We had sat around in the first room of the 8th floor for around an hour.
"Can you seriously not think of anything else?"
I asked Ahrin with an irritated expression.
"It's not like you're doing anything either!"
She quickly retorted in frustration, and I was unable to argue back.
I spoke up after a while.
"I still think the answer should be love though?"
Love was not directly touched, but it was held in ones heart.
It weighed nothing, but for some, it was large enough to cover the sky.
But as we had found, it was the incorrect answer.
A large orc had spawned, quickly dispatched by Ahrin's sword skill and my fists.
"Even though we got it wrong.. I still think it has to be along those lines, right?"
I nodded in agreement with Ahrin.
"If a ring doesn't represent love.. what else?"
Ahrin spoke up with a renewed interest.
"I think... a ring doesn't only mean love, since it's given during an engagement... And an engagement is a promise to get married... So the answer should be that. A promise."
"It makes sense to me... It's worth a shot."
I got up and walked over to the pedestal.
"A promise."
The floor rumbled, and the four angelic statues shifted to either side of the room, revealing an entrance to the next room.
"Seriously?! Another one?"
Ahrin was not aware that another room would be ahead, unlike myself, and thus became even more annoyed.
The next room was similar in design to the first, with another pedestal.
A new riddle was engraved.
"I am the the beginning of everything, the end of everywhere, I am the beginning of eternity and the end of time and space. What am I?"
Ahrin read out the riddle.
I walked across the room.
"H-hey, what the hell a-"
"Dragon Crush!"
A red barrier appeared in front of the stone wall and I was blasted back, unable to break through.
"It was worth a shot..."
"Honestly, are you an idiot?"
"Don't get too comfortable speaking to me in such a tone."
"....Let's get on with the riddle."
My thoughts fell back on the riddle.
It seemed to have quite a grand answer, time, space, eternity, and everything were grind grand concepts.
"It must be nothingness?"
"Let's go with that."
[Incorrect Answer]
A few wolves spawned in the room.
"Blooming Cuts."
Two wolves were immediately torn by expert sword strikes.
The other wolf was kicked into the wall by me, shattering its ribs.
....
A few hours later, we had made no notable progress, several failure attempts had caused dozens of monsters to spawn.
The room had begun to stink due to the collection of monster corpses.
'Alright... that's enough.'
The hidden objective of this floor could be completed multiple times, once for each room.
It was simply to get the answer wrong fifty times.
I had discovered this in the third and final room of my last life, when my partner had no luck after dozens of guesses.
The issue was that increasingly powerful monsters would spawn.
'Welp, I didn't think I'd have to go with this so soon.'
I moved over to the corner of the room, observing the various engravings on the wall.
"Ahrin, I think I've found something!"
Ahrin, who had now let her guard down, approached me without hesitation.
"Oh? What did you get from the engravi-"
Thwak!
Knocked out, her body slumped over and fell to the floor.
I moved her over to the entrance room of the 8th floor, so that monsters would not harm her.
"The answer is A."
[Incorrect Answer]
Monsters spawned, quickly being handled by me.
"The answer is B."
[Incorrect Answer]
A large orc spawned, having its head blown off instantly.
"The answer is C."
[Incorrect Answer]
Two goblin shamans spawned, wielding fire and ice respectively.
Their heads were smashed against each other without delay.
"The answer is D."
A massive wolf spawned.
"Dragon Crush."
A hole was left through the monster.
"The answer is E."
[Correct Answer]
[Proceed to next room]
"Huh?"
'Wait... what the hell? The answer was E?'
'The beginning of everything and eternity. The end of time and space...'
I came to the clear realization the answer was E.
"..."
I moved onto the next room.
----------------
I did not even bother reading the riddle of the final room, instead immediately guessing wrong answers to active the waves of monsters.
The entire room was filled with monsters, as a matter of fact, one could not move without stepping on the corpse of one.
It was interestingly a good way to rack up experience.
My level had increased significantly.
[Status]
Zeon Cross - Super Rookie
Dragon Fist
Level 67
Strength 68 (+10)
Speed 50 (+19)
Endurance 41 (+30)
Magic 73
Available Stat Points : 45
I equally distributed 15 for strength speed and magic.
"The answer is 50."
[Inco-r-rr--rr-
[Hidden Objective Complete]
As opposed to a monster, a key piece appeared.
[Key Piece - Epic - 6/7]
I would use it on the next floor.
The next floor was a floor that I disliked, but it was something that I never took advantage of in my previous life.
The 9th floor was the Temple of Altars.
It was used to find a God or Demon to serve under.
Of course, there existed other methods to communicate with Gods, but for newbies, this was the easiest and intended way.
In my last life, I never contracted myself to a God.
Even in this life, I had no intention to do so.
[Several Gods and Demons watch over you warily.]
I looked up to the ceiling of the enigma chamber.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll meet one of you lot real soon."
[Several Gods are outraged at your rudeness!]
[Several Demons laugh in excitement!]
The key pieces would allow one to craft a 'Great Barrier Key' and directly speak to a higher entity of the tower.
I intended to try and negotiate with a being.
The biggest issue of my previous life was that I refused to contract to any higher beings, whilst all my enemies had.
Luther, Sia, Orion, Giren, Alice.
All of them had contracted under a God as an apostle.
[Current instance of the 8th floor is closing.]
I looked back down the hallway, seeing Ahrin was fast asleep.
Honestly, I felt quite bad about knocking her out, but it would be a pain to explain my hidden method to her.
And another part of me did not want her to know about the hidden objectives.
My knowledge of hidden objectives....
I did speak a lot with those guys, didn't I?
I refused to recollect my memory of their faces.
I'd get them sooner or later anyways.
At the very least, Ahrin would still pass this floor.