Chương 20: Puzzle Cube

89th sub floor, Loomlight Grand Labyrinth, 29 days after entry. Rand wiped off the remaining bits of a hydra's green blooded flesh from his armour. The lower floors provided much wider rooms and corridors. Sometimes, they couldn't even see where the walls were as their torches' light could only reach so far. The process of prowess gain had been totally anti-climactic. General Raven didn't care for any of their Golden Generation awakenings. She mentioned that she wanted to go back to her comfortable 9 to 5.

Truly, a mysterious being. In total, from the 31st to the 40th floor, everyone had already awakened their own classes. On the 50th floor, Rand had his own class evolve, a process that was said to have happened only twice in recorded history.

"Status," Rand said.

[Name: Rand Cloudlight] [Class Type: Unique] [Class Name: Lightning Vanguard] [Mana: 3200/3200] [Attribute Points: 0] [Tenacity: 810] [Perception: 290] [Dexterity: 880] [Aura: 670] [Mana Heart: 320] [Mana Brain: 250] [Total Prowess: 1918] [Talents: Lightning Arts, Magnetic Arts, Visual Acuity, Last Stand, Mental Damage Nullification, Lightning Damage Nullification, Fire Damage Nullification, Low Level Physical Damage Nullification] Marvelling at his own Spirit Sign, Rand never thought this would be where he would break through 500, let alone almost reach 2000.

As he glanced around, everyone had also brought up their own Spirit Signs. Due to the diminishing returns of attribute gain, they would all be close to each other in prowess. In other words, this C-Suite group had just become the strongest individuals in known history. Of course, the Lady would have no less.

"Move it, soldiers," General Raven said.

"Yes, General!" Rand shouted and dismissed the Spirit Sign. He moved forward first to the trapdoor at the centre of the massive dark room. There had been multiple times where the trapdoor actually led to a trap of monsters instead of the next sub-floor. Though, that was more of a boon rather than a trap. Pulling up the trapdoor without hesitation, it led down to a dark, narrow staircase. Rand moved down first, followed by Aurora, Yulka, Grey, Sanders, Fraser, Elador, and then lastly, the General covering the rear.

For a couple of minutes, no one talked. The only noise that could be heard was the sound of their steps. Glancing back, the rest of the group no longer had the nervousness they once had. Aurora looked like she might even fall asleep as they went down the steps. The biggest change was Fraser's demeanour. He used to jump at any kind of sound. Now, he'd continuously throw insults at anything that moved, telling it to die over and over again while hurling spells that took on different shapes vials.

In one way or another, Rand wouldn't want to stay in the same room as Fraser alone after this expedition. Arriving at the last step, Rand and the others spread out, preparing for an ambush, but nothing came at them. When Witch Raven arrived, she cast an orb of light that illuminated the whole room. Rand saw the giant double door at the end of the large room, so large that even from far away, he had to crane his neck up to even attempt finding the top.

From left to right, it was thrice as wide as Dragus' castle gates. A floating stone cube stood in the middle of the room glowing ethereal blue. Its 6 sides held 3 square indents in the formation of a triangle. Square tiles littered the floor of the whole room.

"Well, this is different," General Raven said.

"I believe this might be the last floor. Behind the door would be the last room," Aurora said.

"What makes you say that?"

"The writing on the walls spoke of the bottom floor sealed by the world spirit."

"So we can't get in?"

"No, General. It means there's a way to break the seal." Aurora pointed to the floating cube in the middle of the room.

"We must solve the seal to be deemed worthy of the challenge."

"Cool," General Raven then floated the remaining two boxes behind her somewhere near the cube. She walked over to it and laid down on the supply boxes.

"Solve it. Wake me up when you're done." Everyone nodded. Rand, along with the others, moved forward to examine the cube. There was one thing he knew about himself, and that was he had barely passed most of the intellectual tests of Stormbringer Royal Knight training. Watching Aurora work, she brushed her fingers against the square indents where the light seeped through its edges. Her eyes caught onto the tiles on the ground.

"The square tiles on the floor, grab a couple of them," Aurora told the group. Rand did as he was told, grabbing two of them. Turning it over, the tiles held symbols on them. The first one he picked up was that of a scythe, and the second one oddly had a gold coin embedded onto it.

"What did everyone get?" Aurora asked.

"I got a scythe and a gold coin," Rand said.

"Three dots, a bow, and what looks like horses," Grey said, holding up three tiles.

"A tower and a shield. There's also one on the ground that has a single dot by me," Sanders said.

"A lion and a spear in my hand," Elador said.

"I found a tile with an eye," Fraser said.

"Sword, shield, boots, and 6 dots," Yulka said, who had tried to take too many tiles off the floor. Some of them fell on the ground. Rand moved closer to Aurora.

