《Advent of the Mindfire Mage: A Challenger's Return Story》103: Trials By Fire, Part 2
Advertisement
When I was ready, I went down the second corridor on the left. This one led to a relatively small, circular chamber with five evenly spaced doors opposite the way I'd entered.
[Trial of Insight]
[All but one path leads to dead ends. Incorrect paths also contain deadly traps. If you choose an incorrect path but survive, the correct path will be closed to you and you will fail the trial.]
[First, find the odd one out.]
This time, there was no apparent time limit. A good thing too, because at first glance, the Sanctuary's instruction to "find the odd one out" seemed hopeless. The five doors looked identical in every way, no matter how hard I stared at them. Each had a look of intricately carved stone, and the carving itself was quite complex, so if there really was a minor difference in one design, it could take hours to find it. Unlike the doors leading to the start of the trials I'd opened so far, they weren't designed to just push open either. Instead, each one had a button slightly to its right.
An idea finally came to me after a long time of fruitless staring. I was leaning against one of the doors to rest, idly thinking that while it may look like stone, it had the same unnaturally smooth feel of a stronger synthetic material that it shared with all the rest of the Sanctuary.
"You know what would be an incredibly dick move?" I said to myself, "If the difference wasn't even IN the carving, but one of the doors was actually made of stone, or an otherwise more natural material, and that was how it's the 'odd one out'."
A moment later, I realized what I just said and moved to check all the doors by touch. Sure enough, the second door from the right clearly felt different. It was slightly rougher, and the edges of the grooves in the intricate carving were sharper. The most telltale sign though was how different the inside of the grooves felt.
Advertisement
I held my breath, and pushed the button to open that door. I could see that it led into another round chamber of equal size just a short distance away. I entered, and the way I came slammed shut behind me. It was only then that I realized that there didn't seem to be any doors in this one.
Oh crap, did I screw it up somehow? My eyes darted this way and that, as I got on guard for any death traps to activate.
However, none did, and a new notification appeared:
[For your second task, find the unnatural spot. Press on it to open the hidden way.]
After pondering that for a moment, I finally spotted that the walls in this room were quite different from the previous room and indeed the rest of the Sanctuary. Instead of being mostly contiguous, as was mostly the case elsewhere, here there was a great number of bricks of "stone," all highly variable in size. Too, quite a few of them were sticking out of the wall, some a little some a lot.
"So, I need to push the right one in," I muttered, "I'm guessing the wrong ones activate death traps, and might even disqualify me from this trial. There was a trick to it last time, there'll be a trick to it this time..."
But the trick wasn't readily evident. After a while, it was clear that it wasn't going to come down to a difference of material this time. As far as I could tell it was all "unnatural," so that couldn't be what the message had meant.
"Tch, I've been at this so long my hands are getting cold...wait, what?"
I'd been feeling around the walls of the room for quite some time by this point, and for the most part they'd had a rather pleasant warming effect. My hands shouldn't have been able to be so cold. I experimented around, and discovered in a particular section—if I treated the way I'd come in as south, the section in question was a little south of due west—was cooler than the rest.
Advertisement
I felt around that section, and found that in a certain direction it got colder still. I kept feeling around, as though I was playing an inverted game of warmer/colder.
I stopped at a single protruding brick, near to the top of the wall, that was almost like ice to the touch. I pushed it in, and it clicked and stopped moving in when it was halfway level with the wall. A moment after the click, I heard a welcome grating noise as the wall directly across from the entrance to the chamber slid up to reveal a new passage.
The third chamber was much larger than the previous two. Other than the way I'd come, I counted a whopping twenty-four other doors. They were all shut, with no apparent way to open any of them.
[Good work getting this far. For your final challenge in this trial, seek the only place of safety. At its end, you will find the switch. But be warned: This time, choosing wrong will result in a plunge into the magma sea.]
The moment the notification vanished, all the doors surrounding me opened—and through them, strange hovering metallic sentries, each of roughly human size, began pouring in by the dozen. Far from being driven to panic, I smiled.
"Heh, I think I know the trick to this one already."
The eight doors closest to where I'd entered on the right had been in my field of vision at the start, and I'd seen sentries come through all of them, so I dismissed those. I started fighting them off, making sure to keep an eye on doors I hadn't checked. When a new enemy appeared through one of them, I stopped keeping track of that door.
It was surprisingly easy to multitask this way. The sentries, identified by my as , were powerful, numerous, and took a fair bit to destroy, but both they and their attacks weren't very fast.
