It turned out the squid had truly been the apex predator of the forest and the only true anomaly in their otherwise perfectly normal first-floor experience. Most of the creatures in that strange forest had been somewhat terrestrial versions of exclusively marine invertebrates back on Earth:

Hostiles weird anemones, ammonites, clutterfishes, crabs, cucumbers, horseshoes, shrimps, starfishes, urchins, and worms had attacked them on sight but never posed a real threat, even to Prince, despite some of them belonging to the same weight category.

Paolo and Sophia quickly disposed of them with their blades and even the tressym contributed, harassing some poisonous anemones, cucumbers, and worms long after they stopped moving.

Still, the theme of this forest, from aquatic to subterranean made Sophia reconsider the true nature of those 'trees,' which were actually more likely the result of convergent evolution. And indeed, the 'trees' did not have the characteristics of bark texture. Definitely plants, but nothing alike anything she knew.

Questions were: Was it somewhat comestible? Would it make for a good crafting material? If so, what were its properties, and what could possibly be done with it?

But she shook her head. It was that kind of reasoning that had triggered the system's attempt at rescuing their species: their rampant instrumentalization and artificialisation of all things. Maybe that 'material' was indeed worth investigating. And surely that place would mostly remain untouched after they left. But it was the principle of it. It was a bad habit and a potential slippery slope.

Yet, it did not take her much time to find a fallen dead 'tree' she could harvest for material with minimal guilt, while Paolo and Prince had unquestioningly followed her, until now, that's it:

"What are you planning to do with this?" The Tressym asked rhetorically.

"It looks sturdy yet supple enough. I'm not confident in my crafting skill but at the very least, it would make some good walking sticks." She replied, thinking out loud.

"You barely used your starting bow and already thinking of making a new one?" The tressym reformulated.

"Well... it's an entirely new material. One we might never encounter again. What if it is secretly fantastic and we pass it up? Plus, we could really use the walking sticks. Two birds with one stone." She explained.

"Is that going to be a thing? Collecting random things from every place we are passing through?" The winged cat insisted, passive-aggressive.

"Maybe?" She responded, unsure. "Never been much of a scavenger before. Is that a roguish thing?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Prince replied dismissively before turning around.

Sophia exchanged a look with Paolo who shrugged in response.

It sounded like her new helper and advisor did not like them making detours or sticking around in one place for too long.

But still, they made their way out of the forest before setting camp for the night.

Better safe than sorry.

★☆★

In the end, they had encountered the exact same environment in all twelve caves they had encountered in the next four days. Each time, some hyperaggressive squid would attack them as soon as they trespassed into their territories. And then some other animals would either fight or flight based on their own instinct and place in the food chain.

It was repetitive but at least they made some progress as they went up the tunnel network and should soon reach the second floor. Yet, they had so far encountered no puzzles or challenges on this route. So Sophia had started reconsidering her idea about going through the route less traveled as the benefits were clearly non-existent.

Until they were finally met with massive metallic double doors at the end of one such tunnel.

According to her readings, one such door marked the entrance of some optional challenges, near the end of one floor, which was as rewarding as it was difficult. Except this time, there was no other way around to get to the next floor. It was either through or not at all.

So the choice had been made for them.

Opening the giant door had revealed a perfectly straight stone corridor, which they could not see the exit, the light dimming in the distance. Yet they had no choice but to go onward.

That's when the challenge became apparent.

Deadly traps. Lots of them. Activated by well-concealed pressure plates that could not be differentiated from the rest of the stone floor. And the sheer variety of traps themselves was impressive: poison arrows, swinging axes, collapsing floor, stakes...

If anything, Sophia had found the perfect use for her new walking sticks: purposefully activating traps they could not detect or avoid. It made the way through the corridor long and tedious. Especially as they were halfway through and somehow could not see the entrance anymore, just as much as the exit.

But in the end, patience and prudence prevailed against the stupendous amount of traps, though it cost her two of her newly made walking sticks and half of a spared one she planned to experiment toy with, leaving her with only one and a half of what she had been collecting on that first day.

She knew she should not have listen to Prince and collect more!

As for the reward for their effort, nothing but a wooden chest and another double door awaited them on the other side. But so far, they had not dared get any closer to their prize for fear it was yet another trap.

They proceed as cautiously as they ever did, only to be met with a single inscription on the floor before the floor chest, in really bad basic common:

"GIFT - NEED - OR - WANT - NOT - BOTH"

'Did that mean the content of the chest was not fixed until someone decided to open it? And that the content would change based on their expectations or needs?' Sophia sat and thought before asking:

"What should we do?"

