The notification reverberated inside Remirg's mind before he could absorb in what he was reading.
[YOU HAVE VOLUNTARILY ENTERED THE UNDERWORLD OF THE SHADOW DUNGEON!
PRECEDING TASK IS STILL PENDING
GUESSES REMAINING: 2/3]
"So, this place here is the "underworld" of the Shadow Dungeon. Kind of a name which does suit the environment around here well."
Looking around the place once, tracing it with Prana Presence, his eyes flew wide open.
He could clearly see the differences of Prana between each of the gigantic monoliths which were standing right beneath the statues which he had encountered on the floor above.
But the real problem was something else. Each of the monoliths showed a different prana level. Every single monolith was different from each other.
"**** me. First, I do not find any goddamn difference between the statues and now.... each frickin' one of them is different.
What the heck is this dungeon playing at?"
The red aura around the walls was still irritating his eyes a lot, so he deactivated Prana presence.
After thinking for what felt like an eternity, Remirg let out a disappointed sigh. There was no other choice left. All he could do was to eliminate one other statue, so his investigation could narrow down to eight statues.
With a deep, sinking feeling in his heart, Remirg pointed at the statue beside the one which he had chosen earlier.
And what happened next was inevitable.
But this time it was something different.
This time, the floor itself opened below the monolith, allowing it to free fall into abysmal depths. Little particles also entered the chamber from above, revealing to Remirg what really happened to the statues.
As the monolith fell into nothingness, Remirg checked it one last time with Prana presence, witnessing its end as the prana burst into an explosion, scattering away into the surroundings.
"Quite an end these things meet."
Nevertheless, Remirg focused back to his current predicament. He still had quite a lot of statues to choose from.
Discovering the underworld of the dungeon did no good to him. He was still back on square one.
Looking around himself, he looked again at the prana of the statues producing a different hue.
"What can I do.... What can I do...!"
Finally, after what felt like hours he had entered the third hall, an idea struck him. Though he was still an amateur at controlling his prana, he had to give this a try. This was his only last hope.
"I have to try to transverse my prana particles and connect it with their prana. Though I'm still nervous, this may prove useful. Or maybe this is the only way possible."
Making himself comfortable on the cold stone floor of the chamber, Remirg sat down, in a straight-backed, cross-legged position.
Closing his eyes and easing down his breathing, Remirg activated Prana Presence to its full potential.
He was now clearly able to see each and every prana particle emanating from the monoliths and even the statues above them.
Even though he suspiciously hadn't been able to perceive the underlying monoliths earlier.
Some were moving slower, while some were moving fast, smashing into each other, annihilating themselves in small bursts, producing a small light, much like a twinkle.
Remirg then relaxed all of the muscles of his body to the greatest extent possible.
The prana particles inside his body instantly started to circle his body, like they had done earlier. But now, Remirg did something very different, something which he had deduced should happen.
And he had been right.
As he twitched the index finger of his right hand, technically producing a kind of "partial muscle contraction" in his body, a stream of particles started flowing towards that direction homogenously.
Triumphantly grinning at his success, Remirg directed his prana particle at the monolith right in front of him.
Smoothly, it traversed the lengths of the hall reaching the desired monolith.
A second later, Remirg could feel his prana merging with the statue's creating a connection between the two.
After experiencing this phenomenon for a minute, Remirg cut the connection.
He then started performing the same procedure again on the monolith standing adjacent to the one he had investigated. Still, his prana easily merged with the statue's.
This continued to happen till the fourth time.
The moment Remirg tried to connect with the fifth statue, an unknown force pushed his stream of prana particles away.
And that, was when Remirg Kryptos got his answer. He finally had found the different statue.
This trial required skillful use of prana and experiencing the prana emanating from the surroundings. Remirg had finally mastered the control over prana-particle movement.
Standing up, he turned towards the anomalous monolith.
Pointing directly towards it, he declared, "That's the one.", his voice reverberating for the umpteenth time.
And then.... The Simulator finally revealed the notification he had been dearly awaiting.
[THE PLAYER HAS GUESSED THE RIGHT STATUE! GUESSES HAS BEEN REINSTAED!
THE PLAYER HAS SUCCESSFULLY COMLETED THE FIRST TASK!]
Simultaneous to the appearance of the message on the screen, the pointed-out monolith started to crumble. It shattered into a million pieces just like its predecessors. But this time, there awaited quite a surprise for Remirg.
From the ruins of the statue rose a man, with quite a stout build, looking much shorter for his age.
But what distinguished him from a human was that it was, like its companions, completely black, with his long, neatly placed hair glowing a bright red. And so was with his eyes.
With what looked like an expression of annoyance on his face, he stepped out of the broken monolith on the chamber's floor.
Quite like his built, he walked like a baby, with a fast pace, which seemed like he was trying to match the pace of a normal adult.
Upon his appearance, the Simulator popped Remirg another message, which he already had anticipated.
[YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED THE PREPARATOR! THE PLAYER CAN NOW PROCEED WITH THE SECOND TASK!]
The shadow man paced the lengths of the hall and stood directly in front of Remirg, who was rooted to his spot at his strange appearance.
And what happened next was even more unexpected.
The Preparator opened his mouth and uttered just six words, an otherworldly, amplified voice.
"I see..... You.... are the Player."