Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3104: Chapter 3105: Clearing the First Floor

”She seems to have noticed the fireplace,” Glaipnir spoke.

Angel had already shown the box inside the fireplace via God’s View earlier, so everyone present knew that the final box was inside the fireplace.

Jeanne had passed by the fireplace multiple times without checking it, which made everyone somewhat anxious. Now, seeing Jeanne’s gaze, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

In the image, Jeanne stared at the fireplace for a while and then walked over.

She had thoroughly searched the hall, and the only place left unexplored was the fireplace.

Previously, because flames were burning inside, she subconsciously ignored the fireplace, thinking it was impossible for the puzzle or gem to be amidst the flames. But now, unable to find any clues elsewhere, she could only focus on the fireplace.

A tea set was placed on the mantle of the fireplace, she had checked both inside and out and found nothing unusual.

Inside the fireplace, the logs were ablaze, burning for quite a while, visible with the fire-red charred wood.

Jeanne carefully observed the flames and firewood and ultimately confirmed that there were likely no puzzles or gems near the firewood.

”Squat down, little Jeanne!”

”Don’t leave just because you haven’t found the target, look more closely, it’s right inside the fireplace!”

”You can’t see standing up; you have to squat or lie down! Princess Jeanne, you’re driving us old folks crazy!”

”Sigh, it’s right in front of her and she still can’t find it?”

Voices of urgency were already spreading throughout the Rabbit Mansion.

Glaipnir listened for a while, frowned slightly, and said to Angel, ”You shouldn’t have shown the image of the last box earlier. These people never put themselves in others’ shoes; would they immediately realize there’s a box hidden in the smoke channel? After the Heavenly Eye revealed the answer, they all became presumptuous.”

Angel chuckled, not responding. Indeed, among the voices, there was a small portion with an ”I-could-do-it-myself” tone, but the majority were anxious and lamenting, which was a fairly normal reaction.

Besides, their voices couldn’t reach Jeanne’s ears, so it wouldn’t affect anything, not necessary to pay heed.

More important than these irrelevant details, Angel cared more about whether Jeanne could quickly realize the box’s existence... If she couldn’t find the box, maybe it would be his turn to support Jeanne with some tricks.

Perhaps the burning intensity of everyone’s gaze pierced through the dimensional wall barrier, transformed into inspiration, delivering into Jeanne’s meditative mind by the fireplace.

Seen from the image, Jeanne suddenly seemed enlightened, her eyes hesitated as she looked at the trapezoidal smoke channel on the wall.

Did the creator of the trap hide things inside the smoke channel?

But the channel should be smooth, shouldn’t hold anything...

Though having doubts, Jeanne moved with a faint hope, slowly squatting down, tilting her head, peering from a side-and-upward angle at the smoke channel above the fireplace.

At this glance, she truly discovered an anomaly.

The inner wall of the smoke channel was indeed smooth, but amidst the ashes-blackened inner wall burned by flames, there was a brick with a clean color, looking as though it had been freshly replaced.

Moreover, there were apparent gaps around this clean brick, these details all indicating this brick had issues!

”This must be it!” A spark of light flashed in Jeanne’s eyes; her intuition told her there was definitely something she was looking for behind this brick.

Was it a puzzle, or a gem?

Outside the image, the people in the Rabbit Mansion cheered aloud; Jeanne didn’t know what lay inside, but they already knew through God’s View that the box behind the brick contained not only the last puzzle piece but also the last gem.

Jeanne finding this box equaled completing all the missing parts of the secret room door.

This meant she was about to clear the level!

Glaipnir’s face also showed a smile. After all, Jeanne was a descendant of her friend, and she was glad to see Jeanne could pass... though it was just a level in the Little Treasure Tower, clearing it was good nonetheless.

”I recall that box seemed to have a password lock, right?” At this moment, Laplace spoke, turning to Angel, ”I don’t remember seeing a hint for this password lock, is the password difficult?”

Some boxes indeed had password locks, but the hint was mostly on the box itself, requiring puzzle-solving to obtain the password.

