Garitosa’s First Trap was embarrassingly obvious—a floor trap.
And yet, this was a genuinely nasty and dastardly trap!
“Miss Murmur is truly amazing!”
“How do you know the answer? I, I have no idea what it could be?!”
It wasn’t strange that Esme scratched her head, looking confused.
“Ah! I get it! White black white black! Keep stepping on different colors…”
When Miss Murmur stepped twice in a row on black, Esme pouted.
“Unfortunately, that’s incorrect.”
There are no rules in Garitosa’s First Trap.
It’s not about pretty one-stroke drawings or finding hidden colors in song verses.
You just step randomly on platforms as best you can.
In the game, lost HP could be healed with magic, so brute-forcing your way through was also an option.
“Miss Murmur is truly remarkable. She distinguishes floors by clues like footprints and dust!”
“Footprints? Where exactly are they?!”
“I think I see the dust!”
Thanks to Citrine, who always supports Miss Murmur endlessly, there’s no need for further explanation.
I was worried about how to excuse myself since I’ve just memorized the walkthrough…
“That’s right. Murmur is following footprints.”
“Footprints?!”
Anyway, we all managed to escape the first trap without much trouble.
Floor traps are called “free passes” for a reason.
“Esme, never step on the white floor over there.”
“Ahhh! I’ll stay safe here!”
Esme jumped in surprise, grabbing onto Miss Murmur’s waist and moving behind her like a shield.
“I’ve seen it! If you step on that floor, Esme will disappear into the ground with a poof!”
“Why, why does my future look like this?! I won’t step! Absolutely not!”
Esme shook her head adorably from side to side.
“But Miss Murmur, what do we do next?”
Citrine must want to rescue Torlin as quickly as possible.
We had just passed through the “Entrance Hall” and reached the stairs leading to the second floor.
“Murmur is thinking. Torlin has a high probability of being on the fourth floor.”
“I’ve seen it too! Torlin is definitely on the fourth floor!”
“If he’s on the fourth floor…”
Citrine played with her red hair, tilting her head upward.
“Eek… Is the Demon King really here? The fourth floor is the top level, isn’t it?”
“That’s correct. He awaits us at the highest point.”
“It’s despicable that he’s tormenting Torlin up there.”
After dealing with the trap, we moved on to the next floor.
This truly felt like breaking into a dungeon or Demon King’s castle.
While knowing the entire strategy removed most of the tension…
“Hmm, still, knowing Torlin is on the fourth floor saves us from wandering around unnecessarily.”
Esme spoke while ascending the stairs to the second floor.
“Just climb the stairs to the fourth floor…”
That couldn’t possibly be easy.
Upon reaching the second floor, Esme froze mid-sentence, raising her head.
She must have noticed the path to the third floor blocked tightly with various debris and rocks.
“Everyone, look at this!! The way to the third floor is…”
“Esme! Get out of the way!”
A heavy hammer swung toward Esme as she pointed.
“Kyaaaah?!”
Fortunately, Esme narrowly dodged the automaton’s hammer by covering her head with both hands and ducking.
Her incredible reflexes saved her!
“An automaton?!”
“These must be the guardians of this clubhouse.”
“They attacked first?!”
Esme screamed, quickly conjuring a large fireball in her palm and hurling it at the automaton.
─ Whooshhh!
The fiery red flames licked the automaton’s metallic surface but didn’t slow it down at all.
Instead, its metallic surface gleamed even more menacingly under the reflected light.
“Kyaaaaaah!!! Why isn’t my attack working?!”
“They’re designed for menial tasks in the clubhouse, so they’re made of materials resistant to fire.”
“Quick, quick! Tell me something useful!”
Esme shouted desperately, gripping the floor with both hands to evade.
Still, she proved herself a talented mage by firing ice shards from her hands, smashing one automaton into pieces.
─ Click! Click-click!
“More automatons are coming!”
Automatons emerged from both sides, charging straight at us.
“What do we do? We can’t even reach the third floor?!”
“There are quite a few of them. It might take longer than expected to defeat them all…”
“And it’s dangerous too!”
Glancing roughly, over twenty automatons were clicking and closing in.
Didn’t these things spawn infinitely in the game? I remember they stopped giving experience points after a while.
“Murmur knows the way! Over there! That leads to the third floor!”
“Oh, there’s a staircase on the opposite side?”
“Yeah! Exactly! This clubhouse has staircases in opposite directions!”
“So THAT’S why they blocked it off so crudely!”
Esme glared angrily at the nearby debris and yelled.
“What do you plan to do, Miss Murmur?”
“It’s similar to the Softy Trio Trial!”
“Softy…?”
Oops, I said something weird again.
“No, no! I meant Professor Malea’s exam!”
Pointing at the automatons approaching from the right, I continued,
“We punish the automatons, then run!”
“Just go straight to the third floor? Is that safe?”
