The next room and several others just had monsters to kill. We didn’t recognize them but they were nothing special. Whoever made this had designed it to overwhelm intruders with numbers.
It made us think that there would be no more puzzles or that the fire tornado puzzle was a test.
The only problem was that we had no instance where we had to take stairs or an elevator equivalent.
Benji tried to figure out if we were going up a gentle slope but even still. The lack of elevation was concerning.
Another firebird had been slain by my [Hairpin: Azure Hairpin]. Most creatures were weak to water magic and didn’t share the same mastery over fire as the tornadoes did. Which was strange as the tornado wasn’t a living being, these seemingly are. Some are entirely comprised of mana but they could be regarded as being alive.
The magic circles of these creatures had mana runes that matched the ones I had written down from the tornado puzzle.
Mishelly and Benji were the ones who dealt with the monsters the most. I sent out occasional [Tsunami] or [Hairpin: Azure Hairpins] to help out but I was mostly studying the mana runes.
The rules and systems were the same and I had figured out what the deal was with these mana runes. They were quite similar to how synonyms work in languages. Some might have an added nuance, meaning or context but generally, they meant the same which made the rest quite easy. It was just memorizing which mana rune matched the ones I knew. The nuances and slight differences would come later.
It had been years since I’ve enjoyed on field research! My research is finally applicable in a real-life situation! The safety of a lab is appealing but on field research is refreshing and...
I smacked a monster away with my fan and impaled it with an [Hairpin: Azure Hairpin].
...dangerous. I might have to pay a bit more attention to my surroundings.
We stopped in front of yet another door. It slowly opened as we had wiped out any monster in the room.
Benji was carrying treasures we had found. Most were of the boring kind; gold silver and gemstones but there were also ancient texts and scrolls mixed in.
We couldn’t read them but i might be able to decipher them with my notes and if not... too bad.
Some scrolls contained magic circles which I could decipher, however. What ancient skills would it teach us? I can’t wait! Just that is completely worth this ordeal.
The door opened and giggling and whispering escaped from the next room.
“Noo! What are they doing here?!” I put my notebook away as I would need to pull my weight against these opponents.
Benji and Mishelly couldn’t hear the whispering for some reason but we were familiar with this giggling.
The door opened and our suspicion was confirmed.
“Oooh! Visitors, visitors! Hey hey, look!” A fairy noticed us and alerted her friends.
Benji pointed his dagger at the fairies. “Before we slaughter you, answer this question. Why is it that every fairy can speak Hourai?”
Benji meant old Kaledonian which doesn’t get spoken anymore but it did get spoken in Hourai, which all the tailed beasts knew about. It’s also shorter. I hadn’t noticed as Old Kaledonian was still spoken before I got sealed away but that’s indeed strange. We’re on Nesher and these things came from who knows where. Shouldn’t they speak an ancient language?
“Hahaha! Silly ehh. What are you actually? What are those ears? Hahaha!”
A cacophony of laughter and giggling broke out and the noise made our ears and head hurt.
They started singing strange songs, fluttering up and down with their butterfly wings, sticking out their tongues and shaking their butts at us.
“Noisy fiends! I will kick your ass!”
Benji stopped Mishelly from rushing in and shook his head. “They are obnoxious yes, but they shouldn’t be underestimated.”
Benji pointed at the monster skeletons littering the corner. The door on the other side of the room was open as the fairies had defeated every monster. Or more accurately...devoured them.
“Haha! Kick our ass? Kiss our ass!” The fairies giggled and swarmed around us making fun of our appearances and taunting us to attack.
“Benji released a mana pressure that knocked them away. The tension rose as the intimidation he gave off was almost palpable.
“Answer me. Why do all of your kin know Hourai?”
“Haha! Silly rabbit! Isn’t that obvious?!”
Something was off. They had no idea what we were moments ago but now they do. Did they fool us?
“We know everything about the important races of any dimension we invade. It just pops up in our head hahaha!”
All the fairies started laughing loudly and we covered our ears.
What does that mean? Invading dimensions?
“But none of you are tasty so we will let you go!” the fairies cleared a path and pointed at the door on the opposite side of the room.
