Volume 16 - CH 3

「We're going to take another left route again. Please follow me.」

Melissa was about to run off, but I sharply stopped her.

「Wait! Next time we'll go down the middle」

「Alec-san, are you nuts? The middle could be the same pit as before, you know?」

「No, it's not, not with the way this place is structured. It's the other side. Can't you even read that, Melissa?」

And even though it's the Tower of Trials, this is a challenge for an apprentice Magician. If it's two levels of pitfalls in a row, the apprentice could get seriously injured. Well, judging from the speed of the team that just fell down, it seems that some kind of mitigation magic was set in place.

「Kkuh. Yes, that's fine, then you should take the lead in the middle. But don't forget to use levitation magic. Then I can use my wind magic to get you out without falling.」

「All right. Watch closely.」

I use 【Levitate】 to go straight ahead and touch the floor with my hand.

Nothing happens.

I stand on both feet, and this floor is fine.

「How's that?」

「Ummm ......」

「All right, we're going the same right way as before!」

「Hehe, we're not going through the middle anymore!」

「Right!」

The team from before came and tried to go right around to the stairs on the other side, but ...... the floor around there disappeared.

「What the hell!?」

「Damn, now it's on the right!」

「Aaareee!」

They struggled and fell.

「What do you think, should we try the left side?」

「No, that's a waste of time. I'll take the middle one.」

Melissa came running towards me, not so stubborn, but annoyed.

「Yaa, you're doing great, Alec-san, If it's me, I would have fallen.」

Nicole smiled and said honestly, but he can also use levitation magic. we would have only lost time, but it wouldn't have been an instant game over.

「Hmph!」

Melissa snorted unhappily and quickly runs up to the fourth floor.

「It's a fire elemental!」

On the next level, in the hall of the fourth floor, there were two burning, one-meter-long flame monsters, but they seemed to be magical creatures, and they were slowly approaching us.

「I'll do it. Naturally, I'll use the ice attribute against the flame attribute. ――Snow Spirit, gather together and become a frozen needle! Ice Needle!」

It was a small piece of ice, but it seemed to be very powerful, and Melissa killed both of them.

「All right, well done.」

「Excuse me, can you please stop looking so high and mighty at me?」

Melissa turned around and said with a frustrated look on her face.

「I'm just giving you a compliment. You should take it honestly.」

「Well, It's amazing that Melissa can produce that much power even with low-grade magic, isn't it? How many magic power values do you have?」

Nicole asked.

「Hmph, it's 13.」

「Ooohh, I knew it was high. I envy the elves.」

Nicole is envious, but this one also has an appraisal of 10, higher than Thalia. It's not bad for a local of the human race.

「How much magic power values do you have, Alec-san?」

「Me? I'm 23.」

「What!?」

「Y-You're lying, right!?」

「It's true. I'll show you my guild card later. But for now, let's hurry up.」

I ran up the stairs and arrived at the fifth floor of the tower.

Unlike before, this place seemed to be a maze, and in front of me I saw a passage that immediately turned left.

「I'll go first.」

「No, I'll go first.」

Melissa, who doesn't listen to me, is overtaking me.

「Watch out for the traps.」

「Of course, you don't have to tell me. I know.」

If this was the ninth layer of the Labyrinth of No Return, Melissa would have been killed by a spear or hammer trap in no time, but this Tower of Trials didn't seem to be that difficult.

Melissa proceeded down the corridor without a hitch.

「Hmm, what's this?」

「It looks like a riddle.」

The path was split in two, and there was a sign on it.

「Let's see, a grain of wheat or a gold coin, which will be more valuable in ten years? If it's wheat, go right, if it's a gold coin, go left. ......」

Nicole read it out, but I've seen a similar problem in my world.

「That's a given. It doesn't matter how many years have passed, it has to be gold coin!」

Melissa decided on the answer without thinking too much about it.

「Wait a minute. If you plant this wheat in the field and grow it, it will grow to about ten grains in a year. If you plant it again in the field, it will grow ten times more. After ten years, we'll probably have more than a thousand bags.」

I said. When you draw a graph, it gradually gains momentum and increases in a geometric series, like compound interest.

「I see, a bag of wheat costs 300 gold, so if you multiply it by 1,000, you can easily get about 30 gold coins.」

Nicole clapped his hands and nodded.