I got slightly unlucky this time. I'd examined more than half the doors before I found one, four doors left from the far side of the room, that didn't seem to be spitting out more sentries. Figuring I couldn't be too careful, I checked the rest of the doors to make certain that they were. As I'd suspected, every door but that one was letting more sentries into the room whenever I destroyed some.
I made my way inside that door. Like the other doorways, it was pitch black inside. At least, until I was properly inside. Then a series of lights turned on—revealing a lever identical to the one in the last, unfortunately extremely memorable trial at the end of a long hallway. Trying to add a slight sense of ceremony, I rubbed my hands together a bit, then pulled it.
[Trial of Insight: PASS]
By the time I looked away from the notification, I found myself already back in the central chamber.
Advertisement
- In Serial49 Chapters
Labyrinthia's Maze
I had always found the idea of “Other Worlds” stupid. Magic wasn’t real. Even if it was the chance of someone spiriting away someone form a world without magic to a world with seemed utterly stupid. After all, what good would a tech geek do in a world of Dungeons and Dragons. Well, jokes on me, I guess. As I was about to log out of the NVR game I have been obsessing over for over 8 years, I blacked out. Next thing I know I am now living as my in game avatar in another world. Only I am now back to scratch, no more giant 200 floor dungeon, no more army of minions and traps, just me and a small room in the ground. Luckily, I have all I need to slowly rebuild my dungeon, I only hope I live long enough to do so. Who sent me here, what do they want from me, and can I ever return home? There better be answers to these questions because, while being my avatar is awesome, I also want to go home… I think.
8 147 - In Serial178 Chapters
The Oddity: The One Who Does Not Belong
A purple ball descended from the sky, a gift from the primordial dragons, granting many races of the world access to magic. Unfortunately, humans were not one of those. During the great war, the magicless humans were nothing more than fodder, meat shields. Until one day, their powers awakened. After the war, with the ability to now wield, fire, water, earth, wind, or lightning, powerful magicians gathered to build a safe haven for humans, the Kaldora Empire. Before the humans had magic, other races prospered with it. But, within their midst, there were... oddities. People with an affinity for two elements. Each one leaving some sort of disaster in their wake. Each one, not quite fit for this world. A young boy's family, killed in an accident, only he and his sister survived the night. After that, they were split up, each taken in by a different relative. It has been eight years since the flames engulfed his home and most of his family. With his magic powers finally showing itself, he goes off to a magic academy to better learn about his newfound powers. But as he grows, something else does as well. The voice inside his head, the thing that influences his thoughts, the monster that he wish was gone, the devil inside his heart. This is a tale about connections. NOTE: The story will be slow for many of the chapters and the time will also match it, ex: goes by day by day. The time mostly will be used for introducing and adding to characters. It won't pick up until somewhere in the twenties but there will be action and events earlier on such as the missions. Just a fair warning. Order of Phantasmal Architects
8 203 - In Serial6 Chapters
Witchcraft Lords
Solvay travels to an alien world in a medieval European setting and becomes a noble lord, originally wanting to farm and lead his people to prosperity, but with this sudden change of scenery, Solvay realizes that this world, not only human but also orcs, elves, dwarves, giants, winged people, mermaids, vampires and so on. The key is that all races have the supernatural power of practicing sorcery, which makes the world much more dangerous.
8 62 - In Serial20 Chapters
Despite not Being a Hero, Saint, or Even a Demon King, I was Summoned
I was summoned to another world. Not as a Hero, not as a Saint, not even as a Demon King, but as a regular contract demon. You know, like the ones that come when you sacrifice a chicken or something on top of a magic circle. It's a bit weird, especially since I'm human, but I've just decided to go with the flow for now. Which apparently means becoming the employee of an item shop. (What's that? You want to know what cheat powers I've been given? Well, how about an inexhaustible source of mana substitute? ...Holy crap, I have an inexhaustible source of mana substitute.)
8 186 - In Serial32 Chapters
Year 1972
It was like any other day, people out riding their bikes, fishing and just having a great time. But that all changes when there was a gas leak that caused certain people to grow into massive giants. Join Riley a five year old girl who goes on an adventure of her life time to find her father. Well Riley find her father? Read to find out.
8 193 - In Serial6 Chapters
Obsession: A Michael Jackson Fanfic
Maria Cruz is your average teenage girl who's head over heels for the late King of Pop, until one day she mysteriously acquires the ability to time travel. With this new found power, Maria races against time to save Michael from his untimely death. Will she succeed? Or will she end up wrecking havoc in Michael's life instead?Note: This will be a very short story since I did intend it as one. I wrote this a long time ago. Nevertheless, I hope you all enjoy❤
8 156