But the black box in the fireplace had no apparent password hint on the surface, yet there was a lock, making Laplace curious about where the hint could be.

Glaipnir also shifted her gaze to Angel; she was curious too about whether Jeanne could solve this final password.

Angel smiled and said, ”This box’s password isn’t difficult.”

Or rather, all the password locks on the first level of Little Treasure Tower weren’t complex, they didn’t involve elaborate calculations but were more about deducing passwords through clues and cleverness.

”Its password hint is its location.”

Glaipnir: ”The box’s location? You mean, the hint is the smoke channel?”

Angel: ”Precisely, the password hint is—above the flame.”

After pausing to give everyone time to react, Angel continued to explain, ”The shell of this box is painted with a special pigment, so long as it’s close to the flame, being scorched, the password will appear directly.”

Yes, the password for this box is given simply and straightforwardly. Just roast it over the fire, and it emerges, no need for calculations.

”However, though the password is direct, there’s a challenge: retrieving the box without extinguishing the flames.”

”Because the box is placed in the smoke channel above the fireplace, normal logic would suggest extinguishing the fire first, then reaching in to remove the brick and take out the box. But once the fire is out, it’s hard to reignite it as there are no tools for ignition in the room...”

Angel hadn’t finished speaking before Glaipnir pointed at the screen and exclaimed, ”She seems to have already put out the fire...”

In the image, Jeanne indeed followed ’normal logic,’ extinguished the fire, waited for the fireplace to cool a bit, then reached in to pry the brick and retrieve the box.

The whole process took five minutes.

When she pulled out the box, what she saw was a pitch-black box with no apparent password hint.

At this moment, everyone was silent, Jeanne had extinguished the fire, now what?

”Is Princess Jeanne going to be halted here? Just one last step left!”

”Is it really impossible to light the fire again?”

”I remember using the drill method to light a fire as a kid.”

”Your dad was a Hunter, so it’s normal to pick up drilling skills; but Princess Jeanne, how would she learn such crude skills?”

”You’re the crude one; skills have no distinction of being crude! Besides, Princess Jeanne is a famed adventurer, her wilderness survival skills surpass ours, she surely knows how to drill wood for fire.”

The crowd began passionately arguing.

Listening to the headache-inducing noise, Glaipnir couldn’t help but say, ”If you keep arguing, I’ll throw you into the Circus to perform.”

In an instant, the surroundings quieted down, with only new residents near the window gathering to whisper.

After the noise had mostly faded away, Glaipnir looked at Angel: ”Is Jeanne stuck now?”

Angel shook his head: ”Not exactly stuck.”

Glaipnir’s eyes lit up: ”So there’s a way to light the fire?”

Angel: ”Now there are only two methods to light a fire. First, if you have extraordinary power, you can ignite fire with your bare hands. However, Jeanne obviously doesn’t have the ability to ignite fire with her bare hands yet.”

”The second way is the method someone mentioned earlier, using a bow drill to make fire, but this also has its difficulties.”

Using a bow drill to make fire is not hard, but it depends on the type of wood.

There’s a big difference between dry wood and wet wood.

Previously, when Jeanne extinguished the fire, she poured all the water from the half-man-high flower vase beside her into the fireplace.

Now there’s still a layer of water accumulated inside the fireplace, making it very difficult to ignite the soaked firewood; the best approach is to take it out, let it dry, and then slowly try again.

But letting it dry and then using a bow drill to make fire would take a lot of time.

Moreover, Jeanne hasn’t realized yet that the flame is the key to revealing the box’s password, so if time drags on, whether she can solve the puzzle before the countdown ends is uncertain.

”Since lighting the fire is difficult, why do you say she’s not stuck?” Glaipnir asked confused.

Angel didn’t explain but instead gestured for Glaipnir to look at the livestream screen.

At this moment, Jeanne had already started solving the puzzle on the livestream screen.

— Solving the puzzle without any hints.

Glaipnir observed carefully for a while and understood why Angel said ”not stuck”, because this password lock was a three-digit numerical password lock.

Moreover, this password lock didn’t have a limit on the number of attempts.

