The inside of the tower was like a different world. The moment I stepped inside, the air felt different, and it wasn’t just the temperature.
Whoosh.
Crackle...
The area was lit by torches that flickered in an odd manner—burning brightly, suddenly extinguishing, and then flaring up again, as if by some mechanism.
The walls were damp and bumpy like a cave, making it difficult to believe this was actually a building.
But the most puzzling part was the number of doors. There were many identical doors spaced evenly apart.
[Welcome to the Rainbow Floor!]
[※ Rule Number One ※]
[Conversation is prohibited on this floor.]
[Violators will face penalties.]The sign caught my eye before anything else.
...A nice magician, my ass.
Ignore it. Ignore whatever I said before. I fucking take back what I said. Entirely.
If anything, the fact that he was two-faced made him seem far more sinister than either Asad or Lise.
Regardless, I knew the nature of magicians, so I made sure to keep my mouth shut.
It was quite strange. Even though everyone here was a proven elite, I knew I was about to be disappointed. Was there some natural law that ensured the spread and conservation of stupidity?
“So something happens if we talk?” asked Idiot #1.
Surprise, surprise... With a flash of light, Idiot #1 vanished into thin air.
Evidently, the rule hadn’t been obvious enough for them. It should have been even simpler; that would have helped these brainless morons understand.
I think I’ll call it the law of conservation of idiots.
“...!”
“...!?”
“...!”
“...!?”
“Heek—”
The young heroes were in a soundless uproar. Some were barely able to muffle their screams.
Where had he disappeared to?
There’s no way he died just like that... right?
Curiosity piqued, I used divine-beast transformation to see through the shadowy darkness.
With the cold energy focused into my eyes, my senses expanded beyond the first floor and even outside the tower.
Oh, he’s outside.
He’d been forcibly ejected.
He was pounding on the tower’s door with a pale face, but it didn’t budge. In fact, from the inside, there was nothing to indicate he was banging on the door. It was as if we were completely cut off from the outside world. ṙ
A small chill ran down my spine. It wasn’t that far, but still. Someone had been tossed out without even having time to realize what was happening. That, to me, was unsettling.
Could I resist it?
I wasn’t sure. I would have to experience whatever force was responsible first-hand to say for sure, and that was too much of a risk.
By the way, what exactly is considered “conversation,” anyway?
For example, could we communicate by writing on paper? What about methods like sound transmission?
Could we communicate indirectly through spirits or summoned creatures? Could we use blessing-granted telepathy?
“Ehem.”
Someone cleared their throat to test the waters. When I looked over, I saw it was Karis.
It sounded deliberate, but unlike the previous person, he wasn’t forced out.
But when Karis realized that, the nutjob got a bit too bold. He cautiously opened his mouth and said, “Oh hey, I wasn’t kicked out...?”
The young heroes all looked at him in surprise.
...
...
“...!”
Again there was no penalty.
Did the system actually count that as him talking to himself?
“W-what a shitty place...”
“Ehem. I should think about how I’ll get up there...?”
“Hmm, so many doors! It looks suspicious!”
“Which door I see you guys gonna choo—ah, crap.”
Flash!
The one who had been speaking weirdly predictably vanished in a flash of light.
Dumbass...
I shook my head and shot a look at where Idiot #2 had been standing, then shifted my focus back ahead.
It seems the definition of “conversation” is a bit more lax than I expected...
I used serpent’s eye to see through the doors, but even though it could see outside the tower, I couldn’t tell what lurked behind the doors.
Ah.
But I did figure one thing out.
The torches lighting the interior... They weren’t real torches, they were torch-shaped magic items.
I figured that out thanks to serpent’s eye letting me visually tell the temperature of objects.
The torches flickering on and off at regular intervals were cool enough to touch with bare hands.
Did they have a hidden purpose?
When no one else seemed eager to make the first move, the first to step forward was none other than Butterfly Goodspring.
Has she already solved the puzzle?
All eyes were on her. She smirked, flung open the nearest door, and entered...
And we witnessed something amazing.
“...!”
