We were almost at the end of the room and Raishin and Ted were still fighting. I wanted to throw something at them but it would just trigger tiles.


    Hey! We’re leaving you guys behind! They seemed to react to that and headed over toward us. Gregory was inspecting the tile trail which was white by now while I was continuing the trail. It would have been more efficient to make a straight trail but the colors didn''t allow us, so we kind of made a double S path to arrive here. It was an obnoxious puzzle but I''m afraid this is not everything it has for us yet. I connected the trail to the wall at the end of the room and the crystal wall seems to move. And what do you know it revealed another room filled with tiles. Some parts, which I will call islands, didn''t have any tiles. But this room also had differences. I could see a lot of hidden traps in this room. Also, some tiles had certain markings on them. But more importantly more Corund writing on the walls.


    So, ehh guys, you’re not going to like this, this room has traps, and some tiles have weird markings of which I have no idea what they do but the worst part is the text on the wall. What does the text say?


    Congratulations on finishing the tutorial, the real thing starts now, good luck! And another says: room 1 out of 8. Great so there are 8 more rooms of obnoxious puzzles but this time there are traps. How long did that “tutorial” take us?


    About 53 minutes. Oof there goes our evening.


    Our evening was gone already it was past midnight now. How did time fly by so fast?


    Well, we arrived at the lake at about 7 then had a nice trip and messed around on the major lake which took about an hour, diving and getting to a dry spot and drying off also took another hour or so, then we collapsed the cave and through that narrow corridor and then the water nightmare took about an hour which puts us at around 10 maybe a bit over. We were knocked out for a bit and then spent almost an hour on this puzzle. So, 1 hour per section? This is going to be a long night. Is there really no way we can cheat this?


    I can try to set up a dimensional teleport but I''ve never done this and we might as well end up in the middle of the mountain. Let’s not do that, I have the feeling something really bad happens when you use your spaciotumporal magic.


    Spatiotemporal, and I guess I got a really uncomfortable feeling using my [turning leaf] earlier and I don''t want to find out what it is. I can''t believe I''m saying this but bringing the whole place down sounds really attractive right now. Do you think something will get summoned if you use your dimensional shenanigans? Would dealing with that summon be less of a pain than this puzzle?


    I really don''t know. Worst case scenario we will have to fight whatever appears and still complete the puzzle. Hmm yeah, that would really suck. So, what now?


    So how about this? We just have to speed this up so if Agnis just goes all fast on this, while Raishin zaps tiles and Greg and I will deal with any traps. Why do I get the lame task? Because whenever we give you a non-lame task you end up blowing stuff up in one way or another. Yeah!


    This also applies to you Agnis! In a lesser sense but it''s still true! At least we would have an easy time if we reach a puzzle where we just have to blow stuff up. So, chop chop get moving, we’re not getting any younger by standing here. But we’re practically immortal, aging is a non-issue for us.


    Move it! I sped up the process of forming trails while Raishin zapped tiles to check whether or not we could go forward or needed a detour. Some primitive traps went off by shooting bolts of magic at us or turning a tile in the trail into a spike trap. Gregory and Ted dealt with them easily. So, we had two problems, I don''t know if this is part of this puzzle but one of our chairs shattered. The other problem was that our next move was a tile that had a marking on it.


    Can we skip it? I don''t think so if I throw a chair, it will light this tile up too. We have no choice. What does your adventure sense tell you?


    It tells me this tile is bad news, it might teleport us back or be a bomb tile. Right defensive measures it is! Gregory covered us in a thick shadow cloak as I threw the chair. The trail connected and turned blue. The now blue tile with a marking lit up and a huge amount of water shot out from all the blue tiles.


    Aaaah! Nobody was harmed except Gregory who took psychological damage from the sudden appearance of a large volume of water. Hmm, so these tiles are colors of elements. Hmm, orange is earth? Blue is water, red is probably fire, and purple is lightning? White is light? Or is yellow light? Green is wind, I guess? What about pink?


