Chapter 277: One By One

Once I had the lights under control, and had navigated the nearby Timeless away, Diane and Bella quickly left the security office with their radios in hand. “Testing,” Diane’s voice crackled over the radio. “Can you hear me, Drake?”

I looked at the radio, pressing the button as Diane had taught me before speaking. “I can hear you. Any visible problems out there?” I had considered leaving only the few lights around them on and shutting off the rest of the facility, but Diane had quickly talked me out of it.

The Timeless had shown the ability to be aware of us even when the lights were out, given how they had all turned their heads to face us at once during the brief moment of a lightning strike. With that being the case, if we shut off the lights currently allowing a Timeless to move, and that Timeless saw us approaching, then even if we disabled the light between them and the Timeless, they wouldn’t give up.

Instead, we had to corral them before they were aware of Bella and Diane. For this, these two were really the perfect combination. Bella’s eyesight was extremely keen even without relying on any skills, while Diane was an expert when it came to sneaking around. I had to reluctantly admit that I was the best person to leave behind in the security room in this situation.

After entering the Staff Office hallway, Diane peered around the corner and whispered into the radio. “Drake, I’ve got eyes on three Timeless. Disable the first light in front of us, and the one at the next corner. There is an office on the right side that you can herd them into.”

I was about to get started doing so before I remembered something. “Diane, they can’t open doors on their own,” I reminded. Although Diane had taken the extra step of locking the security office door, none of the Timeless outside the office had even made an attempt to grab the handle. Maybe their fine motor skills were too poor to operate a doorknob, or there was some restriction preventing them from entering closed rooms.

Diane cursed under her breath at the reminder. “Right. Turn off the light directly in front of us, and proceed with one additional light every six seconds down the hall. Once I see them all turning away from us, I’ll give you the signal to disable all of the lights in the hall at once.”

A moment later, the first light in the hall shut off abruptly. The three Timeless looked over, their eyes and mouths still glowing, as another light turned off, and then another. As if this was only a casual annoyance, they turned to begin walking down the hall away from the spreading outage.

“Now,” Diane muttered, and the entire hall went dark. Only the lights beyond the corner where her and Bella stood remained lit. “Activate lights one through four. That will get me to the office to open it. Also, preemptively deactivate the lights in Dr. Wellby’s office. We don’t know if there is another Timeless in there, so I don’t want to take any chances.”

The first four lights of the hall lit up, and Diane crept through the hallway towards the door. Carefully, she pushed it open, looking inside and confirming that the room was empty.

Once she had the door propped open with one of her daggers wedged inside the hinges, she retreated back to the corner. “Disable lights one through three. Enable the office lights, as well as lights five through nine. Whenever you hear static from the radio, disable one light at a time, counting down from nine.” To demonstrate, Diane pressed the button on the radio without saying anything, transmitting only empty static.

The lights changed once again, and the Timeless looked around after they were freed to move. One of them saw the open door of the office and began to make their way there when the light at the end of the hall went out, causing the other two to follow. They went into the office for shelter, at which point the final light in the hall went out.

“Disable the lights in the office,” Diane instructed, “and then reactivate lights one through nine. Keep the next hall dark, aside from a single light at the end for us to see if it is occupied.”

Once the lights in the hall lit up again, Diane rushed to retrieve her dagger, closing the office door to effectively lock the Timeless inside. This proved to be an effective way to isolate the Timeless and allow the duo to proceed, allowing them to navigate three more hallways.

They could see the director’s office at the far end of the corridor, but I heard an unsettling noise. The doorknob of the security office shook. I had turned off the light outside the office, so there wasn’t any way something should have been able to approach.

My eyes turned towards the screen, and I saw a lone figure standing outside, its eyes and mouth glowing. One hand grasped the doorknob, the other holding a cylindrical object just under its face. It wore a neatly pressed, blue uniform with a badge on its chest. Once its hand left the knob, it reached into its pockets.

“Diane, Bella, I’ve got company,” I warned, quickly standing up and moving away from the screens. “Looks like security. Able to open doors, and has keys to the locks. Carrying a metal tube aimed at his face.”

“Drop the radio and hide,” Diane’s voice responded immediately. “Avoid standing under the same light, and wait until he leaves.”

I set the radio down on the desk and hid behind one of the tall shelves. As I did, the door slowly opened, revealing the security officer, his eyes and mouth glowing as he stepped into the room. The light above his head seemed to dim and fade the moment he stepped inside. “I know you’re in here,” his voice echoed out like nails on a chalkboard.

He walked over towards the desk, looking at the screens. Thankfully, by this point, the other two had reached a region where the cameras were in a ‘time loop’, and didn’t show either of them.

