I was alone, in a pale-yellow bricked hallway. The light that came from the decently placed lanterns on the walls made it easy to see. Aside from being alone, it was a better start in comparison to some of the starting points on floors. That stupid spider floor was the worst, why did we have to start in the egg room, there were so many webs that got stuck to us.

I shivered but was brought from that rough recollection by a tug on my boot.

I looked down and saw Phuaphua’s eyes peering up at me. The light from the torches reflected in them and they shinned with his grin. I loved this little guy; he liked fighting as much as I do. It made sense why he liked Quartz so much; I mean aside from the fact that he seemed to really enjoy eating him.

I heard the most useless ding ever.

The banner appeared but I only glanced at it.

I didn’t see anything that looked like numbers like I’d seen before on floors with lots of things to hit, so this probably wouldn’t be anything fun. I’d need another sparring session with Quartz after this.

I slouched and started walking down the hallway. I’m alone and have to do something stupid, that I can’t even read!

There was a ding again and the banner popped in front of me.

Shukhahzhkha tower.

I walked right through it.

But before I could get even a step further it appeared again.

I glared and stopped to look at it. The most I could tell was that all of the symbols were different than the first one.

But it didn’t matter, I couldn’t read in common, there’s no way I’d be able to read in whatever this language was.

I walked through it again and the banner appeared yet again in front of me.

This time though, there was a soft female voice.

“Welcome to the thirty fourth floor,”

This was new, on the other floors I just let the rest of them explain things to me.

“Description; The plains of Calafree have been experiencing an unprecedented drought. As a special task force sent by the local adventuring guild, you and your party have been tasked to discover the cause of this drought. While fighting some local beasts you have fallen into a mysterious labyrinth and separated from your party.

“Completion requirements…... unknown…. Failure requirements …... unknown.”

“Well, that was soooooo helpful thanks tower."

Why should I care about the people who live here if I’m apparently stuck in a labyrinth. And what kind of floor gives unknowns for the completion requirements?

I sighed and started walking. The banner didn’t appear in front of me again.

I still didn’t get too far because Phuaphua started pulling on my shirt, so I just reached and pulled him up onto my shoulders by his arm.

I kept one hand on his thigh but left my other to swing as I walked.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Awzhyo sounded like he had such a fun time when he was alone, who wouldn’t want to fight with dragons. I’m sure they were just as cute as Phuaphua was. Hatchlings that could turn into part humanoid! So cute! But the stupid tower put me in a labyrinth, how unfair. I guess Phuaphua’s cuteness will have to be enough for now.

It would be so awesome if he was up to fighting when we had down time. He seemed to be good enough when I saw him fighting those bugs. Clearly, he likes it, and he does like watching I just wish he liked actually taking part.

At least Quartz shares the same level of interest in fighting. Getting to fight with another goliath makes it even better. I know he tries, but Awkyo’s just a human, he can’t really compete with our love for fights. He tries to and he’s gotten so much better since we were little though, who would’ve thought that he was able to fight with dragons like that. I would’ve loved to see it.

Who am I kidding, I totally would’ve started fighting before I could see him do his thing.

Now he’s got mana that isn’t physical enhancement. He’s going to have so many cool things he’ll be able to do. I can’t wait to see it, maybe I can touch it if I cover myself in aura.

Kahzhaw would probably be interested but would probably only let Quartz try it out since he can heal himself.

Man, this hallway was long, there was no sign of things coming quickly so I picked up a light jog. After five or six turns that I randomly picked and a set of stairs we arrived at a large room.

It did say a labyrinth, but I guess I just was lucky.

About seven paces in front of us was a weird patch work of large tiles spaced differently from each other. I stepped closer and could see that the tiles spanned the small chasm to the other side where there was a large stone door.

The tiles themselves had odd, shaped holes to them and were spaced from each other very differently, simply floating in the air.

I shrugged and hopped from one to the other until we were across the room and then went to punch the door.

Nothing happened.

I tried again with four times the force, but nothing happened.

“Shukhahzh!”

I charged at the door with full force, but it stopped me right in my tracks sending a shudder through my body.

“Shukhahzhkha nonbreaking walls!”

I kicked it and turned around; I couldn’t believe I ended up in a place I could just break my way through.

I heard a grumble from Phuaphua.

“I know right?! What a cruel punishment? What did I even do to you tower!”

Of course, there was no response, not even a ding as if the panel system could respond to me to reflect them.

I turned around and saw that lining the walls near the opening I had come down through, were large blocks of different sizes. I slouched, seriously? They were comically large.

“And seriously? A puzzle? And it’s this stupid? Even I could do this.”

I trudged back to the edge and then jumped my way back across.

I got close to the blocks and saw that there was a plaque above each of them with an indentation of what must’ve been the block’s shape in the plaque.

I turned back and saw that the first block was this weird squiggly shape, so I found the corresponding block and went to pick it up.

I tried to jam my fingers into it to pick it up, but just came back with sore knuckles. Was every stupid part of this place made out of that unbreakable material? I looked at all the visible sides and saw no hand holds. The bottom though luckily was rounded so I slipped my fingers under and felt a slight indentation and it felt decent enough for me to grab.

I pulled it out from the wall and to the edge of the first tile with the hole in it. After dropping it back on the ground I walked around it and pushed it till I thought I was on top of the hole, but it didn’t drop in.

I glared at the stone and pulled it back out looking at the shape. I managed to rotate it to what was hopefully the correct orientation before I pushed it back into its spot.

It dropped in, there was a click and from under the tile I was on a pathway to the next tile unfolded.

“Phashk!”

This is so stupid!

I slammed my hands into my face and slowly dragged them down groaning.

The next block had like seven points but none of the sides seemed to be the same length.

Why?!!?!?!?!?

The points furthest from me were the closest together, so I went back, pulled it out from the wall, twisted it correctly and pushed it into place.

The next one was just a circle and I stared at it.

“What’s the point of making the third one easy!”

The three after that were just as weird as the first two. There’s no consistency! Make them all stupid!

And when the final one was slotted into place the door opened.

I heard Phuaphua clap. And I sighed, I had almost forgotten he was on my shoulders. He really hardly weighed anything. At least I wasn’t alone, but I mean even he would get bored of this eventually.

“The next one better not be as stupid as this one was.”