「Kuhh.....Yes, a grain of wheat is better than gold coin.」

Melissa bit her lip and looked frustrated, but she seemed to have honestly changed her mind.

「You're a smart, Alec-san.」

「No, I know a problem similar to this. I'm just saying.」

「Hehh」

We went down the wheat path and found the same riddle again.

「What is the first creature with four legs, then two legs, and finally three legs? What? Is there such a creature in this world?」

Nicole didn't seem to understand, but it's another classic.

「The answer is――」

「Hold on! Give me a minute to think.」

「All right, I'll give you three minutes.」

「That's delicately short. ...... Uh-uh. ...... Ah! I understand. The answer is people, right?」

「Yes, it is.」

If you know the answer, it's nothing, but Melissa is flexible enough to answer it right away on the first try.

「Ehh? No, both of you, please tell me the answer to why that is. I don't know」

「Okay, Nicole. Humans start out as babies crawling on all fours, then as young teen on two legs, and finally as old age on three legs with a cane.」

「Oh, I see. ......」

「But this is a question from an exam at the Academy of Magic, you see. The answer is "Tripod", an iron golem monster.」

I say, using my 'sage' knowledge.

「You are correct!」

「Whoa!」

「Kyaaa!」

I was a little suprised when the examiner who had been hiding in the corridor suddenly came out, but it looks like we can now move on.

「Please go to the right.」

「What the heck, geez......」

「Ahaha, I was surprised.」

When we turned right, we found another sign with a riddle on it.

「Well, there are seven gold coins here, and we know that one of them is a fake, weighing only a little less. But I accidentally mixed them up. ――He's an idiot. Why didn't he keep them separate?」

Nicole twists his head to look at the problem, but there it is.

「Because that wouldn't be a problem, would it? ――Find the smallest number of times you can use a balance to reliably find a fake, huh ......」

「It's seven pieces, so if you put one piece on each side to weigh and compare it,......that's four times?」

Nicole says. But that's the normal way to do it, not the way you're supposed to do it as a problem.

「No, wait, if you put two pieces on top of each other and compare them at once, it would be ...... three times.」

Melissa made a good point, so I added a twist to the idea.

「No, if you stack two sets of three cards on top of each other and leave one extra, then when the mass of the three cards balances out, the extra one is false. So if one of the three tipped and floated, you could weigh the extra one again, and the balance would only need to be weighed twice.」

「Ooooh!」

「Kkuhh, you, name your family. Aren't you really a nobleman with that intelligence of your?」

「No. Well, let's just say I'm old. ――So, what do you think?」

I ask the examiner, who's hiding in the shadows of the corridor.

「W-We're discussing it now. ......」

The examiner comes out, but his face looks deflated.

「What?」

「What do you mean?」

「Actually, the model answer for this exam question was three times, but we think the current answer is also the correct answer, so we are discussing it ......」

「Ehh? Wait a minute. If it's the right answer, it's the right answer, isn't it?」

「Yeah, yeah, that's right, but we're working on the confirmation now.」

It seems that somewhere the examiner is actually weighing the gold coins on a balance to see if the answer is correct and if there are any holes.

「I see. ...... Well, we'll just have to wait, then.」

「I guess so.」

「But the lost time here is not our problem, so you'll have to deduct it, okay?」

「Yes, we'll deduct it.」

As I was waiting, the next team came from behind.

「Okay! Next problem. Get out of the way, old man.」

「Out of the way!」

「I can't see the problem. C'mon, hurry up. If you're interfering, you're disqualified.」

They're not very polite, but I'll just move out of the way and wait.

「All right, ........!!」

The sound was cut off, but apparently the other teams couldn't hear the answer. It's amazing.

「Correct answer, please turn around for a moment.」

When we turned around, the team had gone on ahead.

「Thank you for your patience. After much discussion, we have come to the conclusion that the correct answer is twice or three times. Please proceed to the left.」

We were kept waiting for quite a long time, but I guess there was a dispute over how to handle the previous correct answers if we were declared the correct team.

「That doesn't make sense to me.」

「Well, the examiner said they'd deduct the time.」

「Let's go.」

We reached the stairs and proceeded to the next floor.

The sixth floor.