New Earth- The Dungeon Of Madness 209 Puzzlebox

Five browsed through the rest of the requests. Nothing really caught his attention. Five was not required to accept any request and for now, he wanted to focus on the upcoming Night of Macabre.

The contract he signed only required him to lead an attack on one of the opposing dungeon masters within three months. The conflict between the alliances was no longer going to be kept under wrap. With the appearance of the new dungeon masters, the available resources on Zero became scarcer; the only way for the dungeon masters to continue to develop was to steal resources form each other.

While the old dungeon masters kept each other in check, the younger generation was free to fight and compete for the resources. The future of the alliances rested on the shoulders of the new generation.

As Five browsed through the requests, his eyes suddenly lit up. He stumbled onto a request that was completely different from the others.

[Request: I obtained an artifact called Puzzle Box. I am looking for people experienced in puzzle-solving or similar skills to help me open it. When opened, the Puzzle Box will give me the right to visit a tomb. I am willing to share 20% of anything I obtain from the tomb to the person who will solve the puzzle. Anyone making a contribution will also receive a portion of my loot.

Note: As it is a popular request and there is only one Puzzlebox, all those willing to accept the request will only be allowed to keep the Puzzlebox for six hours. If you are interested, please add the player: Solstice as a friend]

'A puzzle box that gives access to a tomb? Could it be the same as mine?' thought Five. Opening his inventory, he saw the small purple box covered in runes.

'Maybe it is the same and if so, maybe we can both benefit from this.'

Five blankly stared at the request for a moment before taking a decision.

[System prompt: A friend request was sent to the player: 'Solstice']

…

At the same time, in a corner of the lounge, a woman was lying on a couch. She crossed her legs, watching the other players discussing among themselves. 'So annoying. Why did we all have to come here just to welcome one person.'

She rearranged her short pink hair while grabbing her gla.s.s. As she was about to take a sip, she suddenly received a notification.

[System prompt: You have received a friend request.]

'A friend request? Is it another opportunist trying who wants to attempt to solve the Puzzle Box?' From her position, Solstice looked at the display board in the distance. The couch she chose was strategically positioned, giving her an ideal view of the entire hall.

She glanced at the Request Board and saw a man examining the available requests. He was an average looking man; he was not especially handsome but had a particular charm. He wore a serious expression as he crossed his arms, constantly frowning when his eyes moved from request to request.

'Another John Doe willing to test his luck on my Puzzle Box? He looks familiar though,' thought Solstice. She nonchalantly opened her interface but instantly froze upon seeing the name.

'Five? Isn't he the new recruit we are supposed to welcome today? The same guy who fought against the Storm Alliance.'
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Solstice blankly stared at Five's friend request. 'His dungeon is quite strong. Probably stronger than mine right now. Maybe he has some inside knowledge about the Puzzle Box?'

She glanced at Five one more time before making her decision.

[System prompt: You have accepted "Five" as a friend. Send him a message now.]

She then stood up and left. Ignoring the strange stares of the nearby players, she wrote Five a quick message.

Solstice: "If you are interested in the Puzzle Box, meet me on the second floor of the Hub. Go to the Basilic Room. The pa.s.sword is 850538".

...

A few minutes later, Five and Solstice faced each other in the Basilic Room. They were both sitting at a meeting table, examining each other. The Basilic Room was one of the meeting rooms available to the members of the Hurricane Alliance. It was a dark and gloomy room with the wallpaper resembling the skin of a snake.

There were no windows and the only sources of light were small candles held by chandeliers shaped like snakes. The room looked more like the ritual room of a cult that a meeting room. Five felt very uncomfortable.

He squinted his eyes while sizing up Solstice, wondering why she chose such an environment for their first meeting. Was it to intimidate him? Five felt that it was a really childish move to do so. The room was dim but Five could still clearly see Solstice's features. She could have been really pretty but the look she chose was a complete turndown.

She looked like a rebellious teenager. Her hair was extremely short, giving her a tomboy look. Solstice had several piercings and tattoos all over her body. She was leaning against her arm, carefully observing Five.