    So, we have no clue? Let''s just test them all out! I don''t care what you do as long as it''s not the blue ones! Hmm, the colors are a problem though. The markings on the tiles are also different.


    I guess there is only one way to find out. Ugh, he is right, we''re too far in to go back.


    Raishin try to keep up! I kept throwing chairs after Raishin zapped some tiles, and we started to become quite good at this. Surely the rules aren''t this easy. I should have just kept that to myself. The next marking flipped all the tiles and every tile under us turned rainbow-colored.


    So, uhh what does this mean, are we in deep trouble? I got a bad feeling about this, time to redo this! I snapped my fingers and I broke an illusion layer. We were back to before we triggered the marking.


    Greg, can you remember this marking so that we can avoid this one? Sure, can do. I got a bad feeling about that rainbow too. Let''s go that way! Raishin zapped some tiles, but they were all pink so I didn''t need to throw a chair yet.


    The same marking as the first time, prepare to defend against some bullshit! I threw a chair and all the tiles lit up pink and the marking glowed. Fire burst out from the tiles. Of course, nobody got hurt because Gregory is overpowered.


    Sooo, if pink is fire, what is red? Beats me it surely isn''t an instant kill, right? Everyone looks at me with a look that indicated that they don''t know but that I might be right.


    So how about we avoid red with this marking? Yeah, sounds like a good idea. I don''t know if I can defend against instant kill. More traps that Gregory and Ted took care of.


    This marking is new but I can zap it, what do we do. I''m ready to undo this tile so go for it! I have defenses ready! Raishin zapped the tile and all the tiles turned black.


    Uhh. A ticking sound started.


    Of course, no puzzle without a time trial, we''re clearing this! I grabbed my buddies with my tails and fired up [Tail dynamo] with those left. Wait what? Gogogo!


    We don''t know how much time we have! I have no idea what is going on! I [Sonic Dashed] and we reached the end of the room in no time. Hehe, that was easy! Gregory, did you remember that one? If we get lucky, we might beat this obnoxious puzzle in no time!


    I''m tired of this puzzle, Raishin can you feed me energy to give to Agnis, Let''s see if he can run some probability manipulation to get that one again. Roger! The next section opened up and it looked similar to the previous section only this time there were… flying metal ducks? Guys, the tiles are still black let''s see how far we can get, beware of the metal ducks, I don''t know what these are since these things aren''t animals, I''m familiar with. I made it 1/3rd into the floor before the black tiles started flickering and then turned to normal. I took this chance to drop us off on a tile-less island.


    These ducks… why are they made out of metal? I''m hungry… I can''t eat metal. Why are they metal? That is a good question. A metal duck attacked Ted and he punched it.


    Ouch, what are these things made out of? Metal, you just said so.


    Yes, I know but I shouldn''t have any issues punching through metal! Let''s zap it! Make sure you only zap those above this island else you will flip tiles. Raishin hit them with lightning, It did seem to do something but not much. Tanky flying metal ducks, great just what we needed. I threw a chair at the duck, and it hit the duck and fell on a tile. The duck that I just hit went to sit on the chair.


    Ha! Hey! Guys look! A sitting duck! I''m sure we can one-shot it now! Raishin make a path to it! Raishin stepped on a tile and all the tiles between the chair and the tile he stepped on turned purple. He walked over to the duck and smacked it. The duck made a quack and exploded. It wasn''t a big explosion. What the… Hey, Ted, you didn''t make this puzzle by any chance?


    Huh? Yeah, nobody would make such a dumb pun a mechanic in a puzzle! You are not like a secret spy that infiltrated our group to sabotage us, are you?


    Hey, come on guys I would never do something like that! It just means that the maker of this puzzle is a genius! We all look skeptically at Ted.


    Agnis keep an eye on him! Roger! You guys! I am not a spy!


    That is exactly what a spy would say! Where have I heard of a similar interaction before? Ted took over throwing chairs at tiles while I was on duty to snipe ducks out of the sky and turn them into sitting ducks. It was straining our chair supply because we only had 11 and we lost 2 more because they were a bit far to pick up.


