Chapter 687 - The Riddles

Alex was observing the Potential Tower for fifteen minutes. He also saw many other Great Elder's disciples like Ryuu and Maya. Most of them were pretty strong according to his Spirit Eyes, but he had no intention of fighting them. He simply wished to finish the tower without causing any trouble… Well, only one trouble in the end.

Suddenly, an array appeared beneath a person sitting on the lotus pose. He suddenly disappeared.

"!!!" Alex was confused at first, but he found a sign of energy on the second floor. "I see. That person has beaten the first floor."

"Correct. If you fail the test, you will be teleported outside the Potential Tower. The tower will then glow according to the color you were in." Ryuu confirmed.

Alex nodded before more and more disciples started to go up like popcorn. "I think it's time to enter?"

"Indeed." Ryuu nodded and led the way.

When they reached inside the tower, Alex was stunned to see nothing other than bricks for the floor, wall, and ceiling. There was no entrance to the second floor, so they really needed to teleport to reach the next floor.

"Just sit wherever you want, the Array will be activated, and you will go inside the illusory world." Ryuu smiled before Maya pointed at an empty spot.

Alex and Ryuu followed her and sat near each other.

"Then, I wish you all the best." Alex smiled gently.

"Yeah. I'm not going to lose against anyone else." Ryuu nodded with determination.

"Hmph. I will break my record and reach the ninth floor this time."

After that, the three closed their eyes.

…

Alex felt his consciousness had entered the illusion world.

The heat started enveloping him as the scenery gradually changed. He opened his eyes only to find an unfamiliar world filled with flame.

"Where is this?" Alex activated his Spirit Eyes right away to see if there was a clue for his riddle. After all, he didn't know what his riddle was.

The hot burning magma flowing around, the reddish-orange sky, and the burning flame jumping around made him think this was hell or something.

Suddenly, golden words formed in the sky.

'Put the Source of Fire in the right place, and the gate shall open.'

"Source of Fire?" Alex twitched his eyebrows as he couldn't understand the meaning behind these words. "Isn't the source oxygen? Do I need to infuse the Oxygen to somewhere? But where? I need to search around this place first."

Not knowing what to do, he began to fly around the area. It turned out that he was inside the mouth of a giant volcano. The heat didn't affect him the whole time, due to his special physique granted by his Pure Fire.

"What should I do? Is the mouth of this volcano the right place?" Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. "Maybe there is an entrance or whatever around this place. If not, I can start looking inside the magma."

He began flying around from the foot of the volcano to the top, but everywhere was only a barren ground before his Spirit Eyes picked up something.

It was a small trace of energy in the middle of the mountain body, so Alex went around the mountain to see if there was any entrance to that place. Luckily, the trees were only on the foot of the volcano, so he had no problem with his observation.

However, he didn't see a single entrance in the body, so he thought there must be a tunnel around it.

After another few minutes of flying around the volcano, Alex started becoming impatient. "Where is the entrance? Honestly…"

Not knowing why he suddenly remembered what Ryuu said to him before a trace of enlightenment appeared in his eyes. "The answer actually lies in front of my eyes… Don't tell me it's really inside the magma?"

Alex flew toward the scorching magma and activated his Spirit Eyes. Luckily, there was no monster here, so he didn't need to deal with them. He gulped down and jumped inside the magma, descending down until he reached the same level as the weak energy he sensed earlier.

"!!!" He was stunned by a cave entrance in front of him. "To think it's really here. Anyway, I need to go inside."

Alex entered the cave without hesitation. Of course, it was filled entirely with magma, so he was swimming in this place like a fish with a thin layer of Pure Fire blocking the heat from burning his clothes.

At the end of the cave, he found out something impressive. It was an altar that couldn't be melted by this temperature, so Alex thought. 'This must be the right place. However, what is the Fire Source? Isn't it air? Do I need to use my Spatial Lock and compress the air before throwing it on to that altar?'

The altar was a huge pillar without any decorations around it. It also had no single hole, so Alex was curious about where to put the 'key' in the right place. He knew this pillar was the answer, but he had yet to finalize the answer.

"But it will surely explode, so I am worried that it will destroy the altar and consider me failing this test…" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and came closer to the altar, trying to see whether the materials were strong enough to withstand the impact. Touching the materials and stroking it gently, Alex could feel the materials behind it. "This is Scorching Earth Rock, a rank 7 rock. It should be enough to withstand the explosion if I don't compress too much air."

Having decided what to do, Alex swam to the surface. He raised his hand as pink energy gathered above his head, gradually turning into a pink sphere with a few meters radius.