"I don't know," Paolo replied. "Could be a trap, to test our greed, or actual genuine reward, with a catch. It would be hard for a larger group but we both need the same thing: spell scrolls. As for our wants... could be anything from food to gold. But contrary to needs, wants do not have to be practical, or even useful."

"What do you think, Prince?" Sophia asked, as the winged cat barely ever offered some of his advice unless prompted.

"It's not a trap. But not any less nasty." He responded. "It's called a chain chest. Because whatever you find inside will be tailor-suited to make you crave for more, and give you a hint to find the next chest in the chain, hence the name."

"So it will try to lead us toward increasingly difficult challenges until we meet our end?" She reformulated.

"Partly true but not the real reason they have such a bad reputation: Many people met their end by each other hands because of those chests. Whatever you will find inside is going to be good. And the next one, even better. Let's say a group decides to do the reasonable thing and open them in turn. Then even the picking order might cause them to turn on each other."

"Will there be one such chest on each floor?" Sophia asked, doing the basic math for a party of six.

"Yes. Why?" The winged cat asked.

"Because that's a mathematical puzzle. For a group of 6, it would be 1 + 12 = 2 + 11 = 3 + 10 = 4 + 9 = 5 + 8 = 6 + 7. If everyone agrees on the principle and no one betrays the others, then no one gets cheated. The best part is, it could also apply to groups of 2, 3, or 4. Only 5 would not work."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"But would you really be willing to go first? Or second for that matter?" The tressym asked. "It is a long time to wait to get the other half your share. Especially when the guy who would get 6 and 7 could easily betray everyone else once they got their share."

"As every good thing in life: easy to conceptualize, hard to implement. But back to our problem: for the three of us, the solution would be 1 + 4 + 9 + 12 = 2 + 5 + 8 + 11 = 3 + 6 + 7 + 10. Unless we meet people we want to include in our group before we reach the fourth floor."

"Wait. Did you just say the THREE of us?" The winged cat said.

"Yes. You are technically with us and should get your share." Sophia replied, not understanding the issue.

"Paolo. I'm her familiar, meaning everything I get is technically hers. You really do not have a problem with that?" Prince asked the boy, desperate to get an out.

"Temporary familiar." The battlemage corrected "You would be free by the end of the tutorial. Plus, isn't getting something out of all this even more incentive to contribute?"

"So let me get it straight, you want me to get an equal share, and I get to keep it once we part way. Why the hell would you do that?" The Tressym asked her mistress.

"That's a good business practice," the girl responded without thinking, having that belief deeply ingrained in her brain. "When you don't cheat people, they usually come asking for more."

The winged cat looked at the two humans astonished, as if they were the actual aliens in the room but finally gave in:

"Okay then. Which one goes first?" The cat asked.

"I will," Sophia responded. "Then I propose Paolo get second. Then you get third. And anyone else we might recruit would get fourth. Then it would restrict us to only recruit fifth and sixth if they come in pair."

"You are willing to share this with even more people?" Prince asked, still shell-shocked.

"Rewards come in pair with risks, right? This puzzle is about fairness and greed. I could even argue that the whole chain chest is the puzzle, not the reward and that everyone would get the real reward only if they played fair. And given the tutorial spirit, it might even be true."

Of course, that last part was entirely made up. But the more she thought about it, the more it rang true. This sounded like the sort of test an almighty alien race could pull off, just for the fun of it. And Sophia was pretty sure no one had actually gone through with it to prove her hypothesis wrong. The greed factor was just too strong.

"Anyway, I'm going to roll with that story with anyone we might recruit." She decided. "Sound fair to you?" She asked Paolo, not even bothering to ask Prince too. He was obviously too far gone already.

"If you are sure about it, I'm going to trust you on it." The boy affirmed.

"Moment of truth then?" She asked rhetorically.

"Moment of truth," Paolo confirmed.

And so, Sophia went for the Chest and opened it.

★☆★

Sophia found herself back in the dark empty void. Did she die opening that chest? Did it turn out to be a filthy trap, killing her before she knew it?

You solved the Chain Chest Puzzle.

-You solved the dilemma of the Chain Chest with minimal external help.

-You convinced your companions to go through with it.

-You decide to go first in a leap of faith.

New Objectives:

-Find 3 missing companions.

-Convince everyone to go through with it, until the very end.

Current Reward:

You have prioritized the needs of your group before your own wants. As such, you would get what you needed the most:

Scroll of Guidance (Legendary)

Allow you to learn the Guidance Cleric cantrip, entirely for free, without meeting its archetype requirements.

Final Reward: ???

Scroll of Guidance

Scroll of Guidance is currently dematerialized.

You can use it immediately or generate the Scroll, either to use it later or gift it to someone else.

Effect:

Whatever you and your friends need to do, a little Guidance from the Divine cannot hurt. The god with whom you have the most favor will answer your call and help the target (including yourself) for one minute.

As a cantrip, Guidance can be used as many times as you wish. However, pestering the Gods too much isn't recommended. Maybe you should use it strategically whenever you need it the most?

The reward said it was Legendary but the cantrip felt a little bit underwhelming. Divine Guidance? Didn't she refuse the Cleric Archetype for that very reason? Besides, how strong could it possibly be? What were the limitations? Moreover, what could she possibly accomplish in less than a minute?

If it was applicable, it might save her or her friends in combat at a critical moment. It might also help solve simple puzzles, pick locks, or disarm traps. But she had not encountered any of those yet. None that were applicable at least.

Yet, she could not say no to magic and it would be even less useful to Paolo, who already had one good cantrip to use in combat. So she decided to use it immediately and the window changed slightly to confirm her choice.

And then, one last window popped in.

Chain Chests Location Treasure Map

The treasure map is currently dematerialized.

You are the guardian of the treasure map. The system advised against generating it to prevent temptations.

The map will actualize on every floor, and let you know of the direction and distance from your position to the next Chain Chest. The map would however actualise the topography only to reflect what you already discovered. Not all Chain Chest Challenges might lead to an actual exit to their corresponding floor.

The map does not guarantee that the chain chest had been left unclaimed. In which case, you will find yourself competing with others for the same rewards. Either resolve the issue diplomatically or through violence to solve the Chain Chest Puzzle. Good luck!

That was actually some bad news. Her nice little mathematical calculations did not account for competition. Either way, each reward was personalised once claimed so resorting to violence felt... counterproductive. As for a way to solve the issue diplomatically, it was a bit of a 'join us or die' situation, so it did not seem applicable either.

Was it even possible to solve that puzzle, pragmatically speaking?

It required all six individuals to agree to the principle of sharing equally.

It required beating everyone else to the chest or finding some other way around the issue she had no idea how to solve.

It required them all to get to the final floor without anyone dying, which was extremely challenging because of the survival rate.

It required everyone to know that there might be a higher reward for cooperating, which might not be the case for anyone who might have come across it by chance on a higher floor.

It required everyone to cooperate despite the obvious temptation of the alternative.

There were just so many requirements, so many things that might go wrong, that it sounded like it was a puzzle designed to be failed. Like a good easter egg, entertaining their evil creators to no end with the sheer amount of people trying to get it and yet failing miserably, every single time.

Maybe Prince was right and it was actually not worth pursuing?

But how could they look the other way and not at least try?

★☆★

"So, what did you get?" Paolo asked as he saw her turn around empty-handed.

"I got a Cantrip Scroll and offered to use it immediately." She explained, answering his looks between her hands and the equally empty chest.

"What sort of cantrip?" Prince immediately asked.

"Guidance. Is it more impressive than it looks on paper?" Sophia asked back.

"Common newbie mistake." The tressym replied, pedantic "That's the best cantrip ever. And half the reason people love Clerics so much. Unless you aim for a very niche secondary, that's the only primary who can learn it. Which makes your case even more incredible. How does the system is handling the deity issue?"

"I got Guidance from the God which I have the most favor with." She replied with a smirk.

She had little doubt that meant it would automatically fall on Lady Silverhair's lap. If anything, she would enjoy using that cantrip solely because that was going to piss off the Goddess to no end.

"Then, I look forward to see what you gonna do with it," Prince replied with a feral grin, positively gloating.

Until Paolo, probably feeling excluded, lost patience and became the voice or reason:

"Guys. Are we going to move on or what?"

It did help Sophia get centered in the here and now. They were already late and though they could afford to lose a minute or two, she would rather lose time doing other things.

And so she went straight to the metal door, looked back for her companions' approval, and then, opened it.

Except there was nothing to be found there.

It was a brightly light, round-shaped room with a magical circle of unknown function in the middle. Her best guess would be that it would teleport them to the second-floor resting area. But better safe than sorry:

"Prince, can you confirm it is what I think it is?"

"This is the floor exit. I'm not privy to how it is working. Only that mundane long-distance teleport here is disabled to prevent external intervention. Summoning circles and similar rituals triggered from inside the tutorial are technical loopholes the outside world can exploit. But this... this is a proprietary ritual circle I have only seen once: before I got trapped in that safe of yours."

"So, let me get it straight: it's not a teleportation circle but it does essentially the same thing?" Sophia stressed out.

"Yes, pretty much," Prince said before confidently walking inside the circle and disappearing.

"System-enforced one-way teleporter." Paolo shrugged. " Better get used to it."

He walked in and disappeared too.

"One floor's done. Eleven to go." Sophia said, gathering her courage before following her companions into the unknown.