The 1st floor was the entry point to the adventures that awaited inside the Crimson Spire and as such he was not expecting any herculean tasks at that level.
Damon was already thinking about the possible things that could happen and how he would go about finding solutions to them.
The player started to recall the riddles he knew from the real world as well as their answers.
He was doing this all in preparation for whatever Symhar had in store for him.
Symhar impressed the tail of his metallic staff hard on the ground and a long crack extended forward from that point and started branching out in many different directions.
The cracks grew bigger and formed crevices that caved into big pits.
These pits eventually coalesced into one very enormous, dark, bottomless pit.
Damon watched as the floor of the room imploded and fell into a deep pit of pitch darkness.
His eyes gaped and his heart pounded very fast as his life flashed before his eyes.
He kept turning around, trying to see if there was a way to escape.
Unfortunately, there was none.
He was totally surrounded by a bottomless pit of black.
Symhar, however, stood in front of him, calm and quiet since he knew the outcome of whatever it was that he had just done.
Damon was careful to not take any careless steps that may end up costing him his life.
He watched as the floor of the room collapsed into itself leaving only four pillars as the remaining solid structures: the pillar that Damon was standing on, the one Symhar was standing on and the two that were on the guardian's left and right sides.
Where the two of them stood were like small platforms that stretched down and deep into the pitch black pit that was below them.
It was an abyss.
Every other thing that surrounded Damon was shrouded in that thick darkness.
About 20 to 25 metres worth of darkness separated him and the guardian, Symhar.
Damon took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before everything seemed to be happening faster than he could process it.
"This is not real," he tried to reassure himself as he shut his eyes. "This is not real."
He continued to say the same sentence for several seconds.
"This... is not real," he said to himself repeatedly only to finally open his eyes and see that it was as real as a touch on his skin.
He looked forward and saw Symhar laughing at him.
Snap!
The Floor Guardian snapped his fingers and notifications started to come in.
Ding!
[The challenge «The Riddle Game» has begun]
[Host: Symhar «Floor Guardian»]
—––
[Participants]
Spectre - [Active]
RedQueen69 - [Active]
Shadowstrike - [Waiting]
DarkNova - [Waiting]
The_Godfather - [Waiting]
Snow_Blue - [Waiting]
—––
Damon glanced at the notification and noticed something.
It was the first time Axon has ever mentioned other players.
He was beginning to wonder what happened to the 60 million plus players in Nexus since he had not encountered even one of them.
'Looks like I'm not the only one taking the test at the moment,' he thought to himself after seeing another player's name, RedQueen69, pop up below his name in the participants' list while also bearing the [Active] tag as well
Damon jammed his hands and cracked his knuckles.
He was fired up and very enthusiastic to start the game now more than ever.
For some reason, seeing that other players were participating, or were going to participate, made him motivated to take the challenge.
"Let's play!"
.
.
.
Symhar began to speak and his voice thundered all over but Damon did not flinch.
He had bigger goals to achieve for the events of the 1st floor to make him fret.
Damon stood, unfazed by the theatrics unveiled by the guardian in front of him.
'His exerted strength wouldn't be more than the level of his floor. In essence, he can't release more than what the floor can handle.'
Damon carefully considered his chances of survival inside the 1st floor.
'If I'm right then, it would be around levels that I can handle to an extent. Still not bad, but I will just need to hold it out.'
He paused his thinking to listen to the rules being dished out by Symhar.
As Symhar spoke, two replicas of himself sprung out from his body.
They jumped from his platform and landed on their respective pillars that were to the right and left sides.
'What's going on?' Damon was fazed as he exchanged glances between the new Symhars that appeared.
"The rules of this riddle game are simple," the guardian began.
The voices of the Symhars echoed and sounded even more powerful.
The three of them spoke at the same time and with the same tone and everything.
There was a perfect sync in their words and actions.
"One of us will always tell the truth. One of us will always lie. One of us will always be on the fence, deciding to say the truth or lie however he deems fit.
"To pass the challenge, you must identify which of us is which — the Symhar of Truth, the Symhar of Lies and the Symhar of Both."
"Huh?" Damon blurted out, the corners of his eyes twitching.
"The riddle game begins now."
Ding!
A notification dropped.
Damon opened it and hissed.
[Riddle Game]
[Time Left — 00h : 09m : 48s]
"What! A timer?"