c151: The Second Floor Opens
[February 26, 2020] ... The 100th person entering the hall triggered the second floor to open. At the same time G.o.d Calven"s voice boomed from above.
"Congratulations on reaching the second floor! The first ten to complete this floor will be teleported to my inheritance. Do not make me wait too long adventurers! Now go forth!" His voice faded away with the last words.
A gate appeared but no one made a move toward it. It was tall and reached the ceiling. Then with a sudden jarring clang, it opened to reveal white light. It was blinding and made it impossible to see inside.
Was the light hiding something dangerous? There were those who hoped someone else would explore first. Fortunately for them there were those who believed the early bird caught the worm. There were only ten spots and they didn"t intend to lag behind. The faster they moved, the better their odds of getting the inheritance.
In fact many people thought this way. They rushed forward the moment the gate opened completely. Their plan was to separate from the crowd and become the first ten.
Feng Wu and the rest entered after the rush.
What kind of world lay beyond?
The gate disappeared after all 100 entered. The brightness dimmed and a cave took shape. Five corridors lay in front. One was lit red, cold rushed out of another, another was so dark you couldn"t see your fingers in front of you and so on and so forth. They were all different basically.
The sign in front said there was a limit of twenty per channel. It looked like they would have to split into five groups.
The ones who entered first already made their choices, so the ones following behind had to take the leftovers.
The cave was lit by luminescent pearls, so although there was no sun or moon, there was still light to navigate by. The pearls themselves weren"t rare, but the light they emitted in the dark had an ethereal beauty. Because of this, many n.o.ble ladies were willing to pay handsomely for them.
The walls were inlaid with these pearls. Truly was a G.o.d"s tomb! It"d be safe to say that if it weren"t for the lure of the G.o.d"s inheritance, the walls would have been picked clean.
Counting Drew, the kids had fifteen in their group. Fifteen… it was hard to make a single team with the remaining corridor slots.
As they were discussing what to do, one of the corridors disappeared, then another… A corridor would disappear after twenty people went in. This meant forty had already entered. Now there were only three paths to pick from.
One of the paths that disappeared left a lingering glow like the shine of gold. The other was dim like an ordinary path.
Could it be one had the inheritance? The other three remaining paths were partially filled. Since there was no way for them to stay together as a group, each of them chose the path that suited them best.
Tian Ya chose the cold path. Jier had an affinity for red so he chose the red path. He wanted to take the path with Feng Wu, but by the time Wind, Rain, Elena, and Gerasi joined, there were no more slots.
It didn"t matter which path Feng Wu took; they were all the same to her. She picked the dark path after waving goodbye to Jier.
At first Ming Xi wanted to go the cold path with Tian Ya, but he frowned when he saw Feng Wu take the dark path. He was uneasy. Instead of the cold path, he moved to the dark path with Feng Wu.
Drew and Pei Qing chose the dark path with Feng Wu. The others picked the cold path with Tian Ya.
The dark path was the least favored. It was creepy looking. Those that picked it, only picked it because they were slow and it was the only one with available slots. Just glancing at it and you could tell it was dangerous - with a capital D. Only those with complete confidence in themselves would choose it voluntarily.
All the corridors filled up and disappeared and a wall stood in their place. The lit cave dimmed and turned dark.
In the dark path.
In the absence of any light, people in the corridor instinctively tried to use their magic to hold the darkness at bay. But nothing came out. Their magic was gone! They were like ordinary people.
"What"s going on?!" the panic-stricken voice of a young man, probably around thirty, rang out. He was used to relying on his abilities. To suddenly lose them was distressing and he couldn"t adapt.
Without sight, they could only guess each others" age, gender, and location by sound.