An Answer That Represents Destiny

From a dark, deep hole by the passage, a blue-green lizard lunged out.

Its crocodile head, as large as a dragon's, not only had a clear dragon-like appearance, but the frost breath it exhaled instantly froze Huan upon its appearance.

Half his body encased in ice, for a moment, Huan thought he was finished.

Unexpectedly, Downs moved faster than Ranger.

Just as Christine drew her bowstring, a [Electromagnetic Gun] imbued with terrifying lightning power had already struck the oversized [Frost Lizard] first, piercing its head.

"Tha... Thank you..." Huan felt a bit lost for words.

It was too exaggerated.

He was clearly a Mage, possessing not only intelligence and perception superior to the other four, but in terms of agility and physique, he was no worse than anyone else. Perhaps Huan was slightly better than Downs, but for a Warrior to compare strength and physique with a Mage, the Warrior was already outmatched by miles!

Downs was like a mobile magic turret, positioned in the center of the team, ready to support the entire battlefield and sweep through the entire Mage Tower.

Lein, looking through Laifu at this "alt account" he'd pulled from a gacha, felt a sense of playing a hack-and-slash game.

If the Master felt this way, let alone the others.

His "little buddies" truly realized their "support character" status at this moment, completely stunned.

Christine whispered in complaint, "Downs shouldn't be in this High-Level Mage Tower, he should be tackling a Master Level Mage Tower."

Were ancient Mages just too strong? Or did modern people simply not understand what a Mage was?

In any case, the worldviews of the four were reshaped by Downs again and again.

They didn't even know how to start the secret report they would write to His Majesty the King upon their return.

Would blindly praising him without restraint get them killed by the King later?

The key point was that this excessively young Mage was truly that strong!

Then praise him!

Praise him to the heavens!

After all, he had a good Master, so he could handle anything!

Downs felt the envious and astonished gazes of his companions and was genuinely happy.

This feeling of sweeping through enemies alone and clearing the stage was just too exhilarating!

Although he had warned himself not to get carried away, as the resistance subsided, their party had reached the highest level of the Mage Tower. They found the space there to be 'cramped'.

A hall 10 meters long and wide was large as a living space, but far too narrow as a combat zone.

For Ranger, an agile class that required space to maneuver, this place instinctively made her resist.

What caused a strong sense of oppression in everyone was that they had discovered the fate of the Master Level seniors who had entered here before. Without exception, the seniors were on the left and right walls... as corpses. The most tragic part was that they had been transformed from 3D to 2D.

Even after the passage of time, their armor and bones were clearly flattened, deeply embedded in the walls, to the point where they couldn't be pried out.

Looking at their postures and their gaping jaws, one could fully imagine how painful their final moments were.

It was a death that could not be resisted, or even delayed, by any means!

A certain Master who was peeking couldn't help but mutter, "Damn it, is this the entrance to the second dimension?"

Everyone was already breaking out in a cold sweat.

Suddenly, on the wall opposite the entrance, a giant face 'came alive'.

Through the vision, Lein saw a rough face like a megalithic stone carving on Earth. The biggest difference was that the face was made of a metal resembling black iron.

Its square jaw moved, and the entity introduced itself in a resonant, inorganic voice: "Greetings, visitors! I am the Tower Spirit guarding this Mage Tower, [Iron Face]."

"I am Downs Quijote, a High-Level Mage." Following Downs, the other four introduced themselves in turn.

"Greetings, sirs and madams." The Tower Spirit clearly possessed considerable intelligence.

Downs first presented a fact: "Tower Spirit, do you know... the owner of this Mage Tower has already..."

"I am aware that Lord Madela has fallen."

Upon hearing this, everyone felt a sense of unease. This meant there would be no easy shortcuts.

"My master said that if he were to fall, the Mage Tower could be gifted to any Child of Destiny qualified to inherit it."

"Are there any conditions?" Downs asked calmly.

"Yes! You only need to answer one question."

The oldest, Pat, the priest, interjected, "Then, what is the price of failure?"

The Tower Spirit solemnly replied, "The prerequisite for answering the question is to place your life and knowledge on the scales of destiny."

