Conquering the Fourth Hall [Solo]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

As the Swashbuckler stepped into the next hall, the feeling of exhaustion he had been experienced suddenly amplified, which might have been expected after the encounter with the faceless being. Tired as he was, though, he was determined to press on.

At the start of this misadventure, he had only been running from the beasts which exuded a dark, foul aura. At the start of this misadventure, he had only wanted to hurry out and complete this thing, so he could go home. Yet as time went by, and he completed the riddles, questions, puzzles or whatever it was that people felt like calling it, he grew more curious, and strangely, along the way, he somehow felt a desire to meet the mastermind behind all this, the master of the Mansion. For what purpose did he, or she as the case may be, set up all these puzzles? What was the true motive behind all this? The answers he sought would likely be at the end of the halls, and it was this that fueled him to carry on with the dungeon.

As the Swashbuckler stepped into the Hall of the Fourth Twilight, flanked by two Jacks, he took in the interior of the hall he was now in. Like the previous hall, or previous halls as the case happened to be, this hall had multiple rooms. A straight corridor led pass numerous unmarked doors, the carpets red like blood and inlaid with gold threads. The walls themselves were seemingly decorated with gold, gleaming under the light of the dozens of Jacks floating up above.

The corridor opened up into a wide area, and this was where he would be struggling to solve the next question for a while. A massive weighing scale dominated the room. It was made of pure gold, and at the pivot, a small plaque was embedded above three gold handles. Man, was everything gold in this room?

In any case, he stepped foward to read the plaque and receive his instructions. After reading through it once, he began to think about what was written there.

So it seems that I am given three opportunities to weight twenty-four ingots, and find one that is slightly heavier than the others. If I get it wrong, then everything will reset, and the slightly heavier one will swap with one of the other ingots.

It was more difficult than the last one, to say the least. There were just as many permutations as the last one, if not more. However, he felt that there was a trick to all of this. He simply needed to examine the possibilities closely, and narrow everything down to the one possibility with the highest chance of obtaining a correct answer.

But before he could do that task though, he felt that he should, at least, gather all the ingots first. So that was what he did. Asking Skuggi to help out as well, the two of them split up to gather gold ingots while Pocky hovered about, chatting with the other Jacks who may have seen what other Adventurers had done to pass this dungeon.

~

Word count: 522
Total word count (Pharmacist): 522
Notes: IT'S GENERAL AP PEOPLE, DON'T JUDGE.

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

The Swashbuckler stepped into the first room to his left, and was met with glittery gold things. It seems like he had stepped into a waiting room. A gold one meant for VIPs, that is. There was literally gold stuff everywhere. Gold cups, gold table, chairs patterned with gold, a gold trolley. He felt that if he found a toilet here, it would also be decorated with gold. Was this the master of the Mansion's way of showing off his wealth? A bit extravagant, a bit overdone in his opinion. All this gold, pretty much waiting for someone to take and sell.

Yet, he was not in the slightest compelled to take it. After what he had gone through so far, he was generally suspicious of everything in the Mansion, to say the least. For starters, the opponents had been growing stronger for a while now, yet he only saw Jacks around. That in itself was strange. He felt that if he were to do something like take the property of the master, those strong mobs he encountered would reappear. So he left those alone, and picked up ingots when he found them, ignoring every other gold object in the room.

Within a few minutes, he had gathered a small pile of ingots at the base of the weighing scale, while Skuggi did the same. Counting all of the ingots, all of them were here. "Well then, I guess now is the time to start deciding how we should go about this. Any ideas, Skuggi? Pocky?"

Pocky floated down from above after chatting with the other Jacks, but unfortunately for it, these Jacks were rather cold, saying things like, "this is something for us to know and you to figure out."

Well, it was kind of to be expected they would give such as answer. Afterall, it would not be fair if an Animal Trainer could get hints that the others could not. It did not hurt to check, though, so check he did. Every bit of information had its uses, no matter how worthless it may seem at first.

With no chair in sight, and unwilling to drag a gold chair to seat himself, the Adventurer simply sat cross-legged on the soft carpet as he thought hard on what he should try to do.

