“What is your purpose of being placed here?” Gustav asked while squinting his eyes in suspicion.
“DEATH!” Tabitha stated.
“Death?” Gustav stated with a confused tone.
“YOU HEARD ME THE FIRST TIME KID! DEATH! NOW THAT YOU HAVE ARRIVED HERE, I CAN’T LET YOU LEAVE THIS PLACE ALIVE!” Tabitha stated as he breathed out, causing the wind to blast out of his nostrils intensely, which caused Gustav’s hair to blow backward.
To his surprise, Gustav still stood there with his expression unchanging as he kept staring at Tabitha.
“ARE YOU NOT SCARED? I SAID YOU WILL DIE HERE! WHY DO YOU SHOW NO FEAR?” Tabitha voiced out with a tone of disbelief.
“Stop messing around. You can’t harm me… Why are you here? What am I supposed to do to get to the last floor?” Gustav voiced out with a calm look.
“HMPH! ALTHOUGH I CANNOT HARM YOU JUST AS YOU HAVE SAID, NO ONE WAS TRULY SUPPOSED TO REACH THIS LEVEL,” Tabitha revealed once more.
“I WAS PLACED HERE AS A SENTENCE FOR A CRIME I COMMITED LONG AGO. I MAY BE A MIXEDBREED BUT I AM NO UNINTELLIGIBLE ONE LIKE THE OTHERS YOU HAVE COME INTO CONTACT WITH IN THE PAST! THAT IS WHY INSTEAD OF KILLING ME JACK PLACED ME HERE FOR ONE PURPOSE,” Tabitha added.
‘Jack placed him here?’ Gustav thought internally with a look of suspicion. He wondered what the back story behind all this was.
“NOT ONLY AM I IMPRISONED HERE BUT I AM ALSO THE GUARDIAN OF THIS FLOOR AND THE ONE WHO CONTROLS THE SPACE CHANGES IN THE DUNGEON. YOU CANNOT MOVE ON TO THE NEXT FLOOR WITHOUT MY INPUT. ALTHOUGH NO ONE WAS EVER MEANT TO GET TO THIS FLOOR OR THE LAST PROTOCOLS WERE ALREADY PUT IN PLACE TO HANDLE SITUATIONS SUCH AS THIS. WITH THAT BEING SAID, YOU CAN ONLY MOVE TO THE NEXT FLOOR BY PASSING MY TEST,” Tabitha stated.
“What test?” Gustav asked.
“YOU HAVE TO ANSWER THREE QUESTIONS CORRECTLY TO MOVE TO THE NEXT FLOOR,” Tabitha answered.
“That’s it? Just three questions?” Gustav sounded a bit surprised, considering he expected a more complex task.
“YES, JUST THREE QUESTIONS BUT YOU WOULD BE FOOLISH TO UNDERESTIMATE THE DIFFICULTY BECAUSE MY KNOWLEDGE IS VAST,” Tabitha voiced out with a slightly scornful look upon seeing Gustav’s expression.
“Sure sure, let’s get this over with,” Gustav said with an unbothered expression.
“HMPH! FIRST QUESTION,” Tabitha said while breathing out a gust of wind from his nostrils.
“HOW WAS THE FIRST MIXEDBREED TO EVER EXIST FORMED?” Tabitha asked with a slight grin.
This was a tricky question, considering the Mixedbreeds had existed for thousands of years, and there had been speculations on whether Slarkovs mated with earth animals to form the first Mixedbreed or the energy pollution from the meteors that fell down to earth caused the mutation.
There were also speculations that both these theories were true, but it was unknown which one actually caused the first Mixedbreed to walk the earth.
The knowledge had been lost to time, and now only speculations existed. It would be difficult to give the right answer since one could only make guesses based on these speculations.
Gustav could guess Tabitha knew the right answer because he had been around for a long time. Probably only those who had been around for long knew the right answer.
“Well, mixedbloods existed before Mixedbreeds did so… The first Mixedbreed to ever exist was a mixedblood whose bloodline energy spiralled out of control, turning them into a beast,” Gustav voiced out.
Tabitha’s eyes widened slightly as he heard that answer.
“HOW DID YOU…”
Judging by his reaction, Gustav could guess that he answered correctly.
“I thought you said this was going to be very difficult,” Gustav voiced out with a smug look.
“HMPH! I’M SURE YOU MUST HAVE GUESSED THIS ONE CORRECTLY. THE NEXT QUESTION WON’T BE SO EASY,” Tabitha stated with a tone of certainty.
“Sure sure, let’s hear it,” Gustav responded.
“NEXT QUESTION, HOW MANY OTHER INTELLIGENT MIXEDBREEDS EXIST BESIDES ME?” Tabitha asked with a slight grin.
“Hmm? By intelligent do you mean others that can speak and mimic human behavioral patterns or just having higher intelligence than that of normal Mixedbreeds?” Gustav asked with a serious look.
If it was the latter, Gustav was sure of being able to answer, considering there were not a lot of mixedbreeds who had better intelligence than the average Mixedbreeds.
“THE FORMER,” Tabitha answered.
‘Well… Shit!’ Gustav cussed internally. He had never met another Mixedbreed that could speak; neither had he heard before that there were Mixedbreeds capable of speaking.
He knew there were a few Mixedbreeds who had high intelligence opposite to that of normal beasts, but they did not speak.
They would be able to understand human gestures and words but speaking it was a different thing entirely.
This question was truly a difficult one as Gustav didn’t know whether Tabitha was the only Mixedbreed who was capable of this or not.
This made him wonder why such information would be kept hidden from the world since there was no research he hadn’t already done on Mixedbreeds already. It was obvious that such a thing was kept under the wraps.
“Hmm… Well there’s no rule that states I can seek for answers from another source,” Gustav suddenly voiced out.
“INDEED THERE IS NO RULE LIKE THAT BUT YOU CAN’T SEEK FOR ANSWERS BECAUSE THE MOMENT YOU LEAVE THIS PLACE YOU WILL NEVER BE ALLOWED ON THIS FLOOR AGAIN… SO YOU CAN’T LEAVE,” Tabitha stated with a light gruff.
“Who said I was going to leave?” A smirk appeared on Gustav’s face as he voiced out.
“HUH?” A suspicious feeling arose from within Tabitha as he heard Gustav say this.
He wondered what Gustav meant, but after saying that, Gustav didn’t speak for some time. Instead, he closed his eyes.
‘What is he up to?’ Tabitha wondered.
——
pa(nd)a no vel Within a well-structured office, a group of guards stood in front of a lady clad in high standard MBO uniform.
“Did you say a group already scaled the 42nd floor?” She asked with a look of astonishment.
