As they did their talking, Ermos went wandering anyway. He approached the fiery well of blue-lava and gazed down into it, feeling the immense heat against his face. It could probably melt a whole pear in an instant. He decided to test it, reaching for the last pear that he had hidden in his sleeve.
He stuck it on the end of an old rod of iron that he had just found and he plunged it into the lava, before quickly pulling it out again. The whole thing had immediately turned black and bubbles formed beneath the surface as juice was spat out. It was easy to imagine from that how it might affect a human.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spied something even more interesting. A bronze cube that sparkled as the blue light of the lava reflected off it. It had been discarded on the floor, just by the well, as though someone had tripped up and dropped it, only to fall straight into a fiery death. He picked it up and examined it with a curious eye.
It was made of lots of different smaller cubes, or so it appeared. Sixteen small bronze cubes made up each side of it. He wondered whether it was hollow, with a treasure inside and he held it up to his ear and rattled it.
"I think master might have discovered something," Ermos heard Pash say, drawing the attention of the group towards him. "Where did you find that master? It looks like a puzzle."
"On the floor," Ermos said, pointing to the spot where he found it.
"A puzzle, you say?" Mane repeated, plucking the cube from Ermos' hand without asking.
"Hey-!" Ermos tried to protest, but it seemed he was being ignored.
"Try pressing in the squares on each side," Pash said," they might give way to something."
A frown appeared on Mane's face as he concentrated on the cube inside his hand. He fiddled with it all he could, but didn't seem to be making any progress.
"What does that have to do with the keys though?" Cherry asked, not quite understanding.
"I'm not sure yet," Pash admitted, "but we have no other clues, so we might as well explore this one."
Lucifan was scowling in the background, apparently having taken Mane's threat seriously.
"Can we not blast through these doors as well? Or maybe if we all pushed at the same time, they'd have to swing open, wouldn't they?" Fer suggested.
"You can try," Mane said, "but they seem rather solid. I do not want to risk dulling my blade on them."
Given a little task of his own, Fer was only too pleased. He went away like a happy rabbit and began trying to push on the door. Ermos could tell that he wasn't going to get anywhere, but it was fun to watch.
Quickly, Mane grew frustrated with the cube's puzzle and he tossed it to Pash. "Doesn't seem like a puzzle to me. None of its squares will budge."
"I'll try it anyway," Pash said, giving the cube his focus, "there might be a little trick to it." Ermos noticed that his apprentice was growing more confident the more time they spent underground. He was able to finally use that cleverness of his. Ermos was pleased for him.
His apprentice fiddled away with his fingers like he was a master puzzle solver. He tried all sorts of different things, shaking it – to which Ermos proudly thought 'I tried that!' – and then twisting it. It was twisting it that had the first effect. The top row of the cube spun round all at once.
"Oh…" Cherry said in awe.
"You're onto something there lad," Mane said encouragingly.
All the while, Fer was beating on the iron doors with a vigour, calling out his battle cry against them, using his palms to strike at it, thinking that he would be able to open them by mere heart alone. As Mane had warned him, he refrained from using his sword.
With the first row twisted, Pash did something else with his fingers and a square pushed in. To Ermos, it was like watching a magic trick. He had no idea what was going on. Had it been him, he would have tried throwing it against the stone floor as hard as he could, and, when that didn't work, he would have given up.
His fingers went to work once more and he pushed in another section of the cube, only, this time, something slid out. "Key one," he said, holding up a bronze bar with little teeth carved into its centre, whilst it was still square at both ends from where it had sat in the cube.
Mane shook his head in admiration. Everyone present felt the same. Unless they had been told exactly what to do, no one would have figured it out.
From there, it was a quick process for Pash. He took the cube apart hand piece by piece until he was left with five bars that he deemed to be 'keys' and the rest he discarded as useless. "They were pretty confident, just leaving their keys lying in plain sight," Pash commented as he handed them over to Mane.
"No… I think they just didn't expect anyone to be able to break into their puzzle," Mane said back. "You're a bright lad. Are you sure the path of a swordsman is the one you're meant to walk? The Slash is in dire need of strategists. With my recommendation, you could start a strategy apprenticeship by the beginning of next week."
"Really? Thank you!" Pash said enthusiastically, before turning back to look at Ermos and slowing down slightly. "…But, I can't take you up on that offer. I want to become the strongest warrior in the Slash, not just a strategist."
"A difficult road... If you wish to be the strongest, you will soon have to overtake me. But, if you find a way to use that mind of yours as a weapon, and I'm sure you'll see your strength soar up," Mane said.