150 Riddle Work

While they were waiting for the others to arrive, a lot of the participants started splitting off into groups. Since he was only familiar with Leilena, Greyson continued standing with her and ignored the rest. There were a couple strangers who wished to team up with him due to his strength and record thus far, but Greyson did not like collaborating with people he was not confident in. If he was always suspicious of those watching his back that would just cause his efficiency and speed in the dungeon to decrease. In that case, teaming up would hurt him more than help him. Surprisingly, the girl who placed third in the second stage, Eris Whitstone, approached him to join hands. This was Greyson's first time paying her any attention. She was a pretty girl with red eyes and black hair who stood almost as tall as Greyson. Similar to his sister, Eden, this girl exuded a more powerful charisma that would attract all genders. Despite her status, Eris was extremely polite and did not try to oppress or force Greyson's cooperation. She took the rejection in stride and did not continue to bother Greyson afterwards.

The only person Greyson felt awkward rejecting was Palmira. As the only other person from the Idris Kingdom to pass, it made sense for him to help her out and team up with her. However, his impression of her was not great to say the least. Plus, compared to the other participants, Palmira was on the weaker side and could possibly bring him down. He felt kind of guilty for not including her, but there was no real reason he should force himself to drag her along. After being rejected, Palmira ended up finding some other friends from the different kingdoms whom she was familiar with. Observing her actions, Greyson did not feel as bad anymore. If he saw that she was all alone, he might have given in and helped her out. Being alone just seemed a little pitiful.

"Oh~, Grey Grey, look at you. So popular with the ladies~. You're all grown up now. Teacher is so proud." Pretending to be all choked with emotion, Leilena wiped a nonexistent tear. "I feel so special all of sudden. All these beautiful and talented ladies were rejected while I was accepted. Does that mean I beat them in both areas? Hehe~" Chuckling to herself, Leilena elbowed at Greyson happily while winking.

Rolling his eyes, Greyson did not pay any attention to her. If he responded, she would just fool around more.

"I take silence as acceptance!"

"Yes, yes, okay. In my eyes, my teacher is better than all of them. If not, what would that make me, the student?"

"It seems my eye for students is definitely one of my strong points." Happy she finally got the desired response, Leilena ruffled Greyson's hair. Pouting, Greyson moved away and straightened out his hair once more. Suddenly, he wished for the other groups to quickly arrive. With nothing to distract her, his teacher just could not keep herself calm. As if answering his wishes, the teleportation circle clearly activated once more and lit up. In what felt like the blink of an eye, another group of people appeared in front of them. Originally, around 100 or so people could be transported, so they only needed to be split into two groups for everyone to arrive.

Seemingly accustomed to teleportation, Braiden was quick to recover and soon walked over to a nondescript spot. After tapping his foot three times, the snow melted away to reveal a staircase leading beneath the ground. Everyone immediately knew that this must be the entrance to the dungeon. Really, it was so hard to find. Greyson could not help but think about what type of person built this dungeon. It was as if they did not want it to be found. Most dungeons were not easy to spot; but this was too exaggerated, no? The spot Braiden stepped on looked completely identical to the rest of the ground in this icy tundra. Amazed that the Moon Empire even discovered it, Greyson felt that there must have been some sort of method behind the discovery. Especially since Braiden walked over so naturally when there was no visible marker.

"As you all probably already guessed, this is the entrance to the dungeon. I will say this now: if you keep physical contact with someone, they will be transported to the same spot as you. Otherwise, you will all be split up into different locations. They all eventually lead to the same place, so you might run into each other. I will only warn you one more time. The Moon Empire has no control over this dungeon whatsoever, you could most definitely die. As someone who has experienced this dungeon, I will tell you this much: the creator was most definitely a disturbed individual." The minute he mentioned this, Braiden's expression grew rather grim. It seemed he really suffered from some grievances. This succeeded in unsettling the crowd as some of the participants truly looked to be reconsidering. "I will also be upfront in saying that I know some shady things go down in the dungeon since we cannot ever know if you died from the dungeon or if you died from some enmity with another participant. I will not pretend that I don't know it happens, but I also cannot ask for justice for any of you since there will be no evidence. Therefore, if you are truly concerned about personal grievances with another person, I would suggest you just not go in at all and put yourself in that position." His words sounded harsh, but they were truly from a good place. He knew that the competition was tough. Since the paths all led to the same ending area, there could be individuals or groups who meet each other along the way or at the end. If they want to place higher up, then they will most likely fight over the wooden tokens.