Another door on the wall, far from the one she’d entered, suddenly swung open.
“Huh...?”
And from that door, out walked... Butterfly.
“W-what, how...” stammered the dumbfounded heroes, clearly thrown off by what they were seeing.
It was a hard sight to believe, even having seen it with my own eyes.
Through one door, I could see Butterfly’s back, and a few doors down, her face.
“Huh... What...”
Butterfly looked just as confused as everyone else.
Judging from her face, it was clear she hadn’t solved the puzzle. She had just randomly picked a door without thinking.
With that, the others started to act as well...
But they just began opening doors left and right, only to emerge from different doors... and that led to occasional collisions.
A head trying to enter a door collided with another attempting to exit.
Thunk!
“ACK!
“What the hell!”
Because talking was forbidden, the two who had collided resorted to exaggerated facial expressions and body language to show just how pissed they were.
“...! ...! ...!”
“...?! ...!”
I was watching the situation from a distance when I started to feel that something was off.
Wait... there’s fewer people now.
It wasn’t obvious, but a couple of people who had been busting down doors were gone.
Including Pam and Karis.
Had they solved the puzzle?
Pam? Maybe. But Karis? Doubtful.
Just then, someone whooshed past me.
A flash of fluttering white—no, silver hair.
Sellen Goodspring.
She strode swiftly through the confused group of young heroes and entered a door.
I widened my vision to take in all of the doors at once, but there was no sight of Sellen anywhere.
She’s moved on to the next stage.
She was different from the mindless others.
Her expression, her demeanor... it was likely that Sellen had solved the puzzle.
Or... perhaps she’d known the answer from the very start.
Either way, keeping my heightened senses active for too long was draining, so I closed my eyes briefly.
When I opened them again, my normal vision was back... It was at thismoment that I noticed something strange.
Hmm?
The doors’ seemed to have changed color slightly.
It hadn’t been too noticeable in the dim lightning, but now they looked orange.
Fwoosh...
It wasn’t my imagination.
As the torch flickered off and flared back, the color of the doors changed again.
This time, it was yellow.
I realized that the color of the doors changed with each flicker of the torch.
Wait.
I recalled the color of the door Sellen had just entered.
Red.
And this floor’s name? It was the Rainbow Floor.
“Hmm...”
I was starting to get a feel for it.
Step.
I made my move the moment the doors changed back to red.
* * * * *
* * * * *
Upon opening the door, what greeted Sellen was another room.
Just like before, there were roughly a dozen doors in the wall, but this time, no other heroes were around.
The sudden silence should have been unnerving, but it had little effect on Sellen.
Instead, she focused on the subtle shift in the color of the doors as the torches flickered.
Orange.
Now.
Sellen pushed open a door and stepped through to find yet another room. This time, she opened a door when the color was yellow.
This was the puzzle of the Rainbow Floor.
The doors changed color in accordance with the flickering of the torches, and the key was to follow the sequence: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Step through the doors seven times in that correct order, and that was it.
It was a simple enough problem when looked at properly, but the tower’s interior was so dark and the color change wasn’t very dramatic, so it was difficult to see the changes.
Click.
After closing the violet door, Sellen let out a sigh.
Before her was a staircase, and in front of it was a sign. It read:
[Stairs of Infinity.]
...I guess the real challenge starts now.
To be honest, Sellen had no idea how long it would take her to climb these stairs, but...
If she didn’t perform well here, she would be kicked out of the academy and be unable to enroll.
That was something she wanted to avoid at all costs. Thus, Sellen began to slowly climb the stairs.
***
Hector Bednicker was climbing the stairs.
The rainbow puzzle hadn’t been too difficult for him. He had solved it in just fifteen minutes.
He didn’t know it, but he was the second fastest of the thirty-ish young heroes.
Considering that Sellen had been the fastest, he had basically been the quickest to solve the problem.
Then came the stairs.
He’d found himself climbing up grandly named “Stairs of Infinity.”
...For the past hour.
Strange...
With his physique and how long he’d been climbing, he should have already reached the top.
