Jai instantly sat down and leaned back to the fountain on his back. His chest was moving very visibly, in addition to his shoulders shuddering a bit. Darrion sat in front of him and smiled somehow apologetically looking at him. Jai, however, had ignored everything around him and focused solely on his breathing.
“You barely made it,” Darrion said.
Jai only gave him a grin as he was too tired to respond. He felt something on his lap and he noticed that he was still holding the water container. He frowned, “My water! Damn!”
“What’s wrong?” Darrion asked.
Jai tapped the water container on his lap, “Why did I bring it with me? They won’t be able to count it.”
Darrion gestured for him to calm down, “Hey relax. They noted as soon as you reached the gate, it’s up to us to keep the items or not.”
Jai blinked, “Really?”
Darrion grinned and nodded, “Yes. So calm down and just
"Let us move on to the second puzzle which is 'protected by a floating bar'. This one is easy. It only requires a bit of thinking, but I'm guessing everyone had figure out what this is. Can anyone answer it with me?" The MC joyfully said and gestured to the crowds.A high-pitched voice sounded from somewhere near Jai and Darrion."Your flower stage!" A little girl screamed.Laughter erupted from the crowds. The MC laughed as well as he floated near Jai and Darrion."That's a very good try, young lady. Can anyone give that girl a pat on the head on my behalf? " The MC said with a wide smile."Already did!" A middle-aged man shouted from the crowds with a laugh."Thank you, kind sir. Now, little girl, I will give you the correct answer. Would you like to know? " The MC asked with a smile.The little girl who had been swooped up by a middl
The screen was split into two sides. The left side showed the map of the kingdom while the right one was blank white.“Since we have wasted around 15 minutes explaining the answers and giving you time to rest, we will immediately start the second round as soon as my the instructions are done. So make sure you listen closely because I will not repeat it.”The participants braced themselves and focused.“The second round will be held inside the castle walls, right here. You will be given time to finish it until before sunset. That means the second the sun hits the horizon, the time is up. You will have to partner up in this round with another participant. So there will be fifty people against fifty people, and I’m sure you can already guess how many people will make it to the next round.“This round still revolves around puzzles,” that earned complaining noises in the background, but the MC continued, “But you have your partner
"Can you guys explain that?" Jai asked in confusion."So you know the second round is also a puzzle. What's with that?" Darrion crossed his hands.The left twin inched one step closer to both young men, "The minister approached us and give us each these."He took out two things that shined under the sunlight."Are those copper tokens?" Jai asked. He tried to touch it, but the bob haired twin pulled it back and immediately pocketed it."They are." Darrion trailed. And then he narrowed his eyes with a smile. "So I guess we have to get it from you.""This one is easy. And we will let you pass if you can finish our puzzle and come back to us." The bed haired twin said.Darrion nodded. "Sure. Though you have to know that my friend and I are good puzzle solver! So fire away!"Jai wanted to say something different, but this wasn't the tim
As Darrion took the last Rumble cookie, he tried wrecking his brain for the first and the second part of the puzzle."Three is your answer, oh but you only need two. Maybe it means that they are the answer?" Darrion asked.Jai sipped on his tea, "Because they're twins?"Darrion nodded, "Exactly. Either that, or we have to at least solve two puzzles before we can be considered passing the round."Jai put down his cup and looked at the street. "That is not entirely impossible. But I think we have to solve this in correlation of every line. What's the rest of the line sounds?"Darrion swallowed before putting up his fingers, counting, "Three is your answer, oh but you only need two. It goes very simple even hatchlings like it too. What am I?"Jai hummed, "They sound quite correlated with each other. But why do I feel something is missing? I just don't know what.""Hatc
Jai and Darrion arrived at a wide square. It was not as big as the Grand Square, but it was still bigger than Alta or Gumo Fountain they had visited before.The place was filled with colorful stalls and small shops. Every sorts of goods seemed to be sold here, and were grouped based on its type.Consumables like food, beverages, and medicine, we're on the left side of the market. Non-consumables like clothings, tools, etcetera were on the right side. There were also animal shops selling small creatures like birds, and... Cat bunny? Bunny cat? And what seemed like oversized house lizards.Jai could not figure out what those creatures were. His sight was probably messed because of the distance, but he definitely saw rabbit ears and obesed house lizards."So this is the Southern Market? It's very lively in here," Jai commented as he gazed around.Darrion nodded. Then he shifted the cake box in his other hand before explain
*Author’s note: A humble apology for the misstypings in the previous chapter. Life has been quite busy and we are trying to catch up with our update schedule, so there were few bogeys breaching our walls. But we will try better for future updates. Salam.-There was a slight tension in the air—an uncomfortable one. They had to convince Julio to get their answer to the puzzle, because his relationship with Darrion had to convince him somehow to help. Or at least, he hoped the man would help.Jai tried convincing, “In a good side, we are able to promote your shoes by bringing yours to the checking table.”Julio gave another hum and turned to him. His expression was painted with doubt, “I don’t know. Giving away my shoes like that doesn’t sit well with me.”Darrion looked at Jai, wanting to discuss whether they should change stores, bu
A short burly man with ash brown hair crossed his hands in front of his chest. He had a thick mustache and beard, and this unreadable expression on his face. He was wearing a head protector made of iron, a google slinging on his neck, and a grey tank top with black stains and sweat. His brown baggy pants that reached his ankle was held by black suspenders. His feet was bare, and it was noticably big."I don't like sweets."The man's voice was scratchy and deep. There's this sort of... Gravitas, in his voice, that would attract anyone within its vicinity to cower away slowly. It wasn't anger or irritation, just... A bit intimidating.Jai and Darrion would have gulped. Because this might prove to be more difficult than the situation with Papa Julio. But their surroundings were not very... Supportive.But before that, let us recap so you guys could get what the situation was.Jai and Darrion were
"They are those who have not solve the first puzzle, but are determined to finish it right away no matter what method they use."Jai was thinking what Diggle meant by that. He did not feel anything wrong with that sentence. The last phrase though, sounded similar to saying that there was egoistical or selfish emotion involved."I'm feeling something from the last sentence. Do you remember when Mr. Diggle said, 'no matter what method they use'? It was like, it's saying that, they will do anything to win. But they dismiss the consequences that might come up," Darrion said, doubtfully. The blonde was still not used to think hard over things like this, but he was determined to try."Yes, I'm thinking the same. It involves selfishness, and we had seen that happened a couple times in the first round," Jai responded. He put the show box down on the porch."It's clear as day that those people were visibly vi