Nico and the rest of the players finally emerged on the other side of the cave and entered a large and spacious chamber.
The ceilings were relatively high and the walls were made of smooth stone, contradictory to the rocky walls of the caves around the water barrier they had been exploring a few hours ago.
Right above them was a large hole surrounded by metal alloy. Then the chamber itself was well lit with bright white shards and well-constructed platforms.
One particular feature in the chamber was one wall that was covered in carvings with oceanic references.
"Waves, the Sun and the Moon..." Victor said as he pointed at the carvings on the wall.
"Good job, Vic. You're getting smarter," teased Jax.
"I'm not a child, dipshit. I know pictures," retorted Vic as he squinted his eyes at Jax.
The carvings weren't the only thing on the wall; surrounding the symbols was a clock-like contraption dominating the room.
Then, a large plaque caught their attention. The words, which were written in Greek, moved on their own and morphed into English.
[ The tides rise and fall in harmony with the celestial dance. Align the forces to unlock the path ]
"A literal puzzle. I kinda like how the system lets you know what's to come next," said Sophia as she approached the clock and inspected the carvings.
The setup of the clock was as follows:
The clock face had 3 concentric rotating rings; the outer ring represented the phases of the moon, those being the new moon, crescent moon, full moon, etcetera.
The middle ring represented the high tide, low tide, ebb, and flood while the inner ring depicted solar positions such as sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight.
There were three levers on the wall, which indicated that they controlled the three different rotating rings on the clock face.
After Sophia pulled the first lever upwards, the inner ring rotated clockwise, and when she pulled it back downwards, the rings turned counterclockwise and returned to their original position.
"All we need to do is solve this. The question is... how?" she said as she looked at the clock.
"There doesn't seem to be a time limit, so we should be able to figure this out without feeling rushed," said Nico.
Veronica looked at the opening on the ceiling and felt a sense of dread fall upon her. "I don't think that'll be the case, you guys..." she said as the other players attended to her.
Then, they looked at the same opening and realised that perhaps time wouldn't be kind to them this time around.
Victor then walked around the chamber and found murals and inscriptions that seemed to be hinting towards solving the puzzle.
"High tides follow the moon's fullest face..." Victor read as he felt the inscription.
"The ebb whispers in the crescent's shadow," Nico followed as he turned his head in puzzlement.
"The sun rules midday, as the moon rests," Jax added while he squinted his eyes. "I don't get it."
"We need to match the rings with their corresponding clue," said Veronica who stepped closer. "This is a mechanical alignment puzzle, which deals with the mind and how quickly it'll react to a situation."
"Which means that any wrong move will force us into a corner," said Nico. "That means no more touching levers until we're sure, Sophia."
Sophia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Yeah, but we can't take our time either."
Veronica inspected the murals and inscriptions once more, rereading them and projecting their meaning. "I'll need a few minutes to think..."
"While you do that, we'll be trying different combinations," said Jax as he grabbed the lever in the middle and flipped it upwards, causing the middle ring to turn clockwise.
Then, he grabbed the lever of the outer ring and pulled it downwards, causing the outer ring to turn counterclockwise, misaligned with the other symbols.
"Stop!" Nico retorted, but Jax had already flipped the final lever downwards and caused the inner ring to turn counterclockwise, causing more misalignment.
Then, the clock faces puffed and released steam before spinning. Then, the opening on the ceiling caused a flood of water to descend on the players, quickly filling the room with ocean water.
"Wait to go, idiot!" Sophia said as she punched Jax on the back of his head. "You've just put a stopwatch on us!"
"Ow! You didn't have to hit me this hard!"
Sophia punched him in the nose and he fell on his back. Before she could hit him again, Nico held her back.
"I'll give you time to beat him up later, but right now, I need you to use your big girl brain to help us solve this, alright?" Nico whispered as he continued to hold Sophia back.
