HBWnovel Chapter 117 The Trials [ 4 ]
Chapter 117 The Trials [ 4 ]
Once again I am faced with a short hallway leading to another set of doors. I walk over and read the inscription on the door.
- Fifth Trial: Intelligence!
Well, this is more likely to be a puzzle than something to fight so I don't think I really need to prepare anything before I go in. So, I push open the doors and walk into the room beyond. The room is square this time, and there are a lot of different colored cubes floating in the middle of the room.
As soon as I step further into the room for a better look the doors slam closed behind me. There look to be about a hundred cubes, green, yellow, blue, red, and white. They are just floating in the air, but as I watch for a minute I can tell they are slowly revolving.
The cubes all seem to be orbiting an empty space in the middle, but I can't get a good look without touching a cube. This is a puzzle, so I need to figure out the rules first, I also need to know if there is a penalty. So, I touch a yellow cube which happens to be closest to me.
Nothing happens, so one by one I touch the other colors, when I touch a green cube it changes to black and goes to the middle of the space. Then when I do nothing else it returns to green and it's former position. I touch it again and start counting, ten seconds, so I have to consecutively touch cubes within ten seconds.
This is not going to be easy, I touch the green cube and then a red cube. As soon as I touch the red cube the green resets, at least there is no penalty. I try all the colors after green but none of them work, so I try touching a second green cube.
The second cube turns black and moves to the middle, so I have to touch all the green cubes without touching any other color. It makes sense now, I have to hit all the colors in the proper order to complete the puzzle. It takes me a few tries to even get all the green without hitting another color or letting ten seconds pass.
I end up having to figure out the proper order to hit all the green cubes so I don't run out of time. Then I have to repeat it over and over until I figure out that yellow is next. By the time I figure out the secondcolor in the sequence I am mentally exhausted.
Moving to a corner of the room I pull out my silk hammock and try to attack it to the walls, but no matter what I try I can't drive a spike into the wall. Giving up I lay the hammock on the floor and use it as a bed and go to sleep. My dreams are haunted by color changing cubes that keep trying to eat me.
When I wake up I am stiff from sleeping on the floor and not very well rested due to my dreams. I normally don't dream so I am guessing that this is part of the test. It is not only testing intelligence but also mental strength, the longer it takes to pass the trial the more stress I will be under.
After eating breakfast I immediately start figuring out the sequence to hit all the yellow cubes without letting ten seconds pass between them. It takes me a few tries to succeed in hitting all the yellow cubes, but by now the green I can do easily.
I get really lucky in that the first color I try after getting all the yellow is red which proves to be correct. The problem I run into is when the last yellow cube is turned to black the remaining cubes speed up in orbiting the center. Not only do they speed up but they are all moving at different speeds.
√ Scrimshaw Experience tales at empire
√ Level 10 ?????
- Agility +10 Intelligence +5
You can carve bone into many items.
'Oh, it can be upgraded! Glad I kept a few beast cores!"
So I pull an average beast core out of the pouch and use it to evolve the skill.
⟨⟨-DING-⟩⟩
- Congratulations! Skill Scrimshaw has evolved into Expert Scrimshaw!
√ Expert Scrimshaw
√ Level 11
- Agility+12 Intelligence +6
- You can craft expert level bone items.
Well, that was handy, and I even have 2 more beast cores left. I can probably make a much better bow now, maybe I will do that after I get out of here. Anyway, now I can test it out and make sure it will work, then I want out of this damn trial!