Heading into the hole, Thomas kept the light that Susan had donated to him aimed at the passage ahead at all times. The path seemed crude compared to the chamber he had just left and yet he was still surrounded by a bunch of rock. At least it was in different shapes so it didn't seem as boring as the previous room. Thomas started looking at the different patterns on the walls and saw a patch of darker rock that looked like a platypus, inspiring him to create a new song.
♫Platy, platy, platy, platypus.
Platy, platy, platy, platypus.
Your weird-y-ness gets an A+.
Platy, platy, platy, platypus.♫
After repeating it for a while, Thomas decided to stop singing the song. Instead he turned to his system AI for something to distract his boredom. Thinking about it, he never really asked about how to get points before. {Hey, AI, is killing things the only way to get points?}
Some new terms had appeared and Thomas had not yet finished walking down this path so it seemed like a good time to ask about them. {What is a point generator? What is an ambient magic engine?}
It seemed pretty easy to get points. Even if Thomas struggled to kill enemies he could always hire soldiers to kill monsters for him. Without a way out his plans were useless but thinking about the future like this helped to pass the time.
Shortly after finishing the brief discussion with the AI, the sight in front of Thomas changed. A second chamber had appeared in front of him. This one had no raised platform nor treasure in it and it was both thinner and had a shorter ceiling than the treasure chamber. On the opposite side of the chamber it seemed like there were some stairs leading up-light was pouring into the room from the staircase.
To make sure no monsters were hiding to ambush him, Thomas looked around the room. Left? Clear. Right? Also clear. Besides the pillars and some stone statues that were shaped like soldiers which were similar to those found in the treasure room there was nothing else between him and the exit. Thomas exhaled his breath that he had been holding and started breathing normally again. The coast was clear and if those stairs led outdoors then Thomas would be free to live his life without being controlled by the bandits.
Thomas made it halfway to the staircase before a noise was heard beneath his feet and he ended up losing balance. The brick he had stepped on sank into the ground. Thomas quickly looked left and right to see if there was sand pouring into the room or a hidden door hiding a room filled with monsters that was being opened.
Nothing happened. To be accurate, nothing had happened up until now. A whirling noise slowly got louder as if some large device started spinning faster and faster. Realizing that something bad was about to happen, Thomas rushed for the stairs.
Too late. The stone statues started waking up and the path to the stairs was quicky blocked by a statue one size larger than the rest. {How many statues were in the room?}
<8 smaller statues and 1 large statue>
The real problem seemed to be the large statue. Each of the smaller statues could be evaded at their current speed but the large statue wouldn't just let him climb over it to escape. At the very least he'd need to destroy the part of the large statue that was blocking his escape. {What weapons do I have enough points to purchase that can be used to destroy a boulder?}
Like giving a thirsty man a water bottle--only for it to be filled with sand. The AI's timing was perfect; it gave him a bit of hope before smashing it in the very next instant. {So what you're saying is that I'm basically going to die?}
During this conversation Thomas had been running around the entire room, causing the statues to mindlessly follow him. Now he had a goal: Shut down, destroy, or absorb the magic generator. The system should be able to tell him where it's located but to do that he'd need to get close to it. The sound seemed to be coming from the wall to the left when looking at the staircase but it was currently the opposite side of the room from where Thomas was located.
Thomas looked for a way to reach where the magic generator should be but when stopping to figure out where the sound was coming from he allowed the statues to block the straight path to it. The statues were bumping against one another while lumbering towards him so taking the straight path would be dangerous. The path on his left would be too tight of a squeeze so it wasn't safe to take it either. That just left him with the path on his right. In that direction was the large statue but it wasn't moving and there were no smaller statues blocking the path so it was relatively safe.
When Thomas was rushing by the statues they reached out towards him but failed to connect. Their sudden movement caused them to crash into one another and two of the statues ended up falling onto the ground. Small decorative bits came off of them but they were still functional and seemed to be trying to get up off the ground. This only left 6 of them to follow after Thomas as he made his way to where the noise was the loudest. Pressing himself against the wall, Thomas watched as the 6 other statues slowly made their way to his location.
He was already as close as he could get to the magic generator. All that he could do at this point is watch as the statues got closer and closer. The two that had fallen were now standing and were following the other six statues from a short distance away. {Am I really going to die a second time?}