The Systemic Lands

Chapter 411: 7th Floor – Why Puzzles?

Chapter 411: 7th Floor – Why Puzzles?

In the seventh puzzle on the seventh floor, I looked at the mostly empty room. It appeared to take up the space for the eighth room as well. The only thing in this very large room, were a series of levers like the acid puzzle rooms and six elevated squares in the center of the room.

I pulled a lever slightly and in one of those squares various blocks rose up. I pulled more levers and quickly realized these were meant to be the maps of the previous floors, possibly. Or something else, I wasn’t entirely sure.

Acid Shot. Acid Shot. I began using the skill over every portion of the floor looking for any abnormalities. Eventually I found a section of the floor the acid disappeared through in one of the squares. There was probably some clever combination that pointed to this spot, but I honestly wasn’t interested in working it out.

I paused right as I was about to put my hand into a small illusioned space. Something was wrong. Instead I bent my head down and put the front of my face into the illusioned hole and saw tiny spinning silent saw blades and no golden key rod.

Frowning, I went back to my search. It took a while, but eventually I found the actual rod and removed it from a place in the floor. Based on the positioning of the illusioned traps, then this space on the floor, was probably meant for the sixth floor and was its map, with the rod being in the corner.

These rooms were like escape rooms from hell. There was no build up of clues. There was just a never-ending parade of nonsense. Why even include puzzles? I get traps, they were meant to test one’s awareness, but puzzles were meant to test creativity and understanding.

But there was no lesson, unless the sixth floor boss was meant to convey a lesson of some kind? It was hard to understand the reason the Almighty System had this type of floor in the tower. It completely and totally threw me off.

I had been expecting monsters and fighting, to have these half-baked puzzles was just weird. I hesitated at what should be the last set of doors until the exit. What were the puzzles even testing in the first place or trying to tell me? Statues, then acid puzzles, then a sliding mural puzzles, and then the map puzzle.

Each puzzle was geared towards me in some way. I fought all those monsters, I used Acid Shot, the murals were like the first two puzzles, and the map puzzle could be from trying to memorize the layout of the floors.

Was this floor customer made for me? I considered that possibility carefully. The Astrologer’s proxy did not want to tell me what the floors were like. Was it because of this? If he had contaminated my knowledge, could I have ended up with much harder or different floors?

The Astrologer was trapped. Perhaps he wasn’t prepared properly for a floor? But he would have been in here for years. Still, if he went up the floors with his Valkyries and lost one, then every seventh floor repeated, then the 49th floor would be a puzzle floor as well.

That didn’t seem right though. He was trapped due to the calamity. Could that have screwed up a puzzle? The main reason I was hesitating so much right now in addition to getting back my energy for the final room, was the fact that the puzzle floor was messing with all my assumptions.

The Almighty System seemed focused on combat, fight and get stronger. That was its basic premise. Sure some of the fights were complicated, and the monsters tricky initially, but I had always through the Almighty System favored brawn over brain.

There was no original art or creations either. No text written down. No little clues leading up to a big clue. In terms of puzzle design, these puzzles got a one out of ten at best. This floor was a lot more concerning that the previous floors.

Letting out a sigh as I got back all my energy, I realized, that there wasn’t going to be an answer. Perhaps if I had a proxy speak to the Avatar I could get some answers out of her. I put the golden key rod in the slot on the door and it swung open.

I could see ten regular monster spawners and the boss spawner in the center of the room. The boss would have minions or adds during the fight. That would be incredibly troublesome. Even just one additional monster would be a massive headache, since I would need to split my attention and they might have abnormal behavior.

Entering the boss room, I put my backs in the corner as the door slammed shut behind me. The murder red light lit up the room as all eleven monster spawners activated. I needed to end this fight quickly no matter what. A battle of attrition, would only see me worn down more quickly with all the level 4 monsters coming into the fight.

The moment the red light barrier around the boss spawner disappeared I was ready. My hand was constantly moving at my side to slow down the speed I would process events ahead of time. It was a very large cube golem.

Air Burst. Acid Shot x2.Air Burst. I dodged to the side and then moved back towards it as it launched a side panel to intercept my backs. Acid Shot x10. Acid Shot x10. Air Burst. I unloaded on the boss and quickly retreated as it melted away and then turned to dust without getting a chance to act.