    Hey at this rate we will run out of chairs, can you summon Nugglet, Nuggduo, and Nuggtrio and get them to one-shot those ducks and get our chairs back? Who? Hahaha, that is a good Agnis impression!


    Rude! Your small golems. Ted said as he threw a chair, turned all the tiles green, and triggered a mark that will probably blast us all with wind. Gregory shielded us but well we got blown up in the air. Hmm, I didn''t expect this. Hmm, it makes sense though. I grabbed my buddies and dashed back down. The wind blew us off at an angle, I guess the makers weren''t complete sadists so this wasn''t triggering any tiles but landing on the floor would probably trigger them. Guess we know that now. Gregory made the crystal golems which one-shot the ducks and brought back the chairs.


    Any suspicious behavior from Ted? Nope, but maybe he triggered that wind trap on purpose to set up something while we were trying to recover from the situation! You guys are impossible! Wait a new mark! But Ted already threw a chair and turned the trail blue.


    Noo not blue! The mark lit up and we heard one single loud quack. I don''t like the sound of this! Uhh guys you won''t like this! Seems to be the theme of our life, what do you see.


    So, there is a flock of those ducks coming and one big metal duck. Raishin put his hands in his hair. How are we supposed to defeat all those ducks we only have 11 chairs! 10 chars.


    10 chairs! Wait what? What happened to the 11th chair? It broke after I threw it to turn the tiles blue. Suspicious! Smells fishy!


    Hey nobody said something when Agnis broke a chair! Trying to divert the attention now eh, hey where is Agnis? While these idiots were arguing a duck picked me up and abducted me.


    Hey, let me go! Well, at least he isn''t triggering any tiles. Raishin grabbed a chair and threw it.


    Ouch! Hit the duck not me! Crystal chairs hurt! Sorry! Raishin threw more chairs but I had to dodge them, I managed to grab 2 mid-air and smacked the duck with one, and threw another on the floor so I could land on it. Good job smartass because of your poor accuracy we only have 2 chairs and the others are scattered around.


    Uhh sorry. The flock of ducks is incoming. Quack! Don''t worry I will just undo... I suddenly got assaulted by a lot of ducks. They are preventing him from undoing the duck tile!


    I would disagree I don''t think Agnis is ductile. Raishin slapped Ted.


    No time for puns! The big duck is heading towards him! It was taking a lot out of me to make sure I didn''t turn into duck food. The only thing I could think of was just freezing myself solid or nuke the whole place but that would teleport us to the start. Hmm, teleport us to the start? It would give me time to undo the duck tile and we would end up on the spot before we triggered it. I smacked some ducks away with the chairs as I landed on the tile it stood on. I didn''t notice it was on a tile with a marking… All the floors turned black and a ticking sound started.


    Holy shit Agnis, you are lucky! Raishin, I need your help let''s send these ducks to the scrapyard! Gregory I''m going to use fire! Oh shit! Gregory covered Raishin in a special shadow cloak as he rushed toward me and made a shadow dome around himself and Ted. Don''t get fried Raishin! Let''s go for a 43! I gathered fire in my palms and it swiftly turned blue. Can we just fire it asap? It''s already getting stupid hot here even with Greg’s shadow cloak! Sure! Raishin and I struck a pose as if we were ready to punch as the flock of metal ducks and the big duck approached us. [Flame wave] 2x. The metallic poultry got turned into molten puddles on the ground. Gregory lifted his barrier and I grabbed them and rushed towards the end. I also went past the crystal chairs which Raishin and Gregory picked up T


    hat is some molten hot poultry soup! Ugh, Greg do you have anti-nausea potions for me? I got handed a potion and chugged it. We ended this floor and entered the next stage, stage 3 looked similar to stage 2 but this one also had other monsters just walking around. They seemed to trigger colored tiles but they only triggered 2 different colors. The rest of the tiles were still black since the time trial was still going.


    Another potion please Gregory, I''m speeding up, I''m tired of this clown fiesta. I downed another smelly potion and sped up.


