章 8: Conclusion of The First Quest: Showdown at Sylph Hall {Part - 2}

A pang of annoyance spread through Remirg Kryptos's body as he read the inevitable notification which popped up after his obvious hasty decision.

[THE PLAYER HAS GUESSED WRONG!

GUESSES REMAINING: 2/3]

The next moment, the hall started shaking vigorously, as though generating a deadly earthquake.

Somehow, Remirg managed to keep himself up on his feet, though he staggered a little bit. But what happened after that was quite surprising.

After the tremors of the great trembling had died down, the stone statue which Remirg had pointed out as his choice, broke down. It looked as though it withered away into thin air.

Raising his eyebrows, quite a little amused at such an event, Remirg turned away to face the other statues.

He had no time to waste.

Though he was still very anxious at his preceding decision, he needed to calm down. He had to think this situation through as he had done earlier. He needed to silence his anxiety.

Remembering the final teachings of his mother, Remirg once again closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

This procedure slowed down his heartbeat and cleared his mind. He could now be able to analyze the situation carefully.

The first thing which came to his mind was to activate Prana Presence, X-raying the whole area once to find any anomalies in the statues.

But to his great disappointment, each and every one of the statues radiated the same, green prana, barely visible due to the cloudy presence of the bright cyan prana emanating from the tower's walls itself.

"Something seems to be different here.

The moment I stepped into this room, each and every object I see possesses prana. Every goddamn object has been meticulously implanted with magic.

But for some very strange reason, they are not exhibiting any magical characteristics or attributes. Not even one of the objects, leave the torches, are doing anything which can be considered a supernatural doing.

I see.....

The goal of this hall had never been to use magic anyway.

It all depends on logic. I somehow need to find a physical difference in the statues to distinguish them. Petty tricks like viewing prana differences, I believe ,would take no effect here.

Then all I can do.... is to check each and every statue particle by particle..... There is no other choice anyway."

Remirg started to walk away from the empty pedestal on which a statue was supposed to be placed.

Reaching the nearest statue, he started investigating it thoroughly.

It held its sword exactly perpendicular to the surface of the pedestal. There seemed to be no angular inclination of the sword in any direction. Even the hilt of the sword bore no offsets from the center. It perfectly aligned with the blade.

The face was totally covered with a gilded helmet, which had a singular slit, just allowing enough space for vision. Also, the helmet was not retractable and was part of the monolith. Remirg could tell this by observing the clear joint between the helmet and the neck. So, the statues can't possess different faces. Matter of factly, they can't possess faces at all.

The armor donned by the statue had the same perfect alignment and geometrical proportions. Each armor piece was meticulously designed and carved, so that not even a minor angle would spoil its majestic construction.

Remirg, likewise, investigated each one of the statues as thoroughly as one could. Though the results were still disappointing.

"So, From the outside, none of the statues show any differences.

Thus, it means that there must be something inside of them which tells them apart."

Though even after checking each statue once for any hollow spaces or air pockets, Remirg found none. All of them were perfectly solid figures of non-rusted Iron.

Leaving all details, only one phenomenon was slightly pestering Remirg.

The unusual hissing sound produced by the ground.

Though it was quite irritating, it was not affecting the current scenario in even the slightest. It seemed like a complete independent occurrence in itself.

"This hissing sound is strange.... There should be a reason for the origination of these sounds. From where do they even.....!"

Remirg's thoughts stopped abruptly. He had just discovered something he should have thought the moment he entered the Tower. The hissing sound was being produced directly beneath the floor he was standing.

I t must mean that the tower bore a separate chamber just beneath the one he was standing. The ground itself was hollow!

A hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his lips as he discovered the secret of the chamber. But it took just a moment for him to realize the real problem.

"How the hell am I supposed to break the floor open?

This thing is made up of solid marble and I do not possess any tool by which I can smash it. God bless the ****** stone in the first hall!

What use if I can't even execute the plan which I devised?

I'm still not instructed on the proper use of magic. All I can do is to control the flow of my body's Prana Particles. I do not even know any kind of spell or something which is going to help me.

What the hell am I supposed to do ?!"

Remirg, who was now getting impatient due to the sudden vision of the failure of his plan, started looking around frantically to search for a tool which was heavy enough to smash through the marble floor.

All he required was a goddamn boulder or something.

But he was able to find no such object.

Giving in to the situation he was currently in, Remirg clambered up one of the pedestals and made himself comfortable at the foot of one of the statues.

He felt like a miserable brat who got separated from his parents in a crowdy place. No one to help him.

But he still couldn't lose hope. He will find a way. He had to find a way. Only his victory over this Tower would assure him with the ticket to outside. The ticket of return to his own world.

Meanwhile Mark, who was, as usually watching his protagonist's musings was just thinking of sending him a "rogue" notification. A message which looked like a normal one but contained secret clues. The receiver should be able to understand it if he were smart enough.

And in Remirg's case, Mark was already confident in his IQ level.

But a singular thought changed his mind at the last moment.

"Am I to intervene in someone else's scenario? Maybe just this singular message could change the entire plot in the future. Let's just wait and watch...."

Remirg, who was looking up at the endless ceiling for no reason at all, noticed something uncanny.

At a certain point, the stairs seemed to vanish somewhere. It didn't continue upwards. Just terminating at a random location.

Remirg Kryptos then traced the path back to its other endpoint, which was lying right next to the wall opposite to him.

Somehow, the staircase didn't seem to terminate there as well. Almost a half of a stair was protruding from the marble floor, as though it continued further downwards, but was plastered by the floor itself.

It took just over a minute to dawn upon him the solution he had been seeking.

Jumping out of his resting place onto the floor in just a second, Remirg was already finding himself traversing the stairs upwards.

"Yeah, I get it! This is the solution to the problem! Magic did exist in this scenario but was hidden. Hidden right in front of the naked eye. All it requires is a little brain!"

In under a minute, Remirg had already reached the top of the stairs.

From then on, though the walls of the tower continued to go upwards, the stairs barged right into it, into the walls.

Smiling as he activated Prana Presence, Remirg could see that a chamber was emanating red mana right beyond the wall.

Without hesitating, he walked right into the wall.

And surprisingly, instead of getting a good hit on the head, his figure smoothly passed through the walls, as if they were made up of milk.

Upon entering the chamber, Remirg's eyes flew wide. His jaw dropped open.

In front of him lied a gigantic room so large that it could have fit the entire settlement where he resided in Sebras.

This room was a replica of the room Remirg was previously in. Though he could sense very dense prana emanating from the surrounding environment. Even the color of the prana the tower's walls had been emanating turned to a deep shade of crimson.

But what blew the mind out of him were the ten monoliths which were lying in a concentric circle around the center of the chamber, just like the statues above.

But this time, they clearly showed a different story. And before Remirg could think of anything else, the Simulator had already sent him a notification.

[YOU HAVE VOLUNTARILY ENTERED THE UNDERWORLD OF THE SHADOW DUNGEON!]