Honestly, he felt that he’d been walking long enough to make two or three round trips. And yet the circular staircase showed no sign of ending.
I see. It’s magic.
Hector realized that, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly how the magic was affecting the stairs.
Could it be... that there really is an infinite number of stairs?
Or maybe there was some other way out?
Wondering if this might also be a puzzle, Hector tried every method that came to mind.
He sprinted up the stairs with all his might. He swung his sword against the wall. In the end, he tried to return the way he’d come, but even that turned out to be futile.
It felt like he had climbed tens of thousands of steps, but as soon as he started to descend, the entrance appeared before him.
“Ugh...!”
So very determined, Hector pushed himself up the stairs, refusing to go back down.
Another hour passed.
Hector’s entire body was drenched in sweat.
His mana had long since run out from his intense sprinting earlier.
No. It felt like my mana drained much faster than usual...
Was that also a power of these stairs?
“Huff, huff...”
He was breathing hard, and his thighs and calves felt like they were about to burst.
He wanted nothing more than to collapse right then and there, but instead, Hector glared up at the stairs and muttered, “You think I’ll give up?”
***
“Kahahaha...”
Alderson let out a wicked laugh, the kind you wouldn’t expect from an educator.
His expression was like that of a child who had just picked up his favorite toy.
“This...! This is the first in Alerson’s masterpiece series, the Mana-Devouring Stairs...!”
The Mana-Devouring Stairs was a device designed by Alderson himself. It generated an endless staircase using the mana of those ascending it.
That meant that the moment you became overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite staircase and used your mana, the number of steps you needed to climb snowballed into an insurmountable amount.
Of course, even without mana, the staircase was already incredibly long—at least fifty thousand steps.
So the true condition to clear the first floor was to climb fifty thousand steps without using mana.
No wonder there’s so much resentment toward the Tower of Trials...
The professors shot pitiful looks at the young heroes struggling to climb the tower.
Most were exhausted. Quite a few had already given up.
Of course, there were also some who showed great talent.
“Charon Woodjack. He’s definitely one of the best. His climbing speed is out of this world, and his stamina is beyond that of young hero’s.”
“If we’re talking about speed, Butterfly Goodspring is the fastest. She’s already climbed halfway up the stairs.”
“Hector Bednicker’s tenacity is impressive too. He must be at his physical limit, yet he shows no signs of stopping.”
Alderson stroked his beard, satisfied. It was far more enjoyable to see students properly using the tower he had so painstakingly prepared.
“The level of this year’s transfer students is quite impressive! By the way, what’s the current record for the Rainbow Floor among transfer students?”
“It is 6 hours, 13 minutes, 27 seconds.”
Alderson glanced at the time.
Only three hours had passed since the transfer exam began.
“Oho... There’s a chance one of these young heroes may break the record today.”
Alderson’s face lit up as he watched the display in front of him.
This was what he lived for.
Their expressions, their pain, their desperation...
The faces of them young’uns filled with anguish fueled Alderson.
“Kehehehe...”
The kind expression when he’d first appeared was nowhere to be found.
The professors exchanged horrified looks. They silently decided to pretend they couldn’t see the headmaster.
It wasn’t that he was a bad person. Alderson was objectively a remarkable headmasker, someone worthy of respect. After all, he had received recognition from the imperial family and earned the title of Archmage of Seven Colors for a reason.
However...
...It’s true that all magicians have a couple screws loose.
Ironically, he was among the more stable magicians.
And there was no malicious intent behind what he was doing now.
“Wait...”
Professor Morland, known for his meticulous nature, caught the attention of those in the room as he was checking every corner of the screen in a daze.
He blinked a few times to make sure.
As soon as he realized that what he was seeing wasn’t an illusion, Morland called out, “Excuse me... Headmaster?”
“Oh, yes, Professor Morland. Have you finally found the cookies? The tea has chilled a bit, but I can always warm it up quickly with my mag—”
“N-no, that’s not it...” Morland said, sounding bewildered. “Someone has already completed the Stairs of Infinity...?”
Crack.
A crack appeared in Headmaster Alderson’s expression.