"What do you make of this, Chief Product Officer?"

"The dots should go into the dice, but the other symbols are too varied." Aurora stared at the indents on the square.

"Yulka, Sanders, give me your dotted tiles." Sanders and Yulka moved towards her and extended the dotted tiles to her. After taking them, Aurora inserted the single dotted tile into the top of the indents. For a couple of seconds, nothing interesting happened. She then inserted the six-dotted tile to the bottom right of the formation. That was when the cube flashed red and spat out the 2 tiles from its indents. The next moment, the sound of gritting stone echoed in the chamber.

Arrows whistled from everywhere at once, all aimed at where the group was. Before any of the sharp points could enter the bubble of the orb of light, Elador slammed down his walking stick. A sharp telekinetic wave cut through all of the arrows. Wooden shafts and metallic bits fell onto the floor.

"Hmph," Elador snorted.

"Make haste, Chief Product Officer." Aurora took back the two tiles that fell. First, she inserted the single dot on one side of the cube and then the six dotted tile onto another. This time, the cube didn't reject it.

"Find the remaining dotted tiles. There should be 2 to 5," Aurora said. Rand walked further away than the rest and rummaged through the tiles on the floor. After a couple of minutes of searching, he found the 3 dotted tile beside a tile with a hut on it.

"I found the 3 dotted tile," Rand said.

"Give me all the dotted tiles," Aurora said. Everyone gathered back at the cube, each one gave their dotted tiles to her. One by one, Aurora placed the dotted tiles from 2 to 5 at each side. The cube accepted all of them, not rejecting any nor arming traps.

"6 sides..." Aurora turned to Rand.

"You said you had a tile with a gold coin on it?" Rand nodded, giving it to her. She moved to the 1st dotted side.

"Gold symbolizes money so it should mean it is part of the first priority of life..." When she inserted it, the cube once again rejected the tile. It flashed red once before another wave of arrows came at them, dissipated once again by Elador.

"Could it be..." Aurora brushed her fingers at the tiles that kept their place on the cube. Her head turned down to the gold coined tile. Having picked up the gold coined tile, she placed it at the number four tile. This time, the cube accepted it.

"Elador, hand me the lion," Aurora said.

"Have you found the hint, Chief Product Officer?" Sanders asked.

"I may have, depending on the lion tile." The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Elador quickly gave her the tile, and immediately, she placed the tile where the 5th number was.

"I see..." Aurora said.

"The tiles correspond to the 6 kingdoms of Nulfrae."

"Why would it be a lion for the 5th?" Elador asked.

"The strength of Dragus is 2nd only to Pandor."

"Why not on the face of 2 instead?"

"The dotted tiles do not denote rank. They are simply a measurement of strength in this 6 sided die. The stronger, the higher the number."

"And Lyra is weaker than Dragus... it makes sense," Rand said.

"Then the 3rd tile would be something that also represents the kingdom."

"Can the spear represent Dragus?" Elador asked.

"No," Aurora said.

"Since Dragus prides itself as a warrior kingdom, the sword will represent it, not some peasant weaponry." At the corner of Rand's eye, he saw the tile with a sword on it. Crouching down, he picked it up and gave it to Aurora.

"Let us test your theory." Aurora then placed the sword beside a lion. The cube flashed green once, then nothing else happened, meaning it accepted the placement.

"Quickly, give me the hut and the bow tile," Aurora demanded. Grey and Rand gave her both tiles. She quickly placed the bow on the 2 dotted side while the hut placed at the 3 dotted side.

"We need a staff for Pandor that symbolizes their mage towers and an eye for their spy network. For Lyra, we need something that symbolizes trade... For Los, it needs a horse alongside its hut as the people of Los are nomads. A forest for Yumiya that complements their hunting nature, and a castle and a shield for Hebi, as the stronghold kingdom of the north." Aurora turned to the others.

"Chief Product Officer, are you sure that's the correct answer?" Elador asked.

"Weren't you the one to say 'make haste', Elador?" Aurora asked rhetorically.

"Make haste!" Rand quickly went to a stack of tiles by the side to rummage through it once again. As expected of the Chief Product Officer, no one here was a match for her scholarly knowledge of all kingdoms. Even Elador could not match her in terms of political knowledge. After a couple of moments, Rand finally found the tower and the eye. Glancing back at the others, it looked like they found the other tiles as well. Going back to Aurora, she took his tiles first.

Without hesitation, she placed the tower and the eye at the 6 dotted side indent. She waited for 3 seconds before moving onto the next, knowing the cube had accepted it. The next was Dragus. She took the sword tile from Yulka's hand and placed it on the 5 dotted side. Fraser presented her with a tile of a hand.

