CH800

“Alright, let’s stop focusing on how many organs I may or may not currently have and get this over with,” Ben told them as he pushed open the door, letting them into the second floor of the tower waiting just beyond and finding a far simpler space than the last one.

While the area itself was broad, there really wasn’t much to it. The first thing they saw going in was a new door in front of them, closed and locked with the way out being both obvious and far grander than that first sight. A mountain of keys sitting behind it.

“Oh, this is gonna take a while,” Jake muttered as he and the rest put two and two together, the fact that they were going to have to find the correct key to get out seemed blatantly obvious while Ben looked up to the sky before commenting.

“More like two hours,” He told them while pointing up, with a countdown already going. In that small span, they were going to need to sort through a pile of keys so large it towered into the sky above them, waiting to be dug through to find the presumably single one that would let them out.

“A needle in a haystack,” Amy muttered, with Vasta in agreement.

“Then no time to waste figuring this out. Let’s look at the door first, see if there’s any clues to narrow this down.”

Ben was already walking over, feeling motivated as he examined it and gave the details he could see to the rest of them since it was already falling within his specialty. There was magic built throughout the door blocking their exit. Branching, intersecting paths of what he was seeing matched a handful of enchanting systems he knew, only placed almost nonsensically, with most of them overlapping where the central key was going to want to go.

With that already being one of the first clues. The keyhole itself was thick enough that any of the smaller options would be automatically out, meaning they could already judge by eye if they wanted to if there wasn’t instantly a better path to pursue.

“The way these enchantments are all meeting in the middle, they all look incomplete,” Ben muttered, thinking out loud but still getting the attention of his companions. “From the way it’s built, I’d say we’re looking for a key that has the missing segments on it, meaning that any keys without any placed magic are going to be automatically out.”

“It’s a start,” Vasta nodded. “Thera, Jake, with me. We’ll start sorting this pile. Ben, for now, stay on the door and see if you can figure anything else out. Amy, stay with Ben in case he needs any help.”

Instructions given, the three non-affinitied mages moved, with swaths of keys flying through the air as their magic and mana sense were used in tandem to try and quickly sort that gargantuan pile while Ben continued to stare at the door itself.

“Well, is there anything I can help you with?” Amy asked while he just shook his head.

“Not sure yet. Give me a couple minutes. This feels… solvable.”

If the key needed a lock then why not just make one? Their structure was typically simple enough and even if this was a trial made by the gods, he doubted it would be unpickable and it was with that thought he materialized some iron before shaping it with his magic and sliding it into the waiting lock, swearing the instant he did.

“Oh, son of a bitch,” He cursed as he jumped back, shaking his hand while Amy was immediately put on alert.

“You okay?”

“Ugh, yeah, I’m fine. My hand’s just numb. Stupid fucking gods boobytrapped it, I just got a hell of a shock for trying that. That’s okay, I can work around it.”

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He didn’t need to hold the end of what he was making after all, controlling it entirely with his magic would work just as well and he relied on exploring the keyhole through his senses instead, picking up every bit of resistance as he poked and prodded at it while a minute went by until he was confident he had the correct shape to turn it, pulling it out to give the final product a look.