Suddenly, Diane’s voice spoke up over the radio, though I also heard it from one that the man was wearing himself. “Okay, good. It looks like he fell for it. The security guard is likely the only one able to open doors. Trigger the electronic locks on the fourth floor stairwell, south side, to buy us some time to get out. We’ll meet back up at the south gate once we’ve retrieved the package.”

Following her words was a quick burst of static, and the security officer hesitated. “No, can’t let them get it…” he muttered, turning to leave the office. At the same time, Diane sent me a private message.

Once he’s gone, find something to wedge under the door. After that, grab your radio and adjust the dial on the top to channel five. I’ll intermittently feed him bad information to make it seem like we’re progressing towards the south exit.

I waited for the door to click shut before making my move. There was a plastic wedge next to the door, so I slid it under the frame to keep the door shut before making my way back to the desk and adjusting the radio. Watching the screens, I confirmed that the security officer had walked down the hall and left before speaking.

“He’s gone. How is he able to move around like that in the dark?” I asked, and Diane quickly provided the answer.

“The object he’s carrying is a flashlight. It’s like the lights on the car. And he’s aiming it at himself. The Timeless don’t need their entire bodies to be covered in light, they just need enough light to move. Remember how the first back began to move after that first Timeless boy began spreading the light, even though only half of his face was covered? It’s the same principle. He won’t be able to move quickly in that state, but he’s able to move in otherwise total darkness.”

“Does that make this guy the equivalent of a roaming boss?” Bella asked over the radio.

“Basically. This is a noncombat dungeon, so the ‘boss’ would have to be someone that slightly breaks the standard rules of the encounters. Someone that can walk around and open closed doors is perfect for the role.”

Bella hesitated for a moment before speaking. “Yeah, but I always assumed that the boss would be one of the people in either the director’s office or the other room we need to go to.”

“There might be three of them,” Diane said after a few seconds of silence. “We’ll find out soon. The director’s office is just up ahead.”

After they said that, the duo went silent for several long seconds. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see what was happening with them on the monitors, so I could only wait for them to give me whatever information or instructions they could.

“Who is this?” an unfamiliar voice suddenly spoke up over the radio, startling me. Had the two of them been captured when they checked the office? The security officer supposedly didn’t know what channel we were on, and this voice didn’t match his.

I knew better than to answer after receiving Diane’s warnings before they left, so I simply stared at the radio in silence. As I did, a message appeared in front of me from Diane. Drake? Why aren’t you answering your radio? Did the guard return?

I looked at the message in confusion, looking back at the radio before typing out a message myself. Did you lose a radio? An unfamiliar voice just started coming from mine.

You’re still on channel five, right? She questioned, and so I checked to confirm. Indeed, I was, and I reported as much to her. The director’s office was empty. Check the other radios to see if one of them still works. We’ll switch to channel three for now.

There had initially been five radios. I had one, Bella and Diane each took one, and so there were two left in the box. I grabbed one of them and switched over to channel three. However, before I pressed the button to speak, that same voice came through first. “This is Director Johnson. Whoever is manning security, respond.”

With a sigh, I set down the radio and typed the message back to Diane. Radios are compromised. The second ‘boss’ of the dungeon eliminates radios.

I could imagine the sigh of frustration from Diane on the other end. Got it. We’ll read the lore in the office before making our way to room 404. I’ll update you whenever we enter a new floor or hallway, and use numbers to indicate which lights to toggle. After we clear an area, leave all the lights on, but only on the path we take. If we follow this pattern, the third boss is going to be chasing us, and will probably be immune to the darkness.

That sounded off to me. What? Then, what would have happened if we went to room 404 first?

We wouldn’t know about room 404 unless we got the information from the security office. From there, the director’s office is considerably closer, so the logical step is to come here first. If you took the longer path first, you only have yourself to blame.

After sending that message, Diane went silent for a few minutes before sending another. It looks like the item in room 404 is the real treasure of this dungeon. It’s a Timeless Traces skill book. According to what’s written in the director’s journal, it allows the user to restore an object to its former state. This is the same skill that they used to bring the rules and these journals into the dungeon.

Originally, there were two such skill books brought into the dungeon. One was meant to be stored in the security office, and the second here. However, they were both stolen by the patient in room 404, who used one of the books to learn the skill himself and has kept the other one in his room.

My eyes widened slightly as I read that information. That skill sounded like it would be perfect for repairing objects. Not just that, either… I quickly typed a response. Does that mean that we’d be able to repair the console in the water treatment dungeon? This skill could be an alternate path to pursue the main quest line.

Diane hesitated for a few minutes before messaging me back, likely discussing it with Bella. Maybe, but only to a limited degree. Some hints, like NPC dialogue, would only be available if we truly went to the past. Still, this would get around some of the issues we might face in ‘historic’ dungeons.