"The hand tile... trade..." Aurora took it and placed it at the 4 dotted side. At this point, the doubt in everyone's eyes had disappeared at the Chief Product Officer's choices. As such, the next placements were exactly as she had described. The 3 dotted side represented the nomads of huts and horses. The 2 dotted sides represented the hunters of Yumiya in their forest.

Lastly, the 1 dotted side was for Hebi, a kingdom that protected all the kingdoms to its south from the encroaching corruption, a castle and a shield. Once everything was in place, the cube flashed green six times. Each side's symbol changed. A phallanx, a tree ant, a centaur, a treasure chest, a minotaur, and a grim reaper. The cube spun and shot upwards. As it landed on the ground, it spun to the side until finally landing on the minotaur.

The giant door before them shuddered open, letting out a single column of light. General Raven stirred from her sleep, opening one eye. Sitting up, she stretched her arms and moaned a yawn.

"Alright, soldiers, last boss fight. Do your best." She walked up to the giant double door with the 2 floating boxes behind her. With a casual flick of her finger, the double doors slammed open. Rand saw the monster beyond. Its head held two horns, mouth shaped like a howler. Its torso was that of a man's, bulging with muscle. It stood on two hind legs, easily measuring over 4 meters in height. In its hands held a gigantic golden hammer filled with various coloured gems.

Putting on his status glass for a bit, he saw its prowess. [Target Prowess: 2350]"Huh, a Minotaur," General Raven said.

"Neat."

"Everyone, don't damage the hammer too much. Grey, make sure not to let Aid Hawk near the hammer. That will be our return gift to Lady Alex," Aurora said, staring at the hammer.

"Of course, Chief Product Officer," Grey said.

"Rand, start the fight," Aurora calmly said, smiling.

"Yes, Chief Product Officer." Rand rolled his shoulders a couple of times before charging straight into the Minotaur. Its hammer swung at his trajectory. The pressure from it meant that he'd probably die in one hit. Rand scoffed at the arrogance of this beast. [Ball Lightning] His body turned into a perfect ball of lightning, zipping across the field, landing on top of the hammer. [Lightning Enchantment Activated!] [Sword Lightning Activated!] [Static Charge Activated!] With one slice at the Minotaur's forearm, his lightning enchanted sword only managed to cleave through half of its muscle. The others joined in as well.

"DIE, YOU MINOTAUR SHIT!" Fraser threw conjured vials of varying shapes and colours. Red weakened the target's strength. Green poisoned. And blue weakened its defenses.

"FOR THE GODDESS OF MIGHT!" The next moment, Yulka came with her giant battleaxe and a deranged smile on her face. Her battle finished off what Rand started, fully amputating the Minotaur's arm from its golden hammer. Before the golden hammer could fall down, Elador held up his arms and telekinetically grabbed it before it could crash down. Suddenly, giant wooden roots grew from the ground, shimmering with green light. They wrapped around the whole Minotaur's body as its muscles bulged to resist the snare.

Sanders appeared just in front of its head. Two daggers stabbed at its eyes before it could react. The Minotaur thrashed against the restraint, wailing and roaring at what was happening.

"Aid Hawk, give this Minotaur a taste of the Lady's benevolence." Grey appeared in front of its neck. In a single swing, its head separated and fell onto the floor with a loud crash as its body limped and fell forward. After the dust cleared off, Rand saw the pool of blood at the neck. At the far end of the room opened up a giant door of light. That must've been the exit. Before moving towards the light, a few notifications lit up from Rand's own Spirit Sign.

[Attribute Points: 50] [New Talent: Ageless]"Did everyone else get a new talent?" Aurora asked.

"Indeed, Chief Product Officer," Elador said.

"I've gotten the Ageless talent." Rand tapped on the new talent to see its description. [Ageless: The body no longer ages. Your age has now just become a number.] Taking a couple of steps back from what he was seeing, it was basically immortality. Rand looked at Elador, who had previously been an old greying haired man before. Yet in front of him was a younger man with black hair, squared shoulders, and toned muscles. If he hadn't seen Elador before, then he would certainly have thought this was someone else.

"Elador... your appearance," Fraser muttered. Fraser was already young before. Not much had changed for him. Everyone else relatively remained the same apart from the eldest, Elador.

"It seems this was the whole purpose for the Lady's 'power levelling', am I right, Chief Product Officer?" Sanders asked.

"It seems so... she has given us the blessing of allowing us to serve her for eternity," Aurora smiled. It was the same deranged look she always gave when talking about the Lady. Though Rand couldn't tell what kind of expression he held, everyone had the same look on their face. Maybe he too had it, but it mattered not. Even as they could not see far ahead or predict her plans, the Lady will show them the way that would efficiently lead them to where she wanted them.