    <hr>


    We made it to stage 4 before the tiles started flickering and turning back to normal. We are speed-running this puzzle so hard! Ugh I need to rest a bit; you guys continue while I rest. Sure. As I looked on as my buddies continued with this obnoxious puzzle, I noticed something interesting. Besides the monsters that moved around and only triggered 2 colors, I saw some chairs in different colors at the edge of the room.


    Colored chairs at 10 o clock! They looked over and spotted them. Do you think they force a particular color? I don''t know but another chair broke so we are really hurting for more chairs. Between knocking ducks out of the sky and making paths the chair requirements started to rise but the number of chairs started to decrease.


    I never thought I would say this but we need more chairs! Raishin head towards the chairs! Also, throw a chair toward Agnis some ducks seem to be heading toward him! Raishin threw a chair at me but his aim was a little off as usual and had to move to catch it before smacking some metal ducks with it.


    Ugh, what is the point of resting if I got to run to catch the chair! Sorry! I smacked ducks until the chair broke.


    Well, this sucks I guess my rest is over. I walked over to my buddies over the trail they made while dodging dive-bombing metal ducks. Raishin missed a duck and the chair hit a walking mob. The mob sat on the chair and made 2 trails towards us each of the 2 colors that it had. This puzzle is getting ridiculous. Raishin walked over to the monster to smack it but it started attacking. Whoa! Ted dashed towards it and punched it and sent it flying. It made trails of its colors as it flew past. We now had a long white and blue trail.


    The white trail, please! But the blue trial is closer to where we need to go!


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    THE WHITE TRAIL! Right, white trail it is. The white trail has the duck mark though…


    I will use [Liberation] on the duck horde, your flame wave charged it up nicely, Let''s go! Gregory stepped on the white trail, the blue trail disappeared and the mark activated. Quack!


    It is time for your extinction, I''ve had it with these traps! [Liberation]. The duck horde got engulfed in darkness and they disappeared. This triggered a lot of tiles and we got teleported to the start of the 4th section.


    Oh, forgot about that. Ugh, more nausea potions, please.


    This is the last one, what did you do this time? You used up a lot of magic. Made sure we got the same tile layout with probability manipulation.


    I guess this is the last time you can use that in this puzzle. I still remember our trail, Let''s go, leave a chair for Agnis so he can rest again and smack ducks. I wonder when my time to do something cool comes… One day surely. The potion Gregory gave me wasn''t enough. I tried to control my nausea with nature magic. I was holding out for quite a while but that wasn''t enough. I emptied my already empty stomach. The taste of bile filled my mouth. It has been a while since I had this taste in my mouth. I had it a lot when I was practicing magic shortly after we arrived at Boshi town. It was a feeling I hoped never to encounter. Another wave of nausea and there was nothing left to throw up but I still got the urge to. I still didn''t know the exact cause of why this happened. It got paired with the usage of magic. Probability manipulation normally doesn''t require this much mana but I juiced it up a lot to get an immediate and accurate effect. I used up almost all my magic reserves for this. We managed to get halfway through the floor before we got teleported back so this would save us a lot of time. I could have used my illusions to undo that but that requires me to remember crucial details of what''s going on before breaking a layer.


    I was resting and not paying much attention until it was too late. If something happens, I won''t be able to undo that either unless my buddies get a severe injury or get killed. Nausea came and went in waves. I noticed some ducks approaching and tried to smack them. I managed to deal with them but I suddenly got a dizzy spell. Ugh, where was this coming from? On top of being dizzy, it felt like something tried to rip my consciousness away. The dizzy spell went away and my nausea got less. I was so tired right now. I really worked this nature energy to get everything back to normal. Suddenly the nature energy in me started to swell and the nausea completely disappeared. I assume I got better at nature energy, I never had something be this obvious though, I circulated nature energy again and it was as strong as it was after it swelled. That is odd. What is going on with my body? Was I dying? I unleashed various filters and inspected myself. I saw the nature energy swirling, the ley line energy in my body also seems to have grown, and nothing else seems off. My fatigue was quite high but I wasn''t really feeling it at the moment because of the nature energy. Hmm ok, there is something wrong with me. I have various curses on me but I think I subconsciously suppressed them. It seems my buddies have the same issue. I guess destroying that root dumped some curses on us. It is probably because of Gregory that we are not feeling much of those.