"So you are interested in the Puzzle Box? May I ask if you have any knowledge or prior experiences of solving complex puzzles or cryptology?" She went straight to the point while maintaining a straight face.

"No professional experience but I always had an interest in puzzles. I would like to give it a try."

"Really? Then, why do I feel like you have ulterior motives? The first thing you did since coming here was to immediately look at the requests available. This is not something a dungeon master would usually do." Solstice said with a doubtful expression. Her piercing gaze met Five's eyes as the latter felt a chill run down his spine.

'... She is not wrong. I should not have aimed for the quests immediately. Trying to socialise with some of the members of the alliance would have been a better option. That woman could have been observing me since the start and she might not be the only one,' thought Five.

He coughed awkwardly to disperse the heavy atmosphere. "I don't know what you are talking about. I just wanted to gather some information and since I saw your request, I just thought it would be a good opportunity to make contact with one of the members. If the puzzle box is not available, that is fine. I will look for another request."

"Hold on. When did I say I am refusing your help? It is just that there are quite a few people looking into the puzzle box. Because it is a unique item, they are all interested in the possible rewards behind it. I arranged the people involved in a list and pa.s.sed the puzzle box to them. They simply pa.s.s it among each other in order. If you want to be involved, you will have to join the very end of the list." Solstice immediately soften her tone and took a step back in the conversation, fearing that she might have been too aggressive and pushed away Five.

"In that case, how long do I have to wait?" Five asked. His expression became more relaxed. He never hoped to solve the puzzle box. He only wanted to look at the progress they had made and use that information on his own puzzle box. In short, he just wanted to steal the work done by others.

"There's about thirty people involved. Fifteen of which are genuinely interested. I would say you will need to wait at least two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Five muttered with a light frown. He did not know how fast they were solving the puzzle box but if they managed to solve it completely before he could have a look, it would be a huge loss. He would then have to ask for the solution and might have to pay a price.

"If we go through the normal procedures, yet. But naturally, there is a way to bypa.s.s that." Solstice turned serious as she adjusted her seating position.

'A way to jump the queue. I see. This is probably the main reason she is interested in speaking to me. She phrased it in such a way that she is making me a favour but in reality, it is the opposite.' Five thought. Still, he answered politely. "And what would be that way?"

"It is a very simple request. You won't need to go out of your way for it. You were recruited in the alliance because we need help to conquer the dungeon neighbouring ours. You were chosen because you have already gotten rid of the ones in the direct vicinity of your dungeon. My request is to simply be the first to receive your a.s.sistance."

"There are two dungeons at a relatively close distance to mine. One of which is particularly troublesome because he has friends nearby. I'll need as many monsters I can gather before pulling the trigger. Furthermore, if you help me get rid of that person's dungeon, it will also benefit your little girlfriend."

Five narrowed his brows as he listened to Solstice. It was just a small request. At the end of the day, he was already planning on conquering other dungeons and obtaining the core of the dungeons. But was Solstice inferring by the last part of her explanation. "Explain yourself properly. The last part. I am still single, you know."

The woman c.o.c.ked her head and chuckled. "There is no need to hide it. n.o.body is blind. All the dungeon masters saw it at your duel with Farsight. She was the one who called the Cancer for help; my teacher told me. Your relations.h.i.+p with her is obviously not simple if she is willing to use her trump card for you. But regardless, I just want to say that helping me will also be helping her. My dungeon is rather close to hers at about four days away from hers. But I noticed that she is planning on developing toward the east coast. The troublesome dungeon master I was talking about has his dungeon somewhere between her dungeon and the east coast."

Five was naturally aware of Iris' plan. While developing her town, she also allocated a few people and some funds to developing the railway to connect her town to the east coast. Such a large-scale development would not escape the eyes of the other players and the NPCs, but he did not expect that it would have been already detected despite it being in its very early stages.

'I see. People have already started a.s.sociating me with Iris because of this incident. I should have expected this. Nevertheless, it is not a bad thing if I can help her without getting too close. At the end of the day, I still need to thank her for wasting her trump card. Sacrificing a few monsters is nothing compared to the price she paid. But first…'

"Then, give me more details about that particular dungeon and I'll consider it."

