Chapter 135: 19th Floor (5)
"Why does everyone know the answer to my riddles?!" he exclaimed, his shriek rising into the starry sky.
"I mean, normally I could help you improve your riddles, but I can't because you're here to kill people," James said wh he heard this question.
Hearing these words, Mr Owl shook his head and said, "Please tell me! I swear I won't kill anyone anymore!" James who heard this said "Nuh-uh, I don't believe you." and shrugged his shoulders.
Wh the owl heard these words, it flapped its wings and th a scroll fell in front of James.
"What am I supposed to make of this?" James muttered and took the scroll and read over it, after a short while he smiled and said, "You want to be a good riddler, don't you?" After Owl nodded, he took a quill and signed the scroll.
On the scroll was writt exactly the following:
[I, Mr Owl, will never, ever after the time that I have be giv the hancemt on my life and existce, injure or harm any living creature unless they attack me.
This contract is only valid if the Umbra of Chaos helps me.
Signed: Mr Owl
Signed: Umbra]
The scroll was quite small, like a tiny agreemt, yet James seemed to be sure that anyone coming after him would not be harmed.
As he signed the scroll, it flashed with a small light and disappeared, and th Mr Owl's voice was heard:
"All right! There's no reason why you shouldn't teach me now, is there?"
James shook his head as he heard these words and th coughed and began to speak, "You're not wrong, there's a certain piece of advice I can give you, and that advice is this:"
"A strange and unsolvable riddle for you to ask. You may think that a riddle has to be solved all the time, but no one can say that it is bad to have riddles with no definite answer and therefore you don't want to accept them."
Hearing these words, the owl, as if confused, used its wings to cover its eyes and th shook its head and said, "I don't understand! I don't understand!!!"
James asked after these words:
"I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have nobody, but I come alive with wind. What am I?"
The owl smiled wh it heard this riddle and th said "An echo!" but was disappointed wh James shook his head.
"You're right, but not, as I said, it should be a riddle that can be solved but you didn't make me solve it. The answer to this riddle is fourfold. An echo, the wind itself, dreams or thoughts and finally a spirit or a ghost. Do you understand now?" James said.
After these words, the owl happily shook the branch it was on and th said, "I have to get them into a dead d!"
James shook his head and th said, "Well? Can I go now? I must have passed your exam, right?"
The owl nodded, excited and happy, and th said, "Yes, you can go! I swear I won't take anyone's life! I may take gold or goods instead. Please be careful with my master, he is not a bad person but he is grumpy!!!'
After these words, James waved goodbye to Mr Owl left the forest and came to the place where the last test would be held.
James started to look a after coming to the area, he did not see anyone, anything or any being.
The surings were completely flat, the back was a forest and the front was a plain with no d in sight.
James scratched his head and couldn't understand what was going on, so he sat on the g and waited, thinking that the examiner was at least a hundred times stronger than him, because he almost died with just his voice.
So he thought it would be foolish to go against him and he waited for the examiner to come.
He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to meditate on Star Magic. Oddly ough, not only James but also those watching him closely did not know where the examiner was.
"Hah! He's doing it again!" Apollo suddly said, and all eyes in the hall turned to him.
"Doing what, Apollon?" Erebus suddly asked, and Apollo, hearing this, said, "I chose the hard way like some of us, of course, luck, so there was nothing to do. Somehow I managed to pass the exams and finally, I arrived at the field. Watch carefully, I hope he doesn't hurt James, he's playing hide and seek. How can he play games with such a big body!" he shouted.
Apollo, the true owner of the light, could not believe that this strange being was doing all these things. Still, there was nothing to be done, Nyx would have to step in, after all, Nyx, like Apollo, had tak the test, and unlike Erebus, Nyx had countered this strange behaviour of the examiner.
Wh Erebus heard these words, he said, "I have never expericed anything like this, the test he gave me was a fight, he beat me for a long time and th he let me go, saying that I passed."
Wh everyone turned their heads back to James they realised what was going on.
The examiner was hiding, smiling and moving strangely behind a tree. After a short while he slowly approached James and James started to hear voices.
Wh he suddly oped his eyes, he saw the creature standing and crawling on the g in front of him.
"No kidding? Are you the exam little thing? Tell me what I need to do, please, I want to get to the next floor quickly." James said these words, not knowing how gigantic the being in front of him was, ev the being itself was surprised, he did not think that anyone would speak to him like that.