    Shadowcats have quite the curse resistance, it is not that you can''t curse them but if you do it might not have any effect, I guess he is bleeding that over at us, just like I''m bleeding over that forcefully messing with our time and space gets blocked, to a certain extent. I guess since it is not an issue, I can just ignore this. Maybe this fast growth of nature energy is Ted’s effect on us. As far as I know, brown war bears don''t have anything like that but they have an insane vitality that can be related to nature magic. I looked at Ted but I didn''t see a special amount of nature magic. I felt a slight nausea coming back up which I pushed back with nature energy. After we beat this obnoxious puzzle, I need to talk to Gregory and we really need to figure out this nausea problem. So far, we''re scraping by but if something else like those spirit sisters appears we might be done for. I got up. I still felt a little bit weak. I smacked some more ducks and this chair also broke. My buddies almost reached the chairs I spotted earlier. We were down to 5 chairs. Numerous metal ducks were flocking to my buddies and they had trouble with them. They tried to abduct Raishin. I''m assuming that besides being annoying they want to pick you up and drop you on a random tile. No tiles lit up when they carried you. It seems Ted had enough of the ducks and jumped on one. He got attacked and used the ducks as footholds. He was above inactivated tiles but they weren''t lighting up. Ted seems to have noticed this and hopped from duck to duck towards the end. Raishin and Gregory collected the chairs and Ted stepped into the 5th stage and triggered random tiles which made us teleport to the beginning of section 5.


    We got chairs, we got to the next floor everything is going well! Yes, you''re saying that because you haven''t seen that yet! I pointed at tiles going up the rock wall. All the other sections were flat but this looked like going up a steep and dangerous cliff. There were no more ducks. Some patrolling monsters and a scary chasm. There were also boulders falling down that would trigger tiles to change color when the boulders rolled over them.


    Wow, this puzzle sucks. Just 3 more sections after this, how late is it now Agnis? 2:21, the time trials and Ted’s duck hopping really saved us time.


    Shall we rest a bit? Yeah. Good plan. I took some food out of my dimensional pocket and we had some late-night dinner. I did feel that highly comfortable gaze again and this was way stronger and it was as if I could physically feel the gaze. It made me very uncomfortable.


    Are you alright Agnis? Just tired and dealing with some unknown entity watching me when I used my dimensional pocket. Meh, if I ever find the maker of this puzzle, he is going to eat a full-powered [Raishin kick]!


    Leave him alive so I could drop a red lightning slash on him. And a mountain buster. And uhh I will just curse him. Now that you say that I haven''t seen you use any curses.


    Well, I''m either too busy keeping you guys alive or you guys just obliterate your targets swiftly. I''d like to have some spotlight too! You guys are taking all the good bits! Well, if things continue like this I will probably be out of gas when we fight the guardian of the root. So, if you ask me, you could go solo him if you want.


    Uhh, I''m not sure if soloing the guardian is a good idea. We kept talking about our current situation while having some nice pasta and grilled fish. I had a lot of fish stashed so we would be eating a lot of fish for the foreseeable future.


    So, any ideas to speed run the rest? I don''t think Agnis has any tricks left that he still can use. Hmmm, [shadow meld] will trigger tiles. So, I can''t use that, Agnis said that teleports get their pings sent back. Dimensional teleports are out also, do you have any other types of teleport that don''t rely on sending pings?


    Hmm, I do but I need to have been there before or see my destination. It is similar to Agnis [Turning leaf] but I basically convert myself into energy and make it uhh dissipate? Is that the correct word? The energy dissolves in my location and ambient energy gathers to match the energy, I had while attempting the teleport, on my targeted location, and poof teleport complete! It is a tricky teleport because it gets harder the more energy, I’m carrying so it only ever gets used by six-tailed tigers when they''re running low on steam and have to run away or something. So, if I drop all our energies low enough you can do this?


