Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

“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.

With four teeth and a cylindrical blade that tapered out as it went from its head to tip, the shape was unique enough to be distinct, even if it was still easily recognizable for what it was and created something new for them to search for as he materialized two more and tossed them all to Amy.

“Here, this should be the shape we’re looking for so hand it off to the other three for me, I’m just going to try a couple more things here in the meantime.”

“Got it.”

As she ran off, he kept his focus on the lock, already materializing a new key and trying to turn it, feeling it fail despite the confidence he had that he’d found the right shape. Of course, just because it was correct didn’t mean that would be enough when it still needed magic of its own applied but that was something he could solve too, and with just what it needed looking obvious, he spent his mana to fill in the gaps.

Present were examples of laying on the totality of a spell as well as the weave system but as for the other two he used in his work, both were absent. The blending system was something he’d made together with his god based on the principles of ritual magic and the ring system had been a lost art until he’d revived it, but even though that left examples of systems he didn’t personally make use of in his crafting, that didn’t mean he was stuck. He couldn’t call himself an expert of his field if he wasn’t even aware of them and while each other option had drawbacks large enough compared to how he already worked that he wasn’t willing to apply them for the few benefits they held, he could still create them when push came to shove and placed those bits of magic down to complete the enchantments in a way that would line up with the door and with that done, once more tired to turn the key.

And failed. He was sure he had it right, sure he had them perfect, but there was still something missing. Some quality to the key that just wasn’t correct, leaving only the question of what.

But what could I still need? I’ve got the shape, I’ve got the enchanting structure, what else could there be? Is the door somehow examining the key itself and finding that I’ve got something wrong? If that’s the case then what could it be judging, unless…

An idea, one that led him to walking over to the others as they frantically sorted, feeling every second of their time limit despite not even ten minutes having yet passed as he went to the pile of discards that held no magic and felt them all with his material sense.

“So it’s their makeup that’s the difference,” He muttered at what he’d felt. Every key there was the same complex blend of materials, unique enough that he couldn’t immediately identify what they were supposed to be but that didn’t matter. He practically had an endless supply before him as he grabbed one and reshaped it, applying the correct enchantment fragments once more and with confidence, slid it into the door and felt the lock give as he turned it, the way out of the second trial opening up to them.

He was beaming with the success, waiting for reactions from the others that never came and forced him to look back to the other four, still focused on finding whatever original key the trial held.

“Uh, hey guys, you can stop that now.”

“Hmm, what?” Vasta asked as her and the rest of their eyes were pulled to him, getting a far more surprised reaction with what she saw. “...What?”

“Made a key, it wasn’t too hard,” He shrugged.

“You just made a key? That was good enough to get out of this?”

“Yeah, I mean, even if the gods who rule over non-affinitied magic gave their input in designing it, from what I understand it was the crafting gods who actually made the towers. Is it really so surprising that a few of the floors give options where you can make your way out of them?”

He’d even experienced a floor like that in the past as well back when he’d finished the fifth floor of the earth tower by sculpting a statue of Helori, but he still enjoyed the look of dumbfoundment the older mage was trying to hide.

“Well, I suppose when you put it that way it seems reasonable, I was just prepared for that to take a bit closer to the end of our time limit.”

“Then I’d say what we got counts as a win. Now come on, we basically just had our last break so we all should be fine to go into the next floor, right?”