7 The Riddle of the Sphinx

Standing in his study room, Richard was greeted by five to six tall book shelves lined against the walls. Each shelf was filled with books and scrolls.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Richard walked to one of the book shelves. He stepped on his wooden ladder and reached his hands to the top of the shelf.

After pushing away many books and scrolls, Richard found a cold, black, metal box in the deepest part of the shelf. This black metal box was about 30 centimeters in both length and width, and five to six centimeters tall. It had complicated lines on it, and it looked strange and mysterious.

Richard used his strength to pull out the black metal box from the shelf. He came down from the ladder and then placed the box on the wooden table in the study room.

He touched the box's surface, which was as cold as ice. There was a flash in his eyes, and his gaze landed on a dent on the surface.

The dent looked like an opened mouth carved amid the metallic lines on the box. If he stared at it from a certain angle, he could see a row of small letters that read: "Use magic to awaken me and I will tell you the truth about this world."

A wizard book. Or the cover of a wizard book.

Richard had found this in the deepest part of the royal library after much difficulty. Even the most senior librarian had been unsure of its origins. The librarian had only known that it was a strange book, with an evil feeling to it and a vicious curse. He had claimed that if he were to come into frequent contact with it, he would either fall sick or have a sudden death.

Of course, Richard did not believe in these so-called evil powers or curses. To him, this book merely had some volatile element harmful to the human body. As long as he paid attention to the ventilation, he would not die from that slow-acting "poison."

However, it was not easy to uncover the book's secret.

The cover of the book had a special design, and it was very hard to crack. If he tried to forcefully open it, there was a high chance of spoiling its content.

Richard could take some precautions and reduce the chances of spoiling it, but he did not want to take the risk. Therefore, he had been diligently searching for magical creatures and magic-related individuals, hoping that he could attain some magic powers.

At last, he had achieved it.

Phew.

Taking a deep breath, Richard tilted his head slightly and glanced at the golden liquid on the table beside him.

"Very soon, I will know whether I'm right or wrong," Richard muttered to himself. He took the bottle of golden liquid and removed the cork. Aiming at the dent on the metal box, he slowly poured the liquid into it.

The dent soon was filled. After a long silence, there was a click, akin to a chain reaction being activated. The liquid in the dent came to a boil quickly, many bubbles forming on its surface. The entire metal cover began to shake slightly.

Bang, bang, bang.

A lock was cracked. Gulp! The book "swallowed" the liquid entirely and it disappeared.

The shaking intensified, the metal cover looking like a human trembling. The table's surface began to vibrate as well. At last, there was another click, and the metal cover automatically opened like a box, revealing the true wizard book lying in it.

Richard gently took the book out of the box and placed it on the table. Just then, an unknowing voice came from the depths of the book, "Who… is this? Who is this?"

"Well?"

Richard raised his eyebrows and flipped open the book.

The first page of the book had no words on it, but there was a terrifying, ghastly-looking skull in the middle.

There were scorching flames, which looked very real, in the eyes of the skull. Richard did not know if it was an illusion, but he felt the entire room's temperature rising.

This…

Something even more shocking happened then. The picture of the skull moved, and it spoke in a cold and icy voice, "Who is that? Who awakened me? Who wants to peep at the knowledge and treasure of Master Monroe? Answer me, or you will suffer the harshest punishment!"

Anyone who witnessed this would be terrified, but not Richard. He narrowed his eyes and glanced at the skull on the page with interest, before saying, "Who are you?"

"I am the book spirit created by Master Monroe. My duty is to safeguard this book and select someone who is qualified to read it."

"What can you do?"

"I can test whether the reader of this book is intelligent enough. If he is, he is fit to read this book. Otherwise, he will pay a price for his recklessness and ignorance."

"What price?"

"Death!" The book spirit's voice was cold and heartless.

Richard smiled. "How interesting."

Then Richard asked, "How do you test a person's intelligence?"

"A question for a question. If they can answer my question correctly and yet, I cannot answer theirs, they are considered smart enough. As long as I cannot answer their question, they can read this book without any punishment."

"In that case,"—Richard's eyes sparkled—"what is your question?"

"Are you, the one who wants to peep at Master Monroe's knowledge, sure you're ready to accept the challenge?" the book spirit's voice turned serious.

"I'll have to try it no matter what," said Richard. "No matter if it is a success or a failure, I want to research your mechanism."

The book spirit was silent for a moment, as if pondering Richard's words. After a long pause, it said, "Alright, since you have decided to take the challenge, answer this difficult question. There is a strange animal that has four legs in the morning, two at noon…"

Richard was stunned upon hearing that. Wasn't it the riddle of the sphinx in Greek mythology from Earth? In Greek mythology, the sphinx, a lion with a human face, had sat on a cliff near a city named Thebes, standing in the way of any passersby and asking them the same riddle.

Many people could not guess the riddle and were devoured heartlessly by the sphinx. Later on, someone called Oedipus answered it correctly. Out of shame, the sphinx had jumped off the cliff and died.

Before the book spirit could finish its words, Richard could not resist interrupting him, "And now you're going to tell me it has three in the evening, that it walks the slowest, and its body is weakest when he has the most number of legs, right? Then, you're going to ask me to guess what creature this is?"

The book spirit suddenly stopped talking. It fell silent for a long time, deep in thought. This was seemingly the first time it encountered this.

Richard spoke again to the book spirit, "Alright, if that is the case, I can tell you that the answer is 'human.' When a human is a baby, in the morning of their life, he crawls on four feet, his hands and knees. As an adult, in the noon of their life, they walk on two feet. But when they are old, in the evening of their life, they walk with a cane, on three feet."

However, is it demanding enough to use a riddle to assess one's intelligence? Or perhaps its definition of intelligence is different from my understanding. Is it looking for wittiness, while I was thinking of intelligence?