    I have never done this before! And I''m not as good at magic or energy control as you or Agnis so I don''t think I could succeed on the first try! Hmm too bad. Can I ask you to practice this whenever you can? We might really need that in the future. Who knows what other obnoxious puzzles we will encounter…


    I will! How about I bring that rock wall down on the chasm? At least we don''t have to worry about some gimmicks that try to send us off into the abyss. If we''re lucky there won''t be any tiles on the other side of the rock wall. You can do that? Ted slapped his biceps.


    Of course! we do have to get close to it for me to bring it down. How reliable! Nice!


    I feel a bit better you guys ready? Let''s clear this obnoxious puzzle. Let''s cheat our way to the end! Whatever is at the end of this puzzle is in for an ass-whooping. I''d rather take something stupidly strong like those spirit sisters over this dumb puzzle.


    Well, the goal of this puzzle is to waste our time. I don''t know for what though. Maybe the boss needs to charge up a powerful move that takes several hours to charge. Like that Donkey guy? Imagine, what if Donkey was the guardian and he has been charging up all these hours to zap us with some blue lightning.


    I would feel sorry for it and return it with a frost mirror. Haha, that would be so anti-climactic! We all went silent.


    It is going to be an easy boss, right? I really hope so, I might have to go phoenix mode to get some light golden flames rolling and absorb some mana with frost magic if that boss is strong. How about you just sit out this fight? You''ve carried us enough the last couple of days. Yeah, just sit this one out, we will call for help if we really need it.


    Meh, fine but don''t hesitate to call for my help if you need it! I guess I will be sitting this fight out, I wanted to try some dagger and wire stuff but since using spatiotemporal-related skills will give me that oppressive gaze that wouldn''t be possible anyways. The next floors wouldn''t be easier than the ones before so maybe I will be utterly exhausted by the time we get there. I should do something about my poor stamina. But I guess it isn''t a big deal if I sit out the next battle, Raishin is the main damage dealer, Gregory is the main defense and Ted is switching between offense and defense. All are vital for a team in battle, I''m more in charge of disrupting the opponents which aren''t really necessary. It does make the job of the others easier but it is not vital. We continued the puzzle; we threw some monsters around which made some trails for us. Gregory as usual freaked out whenever we got a blue trail. And we reached the edge of where the rock wall began and the normal tiled floor ended. Normally we would have to scale the rock wall while still doing this puzzle but Ted had other plans.


    Do you need anything, Ted? We managed to make the trail wide so Ted had some space to do stuff, courtesy of the colored chairs. I might need some energy, so Raishin, Greg? If you could? I took a step back as Raishin generated energy and Gregory turned it into something Ted could use and sent it to Ted. He grabbed the rock wall. He started emanating earth magic, his muscles started to bulge and his fingers sank into the rock. He gave out a bear roar and pulled on the rock wall. I''m assuming he is using earth magic to move the whole rock wall as 1 object and prevent it from crumbling. I could see some movement.


    I think he needs more energy. On it! On it! Ted got fed more energy and the rock wall started to move visibly now. All the monsters in the rock wall started to freak out. Another bear roar and he flung the rock wall over the chasm. The rock wall was big enough to completely cover it. Whew, that was tougher than I expected. We all clapped.


    Impressive. Ted bowed.


    Thanks. So, a new path opened up, it seems there was a hidden passage behind the rock wall. Hmm, this is suspicious it is as if something is predicting our move. Raishin looked around.


    I looked around, I don''t see anything off but this secret passage might be a trap. Although I understand the reasoning how many people do you think could pull this off or even come up with this idea? Gregory said while pointing at the rock wall that was covering the chasm.


