Chapter 563 – Hex Mechanisms

Following the map’s directions, the girls and I soon arrived at where the Hex Obelisk was supposed to be. This was confirmed by the tracker device I had, which was feeling really damn hot on my wrist. That signaled that the obelisk was close—very close, enough for the tracker to be reacting with it.

But… I did not see a thing around me, and neither did the girls.

“What’s going on… this should the location marked by the map,” Feng Mian murmured. “Xuan Kai, what does the tracker say?”

“Apparently, it’s… below,” I said. “But the problem is, I don’t see a way to go ‘below’.”

“Neither do I,” Qing Yue added, shrugging. “Could it be… we have to blow up the ground?”

“Uh, I doubt that’s the case,” I muttered, as Feng Mian let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, good. I thought you were going to go along with it.”

“However,” I continued, folding my arms. “If it works, it works. And I am too lazy to search for the proper way to do this, so-“

“Hey! What if you accidentally, I don’t know, trigger a series of explosions?” Feng Mian asked in a panic, and I laughed.

“Don’t worry about it. Even if I do trigger a series of explosions, it’ll be fine. I’m here.”

At this, she blushed a bit, and didn’t argue further.

“Step back,” I said, charging up energy in my right hand. The girls did as told, knowing how destructive my power was, and went a good hundred meters away. I erected a barrier to protect them as well, then began working on my attack. 

Soaring into the air, I raised my hand up, palm towards the sky, and began condensing energy.

Legendary Fire Magic — Solar Nova.

Instantly, black and red fire in the shape of a ball began forming in my hand, swirling with dark energy. Little by little, it grew as I poured more energy into it, until it was the size of a small asteroid. Its shadow shrouded and darkened the entire area, just barely not reaching where the girls were—thankfully.

Unable to hold the energy any longer, I launched the enormous fireball at the ground below. The solar nova traveled slowly due to its size, but that didn’t matter against an immobile target. The destructive power was there, and that’s all I cared about.

BOOM!

A loud explosion went off as my spell came into contact with the ground, erupting the earth completely and reducing it to ashes. Inside, below, it was revealed that this entire area was in fact hollow, and a cave lay on the interior.

However… as it would seem, some puzzles would need to be solved to reach the very bottom. I could feel the Hex Obelisk down there—but the only problem was, there was about several floors’ worth of water filling this place up. Sure, we could just use magic to bypass breathing and head down there, but considering this was the Hex we were dealing with, I am fairly certain there would be some kind of powerful guard down there—and I did not want to fight it in the water.

Thankfully, the first level was cleared of water already, and there seemed to be some mechanisms around that I could use to lower the water level, possibly.

“… Well, let’s head down,” I said, before hopping into the hole and activating my Flight Magic. Feng Mian, Qing Yue, and Axilia both hopped down as well—the fall was short enough that I didn’t need to carry them. 

After we landed, we spotted a button-looking mechanism not too far away. It had a glowing hovering red circle surrounding it, signaling that it was off. Around it were several pressure plates, eight in total. 

“Hm… looks like this can lower the water level,” I said. “I mean, I don’t see much else it can do given its surroundings.”

“So how do we activate it?” Qing Yue asked, blinking, as Feng Mian folded her arms and analyzed the puzzle.

“It’s either we step on all of them at the same time… or there’s a certain configuration of the pressure plates we have to step on and which ones we don’t. I don’t see any clues around, even with Shadow Vision, so it should just be the first option.”

Shadow Vision—a spell that allowed the user to see past light and darkness and only see ‘truth’. Hidden clues mean nothing to this spell, and all will be revealed. If even this couldn’t find any clues around us, then clearly, there weren’t any.

After exchanging nods, the four of us stepped onto the pressure plates. As there were four of us, it was perfect—each of us had one foot on one pressure plate, so the four of us were able to cover all eight at the same time.

As the plates sank down into the ground, activated, the red circle hovering around the button-like mechanism evaporated and disappeared. A fairly simple puzzle, if I do say so myself. Then again—the Hex, like the book stated, were ‘intelligent’ but not creative. They were very straightforward and couldn’t bend their thoughts—or rather, their programming—so all their puzzles ended up like this. Heh.

Stepping forward, I pressed my hand on the button, and immediately, water level below sank, as if being drained out by something. Just like that, the next level was revealed, possibly with another button like this with similar mechanics to unlock.

“Alright. Let’s do that a couple more times, and we’ll be don-“

Just as I said that, however, I heard a whirring sound behind me, and instantly spun around before widening my eyes.

“… Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Standing before us was a massive robot—possibly a Praetor, judging from appearance and matching with the drawings in the book. To make matters worse, it was a Razor type, and we were in melee distance from it.

But while I was stunned, the girls were already ready to fight. Feng Mian and Axilia both had smiles on their faces, the former of which activated her succubus claws.

“Finally… a worthy opponent. I haven’t fought something challenging in a long time.”

The Praetor and us stared at one another, both parties glaring at the other, as we awaited for it to make the first move.