Chat Group For Magicians

At first, it was quite dark and hard to navigate. To solve that, I conjure a small fireball on the tip of my forefinger and it acted as a small candle. I thought I would see walls of rocks and stalactites and stalagmites around me but I was fooled. This might be a cavern entrance to some sort of cave but the inside is not in a sense similar to a cave, in fact, it is more akin to a temple hallway than a cave.

The walls seem to have some engravings of some sort however, I can't read it and I don't think I will be able to. They looked like they are foreign words and I have not seen it before. I don't even think of it as a language in our world.

I scanned the place using the mana scan and found out that the whole place is only a single hallway, going further underground. There is no such thing as hidden passageways or any branching hallways that leads to other places. It only leads to a single place. I have not seen anyone else since my mana scan has a limited range. If that was the case, this hallway is much deeper than what I am seeing right now.

I continue moving down the hallway. It might look like I am walking in a straight line but I am actually descending. The engravings on the wall are also stretched out till the very far end. I also noticed that not only the engravings are present now, there are also some drawings of humans and some monsters on the wall similar to those historical drawings seen in caves made by prehistoric people.

Even though I am curious and wanted to look at the engravings and the drawings, I have no time to dawdle. I keep on walking for quite a while and I almost thought that it is endless. Luckily, after a few minutes of walking, I finally managed to see in my mana scan that the hallway is now divided by a big door and before that door are two figures. Which I can tell are both Maple and Anya.

When I arrived at the door, Maple and Anya are busy looking at the massive door's doorknob. Maple is the first one to notice me while Anya did not even bother to turn around, still busy looking at the doorknob.

"Looks like you were successful on your slipping in. Not bad," Maple said.

"Ha, it was not easy you know."

'Still, it is a good thing that you managed to get in here without being attacked by the snake."

I looked into the doorknob and asked Maple about it.

"Is this the puzzle you are talking about?"

Maple shook her head. "Yes and no. You see, the doorknob is the beginning of the puzzle while the whole door is the puzzle. If we managed to decode it, then it will open up, and allow us to get inside the place."

"Did you try to break the door?" I asked.

"I did that in the past. It was a foolish move because all the magic that I used to destroy the door rebounded and hit me twice the power of the magic I used. I even tried physical means but it was also useless."

"Even physical means is useless? Our only choice is to solve the puzzle?"

"Yeah. So it seems. It was not easy so I am not sure if we can open it before the demons wreak havoc outside. It will be quite troublesome if that happens."

I can only frown when I heard this. I have a bad side when it comes to puzzles. I am not a puzzle whiz so if we are facing a puzzle, it will be hard for me to do so. But it would not hurt to try right now.

Glancing at the puzzle, it was a simple sliding puzzle that seemed to look a simple puzzle of sliding. However, I finally noticed the difference between the normal sliding puzzle and this one. It is an unblocking puzzle kind where you have to exit one block to another exit and remove it on the puzzle which will solve it. The only thing is that the puzzle has a complicated movement. Every time you move a puzzle block on a direction, a puzzle block would also move randomly in another direction. It could either mess up the puzzle or mess up your plan to move the block. No wonder it is a complicated one.

I tried solving it at first but as soon as the block that is the target to be removed from the puzzle reached the middle part, it became entrapped, making it unable to move backward or forward. It can't go sideways because it only has a backward and forward movement.

"F*ck, this is indeed complicated. This is not something I have seen before in my life," I cursed after finding out that my move set is wrong.

"See? It doesn't look easy because it is not easy! I have solved puzzles before but most puzzles that I have solved are a bit easier and have clues on how to solve it, but this one seems a no-go. It seems to be reading your mind!" Maple said as she glared at the puzzle.

Anya just continues to stare at the puzzle but from her reaction, I can tell that she is pissed off on the puzzle. I pull out my phone and decided to capture a photo on it. If we can't solve this puzzle, then we will find help from the outside world. Since my phone can still connect to the chat group, then they might have any idea what this puzzle is and how to solve it.

"What are you doing Kazuma?" Maple looked confused when I pull out the phone.

"I am trying to ask help on the chat group for a solution on this. Many of them are very knowledgeable about magic artifacts and other kinds of things so if we ask them, we might be able to get a hint or even a solution on this puzzle."