Greyson knew that the advice was for their own good, so he did appreciate it. Although his determination did not waver, he still felt that being more cautious would not hurt. From what Sweetbow taught him about dungeons, they were not always straightforward strength. Some were oddly specific to a certain type of talent, ability, or even element while some tests were completely random and had nothing to do with the strength of an individual. It really did depend completely on the dungeon creator's personality and mood while they made it. Thus, hearing Braiden's choice of words, Greyson really did feel that there would be some weird tests.

"Alright, that's all from me. You will enter depending on your rank. If you are grouped with someone of a higher rank then you can enter along with that person. Greyson, you were ranked first. You and your group, if you have one, can go first." Braiden turned to speak to Greyson in the middle.

Nodding in understanding, Greyson and Leilena went in first. He was just going to place his hand on her shoulder or something, but Leilena hooked arms with him happily while dragging him to faster. Truly, she was the only one this excited to go into this dungeon even at this point after all the ominous warnings from Braiden. Before he was even prepared, Leilena practically jumped down the steps and they were transported to a new position in the dungeon.

"Hi, hi~ Welcome~ You have arrived at a fun little side project I made. This will be the first test! There are three riddles and only by solving them will you get through each door. Each wrong attempt will result in a small punishment. Hehehe... Nothing too bad. Hopefully you will figure out the answer quickly. Don't die too quickly~ There's so much fun to happen in the next tests! Hope that you last until the end and enjoy your stay~" A disturbingly happy child's voice echoed throughout the room. Although he was used to hearing a voice speak out like this from the time he went into the Beast Altars, that voice was much less... flippant.

"Well... I know I'm not completely normal, but the creator of this dungeon was obviously very abnormal..." Even Leilena had an odd expression on her face after hearing the voice.

"Let's just hurry up and try to pass this test." Ignoring a rising feeling of apprehension towards those punishments, Greyson walked over to the large stone door in the room. On the door was a riddle as mentioned before. Leilena looked it over and read aloud:

"I am not alive, but I grow; I don't have lungs, but I need air; I don't have a mouth, but water kills me. What am I?"

Deeply frowning in thought, the pair did not speak and silently tried to come up with the answer. Although he was not some riddle master, this one seemed to still be fairly straightforward. After thinking for a couple minutes, Greyson's eyes lit up with understanding.

"I think I know the answer... But I don't know how this works. Do you just say it out loud?"

"You know?!"

"Yes..."

"I'm not sure. There are no directions saying what to do."

"Just shout it out, then. Maybe that will work."

"Okay. Fire!" Shouting out the answer confidently, Greyson waited for something to happen. And something did occur, just not the result he was expecting. A bolt of lightning came down out of nowhere and struck him directly. Taken by surprise, he had no way of defending himself. Yelling out in pain, he thankfully only had to suffer for a quick second.

"Ah, ah, ah~ That's not how you answer. Now choose a different method."

Feeling pain throughout his body, Greyson resisted the urge to curse. What kind of messed up game is this?

"Greyson, are you alright?!" Clearly shocked just now, Leilena rushed over.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Gritting his teeth, Greyson realized that the lightning just shocked him badly and did not cause serious damage.

"So, you said F-... the answer you said earlier seems to be right. But if we aren't supposed to shout it out, then what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know... what other methods are there?" Slightly distressed, Greyson did not know what this crazy person wants from them.