“Just be careful as others might want to try something new hahahaha!”
They started dancing, singing and playing with monster bones.
“Benji...what do we do? I don’t want to stay near them any longer but is it ok to just leave them be?”
“I know Azu. I want to destroy them too but that’s not our objective. We need to either leave or destroy this tower. We will have a large group of rabbits enter this tower after delivering a detailed report. We should consider ourselves lucky that we gleaned some information and get to live to tell the tail.”
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Benji stepped forward and we followed him.
Mishelly didn’t seem happy but she stayed quiet and followed. We kept an eye on the noisy fairies but it seemed as if they had completely forgotten about us.
“Benji, they said something about invading our dimension. We know they’re invaders but I always thought that they were from the same dimension. What does this mean?”
“I’m sorry Azu. I don’t know. You would have to ask an eight-tailed conqueror monkey or a nine-tailed spirit fox if you want answers. Maybe even seven-tailed crystal wolves. The tailed beasts of the number 7 and higher all have some knowledge and influence over the structure of our dimension.”
We stepped through the door and entered another room. More fairies but these didn’t notice us. They seemed innocent and playful but the monster bones and corpses suggested otherwise.
Several monsters spawned as if summoned and they instantly got killed off by the fairies. They seemed like cute and beautiful women with butterfly wings but they were devouring the monsters like...monsters.
I developed pity for the monsters as the fairies were the real monsters. We stepped in and fought the fairies.
“Hey sneak attacks are not coo...”
[Mistflower Field] shredded the fairies to pieces. It was messy but short as we had the element of surprise, even though we weren’t stealthy at all.
“Let’s rest. We don’t know if the next room has fairies that do pay attention.”
“Here gramps? There is gore and corpses everywhere!”
“I am aware but rushing in blindly when not rested is foolish. We haven’t had a rest since the very first room.”
Benji cleared out an area where we could rest without getting disturbed by magma bubbling out of the ground or fairy gore and monster corpses.
“The next room is the 10th room we will be entering. I will be expecting something special on it. It will either lead to a flight of stairs or will have a strong monster.”
Benji kicked a freshly spawned slime monster in a lava pit. Benji seems to be quite experienced in these situations. He might not remember it but he must have been through a lot of these before the great Eraser. How I wish that there would be anyone who could remember. There are enough theories that speculate that s single person from before the Great Eraser would be as powerful as a modern army.
Modern technology seems to also have issues replicating any ancient technology found. Nothing in this spire suggests that it has been built over 4000 years ago.
I flipped through my notes and studied some more but something bugged me.
Are these fairies smart enough to enter this spire? To enter the first room problem problem-solving and knowledge were needed. How did they get in?
My body started shaking and I took more focus and energy drinks.
“What’s wrong Azu? Is [Acedia] acting up again?”
“Benji...I have reason to believe that there might be an intelligent fairy in this spire somewhere...”
Benji showed just a moment of shock but recovered. Mishelly however...
“What?! Nooo! We’re doomed! These creatures have no business being obnoxious, numerous, noisy, and intelligent on top of that! Isn’t this too much?! Aagh!” Mishelly grabbed her head and acted as if the world was ending.
“Don’t pay attention to my granddaughter. She can be a bit... dramatic. But given the circumstances that is plausible yes. Let’s hope the intelligent fairies are as disinterested in us as the first group.”
Would an intelligent fairy be friendly or hostile? The average fairy is hostile and stupid so there might be a possibility that intelligent fairies will be friendly. They would still be hiding their hideous forms though...
Here I was thinking that I had escaped the fairy problem by investigating the spires. The spires appeared before the invasion though...
They had all the time to get in but why would the fairies enter these spires? Why does everything have to be so complicated? Would it hurt to have things end up being simple?
Benji notified us that our break was over and that we should press on. Just an hour was left before the rabbits from the burrow would come to look for us. Benji wanted to prevent an unsuspecting scouting team from entering as it might claim their lives permanently.
“Let’s power through. We will not take another break until we find out what the deal is with this spire. Please say so if you need a bit longer.
“I’m fine. I need to kick some fairy butt!” Mishelly got up and palmed her fist.
I got up and nodded, indicating that I was fine.