As long as one tries digit by digit, at most a thousand attempts, they can figure it out.

Using brute force to test the password, compared to bow drilling to crack the password hint, in the current situation, the former is clearly faster. Based on the current remaining time, even if Jeanne tried each combination by foot, she could decipher the password before the countdown ends.

So, Angel said: She is not stuck.

After all, it’s only the first layer of the Little Treasure Tower, there are few restrictions, and it’s okay to use some clumsy methods as long as one can pass.

The crowd also breathed a sigh of relief, realizing their worry was unnecessary.

Since Jeanne kept trying the brute force method to solve the puzzle and there wasn’t anything special happening, Angel closed the Little Treasure Tower livestream room and switched to the Sunshine Circus livestream room.

The Sunshine Circus instance was also in full swing at the time.

Angel combined the circus instance’s livestream view to show the crowd what cruel and socially embarrassing Fairyland Duplication was, to prevent new residents from becoming overconfident after watching the first layer of the Little Treasure Tower’s livestream.

Sure enough, the new residents of Rabbit Mansion fell into terror and silence after watching the dreary singing performances and horrifying acts on screen.

Fortunately, Angel didn’t keep the Sunshine Circus livestream on for too long, switching back to the Little Treasure Tower livestream room after fifteen minutes.

Because, with a combination of brute force and luck, Jeanne finally found the password: 222.

The box opened, revealing puzzles and gems inside.

Jeanne let out a long breath and placed the puzzles and gems on the only main door.

Once all the puzzles and gems were in place, a string of data information appeared before Jeanne’s eyes.

Angel also timely captured the information stream, and ensured there was no sensitive information before displaying it on the livestream ”screen”:

”Congratulations on completing: Little Treasure Tower Layer 1”

”Completion time: 45 minutes.”

”Entering reward distribution phase, please choose: accumulate or claim.”

”Accumulate: Allows the reward to enter your personal reward pool, not claimed immediately, and wait to claim until passing higher layers. Rewards will change continuously as they accumulate. The more layers passed, the thicker the reward pool, and the better the final rewards.”

”Claim: Directly claim rewards, claiming will directly consume one Little Treasure Tower challenge opportunity.”

Both choices are pretty straightforward. To Jeanne, accumulating rewards was undoubtedly the best.

Since she’s challenging the Little Treasure Tower, leaving after conquering just one layer would be a disgrace to her adventurer reputation.

Thus, Jeanne had almost no hesitation and directly chose: Accumulate rewards.

After confirming the accumulation of rewards, a new information stream appeared in Jeanne’s mind.

”Entered reward accumulation mode.”

”Now you can choose: temporarily leave or continue the challenge. (Temporarily leaving will not consume challenge opportunities, but the challenger will enter ’prepare’ status and cannot leave Silver Coral Island)”

Jeanne had originally prepared for continuous challenges, didn’t expect the Little Treasure Tower challenge could be temporarily paused?!

This was naturally a good thing for Jeanne.

Continuous challenges lead to fatigue. Although she’s not tired now, a little rest is also beneficial.

Most importantly, she already heard Angel’s voice in her ear: ”Choose temporarily leave.”

Although Jeanne was curious about how Angel knew the information in her mind, she did not delve into it, nodded and followed Angel’s instructions to choose temporary leave.

After confirmation, the main door opened, revealing the glowing exit.

Jeanne took a step forward and returned to the outside world.

There she saw Maggie not far away, smiling at her.

”Congratulations on passing the Little Treasure Tower trial,” Maggie said with a smile to Jeanne.

Jeanne felt a bit embarrassed, lowering her head: ”Just the first level... Also, I found the last password lock by trying each digit.”

Maggie said with a smile: ”As long as you pass, the process doesn’t matter.”

Jeanne scratched her ear: ”That’s true... By the way, Miss Maggie, have you been outside the whole time? Waiting for me to come out?”

Maggie nodded: ”Yes, as the first challenger to enter the Little Treasure Tower and also a kind-hearted girl, I decided to give you a special reward.”

”A special reward?” Jeanne looked at Maggie in surprise.