Leilena was also stumped. She kept staring at the door hoping to see something, but there was nothing to be seen. Glancing around the rest of the room, she did not spot anything at first. But after looking a little closer, she finally noticed something. Way hidden in the corner of the room, back towards the wall they came in from, was a box. Since the door was so large and obvious earlier, both she and Greyson did not observe the surroundings. Only now noticing this box, Leilena got up with excitement and ran over. The box was not big at all. There was no lock so it was easy to open and inside lay a piece of black charcoal shaped like a piece of chalk.

Perplexed, Leilena was surprised by the unexpected object, but then realized that they had to write the answer using this. Picking up the charcoal, she walked over and wrote "FIRE" in big letters on the stone door underneath the riddle. And as expected, the doors suddenly made a sound and began to open themselves. Greyson was watching the entire time and once he saw this, he truly understood why Braiden would suspect that the creator was a disturbed individual. Shaking his head in disbelief, he did not say anything else and picked himself up off the ground with a slight groan. His body still ached a little from earlier.

When they walked through to the next room, they were greeted once again by the same large stone door and another riddle. Once bitten twice shy, Greyson and Leilena both scanned the room carefully, but there was no box this time. Thus, they assumed that they were just supposed to use the charcoal again. This time, Greyson read the riddle aloud:

"I am something people love or hate. I change peoples' appearances and thoughts. If a person takes care of them self, I will go up even higher. To some people, I will fool them. To others, I am a mystery. Some people might want to try and hide me, but I will show. No matter how hard people try, I will never go down. What am I?"

A harder riddle this time, Greyson and Leilena once again sat in silent contemplation. Minutes continued ticking by as Greyson continued whispering to himself trying to think of an answer that fit. Even Leilena did not joke around and considered the answer seriously. Finally, Greyson stood up as hit face lit up with comprehension. Without further ado, he took the piece of charcoal and wrote "AGE" in big letters on the door.

Yet, this time, he was once again struck by lightning.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... It's no fun to use the same method twice. Try again~" The voice clearly mocked.

Hissing in pain, this time the sting was a little more than before. Frustrated, Greyson almost wished that it was just a normal strength test. At least then he would have somewhere to vent.

"What now?!" He grumbled.

"Uh... well... if I was going to pull a prank on someone at this moment. I would say that we should need to shout out the answer this time." Leilena responded while smiling awkwardly. In a way, she did feel guilty that the punishment was always given to Greyson. "I'll give it try."

"Age!" Her shout echoed throughout the room.

And almost right away, the doors began to swing open. For the first time in a while, Greyson truly questioned his own intelligence.

"Come on! Let's keep going!" Resisting the urge to laugh out loud, Leilena tried and failed to keep a straight face. Sulking a little, Greyson did not say anything and got up once again to walk through the doors.

Once they made it through, it was once again an identical room.

"Oh~ seeing that you made it to the last room. I will tell you now. You have to write the answer, so I hope you kept that piece of charcoal~"

Looking at the charcoal that he just happened to bring with him, Greyson sighed with relief. Honestly, he had just forgotten that he was holding it and that was why he brought it along. Otherwise, wouldn't they be stuck here forever with no solution? Reaching this thought, Greyson felt himself break out into a cold sweat. Just how many people despaired after reaching this point and knowing they did not bring the charcoal along with them.

Leilena also saw that Greyson brought it with him so she also felt relieved.

Both of them then looked to solve the last riddle.

"What can be swallowed, but can also swallow you?"

This one was relatively short, but that did not make the answer apparent right away. This time it took longer for an answer to come about. Greyson thought of a couple things, but nothing quite felt right. In the end, it was Leilena who came up with an answer this time. Smiling happily, she walked over confidently after taking the charcoal and wrote "PRIDE" in big letters on the door. A little worried that this might have been a trick, she still braced herself for the punishment. But this time it really did not come. Instead, the door quickly swung open once more leading to the next location.

"Hehe, Grey Grey, it seems my luck is pretty good." Grinning ear to ear, Leilena poked fun.

Just smiling wryly, Greyson did not feel that bad anyways. It was not like he suffered any serious damage. He wouldn't wish his teacher to be struck by lightning just so he was not the only one who suffered; he was not that petty.