Chapter 130 - The Jigsaw Puzzle
"Hello, boys."
With hands in his pocket, Felix approached the immobilized duo with quick footsteps. He wasn't worried about them escaping his inducements effect. If any random could just do so, the primogenitor should just hand his poison lord position to another.
Agitated at hearing that familiar damned voice, Battalion and Disgraced were on the verge of insanity. They could neither move nor think straight to activate a single ability. They were completely crippled both physically and mentally by Felix's inducement combo.
If only they were able to close their eyes, the vertigo feeling would have lessened and let them activate their abilities. Unfortunately, even their eyelids were paralyzed.
"Next time, don't enter a partnership if you don't know how it works."
That was the last advice they heard before their skulls got penetrated with Felix's index fingers at exactly 5 seconds.
Felix had it all calculated in his mind. He was absolutely certain that only two bombs were enough for him to finish them off. If he wasn't, he would have thrown two more as a precaution.
Thud Thud!
Their bodies immediately hit the ground after Felix retrieved his fingers which were supporting their weight. Their agitated expressions remained affixed in their faces even after turning into corpses.
Felix cleaned his bloodied fingers with a handkerchief and pulled those two away from the wall. They were lying exactly in front of the hidden compartment.
After dealing with the corpses, he stood a few meters away from the wall and squinted at it, trying to see the exact shapes of the things inside. He wasn't a retard like those two, who stood merely a meter away from the compartment.
But, he could excuse their behavior as they didn't have the same vision as him. If they did, they would have been scared shitless at how close they were to hell.
His eyes reflected a red circle pulsing with heatwaves, a medium-sized chest, and an array of deadly traps pointing at the entrance.
He figured out easily that the circle was a teleportation device. As for the chest, he couldn't see its real color and rank, as it was shining with a red light.
'What do you think Asna? Should we go for it or keep hunting?'
'Well, I think you should go for it since your judge mentioned that there might be scrolls taking you to open chests.'
'Indeed, the only issue I am worried about is the rank of the chest. I don't want to get baited.'
'Just do it! It's fun, cough, I mean it's important for your victory.'
Felix didn't bother replying to her anymore. He was stupid in the first place to even ask for her opinion. She clearly just wanted to have fun, not caring about the results of the game or wager.
He knew for a fact that she might even propose to activate the teleportation circle just to fulfill her curiosity.
'Screw it, I can afford to take risks with my points.'
Focused, he narrowed his eyes at the area in front of the hidden compartment. He advanced step by step with heightened senses, not daring to underestimate the traps in front of him. He didn't know which one of those images and words ahead of him was the key to the compartment or the traps.
He stopped before two calligraphic sentences, emitting an aura of mystery and beauty. He believed that the current key was one of them or both, as they were exactly in the middle of the compartment door.
Delighted, his eyes brightened up as he noticed that they were riddles. It was time for him to work his long lost magic.
"What you seek is within a peak. But peek underneath your feet, to obtain what you seek." His eyes focused on the 2nd riddle, "A broken vase, especially its base, must be displaced, to reach another space."
Felix rested his chin on his hand and chuckled after reading the two riddles. Without burning too many brain cells, Felix knew what those riddles meant easily. After all, he was looking at the hidden compartment right behind those riddles.
That facilitated the mystery of the riddles to null. If it was another one, they would take a few minutes to comprehend its meaning. After all, those two riddles were not the only ones on the walls, but just one of the millions of inscriptions on the walls and the floor.
Their sheer amount would render anyone helpless in connecting the riddles to each other. If it wasn't for so, Battalion and Disgraced wouldn't have spent so much time staring at it.
With an amused expression, he inspected under his feet, expecting to find the real key to the door. Just as he assumed, three broken vases into random pieces each with their own color, greeted his eyes.
'Hm, Yellow, Red, and Milky white.'
He crouched next to them and examined each one thoroughly. 'So this was the reason for their argument before.'
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at their low IQ. Wasn't the true answer as clear as day? Felix didn't even take a second before he figured out that the milky white vase was the true key to the compartment. He easily concluded so from the 2nd riddle.
Felix interpreted it as such. To use the teleportation circle, one first must piece together one of the jigsaws. This was the first and also the easiest interpretation. Battalion and Disgraced probably figured as much. However, the real hidden interpretation was on the last phrase. 'To reach another space.'
This clearly implied that a teleportation circle was within the wall. If battalion and disgraced dug deeper into this phrase, they would have figured out eventually that there was a connection between one of the jigsaw vases and the teleportation circle.
The color!!
