Eminira Dungeon Again (4)
"Hardt, what did you do?" Brother Gerald asked.
So I explained that I looked for a book in the Royal Capital Library about how to tell real crystals apart, I found one, and now I wanted to try it out.
Everyone was surprised.
Ah, well, only Brother Gerald knows about my blessing.
But with this group, it should be fine.
We hit another dead end, so I asked Linka, who had long hair, for a single strand.
I placed the strand under the transparent orb on the left and looked down from above — it appeared as one strand.
Then I placed the hair under the transparent orb on the right and looked down — it looked like two strands.
"The one on the right is the crystal.” I said, placing the orb on the right onto the central pedestal, and then the wall crumbled away, revealing a small pouch in front of us.
Brother Gerald asked me to explain, so I told him: when you place a hair under a crystal and look from above, it appears as two strands, whereas under a glass ball, it remains one strand.
Everyone else wanted to see too, so we had them check the difference with both orbs.
Brother Gerald was delighted, saying that from here on the floors should be easier to get through.
The Golden Wings also mentioned it might be good to spend some time here earning money.
But I had a feeling that if this information spread, the dungeon's structure might change... after all, it is a dungeon.
Should I say it? But then again, maybe not.
"Hardt, you look like you want to say something," Canal said.
So I told them I felt like, since the success rate would go up, the dungeon might change its contents.
Hearing this, Brother Gerald and the others said they would check after clearing this floor.
For now, we continued forward, and whenever we hit a dead end, we used the hair trick to check.
Just in case, we kept taking notes as well.
We arrived at the boss room, but no one would tell us what was inside.
They only said it wasn't dangerous.
The boss room had pure white walls, and in the center on a pedestal sat a rock measuring about 60 cm tall, 50 cm wide, and 40 cm deep.
We approached the pedestal cautiously, suspecting it might be a golem, but it didn't move at all.
Looking closer, there seemed to be a handle-like object on the right side and an opening under the rock.
It resembled a capsule toy machine from my previous life.
I tried turning the handle, but it just spun freely without any response.
It really did look just like a capsule toy machine.
Capsule toy machines use coins.
Was there a place to insert a coin in this rock?
Searching around, I found an entrance hidden by the handle, as well as a round hole next to it.
"Hardt, did you figure something out?" Canal asked.
I told him it seemed like you needed to insert a coin and something else there.
"A coin? You mean money?"
I explained that it probably wasn't regular money, but a coin hidden somewhere in this room. Also, the hole next to it concerned me.
"This hole is about the size of the crystal orbs we picked up." Canal said.
Ah, I see. Maybe we need to use a crystal orb and a hidden coin to activate the capsule machine.
Let's find the coin.
The adults didn’t move.
When we asked, Brother Gerald told us that we were supposed to search for it ourselves.
He also said that the hiding place changes every time.
In this otherwise empty room, where could it be hidden?
Maybe a hidden room or a hidden box in the wall?
When I approached the wall, which I had thought was just plain white, I noticed there were patterns drawn on it.
Looking closely, I saw parts of the pattern were raised.
When I touched them, they peeled off easily — they were coins.
Yes! I found one.
I immediately returned to the capsule machine and tried inserting the coin, but it was a little too big and wouldn't fit.
Canal also found a coin and tried inserting it, but his didn't fit either.
Ah, there must be a lot of dummy coins.
We were piling up dummy coins.
Looking closely at the dummy coins, they fell into three different designs.
Canal and I decided to search for coins that had a different design.
After about an hour of searching, I found a coin with a different design.
Canal found a different one too.
Both coins fit into the entrance.
Since two coins went in together, we tried inserting two coins and one crystal orb and turning the handle, but it wouldn't move.
We tried using just one coin at a time, but still the handle wouldn't move.
Were the coins wrong?
Or was something else missing?
We carefully inspected the pedestal, but couldn’t find any hints.
"Reinhardt, if there are two coins, maybe we also need two crystal orbs." Canal suggested.
He might be right.
We tried putting in another crystal orb, but the handle still didn't move.
Then, after inserting one more orb and turning the handle, it finally moved.
As I turned the handle, we heard a "click," and from the opening that looked like a capsule outlet, a large bag came out.
Right after that, the capsule machine crumbled into sand.
When we opened the bag, we found raw amethyst and rose quartz stones inside.
After leaving the boss room, we were sent to the entrance of the 9th floor.
To enter the labyrinth again.
When we entered and reached a dead end, we found two orbs placed on the central pedestal, and a sign that read:
"Touch the crystal orb."
It had been changed so that touching either orb even once was treated as answering, and on top of that, the "left" and "right" correct answers had also been swapped.
Because of that, we decided to stop trying to clear the Glass Labyrinth.
What do you think about this chapter?
