Chapter 173: Straight up cheating
Sofia entered the code on exit door 7 and opened it. Her vision changed.
So thats that done.
[Objective completed in 4 months 35 days 17 hours, teleporting to floor 5]
Seven hours shy of five months. And Im not even halfway done with phase 1.
[Ranking Spire Phase 1 : Floor 5/10]
[Objective : Completely fill one of the orbs with your mana.]
[Preparation time : 10s; Time limit : 2 hours]
Two hours? Where are the orbs?
Sofia was currently standing in the middle of a circular room like she had been for the poisoned food floor, except the room was about ten times larger in all dimensions.
Space to fly. She had Pareth come out, too, despite him being likely useless considering the prompt. Good to see you again.
The ten seconds of preparation time ended.
On every side, something was coming out of the ground. But it wasnt digging; it was phasing through. No way!
Sofia was speechless.
Skeletons!
Out of the ground rose four giant skeletons. They were at least fifteen meters tall, and each held a different weapon. There was a sword, a spear, a cleaver, and a staff.
Before they could fully make their way out of the ground, Sofia had flown up and out of reach of the giant weapons. Pareth had also moved, rushing to the curved walls of the room to avoid being surrounded.
Sofia couldnt identify the giant skeletons, but they looked no weaker than the lesser drake. She also found the orbs; they were glowing white and hard to miss, floating in different places. The cleaver-wielding skeleton had an orb where his heart would be inside his ribcage. The spear skeleton had the orb in one of his eye sockets. The sword skeleton had an orb acting as his swords pommel, and the staff-wielding skeleton's orb decorated the top end of his staff.
As soon as the giant skeletons turned fully corporeal, Pareth engaged in the fight. His goal was to occupy and, if possible, immobilize the skeletons.
Ill [Identify] the orbs first.
[Decoy orb] : When filled halfway with mana or destroyed: explodes, releasing dangerous shrapnel and a cloud of highly toxic fumes.
[Ranking Spire Phase 1 : Floor 6/10]
[Objective : Get the Masters approval.]
[Preparation time : 10 min; Time limit : If the master throws you out.]
Approval? Throwing out?
Sofias first reflex was to store her armor and weapon. I have ten minutes to prepare, much more than usual. So I think this is an important detail.
First impressions are key in social settings like these. I know nothing of the masters customs, though. I guess being polite is a good start?
Sofia looked around, and a few details in the room caught her attention. Square purple cushions were lined up on the ground behind her, and a single brown cushion in front of her.
She couldnt quite make sense of them until the paintings on the wall caught her attention.
They all represented scenes inside this room. On most of them, you could see the same frail-looking tall old elf in a white uniform with a red belt. Must be the master. The master was always frowning and looking over a group of students. They wore similar white outfits, but their belts were in a lot of different colors. But no red.
On one of the paintings, everyone was sitting cross-legged on the cushions, the students on the purple ones, facing the master on the brown one.
If Im to get approval, I should probably be a proper student and sit cross-legged on a purple cushion. What else?
She only gave a cursory glance to most paintings; there was more to explore. Behind the cushion, on either side, were two small rooms behind closed sliding wooden doors. One had a drawing of a woman and one of a man on the door. Reminds me of the public bathrooms in inns. I never used them, though. Ive been living in luxury
Sofia walked over to the women's room. It was quite small, with empty square shelves against the walls and three wooden benches placed haphazardly. There are some of the white uniforms piled in the corner. Sofia sifted through the pile of neatly folded uniforms, looking for one her size. They all looked like they were wearing uniforms too large for them in the paintings Ill take a size above what feels right, I guess.
Im surprised they even have something that fits me.
Sofia had no trouble putting on the two-piece uniform; it was only pants and a jacket. Woah, this is Airy. I need a belt to close this up. She returned to the main room to look at the paintings again and ensure she was wearing that thing properly. Oh, theyre all barefoot. Need to do that too. Also, where are the damned belts? The women all have their hair attached, so no need to change that
Returning to the changing room, Sofia found a container with neatly folded belts of all colors that had been tucked into the lowest shelves behind one of the benches. Some of these never even appear in the paintings, some sort of trap? Theyre also not arranged properly by rank. It clearly felt like there was some sort of ranking, but these are all piled together.
She walked back to the paintings again.
It looks like children usually have white, yellow, or orange. Teenagers green and blue. Adults brown and black. Black belts are mostly old-looking people, though
Should I take a white belt? Im probably considered a beginner in whatever this guy is a master of. The training seems to be varied, but mostly close combat. And some of the older people have white belts there, even if its mostly children wearing them.
Sofia couldnt help but fixate on the red belts standing out from the rest in the chest.
