"What exactly are we dealing with here?" Gray asked, staring at the door. "What 'pieces' did you find?"
Doctor remained silent.
"I can't contribute unless I know the general theme of this 'challenge'," Gray added.
For another moment, only the sound of their breaths and the crackling of the flames filled the air.
"A keycode is concealed within the gate's inner workings. I uncovered it with my skill and spent the last hour attempting to crack the rather... odd, combination," Doctor began, before slowly making his way towards the door.
He ran his fingers over three spots that formed a triangle, tapping each one lightly. "I see colored rings in these areas; red, blue, green. They may be moved closer, or further apart... depending on my touch," he explained, before running his finger in a straight line. Gray couldn't see anything changing, but Doctor seemed focused.
"In the end, I found that by moving them, they influence a fourth, more hidden ring. A purple ring that makes a click—" Just then, there was a loud click from the gate. "—once the shade is right," he continued.
At that moment the door began humming, and the floor rumbled. However, just as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped.
"But it seems that something is still missing," Doctor announced, before turning around to look at Gray.
~Four rings? And they're color-coded,~ Gray thought to himself. It seemed fair to assume that the first three represented the three champion classes, and perhaps the fourth was some sort of combination of the three.
~Doctor mentioned that my hands were glowing purple earlier, perhaps the fourth represents the universal class?~ he pondered. His heart tingled at the thought of being special, though he quickly set that aside.
Even if his theory was correct, it didn't mean much. ~I mean, it sort of looks like the challenge was already solved. There was a click and the door shook, what else could there possibly be?~ Gray thought to himself, staring at Doctor who also seemed to be deep in thought as well.
~Wait. ~ Just then, Gray turned to look at one of the blue flames. Why were they here? He doubted that so many of them had just been placed as mere decoration.
"I've already inspected those. Nothing is hidden within those flames," Doctor announced.
However, Gray was not convinced. Since he had woken up in this place, he'd noticed that two colors seemed to play an important role here. Blue, the exact color of the flames, being one of them, and gold being the other.
Blue seemed to represent some sort of inactive state, for instance, the elevator; which had been blue initially but turned gold afterward. And gold an active state, abundantly clear by the number of times it appeared once something was happening. When he had gotten his food in the cafeteria for instance, and even the 'contract of intent'.
"It's just a theory, but I think the flames have to turn gold for the combination to work," Gray said hesitantly.
"Gold? What? Is this from another game you played?" Doctor asked. Gray expected him to be skeptical of any information that came from fiction, but there wasn't a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"No. It's just something I've noticed," Gray replied, placing his hand over the closest flame. At first, he was hesitant to put his entire hand inside, after all, even if it was cold it was still a fire. However, after getting comfortable with the fact it wouldn't burn him, he reached in deeper.
"Anything?" Doctor asked, staring at Gray with a sort of impressed expression.
"Nothing," Gray replied, still moving his hand around as if something would happen.
"This gold theory of yours, is it because of what happened with the 'contract of intent'?" Doctor asked, before approaching a flame as well.
"Yeah, among other things," Gray replied, giving only half his attention.
"Then perhaps, 'intent' is required for this as well," Doctor said, and right then the room seemed to light up.
Gray turned round and found that the flame that Doctor was touching had turned golden.
"It seems you weren't wrong... and I was right for making this alliance," Doctor said, a thin smile on his face.
Gray did the same, thinking about the intent for the flame to activate, and it roared before phasing gold.
That warmth in his stomach returned, this time Gray tried to use it. He closed his eyes, and thought of a fireball. If intent was all that was needed to activate things then perhaps it would work.
However, even after several seconds of waiting, nothing happened. All he had was the warmth, and the slight connection to his 'core'.
At that point, Doctor had activated all the flames and was already back at the gate. He tapped the three spots and traced his fingers along it in straight lines. A moment later, there was a loud click, and the gate began humming. This time, however, a golden hue surrounded it.
The ground rumbled, as the gate slid to the side, revealing a pitch-black room.
『Update!』
『Challenge 1 of Quest: 'Acolynth Library Access' has been cleared.』
『10 coins have been rewarded as a 'first explorer' bonus!』
~Nice, just a couple hundred more and I'll be able to afford some of the good stuff,~ Gray thought sarcastically. Though he was happy enough to have cleared the puzzle.
Doctor looked at Gray with a satisfied smile, before heading through into the darkness of the next room. However Gray remained behind, staring at the golden flames. The intent thing hadn't worked, but he was certain that if he had some time with this, he would be able to figure something out.
There was no telling when the next time he'd gain access to something like this would arise again. Especially since only 'golden' imbued objects seemed to give him a link to his core.
Just then, the two flames at the beginning of the hallway were snuffed out, and a millisecond later, the next two.
~Fuck.~
He bolted for the gate, using his enhanced speed to outpace the quickly dying flames. Right as the last was about to be snuffed, he jumped through into the darkness.
A second later, the ground rumbled and the gate shut behind him.
"I was beginning to think you'd stay behind," a voice called out from the darkness.
Gray dusted himself off, squinting his eyes in an attempt to see something at the far end of this room. It looked like a blue orb, sending out faint pulses of light.
"Watch your step. Something lurks in these shadows," Doctor said, his glowing eyes piercing the darkness beside Gray.