Demonic Skeleton God-Chapter 94: Floor 5

Flain started testing different mana pulses and noticed that when he made a weak mana pulse slightly stronger, the blue color would fade, and when he made a strong mana pulse slightly weaker, the red color would fade.

Flain was now almost certain that he had to find the perfect balance between a strong and weak mana pulse. Flain began to act, and before long, he finally managed it—his projection turned white, which Flain assumed was the right result.

He then sent the same mana pulse to all the crystals. The crystals started shaking and emitted resonances. Flain understood that something was being demanded of him.

Flain tuned his mind to the resonances, slowly beginning to understand what was required of him.

Flain had to calculate and adjust the intensity and speed of each resonance so that they would simultaneously reach the center of the room in a single wave, thereby forming one common crystal from the six.

Flain had to think fast on how to do it because there wasn’t much time left and the crystals would explode, causing Flain to fail again.

Flain created two mana pulses, each held in a different hand, and wrapped them around the crystals, then began to crash them into each other.

Flain didn’t know what the crystals were made of or how they were fixed in the air, but they were extremely difficult to move. Flain created the most important mana pulses he could and pushed with all he had until he dropped to his knees.

Flain’s purple eyes widened—he didn’t have much time left. Flain began pushing with all his strength until his mana pulses started to crack.

Eventually, the crystals stuck together and merged into one large crystal. The darkness that had blocked the entrance to the 5th floor disappeared.

This was a huge difficulty spike compared to the previous floors—even someone like Flain had trouble with it. Flain opened the system to check how much MP he had left.

’Only 55 Mana? I guess I should put a few bonus points into intelligence. Ugh, I pray there’s nothing else in the tower that requires a lot of mana, because I’d ruin my completion time waiting for my MP to regenerate,’ Flain thought.

The mana pulses he created were the best he could possibly make, so they were also quite expensive in terms of mana usage. Flain isn’t a mage, so mana is a problem for him.

Flain doubted someone like Itai could manage this—if he had a similar floor as Flain now, he’d either get stuck until the return deadline ran out, which was 4 hours, or it would take him a whole lot of tries.

Flain didn’t have time to waste thinking, so he headed to the 5th floor. He was exactly halfway through.

The fifth floor was much larger than the others. On the ground were 36 large circular tiles, each a different color. On the walls were lights emitting a dark blue glow, giving the room a rather gloomy atmosphere.

The moment he took a step forward, one of the tiles across from him began to pulse with blue light. It emitted a muffled tone—low and monotonous, but noticeable. Half a second later, another one lit up. Then a third. And then the first one went dark.

Flain stopped. He didn’t rush forward; it could be a trap or trigger some chain reaction with the other tiles. He chose to observe.

’Reaction to movement? No. The tiles probably activate independently. Pulsing light. Audio signal. Time-limited?’ Flain pondered.

He watched the tiles glow and fade. Some stayed active longer, some just briefly. It was accelerating. And then, when he didn’t interact with any of them, something new happened—the ground beneath him trembled slightly. Not physically, but in his consciousness. Something shifted. He felt it as a faint pressure in his head.

’Punishment for inaction? Or a warning that I was supposed to do something? Low intensity? More of a warning than a penalty. But it could also be encouragement to move forward in an unpleasant form, though I highly doubt that.’ Flain thought.

He moved forward and touched the nearest pulsing tile. Nothing happened.

Suddenly... a scream.

In his head, not aloud. A sharp flash of sound. A slight jolt of disorientation. The tile he touched immediately stopped glowing. But the one next to it lit up. Within one second, three more followed. And again, the pressure.

’Wrong choice. I probably have to step only on certain tiles.’ Flain thought, while his mind was slightly dulled.

He began to move. Not hastily, but with purpose. His hands were held close to his body, his back slightly lowered, his eyes scanned the surroundings. He listened. Every active tile had a slightly different frequency. The pitches varied. The first ones were deep, monotonous. Then came thinner, sharper tones.

’Two layers of signals. Wrong tiles have a different frequency. The question is: which tiles are correct based on frequency?’ Flain analyzed the situation. freewёbnoνel.com

He tried a more cautious touch on a higher-pitched tone. Result: silence, no penalty. But five seconds later, three tiles activated at once—two with a deep tone, one high. He rushed to the high one. Touch. Nothing. Then one of the low ones. At that moment, the pressure struck his head again. Stronger this time. He staggered slightly.

’Wrong. The first one was good, the second was bad. That means... the false ones have a deep tone. Or does it depend on the order? Or the activation timing?’ Flain thought quickly.

Flain’s brain began to slightly overheat. Not physically, but mentally. He was forced to combine sound perception, light, rhythm, and spatial orientation. It was similarly demanding as solving a spell, but dialing a spell still ranked higher in difficulty. The time pressure was increasing. With every additional mistake, the frequency of zones increased. The room was forcing him to act faster, to think faster. And even though he was intelligent, calculations weren’t enough—the conditions changed every few seconds.

"It’s not just about identification. It’s about how long I can endure under cognitive overload." Flain muttered...

Flain moved on with a cold, calculating face...

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