Sophia glared at Nico and sighed heavily before flexing her shoulders and stepping back. Then, Nico looked at Jax and kicked him on his chin, surprising the players and Jax.
"You're an anomaly. Stay down for now, before this gets bad," Nico warned.
"I don't get what the big deal is... We still have the water-breathing affinity, ding we?" Jax complained as he winced and rubbed his jaw.
{ Water Breathing Affinity has been dispelled! }
The players looked at their system screens and realised that the system had just removed their affinity.
Then, they almost charged at Jax before Victor stood in their way. "Stop this. Nico, this isn't manly. Let's just do what we can, alright? Without the means of violence."
Nico rubbed his temples and turned to Veronica, who hadn't been paying attention to the commotion around her.
He joined her and began theorizing as well.
'These elements are all environmental, and we've been exploring a dungeon that's been nothing but ocean-themed...' he thought to himself.
'The ocean... the waves... the Sun... They're all connected... But, how...?' Veronica said to herself as she looked at the inscriptions.
After a minute, the water was already around their waist level, causing panic and unease among them.
"V, are we winning?" Nico asked, but she simply ignored him and grabbed the two levers Jax had flipped then flipped them back to their original state.
But, that didn't stop the water from rising.
In another minute, the players had been floating in the water, the ceiling getting closer and closer.
"We're all gonna die!" a player exclaimed as he tried swimming away.
"I'll try punching through the walls," Victor suggested.
"Don't. Even if you manage to break through the stone, which I know you will, behind those walls is nothing but more water. We'll just drown quickly," warned Nico.
Veronica suddenly dove into the water and swam towards the clock face. Without thinking twice, Victor and Nico followed after her and swam towards the levers.
Veronica pointed at the levers and Victor nodded. She signalled towards the ceiling and he pulled the lever up, allowing the middle ring to turn clockwise and unalign with the rings.
Then, she signalled towards Nico and told him to flip the furthest lever downwards and the inner rings turned counterclockwise. And then, Veronica flipped the middle lever, or at least, she tried.
With the help of Victor and Nico though, she managed to flip the middle lever upwards, causing the middle ring to turn clockwise.
The clock face clicked and chimed, turning and spinning in a circle before falling back into the wall. Then, after a few seconds, the water level decreased and gave the players some breathing room at last.
Once there was no water, Veronica took a deep breath and looked at the clock face once more. "Incredible... It was so simple, I was blind..." she said with a smile on her face.
"V, you did it!" praised Nico. "But how did you figure it out?"
"High tide aligns with the Full Moon on the outer ring, low tide aligns with the New Moon, and the Solar Position aligns according to the time of day shown in the mural. It's daytime in the mural!" Veronica exclaimed in excitement as she jumped up and down.
"We almost drowned to death and you're jumping up and down? What are you made of?" Jax asked as he rubbed his arms.
"Pure badass with a hint of G.O.A.T. motherfucker," Nico retorted. "You're not half the man she is."
"She's the man!" Victor shouted as he raised his fists in the air.
As the players rejoiced about successfully solving the puzzle, the door leading towards the exit swiftly revealed itself on the wall.
Before the players could walk away though, the clock face chimed once more and reset, this time revealing a fourth ring with depictions of the three main gods of Olympus.
"Hades, Poseidon and Zeus..." Nico said as he looked at the rings.
Then, a new inscription carved itself on the wall:
"The gods are below the earth, sail the seas and roam the skies," read Veronica. "Another puzzle!" she said excitedly. "But... there's no fourth lever..."
"What do we do?" Victor asked.
"It's simple. We fuck outta here," said Sophia.
"But this could be important. I managed to solve the last puzzle. Let me give this a whirl," suggested Veronica.
"... Nico, what do you think? Survival is our top priority right now, right?"
Veronica shook her head. "We need to know more about the gods!"
Torn between two plausible options, Nico was caught in the middle. Whatever decision he made would decide the fate of the group.
Who would he choose?