take these.'

As they passed the stolen keys to Jack's card, Jack asked, 'Any luck with the passage?'

'No. I couldn't breach the barriers from this side so I had to wait where both paths connect. It seems that each of the five passages is the same, which meant that the moment this team chose a barrier, the hidden passage was closed off,' explained Rynheart.

'One hundred keys… So each barrier was guarding eighty keys?' Jack deduced. 'Couldn't you have stolen those from this side?'

'No. There was a second barrier keeping me from doing that. But the smarter teams most likely earned even more.'

'You mean if they unlocked both barriers at the same time? Not a bad idea… I bet Woltin and Wollice did that…' Jack hopped on Rynheart's train of thought. 'So they might have one hundred and eighty keys… That's something to keep an eye on.'

'Either way, we need to get past the puzzle in the next room to continue.' Rynheart asked, 'Should we wait for someone else to do it, or should I?'

'You can do that?' questioned Jack with a raised eyebrow.

'Sure can.'

'Then I'll handle protecting you from the other three teams.' Jack flashed a devilish smile and chuckled, 'Got it… You won't have to worry about the others, just leave half of the new keys for some new teammates.'

'New teammates? Oh… got it.'

Purple energy flashed and carried them to the steps just outside of the hexagonal chamber. Emerging from the same chamber his party had traversed earlier, Jack walked back toward the group while Rynheart resumed his invisibility. No one paid Jack much attention as everyone was waiting for the final group to arrive and for the first battle to ensue upon completing the puzzle, a battle for the puzzle's keys and the keys of the fallen teams.

Jack casually sauntered past the Sicabor twins and barely whispered, "Want a hundred points?"

The twins glanced at each other and then at Jack, noticing him walking back to his team's old path. Since he was alone, the twins were confident enough to follow him as a duo while they remained on guard.

That was when everyone felt that something was up, not because of Jack but the veteran twins. Even Jack's teammates were confused when they saw Jack leading the two men for a private chat. By the time people turned to see what was happening, however, the twins were already on their way back with smug faces. Jack reappeared moments later with a dribble of blood on his lip and a humbled attitude.

To everyone else in the chamber, things seemed easy to understand. To Jack's party, though, they knew that Jack was definitely up to something.

Jack wiped the blood from his lips and smiled at his patient teammates. 'Rynheart's going to activate the puzzle. Don't take any of the keys it drops, just hold back the crowd until Rynheart escapes. Then, we'll teleport and regroup in the passage, where they least expect us.'

'Jack--'

'Don't worry, Mom, I'll grab you and teleport you over, okay?'

'Alright…' Lunara sighed and showed a sore smile. 'I'm guessing you've gotten those two involved now?'

'Why not?' Jack laughed, leading his party of three to the front of the crowd. At the same time, the glyph in the upper right corner began to light up. With that, Jack calmed his laughter. 'It's showtime…'