The words that Miri had said gave Caleb pause, forcing him to reevaluate his current situation. Initially, the druid had intended to back his two opponents into a corner in order to force them to give up their star rune. But now, he himself had become the one who’d been backed in a corner. While sitting inside his crystal barrier, he started considering his various options on how to proceed.
The first option was to exit the barrier and face against the two women in direct combat to try to take the star rune by force. That would be unwise as, judging by how they fought off the frenzied cave slimes, their combat prowess was quite forminable—not to mention that it was two against one. There’s a chance that he could potentially inflict them with the frenzy gas and make them fight each other. However, since one of them was a cleric who could easily recognize frenzy gas on sight, she would likely also be competent enough to use a cleansing spell to quickly negate the frenzy gas’s effects. Caleb’s frenzy gas, while devastating if used under the right conditions, was almost useless against a competent healer, which he’s certain that this cleric by the name of Anne would fit the bill quite well.
The second option was to remain in his barrier and wait for the two of them to escape the cavern through the skylight with that star rune, after which he would remotely deactivate the crystal walls and flush all the water out of the cavern, allowing him to exit the cave through the normal way. While this option might be cowardly, at least it would guarantee his safety against the two women, thus allowing him to survive until he could find a star rune elsewhere.
Caleb gritted his teeth and he started leaning towards the second option as the safer and better option. Normally, in a Scavenger Hunt like this, contestants were less likely to go after the riddle runes due to them generally requiring greater intelligence and obscure knowledge to obtain. Out of the 20 riddle runes, only one was a reference to an obscure medicinal ingredient, which meant that only experienced healers such as clerics and druids would be able to decipher it.
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However, most healers never go out of their way to compete in the Pentacle Trials on their own, instead playing a supportive role as part of a team—meaning that they’d be more likely to go after monster runes with multiple stars. In that sense, this particular riddle rune was pretty much designed for healers who took the solo route in this trial like Caleb himself.
This was supposed to be the most ideal star rune for him to go after. Never would he have thought that someone else would have gone after it first. Perhaps he was not as smart as he thought he was, for he hadn’t taken into account the possibility of someone going after this riddle rune, unlikely though it may be. Perhaps he should have been more prepared.
After the geyser had filled the cavern to about half-way, Miri grabbed Anne and used Traversing Wind to teleport both of them up the skylight, where they then proceeded to climb up in order to reach the outside. This left Caleb all by himself, inside his crystal barrier that’s been completely submerged with water.
Placing the palm of his hand flat against the ground, he deactivated the crystal walls sealing the cavern, flushing all the water out through the tunnels and lowering the water level back to the ground. Then, he deactivated his own crystal barrier and walked back out of the cave through the same way he’d entered from.
As he exited the cave through the tunnels, the bitter taste of defeat still lingered in his mind. He promised himself that he’s going to get back at them for taking that riddle rune away from him. But before he could do that, he must pass this trial first, which meant that he’s now going to have to look for a star rune elsewhere.