"Compress!" Alex channeled his Spiritual Energy to the sphere as it gradually shrunk until it was at the size of his palm. He looked at the sphere and nodded his head, feeling the control and energy compressed inside was stable. He swam back to the altar and looked around it once more.

"The energy is surely coming from inside the altar. The problem is where to throw it? Should I throw it blindly?" Alex thought for a moment. He had no clue, so he ultimately threw right at the pillar.

"Boom!"

The sphere that compressed the air disappeared, and the air trapped inside it expanded like crazy and created an explosion.

"!!!" Alex gasped when he saw the pillar broke into half, despite the fact that the explosion wasn't too big, and it was made of rank 7 materials. He simply couldn't understand why would such a pillar get destroyed like this. "I'm speechless. To think I am going to fail in the first round… So embarrassing."

Just as he resigned to his fate, he felt another wave of energy brushing his skin gently. "Wait, what?"

There was actually another podium on top of the pillar… broken pillar. It was also built by the same material, and there were a few weird symbols on top of the podium.

"I have not failed?" Alex came closer to the podium and wondered what these symbols wanted him to do. He activated his Spirit Eyes and saw the energy leaking from the podium. It made his heart skip a beat as he suddenly realized that the energy flowed along the cave, but it flew down instead of going to the surface as it was chasing something.

Alex glanced back and forth before deciding to come out of this place, following the energy. The energy kept heading down as if this place was an endless tunnel filled with magma. He had no problem with this heat, so he was happy if this actually led him to the entrance of the next phase. However, two red lizards suddenly came to his vision.

"What is the riddle? Isn't it just a brawl?" Alex clicked his tongue when he saw the two lizards wanting to kill him. He took out only his sword after realizing that the two lizards were only 1-Star Martial Monarchs.

"Triple Draws!"

"Heaven Light Slash!"

Alex had no mercy and split these two lizards into half before continuing until he reached the bottom.

"Hmm? The light goes inside, but I can see powerful energy below this place. I think I should dig down until I reach it. I assume it will be an item or something because the shape and energy don't really resemble that of a gate." Alex thought for a moment and started working.

"Phoenix Aura!" He turned his Phoenix Aura into a shovel and dug the ground as if he was scooping a pudding. He dug for a few minutes before finding a small red jade containing powerful flame energy. "This is the source of the fire? Ah, This is another world. There is no way the air will be only the fuel for the fire. I bet I can make fire with my Spiritual Energy alone in the space that is supposed to have no oxygen. This is a blunder."

As he was complaining to himself, the jade suddenly glowed brightly before it started absorbing the magma above them like a black hole. It was sucking all the magma down until it dried.

"What?" Alex was startled and blinked his eyes a few times. "Are you serious? So, this is the key, and I need to place it in that altar that I accidentally broke?"

He quickly flew upward and went inside the cave. Without the magma around here, this place looked pretty dark. Yet, it didn't bother him as he made his way toward the podium and placed the jade on top of it.

The pillar then started glowing and created a Teleportation Array not far from him. Alex went inside there without hesitation and activated the array.

"The next mission will be related to Space Element, I guess." Alex nodded as he closed his eyes for a second before he found out that he couldn't breathe, and the place became cold.

He looked around and furrowed his eyebrows.

"This…"

He found himself inside an underwater cave with many stalagmites and stalactites around the area.

The golden words appeared again to give him the next riddle.

"The water fills almost the entire world. One day, there will be a day where the world will once again be enveloped by the water and no lands suitable for humans to live in. What will you do to live in this place?"

"Ehm… Isn't this an easy riddle?" Alex thought for a moment. "However, I don't want the previous incident to happen again. So, I will go around this place first, and maybe I can find some clues to answer this riddle."

Not wanting to repeat his past mistake, he swam around the area and mesmerized by its beauty. Although it was pretty dark, Martial Monarch had no problem with this as if it were bright like a day. He looked around and stumbled into an entrance that led upstairs.

"This is the path toward the next floor?" Alex contemplated for a minute and tried to see if he could find anything in this entrance. Unfortunately, there was nothing wrong with the path, except the translucent yellow barrier that seemed to prevent him from going further.

"Can I just break this barrier? Judging from its power and energy, it had enough strength to resist a couple of attacks from me." Alex took out his sword. "Still, I believe the riddle wants me to drain all of this water, so the land becomes suitable for humans to live in. The land must be the ground below me. In other words, I might need to suck this water with my Spatial Gate or evaporate it with my Pure Fire."

Alex placed his hand on the barrier, supporting his body as he thought what way he would use to drain the water.

Suddenly, he felt a wave of energy coming around his hand before he looked at the barrier with his Spirit Eyes. And what he saw was quite surprising.

"Now, I am sure what to do!" Alex smirked.