novelraw Chapter 234: The Riddle - Part 2
Chapter 234: The Riddle - Part 2
’Damn it. How could I not think about this?’ Thoren exclaimed inwardly as he raised his head.
Raising his head, his expression faltered when he saw the hourglass that was only left with a few grains of sand.
’This...’ His jaw dropped in utter shock.
Instantly, he understood what had just happened. While he was lost in thought trying to decipher the riddle, he had believed he had enough time to figure out the answer.
But he was completely wrong.
He would have failed without even realizing how close he had come to disaster. Realizing such an obvious scheme, Thoren’s heart could not help but skip a terrified beat.
’I knew it. How could it be so easy to leave through this door?’ he sneered at his own naive assumptions.
His eyes lingered on the hourglass for a moment before he finally averted his gaze.
"I have cities, but with no houses. I have mountains, with no trees. I have water, but with no fish. What am I? I am a map," Thoren responded, his voice filled with confidence.
He had thought about the riddle very carefully. Even though the ancient voice had plotted for him to fail, he would not allow that to happen.
The only thing that can have everything yet nothing at all was only a map.
This answer he was very sure of.
For a moment, the ancient voice did not respond, and the cavern descended into a still and heavy silence.
Finally, the ancient voice echoed once again throughout the cavern.
"Correct. You have proven yourself, but that is only one out of three riddles."
Instantly, the hourglass stopped moving, and slowly it changed its position for the next round.
"For the second riddle..." the ancient voice announced.
Thoren wore a solemn expression as he listened attentively.
Now that he knew he did not have all day to think about each riddle, the pressure on his shoulders had increased dramatically.
His head was already filled with perspiration.
Then, the ancient voice delivered its next challenge.
"I turn around once, and you cannot see me. I turn around twice, and you might recognize me. I turn around three times, and I become someone else’s tool. What am I?"
Once again, a deafening silence hung over the cavern like a thick blanket. Thoren tightened his brow in deep concentration.
’I turn around once, and you cannot see me. I turn around twice, and you might recognize me. I turn around three times, and I become someone else’s tool. What am I?’ He repeated the riddle in his heart, but he could not guess the head or the tail of it.
This was the first time he had ever heard such a strange riddle in his entire life. He raised his head and locked his gaze on the new hourglass.
The sand had already begun falling at a visible and alarming speed.
’Why do I feel the sand is falling faster than before?’ he creased his brow and looked at the ancient door with suspicion.
’Do not tell me this ancient door truly wants to keep me here forever...’ That terrifying thought shook him to his core.
’This is very bad,’ he admitted to himself.
His muscles stiffened, and his courage faltered under the growing pressure.
’I need to concentrate,’ he told himself firmly. He took a deep breath as he tried to throw all distractions to the back of his mind.
He had already boarded the pirate ship, and there was nothing he could do right now unless he solved the three riddles successfully.
As he lost himself in thought, the cavern descended into a still and heavy silence, leaving only the heavy pounding of Thoren’s anxious chest.
’Something that has three phases and three different functions,’ he mused, knitting his brow in concentration.
’A tool...’
That was the most important hint given by the riddle.
Thus, his train of thought remained fixed in that direction. He needed to find a tool that had three distinct phases, and each phase had a different function entirely.
’What could it possibly be?’ he thought, his head beginning to ache from the effort.
He rubbed his temple gently. He paced back and forth across the cavern floor, but nothing came to his tired mind.
To be precise, his mind was completely blank. Of all the tools he knew, nothing came to mind that had three separate phases or forms.
Both in his previous life and in this current life, he had never encountered such a description.
Nothing came to his mind at all.
With each passing second, his nervousness increased dramatically. Panicking, he raised his head to look at the hourglass once more, only to see that it was already halfway gone.
More than that, two thirds of the sand had already fallen. That meant he had only close to one minute remaining.
Tension gripped his heart like a cold vice. Sweat dripped from his forehead like pouring rain. His lips trembled uncontrollably, and his breathing became shallow and rapid.
Thud! Thud!
He could hear his heart pounding heavily against his chest like a war drum. But this time, it sounded like an enemy war drum announcing his coming defeat.
’What can it be?’ he asked himself desperately.
He gritted his teeth hard. With another half minute gone, his frustration and fear deepened even further.
’I should not have agreed to this insane riddle scheme,’ he blamed himself, his heart filled with bitter regret.
However, he quickly overcame that emotion as he shook his head firmly. ’I cannot refuse this challenge now.’
’I just need to think more carefully,’ he commanded himself.
He mused inwardly, and his breathing slowly began to calm down.
’A tool with three faces,’ he repeated the core of the riddle.
’It might not necessarily be a change in physical form but a change in stages or recognition instead,’ he thought as he began to dissect the riddle meticulously.
’If it is a change in stage or recognition, what tool falls perfectly into that category?’ he thought and raised his head once more.
He saw that the last few grains of sand were almost completely gone. He needed to come up with an answer right now, or he would fail the riddle trial forever.
Suddenly, something clicked in his brain like a lock opening. Without thinking further, he shouted his answer at the top of his lungs.
"I am a key," he declared with desperate confidence.
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