…

A few minutes later, Five finally exited the Basilic room with a satisfied smile. The discussion did not last very long. Although the dungeon master Solstice was targeting was quite strong and would prove to be challenging to attack, Five agreed to Solstice's request. If that dungeon master was not stopped, it would be extremely difficult for others to develop in the area.

The turning point of the conversation was when Solstice revealed the progress made by the puzzle box research group. The puzzle box consisted of several layers that needed to be peeled off in a certain amount of time. While the exact number of layers was not known, the group had already managed to open the first three layers.

Each solution was extremely complicated; the first layer required the puzzle box to be under water. While in contact with water, the puzzle box's outer layer would expand slightly, revealing a certain pattern and movable parts. Then, one needed to slide these parts until the first layer would be completely removed. The second and third layers were even more complicated to open. Five could not wait to try the solution on his own puzzle box to see if they were the same.

There was not much to do at the hub. He came here mainly for the initial introduction and to get to know the other dungeon masters. But now that he already knew who to help first, there were no real needs to socialise. He was about to head back home when a dark silhouette stepped in front of him.

"First elder." Five immediately recognised the middle age man. He was the only elder he came into contact with and the one he signed the contract with.

"Five. I was precisely looking for you. I see that you have been into the private rooms. Any way. The reason I am here is to inform you that there we are planning to start going on the offensive by the end of the week. The fourth trial should have started by then which will reveal the weaknesses of your peers. It will be the ideal situation for us to attack." Despond said with a wicked smile. His eyes shone with antic.i.p.ation; he was clearly looking forward to the chaos of the battles.

"The end of the week? Aren't there only six days left? And there's also the Night of Macabre tomorrow night. Aren't we rus.h.i.+ng too much into this operation?"

"Not at all. With all the youngsters focused on clearing their own trial, it will be the ideal condition for us to strike. There is no need to be scared of antagonising the other alliances. At the end of the day, we are simply claiming back our territory. They have been pus.h.i.+ng onto us since we only had one inheritor of the sins but now that you appeared, the balance had been re-established. There are many new dungeons in the Sylvester Empire that do not belong to our alliance, but we are unable to deal with them because of the pact. Are we supposed to let them grow until they become a decent threat? Of course not. We'll strike swiftly and remove them before the other alliances have time to react."

As he spoke pa.s.sionately, Despond released an intimidating aura, striking fear into Five's heart. He did not do it on purpose but the level difference between the two was so large that Five was still affected.

Five swallowed hard and hesitantly answered. "I understand your reasoning, but I still feel that it is a bit rushed. We don't even know what the fourth trial would be and what about the other alliances' reaction. They won't leave our members alone if we are the first to attack."

Despond frowned for a moment but quickly hid his expression behind a smile. "I see. You are worried about your teammates but don't worry. Compared to the other alliances, we asked our new members to set up their dungeons in our own territories. We learned about the distribution of the seven cores of the sins early on and chose a conservative approach. Once we expel them from the Sylvester Empire, the other alliances will lose their footings here and will have to return to their own territory. Furthermore, which operation does not involve any risk. I am just asking you to prepare for it. If it turns out that the fourth trial is extremely hard, we will naturally put a halt to the attack. The safety and development of our own members are more important."

"Mmm… Then, as you said, I will prepare for it. I will do as the contract said and help one of the members in the upcoming battle."

"Excellent. That is what I wanted to hear!" Despond brightly smiled. The pressure around him vanished. "I will take my leave then."

Watching Despond's disappearing figure, Five let out a sigh of relief but the feeling of unease he felt earlier never left. 'No matter how I look at it, there is definitely something wrong here. This operation feels rushed. They have no good reason to suddenly decide to attack everyone else. Then, why did the first elder personally come here to inform me of their decision. He could have asked his apprentice to pa.s.s the message. His appearance here was a warning…'

'I did not even spend a day here and I already don't like it. The first elder is being so forceful despite knowing that I have the [Void Contract] in my possession. Does that mean he does not care if I choose to leave the alliance to avoid this conflict? Unless, I have already fallen into their trap somehow.'

Lost in thoughts, Five slowly made his way back to the portal he came through and returned to the dungeon of madness.