The next room was...empty. it was a stroke of luck but it made me uneasy. Benji spread his arms, blocking us from going in further.
We were standing in the doorway and he was scanning the room. It didn’t match the other rooms. It had no magma pits or red rocky ground. No lava, nothing. Just a tiled floor and an open door at the opposite side.
“Very suspicious. I don’t see any monster corpses nor do I sense anything that gives off mana. What do you 2 think?”
Misha aren’t adept at detecting hidden creatures. My [Search] was relatively useless as I needed to specify what I wanted to look for. “Nothing feels off to me. It’s just unsettling.”
“This must be a trap!” Mishelly took some seeds out of her pouch, and applied nature energy to it which made them grow into tomato plants. She picked the tomatoes and threw them at several tiles.
Some tiles activated and fell, leaving holes behind.
“Aaagh! Another stupid challenge! Here! Take this [Random Tomato Attack]!”
Mishelly started growing more tomato plants and chucked tomatoes at the tiles.
I noticed some ancient text. They must be some sort of instruction as it had simple images but it seems that Mishelly had found a loophole. To think that tomatoes were this useful.
I picked some tomatoes from the tomato plant she had grown and used them as a snack.
Benji had created a plant that had 3 vines extending toward us.
“Let’s wrap these around our waist and walk over the tiles that didn't drop.”
Benji took the lead. Behind him was Mishelly who was still angrily chucking tomatoes and I was right behind them.
I looked up and strange ancient structures were mounted on the wall and ceiling. I threw a tomato into the air and multiple lasers shot it down with deadly accuracy.
“So no flying eh? Understandable.”
Everything went well until Mishelly slipped on a squashed tomato and fell off a tile.
Benji glowed green from nature energy and the vine around Mishelly’s waist activated and pulled her up.
“Are you alright?! Here let me give you a checkup!”
“Gramps! I just slipped! I’m fine! You’re embarrassing me!” Mishelly resisted Benji’s attempt to give her a checkup.
How nice to have a caring family...
Benji now paid attention to the squashed tomatoes on the tiles we could walk over and swept them away with a makeshift broom he had made out of fibers and a long stick. Mishelly now aimed at the corners of the tiles.
Benji did various tests and I did too. Magic didn’t activate the tiles. There were too many differences between magic and tomatoes to find out a working explanation on why tomatoes work and magic doesn’t.
Water magic had a physical form so it wasn’t that either. Tomatoes are mostly water so it wasn’t related to water.
It was a mystery we couldn’t solve. It wasn’t relevant as we were solving the puzzle but Benji and I couldn’t contain our curiosity and tried different theories until we reached the end.
“Thank you Mishelly. And your tomatoes are tasty.” I said as I picked another tomato and bit into it.
“Uhh, you’re welcome. Which idiot makes a puzzle that can be solved by throwing tomatoes?!”
“Azu and I tried to find out but it seems that the rules can be exploited by... tomatoes...” Benji grew bananas and mangoes and chucked them on tiles that Mishelly hadn’t tested.
Most tiles fell but some had squashed bananas and mangoes on them.
“It seems that any fruit would have worked...”
“But tomatoes are easier to throw!”
The next room had nothing related to elevation and it made me think that the spire must have teleported us to somewhere else.
We entered another tiled room but it had dead monsters spread out, suggesting that it might have been another room full of monsters. Benji did all the tests he did previously but it was just a normal room.
Our concern grew as every floor was relatively easy. Uninterested fairies that had wiped out whatever was supposed to inhabit this spire. Not only had they invaded our continent, they had invaded this spire.
The 20th room was outside. At least we thought it was. It was a volcanic area. There were no walls as far as we could see and the ceiling looked like a real sky.
“What in Nesher is this place?” Mishelly sent out nature energy waves and so did Benji.
“Is this the final room?” I asked.
“I don’t know Azu, I surely hope so as none of my nature waves have bounced back yet, how about you Mishelly?”
“Nope, as far as I know, this place has no walls or the walls are outside the range of my [Nature Pulse].
We spotted some fairies but there weren’t a lot. There were a lot of monsters, however. Some magma life forms in various forms. Surely we don’t have to defeat every monster in this room right?