Bab 75: Wit and resourcefulness (2)
"And here is the library."
Before us stood a massive building adorned with marble statues and tall columns. Although it looked rather gloomy with few windows, our path led to the basement of the building.
"Hello, young adventurers. You've come to test your knowledge and seek ancient treasures. Though your lives won't be in danger, this trial might be the most challenging for you."
With a low voice, elongating vowels, we were greeted by an elder in a robe with a conical hat and a long gray beard.
"Ugh, what a strange old man," Seleria's first reaction was spot-on.
"How cruel you are, young lady. I am the keeper of this dungeon, and I simply adhere to certain traditions," the elder lowered his head, and it seemed like the edge of his beard came loose.
"Are you also one of our instructors?"
"Ho-ho-ho. I am the keeper of knoooowledge. I exist here to guide the youth on the path of wisdom..."
I carefully approached the "old man" and tugged at his beard.
"Ouch! That hurts!"
"Teacher Levris, what a silly masquerade is this!?"
Indeed, underneath that silly beard was our amiable earth magic teacher, Levris.
"Ouch. Why did you do that? It was glued on."
"But the epilation will save you from a future beard."
"I DON'T HAVE A BEARD?!" Levris boiled with anger, and the girls gave me a reproachful look.
"Sorry," I apologetically bowed my head.
"Well, never mind. I should lead you to the dungeon and explain the rules. I thought if I dressed up as a wise old man, I'd make a greater impression on you."
"Sorry for ruining your masquerade, but better tell us what's going to happen there."
Levris led us past tall bookshelves and headed towards a small door at the end of the room.
"You will enter one by one and find yourselves in separate rooms. This place is magically created and will present individual challenges for each participant based on their skills. Don't be alarmed if you find yourself alone; I will open the door after an hour, and you can all exit. By the way, there's more than one treasure room, so you might end up in different places."
"Quite a vague description," I remarked.
"You'll see for yourselves. Go on," the teacher said as she opened the door, revealing nothing but impenetrable darkness.
There were no sparks of enthusiasm on our guildmates' faces.
"Don't be afraid; everything will be fine," Levris tried to reassure us.
Her words had little effect on us.
"Okay, I'll go first!" I jumped into the darkness and found myself on the floor of a large corridor with bookshelves lining its sides.
"Kriiito! Are you alive in there?" Algo's voice echoed from the bluish-purple void surrounding the corridor.
"I'm fine, but this place is certainly strange. You can come in."
Sounds resembling the intake of air were heard in the void.
"Are you guys coming in?" I asked.
"But they've already entered," a timid voice of Kurone replied.
"Don't worry so much; you're just in different rooms. Inside, you won't be able to communicate with each other."
I heard the others pass by, and the door closed.
"Ah, looks like I'm alone."
As soon as I lowered my head...
"Kyaa!" A girl with blue hair fell on top of me.
"Asura? Please get off me, if you don't mind."
"Huh?" The fair-skinned beauty blushed like a tomato and quickly jumped away. "I'm sorry; I probably shouldn't have jumped at the door like that."
"We're alone here. And since we came in from there, the treasure room must be ahead."
It was time to begin the trial. We took a step forward, and "heaven" appeared above us, with floating clocks that measured exactly an hour. The corridor was lined with tall bookshelves, and in the middle, tall wooden doors began to rise, with letters flickering on them.
"It seems like a question-answer game. Ready to test your knowledge?"
"It's not in my nature to back down; I'll give it a try."
We approached the first door, and the letters began to form words.
"Answering the question correctly will open the way forward. You can find all the answers in the books around you or in your memory."
"Quite simple, but we don't have time to search for answers in the books."
On the first wall appeared the first question:
"Her icy heart tamed the flames ready to devour the world."
"And these are supposed to be questions!?!" I wasn't surprised by the peculiar wording of the questions after witnessing Levris in such a state.
"Well, what does it mean?" Asura looked at the question with bewilderment.
"It seems the questions will be presented in the form of riddles like this. Maybe they refer to some volcanic eruption that a powerful mage was able to subdue."