    Hmm, you have a point. But there don''t seem to be any tiles on the back of the rock wall so we could just walk to the end of this section without any issues. Before that, here take some energy too. Thanks. We debated on which route to take. We first tried to decide it by games but in a game of tail wrestling I had the advantage, in a memory game, Gregory had the advantage, in a normal arm-wrestling Ted and Raishin had the advantage. We couldn''t find any game where none of us would have an unfair advantage. Ted and I were for taking the normal tile-free route and Raishin and Gregory were for taking the newly opened path. My argument was that the opened path could be a bonus round, a way harder floor and might give some cool stuff when completed but overall, a waste of time. Raishin’s argument was that it was a shortcut. We both acknowledged that the other argument is very valid but that is where the problem lies.


    So, let''s assume that opened path is a shortcut then that will shave off time but we don''t know if it will put us in the last stage or the next stage. We basically get this stage for free so if it would bring us to the next stage there is no difference. But the problem is if it is a bonus stage then we might be in for a rough time. We have a free stage here now it would be pointless to risk a bonus stage. Moreover, if we lose who knows what might happen, we might be put back all the way to the start or if we win the reward might not be worth it. But what if the reward is that we get to complete the puzzle! It would still be a shortcut! But you’re assuming we clear it, this puzzle kept getting harder and harder, we kind of skipped this 6th floor so we don''t know how hard this could have been but the bonus stage is going to be harder. We almost got defeated by random traps who knows what other things this puzzle has for us.


    Basically, we don''t have anything to lose or gain by taking the safe route. It would be neutral while taking this opened path could either make us gain a lot or lose a lot. Weren''t you the adventurous one here?


    Weren’t you the cautious one here? On top of that Agnis is pooped so if any unexpected things happen all the burden lies on you, Gregory.


    I like adventure, yes but I don''t want to put us in needless danger when we are ill-equipped to deal with it. Hmm, this is tricky both sides have valid points but we’re not going anywhere. How about we just flip a coin for it?


    Do you want to leave it up to luck? Even though we have been so unlucky lately? Hehe, it is simple! You flip a coin and if you’re not happy with the result then you know your answer! Hmm, I guess debating won''t get us anywhere, we might as well flip a coin. I took out a coin and flicked it toward Ted.


    You do the honor. Right, I''m just going to make sure this coin has a head and a tail.


    Hey! Your specialty is deception, I just need to make sure! Ok, this is a normal coin, the head will be forward and the tails will be to the newly opened path. Ted flipped the coin up in the air, it fell on the ground and rolled into a dark crevice. We looked at Ted in disbelief.


    Hey come on how was I supposed to know that was going to happen! Ted took out a coin and flipped it. This time he made some small rock walls to make sure the coin wouldn''t escape. Why don''t you just catch the coin… Hahaha, Ted is so clumsy!


    Ok, it is tails, the new path it is! Aight! Let''s go!


    Hey, I thought you were against the new path! Gotta play devil''s advocate sometimes! We can''t just keep ganging up on Ted!


    Hey! I knew it! What was I expecting from a fox! Hehe, I’ll take that as a compliment. We went towards the newly opened path. Even though I was curious about what we would find the arguments that I brought up still were valid, it could turn out to be a nasty experience if it was a bonus round and we might have ended up better off continuing down the set path. Gregory approached me and whispered. You didn''t... By any chance let the first coin roll off because you saw that it might land on heads, did you?


    Who knows. As I stepped towards the crystal wall that was opening to reveal our next challenge or possible shortcut.


    The wall opened and… Well, I didn''t really expect this. It was actually a shortcut. There were tiles in this room but they were all black. There wasn''t a ticking sound but we still went through it quite fast. It did give a feeling of a room that got scrapped or was inactive. It wasn''t illuminated like the other ones. The other stages had crystals that gave off light but none gave off light here and the place was quite dark. I couldn''t see from the outside if this place was active or not so this was a surprise. Anyways I guess we got lucky for once. I hope we didn''t use up all of our luck here. We still were wary but we seemed to accept that nothing really was going to happen here. I would have expected Raishin to say something but we were all quiet as we walked through the shortcut. We really were cheating our way through this puzzle. We reached the crystal wall that connected the end of our shortcut and the beginning of our next challenge.