The Teleportation circle was famously known for having a milky white color, just like the only vase that had this color. Yet, those buffoons kept arguing about the other two, totally ignoring the real key.
'Yes, jigsaw puzzle! Let me solve it for you!'
Eager, Asna stood up on her bed, not caring about her exposed enchanting body. She squinted in focus at the jigsaw and memorized each piece's position. She then closed her eyes and sat back in the bed.
She wanted to solve it in her mind first, before retelling it to Felix. She wasn't worried about her memory failing her. A being with high status in the universe like her enjoyed a lot of perks, and absolute memory was just one of them.
Few minutes passed in utter silence, as Felix kept switching positions of pieces with his fingers. Some were big and easily noticeable, while some had the size of a coin. Plus, with the milky white color of the vase, the puzzle wasn't getting any easier.
Regardless of its difficulty, Felix always had a nostalgic smile on his face as he kept trying to solve it. He heard what Asna had said, and understood that he could just chill and let her do it for him. But why would he do so?
He wasn't braindead not to try his best to solve it solo. In this life, he might hate puzzle type games due to their many variables affecting his victory. But it wasn't like he hated the puzzles themselves. In fact, he loved them dearly.
No one could understand his relationship with puzzles and riddles.
In his previous life, puzzles and external additions in games were his two favorites, as even him a trash player with a garbage bloodline could topple over veterans and clinch the championship if he played his cards right.
That's what he feared would happen in this life now, for total trash to secure the win under his nose.
It was fun when he did it. But, it was not cute anymore when the affected was him.
"Done! 6 minutes? It seems like I got rusty."
Satisfied yet somewhat unhappy, He pieced the last one inside a tight fit part of the vase's base. Immediately after it got attached, the vase shone with a milky white light and suddenly projected a beam of it on the two riddles, lighten them up.
Felix took five steps back and raised his guard up, expecting traps inside the wall to propel everything into his previous spot.
This was the 2nd hurdle. If one believed that by solving the jigsaw, the door would open to riches. Then he could only get turned into a porcupine by the salvo of arrows, bullets, spears...
Ka-Thump!
Felix heightened his senses even further after seeing the traps heating up, preparing to strike behind the wide-open entrance.
'Praise me, Felix! Or else I won't tell you how to so.lv....it'
Asna's smugness died down gradually as her eyes widen at the barrage of traps, landing on the jigsaw, yet, what shocked her was not that, but the fact that it was shining with a white l.u.s.ter, displaying its beauty in a complete one piece.
'Oh you are still on that? Good job Asna, you did well.'
Nonchalant, Felix advanced forward, unworried anymore about the traps. The heat they were emitting before died down. In other words, their energy core had run out of juice.
Asna didn't respond to his praise. She simply laid on her bed with a deadpan expression and covered herself with bedsheets from top to bottom.
His praise kept repeating in her mind, and each time it sounded more sarcastic and jeering. She couldn't understand how Felix outed her in a puzzle.
He never showed before a single interest in puzzles or riddles. In fact, the only time he spoke about them was when he found out he lucked out on this game.
Her mind began to get confused and messy about this messed up situation.
'I can't take it anymore! I need to find out!!!'
She disconnected their connection and dove deep within his memories, trying to see what caused this abnormality.
'Not here, not this year, eww! How can he touch himself like that?'
Disgusted, she bypassed those teenager days and jumped straight into his childhood years. As she stopped and submerged herself into those memories, she heard a stern voice scolding young Felix.
"You little shit; you will be the death of me! I told you to pee on Benjamin's shoes, not his mouth during his nap!! F*ck, now he ratted on me in the pub. How could I face everyone in it?!"
"But I wanted to try my best and please you." Young Felix sulked while giving Robert puppy eyes.
"Stop giving that angelic face!! You won't escape from punishment, no matter what."
Sniffle Sniffle
"Sigh, alright stop crying, It's was my fault in the first place."
"I am not punished anymore?"
"Heh, nice try." Robert ruffled his hair and ordered, "You are grounded for 15 days in your room. Go!"
Just as young Felix tried to cry again, Robert shooed him away. He knew his heart would turn soft if he saw it again.
'Tsk, it's getting harder and harder to appease grandpa.'
Annoyed, young Felix wiped his fake tears and went to his room, locking himself inside, all alone. He trod towards a door that had a sign written on it >Games Room<
"At least I still have my babies to accompany me." Gratified, he opened the room with a smile, exposing the content to Asna.
'What the hell am I seeing?!!' Asna instantly gaped at its interior, not knowing how to express her disbelief.