"Hmm... Asura?"
The door creaked open and immediately vanished. But a couple of meters ahead, the second door confronted us with another question:
"A star fallen from the sky, victim of its own fear."
"Is it just me, or did our rector write these riddles while in deep dementia?"
"Unfortunately, we have no other choice."
For a while, I pondered various possibilities in my mind. However, nothing promising came to mind.
"Perhaps it's about a dragon-god?"
"Why suddenly?"
"Well, who else descended from the sky to us?"
"Logical. Do you remember their names?"
"Ragnalia called one of them, but a star... the sky... celestial metal... Nihelim?"
The door creaked open.
"M?" Asura gave me a questioning look.
"He had scales made of a meteorite: celestial metal. That's what I thought."
"Understood, let's move on."
The next door displayed another question:
"The mightiest warrior, he overthrew the gods and became a hero."
"Well, that's easy, the first summoner," I confidently answered the question, but for some reason, the door wouldn't open.
"Krito, are you sure?"
"Well, I don't have any other options. What about you?"
"Well, I'm inclined to agree with you," Asura thoughtfully touched her chin. "Maybe he needs a name?"
"A name, hmmm."
"Don't you know his name? He's practically your god!"
"Well, let's say that summoners usually renounced their worldly names after ascending to the throne. Before that, they never really earned themselves any renowned name to be remembered otherwise. So they're all remembered as the summoners of some world or by numbers." I simply shrugged.
"You've got to be kidding!" Disdain flashed in Asura's eyes. "And you call them rulers."
"Well, what can I do?" A deep sigh. "I guess I'll have to search."
Around us stood tall shelves, about five meters in height, with hundreds of books on them. We started sifting through them, looking for any information about the summoner, ancient history, the war with dragons. But even in those books, there was nothing about the summoner's name.
"It's futile. We need to know what else he was doing before becoming a summoner."
"I'm more worried that it's been twenty minutes already, and we're stuck at the very beginning."
We exchanged glances; at this rate, we would never make it on time. I inspected the bookshelves; they were tall with smooth sides, but flat covers were on top.
"Want to climb up?"
Asura followed my gaze and smiled.
"Isn't this a test of the mind?"
"It's also a test of resourcefulness. Let's take out a couple of books, and we'll be able to climb up."
Asura and I started climbing from opposite ends of the corridor. After laying a pile of books on the floor, we turned the shelves into a makeshift ladder.
"I hope they can hold us," Asura skeptically shook one of the shelves.
"Who doesn't risk, doesn't drink champagne. Let's go!"
We scrambled up the shelves and hopped onto their tops. The shelves ominously wobbled, and the remaining books tumbled off them.
Almost imperceptibly, a book fell from above, "The Art of Creating Golems." Author: Rimmel.
"Careful, careful. We can't let them collapse," I balanced on the edge of the shelf.
Suddenly, the door opened, and the last support holding the shelves disappeared.
"Run!" Asura leaped forward just a second before the shelf vanished from beneath her feet. I followed suit, and my shelf collapsed as well.
One by one, like dominoes, the bookshelves stacked up behind us.
"This doesn't seem like an easy path!!" Asura screamed at me, panting from the frantic race.
"Well, I didn't think this task could be deadly dangerous."
Ahead, the end of the corridor appeared. Behind the last door was a glowing wall; whatever it was, we needed to reach it.
"Jump!!"
"Whoa!!!"
With the blue-haired warrior, I found myself in a large room with low shelves arranged in four rows in the center of the room. On the shelves in each row were displayed magic wands. Considering the size of the room, there were several hundred, maybe even a thousand of them.
"Hmm. Magical trinkets again. I have no clue about these," Asura sighed hopelessly.
"Don't worry about that. I know somewhat which ones are the best. Look for the ones made of stone; if they are made of precious stones, even better. Disregard the metallic ones, they're all trinkets, even if they're made of gold."
"And I thought you didn't use wands."
"No, I've just read a book about them. Take the left side, and I'll inspect the right."
"Alright. I'll trust your judgment."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone