Led by Lizbeth, Victor stood in front of a particular wall on the basement floor, just opposite the Nexus Beacon.
“You said this is the place?” Victor pointed skeptically at the unremarkable wall, squinting his eyes as if expecting it to reveal its secrets.
“Mm-hmm!” Lizbeth declared with unwavering confidence. “Without a shadow of a doubt, it’s right here!”
“I can’t sense any mana fluctuations or any signs of an entrance here. It just looks like an ordinary granite wall to me.” Through mana sense, it was possible to tell if there was something behind the wall, but Victor sensed no such thing.
“Hmm-hmm! Leave this to the pro — me.” Lizbeth, undeterred, puffed out her chest, radiating an air of self-assuredness.
With that declaration, she flew toward the wall, a mischievous glint in her eyes. Victor watched, curious about what she had in mind. She gently tapped the wall with her tiny hand and said the magic word “open sesame,” but nothing happened.
“Oh yeah… it has to be you, Master, the one with the headmaster authority. Ehehe.” She chuckled, flicked her head, and stuck her tongue out. It was obvious she hadn’t actually anticipated this.
Victor sighed. “So much for trusting you, huh… So? What should I do?”
“Just press your Shadowlink Mark on your left wrist against the wall.”
Victor did as instructed, and then the wall began glowing. Suddenly, there was a grid of strange magic symbols in the form of ancient glyphs and even runes inscribed on the wall, creating something that appeared to be… a puzzle?
There were also writings written in the ancient Seraphian language, and upon reading it, Victor came to a realization. The glowing glyphs each represented an element: Pyro, Hydro, Geo, Anemo, Chrono, etc. It seemed that to solve the puzzle, one must arrange the glyphs in a specific sequence by constructing the necessary spell formation. Victor surmised that the runes were the key to solving the sequence.
“Are you confident in solving this?” Lizbeth asked.
Victor responded with a nonchalant shrug. “Well, we’ll never know unless I give it a try.”
“Alright then, go on.” She retreated behind him. “In the interim, I will take care of implementing the features for the update.”
Paying her no further mind, Victor began scrutinizing the puzzle on the wall. As an acolyte, he possessed some level of knowledge of runes, but deciphering the sequence was no easy matter, let alone constructing the required spell formation. Even the most basic one would take him at least an hour.
After nearly two hours of intense concentration, Victor finally constructed a spell formation that he believed might solve the puzzle. With a determined flick of his hand, he activated it. Strings of light wove through the glyphs, aligning them according to his design. However, before even a few seconds had passed, the spell formation collapsed, sending a painful backlash through him.
“Gah!” He clutched his injured wrist, wincing in pain. “As I thought, this won’t be easy…” Am I missing a clue here?
Victor couldn’t shake the feeling that he was approaching the puzzle the wrong way. The runes, although acting as a hint, presented a daunting challenge due to their overwhelming number of them. A single mistake would force him to start over, making it akin to a blind person trying to determine the color of the sky. Furthermore, brute-forcing his way through the puzzle would take ages. The only feasible solution was to somehow learn the correct sequence beforehand and construct the spell formation accordingly.
Frustration tugged at Victor as he inspected the wall once more, ensuring he hadn’t missed a crucial hint. And then, it happened. He noticed something unusual at the bottom of the writing, a tiny piece of text that seemed intentionally concealed during his initial examination. The content of this hidden message read:
“Oh, you thought this was child’s play? 😏
“Well, think again!
“But don’t worry, even official Magi would stumble trying to solve this the usual way. Here’s a hint: Magic isn’t the only answer; you’ll need to think outside the box.
“P.S. The more you fail, the nastier the backlash gets. I predicted that at your current rank, you won’t last five attempts.
“P.P.S. If you exceed your limit, you will really die.
“—Your Dear First Headmaster.”
You don’t say! It’s the former headmaster and their antics again… Sheesh. And what’s with the smug emoji and the increasing backlash the more I fail?! Victor almost couldn’t hold himself back from cursing them out loud.
But for some mysterious reason, after trying to decipher the correct sequence, a feeling of déjà vu began to unfurl within Victor as he pondered the cryptic message. Sequence… Think out of the box…
“That’s it!”
“Wh-What?! What’s going on with you, Master? Have you finally gone insane?” Having finished adding features, Lizbeth had been dozing off while floating, but Victor’s sudden outburst jolted her awake.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“I’ve got it! I think I may need the players’ help to solve this puzzle. Anyways, no time to explain now.” In a rush, he snapped an image of the puzzle with the Master Shadowlink Mark and uploaded it to the Discord group with the first batch of players. Of course, he didn’t forget to include a detailed explanation about the runes and ancient glyphs — without this critical information, even a god-tier player would struggle to decipher the puzzle.
Prominence: “What’s that, Cyber?”
CyberWarlock: “It’s a puzzle that we’re experimenting with for the game. As our most loyal players, we want to give you a chance to try solving this firsthand.”
Storm Bringer: “Ugh, puzzles aren’t my strong suit. Whenever I got stuck in a game, I’d just hit up YouTube for tutorials.”
SuperNovaX: “Is this… I may be able to solve this through programming.”
The corner of Victor’s mouth curled up. Indeed, the solution that he’d come up with had been through programming as well. However, he had no time to write a specialized code by himself, and he figured that utilizing others to solve this in his stead was the most practical approach. After all, it was just a matter of solving a puzzle. What was wrong with asking others for help?