Chief Product Officer Aurora would be in charge of translating her plan into actionable tasks along with Chief Operating Officer Grey. The Directors and Heads would follow their words that had trickled from the Lady's All Seeing Plan.

"Congratulations on attaining Late-Mystic stage," General Raven clapped.

"Now let's get out of here. 30 fucking days of overtime..." ☕︎ ☼ ☕︎ ☽ ☕︎ If a company couldn't run because of a month long C-Suite retreat, then the company simply didn't deserve to run. Tasks were given beforehand to the team leads before the expedition to keep the production process running. Yulka's blue collar workers finished the toll booth construction via its team leads. The wooden shacks and gate they had temporarily installed were of no use when the storm season comes, as Grey described.

The road had also been extended up to just south of the Grand Forest of Plaeds. That was between the capital of Lyra and the future I-10 that would extend to the Dukedom of Tanison. Once Yulka and Grey were back, the construction of the interstate rest stop would immediately start. A road also needed extending towards Sleider's coast to speed up market research. The team leads in the Department of Chemistry continued their contribution to the stockpile of Ethyl Acetate.

There were a few errors in the measurements that Alex had to correct. She needed to teach a couple of the team leads how to calibrate the measurement gauge. Apart from that, she had no idea how to tend to the crops at all. Luckily, only 10% of the Star Seeking Flowers died off in the Southern Plantation while Aurora was gone. How the hell did Aurora keep them all alive? She had no fucking idea. The other plantations had yet to be bootstrapped due to the demand not yet needing that amount of production.

All of Alex's hard work was for the future optimized C-Suite, and they were set to be finished today as they only had a month's worth of rations. And, speak of the devil, Raven's signature just entered the bandit camp along with 7 other Late-Mystics with her. The signatures walked through the gates and entered City Hall. They walked through the aisle until they stood just before Alex.

Yulka walked up and set down a gigantic golden hammer on the platform just in front of her before all of them knelt down except General Raven, who just looked confused but ultimately joined them while rolling her eyes.

"What's the result?" Alex asked. One by one, each called out their results to Alex.

"I've achieved a prowess of 1964, my Lady. No changes to my class," Aurora said.

"My Lady! My prowess is now 1956. My class changed to Lightning Vanguard," Rand said. Alex whistled. That sounded over the top. Sounded like some kind of fancy schmancy knight that held lightning as swords and shot out bolts with his eyes.

"Aid Hawk and I have reached a prowess of 1840, my Lady. I also attained the class of Gravity Paladin, all thanks to your grace," Grey said.

"Cool. Cool," Alex muttered. Does that mean the Spirit Sign grants him direct access to the gravity resource? Need to test that out later.

"The Goddess of Might has let me reach 1935 prowess!" Yulka shouted.

"I also got Berserk Conqueror as my class."

"Very fitting, Yulka," Alex smiled. Exactly what her construction worker needed to extend their reach across the globe.

"This humble one reached a prowess of 1940, my Lady. My awakening also gave me the class of Spell Blade Master," Sanders said. Alex nodded.

"My Lady! I've finally received my calling... I got the unique Alchemical Mage class! And now at a prowess of 1712."

"Good job, Fraser. I expect a lot from you," Alex said. To be honest, she didn't see that one coming. That sounded like it fitted Elador more than Fraser.

"Prowess of 1792, and I got the Archmage class," Elador said.

"Can I go back to my study?"

"And you also turned... younger," Alex said. Age reversion doesn't usually hit until the Early-Arcane or Mid-Arcane stage. The Jiuling had cultivation methods that reverted age at the Late-Mystic stage, but none of them were cultivators. In fact, looking at everyone in front of her, they'd all turned back time to the age of around 25-27.

"Yes, my Lady. By conquering the last floor of the labyrinth, the reward was the talent called 'Ageless'. Its description says that we no longer age and it is now just a number," Rand said. Oh hell the fuck yes, that was an unexpected boon. An evil laugh bubbled up from Alex's core. It crescendoed until she was full-on belly laughing in glee at learning of the reward her C-Suite just got. Aurora started laughing with her, which then infected the rest of the C-Suite.

With the Ageless Talent, world economic domination was no longer just a goal. With this kind of C-Suite team and their competence, that goal was more of an inevitability. Alex could see it now. Everyone and their mom, drinking a Cup of Cub under the stars. The child would tell the mom to look above, the stars are twinkling at them. Then, the dad would join them, shoulder to shoulder, drinking a cafe mocha with mom.

Their gold would fuel the Path's kaizen of its own products so that no competitor could match their product. The next step was the interstate stop, which would test the company's supply chain. Alex stopped laughing.

"Good, now get back to work."

"Yes, my Lady!" The C-Suite said.

"I request a 3 day vacation," Raven said, making Alex frown.

"Request approved." Alex grumbled.