Failure meant death.

It was a fair approach, very much in the Mage style.

To obtain arcane knowledge and wealth, one had to pay a corresponding price.

Downs was momentarily lost in thought. Rather, the almost selfless guidance of a Master was outrageously generous.

No matter the era, knowledge should not be free.

It's normal for children of the poor to be denied education, both in ancient and modern times, across China and the world.

Free, universal compulsory education is the anomaly.

Downs didn't know how open-minded his Master, who had been molded by nine years of compulsory education, was on this matter. All he felt was immense gratitude.

Downs took a deep breath. "Does it matter who answers?"

The two basketball-sized, graphite-ball-like eyeballs in Iron Face's eye sockets spun. It seemed to see through everything. "Yes! Any existence."

Downs looked around at the nodding crowd. He gritted his teeth. "Alright, please state your question."

Iron Face immediately showed its ruthless side. Its eyes seemed to flicker, and Downs immediately felt a terrifying thousand-pound gate descend from the way they came.

"Boom!"

It wasn't just a metal gate. The shining, arcane magic runes on its surface clearly told everyone that it possessed formidable defensive power.

The question arrived.

"What is the shortest distance between two points?"

Almost as soon as the question was posed, mechanisms behind the walls on both sides of the hall began to activate. The hall was visibly narrowing, and if nothing changed, in at most three minutes, they would be crushed into meat paste by the closing walls, just like those who came before them.

This is a test of courage!

This is a testament to wisdom!

This is a baptism of the soul!

Any one of these would be an extremely severe trial for a rising Mage, only seventeen years old.

The other four broke out in a cold sweat.

In their eyes, this Mage, who appeared to have explosive combat power, should have answered instantly and led them to victory.

They were disappointed.

The same cold sweat trickled down Downs's forehead.

Only Downs knew that he might have overplayed his hand.

For a normal Mage, knowledge is power!

Only by mastering sufficient magical knowledge can one drive incantations and transform them into dazzling spells.

Downs was, in the end, an SSR card "produced" by a "crash course."

He might possess heaven-defying combat power far exceeding that of his peers, and he might not even need incantations to cast spells, but... did he truly understand magic?

Did he "understand" it in the sense of mastering it from principle to practical application?

The tower spirit before him was like the harshest mentor, making Downs, a student adept at answering questions but not at solving them, feel stuck for the first time since he began studying magic.

"Crank!"

The terrifying sound of gears turning was like the death knell of the Grim Reaper.

The closing walls showed no sign of stopping.

The gradually narrowing space before them could easily induce panic.

Pat, being more experienced, suddenly shouted, "If the answer is wrong, is there a penalty?"

"No additional penalty!" the tower spirit stated calmly.

There was no additional penalty because the existing punishment was already sufficient. Failure to answer meant death.

Pat's question was a form of encouragement. Downs mustered his courage and shouted, "Between two points—a straight line is the shortest!"

For a moment, the other four thought it was all over, for this was the answer of a promising High-Level Mage.

Their expressions of shock froze on their faces.

The closing walls hadn't stopped.

"A correct, yet wrong answer!"

The tower spirit's words were baffling.

Right? He said you were wrong.

Wrong? Yet he also said you were correct in principle.

What did this mean?

Downs descended into panic, while the other four were completely beside themselves.

Huan, with a surge of desperation, rushed forward and used his greatshield to brace against the right closing wall, attempting to slow its progress.

It was utterly ineffective!

A mountain-collapsing force came from the opposite side, easily crushing his resistance. He was forced to retreat again and again.

Christine screamed, "Can you think of any other answers? Just try anything!"

The rogue John lunged at the tower spirit's relief carving, attempting to break through the damned guardian on a physical level.

The four struggled in various ways, but their resistance was futile. Their screams and curses made Downs break out in a cold sweat in the middle of the narrow passage.

Narrow!

Narrower!

There was less than two meters of space left for a person to stand in his field of vision.

Downs's mind went blank.

However, at this critical moment, a faint voice suddenly came from Downs's shoulder.

"The shortest distance between two points... is a fold."

Abruptly, the heart-stoppingly narrow space stopped shrinking.