CyberWarlock: “Yup, you’re on the right track there, SuperNovaX. Rest assured, as long as anyone can solve this puzzle, I will give them the opportunity to ask me anything. This includes classified information like upcoming updates and contents about the game.”
SuperNovaX: “Sweet! It’s a bit complex, though, so it might take a whole day for me to compile the correct code.”
CyberWarlock: “That’s perfectly fine. Take all the time you need.”
Storm Bringer: “Dang! I’m jealous. Please ask when they’re implementing that appearance-changing cosmetic in the game. And make sure to share it here once you’ve solved the puzzle so we can all get the scoop! @SuperNovaX”
Prominence: “Storm, we really are brothers from different mothers. You always know what I want to ask. (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”
Storm Bringer: “Scram! I’m just curious, okay?”
The conversation seemed to be derailing from its initial course, so Victor closed the holographic screen and contemplated his next move. Now that he was standing beside the Nexus Beacon in the room, a thought that had been simmering for the past few days now began bubbling up to the surface: He wanted to try his hand at gacha.
With the impending threat of the arachnid horde looming large, Victor needed every possible advantage. The absence of magic tools or even artifacts in the Headmaster Budget tab left him with no alternative but to gamble on gacha. Plus, he had a substantial amount of AP to spare — 250 of them! If not now, when would he ever use them?
Therefore, with the enthusiasm of a little kid receiving a lollipop, Victor opened the gacha section within the Headmaster Budget tab and perused the available selection.
“Let’s see… I suppose five Initiate Attunement lootboxes and one Elemental Adept lootbox should suffice, right?” Spending all the AP at once would be beyond foolish, or so he thought.
Lizbeth, as nonchalant as ever, simply answered as she sat on Victor’s shoulder, “Just like what I previously said: Do as you see fit.”
“Huh. Am I talking to a living fairy or a stone?” was what Victor was about to remark, but he let the words sink in his throat. Drawing the gacha was more important than picking a meaningless fight with her.
Taking a deep breath, Victor’s finger pressed the glowing button labeled “Draw 5 Lootboxes.” It appeared that he had the flexibility to choose how many he wanted to draw at once rather than being restricted to just one or the lofty ten. Regrettably, there was no special bonus or guaranteed ultra-rare item for making ten or more draws.
In an instant, a luminous light lit up the blue holographic screen, and a swirl of mesmerizing magical symbols materialized around the Nexus Beacon. The lootboxes, ornately designed and etched with enigmatic runes, manifested one after the other, soaring gracefully toward him. Though the process itself remained unchanged from his previous experiences, the thrill of it never waned.
Victor watched with anticipation as the lootboxes in different sizes landed before him. They radiated an enticing aura, promising untold treasures within. His heart quickened as he reached out to open the first lootbox — the longest one — and with a soft hum, it slowly unfurled before him, revealing what appeared to be an approximately 120-centimeter-long magic staff adorned with a shimmering orange sapphire gem at its peak.
Elemental Staff of Flame
A masterfully crafted magic staff, hewn from the sacred firewood tree, renowned for its innate connection to the blazing essence of Pyro magic. This elegant instrument is designed to empower its wielder, enhancing their proficiency in channeling and controlling the formidable forces of Pyro-element magic.
Rank: Mid-grade magic tool
Victor couldn’t help a wide smile spreading over his face.
JACKPOT!
A staff would definitely come in handy when facing the arachnid horde. Furthermore, a mid-grade magic tool like this could fetch as much as fifty novice-grade mana crystals on the market, perhaps even more. Most acolytes in the Arcane Radiance College could only dream of possessing such a treasure due to their high price, which was the precise reason Victor himself had gone without one.
“If the first pull is this lucky, won’t the next four be jackpots too?” Victor grinned, his expectations reaching the ceiling.
“Keep dreaming. But don’t take too long,” Lizbeth remarked. “Since the higher you climb, the harder you fall. As for me, I can float, so this rule doesn’t apply.”
“Don’t you know being optimistic is the mother of success?”
Yet, his hopes were soon dashed as the following three items proved to be rather ordinary. Two of them were potions, one for enhancing swiftness and the other for restoring health. The third item was a three-time use offensive magic scroll containing the Aleph-tier spell “{Inferno Burst}.” They were undoubtedly valuable magic items for most people, but for Victor, they were not of much use.
“Thirty points… gone just like that,” Victor lamented, feeling a pang of disappointment. But he wasn’t one to give up easily. “No! I still have one more!” With unwavering determination, he turned his attention to the last remaining lootbox and reached for it.
The final lootbox revealed its contents in a blinding burst of light unmatched by any of the others. Within it lay a pendant with a polished onyx gemstone suspended from a delicate silver chain. Upon closer inspection, subtle, ethereal patterns seemed to dance within the onyx, mirroring the shimmering phases of the moon.
Twilight Moon Pendant
Legend has it that this pendant was once the national treasure of a lost kingdom from the Dark Age. Although it has long since lost its brilliance, its defensive ability cannot be underestimated. If activated, it grants the user an invincibility effect by turning them into an ethereal moonlight shadow.
Rank: High-grade magic tool
If the magic staff was a rare item, this pendant was an ultra-rare item!
The difference was like heaven and earth.
No one knew better than Victor when it came to the importance of defense, and this pendant would provide him with an extra layer of security. The defensive magic tool given to Victor by his family as protection was also a high-grade magic tool, but even that was countless times inferior to this one. In fact, it might even be more valuable than some superior-grade magic tools — magic tools that were only owned by official Magi.