A Path of Bone and Poison 103 The Inverted Tower 6

I was setting in anger. How dare Hylia treat me like that. Me! Of course, I had not noticed the Kraken. I am not some kind of god. But her words had merit. If I had been more aware of my surroundings, then I might not have put them into that mess. But the truth was if I had not acted, we would have been dead before we could even deal with the Kraken.

Whatever. I did not need them anyways. I have always been on my own. Only that brief time here did I have someone to rely on. Perhaps I should just fly solo. After a moment of thought I decided to act on my decision. I would show her, I would show her that I did not need her to drag me down.

I advanced further into the instance. I had yet to see a single enemy, but far behind me I could hear the thunderous footsteps of my party. They really had no idea on how to be quiet.

After walking for several minutes, I finally encountered something. But it was not an enemy. Not a living one anyway. Before me stood a large tombstone. I moved closer, trying to make out the information written on it.

u003cThe sentence below is trueu003e

u003cThe sentence above is falseu003e

I looked at the words, but the meaning behind them seemed beyond me. They seemed to contradict. A paradox. I could only sigh as I looked at the tombstone. This was the end of the line, with only the simple words written on the tombstone.

The more I examined the words, the deeper I began to sink into thought. Without me knowing the untitled book in my mind activated. I sat there is silence as I contemplated the words.

I was reminded of a philosopher back on earth. He spoke a line that became rather famous. "I think, therefore I am." It was the conclusion of his for trying to figure out the basis of what is real. He wanted to build a foundation of unshakeable truths.

Yet the paradox in front of me seemed to go against this very idea. Even if everything in the world was false, how could you trust your own thoughts? Perhaps you were only thinking what an author was making you think? Maybe none of it was real, and you could not trust anything.

If the first sentence is true, then the second sentence that states it is false is true. That makes the sentence false. Which means the second sentence never comes into play. Making the sentence true.

Or perhaps the sentences were never meant to be together in the first place. Perhaps there is something that I missed. That would be the only way the paradox could be resolved.

When I looked at the stone again, I realized I had in fact missed two sentences. They were written in incredibly small letters, in a long dead language.

u003cThe path to the left leads to lifeu003e

u003cThe path to the right leads to deathu003e

I looked at the paths before me. There were three of them. The only path to take was the center. The other two were certain death, while this one was a complete unknown.

I was sure that my party would be unable to come to the right answer. If it had not been for my unique talent, I would not have been able to either. Because of this I stood there waiting. I could not trust them to make the right decision.

I did not have to wait long for them to appear. I could hear them coming long before they arrived. There was a surprised look on their faces when they saw me, but I made no effort to acknowledge them.

I sent Hylia a simple message, telling her what I had reasoned out. I did not wait for her reply as I once again entered stealth and walked down the center pathway. I could not hear their footsteps for an exceedingly long time, but eventually they decided to move. I could only sigh as I heard the footsteps moving in a different direction. I could only hope I would finish this floor before they met with their deaths.

I was surprised that a single set of footsteps followed me down the center Isle. I was surprised to see that it was Bailey. I revealed myself to her, and she nodded. There was no need for communication. It would only hurt us anyways.

I did not travel in stealth from that point forward. It did not seem as if this floor would have any enemies. It would only have riddled that must be answered correctly. Riddles that would result in death if they were not.

In the distance I could hear screaming. I shuddered at the sound. I could only imagine what they had encountered. I could only hope that they were strong enough to survive.

The next room we encountered had two cups. One was filled with poison. The other with water. Both cups needed to be drank. I did not even hesitate as I drank both cups of liquid. The one thing in this world that I did not fear at all was poison.

I could feel the liquid burning as it went down my throat. My poison resistance and immunity quickly activating as it began to nullify the effects of the poison. Even so I could feel that my hp was dropping at a slow and steady rate. The poison was much stronger than my resistance, but it would not be immediately fatal. I could only hope it would be enough to make it past this floor.

Beside me Bailey had an incredulous look on her face as she watched my actions. It was obvious that she wanted to say something but held back. We did not have a safe way to communicate anyway.

when I stopped to think about it, this floor had obviously been designed to test out teamwork. But after our recent fight it seemed we would fail quite magnificently.

Chapter end