First and foremost, he needed to increase the chances of getting a right answer. After cautiously examine every possibility, and every permutation of each possibility, he decided to try one out after a headache. There was, after all, nothing to lose, unless losing meant that he would have to meet face to face with another faceless being. Honestly speaking, he did not think he had any chance of survival this time round, not with the way this hall was designed.

Picking up the ingots, he stacked them in a pyramid on both ends. Once he was satisfied, he headed for the middle. He took a deep breath and as the two Jacks watched on, he pulled the first gold handle to the right downwards.

~

Word count: 509
Total word count (Pharmacist): 522 + 509 = 1031

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

A loud hiss came from the weighing scale, steam coming out of one of the many places steam could have come out from. The moment he activated it, it came to life, and the Swashbuckler could feel Anima pulsing from the weighing scale. A strong wind came from the direction of the weighing scale, and for a brief moment, he wondered why it required so much Anima to work. The thought was snatched away, however, when the sound of chiming bells could be heard.

The sound was foreign to him, for he was never really in touch with bells, but somewhere in his mind, he thought that such bells were the kinds rung in a Shinto shrine. The strange thing was, he had never been to such a shrine, and only knew it was part of Japanese religion. How had he known what their bells sounded like?

And suddenly, the wind stopped. Looking up, he saw the results of the first weighing. Interesting.

He removed all of the ingots, numbering them mentally at the same time, and noted the results somewhere in his head. If it was like this, he should be able to determine the ingot which the hall wanted easily. Or rather, he would have a greater chance to do so. By his calculations, in a worst case scenario, he would be able to narrow it down to two gold ingots. While he may not exactly be the best at such chance successes, he would eventually get it right. Hopefully, the Hall would not attack him for choosing a wrong ingot once or twice.

He repeated this process a few times. Each time, the number of ingots and the ingots themselves were different. With every time he did so, there were fewer ingots on the scale. Pocky and Skuggi were interested in what he was doing, but he was not sure if they could follow the logic behind it. In fact, he was not really certain as to what he was doing now. If one were to ask him to explain himself, he would not have been able to give them an answer. Such was a method so confusing that he was trying out. Perhaps he should have thought about this carefully before attempting. But it was too late, the last handle had been pulled, and a slot opened under the handles. He supposed it was where he was supposed to chuck the ingot in. It did look like the right size of one of the ingots, that was certain.

For a final confirmation, he quickly discussed the way he had narrowed down the ingots to Skuggi, who simply shrugged and said, "Even if it's wrong, it's too late. Just pick the ingot you think is correct and try it out." Wise words from a pumpkin.

So with that said, the Swashbuckler picked out a single gold ingot. The polished, unmarked gold reflected his face, revealing a tired face which he had not noticed he was carrying for quite some time. Guess he should rest a little before heading on.

~

Word count: 512
Total word count (Pharmacist): 522 + 509 + 512 = 1543

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

He slotted the gold ingot into the slot kindly provided to him, and waited. For a moment, nothing happened, then the weighing scale began to rumble, Anima gathering into its core again. Steam erupted from a machine somewhere, and whirring could be heard from inside as the weighing scale, or rather, the machine inside the weighing scale, worked to resolve whether or not it was the correct ingot, the one slightly heavier, the one the scale sought.

Suddenly, the whirring stopped. The Swashbuckler held his breath, and even the Jacks floating over head stopped cackling to see what was going on. The weighing scale remained silent for a few moments more, then spat out the ingot. Was it a failure...?

"You may pass, Adventurer."

A deep voice boomed from somewhere, startling him. Where had it come from...? In any case, the sound of grinding hinges could be heard as the gate opened to admit him into the Hall of the Fifth Twilight, the last Hall before he met the master of the dungeon. Wait, when had it been a gate? He was pretty sure he had only seen doors all along. Oh well, best get moving.

But first, he promised himself a break. Settling down on one of the gold ingots, he opened his inventory and brought out some chocolate eclairs to eat. Skuggi and Pocky looked at him curiously, wondering what this Adventurer was up to. Really, what else was he going to do? He did not even have his dinner before coming here, so of course, he was hungry. After eating a few eclairs, he stood up and with a few more eclairs in hand, moved on to the last Hall.

~

Word count: 283
Total word count (Pharmacist): 522 + 509 + 512 + 283 = 1826