    We made it guys, I don''t see any tiles in the next room, it does look like there is one strong enemy in the next room. Boss battle? Does that mean we beat the puzzle?! A bit anticlimactic but I''m glad that we don''t have to deal with that obnoxious puzzle again. I suggest we use this opportunity to prepare for the boss battle. We will probably attract the attention of the guardian when we step inside.


    That sounds like a good idea but you’re misunderstanding here, I don''t think this is the guardian, we’re too far from the root. Hmm, so this is a miniboss? It sucks but I''m kind of tired of all this we’ll just defeat it, unlock a checkpoint, and come back tomorrow.


    Will it be that easy though? What game doesn''t have checkpoints?! We’re not exactly in a game but if I get Agnis to master moving after [Shadow melding] we could get back to that room if Ted or I make a small canal through the mountain reaching all the way outside. To get around having to do the puzzle again? We’re really cheating our way to this root, aren''t we?


    I don''t care, I don''t want to deal with this dumb puzzle again, if I ever meet a Corund I''m going to smack him! I don''t think slapping a random Corund will do anything. Anyways Raishin start generating a lot of energy so I can store it, I don''t have much stored and it might be useful to get in a fight prepared for once. Raishin started to make energy which Gregory banked in his shadows. Ted approached me.


    You’re going to sit this one out, right? How do you feel? I could use some rest so even though I don''t like it I will take you up on it. Just call out if you need some assistance but I probably won''t pay a lot of attention to the fight so I won''t be able to undo certain stuff unless you guys get heavily wounded or die.


    That is fine. Just so you guys realize but fighting without Agnis is going to feel really different.


    Yeah, we noticed in the battle versus Nayani. We should be more prepared for something like this now. Ugh, I wonder if I will be able to hit my [Raishin kick] without Agnis’ assistance. I believe in you!


    Is everyone ready? I''ll put a shadow cloak on you Agnis, just go find a good spot to rest. Will do. We approached the crystal wall which opened. A wide room was on the other side. There weren''t any crystals in this room. Only a big metal door on the other side of the room. There was a door to the right of the room, looking inside it looked like it was a living room and further down a bedroom. The boss lives here? How weird. I guess it makes sense, nobody is going to wait in an empty room until intruders arrive. In the middle was a big guy sitting down on a stool made out of rock, the rock looked like marble but I couldn''t really tell. My vision was getting a bit hazy from fatigue. The guy was about twice our size and was bald, and bulky.


    Hey, it''s Rock! Or well I guess this is his big brother so I guess it''s Boulder? Not everyone who is bulky and bald is from the same family! And his name is Brock!


    So, you just added a “B” to his name? I guess that works, it makes this guy''s name also accurate because he is B-older.


    Never mind this was a mistake I just gave you food for a dumb pun. I looked at him to analyze his strength and looked for a spot. After getting a grasp on how strong he was I deactivated my eyes and made myself snug in a corner.


    This boss isn''t that strong, one of you could probably solo him. Maybe let Ted get some spotlight here since Ted would be the best matchup against him. It''s a good thing I''m sitting out because I''m a terrible matchup for this guy.


    Anyways I''m going to rest go get him, Ted! Aww I was hoping for some mountain-busting action! You''re not going to blow up the mountain! Do you have this one, Ted? Haha, I was waiting for a moment like this! Ted put on his metal knuckles and bumped his fists together and took a stance. The boss got up after looking quite bored.


    Not going to say anything eh? Ted faced off against this boulder of a man. Raishin and Gregory backed off and chilled on the side of the room. They still seemed like they were ready to jump in at any moment''s notice if something would happen. Now here is where I paid less attention so I''m going to do something I don''t often do. Switch to a third-person perspective! Ha, you didn''t expect that, did you? I can do that with my Elgards eyes! Or maybe you did expect that. Anyways I went to rest while Ted faced off against Boulder.