“It’s fine! In fact, Miss Murmur is absolutely correct!”
Citrine quickly scanned the surroundings upon hearing Monica.
“That’s right. There are magic stones on the second floor, but none visible on the third. The automatons likely can’t ascend beyond the second.”
“They’re controlled by magic stones, after all.”
With Citrine and Monica nodding, Esme swiftly cast a spell.
“If that’s the case, our task is simple! Though it’ll differ slightly from what Murmur described earlier…”
Shut up already! It’s embarrassing!
In an instant, Esme unleashed a powerful whirlwind strong enough to make her body tremble, launching it toward the automatons.
─ Whooosh!
The automatons blocking our path were scattered like bowling pins struck by a ball.
“Hehehe! Unlike sparring, using magic makes automatons seem so trivial!”
“You did well, Esme! Now we need to run!”
I quickly summoned the Wind Spirit, Zephyra.
“Zephyra! Give wings to Murmur!”
Running normally would be boring and painfully slow, but I have magic!
Thanks to Zephyra’s wings, I shot forward in a flash.
─ Clunk!
“Miss Murmur! Be careful!”
Doors opened to block my charge, releasing automatons armed with rusted swords and spears—but they weren’t scary at all.
“Earth Spirit! Sproutling Child! Talorin! Help Murmur!”
Summoning Talorin with my left hand,
“Lightning!!”
I destroyed the gears of the automatons with a bolt of lightning from my right.
“I’ll move first! Everyone follow!”
“If Murmur could run this fast during Professor Malea’s exam, she’d easily place first!”
Esme joked, making the situation feel surprisingly relaxed!
Knowing where the automatons would appear and their weaknesses ensured nothing could go wrong!
Arriving at the stairs leading to the third floor in no time, we faced no issues!
“Talorin! Block the automatons coming from that side!”
─ Squish squish!
Talorin, resembling chocolate pudding, dashed toward the stairs to the third floor.
Simultaneously, he began body-slamming automatons approaching from the right.
“I’ll go to the third floor first!”
Monica ascended, followed by Esme, and finally Citrine.
“Miss Murmur!”
“Yeah! Murmur will… go now!”
Creating water with my left hand and cold air with my right, I formed an icy path.
─ Click, click-click?!
The automatons rushing toward us slipped instantly, collapsing onto the floor.
Any remaining ones clattered noisily toward the stairs but only got that far.
“Is it true automatons can’t reach the third floor, as Citri and Murmur said?”
“Of course. Automatons can’t move without magic stones.”
Citrine wiped Murmur’s sweat with a handkerchief.
“Still, we’ve all made it to the third floor without injury.”
“Monica… Just checking, but did I get hurt by automatons on the second floor?”
Monica gave an awkward smile and shook her head side to side.
“N-no, that didn’t happen~ You’re healthy and right here in front of me now!”
“Healthy…?!”
Esme gripped her body with both hands and shivered.
…Why ask if you’re going to panic like that?
Finding it somewhat amusing, I patted Esme’s bottom to calm her down.
Considering the third-floor traps, relaxing her was important too.
“Anyway… the staircase to the fourth floor is naturally blocked as well.”
“They don’t intend to let us ascend all at once.”
I climbed past the staircase to the third floor.
“The staircase visible over there leads to the fourth floor.”
“W-wait! Wait a moment! We’re supposed to go that way?”
As expected, Esme panicked, looking around frantically.
“I don’t see any solutions either.”
Even Citri seemed perplexed, and Monica merely gasped in awe, covering her mouth.
“There’s no hallway… right?!”
Esme was correct; there was no hallway leading to the opposite staircase.
Precisely speaking, there was a hallway, but it was torn apart and floating in pieces mid-air.
“Do you all see those floating hallways? They keep moving, and it seems hard to use spirits to fly across.”
“Absolutely not!”
Monica flailed in shock.
“Lightning will zap and fry us badly!”
“Then there’s no solution…”
“Fortunately, there is.”
I approached the bow hanging on the wall.
It’s fortunate the game placed bows here to prevent players from trudging back to the store to buy one.
“That space beneath the floating hallways contains magic stones. Shooting arrows at them will return them to their original positions.”
“R-really? How do you know that, Murmur?”
This time, I had an excuse ready.
“It says so here. It’s called the Archery Test.”
Common sense dictates they wouldn’t leave the third-floor hallways of the clubhouse permanently in disarray.
The rulebook framed on the wall pointed to by Murmur detailed regulations such as obtaining student consent before exams.
“Wow… So we have to practice archery eventually?”
“Exactly like the Softy Trio Trial that Miss Murmur mentioned!”
“That’s right. It’s time for Miss Murmur to shine!”
Under the sparkling gazes of three people, I blushed deeply while preparing to shoot the bow.
And please stop calling it the Softy Trio Trial already!
It’s embarrassing! That!
