"Fine." Finn's apology meant the Loki Familia was officially interfering. Roy pursed his lips; he could use the favor to make them back off, but that felt like a waste. Plus, the atmosphere was already electric. Two major Familias fighting over rare Amazons? The crowd was going wild.
There were now nearly 40,000 people in the arena. In this city, when something fun happens, the gods and adventurers are like cats sensing fish. Whether Loki threw a tantrum or not, the two parties were already trapped by the crowd's expectations.
Finn gave a bitter smile. For his capricious goddess, he had just incurred another debt to the other side. As for the twins, their opinion didn't matter yet; both Familias could easily beat them. It was now a contest between Astraea and Loki.
"Are they going to have a real fight?" a god asked. Everyone went into deep thought. In a full team fight, Astraea was no match for Loki, but because of the debt, Loki didn't want to use force.
Suddenly, a burly man wearing an elephant mask jumped out. "Leave this to me!"
It was the god Ganesha. "Indeed, I am Ganesha!"
He landed between the two parties. "No fighting! We must live in peace. Since there is a conflict, let's settle it with a game!"
"A game?" The crowd's interest was piqued. Ganesha signaled his followers to bring out a glass tower.
It was about a meter tall, shaped like a cylinder with nine circular tiers. The top was an entry hole, and the remaining eight tiers gradually increased in size downward. Each tier had holes, but most were blocked; only one hole would lead to the next level. The further down you went, the more blocked holes there were.
"This is a toy sent to us by a merchant guild as a thank-you—the Marble Tower. Each person uses up to five marbles. Once you drop them, you cannot touch the tower. Whoever's marble reaches the lowest level wins."
The rules were simple. The gods and adventurers looked intrigued. Roy, however, was speechless. It's just a marble machine from a mall. But this one had nine levels—it was clearly designed to make winning nearly impossible.
"Sounds fun! You actually have a good idea once in a while," Loki said, springing up from her tantrum and slapping Ganesha's back. Ganesha laughed. "Of course! Because I am Ganesha!"
Tiona ran up to Ganesha with an innocent smile. "Can I play too?"
"Of course! Games are only fun when everyone plays!" Ganesha put his hands on his hips. Since they were fighting over the twins, it only made sense for them to participate.
"Yay!" Tiona's bright smile was healing. She took five marbles and tossed them all in at once. A classic Amazon move. Tione sighed at her "silly" sister.
The game was moved to the center of the arena so the tens of thousands of spectators could see. Every eye was on that tower, including Roy, Ryu, Loki, and Finn. If they were playing, they were playing to win. Aside from the twins, both Familias only had five marbles, making them precious.
Tiona's five marbles dropped in, serving as a perfect demonstration for everyone to observe the mechanics.The glass tower was clearly designed with subtle tilts and polished surfaces; it wasn't a perfectly flat plane. This was intentional, as it provided momentum to the falling marbles; otherwise, they would simply stall, which would make for a dull game.
Tiona's five marbles dropped into the entry hole, swirling around the discs as they converged toward the center. The eighth tier was roughly the size of an adult's palm and featured three holes, yet only one led to the next level—the other two were dead ends. Four of her marbles became stuck on the eighth tier. Only one managed to drop to the seventh, where it circled endlessly before failing to find the passage to the sixth.
"Aww, so close!"
Tiona leaned against the glass tower. Seeing her last marble settle into a blocked hole, she looked dejected for a moment. But in less than two seconds, she bounced back, her eyes sparkling as if nothing in the world could keep her down.
Observing this, the crowd formed a general consensus: by relying on pure luck, a marble would reach the seventh tier at best. To go deeper, human intervention was required—but once the marbles were dropped, the rules forbade any physical contact with the tower itself.
"Who's next?"
Roy, Ryu, Finn, and Riveria exchanged glances. The Loki Familia naturally hoped Roy would go first, especially since they were the ones "gatecrashing" the arrangement. Seeing no movement from either side, Tione, who detested hesitation, stepped forward. "I'll do it!"
Tione took five marbles from a Ganesha member. Unlike her "factory-reset" sister Tiona, Tione actually used her head. She didn't dump all her marbles in at once. Instead, she dropped two first to scout the path.
Having seemingly grasped the mechanics, Tione performed a clever maneuver with her third marble. She requested a long, slender rod from a Ganesha member, inserted it through the top entry hole, and began manually guiding the marble's movement inside the tower.
The crowd chuckled at the sight. The Amazon girl was quite clever; she had found a loophole in the rules. The rule stated that her body could not touch the tower after the drop, so using a tool was technically permitted. However, this was pushing the boundaries. Using a stick was acceptable, but if she had put on gloves and started moving the tower directly, the crowd wouldn't have acknowledged the result.
With the help of the wooden rod, the eighth and seventh tiers posed no challenge. The marble successfully reached the sixth tier. It was here, however, that the rod lost its effectiveness. The holes on the different levels were not aligned in a straight line, making the reach of the stick limited. Tione switched to using a thin thread tied to a marble, but even then, she stalled at the fifth tier. Infuriated at failing despite her best efforts to be "intellectual," she nearly smashed the glass tower.
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Danmachi : Starting with an Elf (405 Chapter – Ongoing)
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