Unlike the marble staircases, this one was made of rotten wood. The walls of the staircase were irregular stones, reminiscent of a cave. Instead of being lit by oil lamps, there were glowing blue mushrooms growing on the irregular stone walls, casting a faint blue light on the steps. It was a beautiful scene, but also quite hazardous, as the slippery and unreliable wooden steps posed a risk.
Adam descended carefully and slowly. His heart was beating a bit faster; today, he had experienced his first day of school and managed to climb to the middle floors without anyone noticing that he didn't actually belong there.
Adam lived in the lower floors with his father. His father had devised a plan to provide education to his son and offer him a better future, as education was impossible to obtain for the inhabitants of the lower levels.
The discovery of this staircase had been made by Adam's father during his youth. Unfortunately, by the time he found it, he was too old to become a student and could never obtain the black robe. His father knew well that acquiring the black robe was not merely getting a piece of clothing; it was gaining the right to say you knew how to read and securing the ability to live well in this world.
Careful not to slip, Adam managed to descend all the wooden steps. The bottom of the staircase led to a cave illuminated by hundreds of mushrooms. In the cave, there was a small crystal-clear lake, with stones emerging from the water forming a path that crossed the lake in the middle.
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With caution not to fall into the water, Adam hopped from stone to stone until he reached the other end of the lake, where only the cave wall stood. It seemed meaningless to hop across the stones since the cave had no apparent exit, and there was nothing on the other side of the lake. Nevertheless, upon reaching the cave wall on this end, Adam placed his hand on it and said aloud:
—"A day of good adventures, but it's time for the hero to return home..."
Immediately, the cave walls began to tremble, and slowly, a drawing of a door made with white chalk appeared on the wall. Adam pushed the drawing, but the door didn't budge; it seemed someone was on the other side.
Adam waited for a while in the cave and tried again; this time, the door moved, revealing the hallways of the third hexagon on the fifth lower floor.
The hallways on this floor felt much more elegant than those in the middle floors; their floors and ceilings were finely carved marble with flower patterns. Most of the shelves were made of gold and silver, and the oil lamps were angel statues.
However, Adam knew that all this beauty meant nothing in this world, and the only thing of true value was knowledge; according to Adam's father, most books in the lower floors were filled with useless scribbles or were inaccessible due to greedy shelves that never allowed you to read them.
Adam hurried, almost running, through the marble hallways; they were not safe, and the boy needed to get home quickly to safeguard his treasure. It was only now that he realized he had forgotten to bring the other set of torn robes; the ones he was wearing were very new and could attract the attention of dangerous people.
On the way, Adam encountered many people, luckily they either knew him or had no intentions of robbing a defenseless child; so, Adam was able to reach safely to hexagon 10 on the fifth lower floor.