ALL MY SKILL

Waking of Saturday, March 18, 2017 ~ 11

ALL MY SKILL

I had been in places that kept me on my physical toes. But this place was more a mental exercise than anything else. The powers of my Sheikah Slate were heavily employed; Cryonis, Magnesis, Stasis.... It took all my skill and a dash of mad courage to figure how to access the four terminals I needed to activate.

I suppose the dash of courage came when I realized I would need to trek out onto Vah Ruta’s trunk as it stretched out over the Reservoir. Good gads it had to be a furlong in length at least....

I could manipulate the trunk via the map I had distilled into my Sheikah Slate. But LET ME TELL YOU it was one thing to watch it bend and move according to my commands in its little glowing blue schematic in my HUD. But it was another thing entirely to be standing upon it as it executed my commands.

It was articulated in segments, like an earthworm, but still always sort of curved, you see. I couldn’t venture out from the base to the middle without bending it mostly upward, and I couldn’t move from the middle out to the tip without bending it back down—and there were more darkpools to do away with out there.

But after much puzzling and legwork, and a few Zora-dives up an internal waterfall.... I had activated all the terminals except for one. Mipha’s voice came to encourage me after every one; but the ambient music.... some soft, asymmetrical, delicately chimed thing.... subtly changed after every one as well, and not exactly in a good way.

It did nothing to prevent me from feeling a sense of dread impending doom.

It was like the place was on to me.

The last terminal took me an hour and a half, including interspersed escapes from the game to numb my brain on stupid YouTube videos while my WiiU controller recharged in its cradle. Days passed in the game. Suns and moons rose and set, though I never saw any Blood Moons.... Logic now.... I couldn’t reach the terminal underwater; I had to either drain the water, or remove the entire apparatus. The apparatus didn’t look movable, so to drain the water, I either had to stop the leak in, or spring a new leak out.... but my bombs wouldn’t sink.... the ice arrows wouldn’t stop the inflow.... a Shock Arrow didn’t jumpstart the terminal....

David gave me a much needed helping hand when he came home, and suggested I aim Cryonis on the inpouring waterfall. The one thing I hadn’t tried.

I didn’t think the water was thick enough there to use Cryonis.

And it didn’t look like it would fit, either.

But, as luck would have it, when I took aim with Cryonis, it fat.

And one button later the waterfall stopped.

But the terminal was upside down.

A couple buttons more and I had it.

Mipha directed me then to go to the last terminal.

I already knew where it was.

It was time to return to the Big Room.