The level 4 cubic golems that had just spawned all stopped moving as well as the lighting changed. That was surprisingly anti-climactic. It didn’t escape my notice that the boss monster was a level 5 monster of the golems from the first floor. Did this indicate a loop of some kind?

If the patterns held then there would be more cubic golems on the eighth floor with possibly a Spider Golem level 5 monster for the boss. With the room being a bit harder most likely as well. I considered it a very real possibility that the floors would repeat in some way going up the tower, and repeating monsters wasn’t outside my expectations.

I got my packs and made my way to the elevator that had opened up. I took it up to the eight floor and into a saferoom in the Northeast corner of the floor. I didn’t have to wait long since that last fight was easy.

The safe room was a bit longer and narrower. Normally it was a six by six area based on tunnel units with the elevator occupying one corner. Now it was a three by eight room, with the exit off to the West. After recovering my energy, I set out. The lighting instantly turned to red.

A blade trap right off. Acid Shot. I activated it and moved forward. I came to a halt just a short time later as there was another blade trap and a golem waiting on the other side of it patiently. Acid Shot. The trap activated and I rushed past the monster and turned to the South. Lots of branching paths, but the first one showed path head to the West to a ‘T’ intersection with a golem monster turning the corner from the North.

Well, that was a good clue, so I raced past the monster and had to quickly dodge two more golems. That was a bit stressful, and I saw something. There was a null skill room to my South. Acid Shot! I quickly acted as I almost missed the trap in front of me. The blades cleaved through the space I went through just a second later.

I had been distracted and this floor clearly had a lot more traps. Another trap and it appeared to be a room with monster spawners up ahead. Acid Shot. I activated the blade trap and entered the room. There were three monster spawners at the North wall. It took me a moment as I looked at the three tunnels, but it was obvious.

This eighth floor was a repeat. A far deadlier repeat with already active monster spawners and a lot more traps, but it appeared to be a repeat of the first floor. I raced back the way I came and dodging monster after monster, there were a lot more spawners now.

I made it to the null skill room and saw the nine branching paths, three in each direction. I came to a quick halt as I was about to race for the gold rod room. I waved my stump and set off the trap and moved quickly before the level 4 golems could swarm me.

The golden rod room was exactly where I remembered it. I had spent enough time on this floor, it was impossible to forget where everything was located. I rushed forward for the golden rod. My foot went through the floor. Air Burst! Air Burst!

I launched myself out of the pit trap and grabbed the golden rod, hugging the pedestal. There was no trap beneath me as I tested the floor, but that had been incredibly scary. Golems began to pour into the room. I retreated, back towards the South wall as they moved around the pit traps, making sure to test the floor before I stepped on it.

Once the golems were committed to chasing me I used Air Burst twice, I went back over the pit trap. I raced for the boss room, making sure to activate the traps ahead of time. Once I slid the golden key rod into the door and the color of the tower changed, and the monsters going inactive, I let out a sigh of relief.

What a nightmare. The floor had clearly gotten a lot worse. More traps, more monster spawners, it was a nightmare. I was now of the belief that anyone weaker than me, had zero chance of making it through this tower. There were just too many difficulties.

Even with amazing teamwork, it was just a nightmare. If you couldn’t clear a floor quickly, you would get swarmed. The fact that monster spawners couldn’t be broken or damaged, meant that you had to rush. Anyone with a low Body stat would not be able to keep up.

If things were repeating in a loop, that meant there would be seven loops of seven floors with a unique final floor most likely. I let out a small groan. “Almighty System, really? I have to face off against those bosses again? And the donkey boss and then puzzles?” I complained. It was at that moment I felt a twinge in my stomach, reminding me of the purpose behind this climb.

Of course, why not remind me about the bomb in my gut. I didn’t want to look at the boss room since it was disgusting in my opinion. On a scale of one to ten, it was somewhere around negative three in terms of wanting to go in there.

In the other corners from the door there were two monster spawners, making a total of six and the very corner of the room appeared to be trapped with blade traps. I would need to end the fight instantly. All my future boss fights would have to be ended quickly as well. Otherwise, there was just too much chance of a disaster happening.

Time to get myself in the mindset and get this boss killed. I had a lot more floors to climb and there was no time to waste sitting around feeling sorry for myself.